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Page 74
Q. Ah, I see! You had some other person for an accomplice?
A. No, your Honour.
Q. Look here, sir! Do you propose to tell us anything of your
own accord, or must we drag it out of you piecemeal?
A. No power can make me speak if I do not elect to, and I only elect
to answer questions. Commission for contempt will hardly discipline
a man in my position, and may lead me to hold my peace entirely.
The Court turned away with an expression of disgust and engaged
Jenkins and Maitland in a whispered conversation. The prisoner had
again scored. There is enough of the bully in many judges to cause
the public to secretly rejoice when they are worsted. It was plain
to be seen that the audience was pleased with Latour's defiance.
Maitland now resumed the examination with his accustomed ease. One
would have thought he was addressing a church sociable,--if he
judged by his manner.
Q. You have testified to being responsible for the death of John
Darrow. The instrument with which he was killed was directly or
indirectly your handiwork, yet you did not strike the blow, and you
have said you had no other person for an accomplice. Am I
substantially correct in all this?
A. You are quite correct.
Q. Very good. Did John Darrow's death result from a poisoned wound
made by the instrument you have described?
A. It did.
This reply seemed to nonplus us all with the exception of Maitland
and Godin. These two seemed proof against all surprises. The rest
of us looked helplessly each at his neighbour as if to say, "What
next?" and we all felt,--at least I did and the others certainly
looked it,--as if the solution of the enigma were farther away
than ever.
Maitland proceeded in the same methodical strain.
Q. A blow was given, yet neither you nor any person acting as your
accomplice gave it. Did Mr. Darrow himself give the blow?
A. No, sir.
Q. I thought not. Did any person give it?
A. No, sir.
The audience drew a deep inspiration, as if with one accord! They
had ceased to reason. Again and again had we been brought, as we
all felt sure, within a single syllable of the truth, only to find
ourselves at the next word more mystified than ever. It would
hardly have surprised us more if the prisoner had informed us that
Mr. Darrow still lived. The excitement was so intense that thought
was impossible, so we could only listen with bated breath for someone
else to solve the thing for our beleaguered and discouraged minds.
After a word with his colleague, Maitland resumed.
Q. A blow was given, yet no person gave it. Was it given by anything
which is alive?
A. It was not.
You could have heard a pin drop, so silent was the room during the
pause which preceded Maitland's next question.
Q. Did you arrange some inanimate object or objects outside the
eastern window, or elsewhere, on the Darrow estate so that it or
they might wound Mr. Darrow?
A. No,--no inanimate object other than the hypodermic syringe
already referred to.
Q. To my question: "A blow was given, yet no person gave it. Was
it given by anything which is alive?" you have answered: "It was
not." Let me now ask: Was it given by anything which was at that
time alive?
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