“You paid him the fifty?” Mason asked.
Hungerford nodded. “You see,” he said, “the stewards knew that I’d been with Belle quite a bit.”
“And this man didn’t want to be a witness?”
“I think,” Hungerford said, “he was going to take the fifty dollars and skip out. He told me that he’d taken the job as room steward so that he could lie low for a while.”
“Then it’s just a tip,” Mason said, “nothing I could use as evidence.”
“That’s right.”
“Know anything else?” Mason asked.
“I understand the Fell girl is telling a different story now from what she did at first. She claims now she actually saw Mrs. Newberry shoot her husband and push him over the rail.”
Mason said, “The thing grows with repetition, doesn’t it?”
“It seems to.”