MRS PETERS: We think she was going to--knot it.

COUNTY ATTORNEY: Well, that's interesting, I'm sure. (_seeing the
birdcage_) Has the bird flown?

MRS HALE: (_putting more quilt pieces over the box_) We think the--cat
got it.

COUNTY ATTORNEY: (_preoccupied_) Is there a cat?

(MRS HALE _glances in a quick covert way at_ MRS PETERS.)

MRS PETERS: Well, not now. They're superstitious, you know. They leave.

COUNTY ATTORNEY: (_to_ SHERIFF PETERS, _continuing an interrupted
conversation_) No sign at all of anyone having come from the outside.
Their own rope. Now let's go up again and go over it piece by piece.
(_they start upstairs_) It would have to have been someone who knew just
the--

(MRS PETERS _sits down. The two women sit there not looking at one
another, but as if peering into something and at the same time holding
back. When they talk now it is in the manner of feeling their way over
strange ground, as if afraid of what they are saying, but as if they can
not help saying it_.)

MRS HALE: She liked the bird. She was going to bury it in that pretty
box.

MRS PETERS: (_in a whisper_) When I was a girl--my kitten--there was a