ome third person?

"No"

Had he been at the Moore house on the night of the eleventh at any
time previous to the hour when he was brought there by the officials?

"No."

Would he glance at this impression of certain finger-tips which had
been left in the dust of the southwest chamber mantel?

He had already noted them.

Now would he place his left hand on the paper and see--

"It is not necessary," he burst forth, in great heat. "I own to
those marks. That is, I have no doubt they were made by my hand"
Here, unconsciously, his eyes flew to the member thus referred to,
as if conscious that in some way it had proved a traitor to him;
after which his gaze traveled slowly my way, with an indescribable
question in it which roused my conscience and made the trick by
which I had got the impression of his hand seem less of a triumph
than I had heretofore considered it. The next minute he was
answering the coroner under oath, very much as he had answered him
in the unofficial interview at which I had been present.

"I acknowledge having been in the Moore house and even having been
in its southwest chamber, but not at the time supposed. It was on
the previous night." He went on to relate how, being in a nervous
condition and having the key to this old dwelling in his pocket, he
had amused himself by going through its dilapidated interior. All
of this made a doubtful impression which was greatly emphasized
when, in reply to the inquiry as to where he got the light to see
by, he admitted that he had come upon a candle in an upstairs room
and made use of that; though he could not remember what he had done
with this candle afterward, and looked dazed and quite at sea, till
the coroner suggested that he might have carried it into the closet
of the room where his fingers had left their impression in the dust
of the mantel-shelf. Then he broke down like a man from whom some
prop is suddenly snatched and looked around for a seat. This was
given him, while a silence, the most dreadful I ever experienced,
held every one there in check. But he speedily rallied and, with
the remark that he was a little confused in regard to the incidents
of that night, waited with a wild look in his averted eye for the
coroner's next question.

Unhappily for him it was in continuation of the same subject. Had
he bought candles or not at the grocer's around the corner? Yes, he
had. Before visiting the house? Yes. Had he also bought m