“I understand. Were you aware that Annette intended to sleep in the southwest chamber?” continued Brett.
“I was not. If I had known it I would not have permitted her to occupy the room.”
“Please tell me the exact superstition which hangs about that room,” said the coroner, after a brief pause.
“It is believed that no light can be burned in that room after eleven o’clock; after that time it is always extinguished by some mysterious agency.”
“How comes it, then, that you allowed gas pipes to be placed in the room?”
“I gave the contract to have gas put in the house years ago, at the same time that I had running water and plumbing installed. The gas contractor naturally fitted each room with modern appliances. As the room is never used after dark, I never gave the matter another thought.”
“Then why was a drop light fastened to the wall bracket by the side of the bed?”
“I’ve been puzzling over that fact myself,”—the Colonel tipped his chair back on two legs,—“that drop light is one I used to have in my bedroom. It didn’t give very satisfactory light to read by, so several months ago I purchased another, transferred the chimney and shade to the new lamp, and sent the other one into the storeroom.”
“Then it is highly probable that Annette found it there, and, wishing to read in bed, attached it to the bracket herself.”