The case concerned a disputed will and the frontier lawyer was engaged in a lengthy duel with a key witness.
"Was the deceased," continued the attorney, "In the habit of talking to himself when he was alone?"
"I don't know," replied the witness.
"Come now man, you don't know and yet you pretend you were intimately acquainted with the deceased?"
"Well, Mr. Lawyer," said the witness, "I never happened to be with him when he was alone ..."