"About ten minutes. Then I went to prepare the coffee."
"While you sat upon the step did you see or hear anything?"
"I don't know. I heard a second voice, but not distinctly. I thought it must be Miss Stella or Mr. Warwick."
Here the girl drew a deep, audible breath, and Ashton-Kirk saw the old woman fix her sharp eyes upon her.
"But," resumed Nanon, "Miss Stella tells me that it was not she."
"You went directly from the library to the hall door after speaking to Dr. Morse, you say?"
"Did you close the door while you sat upon the step?"
"No; I left it open, thinking to hear if the doctor rang again."
"No one else was in the library when you spoke to the doctor regarding the key?"
"Was there a light in the hallway while you sat at the door?"
"Should you have seen any one entering the library?"
"I should. To go into that room he would first have to come through the hall."
"There were no visitors in the house at any time during the evening?"
"No," said Nanon. "I should have heard them ring, even if some one else had admitted them."
"It is necessary that I know everything that can be told me as to what took place in the house to-night. So you will pardon a question or two, I know."
She inclined her head in answer to this; but her mouth twitched nervously, and her hands held tightly to the chair upon which she sat.
"Where were you when you learned that Dr. Morse was dead?" proceeded Ashton-Kirk.
"In my sitting-room, where I had gone to read immediately after dinner."
"Nanon. She stood at the foot of the back stairs and called to me."
"On the second floor at the back; the door was open and I heard her at once."
"Did you hear or see anything else, previous to this?"
"Very early in the evening I saw Drevenoff going to his room on the third floor; I sat facing the doorway and had a view of the stairs."
"Quite. I should have seen him had he come down."
There was a pause of some length; the secret agent looked from one to the other of the two women, and finally he said to Nanon:
"You say that you are not sure that the second voice you heard in the library was Mr. Warwick's?"
Again came the quick, deep drawn breath from the girl; and again the gray eyes of the old woman sought her face. At the same time she replied: