Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/224

212 "I can't say."

"Can't—or won't?"

"Can't." "Are you aware that you have sworn to speak the truth?"

"I am."

"Are you acquainted with the pains and penalties of perjury?"

"My good man, pray don't, even by inference, attempt to measure others' ignorance by the standard of your own."

"As you will. So long as we know that we are not dealing with one who is wholly illiterate. Have you seen this cloak before, Mr. Ferguson?"

From a bag which Inspector Symonds produced from beneath the table he took, as I had expected, the plum-coloured cloak.

"I have."

"Where?"

"In my room. And on my cousin's back."

"On your cousin's back? Not on Miss Moore's?"

"Certainly not."

"You have never seen Miss Moore wearing it?"

"Never."

"To the best of your knowledge and belief is this not Miss Moore's cloak?"

"Nothing of the kind."