“What is a lie?”
“The whole thing.”
“Give me your book, Mr. Hawes. What do you mean by 'the punishment-jacket,' an entry that appears so constantly here in your handwriting?”
“I never denied the jacket.”
“Then what is the lie of which you have accused me? Show me—that I may ask your pardon and His I serve for so great a sin as a lie.”
“It is a lie to say that the jacket tortures the prisoners and makes them faint away; it only confines them. You want to make me out a villain, but it is your own bad heart that makes you think so or say so without thinking it.”
“Now, Mr. Lacy, I think we have caught our eel. This, then, is the ground you take; if it were true that this engine, instead of merely confining men, tortured them to fainting, then you say you would be a villain. You hesitate, sir; can't you afford to admit that, after all?”
“Yes, I can.”
“But on the other hand you say it is untrue that this engine tortures?”
“I do.”