theory was that it had been jerked out of his pocket in the accident.
Persistent search for it had been unsuccessful. As for the unofficial or
duplicate key, Audrey could not remember where she had put it after her
burglary, the conclusion of which had been disturbed by Miss Ingate. At one
moment she was quite sure that she had left the key in the safe, but at
another moment she was equally sure that she was holding the key in her
right hand (the bank-notes being in her left) when Miss Ingate entered the
room; at still another moment she was almost convinced that before Miss
Ingate's arrival she had run to the desk and slipped the key back into its
drawer. In any case the second key was irretrievable. She discussed the
dilemma very fully with Miss Ingate, who had obligingly come to stay in the
house. They examined every aspect of the affair, except Audrey's guiltiness
of theft, which both of them tacitly ignored. In the end they decided that
it might be wiser not to conceal Audrey's knowledge of the existence of a
second key; and they told Mr. Cowl, because he happened to be at hand. In
so doing they were ill-advised, because Mr. Cowl at once acted in a
characteristic and inconvenient fashion which they ought to have foreseen.

On the day before the funeral Mr. Cowl had telegraphed from some place in
Devonshire that he should represent the National Reformation Society at the
funeral, and asked for a bed, on the pretext that he could not get from
Devonshire to Moze in time for the funeral if he postponed his departure
until the next morning. The telegram was quite costly. He arrived for
dinner, a fat man about thirty-eight, with chestnut hair, a low, alluring
voice, and a small handbag for luggage. Miss Ingate thought him very
interesting, and he was. He said little about the National Reformation
Society, but a great deal about the late Mr. Moze, of whom he appeared to
be an intimate friend; presumably the friendship had developed at meetings
of the Society. After dinner he strolled nonchalantly to the sideboard and
opened a box of the deceased's cigars, and suggested that, as he was well
acquainted with the brand, having often enjoyed the hospitality of Mr.
Moze's cigar-case, he should smoke a cigar now to the memory of the
departed. Miss Ingate then began to feel alarmed. He smoked four cigars to
the memory of the departed, and on retiring ventured to take four more for
consumption during the night, as he seldom slept.