The coroner paused. Godfrey and Simmonds had both listened to this interrogation, but neither had been idle. They had walked softly about the room, had looked through a door opening into another room beyond, had examined the fastenings of the windows, and had ended by looking minutely over the carpet.
"What is the room yonder used for?" asked Godfrey, pointing to the connecting door.
"It's a sort of store-room just now, sir," said Parks. "Mr. Vantine is just back from Europe, and we've been unpacking in there some of the things he bought while abroad."
"I guess that's all," said Goldberger, after a moment. "Send in Mr.
Vantine, please."
Parks went out, and Vantine came in a moment later. He corroborated exactly the story told by Parks and myself, but he added one detail.
"Here is the man's card," he said, and held out a square of pasteboard.
Goldberger took the card, glanced at it, and passed it on to
Simmonds.
"That don't tell us much," said the latter, and gave the card to Godfrey. I looked over his shoulder and saw that it contained a single engraved line:
M. THÉOPHILE D'AURELLE
"Except that he's French, as Parks suggested," said Godfrey. "That's evident, too, from the cut of his clothes."