But
if you are ungracious enough to refuse to withdraw the offensive phrase,
let it pass. We are not in France. This deadly business will be fought
out in the law courts. I am here to-night of my own initiative. I thought
it only fair and reasonable that you and I should meet before we are
brought face to face at a coroner's inquest, and, it may be, in an Assize
Court.... No, no, Mr. Grant. Pray do not put the worst construction on my
words. _Someone_ murdered my wife. If the police show intelligence and
reasonable skill, _someone_ will be tried for the crime. You and I will
certainly be witnesses. That is what I meant to convey. The doubt in my
mind was this--whether to be actively hostile or passively friendly to
the man who, next to me, was interested in the poor woman now lying dead
in a wretched stable of this village."
The almost diabolical cleverness of this long speech, delivered without
heat and with singularly adroit stress on various passages, was revealed
by its effect on Grant. He was at once infuriated and puzzled. Ingerman
was playing him as a fisherman humors a well-hooked salmon. The simile
actually occurred to him, and he resolved to precipitate matters by
coming straightway to the landing-net.
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