“A nice lot of folks _you_ be,” the old woman finally went on in a broken voice but with deep indignation back of it. “What was ye doin’ before, I’d like to know, asettin’ around offices an’ paradin’ up and down the streets! When I went an’ warned ye more’n a week ago that we was in danger over here, I was told there warn’t nothin’ you could do—not till somebody done somethin’. Well, now some one’s done somethin’ an’ ye come hurryin’ around askin’ us all about it! But ye needn’t take no trouble askin’ me. I’ve told ye all I’ve got to tell. I told it to one of yer perlice a-strollin’ up an’ down Centre Street in a nice uniform with brass buttons on it!” The inspector made no attempt to interrupt or cut short Mrs. Temple’s somewhat fervent remarks, and when she’d quite finished he spoke to her in a carefully softened tone. “You’re certainly right, Mrs. Temple,” he said, “as to its being too late to do anything now for the—the unfortunate victim in this case. His murder was, as you indicate, a most cold-blooded crime. Every additional particular that is brought out adds to its cruelty and brutality. And was it really a fact, as I think you intimated, that the poor fellow was lighting his pipe as the shots were fired?” He looked sympathetically and inquiringly at the old woman. But Mrs. Temple’s mouth was shut and there were no signs visible that she had any intention of opening it. “Rot in jail before she’d talk if she didn’t want to,” was the inspector’s unspoken comment. Well, they’d have to make her want to, that was all. So she was excused, almost with apologies, and allowed to go where she pleased. But wherever that was a detective would be on the job and not lose track of her for an instant. * * * * * All available information was in, but the plain-clothes men were still working through the house and grounds. No weapon of any kind had yet been found, and no bullet marks discovered in the room. The theory regarding the latter was that the bullets (it was taken for granted they’d been fired through the front window) struck against the masonry of the fireplace or chimney and left no noticeable mark. In that case, however, they should have been found where they dropped—and the search for them was still going on.