"That phrase is often applied to mining or other unreal flights for
fortune," said the judge, with a dry smile.
"This was a real horse on a real flight to the winning-post," added
Crozier, with a quirk at the corner of his mouth.
"Honest contest with man or horse is no crime, but it is tragedy to
stake all on the contest and lose," was the judge's grave and pedagogic
comment. "We shall now hear from the counsel for defence his reason for
conducting his cross-examination on such unusual lines. Latitude of this
kind is only permissible if it opens up any weakness in the case against
the prisoner."
The judge thus did Burlingame a good turn as well as Crozier, by creating
an atmosphere of gravity, even of tragedy, in which Burlingame could make
his speech in defence of the prisoner.
Burlingame started hesitatingly, got into his stride, assembled the
points of his defence with the skill of which he really was capable. He
made a strong appeal for acquittal, but if not acquittal, then a verdict
of manslaughter. He showed that the only real evidence which could
convict his man of murder was that of the witness Crozier. If he had
been content to discredit evidence of the witness by an adroit but
guarded misuse of the facts he had brought out regarding Crozier's past,
to emphasise the fact that he was living under an assumed name and that
his bona fides was doubtful, he might have impressed the jury to some
slight degree.
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