He harked back
to another point.

"Do you know that my cousin and Miss Harriman came to see my uncle that
night? I mean do you know of your own eyesight that they ever reached
his apartment?"

"Well, we know they reached the Paradox an' went up in the elevator.
Me an' the wife watched at the window. Yore cousin James wasn't with
Miss Harriman. The dude one was with her."

"Jack!" exclaimed Kirby, astonished.

"Yep."

"How do you know? How did you recognize them?"

"Saw 'em as they passed under the street light about twenty feet from
our window. We couldn't 'a' been mistook as to the dude fellow. O'
course we don't know Miss Harriman, but the woman walkin' beside the
young fellow surely looked like the one that fainted at the inquest
when you was testifyin' how you found yore uncle dead in the chair. I
reckon when you said it she got to seein' a picture of one of the young
fellows gunnin' their uncle."

"One of them. You just said James wasn't with her."

"No, he come first. Maybe three-four minutes before the others."

"What time did he reach the Paradox?"

"It might 'a' been ten or maybe only five minutes after we left yore
uncle's room. The wife an' me was talkin' it over whether I hadn't
ought to slip back upstairs and untie yore uncle before they got here.
Then he come an' that settled it. I couldn't go."

"Can you give me the exact time he reached the apartment house?"

"Well, I'll say it was a quarter to ten."

"Do you know or are you guessin'?"

"I know. Our clock struck the quarter to whilst we looked at them
comin' down the street."

"At them or at him?"

"At him, I mean."

"Can't stick to his own story," Olson grunted.

"A slip of the tongue. I meant him."

"And Jack and the lady were three or four minutes behind him?" Kirby
reiterated.

"Yes."

"Was your clock exactly right?"

"May be five minutes fast. It gains."

"You know they turned in at the Paradox?"

"All three of 'em. Mrs. Hull she opened the door a mite an' saw 'em go
up in the elevator. It moves kinda slow, you know. The heavy-set
young fellow went up first. Then two-three minutes later the elevator
went down an' the dude an' the young lady went up."

Kirby put his foot on the cement bench and rested his forearm on his
knee. The cattleman's steady eyes were level with those of the unhappy
man making the confession.

"Did you at any time hear the sound of a shot?"

"Well, I--I heard somethin'.