Page:The Millbank Case - 1905 - Eldridge.djvu/48

 He leaned across the table, and for the instant she saw something in the man she had not seen before; something that flashed like a gleam of new intelligence and was gone with its very birth.

"There are no motiveless crimes," he said. "In this case, of all others, you may be sure a motive existed, and that when we put our hands on it, we shall find it a tremendous one—that is, tremendous in its imperative force."

"But what could be the motive—against a man like him?"

"Because he was such a man, we may be the more certain of motive," he said. "Under other conditions it might have been Judge Parlin." He spoke at hazard—perhaps; but the effect was something startling. She grew pale as at the inquest before she answered as to the first knowledge of Wing's death, and her companion expected for the moment that she would faint. But she was a woman equal to noteworthy sudden efforts, and even as he watched she overcame the momentary weakness. Yet it was with pale lips she stammered:

"I understand. It might have been the judge."