Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/225

Rh "Then how could they describe you with your wrist hurt, when you didn't hurt it till this morning after breakfast?"

"I don't know that! I don't know that!" Preston stammered, confused. "But how do you know my wrist was hurt this morning—and not last night in the fight with Hareston? You merely had my word for that!"

"No, I hadn't!" the girl returned in triumph; "for I knew for myself that what you said was true. I saw you myself this morning when you hurt yourself helping the man with his motor."

"You didn't!" Preston cried incredulously.

"I did!" the girl confessed, coloring crimson. "For early this morning, after we were all packed up, I took Elsie out for a walk with me, and," she turned her face away for the first time, "I took her down the street toward the Hoe. You were pacing up and down in front of your hotel when the motor went wrong in the street beside you. I saw you spring out to fix it, and something fly up and 201