The witness had not thought it expedient to notify Dr. Marstan of the elder Kenwick's death, so that he could not report this to the patient. They had evidently had hot words upon the subject of the disclosure of the patient's condition, Marstan being highly scrupulous and not being willing to retain his position as keeper when it was merely nominal, an arrangement upon which the young man himself insisted.
In order to prevent the patient from carrying out some sinister threat, Marstan had locked his charge into the house and gone into town probably to consult a lawyer upon the proper course for him to pursue. This much he could surmise from a half-written letter which the witness himself had found on the evening that he returned to Mont-Mer.
"And that was the state of things when you arrived at Rest Hollow on the evening of November 21?" Dayton asked.
"Describe the condition of the house and grounds on the evening of the tragedy."
The witness did so, with the same unhurried attention to detail.
"And when you came upon the body of the dead man under the dining-room window, why did you conclude that it was your former charge, Roger Kenwick?"
"Every circumstance seemed to point to it. And I found upon the body possessions that seemed unmistakable evidence."
"A wrist-watch with the initials R.K. upon the inside; a silver match-case with the one initial K.; a linen handkerchief with that initial."
"But you said, did you not, in the early part of your testimony, that the patient's personal possessions had been taken from him when he became incompetent?"
"They had. But all of his things were in Doctor Marstan's possession. They were in his apartments, and any normal person could easily have found them, and naturally Kenwick would have demanded them."
"Had you ever seen a picture of Roger Kenwick to aid you in your identification of his body?"
"No. But I knew his age, and it seemed to correspond exactly with that of the dead man. Furthermore he looked like a person who was wasted by ill health. I hadn't a doubt that it was he."
"How did you think that he had met his death?"
"By suicide. I believed then that the doctor had been mistaken and that he had not made a complete recovery."