american tragedy

Chapter 113

Chapter 310
Mason returned to the camp again and explained what happened.He first told Frank Harriet that Clyde had been arrested, then told Harry Baggett and Grant Cranston that Clyde had admitted to being in Great Berton with Roberta but denied murdering her , I and Swink came to fetch Clyde's things.These words broke the beautiful atmosphere of the outing.Everyone was surprised and suspicious when talking, but Mason was right in front of him, asking where Clyde's things were kept, and said that it was because of Clyde's request that he didn't come to get his own things.

Frank Harriet was a matter-of-fact person. He felt that these words were true, and immediately took them to the tent where Clyde lived. Mason checked the contents of the suitcase and pockets.Knowing that Sandra had deep feelings for Clyde, Grant, Clarence, and Baguette first went to Stewart, then Bettina, and finally to Sandra, pulled her away, and then quietly told what happened to Clyde. her.Immediately after hearing this, she paled, fell into a faint in Grant's arms, and was sent back to her own tent.Waking up she exclaimed: "I can't believe it! It's a lie, it's impossible! Oh, poor Clyde, where has he been?" While Stuart and Grant were not as emotional as she was, reminding She is silent.Maybe it's true? If it's true! Others will hear it.If it is fake, he will soon be able to prove his innocence and be released, but it is useless to do so now.

It occurred to Sandra, too, that if it was true—Clyde had murdered a girl in Great Berton and had himself arrested—but at least everyone here knew that she liked him, her parents, society Everyone knows, so...

But Clyde must be innocent, must be.They reminded her suddenly of Clyde pale as sick when she first heard the news of the girl's drowning on Harriet's telephone.No, absolutely impossible! But he did not come until last Friday after so long a delay at Lycurgus, and he did not write from Lycurgus.The next thing she thought of the terrible crime he was accused of, she fainted again, and lay there soundless and pale.It seemed to Grant and the rest that the best course of action at present was to end the camp at once or early tomorrow morning and go back to Sharon.

After a while, Sandra woke up, crying.She wanted to get out of here at once, saying that she "couldn't stand it," and begged Bettina and the others to help her not to tell anyone about her fainting and crying, or there would be a lot of gossip.How, she wondered, if all this was true, would she recover the letters addressed to him? God! Imagine what would happen if the letters had fallen into the hands of the police and journalists and had been published! However, her love for him was still unquenchable, and it was the first time in her life that she was so shocked.That ugly and cold reality.

Soon everything was arranged, and she, Stuart, Bettina, and Grant set off for the Metterthick Hotel at the east end of the Lake District.According to Baggott, they could start there in the morning for Albany, and then make a detour back to Sharon.

At the same time, after taking all of Clyde's belongings here, Mason hurried west to Little Fish Bay and Three Mile Bay.I stayed at a farmer's house the night before, and arrived at San Mile Bay late on Tuesday night.On the way, he questioned Clyde more closely as planned, for he had searched the things he had taken from the tent but failed to find the gray suit which Clyde was said to have worn in Great Berton.

Clyde, flustered by this new circumstance, denies wearing the gray suit, insisting that he was wearing the same outfit that day as he is now.

"But aren't the clothes soaked through?"

"Yes."

"Then where did you get your laundry done?"

"In Sharon. Yes, there."

"Was it washed in the laundromat there?"

"Which one is it?"

Unfortunately, Clyde can't remember.

"So you wore this rumpled, wet suit all the way from Big Buckle to Three Mile Bay, didn't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Of course no one noticed?"

"I don't remember anyone paying attention to me, I don't remember."

"Don't remember? Well, we'll talk about it later." He confirmed that Clyde must be playing tricks, that he is a murderer, and that he can finally tell where the clothes are hidden or where washed.

Another suspect is the straw hat found on the lake.How was that to be explained? Clyde admitted that the wind had knocked his hat off.In other words, he was wearing a hat on the lake, but it may not be the one he found on the lake.However, what Mason was thinking about now was how to prove in front of witnesses who owned the hat on the lake, and to prove that he later wore another hat.

