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I ask now that the gentleman be confined to questions which are germane to the issue and decently put." "I have but a few more questions to ask," said Goodlaw. Turning to the witness again, he continued: "If you succeed in establishing this boy's identity, you will have a bill to present for care and moneys expended and services performed on his account, will you not?" "I expect so; yes, sir."
"No, sir!" he replied, with much indignation; "I have never harbored thieves, nor sold stolen goods to my knowledge. You insult me, sir!" Goodlaw resumed his seat, looked at some notes in pencil on a slip of paper, and then resumed the examination. "Did you send this boy out on the streets to beg?" he asked.
The people in the court-room began to whisper, "Hush!" fearing lest the noise of moving bodies might cause them to lose the boy's words. To Goodlaw it was all a mystery. He did not know how to begin the examination. He started at a venture. "Are you Robert Burnham's son?" "No, sir," replied Ralph, firmly. "I ain't." There was a buzz of excitement in the room.
Sharpman had not seen Ralph's expression and did not know what the noise was all about. He looked around at the audience uneasily, whispered to Craft for a moment, and then announced that he was done with the witness. He was really afraid to carry the examination further; there were too many pit-falls along the way. Goodlaw, too, was wise enough to ask no additional questions.
As it was, there would be little for them to do. The case was extremely one-sided, "like the handle on a jug," as one of them sententiously and somewhat scornfully remarked. The judge looked up from his writing. "Well, gentlemen," he said, "are you ready to proceed in the case of 'Craft against Burnham'?" "We are ready on the part of the plaintiff," replied Sharpman. Goodlaw arose.
When the afternoon session was called, Sharpman announced that he was through with the direct examination of Craft. Then Goodlaw took the witness in hand. He asked many questions about Craft's personal history, about the wreck, and about the rescue of the child. He demanded a full account of the way in which Robert Burnham had been discovered, by the witness and found to be Ralph's father.
She stood for a moment in silence, her face as white as the wall behind her. Then she clasped her hands tightly together and all the muscles of her body grew rigid in the desperate effort to remain calm for the sake of the unconscious man on the bed, for the sake of the lost boy in the mine, for the sake of her own ability to think and to act. Goodlaw saw the struggle and rose from his chair.
The court ruled that the reasons presented were not sufficient to warrant the holding of a jury at this stage of the case for so long a time, but intimated that in the event of a verdict for the plaintiff a motion for a new trial might be favorably considered by the court. "Then we have nothing further to offer," said Goodlaw.
He had little hope, he said, that Ralph could live till they should reach him; but he should be the first, he declared, to go into the mine in search of the gallant boy. At this recital Mrs. Burnham wept; she could restrain her tears no longer. At last Goodlaw persuaded her to leave the scene. He feared the effect that continued gazing on it might have upon her delicate nerves.
The man on the bed moved and moaned, and she went back to him. "Perhaps we had better send some one to look for the boy," said Goodlaw. "I will go myself " He was interrupted by the opening of the door. Andy Gilgallon stood on the threshold and looked in with amazement. He had not expected to find the lady and the lawyer there. "I come to see Bachelor Billy," he said.
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