She went on with her sewing, apparently intending to drop the matter; but the reporter felt that now and then she was subjecting him to a sharp scrutiny, and that, in some shrewd woman-fashion, she was trying to place him.
“You said it was a matter of some property?”
“Yes.”
“But it's rather late, isn't it? Ten years?”
“That's what makes it difficult.”
There was another silence, during which she evidently made her decision.
“I have never said this before, except to Mr. Wasson. But I believe he was here when Henry Livingstone died.”
Her tone was mysterious, and Bassett stared at her.
“You don't think Livingstone was murdered!”
“No. He died of heart failure. There was an autopsy. But he had a bad cut on his head. Of course, he may have fallen—Bill and Jake were away. They'd driven some cattle out on the range. It was two days before he was found, and it would have been longer if Mr. Wasson hadn't ridden out to talk to him about buying. He found him dead in his bed, but there was blood on the floor in the next room. I washed it up myself.”