Where is Capella?"
"I killed him," was the cool reply.
The footman, who had slowly regained his senses, uttered a groan of
horror. By this time several men, not alone house servants, but gardeners,
grooms, and others, had gathered on the lawn.
"Send away that slave," cried Ooma impatiently, "and tell those others to
go to their kennels. This is no place for such."
Brett knew that the Japanese was in truth about to die. Afterwards Winter
and Holden confessed that they thought the pretence of injecting snake
poison was a mere ruse to gain time. Robert and David intuitively agreed
with the barrister. It was in their breed to know when eternity yawned for
one of them. The very calmness of the criminal, his magnificent apathy,
his dislike of vulgar witnesses, foreboded a tragedy.
Brett motioned to Holden to open the door, and the footman gladly made his
escape. In response to a wave of the barrister's arm the other servants
disappeared from view, though they probably only retreated to a greater
distance, and could see well enough all that happened.
"Yes," continued Ooma, "I killed Capella. It was a mistake. Everything is
a mistake. It was foolish on my part to kill Alan Hume-Frazer, even though
he was my enemy. I should have let him live, and tortured him by fear. You
English dread these scandals worse than death.
Pages:
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277