"I came in by the front door, and we stood in that room"—pointing to the sitting-room from which he had just issued.
"Stood! Did you not sit down?"
"No."
"Stood all the time, and in that room to which you have just pointed?"
"Yes."
The coroner drew a deep breath, and looked at the witness long and searchingly. Mr. Hildreth's way of uttering this word had been any thing but pleasant, and consequently any thing but satisfactory. A low murmur began to eddy through the rooms.
"Gentlemen, silence!" commanded the coroner, venting in this injunction some of the uncomfortable emotion with which he was evidently surcharged; for his next words were spoken in a comparatively quiet voice, though the fixed severity of his eye could have given the witness but little encouragement.
"You say," he declared, "that in coming through the lane you encountered no one. Was this equally true of your return?"
"Yes, sir; I believe so. I don't remember. I was not looking up," was the slightly confused reply.
"You passed, however, through the lane, and entered the main street by the usual path?"