The Mansion of Mystery Part 18

"The--ahem! courtroom will come to order!" he called out, gazing around on all sides.

There was a final buzz and then the place became quiet, broken only by the ticking of a big round clock on the wall.

"We are gathered here--ahem! to inquire into the mysterious deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Barry Langmore," went on the coroner.

"That's so--an' we want plain facts," put in an old farmer, sitting well up front.

"Silence!" cried the coroner. "We must have silence!"

"All right, Jack," replied the farmer. "I won't say another word."

"Silence. We cannot go on if there is not silence. Ahem! ahem! Miss Langmore!"

Margaret arose and bowed slightly. Then the coroner swore her in as a witness and told her to relate her story. She could scarcely stand and Raymond brought her chair forward.

"You wish me to tell all I know?" she asked, in a faint but clear voice.

"Everything," was Coroner Busby's answer.

Pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts, she plunged into the recital, her tale being merely a repet.i.tion of that given to Adam Adams. When she came to tell how her father had been found her voice broke and it was fully a minute before she could go on. When she had finished the courtroom was as still as a tomb, save for the ticking of the clock, now sounding louder than ever.

"Is that all?" asked the coroner, after a painful pause.

"Yes, sir."

"They say, Miss Langmore, that you were not on good terms with your stepmother."

"Who says so?"

"It is an--ahem! a common rumor. What have you to say on that point?"

"It is true, sir," answered Margaret, after another pause, during which the eyes of all in the courtroom were fixed upon the girl.

"It is said that you had violent quarrels," pursued the coroner.

"No very violent quarrels. Sometimes we did not speak to each other for days."

"Then you admit that you did quarrel?"

"I do."

"And you also quarreled with your father?"

"No, sir."

"What, not at all?" queried Coroner Busby, elevating his eyes in surprise, either real or affected.

"We held different opinions upon certain questions, but we did not quarrel."

"Hum!" The coroner mused for a moment.

"That is all for the present," he added, and Margaret moved back to where she had been first sitting.

"I am glad that is over," whispered Raymond. "Can I do anything? Get you some water?"

"No, nothing," she answered, and dropped a veil over her face.

The next witness called was Mary Billings, the domestic employed at the Langmore mansion, and who had been about the place at the time of the tragedy. She proved to be a round-faced Irish girl, not particularly bright, and now all but terror-stricken. As soon as she was sworn in she burst into tears.

"Sure as there is a heavin above me, Oi didn't do that murder, so Oi didn't!" she moaned.

"n.o.body said you did," answered the coroner dryly, while a general smile went around the courtroom.

"Then why did yez bring me here, I dunno? Sure an' Mr. Langmore was afther bein' me bist frind, an' Oi wouldn't harm him fer a million dollars, so Oi wouldn't!" It was with difficulty that she was quieted and made to tell what she knew.

"Where were you from ten o'clock to twelve of the morning of the tragedy?" was the first question put to her.

"Oi was in the kitchen, an' down to the barn, yer honor."

"Were you in the kitchen first."

"Sure an' Oi was that."

"What were you doing?"

"Phat was Oi doin'? Sure Oi was was.h.i.+n' the dishes, cl'anin' the silverware, peelin' the praties, sh.e.l.lin' the beans, cleanin' the lamps, fixin' the--"

"Ahem! You mean you were doing the housework, eh?"

"Yis, sur."

"While you were in the house, did you leave the kitchen?"

"Only to go to the ciller fer a scuttle o' coal."

"Did you see or hear anything unusual going on while you were in the kitchen?"

The Irish girl scratched her head and shrugged her shoulders.

"Oi heard a lot av things, yer honor."

"What were they?"

"Oi heard Mrs. Langmore walkin' around upstairs, an' Oi heard Miss Margaret walkin' around, too. Then Oi heard Mrs. Langmore call to Miss Margaret."

"Did Miss Margaret answer?"

"Oi dunno--if she did, Oi didn't hear her."