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.
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