just pointed upstairs—­like that (himself pointing to the room above) I got up, with the idea of going up there.  I walked from there to here—­then I says, ‘Why, what did he die of?’ ‘He died of a rope round his neck’, says she, and just went on pleatin’ at her apron.  Well, I went out and called Harry.  I thought I might—­need help.  We went upstairs and there he was lyin’—­

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  I think I’d rather have you go into that upstairs, where you can point it all out.  Just go on now with the rest of the story.

HALE:  Well, my first thought was to get that rope off.  It looked ... (stops, his face twitches) ... but Harry, he went up to him, and he said, ‘No, he’s dead all right, and we’d better not touch anything.’  So we went back down stairs.  She was still sitting that same way.  ’Has anybody been notified?’ I asked.  ‘No’, says she unconcerned.  ’Who did this, Mrs Wright?’ said Harry.  He said it business-like—­and she stopped pleatin’ of her apron.  ‘I don’t know’, she says.  ‘You don’t know?’ says Harry.  ‘No’, says she.  ‘Weren’t you sleepin’ in the bed with him?’ says Harry.  ‘Yes’, says she, ‘but I was on the inside’.  ’Somebody slipped a rope round his neck and strangled him and you didn’t wake up?’ says Harry.  ‘I didn’t wake up’, she said after him.  We must ’a looked as if we didn’t see how that could be, for after a minute she said, ’I sleep sound’.  Harry was going to ask her more questions but I said maybe we ought to let her tell her story first to the coroner, or the sheriff, so Harry went fast as he could to Rivers’ place, where there’s a telephone.

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  And what did Mrs Wright do when she knew that you had gone for the coroner?

HALE:  She moved from that chair to this one over here (pointing to a small chair in the corner) and just sat there with her hands held together and looking down.  I got a feeling that I ought to make some conversation, so I said I had come in to see if John wanted to put in a telephone, and at that she started to laugh, and then she stopped and looked at me—­scared, (the COUNTY ATTORNEY, who has had his notebook out, makes a note) I dunno, maybe it wasn’t scared.  I wouldn’t like to say it was.  Soon Harry got back, and then Dr Lloyd came, and you, Mr Peters, and so I guess that’s all I know that you don’t.

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  (looking around) I guess we’ll go upstairs first—­and then out to the barn and around there, (to the SHERIFF) You’re convinced that there was nothing important here—­nothing that would point to any motive.

SHERIFF:  Nothing here but kitchen things.

(The COUNTY ATTORNEY, after again looking around the kitchen, opens the door of a cupboard closet.  He gets up on a chair and looks on a shelf.  Pulls his hand away, sticky.)

COUNTY ATTORNEY:  Here’s a nice mess.

(The women draw nearer.)