Part 62 (1/2)
”Don't be confused, sir!” said Mr. Skinner; ”please to speak the truth, sir. You see our questions are put with the utmost politeness.”
”Don't give him an answer!” cried Mrs. Ershebet, pa.s.sionately. ”Thank G.o.d, no one has as yet proved that we are not n.o.ble! They cannot force you to answer!”
”I _will_ speak!” cried the notary; ”I'd reply to the basest of mortals if he were to charge me with so foul a deed!”
”You see, madam, your husband does think us worthy of a reply,” said the justice: ”don't be afraid; let him speak! I'm sure he'll give us the most satisfactory explanations.”
”I can indeed give you the most satisfactory explanations, sir,” replied the notary, who, after adverting to the fact that his late suspicions of Mr. Catspaw were now proved to be well founded, proceeded to state the contents of Viola's letter, and the steps which it induced him to take.
Mr. Skinner listened with a sly and incredulous smile.
”But, sir,” said he, ”how could you endanger your precious life by doing the robber's will? Mind, you say you were unarmed; and we know but too well that you were alone, and at night too! Would any man of sense wish to meet the greatest robber in the county under such circ.u.mstances?”
”I never did Viola any harm, and I had not therefore any reason to fear him, when I learnt from his letter that he regarded me with feelings of grat.i.tude; after all, what could I do? I wished to have my papers, and I availed myself of the only opportunity that offered.”
”Will you have the goodness to show us that letter?” asked the justice; ”I'd like to see the robber's autograph.”
”The writer of the letter intreated me to burn it,” replied Tengelyi, ”and I have burnt it.”
”That's a pity! Perhaps you've shown the letter to some one. We want two witnesses, you know!”
”I informed my friend Vandory early this morning.”
”Oh! ah! I understand,--yes, early this morning!--about the time when I came to the village and commenced examining the witnesses, eh? Is that all you have to say?”
”No!”
”From your hesitating manner I take it that you knew of the murderer's intentions.”
”You have no right, sir,” cried Tengelyi, ”to construe any of my words in that sense!”
”Sir!” retorted the justice, ”it's mere folly to deny the fact. You admit that you had reason to suppose that Mr. Catspaw was possessed of your papers; and, supposing there ever existed a letter of Viola's to you, you must have known that the robber intended to obtain the papers by means of a crime.”
”Is this all?--no! more is behind!” continued Mr. Skinner, after a pause. ”Your own confession proves that you were not only privy to the murder, but that you acted the part of one who stimulates and instigates the murderer. It is quite clear that Viola had no interest in the papers, nor would he have risked his life for them unless an artificial interest was created in his mind. And whose advantage did that artificial interest tend to? whose interests did it serve to promote?--Yours, and only yours!”
Tengelyi would have answered; but Mr. Skinner continued, with great pathos:
”And who is it that is guilty of so heinous a crime?--a notary! a man whose duty it is to prosecute the breakers of the law, and who imposes upon the county and the sheriff by making his house a den for thieves and robbers! This case,” added Mr. Skinner, turning to Kenihazy, ”is beyond our jurisdiction. It is our duty to send the prisoner to the county gaol, to prevent his being liberated by Viola and his other comrades.”
The sheriff, who watched the case with great interest, interposed, and offered to be bail for the notary's appearance; but Mr. Skinner thought he had shown his respect to Mr. Rety more than sufficiently by eschewing the low abuse and the curses with which it was his habit to give vent to his feelings on similar occasions. He refused to accept bail; ”For,”
said he, ”I would not accept it even if Mr. Tengelyi's n.o.bility had never been doubted; the privilege of n.o.bility cannot protect a man in the present case. The a.s.sociates of robbers----”
”How dare you call _me_ an a.s.sociate of robbers?” exclaimed Tengelyi, his fury getting the better of his discretion; ”How dare you, sir? You, of whom it is known that you are a receiver of stolen goods!”
What the notary said was, more than any thing else, calculated to wound the feelings of the worthy Mr. Skinner, and a sharper sting was given to the reproach by the fact of its being thrown at the magistrate's head in the presence of the sheriff and of a numerous audience. There certainly had been cases in which the owners of stolen cattle had accidentally found their property in Mr. Skinner's stables; but when, after leaving the place in confusion and dismay, they returned with a witness, the cattle, somehow or other, had disappeared. Accidents of this kind are not the less disagreeable from their not being unheard of; and Mr.
Skinner's rage, in the present instance, pa.s.sed all bounds.
”Do you ask me how I dare to call you an a.s.sociate of robbers?” cried he. ”You'll find, to your cost, that I dare more than that. I'll _treat_ you as an a.s.sociate of robbers. I'll have you put in irons, sir; for everybody knows that some time ago, when we hunted Viola in the village, the robber found an asylum in your house! Ay, you may stare! And when I wished to search it, your wife had the impertinence to put in a protest!”
”How dare you utter this calumny?” said the notary, with increasing violence. ”I sheltered Viola's family because they were in distress; but I never saw the robber. Come, Ershebet; was Viola ever in our house?”