Part 65 (2/2)
”I did.”
”Please be so good as to describe to the jury the nature of the quarrel.”
”I was standin' in the bar of The Lucky Digger, havin' a pint with a friend,” said the long, thin witness, ”when I heard the prisoner exchangin' words with Zahn.”
”Ah! a very important matter,” said the counsel for the Crown. ”What was the subject of their conversation?”
”Seemed to me they were both sparkin' up to the bar-maid,” said the digger, ”an' consequently there was bad blood between 'em, specially on the part of Scarlett.”
”Did he strike the deceased?”
”Certainly. Struck 'im in the bar, in the pa.s.sage, an' kicked 'im into the street.”
”You swear to that?”
”Decidedly. I seen 'im do it.”
”Thank you. You may stand down--unless, of course, my friend the counsel for the defence would like to ask a question.”
Scarlett's barrister, a man of jovial countenance, smiled, and shook his head.
”Call Rachel Varnhagen.”
The pretty Jewess, dressed in black, walked modestly into the Court, mounted the step or two which led to the witness-box, and bowed to the Judge and jury.
”I should be pleased to spare you the pain of appearing as a witness in this case,” said the barrister for the Crown, looking his softest at the lovely Rachel, ”but the importance I attach to the evidence I believe you will give, is so great that I am forced to sacrifice my private feelings upon the altar of Justice. I believe you know the prisoner at the bar?”
”Yes, I do,” replied Rachel, in a very low voice.
”Did you know Isaac Zahn, with whose murder he is charged?”
”I did.”
”Is it a fact that you were engaged in marriage to Isaac Zahn?”
”I was, but the engagement was broken off some six weeks before his death.”
”And that you afterwards became engaged to John Scarlett?”
”I was never engaged to marry the prisoner.”
”Ah, then I have been misinformed. Were not the prisoner and the deceased rivals for your hand?”
”I believed them to be so.”
”Did you ever know them to quarrel?”
”I once saw the prisoner throw Isaac Zahn out of a house.”
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