"Just so, if you were in your rooms. But you told us in your first evidence that from about 7.20 or so until eight o'clock you were smoking your pipe at the market-place entrance to the Moot Hall, where, of course, you couldn't see your back door. That correct? Very well. Now, while you were at the front, was your wife in your rooms at the back?" "Yes, sir." "Do you know what she was doing?" "I do, sir. She was getting our supper ready." "Are you sure she never left the house--your rooms, you know?" Bunning started. Obviously, a new idea had occurred. "Ay!" said Meeking, with a smile. "Just so, Bunning. You're not sure?" "Well, sir," replied Bunning slowly, "now that I come to think of it, I'm not! It never occurred to me before, but during that time my missis may have been out of the place for a few minutes or so, to fetch the supper beer, sir." "To be sure! Now where does Mrs. Bunning get your supper beer?" "At the _Chancellor_ Vaults, sir--round the corner." Meeking turned quietly to the Coroner. "I think we ought to have Mrs. Bunning's evidence," he remarked. It took ten minutes to fetch Mrs. Bunning from her rooms in the lower regions of the old Moot Hall. She came at last, breathless, and in her working attire, and turned a wondering, good-natured face on the barrister. "Just a little question or two, Mrs. Bunning," he said half-indifferently. "On the evening of the late Mayor's death, did you go out to the _Chancellor_ Vaults to fetch your supper beer?" "I did, sir--just as usual." "What time?" "A bit earlier than usual, sir--half-past seven." "How long were you away?" "Why, sir, to tell you the truth, nigh on to half an hour. I met a neighbour at the corner and----" "Exactly! And stopped chatting a bit. So you were out of your rooms in the Moot Hall that evening from 7.30 to nearly eight o'clock?" "Yes, sir." Meeking gave the Coroner a glance, thrust his hands into his pockets, and dropped back into his seat--silent and apparently satisfied. CHAPTER XV THE SPECIAL EDITION But if the barrister was satisfied with the possibilities suggested by this new evidence, the gist of which had apparently altered the whole aspect of the case, the Coroner obviously was not. Ever since Mrs. Mallett had interrupted his summing-up to the jury, he had shown signs of fidgetiness. He had continually put on and taken off his spectacles; he had moved restlessly in his chair; now and then he had seemed on the point of interrupting counsel or witnesses: it was evident that things were not at all to his liking. And now as Meeking sat down the Coroner turned to Mrs. Bunning, who stood, looking wonderingly about her, and still fingering the apron in which she had been found at her work. "Mrs. Bunning," he said, "I want to ask you some questions about this back entrance of yours. What is it--a door opening out of the rear of the Moot Hall?" "Yes, sir; that's it, sir." "Does it open on St. Lawrence Lane?" "Yes, sir."