Page:Frank Packard - Greater Love Hath No Man.djvu/82

 with except his bare hands, and yet he must have bent it before he could pry open the cupboard door with it. Take the bar"—he shoved it suddenly into the foreman's hands—"try to bend it against the floor, with your hands, across your knees, in any possible way that was possible to him—struggle with it, I beg you with all reverence in God's name, for a man's life is at stake."

A breathless silence fell upon the room. From one to another of the twelve men's hands the bar passed, each in his own way exerting futilely all his strength upon it. The foreman returned it gravely to Randall.

"You cannot bend it," said Randall passionately. "Of course you cannot bend it—it requires mechanical means to bend it. I believe that it was bent by some mechanical means outside and brought there before Varge ever entered that room; and I believe that when he entered that room Doctor Merton was already dead—murdered, gentlemen, at the hands of some one Varge is offering his own life to save—murdered at the hands of the man, who for some purpose that Varge is trying to conceal, had previously bent that bar. Yet wait! You are strong men and you cannot bend it, but let us put it to still further proof."

Randall turned from the jury, walked rapidly across the room and halted before the blacksmith, seated on the front bench.

"Joe Malloch," he said quickly, "you are the strongest man I know in Berley Falls. Can you bend this bar?"

The smith shook his head.

"Not me," said he. "I can't."

"Try," said Randall.