Drayton leaped up with a boisterous laugh, and swaggered his way to the opposite side of the table. As he approached, the convict looked at him keenly.
"Will Mrs. Ritson come forward again?"
Greta had already risen, and was holding Parson Christian"s hand with a nervous grip. She stepped apart, and going behind the two men, she came to a stand between them. On the one side stood Drayton, with a smirking face half turned toward the spectators; on the other stood the convict, his hands bound before him, his defiant glance softened to a look of tenderness, and his lips parted with the unuttered cry that was ready to burst from them.
"Greta," said Hugh Ritson, in a low tone of indescribable pathos, "which of these men is your husband?"
Counsel repeated the question in form.
Greta had slowly raised her eyes from the ground until they reached the convict"s face. Then in an instant, in a flash of light, with the quick cry of a startled bird, she flung herself on his neck. Her fair head dropped on the frieze of the convict"s jacket, and her sobs were all that broke the silence.
Hugh Ritson"s emotion surged in his throat, but he stood quietly at the table. Only his slight figure swayed a little and his face quivered. His work was not yet done.
"This is the answer of nature," he said quietly.
Hugh Ritson was put into the witness-box, and in a voice that was full and strong, and that penetrated every corner of the court, he identified the convict as his brother, Paul Ritson.
Counsel for the defense had seemed to be stunned. Recovering himself, he tried to smile, and said:
"After this melodramatic interlude, perhaps I may be allowed to ask our new witness a few questions. Did you, at the Central Criminal Court, held at the Old Bailey in 1875, swear that the person who stands here in the dress of a convict was not Paul Ritson?"
"I did."
"Now for my second question. Did you also swear that the defendant was your brother, and therefore not Paul Drayton."
"I did."
"Then you were guilty of perjury at that time, or you are guilty of perjury now?"
"I was guilty of perjury then."
The judge interposed and asked if the witness was awakened to the enormity of the crime to which he confessed. Hugh Ritson bent his head.
"Are you conscious that you are rendering yourself liable to penal servitude?"
"I have signed a declaration of my guilt."
The answers were given in perfect calmness, but a vein of pathos ran through every word.
"Do you know that a few years back many a poor wretch whose crime was trifling compared with yours has gone from the dock to the gallows?"
"My guilt is unmitigated guilt. I make a voluntary statement. I am not here to appeal for mercy."
There was the hush of awe in the court.
The face of the convict wore an expression of amazement.
Counsel smiled again.
"I presume you know that the effect of the law officers of the Crown, believing the story that you tell us now is that, if they do so, the man whom you call your brother will be put into possession of the estate of which your late father died seized?"
"He is ent.i.tled to it."
Counsel turned to the jury with a smile.
"It is always necessary to find some standard by which to judge of human actions. The witness quarreled with the defendant four days ago, and this is his revenge. But I appeal to the court. Is this story credible?
Is it not a palpable imposture?"
The judge again interposed.
"Men do not risk so much for a lie. The witness knows that when the court rises the sheriff may take him into custody."
At this counsel rose again and asked the bench not to play into the hands of the witness by apprehending him.
"Let the convict be examined," said the judge.
Paul Ritson raised his head; Greta sunk into a chair beneath him. He was not sworn.
The warder in charge put in an entry from the books of the prison. It ran: "Paul Drayton, five feet eleven inches, brown hair and eyes, aged thirty, licensed victualer, born in London, convicted of robbery at the scene of a railway accident."
"Does that entry properly describe you?" asked the judge.
The convict"s eyes wandered.
"What"s going on?" he said, in a tone of bewilderment.
"Attend, my man. Are you Paul Ritson, the eldest son of the late Allan Ritson?"
"Why do you want to know?" said the convict.
"It befits a witness who is permitted to come from the scene of a degrading punishment to give a prompt and decisive answer. What is your name, sir?"
"Find it out."
"My man," said the judge, more suavely, "we sit here in the name of the law, and the law could wish to stand your friend." (The convict laughed bitterly.) "Pray help us to a decision in the present perplexing case by a few frank answers. If you are Paul Drayton, you go back to Portland to complete the term of your imprisonment. If it can be proved that you are Paul Ritson, your case will be laid before the home officials, with the result that you will be liberated and re-established in your estate.
First of all, which is your name--Paul Drayton or Paul Ritson?"
The convict did not answer at first. Then he said in a low tone:
"No law can re-establish me."
The judge added:
"Bethink you, if you are Paul Ritson, and an innocent man, the law can restore you to your young wife."
Visibly moved by this reference, the convict"s eyes wandered to where Greta sat beside him, and the tension of his gaze relaxed.
The judge began again: