Page:Keeban (IA keeban00balm).pdf/18

 "Twelve o'clock. Ten minutes after," I added more precisely and he did not question me further on that; he knows I always keep track of time.

"You saw Dot about midnight?"

"Within a quarter of an hour of the time I left, Jerry."

"When did you see me last?"

He tried not to—I thought—but he could not help bending toward me a little and he could not keep his voice from going a little up and down.

"Why, at the door when I went, Jerry!" I said, my own voice cracking a little, excited from him.

"At the door of the Sparlings at ten minutes after twelve, Steve?" he begged of me.

"Why, yes, Jerry."

"I, Steve? You saw me there?"

"Why not? What is it, Jerry? I've told you I did."

"You know me; or you ought to know me, if any one in the world does. And you wouldn't joke about it with me, would you, Steve? If all the rest of them were doing it, if they'd sworn you in, too, in the hoax, you'd tell me the truth now, wouldn't you? For you see Dot's taken!