54/61 Some people may be able to speak vividly to a deaf and dumb creature. On this occasion I tried hard to do so, and failed. After a while my words dribbled out with difficulty and eventually ceased. At last he spoke, in the dull, toneless way of a dead man--presuming that the dead could speak: "You may talk till you're black in the face, but you know as well as I do that the man told the truth--or practically the truth. |