The coroner agreed that there was something in what the clerk had said, but he did not pursue this branch of inquiry further.
"You said," remarked the coroner, "that your firm supplied Mr. Silwood with two keys?"
"Yes."
"He never told you that he had lost one of the keys?"
"I am positive he never did. If he had lost one, he would have sent to us for another, surely; and then I must have heard of it, for it is my duty to keep the record of the keys. We have a regular registry."
"On the other hand, he might lose a key and say nothing about it; is that not so?"
"Certainly, sir."
Inspector Gale wondered not a little at the unusual line the coroner was taking in his questions.
The clerk was now dismissed, and the Lincoln's Inn porter summoned. The porter corroborated in the main the evidence of the locksmith, the only new point he made being to state that he had been sent for by Mr. Francis Eversleigh to open Silwood's door. He was aware that this particular door had a special lock, and he had informed Mr. Eversleigh of the fact.
Then Francis Eversleigh was called, and as he was plainly very ill, he was given a chair.