right—I was afraid you hadn't heard. The others are all out.' '
'And then?'
'I ran out into the garden with him. That's about al' I can remember. It all happened so quickly that my recollections are a trifle hazy. I still don't know how we came to forget Kennet until it was too late, but I can only imagine that in the excitement Mr Luker and myself mutually mis understood each other to have accounted for the people we had not seen. It was a tragic mistake which has haunted me ever since.'
The coroner wagged his head sympathetically, as if he could feel everything that Fairweather must have suffered.
'I'm sure that we all appreciate your feelings,' he said. He turned the papers on his table, and went on, as though apologizing for bringing back any more painful memories: 'Have you any idea as to how the fire could have started?'
'None. It may have been a faulty piece of electric wiring, or a cigarette end carelessly dropped somewhere. It must have been something like that.'
'Thank you, Mr Fairweather,' said the coroner. 'Next witness, please.'
There was an interruption. Before the sergeant could call out the next name the little black-bearded juryman opened his mouth.
' 'Arf a mo,' he said. 'I've got some questions I'd like to ask.'
The coroner stared at him as though he had been guilty of some indecency. He seemed to find it extraordinary that a member of the jury should wish to ask a question.
The little juryman returned his stare defiantly. He had the air of Ajax defying the lightning.
'And what is your question?' asked the coroner, in a supercilious patronizing tone.
'Didn't the witness 'ave no servants?'
'Er—several,' Fairweather said mildly. 'But I had given them all leave to attend a dance in Reading, and they did not get back until the fire was practically over. The only one left was my chauffeur, who lives in the lodge, about three hundred yards away from the main building.'
'Didn't nobody try to put the fire out?'
'It was hardly possible. It spread too rapidly, and we had nothing to tackle it with.'
'Thank you,' said the coroner. 'Next witness, please.'
He contrived to be mildly apologetic and contemptuously crushing at the same time. He seemed to apologize to Fairweather for the trouble and distress he had been caused in answering two altogether ridiculous and irrelevant questions, and simultaneously to point out the little juryman as a pest and a nuisance who would be well advised to shut up and behave himself.
'Kane Luker,' called the sergeant.
Luker gave his evidence in a quiet precise voice. He had been sitting up reading when he heard the fire alarm. He left his room and went downstairs, where he discovered that the fire appeared to have started in the library, but it was already too fierce for him to be able to get near it. He opened the front door, and while he was doing so Sir Robert and Lady Sangore came downstairs. He told them to get outside and shout up at the bedroom windows. He started to go down to the lodge to telephone for the fire brigade. He met the chauffeur on the way and sent him back to make the call, and himself returned to the house. As he reached it, Knightley carried Lady Valerie out. He went in and started to climb the stairs, where he met Fairweather. He was sure that everyone must have heard the alarms.
'I said 'Do you know if the others are all out?' and I thought he gave some affirmative answer. It's only since then that I've realized that he must have missed my first words and thought that I said 'The others are all out.' But I agree with him that it will be hard for us to forgive ourselves for the
