Part 28 (2/2)
”Never mind what I should do; I want to know what you saw.”
”The same as before,” answers Bogle angrily.
”A flea?”
”I suppose.”
”But did you see him, Bogle?”
”I told you, Mr. Hawkins, I did not.”
”Excuse me, that was on the first occasion.”
”Well, this was the same.”
”Same flea?”
”I suppose.”
”Same time--ten minutes past eleven?”
”Yes.”
”Then all I can say is, he must have been a very punctual old flea.”
Exit Bogle, and with him his evidence.
After the trial had been proceeding for some time, Baigent was giving evidence of the family pedigree.
Honeyman whispered, ”We might as well have the first chapter of Genesis and read that.”
”Genesis!” said Hawkins; ”I want to get to the last chapter of Revelation.”
One day Mr. J.L. Toole came in, and was invited to sit next to Mr.
Hawkins, which he did.
At the adjournment for luncheon the Claimant muttered as they pa.s.sed along, ”There's Toole come to learn actin' from 'Arry Orkins.”
There was one witness who ought not to be forgotten. It was Mr.
Biddulph, a relation of the Tichborne family, a good-natured, amiable man, willing to oblige any one, and a county magistrate--”one of the most amiable county magistrates I have ever met, a man of the strictest honour and unimpeachable integrity.”
He had been asked by the dowager lady to recognize her son.
”I don't see how I can,” said he. ”I am willing to oblige, but not at the expense of truth. Better get some one else who knew him better than I did. This man bears no resemblance to the man I knew. I cannot do it.” And so he resisted all entreaties with that firmness of purpose for which he was remarkable.
”He was then invited,” said Mr. Hawkins, ”to a little dinner at another supporter of the Claimant's, and one somewhat shrewder than the rest.” The Claimant described this party as consisting of a county magistrate, a money-lender, a lawyer, and a humbug.
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