“He ought to come back,” she said. “Indeed—indeed he ought to come back.”

 

She was looking at me with appealing eyes.

 

“Does no one know where he is?” she asked.

 

“Do you?” I said sharply.

 

She shook her head.

 

“No, indeed. I know nothing. But any one who was a friend to him would tell him

this: he ought to come back.”

 

I lingered, thinking that perhaps the girl would say more. Her next question

surprised me.

 

“When do they think the murder was done? Just before ten o’clock?”

 

“That is the idea,” I said. “Between a quarter to ten and the hour.”

 

“Not earlier? Not before a quarter to ten?”

 

I looked at her attentively. She was so clearly eager for a reply in the

affirmative.