“What made you say that?”
“They’d put it on me anyway. I thought it would help me.”
“What was the name of the man with you?”
“I don’t know. I never saw him before.”
“His name was Ichabod Jones,” said Preston impressively, “and don’t you ever forget it. Remember, you have known this man for a long while and that he went under the name of ‘Black Ike.’”
Preston talked a half-hour longer with the man and drilled him over and over before he left him.
When the case came up the prosecution introduced witnesses sufficient to prove that the brakeman had been killed and then introduced the confession.
“We rest the case there, your honour,” said District Attorney Masters, with somewhat of a flourish.
Young Preston put his client on the stand without delay and had him tell his story of the fight, which was to the effect that it was not he, but the other man, who killed the brakeman.
“What was the other man’s name?” asked Preston.