Part 44 (2/2)
”Game and such things, yes.”
”And greens?”
”Yes, I suppose so.”
”When did you first hear of the burning of Prof. Arnold's house?”
”That's hard to say at this distance of time.”
”I wish you would try to recollect.”
”Why, I think the morning afterward--Sunday morning. Yes, it was in the Sunday papers. I remember now.”
”You remember distinctly?”
”Yes, sir.”
”What paper?”
”The Beacon. We take no other.”
The Beacon was the paper upon which Robert was employed, thus forming a curious bond of communication between the two Arnold households.
”You were not in town, then, that afternoon?”
”No, sir.”
”Positive of that?”
”Why, yes; I was ill--or, rather, just convalescing from a fever. Dr. Whipple called, I believe, to see me that very Sat.u.r.day.”
”In the forenoon or afternoon?”
”Afternoon.”
”About what hour?”
”About 3:45.”
”And this fire started at 3:30?”
”I heard a witness say so in the testimony yesterday.”
”Of your own knowledge you couldn't say when it started?”
”No, sir.”
Harry was red as fire during all these rapid questions, some apparently aimless, some sharply pointed.
”A man could not start that fire in Cazenove street at 3:30 and reach your house in Woodlawn at 3:45, could he?”
”Not very well.”
”He might, however, start the fire at 3:28 and reach your house at 3:48?”
”I don't know,” said Harry. ”Twenty minutes isn't long.”
”Isn't there a train which leaves the Southern depot at 3:29?”
”I never use the Southern depot.”
”Never?”
”Well, not enough to know the trains.”
”I have not said that you did, Mr. Arnold. It happens, however, that there was a train--an express train--which left the Southern depot at 3:29 on June 28, arriving in Woodlawn at 3:45. A person starting from Prof. Arnold's house at 3:28 could have caught that train, could he not?”
”In one minute? Yes, by hurrying.”
”And, leaving the train at Woodlawn at 3:45, he could have arrived in your house at 3:48, could he not?”
”Yes, sir, by walking briskly.”
”Across the fields?”
”Across the fields.”
”Wasn't it 3:48 when Dr. Whipple visited you on that Sat.u.r.day of the fire?”
”Why, of course I could not swear within a minute or two.”
”But a minute or two is momentous at times--when a train is to be taken, for example.”
”Oh, yes.”
”What were you doing all Sat.u.r.day afternoon before the doctor arrived?”
”Why”--Harry hesitated--”I was ill in my chamber.”
”Reading?”
”Perhaps. Killing time lazily.”
”You have frequently to do that, I presume?”
”Sir?”
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