ights is pow'ful, boss. I seed de beard all
right, an' I seed it once mo'e when he wuz on de stairs."

"What did he do after he had looked back at you while he was going
upstairs?"

"Nothin', boss. He seed I wuz lookin' at him, an' he jes' went on up an'
out uv sight, in a hurry, like."

"What time was that?"

"Dat wuz twenty-six minutes uv two."

"How do you know that? You'd gone back to sleep, hadn't you?"

"Yas, suh, a little niggerin'. But, when I woke up dat way widout no
reason, I kinder jumped. I wuz afeer'd dat clock might be goin' to jar me
ag'in, an' I took a look at it. Dat wuz how I seed de time. It wuz
twenty-six minutes uv two."

"What did you do then?"

"Nothin', boss; jes' went on niggerin' it. Dat is, I went on till de
night clerk giv' me a kick on de shins and tole me to take Mistuh
Morley's bags up to fo'-twenty-one. I done tole you dat was five minutes
arftuh two. Den, when we got up to de room, I says to him: 'I thought you
wuz in dis hotel half-hour ago, boss, when you had a beard.'

"An' right off de bat I wuz sorry I said dat. He look' at me kinder mad
an' he said: 'Whut you talkin' 'bout, boy? You mus' be talkin' in yore
sleep!'

"I come on back downstairs. He didn' have to say no mo'e. I tell you,
boss, when a white man tell me I been talkin' in my sleep, I _is_ been
talkin' in my sleep--dar ain' no argufyin' 'bout it--I _is_ been doin'
dat ve'y thing."

"But you thought Mr. Morley, the man with the grips, was the one you had
seen going up the stairs and, also, the one you had seen going into the
post-office--and, when you saw him on the stairs and on the street, he
wore a beard? Is that it?"

"I ain' thought nothin' 'bout it, boss. I knowed it."

"What did you think about his shaving off the beard at that time in the
morning?" Braceway urged, fingering the dollar bill. "Didn't you think
it was queer?"

"I tryin' to tell you, suh, I ain' done no thinkin' 'bout dat. He done
said I wuz talkin' in my sleep, an' I is a prudent nigger."

"Did he have a gold tooth, Roddy?"

"Naw, suh," said Roddy, "but he did look rich 'nough to have one.
Leastways I ain' seen he had one."

"Have you seen the man with the beard since?"

"Naw, suh. I jes' tole you, boss, he done shave it off."

"And Mr. Morley?"

"Yas, suh, I done seen him. He's in de hotel now. He's de same man."

"Did he wear rubber overshoes when he had the beard, and when he didn't
have it?"

"Yas, suh--bofe times."