"It's true!" I exclaimed passionately. "This is the second time that man has tried to kill her, but it shall be the last. The thing is too bare-faced—too outrageous!"
"Well, my fine jail-bird, and what are you going to do?" demanded the doctor, having now regained the mastery over himself. "Fine words and high sentiments; but they never broke any bones yet. Tell me your accusation clearly, and I shall know how to meet it."
So I gave it them then and there, in chapter and verse; thus letting Harvey Scoffold know, for the first time, of that business of the eastern corridor, and of the mysterious door that opened only once to the road to death; moreover, I put it plainly now, that I had seen the woman Martha Leach take the phial and hand it to him; that I had pretended drunkenness to lull his suspicions of me, and to be ready when he least expected me to upset his plot.
He listened in silence, with his teeth set firmly, and his dark eyes glittering at me; then he nodded slowly, and spoke.
"And the man you accuse is one holding a big position in the world—a man against whom no breath of scandal or suspicion has ever been sent forth," he said. "A man known in many countries of the world—member of learned societies—a man with a name to conjure with. And what of his accuser?"
I knew that he would say that; I knew before-hand the helplessness of my position. But I was reckless, and I did not care what I said or what I did.
"Your accuser is a fugitive from the law; a man who lives under an assumed name, and who has taken advantage of the death of an innocent man to begin life again on his own account. You need not remind me of that," I went on, "because I admit it all. So far, I am in your power; but my position, as something outside the pale of ordinary society, gives me a greater power than you think. I have everything to win; I have nothing to lose. If you had chosen a better man, and had given him the chance to pry into your secrets, you might have had some hold upon him. So far as I am concerned, I am utterly reckless, and utterly determined to save this girl."
"Brave words—very brave words!" he said, with a sneer. "And how do you propose to set about it?"
"I intend to get her out of this house. I intend to look after her, if I have to steal to do it. I'm an adept at that, you will remember," I said bitterly, "only this time I shall do it in a good cause. I mean to get her out of this house, and it will go ill with you if you try to prevent me."
He laughed and shrugged his shoulders; then he turned to Scoffold. "If he were not so mad he would be amusing, this fellow," he said. But Harvey Scoffold, somewhat to my surprise, was silent, and did not look at him. I saw a frown come quickly upon the face of Bardolph Just.