“I’m not sure. Judge Jessup thinks not. Corwin was unarmed and half tipsy. I’ve got to make the coroner see Leigh’s part of it. Leigh has just told me. He didn’t mean to shoot; he meant to make the man retract his slander of Fanchon.”
Mr. Carter made an inarticulate sound under his breath, and Daniel went on.
“Then it seems that Corwin treated him like a kid—laughed at him, naturally enough. It wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been that the brute was drunk and slapped Leigh’s face. Then the boy snatched out his pistol and fired. He was amazed when he found he had killed the man—that’s all. It’s plain enough. Manslaughter in the second degree, it ought to be, but I’ve got to prove it. You can’t tell which way the coroner’s jury will go. It depends on the witnesses to Corwin’s state and—and character.”
Mr. Carter wagged his head slowly and thoughtfully; his face was haggard and his eyes dim. There was a painful pause, and the clock chimed eleven.
“Mama’s all broken up,” he remarked at last, rising. “I reckon I’d better go up and quiet her.” He moved slowly toward the door, carrying his boots. At the door he paused and looked back. “I haven’t said anything to William,” he remarked grimly; “not a word; but I reckon he’ll have it out now with that—that little hussy up-stairs!”
Daniel made no reply to this, and Mr. Carter padded softly away. Presently a door shut heavily, and then Daniel heard Emily going to her room. She was crying audibly. It seemed to the listener that she sobbed loudest just outside Fanchon’s door.
Daniel sat quite still. A great weariness had come over him. He had eaten nothing since breakfast, and the fast and the nervous strain had told. He sank back in his chair and almost ceased thinking, his eyes closed.
He was falling asleep from sheer exhaustion when he was startled by a new arrival. The door from the kitchen opened, and Miranda appeared, bearing a tray laden with viands and a smoking cup of tea. She set it down on the corner of the table.
“Yo’ ain’t had noffin’, Mist’ Dan,” she said tearfully. “I knows! Plato, he been down heah to ask fo’ you-all, an’ he tole me yo’ left without yo’ dinner.”
Daniel looked up into the sympathetic dark face and smiled.