"Nothing, so far as I am concerned. You can go."
"Twelve hours, my son," threatened the captain, making for the door. "It's either five hundred pounds to me, or gaol and the gallows for you. Figure it out your own way. So-long;" and the wrinkled embodiment of evil left the room with the utmost nonchalance. Evidently Captain Jacob was satisfied that the game was in his own hands.
Left to himself, Johnson gave himself up to a survey of his position. He was almost in despair. This was not the first disagreeable interview through which he had gone that day; for, before the funeral, Brand had been with him urging him to flight.
In his desire to save Johnson and avert disgrace from Bethgamul, Korah had broken his promise to Slade, and had related the discovery of the stolen curtain cord. A tri-coloured silken rope had been taken from the study; a tri-coloured silken rope had been used to strangle Tera. Were these one and the same? It certainly seemed so. Who could have stolen it? Who could have committed the murder? Johnson was strong in the consciousness of his own innocence, and he was sustained by his belief in the justice of God; yet the evidence against him was so explicit that he could not but see how difficult it would be to extricate himself from the position in which he was placed. He had been near the field the very night on which Tera had been killed there! his debts had been paid by some person whom he could not even name; the cord used to strangle the girl had been taken from his study; and public opinion was dead against him as the actual criminal. The wretched man knew not how best to combat this evil--how to disprove this evidence. He felt that he was in a net, the meshes of which were gradually closing round him. It was better, perhaps, to adopt Brand's suggestion and fly, lest worse should befall.
"It is friendly advice," said Johnson to himself, with a groan; "yet, dare I accept it? After all, how do I know that Brand is my friend? If he were a true friend he would hardly spy on me on Shackel's behalf. This suggested flight may be but a snare to make me inculpate myself. And the selling of the pearls? How can I show that I did not sell them? I was in London! Shackel swears that he saw me enter Abraham Moss's shop. The murderer must have been disguised as myself in order to throw the guilt on my shoulders. What can I do? Tell all these things to Chard? No; then I stand in immediate danger of arrest, and I can offer no defence. Fly? By doing that I make a tacit acknowledgment of guilt. O God, in Thy mercy inspire me with some plan of action. Tera, honour, good name--all gone. And now my life is in danger. What shall I do to help myself?"
He paced up and down the narrow room in a frenzy of anguish and futile thought. Then, growing calmer, he determined to question his mother as to Tera's movements and behaviour on the night she disappeared. It might be that the girl had had some enemy of whom he knew nothing. She might perchance have let fall some word which, if followed up, might be likely to elucidate the mystery of her terrible death. In any case there was a chance that his mother might know something which would prove of use to help him. A drowning man will clutch at a straw. Johnson, in his state of distraction, looked on his mother as that straw. He went to look for her. His hope of her aid was faint; still, it was a hope, and that was something.
"Mother," he said, as he watched her peeling potatoes, "I want you to tell me what Bithiah did on the night she disappeared."
Mrs. Johnson looked up querulously. The name of the murdered girl disturbed her, and she gave a pious moan, such as she sometimes gave vent to in chapel when moved by the words of the sermon.
"Bithiah, George! Oh, don't talk of her. She has gone into outer darkness, and I am not quite satisfied about her soul. The misery I've had over that poor heathen you wouldn't believe."
"Bithiah was not a heathen, mother, but a Christian, duly received into the fold. But tell me, what did Bithiah do on that evening?"