"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?"
"I don't know for certain, sir, but I think not."
The attorney was next called upon, and came forward, while Hardy resumed his former place among the servants.
"Mr. Whitney," said the coroner, after the witness had given the details of his arrival in the tower-room in response to the valet's summons, "will you please state when, and under what circumstances, you last saw Hugh Mainwaring living."