The evidence is just as strong against you."
"If it were not, I would have turned you over to the law long ago."
"But you fool, they'll hang you."
"That won't save you, and you'll answer to God for another murder."
"You would not dare."
"I am innocent; you are the coward."
Then Whitley gave up and told how he had met Amy in Jonesville, and
had taken her east to Buffalo, New York, where he had left her just
before returning to Boyd City.
"Did you marry her?" asked Dick.
Whitley shrugged his shoulders. "I am not looking for a wife," he said.
"But was there no form of a ceremony?" persisted Dick.
Again Jim shrugged his shoulders. "It was not necessary."
It was Dick's turn to be agitated now; his hand played nervously on
the handle of his revolver. But the other did not notice.
"Why did you leave her so soon?"
"I had business of importance at home," with a sneer.
Slowly the man behind the table rose to his feet, his form trembling
violently, his strong hands clinching and unclinching in his agitation.
Slowly he reached out and lifted the weapons of death from the table;
slowly he raised them. The criminal sat as though fascinated; his face
livid with fear. For a full minute the revolver covered the cowering
victim; then suddenly Dick's hand fell.
"Jim Whitley," he said, in a voice that was strangely quiet. "If I
were not a Christian, you could not live a moment. Now go!" He followed
him from the room and watched him down the stairs; then returning,
locked the door again, and throwing himself on the floor, wept as only
a strong man can weep, with great shuddering sobs, until utterly
exhausted, he fell into a stupor, where George found him in the morning.
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