That was at one o’clock in the morning. It being Saturday night he had gone to the movies in the village and then played some pool. At half past twelve he had started up the hill, using the main highway to where the Beaver Creek Road branched off. He had followed the Beaver Creek Road a hundred yards or so, and from there he had turned into the lane leading to the ravine where Lydia’s car had been found. He had used the lane, he explained, because he did not want to be seen going home so late. It was at the entrance to the lane that he had seen the Morgan car.

“Did you recognize it?”

“Not at the time. I ducked into the brush. But nobody uses that road. It doesn’t go anywhere. When they found the car up the lane next day I was pretty sure it was the one.”

“The car passed you?”

“Yes. It went right up the lane.”

“Can you tell us the time?”

“One o’clock exactly. I looked at my watch. It never varies a minute, one way or the other.”

“Did you see who was driving this car?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you see it again?”

“No, sir. Where it was found was beyond my place.”

“Now about this second car. Tell the jury about it.”

“Well, I got a better look at it. It came along about two minutes later. It looked to me as if it might have been chasing the first one and lost it. It stopped at the entrance to the lane, and then backed and turned. There was a man in it. I couldn’t see who it was.”

“Did you recognize the car?”

The witness hesitated, turning his hat around in his hands.

“I can’t be sure. I thought at the time it was Dr. Sterling’s.”

That made a sensation, and Bill looked almost rigid when he was called again. But his story was straightforward enough. It was twelve o’clock when he left the Cloisters. He had some late coffee and he was not sleepy. He drove around for an hour or two. He frequently did that at night, as his housekeeper could testify.

The coroner was a dry little man, and he merely nodded. He had a map of the district before him and glanced at it.

“In the course of that drive did you reach this lane off the Beaver Creek Road?”

“I did. I turned there and went back.”

“Now, Doctor, a previous witness has stated that you were apparently following another car. Is that a fact?”

“It is. I saw what looked like the Morgan car on the highway. It was late for Mrs. Morgan or her daughter to be out, especially in view of what has been happening; the attack on Evans, and certain other things. I turned around and followed it, but it was going very fast. I lost it entirely where the Beaver Creek Road branches off the main highway.”

“There is a fork there?”