He got it the day when Repton appeared in the witness-box on a subpoena from the Crown to bear testimony to the violence of Stephen Ballantyne.

He had seen Stella with her wrist bruised so that in public she could not remove her gloves.
"What kind of bruises ?" asked the counsel.
"Such bruises as might be made by some one twisting her arms," he answered, and then Mr.Travers, a young barrister who was enjoying his first leap into the public eye, rose to cross-examine.
Thresk read through that cross-examination and rose to his feet.

"You cannot control the price you will have to pay," he said to himself.

That day, when Mrs.Ballantyne's solicitor returned to his office after the rising of the Court, he found Thresk waiting for him.
"I wish to give evidence for Mrs.Ballantyne," said Thresk--"evidence which will acquit her." He spoke with so much certainty that the solicitor was fairly startled.
"And with evidence so positive in your possession it is only this afternoon that you come here with it! Why ?" Thresk was prepared for the question.
"I have a great deal of work waiting for me in London," he returned.

"I hoped that it might not be necessary for me to appear at all.