The Washington times., 1920-05-16


the procession in q manner not al
all like his usually staggering self.
Crisp had summed him up per-
fecsly As q man who would give
himself airs and be readily, insolsnt
II he were approached with any
blandishment or even common
courtesy, but who might be bluf1ed
st once by q show OF determination
which had the laws support TO give
Il some real backbone.
The law and Jim Heasden were
old acquaintances. but the law as
indifferently administered by the
bench Of magistrates was q very
different person IN Heasden's eyes
from the criminal law which was
represented to him for the moment
by Sergeant Crisp. The nrst WORDS
which the ssrsssnt addressed 10
him were not calculated TO put MN
wholly at his ease. =. 49,,
.Nov. Hsssden," said the little
mstN turning to face him ~ soon
A thsy found themselves In the
sarden. 10 TO name . quadrangle In
which 4 few tufts OF grass grew be-
tween packing cases in which were
here ferrets and there rabbits sax-
ing at each other through wire net
ting. the former with blOodthirsty
hunger and the latter with tremu-
lous fear, now Heasden. you got
Yourself into q very unfortunate
situation on Friday night"
"What dyer mean by thatT the
Young man asked in a tone which
he made as insolent as he dared.
II mean this, that her ladyship
was murdered In the Summer
house at Scotney House on Friday
night and that you were seen run
ming away from the Summer-houss
about the same time"
Whatever further airs he might
have thought proper to assume
were entirely knocked out OF him
by this extremely straight and sim
pie statement of fact. Some of
the splendid color vanished from
his cheek, and all the note OF inso-
lence had gone out Of his voice as
he answered anxiously:
II swear, ! swear to God, as !
didn't have nothing to do with the
murder"
whether you had or whether
you had not, you would be sure to
swear that" the sergeant rejoined
uncompromisingly.
81 wouldn't swear lie," said the
young fellow. piously.
"If you would commit q murder
oufwouldn't be likely to stop short,
ct a lie," was the answer.
But l tell you didn't commit
no MURDER" said the badgered man,
miserably.
"And l haven't said that you did"
the sergeant persisted, II only say
that II you had committed the
murder It isn't likely that you'd
make any difficulty about swearing
to a lie"
BY this time all airs and graces
had been thoroughly scared out OF
this rustic Apollo. He was as fiat
tened a. q collapsed balloon, and
did not answer word. Thesser-
geaht deemed that he had reduced
him to a condition sufficiently
amenable, and said, e'Now | want
you to tell me just all about, what
you did on Friday night in the
shrubbery at Scotney House--all
you did and all you saw, The more
you tell the truth now the more
chance there is of your getting on
am told do not know whether
rightly or not-that the sergeant
was acting quite wrongly and IL
legally, for a man in his position.
in thus threatening the unfortu-
nate Heasden. l do not know how
that may be, but l am quite sure
that IL It was so the sergeant was
very well aware Of it and defied the
law deliberately. l suppose. too.
that the fact that there was no wit
ness of the conversation. except the
dogs and ferrets, put him on safe
ground. In any event, although
Heasden knew something OF the
magistrates law, he was not well
up in It as 1t applied to more i'm
portant offences and was eager to
say: "Ill tell everything-every-
thing as ! know
60 along, then" the sergeant
encouraged him.
Heasden, to think at greater
ease. seated himself on a malodor-
Gus ferrets' hutch and began:
"I was in along the shrubbery
that night
"What were you there for?" the
sergeant asked sharply. interrupt
Ing him.
The young fellow hesitated-the
Sergeant quite well knew why. He
had two possible alternatives,
either OF which he might avow.
perhaps about equally dubious in
respectability: he might say that
he had come poaching after rab-
bits. or after Celeste. After a mo-
ments pause he decided to adopt
the former, probably thinking that
any trouble with the Bench was to
be preferred to the trouble that he
might incur II he brought In Ce-
leste's name unnecessarily.
"Well," he said, 81 had put down
a wire or two-them rabbfts-they
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