"You didn't think of going back to the hall to see what had
happened?"

"Oh, no, sir. I just went in to Mrs. Stevens, and she said, 'Oh,
what was that?' frightened-like. And I said, 'That was in the
house, Mrs. Stevens, that was.' Just like something going off,
it was."

"Thank you," said the Coroner.

There was another emotional disturbance in the room as Cayley
went into the witness-box; not "Sensation" this time, but an
eager and, as it seemed to Antony, sympathetic interest. Now
they were getting to grips with the drama.

He gave his evidence carefully, unemotionally--the lies with the
same slow deliberation as the truth. Antony watched him
intently, wondering what it was about him which had this odd sort
of attractiveness. For Antony, who knew that he was lying, and
lying (as he believed) not for Mark's sake but his own, yet could
not help sharing some of that general sympathy with him.

"Was Mark ever in possession of a revolver?" asked the Coroner.

"Not to my knowledge. I think I should have known if he had
been."

"You were alone with him all that morning. Did he talk about
this visit of Robert's at all?"