Boy (mildly indignant): I saw him.
Vance (after a pause): You're quite sure he didn't come downstairs again?
Boy: I told you I'd 've seen him if he had.
Vance: Couldn't he have walked down at some time when you had the elevator upstairs, without your seeing him?
Boy: Sure, he could. But I didn't take the elevator up after I'd took the Major his cracked ice until round two-thirty, when Mr. Montagu came in.
Vance: You took no one up in the elevator, then, between the time you brought Major Benson the ice and when Mr. Montagu came in at two-thirty?
Boy: Nobody.
Vance: And you didn't leave the hall here between those hours?
Boy: No. I was sittin' here all the time.
Vance: Then the last time you saw him was in bed at twelve-thirty?
Boy: Yes—until early in the morning when some dame[1] 'phoned him and said his brother had been murdered. He came down and went out about ten minutes after.
Vance (giving the boy a dollar): That's all. But don't you open your mouth to anyone about our being here, or you may find yourself in the lock-up—understand? . . . Now, get back to your job.
When the boy had left us, Vance turned a pleading gaze upon Markham.
"Now, old man, for the protection of society, and the higher demands of justice, and the greatest good
- ↑ Obviously Mrs. Platz.
