He
corroborated conductor Merrick's story of the meeting on the train
which carried the rescued passengers, and related the conversation
which passed between them, as nearly as he could remember it.
He told of his attempts to find the child's friends during the few
days that followed, then of the long and desperate illness from which
he suffered as a result of his exertion and exposure on the night
of the accident. From that point, he went on with an account of his
continued care for the child, of his incessant search for clews to
the lad's identity, of his final success, of Ralph's unaccountable
disappearance, and of his own regret and disappointment thereat.
He said that the lad had grown into his affections to so great an
extent, and his sympathy for the child's parents was such, that he
could not let him go in that way, and so he started out to find him.
He told how he traced him from one point to another, until he was
taken up by the circus wagon, how the scent was then lost, and how the
boy's whereabouts remained a mystery to him, until the happy discovery
at the tent in Scranton.
"Well," said Sharpman, "when you had found the boy, what did you do?"
"I went, the very next day," was the reply, "to Robert Burnham to tell
him that his son was living."
"What conversation did you have with him?"
"I object," interposed Goodlaw, "to evidence of any alleged
conversation between this witness and Robert Burnham. Counsel should
know better than to ask for it.
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