“I don’t believe it.”
“It’s true. Both Haight and Matson told me so. The only question was who would come through first.”
“If that was the only question for you, then it shows just what you are. Did you never hear of such things as honour and decency and fair play? If anybody was entitled to the benefit of State’s evidence it should have been the married men, poor Sam Yerby or Mr. Rogers. They have children dependent on them. Anybody with the least generosity could see that. But you’re selfish to the core. You never think of anybody but yourself.”
“How can you say that when you know that I love you, Ruth?”
Her eyes blazed. “Don’t say that. Don’t dare say it,” she cried.
“It’s true.”
“Nothing of what you say is true. You don’t know the truth when you see it. They picked you, Haight and Matson did, because they knew you had no strength or courage. Do you suppose that the others didn’t get a chance to betray their friends, too? All of them did. Every one of them. But they were men. That was the difference. So the prosecution focused on you. And you weakened.”
“Why not? I didn’t kill Tait or Gilroy. Why should I be hanged for it? I wasn’t guilty.”
“You are as guilty as Rowan was.”
“I dunno about that. He shot Gilroy, if Falkner didn’t,” Silcott said sulkily.