Page:Braddon--The Trail of the Serpent.djvu/55

Rh "They were, and are so still. He was attended by Dr. Morton and Mr. Lamb."

The prisoner's counsel here beckoned to some officials near him—whispered some directions to them, and they immediately left the court.

Resuming the examination of this witness, the counsel said:

"You repeated just now the words your son made use of on the night of his departure from home. They were rather singular words—'he had started on a dark road, and he must go on to the end of it.'"

"Those were his exact words, sir."

"Was there any wildness in his manner in saying these words?" he asked.

"His manner was always wild at this time—perhaps wilder that night than usual."

"His manner, you say, was always wild. He had acquired a reputation for a wild recklessness of disposition from an early age, had he not?"

"He had, unfortunately—from the time of his going to school."

"And his companions, I believe, had given him some name expressive of this?"

"They had."

"And that name was"

"Daredevil Dick."

Martha, the old servant, was next sworn. She described the finding of the body of Mr. Harding.

The examination by the prisoner's counsel of this witness elicited nothing but that—

Master Dick had always been a wild boy, but a good boy at heart; that he had been never known to hurt so much as a worm; and that she, Martha, was sure he'd never done the murder. When asked if she had any suspicion as to who had done the deed, she became nebulous in her manner, and made some allusions to "the French"—having lived in the days of Waterloo, and being inclined to ascribe any deed of darkness, from the stealing of a leg of mutton to the exploding of an infernal machine, to the emissaries of Napoleon.

Mr. Jinks, who was then examined, gave a minute and rather discursive account of the arrest of Richard, paying several artful compliments to his own dexterity as a detective officer.

The man who met Richard on the platform at the railway station deposed to the prisoner's evident wish to avoid a recognition; to his even crossing the line for that purpose.

"There is one witness," said the counsel for the crown, "I