'"
A round of applause greeted this story as it was ended, and cheerful
hands were extended to the witness and the prisoner. Calvin Van de Lear,
however, exclaimed:
"Alderman, what has all this to do with the prisoner's ignominious
flight for months from his home and from persons he abandoned to
suspicion and shame? This man is an impostor."
"Will you take the stand, Mr. Andrew Zane?" asked Duff Salter.
"No," replied the late fugitive. "I have been hunted and slandered like
a wolf. I will give no evidence in Kensington, where I have been so
shamefully treated. Let me be sent to a higher court, and there I will
speak."
"Alas!" Duff Salter said, with grave emphasis, "it is you father's old
and obstinate spirit which is speaking. You are the ghost I thought was
his at the door of my chamber. Mr. Magistrate, swear me!"
Duff Salter gravely kissed the Testament and stood ready to depose, when
Calvin Van de Lear again interrupted.
"Are you not deaf?" asked the divinity student. "Where are your tablets
that you carry every day? You seem to hear too well, I consider."
"You are right," cried Duff Salter, turning on his interrogator like a
lion. "I am wholly cured of deafness, and my memory is as acute as my
hearing."
Calvin Van de Lear turned pale to the roots of his dry, yellow whiskers.
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