Part 50 (2/2)
”I do,” emphatically.
”And you, Ray?”
”I! You deserve to be kicked for asking. I'll tell _just_ what I _think_, a little later; I know you didn't kill Burrill.”
Clifford Heath withdraws his gaze from the faces of his visitors, and seems to hesitate; then he says slowly:
”I am deeply grateful for your confidence in me; but, I fear my actions must belie my words. My friends, the evidence is more than I can combat. I can't prove an _alibi_; and there's no other way to clear myself.”
”Bah!” retorts O'Meara; ”there are several ways. Let us take the ground that you are innocent; there must then be some one upon whom to fasten the guilt. You have an enemy; some one has stolen your handkerchief and your knife. Who is that enemy? Whom do you suspect?”
The prisoner shook his head. ”I shall accuse no one,” he said, briefly.
”What!” burst out Ray Vandyck; ”you will not hunt down your enemy? This is too much! Heath, I believe you could put your hand on the a.s.sa.s.sin.”
No reply from the prisoner; he sits with his head bowed upon his hand, a look of dogged resolution upon his face.
”Vandyck,” says the little lawyer, who has been gazing fixedly at his obstinate client, and who now turns two keen eyes upon the excited Ray; ”keep cool! keep cool, my lad! Heath, look here, sir, I'm bound to defend your case--do you object to that?”
”On the contrary, O'Meara, you are my only hope; but, your success must depend upon your own shrewdness. I can't give you any help.”
Down went something in the lawyer's note book.
”That means you won't give me any help,” writing briskly.
”It's an ungracious way of putting it,” smiling slightly; ”but--that's about the way it stands.”
”Just so,” writing still; ”you believe the handkerchief to have been yours?”
”Yes.”
”And the knife?”
”Yes. Stay, send Corliss with some one else, to my office; let them examine my case of instruments, and see if the knife is among them; this, for form's sake.”
”It shall be attended to--for form's sake. Heath, who beside yourself had access to your office?”
”My office was insecurely locked; any one might easily force an entrance, and a common key would open my door.”
Scratch, scratch; the lawyer seems not to notice the doctor's evasion of the question.
”Ahem! As your lawyer, Heath, is there any truth in these stories about a previous knowledge of Burrill?”
”Do you mean _my_ previous knowledge of the man?”
”Yes.”
”I never knew the fellow; never saw him until I knocked him down in his first wife's defence.”
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