The Red Room

with one or otherof these friends of yours, and that her disappearance was part of aplan."

  The story of the message received by Mabel while I was in Scotlandflashed across my mind. I recollected all that Gwen had so guardedlyrelated to me.

  But I stirred myself quickly. No, a thousand times no! I would neverbelieve evil of Mabel before I had absolute proof in black and white.The mystery of her disappearance was as great and inexplicable as theproblem of who killed Professor Greer?

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

  TWO MEN CONSULT.

  Beside myself with fear and anxiety regarding the woman I loved so well,I again called that very same evening upon Kirk at Whitehall Court, buton doing so was informed by the lift-man that he was out.

  A suggestion then occurred to me that he might have gone over to hisother abode at Bedford Park, therefore I returned, and at last knockedat his door.

  His sister answered my summons, and saying that her brother was at home,ushered me into his presence.

  I found him in his old velvet jacket seated in his high-backed arm-chairbefore a glowing fire, his pet parrot near him; and as I entered hegreeted me coldly, without deigning to shake my hand.

  "Well, Holford," he exclaimed, stretching his slippered feet lazilytowards the fire, "so you have, after all, proved a traitor, eh?"

  "A traitor? How?" I asked, standing near the fireplace and facing him.

  "You have been telling some extraordinary stories about me at ScotlandYard, I hear," he said with a grin.

  "Ah!" I cried. "Then you are a detective, after all? My surmise wasright from the first!"

  "No," he replied very quietly, "you were quite wrong, my dear sir; I'mnot a detective, neither professional nor amateur, nor have I anythingwhatever to do with Scotland Yard. They may be sad blunderers there,but they do not accept every cock-and-bull story that may be told them."

  "I told them no cock-and-bull story!" I protested angrily. "I toldthem the actual truth!"

  "And that after all the warnings I have given you!" he said in a tone ofbitterest reproach. "Ah! you are unaware of the extreme gravity of thatact of yours. You have broken faith with me, Holford, and by doing so,have, I fear, brought upon me, as upon others, a great calamity."

  "But you are so mysterious. You have never been open and above-boardwith me!" I declared. "You are full of mystery."

  "Did I not tell you on the first evening you sat here with me that I wasa dealer in secrets?" he asked, blowing a cloud of smoke from his cigar.

  "No, Holford," went on my mysterious neighbour, very seriously, "you arelike most other men--far too inquisitive. Had you been able to repressyour curiosity, and at the same time preserve your pledge of secrecy,matters to-day would have been vastly different, and, acting in concert,we might have been able to solve this extraordinary enigma of ProfessorGreer's death. But now you've been and made all sorts of wildstatements to the Commissioner of Police. Well, it has stultified allmy efforts."

  He spoke with such an air of injured innocence that I hesitated whetherI had not, after all, somewhat misjudged him. Yet as I looked into thatgrey, crafty face I could not help doubting him. It was true that hehad taken me into his confidence, but was it not done only for his owningenious and devilish purpose?

  "My wife is lost," I observed at last. "It is her loss that has,perhaps, led me to say more than I would otherwise have done."

  "And love for your wife makes you forget your word of honour given tome, eh?" he asked. "Your code of honour is distinctly peculiar, Mr.Holford," he added, with biting sarcasm. "I, of course, regret thatMrs. Holford has fallen a victim to the machinations of our enemies, butsurely even that is no excuse for a man to act treacherously towards hisfriend."

  "That is not the point," I declared. "You have never satisfied me as toyour motive in taking me to Sussex Place and exhibiting to me theevidence of the crime."

  "Because--well, because, had I done so, you would not have understood.Some day, perhaps, you will know; and when you learn the truth you willbe even more astounded than you are to-day. Meanwhile, I can assure youthat you suspect me entirely without cause."

  "Then why were you in the house at the time the traces of the crime werebeing effaced in the furnace?" I asked in a hard voice.

  He hesitated for a moment, and I thought his bony hand trembledslightly.

