"Well, I don't suppose I can be of any help, but if I can, call on me. I live in East Fallville, only twelve miles away, and I'd like nothing better than to dig into this mystery, if I'm wanted." "Thank you, Mr. Young, I appreciate your helpful spirit, and I'll call on you if it's available. But I don't mind owning up that we have more people to look into this matter than directions in which to look. As you may imagine, it's a baffling thing to get hold of. I confess I hardly know which way to turn." As the two men returned to the living room, Hughes overheard some angry words between Bannard and Roger Downing, one of the dwellers in the village. "But I saw you," Downing was saying. "You think you did," returned Bannard, "but you're mistaken." "When?" asked Hughes, suddenly and sharply, of Downing. "Sunday about noon. Win Bannard was skulking around in the woods just back of this house----" "Skulking! Take back that word!" cried Bannard. "Well, you were sauntering around, then, dawdling around, whatever you want it called, but you were there!" "I was not," declared Bannard. "And I saw your little motor car waiting for you a bit farther along the road----" "You did!" and Bannard laughed shortly, "well, as it happens I don't own a motor car!" "Nonsense, Roger," said Hughes, "Win Bannard wasn't up here Sunday noon--where would he have been concealed until three o'clock----" "In his aunt's room----" "Take that back!" shouted Bannard, "do you know what you're saying?" "Hush up, both of you," cautioned Hughes. "For Heaven's sake don't get up a scene over nothing! But, if you saw a small motor car along the road near here, I want to know about it. What time was this, Downing?" "'Long about noon, I tell you," was the sulky reply. "It might have been a few minutes before. There was no one in the car; it was drawn up by the side of the road, not more'n two hundred yards from the house." "And you thought you saw Mr. Bannard. Of course, it was someone else, but it's important to know about this. I can't help thinking whoever committed that murder was hidden in the room for some time beforehand----" "And how did he get away?" asked Bannard. "If you ask me that once more, I'll pound you! I don't _know_ how he got away. But he did get away, and we'll find out how, when we find our man. That's my theory of procedure, if you want to know; let the mystery of the locked room wait, and devote all possible effort to finding the murderer. Then the rest will unravel itself." "Easier said than done," sneered Downing, "if you're going to discard all evidence or statements that anyone makes to you!" "If you were so sure you saw Mr. Bannard on Sunday morning, why didn't you so state at the inquest?" "I wasn't asked, and besides 'twas about noon, and old Timken only asked about the afternoon----" "And besides," broke in Bannard, "you weren't sure you did see me, and you weren't sure you saw anybody, and you made up this whole yarn, anyhow!"