"
CHAPTER XXVII
THE SOLVING OF THE RIDDLE
"For the sake of _le bon dieu_, man, cease your cruel mockery!" said
Brellier, suddenly, in a husky voice, as the clerk rose to quell the
interrupted flow of oratory, and the court banged his mace for quiet.
"You didn't think of the cruel mockery of God's good world, which you
were helping so successfully to ruin!" continued the detective, speaking
_to_ the court but _at_ Brellier, each word pointed as a barb, each pause
more pregnant with scorn than the spoken words had been. "You didn't
think of that, did you? Oh, no! You gave no thought to the ruined home
and the weeping wife, the broken-hearted mother and the fatherless child.
That was outside your reckoning altogether. And, if hearsay be true (and
in this case I believe it is) you even went so far as to kill a
defenceless woman who had been brave enough to wander out across that
particular part of the Fens just to see what those flames really were.
And yet,--your lordship, this man howls for mercy."
He paused a moment and passed a hand wearily over his forehead.
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