Part 15 (1/2)
”Why, Scoville, madam; or so the prosecution congratulated itself upon having proved to the jury's satisfaction. It did not tally with Scoville's story or with common sense I know. You remember,--pardon me,--I mean that any one who read a report of the case, will remember how I handled the matter in my speech. But the prejudice in favour of the prosecution--I will not say against the defence--was too much for me, and common sense, the defendant's declarations, and my eloquence all went for nothing.”
”Of course they produced the knife?”
”Yes, they produced the knife.”
”It was in his pocket?”
”Yes.”
”Have they that here?”
”No, we haven't that here.”
”But you remember it?”
”Remember it?”
”Was it a new knife, a whole one, I mean, with all its blades sharp and in good order?”
”Yes. I can say that. I handled it several times.”
”Then, whose blade left that?” And again she pointed to the same place on the stick where her finger had fallen before.
”I don't know what you mean.” The sergeant looked puzzled. Perhaps, his eyesight was not very keen.
”Have you a magnifying-gla.s.s? There is something embedded in this wood.
Try and find out what it is.”
The sergeant, with a queer look at Mr. Black, who returned it with interest, went for a gla.s.s, and when he had used it, the stare he gave the heavily veiled woman drove Mr. Black to reach out his own hand for the gla.s.s.
”Well,” he burst forth, after a prolonged scrutiny, ”there is something there.”
”The point of a knife blade. The extreme point,” she emphasised. ”It might easily escape the observation even of the most critical, without such aid as is given by this gla.s.s.”
”No one thought of using a magnifying-gla.s.s on this,” blurted out the sergeant. ”The marks made by the knife were plain enough for all to see, and that was all which seemed important.”
Mr. Black said nothing; he was feeling a trifle cheap;--something which did not agree with his crusty nature. Not having seen Mrs. Scoville for a half-hour without her veil, her influence over him was on the wane, and he began to regret that he had laid himself open to this humiliation.
She saw that it would be left for her to wind up the interview and get out of the place without arousing too much attention. With a self-possession which astonished both men, knowing her immense interest in this matter, she laid down the stick, and, with a gentle shrug of her shoulders, remarked in an easy tone:
”Well, it's curious! The inns and outs of a crime, I mean. Such a discovery ten years after the event (I think you said ten years) is very interesting.” Then she sighed: ”Alas! it's too late to benefit the one whose life it might have saved. Mr. Black, shall we be going? I have spent a most entertaining quarter of an hour.”
Mr. Black glanced from her to the sergeant before he joined her. Then, with one of his sour smiles directed towards the former, he said:
”I wouldn't be talking about this, sergeant. It will do no good, and may subject us to ridicule.”
The sergeant, none too well pleased, nodded slightly. Seeing which, she spoke up: