"Don't be afraid to speak," he said reassuringly. "What you have to say is not necessarily against Mr. Osborne's interests. Just state the facts simply--you did see him here on the murder night, didn't you?"
She muttered something, as a tear dropped on the ample bosom of her black dress.
"Coming up the kitchen stairs to talk to Mr. Jenkins."
"Don't cry. And when you reached the top of the kitchen stairs you saw his back on the house stairs--at the bottom? at the top?"
"He was nearer the top. I only saw him a minute."
"A moment, you mean, I think. And in that one moment you became quite sure that it was Mr. Osborne? Though it was only his back you saw?"
"No, don't cry. It's nothing. Only are you certain sure--that's the point?"
"I thought he was the worse for drink, which was a mad thing."
"His feet seemed to reel from side to side--almost from under him."
"His feet--I see. From side to side.... Ever saw him the worse for drink before?"
"Never in all my life! I was amazed. Afterwards I had a feeling that it wasn't Mr. Osborne himself, but his spirit that I had seen. And it may have been his spirit! For my Aunt Pruie saw the spirit of her boy one Sunday afternoon when he was alive and well in his ship on the sea."
"But a spirit the worse for drink?" murmured Furneaux; "a spirit whose feet seemed to reel?"
She dropped her eyes, and presently wept a theory.
"A spirit walks lighter-like than a Christian, sir."
"Did you, though," asked Furneaux, making shorthand signs in his notebook, "did you have the impression that it might be a spirit at the time, or was it only afterwards?"
"It was only afterwards when I thought matters over," said Mrs. Bates. "Even at the time it crossed my mind that there was something in it I didn't rightly understand."
"Now, what sort of something?--can't you say?"
"And when you saw Mr. Jenkins immediately afterwards, did you mention to him that you had seen Mr. Osborne?"
"No, I didn't say anything to him, nor him to me."
"Pity.... But the hour. You have said, I hear, that it was five minutes to eight. Now, the murder was committed between 7.30 and 7.45; and at five to eight Mr. Osborne is said by more than one person to have been at the Ritz Hotel. If he was there, he couldn't have been here. If he was here, he couldn't have been there. Are you sure of the hour--five to eight?"