american tragedy

Chapter 137 (3)
Chapter 324 (3)
"Yes, sir, my clothes, and the laundry."

"Do you have to count any social activities?"

"Protest, this question implies an answer," Mason called.

"The protest is valid," replied Judge Oberworth.

"Is there anything else you would like to spend?"

"Well, there's bus fare, train fare. In addition, I have to take one for any social activities..."

"It's exactly the same!" Mason exclaimed. "Stop trying to imitate this parrot here."

"I hope your Excellency the District Attorney will take care of his own affairs!" Jefferson lost his temper. On the one hand, he was for himself, and on the other hand, he was also for Clyde.He wanted to break Clyde's fear of Mason. "I'm interrogating the defendant. As for what kind of parrot, we have seen it a lot in the past few weeks. It is as good as a student's memorization."

"This is slander!" Mason exclaimed. "I protest and demand an apology."

"Apologize to me, and to this defendant, if Your Honor will allow it, and at once, as soon as Your Honor calls an adjournment for a few minutes." Then he went straight up to Mason and said, "And I can do it without Help in court." At this moment, Mason thought he was going to be beaten, so he put on a posture, and the policeman, assistant sheriff, stenographer, reporter, and the judge's clerk surrounded the two lawyers.Judge Oberworth slammed his gavel on his table:

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Both of you are out of court! You must apologize to the court and to each other. Otherwise, I'll declare you a breach of the trial, jail you for ten days, and fine you five hundred dollars each," he said. , leaning over to stare at the two of them.Immediately Jefferson replied with great magnanimity and elegance: "In the circumstances, Your Honor, I apologize to you, to the Citizens' Attorney, and to the jury. , finished speaking."

"Never mind that," continued Oberworth.

"In this case, Your Honor, I apologize to you and the lawyer. Maybe I was too hasty, and I apologize to the defendant." Mason said with a sneer, looking into Clyde's eyes first.Clyde's eyes immediately retracted and turned to other places.

"Go ahead," Judge Oberworth said angrily.

"Now, Clyde," Jefferson continued to question, as calm as if he had just struck a match and dropped it. "You said your salary was $25 and there were expenses like this. Have you saved something so far for emergencies?"

"No, sir, not much, not much money at all."

"Well, then, if the doctor Miss Alden finds is willing to help, but it will cost, for example, around 100 yuan, can you afford it?"

"Not at all, sir, I mean not at once."

"Did you know she was rich herself?"

"As far as I know she hasn't, no, sir."

"Well, I think if she and I can find a doctor who will let me pay in installments, maybe I can save some money."

"I see. Are you trying to signal for it?"

"Yes, sir, she knows that too."

"Well, you and she couldn't find a doctor, so what happened? What did you do next?"

"Well, she wants me to marry her."

"immediately?"

"Yes, sir, at once."

"What do you say about that?"

"I told her I couldn't do it then. I had no money at all to marry, and if I had money, if I didn't go somewhere else first, at least wait until the baby was born, then everyone would find out. Anyway, I can't wait, and so can she."

"why?"

"Well, my relatives, they don't talk to me anymore, and I think it's the same with her."

"I see. They'll think you're unfit for the job, and she's the same. Is that so?"

"Anyway, that's what I think," Clyde replied.

"and after?"

"Well, even if I run away with her on purpose and marry her, I don't have much money, and she is the same. I have to give up my current job and find a job in another place before I can ask her to go with me. Not only that, I have no idea where I can make that much money."

"What about hotel work? Could you do it again?"

"Well, maybe, if I can get a letter of introduction or something, but I wouldn't like to go back to this kind of work."

"Why not?"

"Well, I don't like that kind of work anymore. Don't like that kind of life."

"You don't mean, though, that you don't want to be helpful at all, do you? That's not your attitude, is it?"

"Oh, no, sir, it is not so. I told her straight up that if only she could get out of here and let me stay in Lycurgus while she had her baby, I could save as much money as I could, as much as I could. Give her all the money, until she is fine."

