"Jury finds that Uncle James came to his death from the effect of
either a blow on the head by some heavy instrument, or a bullet fired
at close quarters by some unknown person," James said.

"Good enough. Might have been worse for me," replied Kirby.

"Yes. I've talked with the district attorney and think I can arrange
for bond. We're going to take it up with the court to-morrow. My
opinion is that the Hulls did this. All through his testimony the
fellow sweated fear. I've put it in the hands of a private detective
agency to keep tabs on him."

The cattleman smiled ruefully. "Trouble is I'm the only witness to
their panic right after the murder. Wish it had been some one else.
I'm a prejudiced party whose evidence won't count for much. You're
right. They've somethin' to do with it. In their evidence they
shifted the time back thirty-five minutes so as to get me into
Apartment 12 that much earlier. Why? If I could answer that question,
I could go a long way toward solvin' the mystery of who killed Uncle
James an' why he did it."

"Probably. As I see it, we have three leads to go on. One is that the
guilty man is Hull. A second possibility is the unknown man from Dry
Valley. A third is Horikawa."

"How about Horikawa? Did you know him well?"

"One never knows an Oriental. Perhaps I'm prejudiced because I used to
live in California, but I never trust a Japanese fully. His sense of
right and wrong is so different from mine. Horikawa is a quiet little