Part 5 (1/2)
”What an item that would have been if one paper had got hold of it and the others hadn't! I suppose they all got on to it at the same time?”
”About that,” said Brenton, ”I don't know, and I must confess that I do not care very much. But here is the trouble--my wife has been arrested for my murder, and she is as innocent as I am.”
”Sure of that?”
”_Sure_ of it?” cried the other indignantly. ”Of course I am sure of it.”
”Then who is the guilty person?”
”Ah, that,” said Brenton, ”I do not yet know.”
”Then how can you be sure she is not guilty?”
”If you talk like that,” exclaimed Brenton, ”I have nothing more to say.”
”Now, don't get offended, I beg of you. I am merely looking at this from a newspaper standpoint, you know. You must remember it is not you who will decide the matter, but a jury of your very stupid fellow-countrymen. Now, you can never tell what a jury _will_ do, except that it will do something idiotic. Therefore, it seems to me that the very first step to be taken is to find out who the guilty party is.
Don't you see the force of that?”
”Yes, I do.”
”Very well, then. Now, what were the circ.u.mstances of this crime? who was to profit by your death?”
Brenton winced at this.
”I see how it is,” said the other, ”and I understand why you don't answer. Now--you'll excuse me if I am frank--your wife was the one who benefited most by your death, was she not?”
”No,” cried the other indignantly, ”she was not the one. That is what the lawyers said. Why in the world should she want to poison me, when she had all my wealth at her command as it was?”
”Yes, that's a strong point,” said Speed. ”You were a reasonably good husband, I suppose? Rather generous with the cash?”
”Generous?” cried the other. ”My wife always had everything she wanted.”
”Ah, well, there was no--you'll excuse me, I am sure--no former lover in the case, was there?”
Again Brenton winced, and he thought of Roland sitting beside his wife with her hand in his.
”I see,” said Speed; ”you needn't answer. Now what were the circ.u.mstances, again?”
”They were these: At a dinner which I gave, where some twenty or twenty-five of my friends were a.s.sembled, poison, it appears, was put into my cup of coffee. That is all I know of it.”
”Who poured out that cup of coffee?”
”My wife did.”
”Ah! Now, I don't for a moment say she is guilty, remember; but you must admit that, to a stupid jury, the case _might_ look rather bad against her.”
”Well, granted that it does, there is all the more need that I should come to her a.s.sistance if possible.”
”Certainly, certainly!” said Speed. ”Now, I'll tell you what we have to do. We must get, if possible, one of the very brightest Chicago reporters on the track of this thing, and we have to get him on the track of it early. Come with me to Chicago. We will try an experiment, and I am sure you will lend your mind entirely to the effort. We must act in conjunction in this affair, and you are just the man I've been wanting, some one who is earnest and who has something at stake in the matter. We may fail entirely, but I think it's worth the trying. Will you come?”