Hickory, seeing it, shook his head with a gloomy air.
“Sir,” said he, “I can’t demolish it. If I could tell why Mansell fled from Widow Clemmens’ house at five minutes to twelve I might be able to do so, but that fact stumps me. It is an act consistent with guilt. It may be consistent with innocence, but, as we don’t know all the facts, we can’t say so. But this I do know, that my convictions with regard to that man have undergone a change. I now as firmly believe in his innocence as I once did in his guilt.”
“What has produced the change?” asked Mr. Ferris.
“Well,” said Hickory, “it all lies in this. From the day I heard Miss Dare accuse him so confidently in the hut, I believed him guilty; from the moment he withdrew his defence, I believed him innocent.”
Mr. Ferris and Mr. Byrd looked at him astonished. He at once brought down his fist in vigorous assertion on the table.
“I tell you,” said he, “that Craik Mansell is innocent. The truth is, he believes Miss Dare guilty, and so stands his trial, hoping to save her.”
“And be hung for her crime?” asked Mr. Ferris.
“No; he thinks his innocence will save him, in spite of the evidence on which we got him indicted.”
But the District Attorney protested at this.
“That can’t be,” said he; “Mansell has withdrawn the only defence he had.”
“On the contrary,” asserted Hickory, “that very thing only proves my theory true. He is still determined to save Miss Dare by everything short of a confession of his own guilt. He won’t lie. That man is innocent.”
“And Miss Dare is guilty?” said Byrd.
“Shall I make it clear to you in the way it has become clear to Mr. Mansell?”
As Byrd only answered by a toss of his head, Hickory put his elbows on the table, and checking off every sentence with the forefinger of his right hand, which he pointed at Mr. Ferris’ shirt-stud, as if to instil from its point conviction into that gentleman’s bosom, he proceeded with the utmost composure as follows:
“To commence, then, with the scene in the woods. He meets her. She is as angry at his aunt as he is. What does she do? She strikes the tree with her hand, and tells him to wait till tomorrow, since a night has been known to change the whole current of a person’s affairs. Now tell me what does that mean? Murder? If so, she was the one to originate it. He can’t forget that. It has stamped itself upon Mansell’s memory, and when, after the assassination of Mrs. Clemmens, he recalls those words, he is convinced that she has slain Mrs. Clemmens to help him.”
“But, Mr. Hickory,” objected Mr. Ferris, “this assumes that Mr. Mansell is innocent, whereas we have exceedingly cogent proof that he is the guilty party. There is the circumstance of his leaving Widow Clemmens’ house at five minutes to twelve.”
To which Hickory, with a twinkle in his eye, replied:
“I won’t discuss that; it hasn’t been proved, you know. Miss Dare told you she saw him do this, but she wouldn’t swear to it. Nothing is to be taken for granted against my man.”
“Then you think Miss Dare spoke falsely?”
“I don’t say that. I believe that whatever he did could be explained if we knew as much about it as he does. But I’m not called upon to explain anything which has not appeared in the evidence against him.”
“Well, then, we’ll take the evidence. There is his ring, found on the scene of murder.”
“Exactly,” rejoined Hickory. “Dropped there, as he must suppose, by Miss Dare, because he didn’t know she had secretly restored it to his pocket.”
Mr. Ferris smiled.
“You don’t see the force of the evidence,” said he. “As she had restored it to his pocket, he must have been the one to drop it there.”
“I am willing to admit he dropped it there, not that he killed Mrs. Clemmens. I am now speaking of his suspicions as to the assassin. When the betrothal ring was found there, he suspects Miss Dare of the crime, and nothing has occurred to change his suspicions.”
“But,” said the District Attorney, “how does your client, Mr. Mansell, get over this difficulty; that Miss Dare, who has committed a murder to put five thousand dollars into his pocket, immediately afterward turns round and accuses him of the crime—nay more, furnishes evidence against him!”
“You can’t expect the same consistency from a woman as from a man. They can nerve themselves up one moment to any deed of desperation, and take every pains the next to conceal it by a lie.”
“Men will do the same; then why not Mansell?”
“I am showing you why I know that Mansell believes Miss Dare guilty of a murder. To continue, then. What does he do when he hears that his aunt has been murdered? He scratches out the face of Miss Dare in a photograph; he ties up her letters with a black ribbon as if she were dead and gone to him. Then the scene in the Syracuse depot! The rule of three works both ways, Mr. Byrd, and if she left her home to solve her doubts, what shall be said of him? The recoil, too—was it less on his part than hers? And, if she had cause to gather guilt from his manner, had he not as much cause to gather it from hers? If his mind was full of suspicion when he met her, it became conviction before he left; and, bearing that fact in your mind, watch how he henceforth conducted himself. He does not come to Sibley; the woman he fears to encounter is there. He hears of Mr. Hildreth’s arrest, reads of the discoveries which led to it, and keeps silent. So would any other man have done in his place, at least
