“It _is_ material, your honour, as showing the looseness with which witnesses testify; and as serving to caution the jury how they receive their evidence. The opening of the prosecution shows us that if the charge is to be made out at all against the prisoner, it is to be made out on purely circumstantial evidence. It is not pretended that any one _saw_ Mary Monson kill the Goodwins; but the crime is to be _inferred_ from a series of collateral facts, that will be laid before the court and jury. I think your honour will see how important it is, under the circumstances, to analyze the testimony, even on points that may not seem to bear directly on the imputed crimes. If a witness testify loosely, the jury ought to be made to see it. I have a life to defend, your honour will remember.” “Proceed, sir; the court will grant you the widest latitude.” “You now say, as often as once or twice a week, witness; on reflection, will you swear to even _that?_” “Well, if not twice, I am sure I can say _once_.” Dunscomb was satisfied with this answer, which went to show that the witness could reply a little at random, and was not always certain of his facts, when pressed. “Are you certain that Dorothy Goodwin is dead?” “I suppose I am as certain as any of the neighbours.” “That is not an answer to my question. Will you, and do you swear on your oath, that Peter Goodwin, the person named in the indictment, is actually dead?” “I’ll swear that I _think_ so.” “That is not what I want. You see those skeletons—will you say, on your oath, that you _know_ them to be the skeletons of Peter and Dorothy Goodwin?” “I’ll swear that I believe it.” “That does not meet the question. Do you _know_ it?” “How can I know it? I’m not a doctor, or a surgeon. No, I do not absolutely _know_ it. Still, I believe that one is the skeleton of Peter Goodwin, and the other the skeleton of his wife.” “Which do you suppose to be the skeleton of Peter Goodwin?” This question puzzled the witness not a little. To the ordinary eye, there was scarcely any difference in the appearance of these sad remains; though one skeleton had been ascertained by actual measurement to be about an inch and a half longer than the other. This fact was known to all in Biberry; but it was not easy to say which was which, at a glance. The witness took the safe course, therefore, of putting his opinion altogether on a different ground. “I do not pretend to tell one from the other,” was the answer. “What I know of my own knowledge is this, and this only. I knew Peter and Dorothy Goodwin; knew the house they lived in; know that the house has been burnt down, and that the old folks are not about their old ha’nts. The skeletons I never saw until they were moved from the place where they tell me they were found; for I was busy helping to get the articles saved under cover.” “Then you do not pretend to know which skeleton is that of a man, or which that of a woman?”