“Because me and Swatty and Bony saw him steal the powder to do it with,” I told her, “We was over in Illinois and we saw him steal it from the powder house that's over there.”
So we talked about that and when we got home to her house she told me to come up on the porch, and I did; and then she opened the door and called for her father, and he came to the door.
“Papa, this is Georgie,” she said; “and he knows who blew up our house.”
Well, he took me inside the house and asked me to tell all about it, and I told him, and Mamie sat in a chair and listened to me tell it. When he had asked me everything he could think of he went to the door with me and said:
“George, you are a fine boy!”
I said:
“Yes, sir!” and then I said, “Good-bye, Mamie!” And she said:
“I don't like that mean old Toady Williams.” So I went home.
That evening Mr. Murphy, the detective, came up to my house and Mr. Little came with him; and Mr. Murphy asked me all the questions Mr. Little had asked, and a lot more, and I told him all about Slim Finnegan. He asked where Swatty and Bony lived and how to get to their houses. So then Mr. Murphy said:
“If the boy is telling the truth this may be more important than we imagined. I have thought for some time that the reason Slim Finnegan left town was because he knew something of this affair.”