The answer came back that the African had not been seen since the previous evening.
Caswall was now so irritable that even this small thing upset him.

As he was distrait and wanted to talk to somebody, he sent for Simon Chester, who came at once, breathless with hurrying and upset by the unexpected summons.

Caswall bade him sit down, and when the old man was in a less uneasy frame of mind, he again asked him if he had ever seen what was in Mesmer's chest or heard it spoken about.
Chester admitted that he had once, in the time of "the then Mr.Edgar," seen the chest open, which, knowing something of its history and guessing more, so upset him that he had fainted.

When he recovered, the chest was closed.

From that time the then Mr.Edgar had never spoken about it again.
When Caswall asked him to describe what he had seen when the chest was open, he got very agitated, and, despite all his efforts to remain calm, he suddenly went off into a faint.