I stopped fanning myself and cast a swift glance inside the hat.

To my intense satisfaction I read, stamped on the leather lining: "Knox, New York." I put the hat back on my head and a few minutes later pulled it off and said: "Now, for instance, my hat.

If I were an Englishman would I cross the ocean to New York to buy a hat ?" It was all like that.

They would move away and whisper together, and I would try to guess what questions they were preparing.

I had to arrange my defence without knowing in what way they would try to trip me, and I had to think faster than I ever have thought before.