"But not marrying her?"

"No, sir, I thought at the time that it couldn't be done."

"What does she think of that?"

"She wouldn't. She said she couldn't and wouldn't get through this unless I married her."

"I see. You mean you were married at that time?"

"Yes, sir, but it won't be long before we get married, and she's willing to wait, but she doesn't want to leave unless I marry her."

"Did you tell her you never loved her again?"

"Well, almost, yes, sir."

"What do you mean by 'almost'?"

"Well, I don't want to. Besides, she knows I don't love her anymore. She said so herself."

"Is that what I told you then?"

"Yes, sir, quite a few words."

"Well, yes, yes, it's in her letter, but what do you do when she refuses to do it at all?"

"Well, I'm at a loss as well, but I figured if I could just let her go home and wait while I see how much money I can save, well...maybe...when she gets there and finds that I'm so unwilling to be with her Married..." (Clyde pauses, licking his tongue, it's not easy to tell such a lie.)

"Well, go on. Remember, the truth, even if you find it too shameful, is better than lying."

"Maybe she is more worried, when she is not so strong..."

"Aren't you worried too?"

"Yes, sir, I worry too."

"Okay, let's go on."

"Well...well,...maybe, if I gave her all the money I could save then, you know, I thought maybe I could borrow some money from somebody else, and she might be willing to go away, Don't want me to marry her, just live in another place and let me take care of it."

"I see, but she disagrees with that?"

"Well, she didn't agree, but she agreed to live there for a month, and I couldn't get her to give up on me."

"But did you say at any time then, or before, or at any time since, that you were going there and marrying her?"

"No, sir. I never said that."

"So, what exactly did you say?"

"I said . . . as soon as I got the money," Clyde stuttered now, uneasy and ashamed, "in about a month, I could go to her, we could go somewhere, all the time." Until...until...well, until she passed this level."

"Didn't you tell her you were going to marry her?"

"No, sir, I haven't."

"But, of course, she wants you to marry her."

"Yes, sir."

"Did it ever occur to you that she could force you to, I mean, force you to marry her?"

"No, sir, I haven't. I plan to wait as long as I can, and save as much money as I can. Then, refuse to marry her at that time, give her all my money, and thereafter Do your best to help her."

"But you know," said Jefferson, and he was gentle and tactful at this point, "that Miss Alden wrote you a lot about it," and he reached across and took it from the District Attorney's desk. The original letters from Roberta were weighed gravely in his hands. "A plan of the two of you for this trip, or at least it seemed to her your plan for this trip. Now, what exactly is that plan? If I remember correctly, she mentioned you both clearly. s plan."

"I know that," replied Clyde, for he had discussed the subject particularly with Belknap and Jefferson for two months. "But the only plan I know," he said, trying to be as frank and convincing as he could, "is the one I've been making over and over again."

"What is this again?"

"It was when she left and went to a place to find a house. I helped her and went to see her from time to time."

"Oh, no, that's where you'd be wrong," replied Jefferson slyly, "that wasn't and couldn't be that plan she had in mind. She said in a letter that she didn't know you were going away, delaying It would be very unpleasant for you to take so long or to wait until after her affairs, but there is really no other way."

"Yes, I know." Clyde replied, the answer was quick and accurate, just like what he had asked at the beginning. "It was her plan, not mine, though. She kept telling me it was something she wanted me to do and that I had to do it. She kept saying that on the phone. I might have said Well, well, whatever. It’s not that I agree with her intentions completely, but it’s just that I want to talk to her about it later.”

"I see. That's what you think, that is, what you think is the opposite."

"Well, I never went along with her plans, I know that, I don't quite agree. That is, I just tell her to wait and do nothing until I get enough money to go to her , talk to her again and let her go, like I just said, I haven't said anything beyond that."

"And what if she rejects your plan?"

"Well, then I'm going to tell her about Miss X and beg her to give up on me."

"What if she still doesn't want to?"

"Well, then I think I might go away, but I don't want to think about that."

