But he did not hurry by; that is, he did not pass beyond the upper end, but stopped when he got there and looked back with an air of extreme deprecation at the two officials.
"Have we arrived?" asked Mr. Gryce, his suspicions all returning, for the man had stepped aside from the drapery and was standing in a spot conspicuously open to view even from the lower court.
The Englishman nodded; whereupon Mr. Gryce, approaching to his side, exclaimed in evident doubt:
"You were standing here? When? Not at the moment the young girl fell, or you would have been seen by some one, if not by everyone, in the building. I want you to take the exact place you occupied when you first learned that something had gone wrong in the opposite gallery."
The stranger's distress grew. With a show of indecision scarcely calculated to inspire confidence in either of the two men watching him, he moved now here and now there till he finally came to a standstill close by the pedestal—so close, indeed, to its inner corner that he was almost in a line with its rear.
"It was here," he declared with a gulp of real feeling. "I am sure I am right now. I had just stepped out——"
"From behind the tapestry?"
"No." His blank astonishment at the quickness with which he had been caught up left him staring for a moment at the speaker, before he added:
"From behind the pedestal. The—the vase, as you see, is a very curious one. I wanted to look at it from all sides."
Without a word the Coroner slipped past him and entering the narrow space behind the pedestal took a look up at the vase from his present cramped position.