Part 33 (1/2)
”That's just it; if you disprove them, I'm covered with shame and confusion at having hinted them.”
”All right, I'll do the hinting. Or, rather, I'll speak right out. What did you do with the paper-cutter from your library table,--I see there is an empty sheath still there?”
”That?” and Miss Prall glanced casually at the sheath in question.
”The paper-knife was broken and I gave it to Sir Herbert Binney, who had promised to get it mended for me at some specialty place he knew of.
Why?”
”Because that was, probably, the weapon that killed him.”
If Gibbs had expected any sudden telltale blush or confusion on Miss Prall's part, he must have been disappointed, for she only said:
”Indeed! How could that happen?”
”I don't know, but the knife has been found, in peculiar circ.u.mstances, and I'd like to know just when you gave it to him to get it mended.”
”Oh, I don't know; several days before his death. Perhaps four or five days, or a week. Go on.”
”The knife,--if that was the one,--was driven into the body in such a way as to make it likely that the hand that thrust it was the hand of some one experienced in surgical lore----”
”Hah!” the exclamation given by Miss Prall was full of meaning. It seemed to imply a sort of triumphant surprise, a welcome knowledge, a looked-for and longed-for state of things.
”This gives strength to your suspicions?” insinuated Gibbs.
”It does,” and the Grenadier sat up even straighter and her face was even more indicative of elation as she added, ”it does, indeed!”
”And perhaps you will tell us to whom your suspicion points?” urged the detective.
”That I will do,” she declared, but Bates broke in with a ”Hush, Aunt Let.i.tia! I command you not to speak!”
CHAPTER XIII
Motives
”I've got to speak, Ricky,” Miss Prall said, but her tone was not angry now. She seemed to have changed her mood and was half frightened, half sad. ”I've got to speak, to save myself. Don't you see that if that paper-cutter points towards me,--as Mr Gibbs implies, I must tell what I know----”
”What you know,” a.s.sented Bates, ”but not what you suspect.”
”Yes, ma'am, what you suspect,” directed the detective. ”The time has come, Miss Prall, when suspicions must be voiced, whether true or not, in order that we may prove or disprove them.”
”Then get up your own suspicions,” cried Bates. ”Find your own suspects and prove their guilt or innocence.”
”We're doing that,” Gibbs said, quietly, ”but we necessarily depend also on the statements of witnesses.”
”But Miss Prall isn't a witness.”
”Not an eye-witness, perhaps, but a material witness, if she knows anything that we want to know.”