The Woman in Black by M.Y. Halidom

Author:M.Y. Halidom [Halidom, M. Y.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Union Square & Co.

♦ ♦ ♦

CHAPTER XVIII

CARRUTHERS VISITS THE WOMAN IN BLACK

When the inspector and Carruthers entered the cell, a female dressed in black was sitting on the edge of a pallet bed, with her elbows on her knees, and her face in her hands. She looked up when the two men entered; rose to her feet and faced them, standing proudly erect with her arms crossed on her chest. The expression of scorn was, however, mixed with fear.

“Hullo!” exclaimed Inspector Jones, who was a stout, red-faced, snub-nosed man, with mutton chop whiskers, and a low, gruff voice; “What does this mean? There must be some mistake. This can’t be the same woman as I turned the key on last night!” Then he added in a whisper to Carruthers: “This woman stands upright, and looks only forty, while the prisoner as I locked up last night was bent double with age, and looked, at least, a hundred.”

Although these words were whispered into the ear of Sir Ashleigh, they were distinctly heard by the woman, whose sense of hearing must have been supernaturally acute; and she immediately gathered courage from them. Turning to Inspector Jones, with a face expressing hatred and contempt, she said:

“Oh, indeed, so you have found out your preposterous mistake at last! I knew you would. Do I look like the decrepit old crone that slipped through your clumsy fingers last night, at the very moment I happened to be passing?”

Inspector Jones was staggered for a time; in fact, almost hypnotised by the intensity of her gaze; but he soon mastered himself, and said:

“Come, come, my beauty, that won’t wash! How do you account for the blood upon your dress, eh?”

“I expected you would say that,” she replied; “and I admit circumstances are against me; but, in spite of that, I am innocent. I will explain it all to you. I, too, heard the infant’s cry, and rushed to save it, and as I did so the hag you mentioned tore past me and escaped. I was in an agony of grief at the sight of the cruelly murdered child, for I love children dearly, and I threw myself upon the corpse and tenderly kissed its lips; and in doing this both my face and dress were stained with blood. Yes, I can solemnly assure you that this is how the mistake occurred. You seized me, an innocent woman, and let the guilty one escape.”

Inspector Jones glanced at Carruthers to ascertain from his expression of countenance what he thought of this explanation; but his stern, hard-set face convinced him that his companion was not taken in by the not very plausible story, and he said: “Won’t wash yet. I had you fast enough, I know; and I’m not in the habit of letting my prisoners slip through my fingers, so you don’t come over me by gammon of that sort. If you looked older last night than you do today, it may be because of the way you doubled yourself up

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.