The House of the White Shadows. Farjeon Benjamin Leopold

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СКАЧАТЬ your mind to. What have you to say to this?"

      "A batch of lies. Twenty women could not have prevented me getting into the house."

      "You think yourself a match for twenty women?"

      "Aye."

      "And for as many men?"

      "For one man, whoever he may be. Give me the chance of proving it."

      "Do you know Heinrich Heitz?"

      "No."

      "He is, like yourself, a woodcutter."

      "There are thousands of woodcutters."

      "Did you and he not work together as partners?"

      "We did not."

      "Were you not continually quarrelling, and did he not wish to break the partnership?"

      "No."

      "In consequence of this, did you not threaten to murder him?"

      "No."

      "Did you not strike him with a weapon, and cut his forehead open?"

      "No."

      "How many women have you loved?"

      "One."

      "Her name?"

      "Madeline."

      "You never loved another?"

      "Never."

      "Have you been married?"

      "No."

      "Have you ever lived with a woman who should have been your wife?"

      "Never."

      "Did you not continually beat this poor woman until her life became a burden to her, and she was compelled to fly from you to another part of the country?"

      "No."

      "Do you expect to be believed in the answers you have given?"

      "No."

      "It is said that you possess great strength."

      "It has served me in good stead."

      "That you are a man of violent passions."

      "I have my feelings. I would never submit to be trampled on."

      "You were always kind to Madeline?"

      "Always."

      "On the night of her murder?"

      "Yes."

      "Witnesses will prove that you were heard to say, 'I will kill you! I will kill you!' Do you deny saying so?"

      "No."

      "How does that cruel threat accord with a mild and affectionate nature?"

      "I was asking her whether she had another lover, and I said if she had, and encouraged him, that I would kill her."

      "The handkerchief found round her neck was yours."

      "I gave it to her as a love-gift."

      "A terrible love-gift. It was not wound loosely round her neck; it was tight, almost to strangulation."

      "She must have made it so in her struggles, or-"

      "Or?"

      "The man who killed her must have attempted to strangle her with it."

      "That is your explanation?"

      "Yes."

      "Your face is bathed in perspiration; your eyes glare wildly."

      "Change places with me, and see how you would feel."

      "Such signs, then, are the signs of innocence?"

      "What else should they be?"

      During this long examination, Gautran's limbs trembled violently, and there passed over his face the most frightful expressions.

      CHAPTER XIV.

      THE EVIDENCE OF WITNESSES

      Among the first witnesses called was Heinrich Heitz, a wood-cutter, who had been for some time in partnership with Gautran, and of whom Gautran had denied any knowledge whatever.

      On his forehead was the red scar of a wound inflicted some time before.

      "Look at the prisoner. Do you know him?"

      "I have reason to."

      "His name?"

      "Gautran."

      "How did he get his living?"

      "By wood-cutting."

      "You and he were comrades for a time?"

      "We were."

      "For how long?"

      "For three years; we were partners."

      "During the time you worked with him, did he know you as Heinrich Heitz?"

      "By no other name. I never bore another."

      "Was the partnership an agreeable one?"

      "Not to me; it was infernally disagreeable. I never want another partner like him."

      "Why?"

      "Because I don't want another savage beast for a partner."

      "You did not get along well with him?"

      "Quite the reverse."

      "For what reasons?"

      "Well, for one, I am a hard-working man; he is an indolent bully. The master he works for once does not want to employ him again. When we worked together on a task, the profits of which were to be equally divided between us, he shirked his share of the work, and left me to do the lot."

      "Did you endeavour to separate from him?"

      "I did; and he swore he would murder me; and once, when I was more than usually determined, he marked me on my forehead. You can see the scar; I shall never get rid of it."

      "Did he use a weapon against you?"

      "Yes; a knife."

      "His temper is ungovernable?"

      "He has not the slightest control over it."

      "He is a man of great strength?"

      "He is very powerful."

      "Possessed with an idea which he was determined to carry СКАЧАТЬ