“I waited there a long time, and then suddenly a taxicab came up to the curb and Mr. Warren got out.  Then the taxicab beat it down-town again and Mr. Warren went in the station.  And as he come in one door, I beat it out of the other.”

“Why?” snapped Leverage.

“Because him seein’ me there was certain to start somethin’.  And I wasn’t hankerin’ for nothin’ like that to happen.  So I went across the street and tried to get shelter against the wall of that dump of a hotel over there.  An’ it was cold:  I ain’t seen such a cold night in my life.  I almos’ froze to death.”

“And yet you continued to stand there?”

“Sure—­I was curious.  Kinder foolish, maybe, but I wanted to see had I figured right about him eloping with Mrs. Lawrence.  So I stood there, darn near dead with the cold, when the midnight Union Station street car stopped an’ Mrs. Lawrence got out.  An’ the first thing I noticed was that she wasn’t carryin’ no suit-case.  I noticed that on account of havin’ seen her suit-case in Mr. Warren’s car that day.  She didn’t carry nothin’ but one of these handbag things that women lug around with ’em.”

“How was she dressed?”

“Fur coat and hat and a heavy veil.”

“You could see the veil from across the street at midnight?”

“No sir.  Not from there.  But when she went in the depot, I followed across the street and looked inside to see what was goin’ to happen.”  He paused a moment and then Carroll prodded him on—­

“Well—­what did happen?”

“The minute Mr. Warren seen her come in he beat it through the opposite door from where I was standin’ out to the platform that runs parallel to the tracks.  An’ he nodded to her to follow him.  She sort of nodded like she was wise, an’ took a seat so’s nobody would think anything in case there was anyone there lookin’ for something.  Mr. Warren walked off down the outside platform towards the baggage room an’ after about three minutes she gets up, kinder casual-like and follers.  Soon as she went through the door to the platform I went in the waitin’ room.”

“What did you do then?”

“Nothin’.  Just made a bee line for the steam radiator an’ tried to get warm.  I was so cold it hurt.  An’ I stood there for about ten minutes.  Then I heard that train comin’ in an’ I went outside into the street again.”

Carroll’s voice was tense.  “In all that time did you hear
anything—­anything at all?”

Barker shook his head.  “No sir—­not a thing—­except that train comin’ in.  And then the passengers from it began to come through, and I was surprised to see Mrs. Lawrence comin’ with them, an’ she was carryin’ his suit-case.”

“Whose suit-case?”

“Mr. Warren’s.  She come on out to the curb an’ called a taxicab.”

“Where was the taxicab standing?”

“Parked against the curb on Atlantic Avenue about a hundred yards from the entrance in the direction of Jackson street.”