COUNTY ATTORNEY:  Somebody should have been left here yesterday.

SHERIFF:  Oh—­yesterday.  When I had to send Frank to Morris Center for that man who went crazy—­I want you to know I had my hands full yesterday.  I knew you could get back from Omaha by today and as long as I went over everything here myself—­

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  Well, Mr Hale, tell just what happened when you came here yesterday morning.

HALE:  Harry and I had started to town with a load of potatoes.  We came along the road from my place and as I got here I said, I’m going to see if I can’t get John Wright to go in with me on a party telephone.’  I spoke to Wright about it once before and he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet—­I guess you know about how much he talked himself; but I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though I said to Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John—­

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  Let’s talk about that later, Mr Hale.  I do want to talk about that, but tell now just what happened when you got to the house.

HALE:  I didn’t hear or see anything; I knocked at the door, and still it was all quiet inside.  I knew they must be up, it was past eight o’clock.  So I knocked again, and I thought I heard somebody say, ‘Come in.’  I wasn’t sure, I’m not sure yet, but I opened the door—­this door (indicating the door by which the two women are still standing) and there in that rocker—­(pointing to it) sat Mrs Wright.

(They all look at the rocker.)

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  What—­was she doing?

HALE:  She was rockin’ back and forth.  She had her apron in her hand and was kind of—­pleating it.

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  And how did she—­look?

HALE:  Well, she looked queer.

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  How do you mean—­queer?

HALE:  Well, as if she didn’t know what she was going to do next.  And kind of done up.

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  How did she seem to feel about your coming?

HALE:  Why, I don’t think she minded—­one way or other.  She didn’t pay much attention.  I said, ‘How do, Mrs Wright it’s cold, ain’t it?’ And she said, ’Is it?’—­and went on kind of pleating at her apron.  Well, I was surprised; she didn’t ask me to come up to the stove, or to set down, but just sat there, not even looking at me, so I said, ’I want to see John.’  And then she—­laughed.  I guess you would call it a laugh.  I thought of Harry and the team outside, so I said a little sharp:  ’Can’t I see John?’ ‘No’, she says, kind o’ dull like.  ‘Ain’t he home?’ says I.  ‘Yes’, says she, ‘he’s home’.  ‘Then why can’t I see him?’ I asked her, out of patience. ‘’Cause he’s dead’, says she. ’Dead?’ says I. She just nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin’ back and forth.  ‘Why—­where is he?’ says I, not knowing what to say.  She