"Mr. Thorne, I wish to know if it is true----"
Thorne, still not seeing who it was, nodded.
"Yes," he said in reply, "the prosecutor has been chosen--I'm down and
out."
"You don't understand," returned Challoner; "is it true, true----"
"True?" repeated Thorne.
"True that you have known all these years that I was innocent of
murder?" And Challoner squared his shoulders and lifted his head while
he waited for his reply.
"Yes, of course it's true," answered Thorne, seeing, at last, whom he
faced.
"You never told me," fiercely returned Challoner. Thorne apparently was
dumbfounded.
"Never told you? Why I must have told you," he stammered feebly.
"You never--" Challoner's voice suddenly broke. "And I thought all these
years--and because I thought----"
He paused abruptly. Then Thorne, turning to Murgatroyd, boldly
equivocated:
"It's preposterous! Of course I told him...."