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"Oh! you need only look at him" "Yes, indeed! Well, as I was thus watching him, I instinctively recalled the two remarkable accidents which so nearly killed our poor Champcey, that block that fell upon him from the skies, and that shipwreck in the Dong-Nai. But I was still doubtful. After what you tell me, I am sure." He seized the lieutenant's hand; and, pressing it almost painfully, he went on,
Only about three months ago he made a bet with one of the waiters at the hotel where he is engaged, that he would swim across the Dong-Nai twice, at a place where the current is strongest; and he did it." "But that is evidence; is it not?" "No; it is only a probability in favor of the prosecution. But I have another string to my bow.
The only time when I tried it really in earnest was in the little boat, because there, I ran some risk; it was like a duel, since my life was as much at stake as the lieutenant's. I can swim as well as anybody, to be sure; but in a river like the Dong-Nai, at night, and with a current like that, no swimmer can hold his own. The lieutenant got out of it; but I was very near being drowned.
The anchorage to seaward of Saigon which town is the French capital of Gambodin, part of the kingdom of Anam, and situated some miles up the river Dong-nai is Cape St. James, where we brought up until the tide should suit for the river passage.
And that would have been equivalent to a confession; and he would have had nothing to answer the magistrate, if the latter had asked at once, "How do you know that the darkness was so great on the banks of the Dong-Nai? It seems you were there, eh?" Quite pallid with fright, the accused simply said, "The officer must be mistaken." "I think not," replied the magistrate.
A furious current carried him down like a straw; the little boat, which might have supported him, had disappeared; and he knew nothing about this formidable Dong-Nai, except that it went on widening to its mouth. There was nothing to guide him; for the night was so dark, that land and water, the river and its banks, all melted together in the uniform, bottomless darkness.
The magistrate, finding that, where he was seated, he could not very well observe Crochard, had quietly gotten up, and was now standing near the mantle-piece, against which he rested. "On the contrary," he said severely, "you understand but too well Lieut. Champcey says you are the man who tried to drown him in the Dong-Nai. He recognizes you." "That's impossible!" exclaimed the accused.
"I am sure," the excellent man thought in his heart, "I am sure, in this man's place, I should do the same. But would this imprudence be of any use to him? No; for he could not reach the mouth of the Dong-Nai alive.
Daniel very naturally, somewhat ashamed of his imprudence, tried to excuse himself; and, when he had concluded his explanations, the lawyer said, "Now, one more question: would you recognize the man who attempted to drown you in the Dong-Nai in a boat which he had offered to you, and which he upset evidently on purpose?" "No, sir." "Ah! that is a pity.
All in vain. I was in despair, when a thought struck me, one of those simple thoughts which make you wonder why it did not occur to you at once. I said to myself, 'I have found it! And, anxious to ascertain if I was right, I immediately sent for the man with whom Crochard had made the bet about swimming across the Dong-Nai. He came; and But I prefer reading you his deposition."
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