"Tell me, what happened to the straw hat that was blown into the lake by the wind? Didn't you want to get it back?"

"No idea, sir."

"Did you get too nervous and didn't expect that?"

"Yes, sir."

"But anyway, when you went through the woods over there, you wore another straw hat. Where did this other one come from?"

Now Clyde was trapped, and he didn't know what to say. He pondered for a moment, wondering if it could be confirmed that the straw hat he was wearing now was the one he wore in the woods, and he felt mixed feelings for a while.Would it also be proven that the one on the lake was bought in Utiga? Then he decided to tell a lie. "But I don't have another straw hat." Mason ignored it, just reached out and took off the straw hat on Clyde's head to check. The label read: Lycurgus Stark Company.

"Oh, I see. This one has a tag. Did it come from Lycurgus?"

"Yes."

"when?"

"Well, I bought it in June."

"And you're sure it's not the one you wore that night in the woods?"

"No, sir."

"So, where's that one?"

Clyde was stuck again, feeling like he had fallen into a trap.He thought to himself: God, how can this be explained? Why should I admit that the top on the lake is mine? But then he remembered that, whether they admit it or not, the people of Grass Lake and Great Burton certainly remembered that he was there. He wore a straw hat when he was on the lake.

"Where did that top go?" Mason continued to ask.

Finally, Clyde said, "I've been here before, and I'm wearing this hat. I forgot it here when I went back, and I found it the day before yesterday."

"Ah, so that's how it is. It's too coincidental." His interest grew stronger, because this opponent was really cunning, and to trap him, he had to think more carefully.At the same time, he decided to pass on the Cranston family and everyone who participated in the Bear Lake camping. He must find out whether Clyde wore a straw hat when he came this time, and whether he left the straw hat when he left last time.He wanted to expose his obvious lie.

From this moment on to Bridgeburg, and to the county jail, Clyde did not have a moment's peace.In spite of his refusal to answer, Mason kept popping up questions, such as: Why did you go all the way to the southernmost end of the lake when you were going to have your lunch ashore, which wasn't as pretty as the others; How did he spend his time, wouldn't it just be in one place? Then, the question jumped back to those letters from Sandra in his pocket. How long had they known each other? She seemed to love him very much, and so did he. Loved her? Did his determination to murder Miss Alden stem from her promise to marry him in the fall?

Clyde desperately denied the last question, but most of the time he remained silent, his eyes staring ahead with a look of pain and misery.

Afterwards, Clyde spent a dreary night on a straw mat on the attic floor of a farmer's house on the west side of the lake.Sissel, Swink, and Kraut took turns watching him with guns.Mason and the sheriff slept downstairs.The word spread quickly, and before daybreak some peasants came and asked, "Here is the guy who killed that girl in Big Betton, is he?" Mason's car drove him away.

The situation in Xiaoyuwan and Sanliwan is similar.It is likely that a call was received in advance, and a large number of people-farmers, shopkeepers, summer tourists, forest dwellers, children-all gathered around.In Three Mile Bay, Bray, Haight, and Newcombe were notified by phone in advance to pass all the people who were to pass from Great Berton to Gabriel Grieg in order to provide sufficient witnesses.This was a local sheriff, tall, thin, irascible but careful.Mason accused Clyde of murdering Roberta to the local judge and asked him to be locked up in the Bridgeburg County detention center as a key criminal.Then, together with Burton and the sheriff's assistants, he took Clyde to Bridgeburg and locked him up immediately.

