cigar-smoking interrogation point.

"Railroad been here long?" he asked the conductor.

"Four years."

"Norada must have been pretty isolated before that."

"Thirty miles in a coach or a Ford car."

"I was reading the other day," said Bassett, "about the Judson
Clark case. Have a cigar? Got time to sit down?"

"You a newspaper man?"

"Oil well supplies," said Bassett easily. "Well, in this article
it seemed some woman or other had made a confession. It sounded
fishy to me."

"Well, I'll tell you about that." The conductor sat down and bit
off the end of his cigar. "I knew the Donaldsons well, and Maggie
Donaldson was an honest woman. But I'll tell you how I explain the
thing. Donaldson died, and that left her pretty much alone. The
executors of the Clark estate kept her on the ranch, but when the
estate was settled three years ago she had to move. That broke her
all up. She's always said he wasn't dead. She kept the house just
as it was, and my wife says she had his clothes all ready and
everything."

"That rather sounds as though the story is true, doesn't it?"