human
Now, Groener, resumed the magistrate after the shrimp had withdrawn,
gpt
I wasn't,
human
The photographer positively identifies you.
gpt
He's mistaken, I wasn't there.
human
Ah, smiled Hauteville, with irritating affability.
gpt
You'll need a better defense than that.
human
Whatever I need I shall have,
gpt
Have you anything to say about those finger-nail marks?
human
Nothing.
gpt
There's a peculiarity about those marks, Groener. The little finger of the hand that made them is abnormally, extraordinarily long. Experts say that in a hundred thousand hands you will not find one with so long a little finger, perhaps not one in a million. It happens that _you_ have such a hand and such a little finger. Strange, is it not?
human
Call it strange, if you like,
gpt
Well, _isn't_ it strange? Just think, if all the men in Paris should try to fit their fingers in those finger marks, there would be only two or three who could reach the extraordinary span of that little finger.
human
Nonsense! There might be fifty, there might be five hundred.
gpt
Even so, only one of those fifty or five hundred would be positively identified as the man who choked the photographer _and that one is yourself_. There is the point; we have against you the evidence of Godin who _saw_ you that night and _remembers_ you, and the evidence of your own hand.
human
Admit, for the sake of argument, that I _was_ on the balcony, he said.
gpt
Mind, I don't admit it, but suppose I was? What of it?
human
Nothing much, replied the judge grimly;
gpt
How so?
human
The photographer saw you stealing toward Kittredge's room carrying a pair of boots.
gpt
I don't admit it, but--what if I were?
human
A pair of Kittredge's boots are missing. They were worn by the murderer to throw suspicion on an innocent man. They were stolen when the pistol was stolen, and the murderer tried to return them so that they might be discovered in Kittredge's room and found to match the alleyway footprints and damn Kittredge.
gpt
I don't know who Kittredge is, and I don't know what alleyway you refer to,
human
In order to steal these boots and be able to return them the murderer must have had access to Kittredge's room. How? The simplest way was to take a room in the same hotel, on the same floor, opening on the same balcony. _Which is exactly what you did!_ The photographer saw you go into it after you choked him. You took this room for a month, but you never went back to it after the day of the crime.
gpt
My dear sir, all this is away from the point. Granting that I choked the photographer, which I don't grant, and that I carried a pair of boots along a balcony and rented a room which I didn't occupy, how does that connect me with the murder of--what did you say his name was?
human
Martinez,
gpt
Ah, Martinez! Well, why did I murder this person? asked the prisoner facetiously.
human
What had I to gain by his death? Can you make that clear? Can you even prove that I was at the place where he was murdered at the critical moment? By the way, where _was_ the gentleman murdered? If I'm to defend myself I ought to have some details of the affair.
gpt
I'll give you one detail about the murderer; he is a left-handed man.
human
Yes? And _am_ I left-handed?
gpt
We'll know that definitely in the morning when you undergo the Bertillon measurements. In the meantime M. Coquenil can testify that you use your left hand with wonderful skill.
human
Referring, I suppose, sneered the prisoner,
gpt
Ah, yes! exclaimed Hauteville with a start of satisfaction. Then to Groener:
human
How do you happen to know that this encounter took place on the Champs Elysées?
gpt
Why--er--he said so just now,
human
I think not. Was the Champs Elysées mentioned, Jules?
gpt
Nothing has been said about the Champs Elysées.
human
I must have imagined it,
gpt
Very clever of you, Groener, said the judge dryly,
human
You see what comes of talking without the advice of counsel,
gpt
Rubbish! flung back the prisoner.
human
This examination is of no importance, anyhow.
gpt
Of course not, of course not,
human
Groener, he said, and his voice rang sternly,
gpt
I've been patient with you so far, I've tolerated your outrageous arrogance and impertinence, partly to entrap you, as I have, and partly because I always give suspected persons a certain amount of latitude at first. Now, my friend, you've had your little fling and--it's my turn. We are coming to a part of this examination that you will not find quite so amusing. In fact you will realize before you have been twenty-four hours at the Santé that----
human
I'm not going to the Santé,
gpt
Put the handcuffs on him.