“At what time did you lock the rooms?”

“A few minutes after ten, sir.  I felt kind of uneasy, because it was Mr. Mainwaring’s orders that the rooms be shut at nine; so soon as ’twas ten o’clock I went around outside, and, seeing no light in her parlor, I went in and locked the hall and then went up-stairs to lock the rooms there.”

“Did you see any strangers about the place at that time?”

“No, sir.”

“You saw no one in any of Mr. Mainwaring’s private rooms?”

“No strangers, you mean?  No, sir.”

“Was there any one in his rooms?”

“The housekeeper was in the library.  She had gone up-stairs that way, she said, and had found the door into the main hall locked, and hearing me come, she waited for me to open it.”

“Had you locked the door into the main hall?”

“No, sir; that door wasn’t usually locked in the evening.  I don’t know who locked it, but I opened it for her and then locked it again.”

“Are you positive there was no one else in those rooms at that time?”

“Yes, sir, pretty sure,” replied Hardy, with a smile, “for I looked them over uncommon thorough last night.  I thought at first that I smelled smoke, like something burning, but I looked around careful and everything was all right.”

At this point Mr. Whitney held a whispered consultation with the coroner for a moment.

“You say,” continued the latter, “you thought you smelled something burning; could you state what the material seemed to be?”

“Well, sir, I thought it was like paper burning; but I must have been mistaken, for the papers on the table was all right and there was nothing in the fireplace.”

“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.”

“One question more.  Do you know whether any one else in the house had knowledge of or access to, these particular keys?”