"
"And your husband didn't go out again?"
"No, sir. When I got up in the morning to bring him a cup of tea he was
still sound asleep."
"But might he not have gone out in the night while you were asleep?"
"No, sir. I'm a very light sleeper, and I wake at the least stir."
Mrs. Hill's story seemed to ring true enough, although she kept her eyes
fixed on her interrogator with a kind of frightened brightness. Inspector
Chippenfield looked at her in silence for a few seconds.
"So that's the whole truth, is it?" he said at length.
"Yes, sir," the woman earnestly assured him. "You can ask Mr. Hill and
he'll tell you the same thing."
Something reminiscent in Inspector Chippenfield's mind responded to this
sentence. He pondered over it for a moment, and then remembered that Hill
had applied the same phrase to his wife. Evidently there had been
collusion, a comparing of tales beforehand. The woman had been tutored by
her cunning scoundrel of a husband, but undoubtedly her tale was false.
"The whole truth?" said the inspector, again.
"Yes, sir," answered Mrs. Hill.
"Now, look here," said the police officer, in his sternest tones, as he
shook a warning finger at the little woman, "I know you are lying.
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