Once satisfied of this,
your temperament is such that you would be our advocate whether
you wished it or no. Your very silence would be eloquent."
"Convince me; I am willing to have you, Judge Ostrander. But how
can you do so? A shadow stands between my wishes and the belief
you mention. The shadow cast by Oliver as he made his way towards
the bridge, with my husband's bludgeon in his hand."
"Did you see him strike the blow? Were there any opportune shadows
to betray what happened between the instant of--let us say
Oliver's approach and the fall of my friend? Much can happen in a
minute, and this matter is one of minutes. Granted that the shadow
you saw was that of Oliver, and the stick he carried was the one
under which Algernon succumbed, what is to hinder the following
from, having occurred. The stick which Oliver may have caught up
in an absent frame of mind becomes burdensome; he has broken his
knife against a knot in the handle and he is provoked. Flinging
the bludgeon down, he hurries up the embankment and so on into
town. John Scoville, lurking in the bushes, sees his stick fall
and regains it at or near the time Algernon Etheridge steps into
sight at the end of the bridge beyond Dark Hollow. Etheridge
carries a watch greatly desired by the man who finds himself thus
armed. The place is quiet; the impulse to possess himself of this
watch is sudden and irresistible, and the stick falls on
Etheridge's head. Is there anything impossible or even improbable
about all this? Scoville had a heart open to crime, Oliver not.
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