"Well, well!" exclaimed Mr. Tutt. "You are certainly a capitalist! I hope you are not financially overextended!" Mr. Pepperill looked pained, not knowing just how to prevent such jocoseness on the part of his adversary. "I object," he muttered feebly. "Quite properly!" agreed Mr. Tutt. "Now, Mr. Kahoots, are you a citizen of the United States?" Mr. Kahoots looked aggrieved. "Me? No! Me no citizen. I go back sometime Acre and build moving-picture garden and ice-cream palace." "I thought so," commented Mr. Tutt. "Now what, pray, were you doing in the Washington Street restaurant?" "Eating _kibbah arnabeiah_ and _mamoul_." "I mean if you live in Augusta how did you happen to be in New York at precisely that time?" "Eh?" "How you come in New York?" translated Mr. Tutt, while the jury laughed. "Just come." "But why?" "Just come." "Yes, yes; but you didn't come on just to be present at the murder, did you?" Kahoots grinned. "I just come to walk up and down." "Where--walk up and down?" "On Washington Street. I spend the winter. I do nothing. I rich man." "How long did you stay when you just came on?" "Tree days. Then I go back." "Why did you go back?" "I dunno. Just go back." Mr. Tutt sighed. The jury gave signs of impatience. "Look here!" he demanded. "How many times have you gone over your story with the district attorney?" "Nevvair." "What?" "I nevvair see heem." "Never see whom?" "Dees man--judge." "I'm not talking about the judge." "I nevvair see no one." "Didn't you tell the Grand Jury that Hassoun stabbed Babu with a long knife?" "I dunno heem!" "Who?" "Gran' Jury." "Didn't you go into a big room and put your hand on a book and swear?" "I no swear--ever!" "And tell what you saw?" "I tell what I saw." "What did you see?" "I saw Hassoun break heem hees neck." "Didn't you say first that Hassoun stabbed Babu?" "No--nevvair!" "Then didn't you come back and say he shot him?" "No--nevvair!" "And finally, didn't you say he strangled him--after you had heard that the coroner's physician had decided that that was how he was killed?" "Yes--he break heem hees neck." Mr. Kahoots was apparently very much bored, but he was not bored in quite the same way as the judge, who, suddenly rousing himself, asked Mr. Tutt if he had any basis for asking such questions. "Why, certainly," answered the old lawyer quietly. "I shall prove that this witness made three absolutely contradictory statements before the Grand Jury." "Is that so, Mister District Attorney?" "I don't know," replied Pepperill faintly. "I had nothing to do with the proceedings before the Grand Jury." Judge Wetherell frowned. "It would seem to me," he began, "as if a proper preparation of the case would have involved some slight attention to--Well, never mind! Proceed, Mr. Tutt." "Kahoots!" cried the lawyer sternly. "Isn't it a fact that you have been convicted of crime yourself?" The proprietor of the merry-go-round drew himself up indignantly.