p himself. You could see that. He looked at
James, an' he said, 'My God, you didn't--' That was all. No need to
finish. O' course James denied it. He'd jumped up to help support
Miss Harriman outa the room. Maybe a coupla minutes later he came back
alone. He went right straight back to the desk, found inside of three
seconds the legal document I told you I'd seen his uncle reading
glanced it over, turned to the back page, jammed the paper back in the
cubby-hole, an' then switched off the light. A minute later the light
was switched off in the big room, too. Then I reckoned it was time to
beat it down the fire escape. I did. I went back into the Wyndham
carryin' the clothes-line under my coat, walked upstairs without
meetin' anybody, left the rope on the roof, an' got outa the house
without being seen."

"That's the whole story?" Kirby said.

"The whole story. I'd swear it on a stack of Bibles."

"Did you fix the rope for a lariat up on the roof or wait till you came
back to the fire escape?"

"I fixed it on the roof--made the loop an' all there. Figured I might
be seen if I stood around too long on the platform."

"So that you must 'a' been away quite a little while."

"I reckon so. Prob'ly a quarter of an hour or more."

"Can you locate more definitely the exact time you heard the shot?"

"No, I don't reckon I can."

Kirby asked only one more question.

"You left next mornin' for Dry Valley, didn't you?"

"Yes. None o' my business if they stuck Hull for it. He was guilty as
sin, anyhow. If he didn't kill the old man, it wasn't because he
didn't want to. Maybe he did. The testimony at the inquest, as I read
the papers, left it that maybe the blow on the head had killed
Cunningham. Anyhow, I wasn't gonna mix myself in it."

Kirby said nothing. He looked out of the window of his room without
seeing anything. His thoughts were focused on the problem before him.

The other man stirred uneasily. "Think I did it?" he asked.

The cattleman brought his gaze back to the Dry Valley settler. "You?
Oh, no! You didn't do it."

There was such quiet certainty in his manner that Olson drew a deep
breath of relief. "By Jupiter, I'm glad to hear you say so. What made
you change yore mind?"

"Haven't changed it. Knew that all the time--well, not all the time.
I was millin' you over in my mind quite a bit while you were holdin'
out on me. Couldn't be dead sure whether you were hidin' what yo