Both Lester and I saw your wrist and the cut
on it distinctly. Therefore, if you dropped the handkerchief there, it
must have been before that."
The blood had run from Swain's cheeks, as though drained by an open
artery, and for a moment he sat silent, staring at the speaker. Then
he raised his trembling right hand and looked at it, as though it
might bear some mark to tell him whether it were indeed guilty.
"But--but I don't understand!" he cried thickly. "You--you don't mean
to intimate--you don't believe--but I wasn't unconscious, I tell you!
I wasn't near the house until after we heard the screams! I'm sure of
it! I'd stake my soul on it!"
"Get a grip of yourself, Swain," said Godfrey, soothingly. "Don't let
yourself go like that. No, I don't believe you killed Worthington
Vaughan, consciously or unconsciously. I said Goldberger's theory was
a good one, and it is; but I don't believe it. My belief is that the
murder was done by the Thug; but there's nothing to support it, except
the fact that he was on the ground and that a noose was used. There's
not a bit of direct evidence to connect him with the crime, and
there's a lot of direct evidence to connect you with it.
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