a young man, a stranger to them, powerfully built and dressed like a
prosperous ranchman, had knocked on their door about 9.20 to ask the
way to the apartment of Cunningham. Hull explained that he remembered
the time particularly because he happened to be winding the clock at
the moment.

A description of Lane was given in a two-column "box." He read it with
no amusement. It was too deadly accurate for comfort.


The supposed assassin of James Cunningham is described by Mrs. Cass
Hull as dressed in a pepper-and-salt suit and a white, pinched-in
cattleman's hat. He is about six feet tall, between 25 and 30 years
old, weighing about 200 or perhaps 210 pounds. His hair is a light
brown and his face tanned from the sun.


His age and his weight were overstated, and his clothes were almost a
khaki brown. Otherwise Mrs. Hull had given a very close description of
him, considering her state of mind at the moment when she had seen him.

There was one sentence of the story he read over two or three times.
Hull and his wife agreed that it was about 9.20 when he had knocked on
their door, unless it was a printer's error or the reporter had made a
mistake. Kirby knew this was wrong. He had looked at his watch just
before he had entered the Paradox Apartment. He had stopped directly
under a street globe, and the time was 9.55.

Had the Hulls deliberately shifted the time back thirty-five minutes?
If so, why? He remembered how stark terror had stared out of both