The Attorney-General put the scarf outstretched on the table in front of him, and held up a narrower strip of the same material.
"Do you know anything about this, then?"
Bessie gasped and was silent for a moment. Then she said again, but with a stammer,
"I know nothing about it."
"Will you swear that it never belonged to you?"
A stabbing memory came back to Bessie. She remembered what she had heard about "a remnant" when the constables were ranging her room, and seeing no way of escape by further denial she said,
"Oh yes, I remember it now. I found it on the road when I was on my way home and bound it about my hat to keep it from blowing off in the wind."
The silence which had fallen upon the Court was broken by an audible drawing of breath. Gell, who had risen and leaned forward, dropped back.
"But if you found it on the road, how do you account for the fact that it has your name stamped on the corner of it? See—Bessie."
Bessie was speechless for another moment. Then she said,