The Face of Rosenfeld — page 129: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

122 THE FACE OF ROSENFEL. it all there was a grimness and a sincerity that carried with it the conviction that he meant what he said. When the amazed Maxey could speak he exclaimed: ‘*So you confess yon share in the crime without equivocation. ‘‘Sir, [ can only confess the truth, but as lam nota man of veracity, that would have little weight. If you have any evidence at all of any wrong dealing on my part an ignorant and uncultivated jury would un- doubtedly do your work and convict me of anything. [ look like a villain. JI have all the suspicions and unex- plainable habits of a villain. ‘I'welve average men would say at once: ‘Hevsa villain. Let us punish him?” ‘«“And you haven’t a shadow of a suspicion of what you would be accused?” ‘Sir, of what use is it to question me? IfI say no, you will not believe me. If I say yes, I should only lay myself open to further questions, which it would be im- possible for me to answer and then you would not be- lieve me. In any case I shouldbe a lar and an equivocator in your eyes. ‘The shortest way is to call the police at once. Sir, I have used alcohol very freely of late years, and it has partially succeeded in achieving the result to secure which I learned to like it—in blunt- ing my senses and brutalizing my intellect, but I have yet remaining to me—I think I may say without exaggeration—sufiicient penetration and sagacity to understand that a gentleman like yourself does not take such pains to become possessed of the person of a social outcast like myself unless he believes such a step of supreme importance. Doubtless, you have your theo- ries?”’ | ‘‘ Doubtless, I have. You have parried my question