"Pray consider my question. Is there any one to whom you said that some one wished to steal the notary's papers? We ought to know your associates. Now, did you not speak to Peti the gipsy, or to that old hag, the Liptaka?"
Viola persisted in denying the fact. He was too well aware of the disastrous consequences this avowal would have for his friends.
Mr. Catspaw went on.
"Where did you hide at the time we pursued you in Tissaret?"
Viola replied that he was not in Tissaret.
"Do you mean to say you were not in the village?"
"No!"
The attorney sent for the old Liptaka, to whom he read her depositions, from which it appeared that the prisoner attempted to inform Tengelyi of the intended robbery.
"What do you say to this evidence?" added he.
"That it is true, every word of it. I'll swear to the truth of my words!" said she.