It was for the coroner to answer.
"We'll let him go when we're assured that he means all that he says. I haven't as good an opinion of him as you have. I think he's deceiving you and that you are a very foolish girl to trust him. Men don't fire on the women they love, for any reason. You'd better tell me what you have against him."
"I haven't anything against him now."
"But you were going to tell us something——"
"I guess I was fooling."
"People are not apt to fool who have just been in terror of their lives."
Her eyes sought the ground. "I'm just a hardworking girl," she muttered almost sullenly. "What should I know about that man Quimby's dreadful doings?"
"Dreadful? You call them dreadful?" It was Doctor Golden who spoke.
"He locked me in my room," she violently declared. "That wasn't done for fun."
"And is that all you can tell us? Don't look at Jake. Look at me."