CHAPTER XVI.
In which cross-examination is conducted "en échelon," and if you, don't know what that means I can't help you.
Cheerful, more than cheerful, all smiles, Mr. Kirby was standing at midnight upon the arrival platform of the great station at Ormeston as the night mail came in. He saw the slender figure of a young man whose every gesture betrayed an absurd anxiety coming bewildered up from the end of the train, and looking about him as though seeking a face.
It was a fine cordial welcome that greeted James McAuley, not in the least what he had expected. He was enormously relieved.
"My dear Mr. McAuley," said the lawyer, with a fine generosity of impulse and in the heartiest of tones, "how very good of you to come! I confess I was very much in doubt whether you would understand the urgency of my message at such short notice. You see," he added, lying expansively, "they cut us off."