"Of course you do, Clyde. Some here think that at that time you started plotting to both hide your identity and lure her to a lake in the Atrondax Lakes, where she would be brutally killed or drowned." , so that you may be free to marry that Miss So-and-so. Is there any truth in that? Tell the jury?"

"No! No! I never plotted to kill her, or anyone else," protested Clyde, and speaking very dramatically, clutching the arms of his chair with both hands, trying to appear as resolute as possible.Because that's what he was taught, and at the same time he got up from his seat and put on an air of resoluteness, though he knew in his heart that he had thought so.At this moment, it was this that discouraged, pained, and frightened him.All eyes! Judge, jury, Mason, men and women of the newspapers, all eyes! His brow was wet and cold again, and he licked his lips restlessly, and swallowed with difficulty because his throat was dry.

Then came the details: first the letters Clyde had written after Roberta came home; and finally the letter telling him to go to her or return to Lycurgus and expose him.Jefferson mentioned all aspects of the alleged conspiracy and crime, and then did his best to lighten the past testimony and finally refute it all.

Then there is the doubt about Clyde not writing to Roberta.Ah, from his fear of trouble with relatives, work, and everything else.It was also because of that that he wanted to meet her at Fonda.At that time, he had no plan to go somewhere with her at all.He had only vague thoughts of meeting her somewhere and trying to persuade her to leave him as much as possible.But now that July was here and his plans were not so clear, his first thought was that maybe they could go to an inexpensive scenic spot, some of the northern lakes that Roberta had mentioned in Utiga.It was in the hotel there, not on the train, that he had obtained several maps and guides, and in a sense it was a deadly argument.Because Mason had already found a guidebook with the Lycurgus Hotel mark on the cover, Clyde didn't notice it at the time, and Mason thought of it when he testified in this way.

As for the departure from Lycurgus, well, of course it was because he had been on purpose to conceal his departure with Roberta, but only to protect her and his own reputation from disrepute. .As for sharing two carriages, registering as Clifford Golden and his wife, and a series of secretive behaviors, it was all for this reason.As for the two hats, ah, one got dirty, so he bought the one he liked.Having lost the one in an accident, he naturally wore the other.Of course, he has a camera and carries it with him.Indeed, he had used the camera during his first visit to the Cranstons on June [-]th.He initially denied it because he was afraid that the connection between the camera and Roberta's death, which had been purely accidental, would leave him speechless.Immediately after his arrest in the woods he was wronged and accused of murder; and, moreover, he was so apprehensive about the relation of this ill-fated trip to him that he had no lawyer, or anyone else, to speak for him.Therefore, he chose to remain silent at the time. Because of this, he denied everything at the time, but once he had a lawyer, he told the lawyer the truth.

As for the lost suit, it was for the same reason, because it was wet and muddy, so he packed it up in the woods, and when he got back to the Cranston house he hid it under some rocks over there, I wanted to go back and find it for dry cleaning.However, as soon as Messrs. Belknap and Jefferson saw him, he informed him of it, and they got the clothes out and washed them.

"But now, Clyde, tell us about your plans, first of all about your going to the lake."

Then the story was pretty much the same as Jefferson had suggested to Belknap, how he and Roberta got to Utiga and then to Grass Lake.However, there were no plans at the time.He originally planned to tell her his love for Miss X if he encountered a dire situation, to win her sympathy and forgiveness, and to ask her to set him free. He must do anything, and if she refuses, then he will tear himself apart, give up everything and leave Lycurgus if necessary.

"But when I saw her in Fonda, and later in Utiga, so weary and sad," Clyde said, trying to be as sincere as he could in spare good words, "and so alone, I I started feeling sorry for her."

"Yeah, what happened next?"

"Well, if she won't let me go, it's hard to say whether I can bear to abandon her."

"Well, what did you decide to do then?"

"Nothing was decided. I listened to her and tried to tell her that even if I went with her, there wasn't much I could do. I only had fifty dollars."

"Um?"

(End of this chapter)