I had been growing more and more nervous.  When the coroner called Mr. John Bailey, the room was filled with suppressed excitement.  Mr. Jamieson went forward and spoke a few words to the coroner, who nodded.  Then Halsey was called.

“Mr. Innes,” the coroner said, “will you tell under what circumstances you saw Mr. Arnold Armstrong the night he died?”

“I saw him first at the Country Club,” Halsey said quietly.  He was rather pale, but very composed.  “I stopped there with my automobile for gasolene.  Mr. Armstrong had been playing cards.  When I saw him there, he was coming out of the card-room, talking to Mr. John Bailey.”

“The nature of the discussion—­was it amicable?”

Halsey hesitated.

“They were having a dispute,” he said.  “I asked Mr. Bailey to leave the club with me and come to Sunnyside over Sunday.”

“Isn’t it a fact, Mr. Innes, that you took Mr. Bailey away from the club-house because you were afraid there would be blows?”

“The situation was unpleasant,” Halsey said evasively.

“At that time had you any suspicion that the Traders’ Bank had been wrecked?”

“No.”

“What occurred next?”

“Mr. Bailey and I talked in the billiard-room until two-thirty.”

“And Mr. Arnold Armstrong came there, while you were talking?”

“Yes.  He came about half-past two.  He rapped at the east door, and I admitted him.”

The silence in the room was intense.  Mr. Jamieson’s eyes never left Halsey’s face.

“Will you tell us the nature of his errand?”

“He brought a telegram that had come to the club for Mr. Bailey.”

“He was sober?”

“Perfectly, at that time.  Not earlier.”

“Was not his apparent friendliness a change from his former attitude?”

“Yes.  I did not understand it.”

“How long did he stay?”

“About five minutes.  Then he left, by the east entrance.”

“What occurred then?”

“We talked for a few minutes, discussing a plan Mr. Bailey had in mind.  Then I went to the stables, where I kept my car, and got it out.”

“Leaving Mr. Bailey alone in the billiard-room?”

Halsey hesitated.

“My sister was there?”

Mrs. Ogden Fitzhugh had the courage to turn and eye Gertrude through her lorgnon.

“And then?”

“I took the car along the lower road, not to disturb the household.  Mr. Bailey came down across the lawn, through the hedge, and got into the car on the road.”

“Then you know nothing of Mr. Armstrong’s movements after he left the house?”

“Nothing.  I read of his death Monday evening for the first time.”

“Mr. Bailey did not see him on his way across the lawn?”

“I think not.  If he had seen him he would have spoken of it.”

“Thank you.  That is all.  Miss Gertrude Innes.”