“Dr. Crackenthorpe,” I said, quietly, “your threats fall on stony ground. I admit the man is hardly responsible for his statements at the present moment; only, as it happens, I have met and spoken with him before.”
I thought I could see in the gathering darkness his lips suck inward as if with a twitch of pain.
“And did he charge me then with murdering your brother?”
“He said what, viewed in the light of his after outburst, has awakened grave suspicions in me.”
He threw back his head with a fresh cackle of laughter.
“Suspicions!” he cried. “Is that all? It’s natural to have them, perhaps. I had mine of you once, you know.”
“You lie there, of course. By your own confession, you lie.”
“And now,” he went on, ignoring my interruption, “they are diverted to another.”
“Will you answer me a question or two?”
“If they are put with a proper sense of decorum I will give them my consideration.”