"You heard what Miss Hedge said about the black patch, Dr. Arne: and you know that Colonel Hall's throat was also cut.
"There was some stealing also," said Dr. Arne musingly, "which makes the parallel more complete."
"There was a diamond necklace stolen," said Mrs. Snow quietly; "at least I remember that. I was not married then, and Mrs. Hall was my dear friend."
"I never saw her," said the Coroner coldly, and a trifle rudely. "All this is not to the point--Miss Hedge, will you go on?"
"What would you have me tell you?" asked the witness, who had been listening eagerly to Mrs. Snow's account of the earlier crime.
"How could you see this man, seeing that the night was dark and very stormy?"
"I saw his face in a flash of lightning," explained Beatrice, and then related the momentary meeting. But she suppressed the fact that on the same night she had met Vivian under the Witches' Oak. It was not pertinent to the case, she thought. Moreover, with the knowledge of whose handkerchief was in her pocket, she thought it best to keep Paslow's name out of the matter.
"The gates were open?" asked the Coroner, when she ended.
"Wide open."
"Mr. Alpenny had the key, I believe?"