The Judge and Mr. Roddy had stood up and the Judge could not seem to find a word to say, but Mr. Roddy clenched his freckled fists.
“What yer want?” he said.
“I came to tell you,” said Chalmers, “that the joke is on you. I didn’t expect the pleasure of seeing you, Roddy, my fine penny-a-liner. But you’re in this, too. The joke is on you. I’ve been acquitted.”
“What of it?” the Judge said.
“I can’t be tried twice for the same crime, can I? Didn’t my lawyer tell me? I guess I know my rights. Ho, ho, the joke is on you, Judge. I saw your eyes looking at me for a week. I knew you would like to see me hung and Roddy there,—he nearly got me. But I’m safe now—safe as you are.”
The reporter laughed a little—a strange laugh.
“You killed her, after all?” he asked.
“Yes,” answered the other in a husky and cheerful voice. “I did. That’s where the joke is on you. I did the trick! Me! And what have you two got to say? Who takes the bacon—me or you?”
“You don’t know what you say,” the Judge cried.
“Yes, I do,” roared the man. “I tell you I did the trick and got tried once, and I’m free forever. There isn’t anybody can touch me. I tell you the joke is on you, because I did it.”