“Where’s your cousin?” demanded a third.
“Yes, tell us that! Where were you both all night?”
Others ran to the spot, until there was a crowd around the carriage.
“Gentlemen,” said Carlos, “I know what you are talking about, but I am innocent——”
“Oh, yes, of course. But you were not in bed last night, as a peaceable citizen should be!”
“I went to Knoxtown to a concert——”
“Yes, he looks like a man that has been to a concert, doesn’t he?”
“Wait till I explain. I returned by the road that passes Colonel Conrad’s house, and saw a light in his window. I went to see what it meant, and horror-stricken——”
At this juncture a tall, keen-eyed man, who had notjoined in the sagacious exclamations that had come from others in the crowd, stepped up and said:
“See here, young man, you are excited and agitated. But you are not on the witness stand. You are not obliged to answer any questions or make any explanations here. You can see enough to know that the people think you have murdered Colonel Conrad. My advice is that you keep silent. You will be arrested and examined, and then will be time enough to talk. It isn’t best to say too much now.”