Page:Burton Stevenson--The marathon mystery.djvu/48

28 later that I heard a pistol-shot an’ I knowed in a minute what’d happened. That drunken brute had got too familiar, an’ she’d put a bullet in him. Though,” he added, reflectively, “why, if she’s straight, she’d go t’ his room at all is more’n I kin see.”

“Was there only one shot?” asked Godfrey.

“Only one,” answered the janitor; “but it sounded like a small cannon. It didn’t come from no sech little pop-gun as that which Mr. Simmonds picked up in th’ corner. I rushed up th’ stairs an’ threw open th’ door”

“Wasn’t it locked?”

“No; an’ that’s funny, too,” he added, “fer I remember hearin’ the lock snap after th’ girl went in. Somebody must ‘a’ throwed it back ag’in. Mebbe th’ girl did it, tryin’ t’ git out, an’ Thompson got a-hold of her an’ then she let him have it.”

Godfrey nodded, with an appreciation seemingly very deep.

“That’s it, no doubt,” he said. “I see you’re a close reasoner, Mr. Higgins.”

“Why,” said Higgins, with a smile of self-satisfaction, “I allers have been able t’ put two an’ two t’gether. They’s one thing, though, I can’t explain. As I was rushin’ up th’ steps, I heard th’ openin’ an’ shuttin’ of a door.”

“Ah,” said Godfrey thoughtfully. “And there was no one in the hall?”

“Not a soul; not a soul in sight.”

“Are you sure of that?”

“Sure! O’ course I am. There’s a light in th’