Mr. Chapin say to you?'› She looked at me, and aside at Mrs.
Burton, and down at the floor. At first
I thought maybe she was trying to fix up a fake for an answer, then I saw that she was ^just bewildered at the terrible complexity of the problem I had confronted her with by asking her a question that couldn't be answered yes or no. I said, 'Come on. Rose. You know, Mr. Chapin came in, and you took his hat and coat, and he said -' ^ %. ^ She looked up. ‹I didn't take his hat and coat. He kept his coat on, and his gloves. He said to tell Dr. Burton he was there.',
'Did he stand there by the door or did he walk to a chair and sit down?'
'I don't know. I think he would sit down. I think he came along behind me but he came slow and I came back in to tell Dr. Burton.'
'Was the light turned on in the foyer ^en you left there?' yr ,»r'i- ^ 'Yes, sir. Of course.'
'After you told Dr. Burton, where did you go?' ‹I went back to the dining-room.'
'Where was the cook?'
'In the kitchen. She was there all the time.' I' 'Where was Mrs. Burton?'
'She was in her room dressing. – Wasn't you, madam?'
I grinned. 'Sure she was. I'm just getting all of you placed. Did Dr. Burton go to the foyer right away?' I She nodded. 'Well… maybe not right away. He went pretty soon. I was in the dining-room and heard him go by the door.'; t _ 'Okay.' I got up from my chair. | 'Now I'm going to ask you to do something. I suppose I shouldn't tell you | it's important, but it is. You go to the dining-room and start taking down the glasses, or whatever you were doing after you told Dr. Burton. I'll walk past the dining-room door and on to the foyer.
Was Dr. Burton going fast or slow?'
She shook her head and her lip began to quiver. 'He was just going.'
'All right, 141 just go. You hear me go by, and you decide when enough time has passed for the first shot to go off. When the time has come for the first shot, you yell Now loud enough for me to hear you in the foyer. Do you understand? First you'd better tell -'
I stopped on account of her lip. It was getting into high. I snapped at her,
'Come on out of that. Take a look at
Mrs. Burton and learn how to behave yourself. You're doing this for her. Come on now.'
She clamped her lips together and held them that way while she swallowed twice.
Then she opened them to say:
'The shots all came together.'
'All right, say they did. You yell Now when the time comes. First you'd better go and tell the people inside that you're going to yell or they'll be running out here -'
Mrs. Burton interposed, 'I'll tell them.
Rose, take Mr. Goodwin to the study and show him how to go.'
She was quite a person, that Mrs.
I Burton. I was getting so I liked her.
Maybe her soul was put away in a box somewhere, but other items of her insides, meaning guts, were all where they ought to be. If I was the kind that collected things I wouldn't have minded having one of her gloves myself.
Rose and I went out. Apparently she avoided the bedrooms by taking me around by a side hall, for we entered the study direct from that. She showed me how to go, by another door, and left me there. I looked around; books, leather chairs, radio, smoke stands, and a flattop desk by a window. There was the drawer, of course, where the gat had been kept.
I went over to it and pulled it open and shut it again. Then I went out by the other door and followed directions.
I struck a medium pace, past the diningroom door, across the central hall, through a big room and from that through the drawing-room; got my eye on my watch, opened the door into the foyer, went in and closed it -It was a good thing the folks had been warned, for Rose yelling no-w so I could hear it sounded even to me, away off in the foyer, like the last scream of doom.
I went back in faster than I had come for fear she might try it again. She had beat it back to the room where Mrs. Burton was.
When I entered she was standing by the couch with her face white as a sheet, looking seasick. Mrs. Burton was reaching up to pat her arm. I went over and sat down.
I said, ‹I almost didn't get there. Two seconds at the most. Of course she rushed it, but it shows it must have been quick. – Okay, Rose. I won't ask you to do any more yelling. You're a good brave girl. Just a couple more questions. When you heard the shots you ran to the foyer with Mrs. Burton. Is that right?',
'Yes, sir.'
'What did you see when you got there?' j'i didn't see anything. It was dark.'
'What did you hear?'
