"I know who you are--you're a lawyer. Don't be alarmed! I never saw
you before; and I don't know your name. What I do know is a lawyer's
statement of facts when I hear it. Who's this?" Old Sharon looked
inquisitively at Moody as he put the question.

Mr. Troy introduced Moody as a competent witness, thoroughly acquainted
with the circumstances, and ready and willing to answer any questions
relating to them. Old Sharon waited a little, smoking hard and thinking
hard. "Now, then!" he burst out in his fiercely sudden way. "I'm going
to get to the root of the matter."

He leaned forward with his elbows on the table, and began his
examination of Moody. Heartily as Mr. Troy despised and disliked the old
rogue, he listened with astonishment and admiration--literally extorted
from him by the marvelous ability with which the questions were adapted
to the end in view. In a quarter of an hour Old Sharon had extracted
from the witness everything, literally everything down to the smallest
detail, that Moody could tell him. Having now, in his own phrase,
"got to the root of the matter," he relighted his pipe with a grunt of
satisfaction, and laid himself back in his old armchair.

"Well?" said Mr. Troy. "Have you formed your opinion?"

"Yes; I've formed my opinion."

"What is it?"

Instead of replying, Old Sharon winked confidentially at Mr. Troy, and
put a question on his side.