inking
about that man, and all of a sudden I noticed there was a bright
light in one of the rooms up-stairs. The curtains wasn't drawn,
and I thought I'd see whose room it was, so I walked up towards the
house carefully, and I saw Mr. Mainwaring's secretary. He looked
awfully pale and haggard, and was walking up and down the room kind
of excited like. Just then I happened to step on the gravelled walk
and he heard me, for he started and looked kind of frightened and
listened a moment, and then he stepped up quick and extinguished the
light, and I was afraid he'd see me then from the window, so I
hurried off. But I thought 'twas mighty queer-"

"Mr. Scott was dressed, was he?" interrupted the coroner.

"Yes, sir," Brown answered, sullenly.

"Did you go directly to your room?"

"Yes, sir."

"What time was this?"

"I heard the clock strike three just after I got in."

"You saw or heard nothing more?"

"No, sir."

"You knew nothing of what had occurred at the house until the
gardener told you in the morning?"

"N--yes--no, sir," Brown stammered, with another glance towards
Mrs. LaGrange, who was watching him closely.

"What did you say?" demanded the coroner.

"I said I didn't know what had happened till Uncle Mose told me,"
Brown answered, doggedly.

"That will do," said the coroner, watching the witness narrowly as
he resumed his place among the servants.

During the latter part of Brown's testimony, quick, telegraphic
glances had been exchanged between Scott and Mr. Sutherland, and
one or two slips of paper, unobserved by any one but Merrick, had
passed from one to the other.

Scott was well aware that the statements made by the coachman had
deepened suspicion against himself. He paid little attention to
the crowd, however, but noted particularly the faces of the guests
at Fair Oaks. Ralph Mainwaring's, dark with anger; that of the
genial Mr. Thornton coldly averted; young Mainwaring's supercilious
stare, and his sister's expression of contemptuous disdain; and as
he studied their features his own grew immobile as marble. Suddenly
his glance encountered Miss Carleton's face and was held for a
moment as though under a spell. There was no weak sentimentality
there, no pity or sympathy,--he would have scorned either,--but
the perfect confidence shining in her eyes called forth a quick
response from his own, though not a muscle stirred about the
sternly-set mouth. She saw and understood, and, a