"When I entered the gates of The Camp at nine o'clock. He is a tall man, with a black patch over the left eye." "A black patch!" cried Mrs. Snow, rising, much excited. "Colonel Hall was also murdered by a man with a black patch. I swear it." CHAPTER VIII THE WILL The words rang piercingly through a dead silence. Beatrice, startled by persistent introduction of a bygone crime, stared at the lean-faced woman who made the outcry. The Coroner blinked furiously, and nursed his chin in his hand, considering what to say and what to do. Finally, he made up his mind to rebuke Mrs. Snow. "You have given your evidence," said he, frowning a trifle, "and now you must be silent." "You should note what I have told you," said Mrs. Snow calmly, but her bosom heaved impatiently; "the one crime may help the other." "As how?" asked the Coroner politely. "Because you may strike down two birds with one stone." "I should rather put it, if what you say is true, Mrs. Snow, that we may strike down one bird with two stones. I understand that you say the man who murdered Colonel Hall--I remember him well--also murdered Mr. Alpenny?" "You heard what Miss Hedge said about the black patch, Dr. Arne: and you know that Colonel Hall's throat was also cut. "There was some stealing also," said Dr. Arne musingly, "which makes the parallel more complete." "There was a diamond necklace stolen," said Mrs. Snow quietly; "at least I remember that. I was not married then, and Mrs. Hall was my dear friend." "I never saw her," said the Coroner coldly, and a trifle rudely. "All this is not to the point--Miss Hedge, will you go on?" "What would you have me tell you?" asked the witness, who had been listening eagerly to Mrs. Snow's account of the earlier crime. "How could you see this man, seeing that the night was dark and very stormy?" "I saw his face in a flash of lightning," explained Beatrice, and then related the momentary meeting. But she suppressed the fact that on the same night she had met Vivian under the Witches' Oak. It was not pertinent to the case, she thought. Moreover, with the knowledge of whose handkerchief was in her pocket, she thought it best to keep Paslow's name out of the matter. "The gates were open?" asked the Coroner, when she ended. "Wide open." "Mr. Alpenny had the key, I believe?" "Yes; but that key was not on the ring to which the others were attached. It hung on the wall." "Along with the key of the smaller gate," put in Durban. Then Inspector Jones spoke. "The key of the large gate," said he, "I found in the lock the next morning, where it had been left." "The man with the black patch closed the large gate after him, as he ran out," said Beatrice. "Ah! then, probably he opened the gate from the inside, and when he met you he was too startled to take it out of the lock.--And the smaller key--that belonging to the little gate, Mr. Inspector?" "It is hanging on the wall of the counting-house now."