Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/117

 "I don't think Trafford's so much to blame for producing the pistol as Coroner Burke," McManus said. "I was watching him at the time, and I thought him annoyed at the question."

"Whoever is to blame," Hunter answered, with the positiveness of a man accustomed to rely much on his own judgment and to have others do the same, "the mischief's done. Half the town is certain that Oldbeg is the murderer. It's being whispered that Mrs. Parlin hired him to do it, so she could have the money, and the fact that she doesn't discharge the man is held to be proof of the fact. Then, with the logic of dolts, they declare that she hired Trafford because she was afraid of him."

A look of horror showed in McManus's face at this statement of the public attitude. Surely, Mrs. Parlin had suffered enough without having to bear this injustice.

"But don't they see," he remonstrated, "if this was the case, Trafford would have been the last to turn suspicion upon Oldbeg?"

"They don't see anything!" exclaimed Hunter impatiently. "They're simply hanging-mad. They