Hungary."
"When?"
"Four days ago."
"How can I find them? What is the Professor's address?" I asked.
"He has no fixed abode. My last letter I sent to the Poste Restante inBuda-Pesth."
In this I saw an intention still to preserve the secret of theimpostor's whereabouts.
"But it was not my intention in asking you down, Mr. Holford, to go intodetails of what may, or may not, have happened. We--that is, Ethelwynnand myself--know the truth."
"Then tell it to me--relieve this burden of a crime which is oppressingme?" I begged. "Let me know the truth, and let me at least regain mylost wife."
"Well? And if we did?" asked Ethelwynn, after a pause. "We should onlylay ourselves open to an unjust retaliation."
Were not those the words of a woman who possessed some guilty knowledge,if not herself guilty of parricide? I saw their frantic desire to closemy mouth, so I let them proceed, smiling within myself at their tooapparent efforts to avoid the revelations which must inevitably result.
"I do not follow your meaning," I said. "Why should I retaliate, if youare not responsible for my wife's absence?"
She glanced uneasily across to her lover, who exclaimed:
"As far as I see, the whole thing lies in a nutshell, Mr. Holford. Youhave been misinformed, and have made a ridiculous and quite unfoundedstatement concerning Professor Greer--one which seriously reflects uponhis daughter, his household, and his friends. Therefore--"
"Then does his daughter actually deny having seen him, as I saw him,lying dead in the laboratory?" I interrupted.
"I have never seen my father lying dead!" declared the girl in a low,faltering tone which in itself showed her to be uttering an untruth."Your story is entirely unfounded."
"Then let me tell you one thing more, Miss Greer," I said plainly. "Imyself knelt at your side with Kirk when we found you in the diningroomlying, as we thought, lifeless. There was a white mark upon your face.See! It has hardly disappeared yet; there are still traces--a slightred discoloration!"
The girl held her breath at this allegation. That mark upon her cheekcondemned her. Even her lover, for a moment, could not reply.
"Ah," he said at last, "the loss of Mrs. Holford has upset you, andcauses you to make all sorts of wild and ridiculous statements, itseems. Kirk says they would not listen to you at Scotland Yard--and nowonder!"
"Then you know Kirk, eh--you who denied all knowledge of him when wefirst met!" I cried. "It was he who placed the poor Professor'sremains in the furnace in the laboratory, for from the ashes I recoveredvarious scraps of his clothing which are now in my possession."
"Rubbish, my dear sir!" laughed the young man. "You don't know Kirk--orwho he is!"
"I know him to be an adventurer who has two places of residence," Isaid.
"But an adventurer is not necessarily a scoundrel," Langton replied."Many a good-hearted wanderer becomes a cosmopolitan and an adventurer,but he still retains all the traits and all the honour of a gentleman."
"Not in Kirk's case!" I cried.
"You've evidently quarrelled with him," remarked Langton.
"I've quarrelled with him in so far as I mean to expose the secretassassination of Professor Greer and those who, for their own purposes,are making pretence that the dead man is still alive," I answeredboldly.
"By the latter, I take it, you mean ourselves?" observed the dead man'sdaughter.
"I include all who lie, well knowing that the Professor is dead and alltraces of his body have been destroyed," was my meaning response.
"What's this story of yours about Miss Greer presenting an appearance ofdeath?" asked Langton. "Tell me--it is the first time I've heard this."In a few brief sentences I told them of our discovery in thedining-room, and of the removal of the girl in a cab on that foggynight.
At my words both looked genuinely puzzled.
"What do you say to that?" asked her lover.
"I know nothing--nothing whatever of it!" she declared. "I can onlythink that Mr. Holford must be dreaming."
"Surely not when, with my own hands, I held a mirror to your lips toobtain traces of your breath!" I exclaimed. "Ask Antonio. He willtell you how he and his brother Pietro placed you in a cab at Kirk'sorders."
