"Are you a wood carver?"
"No."
"Have you recently been disguised as a wood carver?"
"No."
He spoke the three negatives with a listless, rather bored air.
"Groener, you are lying and I'll prove it shortly. Tell me, first, if you have money to employ a lawyer?"
"Possibly, but I wish no lawyer."
"That is not the question. You are under suspicion of having committed a crime and——"
"What crime?" asked the prisoner sharply.
"Murder," said the judge; then impressively, after a pause: "We have reason to think that you shot the billiard player, Martinez."