I can swear to it."
I omit all evidence of the defect in his speech above mentioned.
"You recognize him positively?"
"Positively. I should have picked him out with the same assurance,
if I had seen him in some other city and in a crowd of as
fine-looking gentlemen as himself. His face made a great impression
on me. You see I had ample time to study it in the few minutes we
stood so close together."
"So you have said. Will you be kind enough to repeat the
circumstance? I should like the man who has just come in to hear
your description of this scene. Give the action, please. It is
all very interesting."
The stranger glanced inquisitively in my direction, and turned to
obey the superintendent.
"I was returning to my home in Georgetown, on the evening of May
the eleventh, the day of the great tragedy. My wife was ill, and
I had been into town to see a physician and should have gone
directly home; but I was curious to see how high the flood was
running - you remember it was over the banks that night. So I
wandered out on the bridge, and came upon the gentleman about whom
you have been questioning me. He was standing all alone leaning
on the rail thus." Here the speaker drew up a chair, and, crossing
his arms over its back, bent his head down over them.
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