Apparently she had heard something, Gibbs thought quickly, and he was more than ever anxious to get her away. But, not knowing how to manage such an unusual type of womankind, he said instead that he thought he should retire and make his call some other time.
CHAPTER XI
The Old Feud
And Detective Gibbs did retire and did make his call some other time, but he made it not on Miss Prall, but on Mrs Everett.
He had fancied from her attitude that he could learn much from her if he could manage to gain her attention and enlist her sympathies.
With this end in view he went to see her later the same day, and found her not unwilling to talk with him.
“I thought I should die,” she exclaimed, clasping her plump little hands and rocking back and forth in a becushioned wicker chair, “to see Letitia Prall wriggle around! Why, Mr Gibbs, it’s clear to be seen she knows more than she has told or means to tell! Aren’t you going to make her talk?”
“Why do you think she knows something?” countered the detective.
“Oh, I know her so well. When she purses up her thin lips and then widens them out to a straight line again, several times in succession, that’s a sure sign she’s terribly upset. Didn’t you notice her do that? It’s a peculiar habit, and I know what it means! Letitia Prall was nearly frantic for fear you’d find out something she doesn’t want you to know!”