"The magistrates nodded to the four soldiers. Two of them took
their post near the chair, one at the outside door, and one at the
other end of the room. Sir Marmaduke said nothing, but shrugged his
shoulders, and then began to play with the ears of the little
spaniel, Fido, that had jumped up on his knees.

"'We will first go into the study,' John Cockshaw said; and I led
them there.

"They went straight to the cabinet with the pull-down desk, where
Sir Marmaduke writes when he does write, which is not often. It was
locked, and I went to Sir Marmaduke for the key.

"'You will find it in that French vase on the mantel,' he said. 'I
don't open the desk once in three months, and should lose the key,
if I carried it with me.'

"I went to the mantel, turned the vase over, and the key dropped
out.

"'Sir Marmaduke has nothing to hide, gentlemen,' I said, 'so, you
see, he keeps the key here.'

"I went to the cabinet, and put the key in. As I did so I said:

"'Look, gentlemen, someone has opened, or tried to open, this desk.
Here is a mark, as if a knife had been thrust in to shoot the
bolt.'