“Did I knock you down? Did I seek to escape?”
No, Holmes was not knocked down, nor had I tried to escape from the representatives of the law.
“And why, if I was a burglar, did I not do these things?”
“You wasn't big enough,” says Holmes.
Well, I admit he had the advantage of me there. The court, prejudiced against me as they were, laughed with Holmes, but at the next bout I returned his lunge with interest.
“What did Fisher give you to drink?” I ask.
The question is dismissed by my vindictive judge as irrelevant, but I have thrown Holmes into great confusion and made the court smile with me.
“That is all,” I say, in the tone of a conqueror, and thereupon Lecoq takes the place of Holmes, and in precisely the same manner, and with the same criminal look of abasement, repeats almost exactly the same words.
Against him I design a different line of counterattack. I remember his jealousy when I spoke of the servants, and, if possible, I shall discredit his testimony by an assault upon his character. Assuming an encouraging air, I ask:
“You know the servants at Fisher's house?”