It was an--an
interrupted suicide.'
She stopped once more, and Hugo fervently wished he had never asked her
to begin. He gazed at her set face with a fascinated glance.
'All this time,' she resumed, 'young Powitt had been crouching on the
floor, and had seen nothing.'
'And what did you do?'
'I fainted, and fell off my chair. The noise startled Mr. Ravengar, and
he came round into my room. Young Powitt met him at the door, and, to
explain his presence there, he said that he had come to see his brother.
Mr. Ravengar said: "Your brother is in the next room." But instead of
going into the next room, young Powitt ran off. Then Mr. Ravengar
perceived me on the floor. My first words to him when I recovered
consciousness were: "Why did you hang him up again, Mr. Ravengar?" He
was staggered. He actually tried to justify himself, and said it was
best for the old man--the old man had wanted to die, and so on. Mr.
Ravengar certainly thought that young Powitt had seen what I had seen.
That very night young Powitt was arrested for another theft, from his
own employers, and it was not till after his arrest that he learnt that
his brother had committed suicide. He got four years. When he received
sentence, he swore that he would kill Mr.
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