u should know."

"If there is anything----" he began the polite formula.

"First," she told him, "I'd better explain that father ordered me to
discuss the--my sister's death with nobody except Judge Rogers. You know
who he is, the attorney here. Father and George have retained him. I
haven't seen him yet. I wanted to give you certain facts. I know you'll
make the just, proper use of them."

"Then I was right? You do know----"

"Yes," she said, exhibiting, so far as he could observe, no excitement
whatever; "I was not asleep the whole of Monday night. I narrowly escaped
seeing my sister die--seeing her murdered."

Her lips trembled momentarily, but she took hold of herself remarkably. A
trifle incredulous, he watched her closely.

"I heard a noise in the living room. It wasn't a loud noise. The fact
that it was guarded, or cautious, waked me up, I think. Before I got out
of bed, I looked at my watch. It was somewhere in the neighbourhood of
one o'clock--I'm not sure how many minutes after one. As I reached the
little hallway opening into the dining room, I heard a man's voice.

"He was not talking aloud. It was a hurried sort of whisper. It seemed as
if the voice, when at its natural pitch, would have been high or thin,
more of a tenor than anything else. It gave me the impression of
terrific anger, anger and threat combined. The only thing I heard from
my sister was a stifled sound, as if she had tried to cry out and been
prevented by--by choking."

She looked out the window, her breast rising and falling while she
compelled herself to calmness.

Bristow was looking at her with hawk-like keenness.

"And what did you do?" he asked, his voice low and cool.

"I pulled the dining room door open. From where I stood, looking across
the dining room into the living room, I could see the edge of my sister's
skirt and--and a man's leg, the right leg.

"That is, I didn't see much of his leg. What I did see was his foot, the
sole of his shoe, a large shoe. He was in such a position that the foot
was resting on its toes, perpendicular to the floor, so that I saw the
whole sole of the rubber shoe."

She put both hands to her face and closed her eyes, holding the attitude
for several minutes. When she looked at him again, there were no tears
in her eyes, but the traces of fear.

"It seemed to me that he was leaning far forward, putting most of his
weight on his left foot and balancing himself with the right thrust out