Page:Bailey - Call Mr Fortune (Dutton, 1921).djvu/120

Rh Reggie sat down. "I can't take up your case, Mr. Lunt. I am committed. Anything you tell me is at your own risk. If you can convince me that you're innocent it's my duty to do what I can for you. But I advise you to hold your tongue."

"Don't you see?" Victor Lunt was almost screaming. "If they hang me it's you that's done it. Will you listen now?"

"Go on, sir."

Victor Lunt mopped his face, tried to speak, and stuttered. "I did go out that day." The words came in a half-articulate rush. "I wanted to see what Cranford had done to Bert. And in the park I found Bert lying shot. He had a pistol in his hand."

"Do you want me to believe he shot himself?" Reggie frowned.

"O God, I don't know. I swear it's the truth, doctor. He was lying there shot with a pistol in his hand. When I bent over him he grabbed at me. "You swine," he said, and he lifted his hand to shoot. Then I bashed his face with a stone. But he shot and it cut my head. That was the scratch, doctor. My God, you do see things. I grabbed the pistol and wretched it away from him."

"The sprained thumb," Reggie muttered.

"Then I heard the death-rattle." Victor Lunt shuddered, and again he could not command his speech. "I lost my head, doctor. I ran away. I