ss. Do you?"

The coroner asserted himself. "Here, here, none of that! Order in
this court, _if_ you please, gentlemen." He bustled in his manner,
turning to the attorney. "Through with Mr. Cunningham, Johns? If so,
we'll push on."

"Quite." The prosecuting attorney consulted a list in front of him.
"Cass Hull next."

Hull came puffing to the stand. He was a porpoise of a man. His eyes
dodged about the room in dread. It was as though he were looking for a
way of escape.

CHAPTER XII

"THAT'S THE MAN"

"Your name?"

"Cass Hull."

"Business?"

"Real estate, mostly farm lands."

"Did you know James Cunningham, the deceased?" asked Johns.

"Yes. Worked with him on the Dry Valley proposition, an irrigation
project."

"Ever have any trouble with him?"

"No, sir--not to say trouble." Hull was already perspiring profusely.
He dragged a red bandanna from his pocket and mopped the roll of fat
that swelled over his collar. "I--we had a--an argument about a
settlement--nothin' serious."

"Did he throw you out of his room and down the stairs?"

"No, sir, nothin' like that a-tall. We might 'a' scuffled some, kinda
in fun like. Prob'ly it looked like we was fightin', but we wasn't.
My heel caught on a tread o' the stairs an' I fell down." Hull made
his explanation eagerly and anxiously, dabbing at his beefy face with
the handkerchief.

"When did you last see Mr. Cunningham alive?"

"Well, sir, that was the last time, though I reckon we heard him pass
our door."

In answer to questions the witness explained that Cunningham had owed
him, in his opinion, four thousand dollars more than he had paid. It
was about this sum they had differed.

"Were you at home on the evening of the twenty-third--that is, last
night?"

The witness flung out more signals of distress. "Yes, sir," he said at
last in a voice dry as a whisper.

"Will you tell what, if anything, occurred?"

"Well, sir, a man knocked at our door. The woman she opened it, an' he
asked which flat was Cunningham's. She told him, an' the man he
started up the stairs."

"Have you seen the man since?"

"No, sir."

"Didn't hear him come downstairs later?"

"No, sir."

"At what time did this man knock?" asked the lawyer from the district
attorney's office.

Kirby Lane did not move a muscle of his body, but excitement grew in
him, as he waited, eyes narrowed, for the answer.

"At 9.20."

"How do you know the time so exa