“Did you ever see this picture before?”
“It is myself, long ago, though not unlike me now.”
“And this, and this?” continued the lawyer.
“This,” exclaimed the Plunger, “is a splendid photograph of my wife of long ago! Poor woman, how she stayed by me during my trouble, until death claimed her as his own. Ah; and this is the child we loved and who never came again.”
“Did you know the witness just on the stand?” asked the lawyer.
“I did, she is Catalina Martinet, and the image of herself in the life gone by. J. Ecarg said, when he took me to her mother’s, the night she spoke of, that the child was his, and he helped to support the mother.”
Mr. Niksab was the next witness called. He testified to his knowledge of the Plunger’s doings, his acquaintance with Catalina and her mother, and verified the statements previously made.
J. Ecarg next took the stand. He said he was repenting in sackcloth and ashes for the many sins he committed in that life gone by. He said the good Governor would give testimony to the truth of his unholy conduct in that life long since passed, of his relations to Catalina’s mother, and his connection with the “Plunger from Kansas.” He said his time here was short, but in a future life on earth, he would live on a higher plane, because he remembered, and in consequence he would profit by his past varied and unhappy experiences.
At the moment J. Ecarg took his seat, a messenger handed the Governor a note. After reading it, he passed it to the judge, and in turn it was passed to the lawyers on either side.
After a brief consultation was held between the judge, the attorneys and the Governor, the lawyer for prosecution said: