‘This is positively absurd. Why, I was with him yesterday.’
‘Yes, that fact is well known. You went to his house to see him?’
‘I did.’
‘No one was with him after you left him?’
‘That I have no knowledge of,’ moaned Ivanoff, as he passed his hand distressfully over his head from his forehead backward.
‘Soon after you had taken your departure from his house he was found dead in his library.’
Poor Mrs. Ivanoff was now almost in a state of collapse, and would have fallen had not one of the ladies present caught and supported her.
The Judge had become stern and hard again. His assistants had out their note-books, and while one wrote the questions and replies in shorthand, the other took them down in longhand.
‘You possessed a revolver?’ asked the Judge.
‘I did,’ muttered Ivanoff.