“Yes, it was. I thought perhaps Mr. Chacewater might be inside, with the door pulled to; so I tried the handle. It was locked.”
Sir Clinton put a further inquiry.
“You heard only two voices in the room before you burst in?”
A new light seemed to be thrown by this question across Marden’s mind.
“I heard only two people speaking: Mr. Foss and Mr. Chacewater; but of course I couldn’t swear that only two people were in the room. That’s what you meant, isn’t it?”
Inspector Armadale caught the drift of the inquiry.
“I suppose if one man can disappear in a mysterious way, there’s nothing against two men vanishing in the same way,” he hazarded. “So all you can really tell us is that Mr. Foss and Mr. Chacewater were here at any rate, and possibly there were other people as well?”
“I couldn’t swear to any one except these two,” Marden was careful to state.
“Another point,” Sir Clinton went on. “Have you any idea whether Mr. Foss came into contact with a person or persons outside the house during his stay here? I mean people known to him before he came to Ravensthorpe?”
“I couldn’t say.”