"Tell me once and for all," he cried, "has anything happened to him? Is he dead?"
Strangeways halted, and regarded him with a look half-stern, half-compassionate.
"As for Spurling, you hated him, did you not?" he inquired.
Granger clenched his hands and his voice trembled. "I hated him so much," he said, "that there were times when I would gladly have struck him dead."
"Then, why didn't you?"
Granger started; the question was spoken so fiercely, and was so searching and direct. It aroused him to a sense of his danger, and helped him to recover himself.
"In the first place you would have hanged me, and in the second there was Mordaunt." As soon as he had said it, he knew that he had made a slip.
"And why Mordaunt?"
He hesitated a minute, gathering himself together. He could feel the scrutiny of Strangeways' eyes and was conscious that he was breathing hard.
The question was repeated, "And why Mordaunt?"