CHAPTER XVI
A PROMISE
Of the General Public, there were few who doubted Landon’s guilt. When no other explanation offered, it was plausible think that the dying man referred to his murderer as Cain. But when a man named Kane was shown to have motive and opportunity, when also, he was a bold and even impudent westerner, who could doubt that he was the murderer the victim meant to denounce?
Yet, some argued, ought he not to have the benefit of the doubt? Though he had an apparent motive, though he confessed to being in the vicinity at or near the time of the murder, that was not actual proof.
And, all the time, Kane Landon, in jail, was seemingly unconcerned as to what people thought of him, and apparently in no way afraid of the doom that menaced him.
Again and again the district attorney talked with Landon.
At first non-committal, Landon later denied the crime.
“Of course, I didn’t do it!” he declared; “I had quarreled with my uncle, I’ve quarreled with other people, but I don’t invariably kill them!”
“But you were in the same woods at the time of the crime.”
“I was; but that doesn’t prove anything.”
“Mr. Landon, I believe you are depending on our lack of proof to be acquitted of this charge.”