Page:That Royle Girl (Balmer).pdf/257

 had been called into consultation upon this difficult point, had succeeded in devising a more plausible reason for a girl going alone to the lake shore upon an October midnight. Max would have omitted the incident altogether were it not essential to his case, so at last he had bid her to tell it just as it had happened up to the point after she had left the beach and when she looked in the window of Adele Ketlar's flat and saw Adele and a man.

Here Max put in the question: "You saw the man clearly?" to remind the witness that now she must depart from the truth.

"Very clearly," lied Joan Daisy, looking at Mr. Elmen.

"Did you recognize him?" challenged Max.

"No. He was some one I had never seen before."

"Have you seen him since?"

"No."

"Describe him."

"What I first noticed was his dark hair," lied Joan Daisy.

"How dark?" Insisted Mr. Elmen.

"Almost black or black," Joan Daisy repeated her perjury.

"You saw this distinctly?" Mr. Elmen drove her on.

"Very distinctly. It immediately attracted my attention because of course Mr. Ketlar's hair is light."

Calvin was upon his feet and she gazed at him, feeling herself shudder and trying to prevent it from becoming visible. Lies, lies! she despaired; he would catch her in this one; but if she told on the stand the truth, saying that the man she had seen was so like Ket that she thought he was Ket, why then—so Mr. Elmen and Herman Elmen and Mr. Kleppman and Mr. Wein all had said—with her own hand she would be slipping the noose about Ket's neck.

"Was he tall or short?" questioned Mr. Elmen quickly,