"He did not know that, could not see it. Consciousness was fast going from him. But I was determined. I would live. I saw that I might have the—the woman—I would give my life for. Perhaps it was will-power that saved me. But—they cannot say I did not give him a fair chance for the woman and the life that he did not deserve!"
Breathlessly now we were all listening. Honora was trembling. Doctor Lathrop bent forward, nervously pulling his beard, his eyes riveted on the speaker. Only Doyle seemed to take the thing as a matter of course.
"And Honora Wilford?" Doyle interjected. "What was she doing at—"
"No—no—no, she was not there, I tell you. No one but Wilford and I was there!"
Shattuck had burst forth with the first words in quick staccato, slowing up the assertion until at the end he was speaking slowly and warily. I had an impression that he was not so certain of himself that he could trust himself to get excited.
Once I caught sight of Kennedy. He was saying nothing at all. But he was not idle. Taking advantage of the rapt attention of the little audience, he had stolen softly behind them. I saw him looking carefully at the various indicators of the arrangements on the wrists and noting them carefully.
Was Shattuck telling the truth about what happened—or was he coloring it to save himself?
"But about the atropin—in one glass and nothing in the other?" shot out Kennedy, suddenly.
It was as though a bombshell had exploded.
"Oh yes—yes," he faltered, "the atropin—of course, of course. In his glass, also, I—I—"