een found, and he sent his
own servant forthwith for the coroner, and, being himself a justice of
the peace, he took the depositions of Mr. Charke's servant while all the
incidents were still fresh in his memory.'

'Could anything be more straightforward, more right and wise?' I said.

'Oh, nothing of course,' answered Lady Knollys, I thought a little drily.

CHAPTER XXVII

_MORE ABOUT TOM CHARKE'S SUICIDE_

So the inquest was held, and Mr. Manwaring, of Wail Forest, was the only
juryman who seemed to entertain the idea during the inquiry that Mr. Charke
had died by any hand but his own.

'And how _could_ he fancy such a thing?' I exclaimed indignantly.

'Well, you will see the result was quite enough to justify them in saying
as they did, that he died by his own hand. The window was found fastened
with a screw on the inside, as it had been when the chambermaid had
arranged it at nine o'-clock; no one could have entered through it.
Besides, it was on the third story, and the rooms are lofty, so it stood
at a great height from the ground, and there was no ladder long enough
to reach it. The house is built in the form of a hollow square, and Mr.
Charke's room looked into the narrow court-yard within. There is but one
door leading into this, and it did not show any sign of having been open
for years. The door was locked upon the inside, and the key in the lock,
so that nobody could have made an entrance that way either, for it was
impossible, you see, to unlock the door from the outside.' 'And how could
they affect to question anything so clear?' I asked.

'There did come, nevertheless, a kind of mist over the subject, which
gave those who chose to talk unpleasantly an opportunity of insinuating
suspicions, though they could not themselves find the clue of the mystery.
In the first place, it appeared that he had gone to bed very tipsy, and
that he was heard sing ing and noisy in his room while getting to bed--not
the mood in which men make away with themselves. Then, although his own
razor was found in that dreadful blood (it is shocking to have to hear all
this) near his right hand, the fingers of his left were cut to the bone.
Then the memorandum book in which his bets were noted was nowhere to be
found. That, you know, was very odd. His keys were there attached to a
chain. He wore a great deal of gold and trinkets. I saw him, wretched
man, on the course. They had got off their horses. He and your uncle we