"At Kirk's orders?" echoed the young man. "Ask him for yourself," Isaid.
They were both full of surprise and anxiety at what I had alleged.
Was it possible that I had been mistaken in Ethelwynn's attitude, andthat she genuinely believed that her father still lived? But that couldnot be, for had she not seen him dead with her own eyes? No. The girl,aided by her lover, was carrying out a cunningly-devised schemeeffectively to seal my lips.
My wife Mabel had, before her disappearance, been in communication withthe impostor whom Ethelwynn had apparently taken under her protection.This was a point that was most puzzling. Could this girl and my wifehave been secretly acquainted? If so, then it was more than probablethat she might have knowledge of Mabel's whereabouts.
Again I referred to the loss of my wife, declaring that if I found her Iwould willingly forgo all further investigation into the Professor'sdeath.
The handsome girl exchanged glances with her lover, glances which showedme plainly that they were acting in accordance with some premeditatedplan. Leonard Langton was a sharp, shrewd, far-seeing man, or he wouldnever have held the appointment of private secretary to Sir AlbertOppenheim.
"Well, Mr. Holford," he said, "why don't you speak candidly and openly?You are, I take it, eager to make terms with your enemies, eh?"
"But who are my enemies?" I cried blankly. "As far as I'm aware, I'vemade none!"
"A man arouses enmity often without intention," was his reply. "Icannot, of course, tell who are these enemies of yours, but it isevident from your statement the other day at Wimpole Street that theyare responsible for your wife's disappearance."
"Well," I said, "you are right. I am open to make terms if Mabel isgiven back at once to me."
"And what are they?" asked Ethelwynn, whose very eagerness condemnedher.
"Pardon me, Miss Greer," I said rather hastily, "but I cannot discern inwhat manner my matrimonial affairs can interest you."
"Oh--er--well," she laughed nervously, "of course they don't really--only your wife's disappearance has struck me as very remarkable."
"No, Miss Greer,"! Said, "not really so remarkable as it at firstappears. My own inquisitiveness was the cause of her being enticedaway, so that I might be drawn off the investigation I had undertaken--the inquiry into who killed Professor Greer."
Her cheeks went paler, and she bit her lip. Her whole attitude was thatof a woman aware of a bitter and tragic truth, yet, for her own honour,she dared not divulge it. She undoubtedly held the secret--the secretof her father's death. Yet, for some purpose that was yet a completeenigma, she was protecting the impostor who had stepped into the deadman's shoes.
The pair had brought me down there in order to entrap me--most probablya plot of Kirk's. Their intention was to mislead and deceive me, and atthe same time to secure my silence. But in my frantic anxiety andconstant dread I was not easily entrapped. I had seen through thetransparency of Kirk's attitude, and I had likewise proved to my ownsatisfaction that, however much of the truth Leonard Langton knew, thegirl of the innocent eyes was feigning an ignorance that was culpable,for within her heart she knew the truth of her father's tragic end, eventhough she calmly asserted that he still lived and was in the best ofhealth.
I had believed on entering that room, the windows of which looked outupon that grey-green wintry sea, that I should learn somethingconcerning my dear wife, that I should perhaps obtain a clue to herwhereabouts.
But as I fixed my eyes upon those of Ethelwynn Greer, I saw in them aguilty knowledge, and by it knew that in that direction hope was futile.
True, she had sounded me as to what undertaking I was ready to give, butthe whole situation was so horrible and so bewilde
ring that I could notbring myself to make any compact that would prevent Greer's assassinbeing exposed.
So, instead, I sat full of chagrin, telling the pair much which heldthem in fear and apprehension.
It was evident that I knew more than they had believed I did, and thatLangton was filled with regret that he had invited me there.
What, I wondered, could possibly be Ethelwynn's motive in concealing herfather's death? I recollected how the assassin must have brushed pasther in the Red Room to enter the laboratory on that fatal night, andthat he must