"For all I understand of what you"re saying you might be talking in an unknown tongue. You speak of the futility of fencing, when you do nothing else but fence! To the point, if you please. What service do you suppose was intended to be rendered you that night in Cooper"s Spinney?"
There was a perceptible pause before she answered, as if she were endeavouring to summon all her courage to her aid.
"Mr Morice, when you killed my husband, did you not do it for me?"
His countenance, as she put this question, would have afforded an excellent subject for a study in expression. His jaw dropped open, his pipe falling unnoticed to the ground; his eyes seemed to increase in magnitude; the muscles of his face became suddenly rigid--indeed the rigidity of his whole bearing suggested a paralytic seizure. For some seconds he seemed to have even ceased to breathe. Then he gave a long gasping breath, and with in his att.i.tude still some of that unnatural rigidity, he gave her question for question.
"Why do you ask me such a monstrous thing? You! you!"
Something in his manner and appearance seemed to disturb her more than anything which had gone before. She drew farther away from him, and closer to the stile.
"You forced me to ask you."
"I forced you to ask me--that!"
"Why do you look at me so? Do you wish to frighten me?"
"Do you think I didn"t see? Have you forgotten?"
"See? Forgotten? What do you mean?"
"Oh, woman! that you should be so young and yet so old; so ignorant and yet so full of knowledge; that you should seem a shrine of all the virtues, and be a thing all evil!"
"Mr Morice, why do you look at me like that! you make me afraid!"
"Would I could make you afraid--of being the thing you are!"
"It"s not fair of you to speak to me like that I--it"s not fair! I"m not so wicked! When I married--"
"When you married! No more of that old wife"s tale. Stick to the point, please--to the point! You whited sepulchre! is it possible that, having shown one face to the world, you now propose to show another one to me, and that you think I"ll let you? At anyrate, I"ll have you know that I do know you for what you are! Till now I have believed that that dead man, your husband, Mrs Champion, was as you painted him--an unspeakable hound; but now, for the first time, I doubt, since you dared to ask me that monstrous thing, knowing that I saw you kill him!"
She looked at him as if she were searching his face for something she could not find on it.
"Is it possible that you wish me to understand that you are speaking seriously?"
"What an actress you are to your finger-tips! Do you think I don"t know you understand?"
"Then you know more than I do, for I myself am not so sure. My wish is to understand, and--I am beginning to be afraid I do."
He waved his hand with an impatient gesture.
"Come, no more of that! Let me beg you to believe that I am not quite the fool that you suppose. You asked me just now if I intend to save Jim Baker"s life? Well, that"s where I"m puzzled. At present it"s not clear to me that it"s in any serious danger. I think that the very frankness of his story may prove to be his salvation; I doubt if they"ll be able to establish anything beyond it. But should the contrary happen, and he finds himself confronted by the gallows, then the problem will have to be fairly faced. I shall have to decide what I am prepared to do. Of course my action would be to some extent guided by yours, that is why I"m so anxious to learn what, under those circ.u.mstances, you would do."
"Shall I tell you?"
"If you would be so very kind."
"I should send for Granger and save Jim Baker"s life."
"By giving yourself up?"
She stood straighter.
"No, Mr Morice, by giving you up."
"But again I don"t understand."
"You have had ample warning and ample opportunity. You might have hidden yourself on the other side of the world if you chose. If you did not choose the fault was yours."
"But why should I hide?"
"If you forced me, I should tell Granger that it was you who killed Robert Champion, and that I had proofs of it, and so Jim Baker would be saved."
Again he threw out his arms with the gesture which suggested not only impatience, but also lack of comprehension.
"Then am I to take it that you propose to add another item to your list of crimes?"
"It is not a crime to save the innocent by punishing the guilty."
"The guilty, yes; but in that case where would you be?"
"I, however unwillingly, should be witness against you."
"You would, would you? A pleasant vista your words open to one"s view."
"You could relieve me of the obligation--easily."
"I don"t see how--but that is by the way. Do you know it begins to occur to me that the singularity of your att.i.tude may be induced by what is certainly the remote possibility that you are ignorant of how exactly the matter stands. Is it possible that you are not aware that I saw you--actually saw you--kill that man."
"What story are you attempting to use as a cover? Are you a liar as well as that thing?"
"Don"t fence! Are you denying that I saw you kill him, and that when you ran away I tried to catch you?"
"Of course I deny it! That you should dare to ask me such a question!"
"This is a wonderful woman!"
"You appear to be something much worse than a wonderful man--something altogether beyond any conception I had formed of you. Your suppositional contingency may be applied to you; it is just possible that you don"t know how the matter stands, and that that explains your att.i.tude. It is true that I did not see you kill that man."
"That certainly is true."
"But I heard you kill him."
"You heard me?"
"I heard you--I was only a little way off. First I heard the shot--Baker"s shot. Then I heard him go. Then I heard you come."
"You heard me come?"