The word was accompanied by a deep oath, but I was busy with my hand in my pocket, which came out as he made a gulp at the drink before him, and brought up the barrel of a pistol levelled straight at his eyes.
“Hands up! Tom Fisher,” I shouted as he staggered back, and the bystanders came crowding round. “I believe that’s the custom of this country, or the right thing to say when two are likely to play at one game. I’ve come all the way from Edinburgh to arrest you for stabbing Colin McCulloch. My name is McGovan, and I’ve the warrant in my pocket.”
He gave in in the most sheepish and stupefied manner imaginable, and some one was obliging enough to snap my handcuffs on his wrists. I took him away in a coupé, and had him locked up till I should get the necessary papers filled up for his conveyance across the Atlantic.
On the passage home we got quite friendly, and he told me the whole story of the attack. He had met George Fullerton, and been told by him of his wife’s faithlessness and flight, coupled with McCulloch’s name. He was quite frenzied, and went off at once to look for McCulloch, whom Fullerton had seen not long before in the town. He met him at last by chance, and stabbed him twice, meaning to kill him.
When he came to be tried, which was two months later, on account of the state of his victim, he pleaded “Not guilty” by advice, and McCulloch was called as a witness, when, to the astonishment of all, McCulloch declared most positively that he could not remember who stabbed him, but that he had a strong impression that the assailant was not the man at the bar.
None looked more astonished than the prisoner, but a moment later he recovered himself and rose to his feet.
“He’s telling a lie! I did stab him. I’m guilty, and I’m not sorry. He led away my wife, and she’s now on the streets. Ask him if it’s not true? That’s all I’ve to say.”
McCulloch, when questioned, made some shuffling answers, and was finally ordered out of the box. Then Fisher, in consideration of the peculiar circumstances of the case, and his having been already two months in prison, was sentenced to a month’s imprisonment.
I saw him after his release. He was searching for his wife, and had come to me to get my assistance, but we only found her grave.