“He might have lots of good reasons for that,” and Avice looked pleadingly at the judge. “Don’t you turn against him, Leslie; you know him too well to think him capable of crime.”
“Of the two I would rather it had been Stryker,” said the judge, “but we can’t ignore definite evidence like this. Did Mrs. Black go out that afternoon, Avice?”
“Yes,” replied the girl, unwillingly. “She went out soon after luncheon and stayed about an hour.”
“Time to go to the library and back. Duane, you’re drawing a long bow, to jump at the conclusion that the housekeeper took a handkerchief of Stryker’s, to be used as a false clue that would incriminate the butler! It’s almost too much of a prearranged performance.”
“Of course it is!” cried Avice. “Kane is a firebrand and impulsive and hotheaded, but he’s not a deliberate criminal! If he killed Uncle Rowly,—which he never did, never!—he did it in the heat of a quarrel, or under some desperate provocation. I wish you had never come to us, Mr. Duane! I don’t want Stryker found guilty, but I’d a thousand times rather he did it than Kane. I dismiss you, Mr. Duane. You may give up the case, and tell no one of these wrong and misleading circumstances you’ve discovered.”
“Wait, wait, Avice,” and Judge Hoyt spoke very gently; “we can’t lay aside evidence in that way. These things must be looked into. They must be told to the district attorney, and investigated, then if Landon is innocent, as he doubtless is, he can explain all that now looks dark against him.”
“Don’t accuse him!” flared Avice, “go to Eleanor Black, and ask her what was in the parcel she took to Kane. She is the wrongdoer, if either of them is. She telephoned him that night of Uncle’s death, and she said——”
“What did she say?” asked Hoyt, as Avice stopped short.
Compelled by the insistent glances of the two men, Avice went on: “She said she’d meet him the next day at the same time and place. That proves there was nothing wrong about it.”
It didn’t prove this conclusively to her two listeners, and they quizzed her further until she admitted that she had reason to think that Landon and Mrs. Black had known each other before Avice had introduced them.