When he arrived at the detention center, Clyde immediately fell on the iron bed, hugging his head with his hands in despair and pain.Although it was three o'clock in the morning, when he approached the detention center, he saw a large group of people there, at least 500 people, pushing, shouting, laughing and cursing.It was said that he had brutally wounded and killed a beautiful young working girl in order to marry a rich man's girl, and that all her fault was loving him too much.Clyde heard strong and threatening shouts: "Over there, that vile rascal!" "For that alone, you deserve to be hanged, wait and see, little devil !” This sentence came from a young resident of the forest area, who is roughly the same type of person as Swink.He rushed out from the crowd, the look in his young and fierce eyes seemed to be violent enough to destroy everything.Even more frightening was a savage girl in plaid, who lived in the slums of this small town, and she rushed out of the archway in the dim light, shouting: "Look, this murderer, this murderer who ran away Dirty stuff! Do you think you can get away with it?

Clyde was next to Sheriff Slack, thinking: "Others will think that I murdered her, maybe they will hang me by lynching!" He was very tired, flustered and cowardly, and saw the iron gate outside the detention center He opened it in front of him, and he was actually relieved and relieved, because this door can protect him.

But after entering the cell, his thoughts were disturbed and restless during the long night.He thought of Sandra and the Griffiths and Bettina, of all that he would never have.All Lycurgus in the morning would know about it, and then everyone, including his mother.And where is Sandra now? Mason must have told her and everyone else when he got back to camp to get his stuff.Now, at last, they see him for what he really is, a murderer! Oh, if only someone knew the truth of the matter!

Maybe he should confess everything to Mason before it gets worse, but in this case, it is tantamount to confessing his original plan and meaning, the camera, his own escape, and that unintentional blow (Who would believe that), and later hid the tripod and so on.What's more, once the whole thing is confessed, isn't he the same in the eyes of Sandra, in the eyes of Griffiths and everyone? He may still be charged and executed.God, kill! Now that he's being tried for this, and the crime against her will be proven, he'll still be electrocuted.An inescapable calamity will befall him, and he will be condemned to death for murder.He sat blankly.Death! Good God! If those letters, written to him by Roberta and his mother, had not been left in his room at Mrs. Peyton's.It would be nice if he moved the box before he left, say to another room.

Why hadn't he thought of it? But it occurred to him at once that it would have been suspicious then, and probably not good.But how would anyone know where he came from, or his name? Then he thought of the letters in the box, one from his mother that mentioned Kansas City, so Mason knew.He should have destroyed the letters, whether they were from Roberta or from his mother.Why didn't he do it? He couldn't answer either.Maybe it's just out of stupidity that I want to keep all the objects related to him that show concern and warmth for him.If only he hadn't had that other hat on, and hadn't met those three in the woods! Somebody would try to track him down, and he should have.In the woods by Bear Lake he would have walked on with his suitcase and Sandra's letter.Maybe, maybe, who knows, maybe he could get away in Boston or New York or somewhere else.

He stayed up all night nervously, walking up and down, or lying on the edge of that strange, hard bed, thinking over and over again.After daybreak, a thin old warden with rheumatism, wearing an old bulging blue uniform, brought a black iron tray with a tin can of coffee, a slice of ham, and a Eggs and a few slices of bread.He pushed the plate into the hole that was only big enough for this plate, and looked at Clyde with indifferent but somewhat curious eyes, who didn't want to eat anything.

Then Kraut, Sissel, Swink, and finally the Sheriff, came in one by one to check, and said, "Good morning, Griffiths!" or, "How can I help you?" At the same time, their eyes clearly showed that Clyde's crime made them feel extremely surprised, disgusted and suspicious.But even so, they are still very interested in his being detained, and even a little proud.He was one of the Griffiths, one of the most respectable men in the great southern cities, and, like the mad people out there, they thought him a beast, The tactical skills that surrounded him, captured him, brought him to justice, and finally put him behind bars is a testament to their skill.People in the newspapers and in the society will talk about it, and their reputation will spread far and wide.Their photos and names will be attached to him.

Clyde watched them through the bars, trying to be polite.Now he was their caged creature, a caged creature who could be treated as they wished.

(End of this chapter)