"And you say each carried a handbag?"
"Yes, sir."
"Can you prove that you were not around the post office at the time of the explosion?"
"I cannot, sir. I was just coming from home to go to Dr. Foley's, for my mother, who was taken sick during the night."
"And you went to Dr. Foley's afterward?"
"Yes, sir. He will tell you the same thing."
"What of the valise found in your back doorward?"
"I know nothing of it, excepting that both my mother and I fancied we heard somebody around the house just a short while before the constable and the others came."
Postmaster Hooker turned to Squire Paget.
"What do you think of this, squire?" he asked.