“I didn’t think anything about it until after I’d read about the box disappearing, Dan. Then I began to wonder. I was delivering milk to the house across the street from the Hatfield place. It must have been about six o’clock.”
“What did you see?” Dan asked impatiently.
“A woman came out of the cellar exit. She seemed to be quite an old lady in a black dress and a shawl of the same color. I couldn’t see her face.”
“Mrs. Hatfield never dresses like that. She has modern clothes.”
“The woman had a bundle under her arm. The object, whatever it was, had been wrapped in a newspaper.”
“What day was this?”
“I don’t remember the date. It was the same morning Mr. Hatfield reported he lost the money. I’d have told him about it, only it didn’t register on me until yesterday that there might be any connection.”
“So far as I know no one lives at the Hatfield house except Sam, his wife, and Fred,” Dan said, deeply puzzled. “Who could the old lady have been?”
“It was no one I knew. She kept the shawl over her head, either to hide her face or protect it from the cold air.”
“Which way did she go?” Dan asked.