“What did the old man mean by saying she might have worn silk?  Are they better off than they seem?” Mr. Sutherland closed the door before replying.

“They are rich,” he declared, to the utter amazement of the other.  “That is, they were; but they may have been robbed; if so, Philemon was not the wretch who killed her.  I have been told that she kept her money in an old-fashioned cupboard.  Do you suppose they alluded to that one?”

He pointed to a door set in the wall over the fireplace, and Mr. Fenton, perceiving a key sticking in the lock, stepped quickly across the floor and opened it.  A row of books met his eyes, but on taking them down a couple of drawers were seen at the back.

“Are they locked?” asked Mr. Sutherland.

“One is and one is not.”

“Open the one that is unlocked.”

Mr. Fenton did so.

“It is empty,” said he.

Mr. Sutherland cast a look toward the dead woman, and again the perfect serenity of her countenance struck him.

“I do not know whether to regard her as the victim of her husband’s imbecility or of some vile robber’s cupidity.  Can you find the key to the other drawer?”

“I will try.”

“Suppose you begin, then, by looking on her person.  It should be in her pocket, if no marauder has been here.”

“It is not in her pocket.”

“Hanging to her neck, then, by a string?”

“No; there is a locket here, but no key.  A very handsome locket, Mr. Sutherland, with a child’s lock of golden hair—­”

“Never mind, we will see that later; it is the key we want just now.”

“Good heavens!”

“What is it?”

“It is in her hand; the one that lies underneath.”

“Ah!  A point, Fenton.”

“A great point.”

“Stand by her, Fenton.  Don’t let anyone rob her of that key till the coroner comes, and we are at liberty to take it.”

“I will not leave her for an instant.”

“Meanwhile, I will put back these books.”

He had scarcely done so when a fresh arrival occurred.  This time it was one of the village clergymen.

IV

THE FULL DRAWER

This gentleman had some information to give.  It seems that at an early hour of this same night he had gone by this house on his way home from the bedside of a sick parishioner.  As he was passing the gate he was run into by a man who came rushing out of the yard, in a state of violent agitation.  In this man’s hand was something that glittered, and though the encounter nearly upset them both, he had not stopped to utter an apology, but stumbled away out of sight with a hasty but infirm step, which showed he was neither young nor active.  The minister had failed to see his face, but noticed the ends of a long beard blowing over his shoulder as he hurried away.

Philemon was a clean-shaven man.