“He has been in the hands of the Juge d’Instruction. It is much the same, isn’t it, if one has secrets to keep? Would you like to know, if some magical bird could tell you, what questions were put to Mr. Dundas, and what answers he made?”
Strange, that this very thought had been torturing me before Godensky came! I had been thinking of the Juge d’Instruction, and his terrible cross-examination which only a man of steel or iron can answer without trembling. I had thought that questions had been asked and answers given which might mean everything to me, if I could only have heard them. Could it be that I was to hear, now? But I reminded myself that this was impossible. No one could know except the Juge d’Instruction and Ivor Dundas himself. “Only two men were present at that scene, and they will never tell what went on,” I said aloud.
“Three men were present,” Godensky answered. “Besides the two of whom you think, there was another: a lawyer who speaks English. It is permitted nowadays that a foreigner, if he demands it, can be accompanied by his legal adviser when he goes before the Juge d’Instruction. Otherwise, his lack of knowledge of the language might handicap him, and cause misunderstandings which would prejudice his case.”
He paused a moment, but I did not reply. I knew that Ivor Dundas spoke French as well as I; but I was not going to tell this Russian that fact.
“The adviser your friend has chosen,” Godensky went on, “happens to be a protégé of mine. I made him—gave him his first case, his first success; and have employed him more than once since. Odd, what a penchant Mr. Dundas seems to have for men in whom I, too, have confidence! Last night, it was Girard. To-day, it is Lenormand.”
This was a blow, and a heavy one; but I wouldn’t let Godensky see that I winced under it.
“You keep yourself singularly well-informed of the movements of your various protégés,” I said—“as well as those of your enemies. But if the information in the one case is no more trustworthy than in the other—why, you’re not faithfully served. I’ve good reason to know that you’ve made several mistakes lately, and you’re likely to make more.”
“Thanks for the warning. But I hope you don’t call yourself my ‘enemy’?”
“I don’t know of a more appropriate name—after the baseness that you haven’t even tried to hide, in your dealings with me.”
“I thought all was fair in love and war.”