Page:The Art of Cross-Examination.djvu/246

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THE ART OF CROSS-EXAMINATION

with Hilliard's blood, and the scrub woman came Tuesday and Wednesday morning, and washed the blood away.' Is that right?"

Witness. "Yes, sir."

Counsel. "Why, I understood you to say that you didn't get up Wednesday morning until noon. How could you see the scrub woman wash the blood away?"

Witness. "They were at the farther end of the hall. They washed the whole pavilion. I didn't see them Wednesday morning; it was Tuesday morning I saw them scrubbing."

Counsel. "You seem to have forgotten that Hilliard, the deceased, did not arrive at the pavilion until Tuesday afternoon at four o'clock. What have you to say to that?"

Witness. "Well, there were other people who got beatings besides him."

Counsel. "Then that is what you meant to refer to in your affidavit, when speaking of Hilliard's blood upon the floor. You meant beatings of other people?"

Witness. "Yes sir—on Tuesday."

The witness was then forced to testify to minor details, which, within the knowledge of the defence, could be contradicted by a dozen disinterested witnesses. Such, for instance, as hearing the nurse Davis call up the morgue, the morning after Hilliard was killed, at least a dozen times on the telephone, and anxiously inquire what had

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