"Now, Mrs. Challoner...."
Miriam's Challoner's eyes flashed fire.
"I want everybody here," she cried, "to know and understand what this
man has done! He arrested my husband," she went on, her face still
turned toward Murgatroyd, her eyes holding his glance; "I begged of him
to set him free--he refused. He told me he could do nothing for
me--could do nothing but his duty. I couldn't move him; he wouldn't
budge an inch until finally I offered him money."
She paused. Peter Broderick moved a few steps nearer, gnawing his
finger-nails; Thorne watched Murgatroyd closely; but Murgatroyd was
unmoved. He returned Miriam's glance with interest; he gave no sign.
"... until I offered money," she repeated. "I offered him one hundred
thousand dollars; he refused to take it."
"Naturally," interposed the Court.
"He refused to take it," went on Miriam, irritated by the interruption,
"because he knew there was more. He demanded eight hundred and sixty
thousand dollars--all I had,--to set my husband free! He took it and
agreed to set him free. And now," she concluded, advancing toward
Murgatroyd as though with a threat upon her tongue, "see how he has kept
his word!"
"It can't be true," Shirley Bloodgood was heard to say, half aloud.
Broderick crept up close to Thorne and nudged him. The latter
interpreted correctly the action.
"Let Mrs. Challoner go on," suggested Thorne; and the Court ordered Mrs.
Challoner to proceed.
"That's all," said Miriam, quite close to the prosecutor now, "except
what I have to say to Mr. Murgatroyd."
And now as she stood before him, her eyes glistening, her breast
heaving, remembering only that she was a woman robbed of her mate, she
cried:--
"I am going to make you suffer for this as you made him suffer in this
court-room," and she waved her hand toward Challoner. "I'll invoke every
law against you," she went on, "and if the law can't help me, I'll spend
my life to make you pay for this. You made an agreement with me and you
must keep it, or I will...." Suddenly she sank exhausted into the chair
next to Challoner and buried her face upon the prisoner's shoulder.
"Laurie, Laurie," she sobbed in her despair. For the first time
Challoner showed some feeling; he found her hand and patted it with
affection for a moment.