Mr. Millington-Bywater
looked at him and turned to his client.
"You say there is a gentleman here--that gentleman!--who was with you
when you bought that knife?" he asked. "A friend of yours, then?"
"Well--we were playing in the same company," asserted Hyde. "Mr.
Moreby-Bannister's company. He was heavy lead--I was juvenile. He knows
me well enough. He was with me when I bought that knife in a hardware
store in Guthrie."
The magistrate's eye was on the man who sat by Methley, and there was a
certain amount of irritation in it. And suddenly Methley whispered
something to his companion and the man shyly but with a noticeable
composure stood up.
"I beg Your Worship's pardon," he said, quietly, with a polite bow to the
bench, "but really, the witness is under a mistaken impression! I don't
know him, and I have never been in the town he mentions--in fact, I have
never been in the United States. I am very sorry, but, really, there is
some strange mistake--I--the witness is an absolute stranger to me!"
The attention of all present was transferred to Hyde. And Hyde flushed,
leaned forward over the ledge of the witness-box and gave the claimant a
long, steady stare.
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