"No arrests!" he cried. "Right enough! Good! Now, attention!"
But Andrew Zane kept his seat with an expression of obstinacy, and
glared at Calvin Van de Lear, who was trembling with rage.
"Well got up, on my word!" exclaimed Calvin. "Who is this fellow?"
"Go on and finish your story!" commanded Duff Salter.
"God forgive Mike Donovan, your Honor!" continued the witness. "I'm
afraid if Mr. William Zane had been the only man overboard I wouldn't
have risked me life. He was a hard, overbearin' masther. But I thought
of his poor son, standin' paralyzed-like, and the kind Mr. Rainey
drownin' in the wintry water, and I jumped down in the dark flood to
rescue one or both. From that day to this, the two partners I never saw.
It was months before I saw America at all, or the survivin' okkepant of
the boat."
"You may explain how that came to be," intimated Duff Salter, grimly
superintending the court.
"Well, sir! As I dived from the skiff my head encountered a solid
something which made me see a thousand flashes av lightning in one
second. I was so stunned that I had only instinct--I belave ye call it
that--to throw my ar-rum around the murthering object and hold like
death. Ye know, judge, how drownin' men will hold to straws.
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