Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/90

78 Murdered! Murdered!" He repeated the word again and again, as if he found a ghastly pleasure in the repetition.

I paced up and down, pondering the tale as he had told it. I perceived how, from his point of view, the case looked black against his master. Yet still I felt persuaded that there was something in the whole business which was beyond our comprehension, and that, when we learned what that something was, it would be conclusively shown that the deductions which he drew were erroneous.

"Do you think that Mr. Philip killed him?"

"No, Morley, I do not. But I think that, if you get a chance, you'll hang him."

"Hang Mr. Philip? Me? No, not—not if he'd killed Mr. Edwin a dozen times over."

"On the contrary, if you don't take care, you'll hang him, although he hasn't killed Mr. Edwin even once. If they were to put you into the witness-box, and you were to tell that tale, your evidence would need but the slenderest corroboration to send him to the gallows right away."

"Mr. Ferguson!" "Morley, you must know that you had not the slightest right to tell me what you have done. Fortunately your information has been imparted to a person who will not make an injurious use of it; but, if you take my serious advice, you will