"Not yet," Archibald Sholto answered; "not yet."
"Not yet!" the other repeated. "Not yet! What more would you have? All is told--you know all now. Shall I repeat what I said in there? I slew him here upon this spot because he would have warned you and Elphinston that I was in France, and--you absolved me. It is enough."
"You slew him here upon this spot," the Jesuit said, and he pointed with his finger to the place, "upon this spot. You acknowledge it?"
"Have I not said? You have absolved me." It was strange how, from the repetition of this phrase, he seemed to take comfort. "You have absolved me."
"You are mistaken," the other said, while as he spoke he drew nearer to the murderer, though keeping ever a wary eye upon him. "Mistaken! I have heard no confession for a week."
"What!" exclaimed Fordingbridge, springing back a step or so, while now his eyes glared round the deserted cathedral place--again like the eyes of some hunted or trapped wild beast. "What! It was not you in there? Not you!"
"No. Not I. Simeon Larpent, you are doomed. You divulged your crime under the seal of the confessional in the cathedral; you have divulged it openly here with no such seal to protect you. Murderer! You are in my power!"
As he spoke he saw the other do that which he had been anticipating. He saw his hand steal to his breast; he knew that he was searching for some weapon concealed there. But he feared him not; he, too, was armed. Ever since he had sought for the assassin he had carried about with him a small pistol, knowing that if, by any strange chance, fortune should throw him across the villain's path, such weapon might be needed. To-night he had come out to gaze again on the place where the deed had been done, never thinking, never dreaming, that there of all places on the earth that murderer should be found, yet not neglecting the precaution of being armed. Now that precaution stood him in good stead.
"Draw no hidden weapon from your breast," he said, as he saw the hand go to it; "remember, I am not as Douglas was, but am forewarned; and if you bring forth one, I will slay you here on the spot as you slew him, and save the hangman his office," and as he spoke he showed the other the little inlaid pistol, its barrel glistening in the moon's rays.
"You know nothing," the other hissed at him now, "nothing. I have told you nothing--you have no witnesses. My word is as good as yours, even if I let you take me--which I will not," he continued, "which I will not."