It was not long before I grew weary of merely
looking on. Rather disappointed, I left the inn, and being foolish
enough not to ask my way, I wandered on till I lost myself, while
traversing a tract of unoccupied land. I was about to go back, when I
saw a light in the distance. I walked straight toward it, and reached
that cursed hovel."
"What happened then?"
"Oh! I went in; called for some one. A woman came downstairs, and I
asked her for a glass of brandy. When she brought it, I sat down and
lighted a cigar. Then I looked about me. The interior was almost enough
to frighten one. Three men and two women were drinking and chatting in
low tones at another table. My face did not seem to suit them. One of
them got up, came toward me, and said: 'You are a police agent; you've
come here to play the spy; that's very plain.' I answered that I wasn't
a police agent. He replied that I was. I again declared that I wasn't.
In short, he swore that he was sure of it, and that my beard was false.
So saying, he caught hold of my beard and pulled it. This made me mad. I
jumped up, and with a blow of my fist I felled him to the ground. In
an instant all the others were upon me! I had my revolver--you know the
rest."
"And while all this was going on what were the two women doing?"
"Ah! I was too busy to pay any attention to them. They disappeared!"
"But you saw them when you entered the place--what were they like?"
"Oh! they were big, ugly creatures, as tall as grenadiers, and as dark
as moles!"
Between plausible falsehood, and improbable truth, justice--human
justice, and therefore liable to error--is compelled to decide as best
it can.
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