“You’ve just supplied me with one,” returned Mitchell. “Before I had only evidence of guilt to go on, but now I’m positive of the motive. Henrietta Patterson avenged her lover’s death by almost sending you to the gallows, and you, in turn, avenged the suffering she had caused you, by murdering her brother.”
“A specious argument, nothing more,” scoffed Barclay. “You have absolutely no proof against me.”
Mitchell looked about him. “Suppose we sit down,” he said, drawing up a chair. “Now we can talk more comfortably. Mr. Barclay, why did you carry a revolver the night of the fire?”
“I carried my revolver to use in case of encountering the Jap, Ito, for whom I was searching.”
“Did you meet this Ito after securing your revolver?”
“I did not.”
“Then at whom did you discharge your revolver?”
No answer.
“Did you discharge the revolver at James Patterson?” persisted Mitchell, and this time Barclay’s denial was prompt and forceful.
“I did not,” he declared. “I did not discharge it at anyone.”