guess you would call it a laugh. I
thought of Harry and the team outside, so I said a little sharp: 'Can't
I see John?' 'No', she says, kind o' dull like. 'Ain't he home?' says I.
'Yes', says she, 'he's home'. 'Then why can't I see him?' I asked her,
out of patience. ''Cause he's dead', says she. _'Dead_?' says I. She
just nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin' back and
forth. 'Why--where is he?' says I, not knowing what to say. She just
pointed upstairs--like that (_himself pointing to the room above_) I got
up, with the idea of going up there. I walked from there to here--then I
says, 'Why, what did he die of?' 'He died of a rope round his neck',
says she, and just went on pleatin' at her apron. Well, I went out and
called Harry. I thought I might--need help. We went upstairs and there
he was lyin'--

COUNTY ATTORNEY: I think I'd rather have you go into that upstairs,
where you can point it all out. Just go on now with the rest of the
story.

HALE: Well, my first thought was to get that rope off. It looked ...
(_stops, his face twitches_) ... but Harry, he went up to him, and he
said, 'No, he's dead all right, and we'd better not touch anything.' So
we went back down stairs. She was still sitting that same way. 'Has
anybody been notified?' I asked. 'No', says she unconcerned. 'Who did
this, Mrs Wright?' said Harry. He said it business-like--and she stopped
pleatin' of her apron. 'I don't know', she says. 'You don't _know_?'
says Harry. 'No', says she. 'Weren't you sleepin' in the bed with him?'
says Harry. 'Yes', says she, 'but I was on the inside'. 'Somebody
slipped a rope round his neck and strangled him and you didn't wake up?'
says Harry. 'I didn't wake up', she said after him. We must 'a looked as
if we didn't see how that could be, for after a minute she said, 'I
sleep sound'. Harry was going to ask her more questions but I said maybe
we ought to let her tell her story first to the coroner, or the sheriff,
so Harry went fast as he could to Rivers' place, where there's a
telephone.

COUNTY ATTORNEY: And what did Mrs Wright do when she knew that you had
gone for the coroner?

HALE: She moved from that chair to this one over here (_pointing to a
small chair in the corner_) and just sat there with her hands held
together and looking down. I got a feeling that I ought to make some
conversation, so I said I had come in to see if John wanted to put in a
telephone, and at that she started to laugh,