“When did you see me last?”
He tried not to—I thought—but he could not help bending toward me a little and he could not keep his voice from going a little up and down.
“Why, at the door when I went, Jerry!” I said, my own voice cracking a little, excited from him.
“At the door of the Sparlings at ten minutes after twelve, Steve?” he begged of me.
“Why, yes, Jerry.”
“I, Steve? You saw me there?”
“Why not? What is it, Jerry? I’ve told you I did.”
“You know me; or you ought to know me, if any one in the world does. And you wouldn’t joke about it with me, would you, Steve? If all the rest of them were doing it, if they’d sworn you in, too, in the hoax, you’d tell me the truth now, wouldn’t you? For you see Dot’s taken! If she’s not really taken, I believe she is; that’s the same to me! Oh, I know you wouldn’t be in on anything like that against me!”
“Dot taken? Where? How? What is it that’s happened?”
“That’s what no one knows, Steve. Oh—we’ve got to go over it just as it came on. Up to half-past eleven, you know everything. That is, there’s nothing in particular to tell. We were all at the Sparlings’ dancing about after the wedding; about half-past eleven people began drifting over to the Drake to Casoway’s dance. Dot and I meant to go; with Jim and Laura Townsend in their car. In the coat room I was held up a few minutes finding my things; this was still at the Sparlings’, Steve. When I came down to the carriage door, I couldn’t find Dot. The Townsends were gone; somebody said she’d gone with them, so I followed on in the next machine for the Drake. Don’t know whose it was; just some people said, ‘Going to the Drake? Get in.’ So I got in and soon as I got to the Drake went on a hunt for Dot but couldn’t find her right away. Awful jam there, Steve; couldn’t find the Townsends for twenty minutes; then they said they hadn’t brought Dot. Thought maybe the Westmans might have; they came over at the same time. So I chased up Sally Westman; she hadn’t brought Dot; but I ran on Tom Downs just coming in; this was twelve o’clock then, Steve.