  "For reason's of my own," he replied at last. "You allowed me towriggle out of a very tight corner, and I intended to show you mygratitude, had you given me an opportunity."

  "I desire no expression of gratitude, Mr. Kirk," I replied, withdignified disgust. "All I require is a statement from you concerningthe whereabouts of my dear wife. Give me that, and I'm satisfied toretire from the whole affair altogether."

  "Because you have now realised that Scotland Yard refuse theirassistance, eh?" he asked, with an evil grin. "Are you not now agreedwith me that our much-praised Criminal Investigation Department, withall its hide-bound rules and its tangle of red tape, is useless? It isnot the men who are at fault--for some of them are the finest and bestfellows in the whole metropolis--but the system which is radicallywrong."

  I was bound, after my experience, to agree with him. But again Ireferred to Mabel, and to the manner in which she had been decoyed fromhome.

  "You hear that, Joseph?" he exclaimed, turning to his feathered pet, whohad been chatting and screeching as we had been speaking. "Thisgentleman suspects your master, Joseph. What do you say?"

  "You're a fool for your pains! You're a fool for your pains!" declaredthe bird. "Poor Jo-sef! Poor Jo-sef wants to go to bed!"

  "Be quiet! You'll go to bed presently," answered the queer, greyvisaged, sphinx-like man, who, turning again towards me, and looking mestraight in the face, once more assured me that I was foolish in mymisapprehension of the truth.

  "To me it really does not matter who killed Professor Greer, or who hasusurped his place in the world of science," I said. "My only aim now isto recover my lost wife. Antonio, when I met him in Rome, was anxiousthat, in exchange for information concerning her, I should consent tokeep a still tongue as to what had occurred in Sussex Place."

  "Rubbish, my dear sir!"--and Kirk laughed heartily. "What can Antoniopossibly know? He's as ignorant and innocent of the whole affair as youare yourself."

  "How do you know that, pray?"

  "Well, am I not endeavouring to elucidate the mystery?" he asked.

  "And you know more than you will tell me?"

  I said.

  "Perhaps--just a little."

  "Yet you desire that I should still trust you implicitly, that I shouldgive myself into your hands blindly and unreservedly--you, who lead thisdual existence! In Whitehall Court you are a wealthy man of leisure,while here you pose as shabby and needy."

  "I may be shabby, Mr. Holford, for certain purposes--but needy never! Ihave, I'm thankful to say, quite sufficient for my wants," he exclaimed,correcting me. "And as for my dual existence, as you term it, have Iever endeavoured to conceal it from you?"

  "Tell me--once and for all--are you aware of my wife's whereabouts?" Idemanded in frantic anxiety. "Can't you see that this suspense isturning my brain?"

  "Yes, it is very unfortunate--and still more unfortunate that I canafford you no satisfaction. The fact of Mrs. Holford's prolongedabsence is as great a mystery to me as to yourself."

  "Scotland Yard will render me no help," I said in bitter chagrin.

  "Probably not--after the amazing story you told them," was his ratherspiteful response.

  "What am I to do?"

  "Remain patient and watchful," he said. "Believe in me, and try andpersuade yourself that, after all, I'm not an assassin," he smiled.

  I held my breath for a few seconds. Here was the crux of the wholematter. He was still cleverly and ingeniously endeavouring to lead meinto a false sense of security--to make me believe that he was innocentof all knowledge of that most astounding tragedy in Sussex Place.

  Ah! his w
as indeed a clever ruse. But my eyes were now opened, so Ionly smiled within myself at the futility of his crafty and cleverattempt further to mislead and cheat me.

  A man was with my wife, passing himself off as myself--Henry Holford,motor engineer. And yet I could look to no one for counsel, advice, oraid!

  Now that the police had refused to inquire into the death of poor Greer,the attitude of my weird, grey-faced neighbour had become more defiant.He was full of bitter reproaches, yet at the same time entirely heedlessof my future actions.

  Once or twice while speaking to me he turned, as was his habit, toJoseph