“If you are my son, you will be able to answer certain questions that I shall put to you,” went on Nick.
There was a pause. Then, in an incredulous tone, the young man in the bed said:
“I’ll answer any questions. But be honest about it, and don’t say you said things you didn’t.”
He had been edging away to the other side of the bed, and after the first startled moment it struck the detective that the young man was remarkably self-possessed, considering that he was talking to a supposed ghost.
“What did I say to you just before you went down to the Old Pike Inn that night you killed Richard Jarvis?”
The detective watched narrowly to see what effect his recalling Jarvis’ death would have on the man who had killed him.
He saw a decided start, and then the man in the bed fell upon his face on the farther side of the bed, his face buried in the pillow.
“What did I say?” repeated Nick, in hollow tones.
He waited for a full quarter of a minute, during which the supposed Howard Milmarsh writhed about the bed, with his face in the pillow.
“Will you answer me?”