And now the eminent K.C.
brought forward and placed in the witness-box the very lawyers into whose hands the accused had then immediately placed the will.

Now, Mr.
Barkston, a very well-known solicitor of King Street, declared positively that Mr.Percival Brooks was in his office at a quarter before twelve; two of his clerks testified to the same time exactly, and it was _impossible_, contended Mr.Oranmore, that within three-quarters of an hour Mr.Brooks could have gone to a stationer's, bought a will form, copied Mr.Wethered's writing, his father's signature, and that of John O'Neill and Pat Mooney.
"Such a thing might have been planned, arranged, practised, and ultimately, after a great deal of trouble, successfully carried out, but human intelligence could not grasp the other as a possibility.
"Still the judge wavered.

The eminent K.C.had shaken but not shattered his belief in the prisoner's guilt.

But there was one point more, and this Oranmore, with the skill of a dramatist, had reserved for the fall of the curtain.
"He noted every sign in the judge's face, he guessed that his client was not yet absolutely safe, then only did he produce his last two witnesses.
"One of them was Mary Sullivan, one of the housemaids in the Fitzwilliam mansion.

She had been sent up by the cook at a quarter past four o'clock on the afternoon of February 1st with some hot water, which the nurse had ordered, for the master's room.