Look here!--it's like this.
My stepfather had gone in there for the morning service--strict old church-goer he is, you know--and he saw this stranger going up the stairway.

He's positive, Mr.Folliot, that it was then five minutes to ten.

Now, then, I ask you--isn't he right, my stepfather, when he says that it must have happened at once--immediately?
"Because that man, Varner, the mason, says he saw the man fall before ten.

What ?" One of the group nodded at Bryce.
"I should think Bryce knows what time it happened as well as anybody," he said.

"You were first on the spot, Bryce, weren't you ?" "After Varner," answered Bryce laconically.