Page:The Benson Murder Case (1926).pdf/323

 (mildly indignant): I saw him.

(after a pause): You're quite sure he didn't come downstairs again?

I told you I'd 've seen him if he had.

Couldn't he have walked down at some time when you had the elevator upstairs, without your seeing him?

Sure, he could. But I didn't take the elevator up after I'd took the Major his cracked ice until round two-thirty, when Mr. Montagu came in.

You took no one up in the elevator, then, between the time you brought Major Benson the ice and when Mr. Montagu came in at two-thirty?

Nobody.

And you didn't leave the hall here between those hours?

No. I was sittin' here all the time.

Then the last time you saw him was in bed at twelve-thirty?

Yes—until early in the morning when some dame 'phoned him and said his brother had been murdered. He came down and went out about ten minutes after.

(giving the boy a dollar): That's all. But don't you open your mouth to anyone about our being here, or you may find yourself in the lock-up—understand? . . . Now, get back to your job.

When the boy had left us, Vance turned a pleading gaze upon Markham.

"Now, old man, for the protection of society, and the higher demands of justice, and the greatest good