Part 28 (2/2)
”Describe him! If I described him ever so accurately, you would n't know him fro here, Mr Q----? If he is, I'll take hi your patience after this fashi+on”
”Steady, Mr Connell Was your inforht, Mr Q----”
”Was he a et at it presently”
”You've got at it first try I should say you've struck his height to about a sixteenth of an inch”
”Sunburnt face? Skulking, fugitive appearance generally?”
”Your description's wonderfully correct, Mr Q---- You ht, without libel, call him a sansculotte”
”I'm seldom far out in these matters Hoas he dressed?”
”In a little brief authority, so far as I re----”
”Do you imply a sarcasm?” inquired the J,P darkly ”I would n't do so if I was you I'!
I' about a valuable stack of hay I had burnt this ive me a clue to the incendiary” He paused, to let his words filter in ”You done it without your knowledge, Mr O'Connell,”
he continued poht
In the silence that ensued, I could hear the ular ticking of two clocks; while there dawned on my mind an impression that somebody had fallen in the fat
”I'th
”So far as the loss goes, that gives ht break a poorer man I been burnt out, r----p and stump, by an incendiary, when I was at Ballarat”----
”Ah!” said I sympathetically, but my sympathy ith the other party----
”And then I could afford to offer a hundred notes for the apprehension of the offender, before the ashes was cold”
”But htn't this last affair be an accident, Mr Q----? A horse treading on a ht to make strict inquiries as to whether any horse, or cow, or anything, passed by the stack shortly before the fire was noticed”
”I know my own business, Mr O'Connor,” he replied severely
”I been the instigation of bringing abonds, and that class of people, to justice than anybody else in this district
If I'd my way, I'd stamp out the lawless elements of society”
”I admire your principles, Mr Q----; and you may count upon my assistance in this u to you about this stack-burning affair,” interposed the beak
”I' lay, so to speak, all this ot the perpetrator in uilt; and, takehim to book I'll make an example of him I'll make him smoke for it It was an open question this forenoon; but to sho circumstantial evidence sort of hems in a suspected party--why, here I can lay et out of it
I can point out the verythe whipstick scrub, just across that lagoon And a party I'm acquainted with seen him yesterday afternoon, some distance up the river, on the other side; and I seen hi the flat here, more or less about the time the fire was noticed What do you think of that for circumstantial evidence, Mr Connelly? And in addition to this, I can point out his incentive--which I prefer to hold in reserve for the present He ht differ with hi eye while he sipped his wine
”I beg your pardon, Mr Q----,” said I, clearinga certain interest in this matter Would it be impertinent in me to ask who the person was that saw the suspected incendiary up the river on yesterday afternoon?”