the bed plucked at the
coverlet and eyed first him and then Greenleaf.

"Miss Fulton," he demanded more sharply than he had yet spoken, "did you
see or hear anything last night in connection with this tragedy, the
death of your sister?"

"No; nothing," she answered, her voice now approaching firmness. It was a
firmness, however, that was forced.

"How do you explain that?"

"I went to bed before my sister returned from the dinner dance, and I
had taken something Dr. Braley had given me that breaks up the severe
coughing attacks to which I am subject and that also puts me to sleep."

"Makes you sleep soundly?"

"Very."

"It was a hypodermic injection, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"And you took it--administered it to yourself?"

"Yes."

"Do you know what it was?"

"Yes; morphine."

"A sixteenth of a grain, wasn't it? That's what is always given to
tuberculars to prevent violent spells of coughing, isn't it?"

She hesitated, but finally assented.

"But that's very little to make one sleep so soundly, that one couldn't
hear the cries of a woman being murdered and all the noises that must
have accompanied the attack upon her. Don't you think so?"

"But, you must remember," she said tartly, "I'm not accustomed to taking
morphine. Anyway, that's the way it affected me."

"You heard absolutely nothing and saw nothing until you discovered your
sister's body at ten o'clock this morning?"

"That's true. Yes; that's true." She looked out of the window, paying him
no more attention.

Bristow, in his turn, was silent. Greenleaf took up the inquiry:

"Several times today, while you were asleep or delirious, you said the
words: 'When he--say--I--asleep,' Can you explain that for us, Miss
Fulton?"

Her pallor deepened. This time terror flourished in her eyes as she
turned sharply toward Greenleaf.

"Who says I said that?" she demanded, husky again.

"Things are heard pretty easily in these bungalows," he said. "One of my
men heard it."

"Oh, I understand," she replied, a hint of craftiness creeping into her
voice. "No; I can't explain it. One can't often explain one's ravings."

"It merely suggested something that we had thought impossible," Bristow
interjected soothingly: "that you might have wanted to deny having heard
something which you really did hear; that you were protecting somebody."

"Oh," she said angrily, "that's absurd--utterly."

"Quite," lied Bristow suavely. "That was what I told Chief Greenl