"Night is the time for such work. I did not care to be seen
pottering around there in daylight."

"No? Yet it would have been so much easier. You would not have
had to buy candles or carry a pistol or -"

"I did not carry a pistol. The only pistol carried there was the
one with which my demented wife chose to take her life. I do not
understand this allusion."

"It grew out of a misunderstanding of the situation, Mr. Jeffrey;
excuse me if I supposed you would be likely to provide yourself
with some means of defense in venturing alone upon the scene of
so many mysterious deaths."

"I took no precaution."

"And needed none, I suppose."

"And needed none."

"When was this visit paid, Mr. Jeffrey? Before or after your wife
pulled the trigger which ended her life? You need not hesitate to
answer."

"I do not." The elegant gentleman before us had acquired a certain
fierceness. "Why should I? Certainly, you don't think that I was
there at the same time she was. It was not on the same night, even.
So much the walls should have told you and probably did, or my
wife's uncle, Mr. David Moore. Was he not your informant?"