"He was alone?"
"At first he was. In about a minute his brother an' Miss Harriman came into the room. She screamed when she saw yore uncle an' most fainted. The other brother, the young one, kinda caught her an' steadied her. He was struck all of a heap himself. You could see that. He looked at James, an' he said, 'My God, you didn't—' That was all. No need to finish. O' course James denied it. He'd jumped up to help support Miss Harriman outa the room. Maybe a coupla minutes later he came back alone. He went right straight back to the desk, found inside of three seconds the legal document I told you I'd seen his uncle reading glanced it over, turned to the back page, jammed the paper back in the cubby-hole, an' then switched off the light. A minute later the light was switched off in the big room, too. Then I reckoned it was time to beat it down the fire escape. I did. I went back into the Wyndham carryin' the clothes-line under my coat, walked upstairs without meetin' anybody, left the rope on the roof, an' got outa the house without being seen."
"That's the whole story?" Kirby said.
"The whole story. I'd swear it on a stack of Bibles."
"Did you fix the rope for a lariat up on the roof or wait till you came back to the fire escape?"
"I fixed it on the roof—made the loop an' all there. Figured I might be seen if I stood around too long on the platform."
"So that you must 'a' been away quite a little while."
"I reckon so. Prob'ly a quarter of an hour or more."
"Can you locate more definitely the exact time you heard the shot?"
"No, I don't reckon I can."