Brown looked surprised, but answered readily, "I was out with some
friends of mine. We all went down to the city together that night
and stayed out pretty late, and it seems a mighty good thing we
did, too."

"Why so?" asked the coroner.

"Well, sir," said Brown, deliberately, glad of an opportunity to
tell his story and evidently determined to make the most of it, "as
I said, we stayed out that night later than we meant to, and I didn't
waste no time getting home after I left the depot. So, when I got
to Fair Oaks, I thought I'd take the shortest cut, and so I come in
by the south gate, off from the side street, and took the path
around the lake to get to the stables."

"What lake do you mean?" interrupted the coroner.

"The small lake back of the grove in the south part of the grounds.
Well, I was hurrying along through that grove, and all of a sudden
I seen a man standing on the edge of the lake with his back towards
me. He was very tall, and wore an ulster that came nearly to his
feet, and he looked so queer that I stepped out of the path and
behind some big trees to watch him. I hadn't no more than done so,
when he stooped and picked up something, and come right up the path
towards me. The moon was shining, had been up about two hours, I
should say, but his back was to the light and I couldn't see his
face, nor I didn't want him to see me. After he'd got by I stepped
out to watch him and see if he went towards the house, but he
didn't; he took the path I had just left and walked very fast to
the south gate and went out onto the side street."

"In which direction did he then go?" asked the coroner.

"He went up onto the main avenue and turned towards the town."

"Can you describe his appearance?"

"Only that he was tall and had very black hair; but his face was in
the shadow, so I couldn't tell how he looked."

"What did he pick up from the ground?"

"I couldn't see very plain, but it looked like a small, square box
done up in paper."

"You did not try to call any one?"

"No, sir. The man didn't go near the house, and I didn't think
much about it until Uncle Mose told me yesterday morning that the
night before he seen--"

"Never mind what he saw; we will let him tell his own story. Was
that all you saw?"

"No, sir; it wasn't," replied Brown, with a quick side glance
towards Mrs. LaGrange, who occupied the same position as on the
preceding day. "I was going along towards the stables, th