s this distressing thing is over." She patted my arm, beamed at
Mary and swished over to her party.

"We shouldn't have come here, Mary," I said with a sour grimace.

"I forgot that old cat sometimes comes here. She'll spread it all over
town that you were down here making love to me before Jim was decently
buried. She'll probably say we're engaged."

"Well, I wish we were." I know I must have shown my longing in my eyes.

"Don't, please, Warren!" Mary whispered, putting her hand on my arm.
"We've got too much to do. That Pratt woman drove everything out of my
mind for a moment. I wish she hadn't seen us here."

I didn't feel as though I could eat a thing and neither did Mary, so I
told the waiter to bring us a light salad, and sent him away.

"Mary," I said, after he had gone, "we know Helen didn't do this thing,
but if you are called by the grand jury to tell what you just told me,
they will bring an indictment against her in a minute."

"They couldn't!" Mary expostulated. "They couldn't believe such a
thing."

"Don't you think Mrs. Webster Pratt would believe it, if she knew
everything that we know?" I argued. "She'd believe it with only half
as much proof, and she has just about the mental equipment of the
average juryman. There'll be about four Mrs. Webster Pratts on that
jury."

"What can we do, Bupps?" Mary begged with tears in her eyes.

"Well," I said, "you've got to see Helen as soon as they will let you
and as often as they'll let you, so that the first time she speaks,
you'll be there to hear what she says."

"But suppose she dies, Bupps?"

"Even while she is unconscious," I went on, disregarding her query,
"she may say something that will give us a clue. I'm going out to the
bridge right after lunch."

"What for?" Mary asked.

"To see if I can find Jim's revolver. If it had been found on Helen,
the coroner would have told me this morning, I think. Of course, they
may not have taken it at all. In that case it will still be at your
house. If Helen took it with her, it must have fallen out when the car
turned over, and if it did, I must get it before anybody else does."

The waiter interrupted here with the salad. Mary dabbled with hers a
bit and then said:

"Bupps, hadn't I better get out of town?"

"No," I replied. "They'd be sure to find you, and when you gave your
testimony, it would hurt Helen just that much more."

"But I can't stand up before them and tell what I he