"Did you see or hear anything unusual about the place at any time
last night?"

"No, sir."

For a moment the coroner was occupied with a slip of paper which
had been passed to him through a number of hands; then he said,-

"Before you are dismissed, will you describe the locks used on the
doors of Mr. Mainwaring's library and the south hall."

"They had the ordinary locks, sir; and then, in addition, a small,
patent lock, that when a certain spring was turned the door locked
of itself and could not be opened from either side unless one had
the key and understood the working of the spring."

"Who had keys to fit these locks?"

"No one but Mr. Mainwaring. When he was home and wanted the doors
unlocked, he hung the keys in a particular place in the library
where I could find them, and when he went away he always took them
with him."

"Did you unlock the library doors this morning?"

"Only the door into the main hall when I went to call Mr. Whitney,
- that had nothing but an ordinary lock; but the other door, into
the south hall, was unlocked and the keys gone when I first went
into the library."