“Are they all come?” asked Freda.
“Yes, the coroner and all of them. They’re in the drawing-room now.”
“What are they doing now?”
“First, the coroner will charge them; then the witnesses will be examined——”
“What witnesses?” asked Freda quickly.
“Why, Crispin and I.”
“Crispin will be examined?”
“Yes,” said Nell sharply, “and so will you, if you don’t keep out of the way. You’d better go upstairs to your room till they’re out of the house. They won’t be more than an hour, I should think, at the outside. I’ll come up and tell you when they’re gone.”
So the girl went slowly out of the room, and across the hall, where she could hear the deliberate tones of the coroner charging the jury, and upstairs. But on the landing she stopped, and peeping about to see that she was not watched, she tried the door of her father’s room, found that it was locked, and dropping softly on her knees, looked through the key-hole. The bed was opposite to the door.
The body was no longer there.