you know, I have kept away from the house oflate--at Maud's request. She feared that her father did not approve ofmy too frequent visits."
"And so you met her at dusk in the quiet streets about Nevern Square andthe adjacent thoroughfares?"
"Certainly. I told you so. I made no secret of it to you. Why shouldI?"
"Then why make a secret about your visit to the house on that particularevening?"
"I don't make any secret of it," he protested. "As I've already toldyou, I was not there."
"But you didn't leave Charing Cross, as you made people believe you haddone. You didn't even go to the station," returned Max.
"Certainly I did not."
"You had no intention, when you saw Marion at Cunnington's, of leavingat all. Come, admit that."
"You are quite right. I did not intend to leave London."
"But Statham had given you orders to go."
"I do not always obey his orders when it is to his own interest that Ishould disregard them," he replied enigmatically.
"Then you had a reason for not going to Servia?"
"I had--a very strong one."
"Connected with Maud Petrovitch?"
"In no way whatever. It was a purely personal motive."
"And you thought fit to disregard Statham's injunctions in order toattend to your own private business!"
"It was his business, as well as mine," declared Charlie, who, after apause, asked: "Now tell me, Max, why are you cross-examining me like acriminal lawyer? What do you suspect me of?"
"Well--shall I be frank?"
"Certainly. We are old enough friends for that."
"Then I'm sorry to say, Charlie, that I suspect you of telling a lie."
"Lies are permissible in certain cases--for instance, where a woman'shonour is at stake," he replied, fixing his eyes steadily upon those ofhis friend.
"Then you admit that what you have just told me is not the truth?"
"I admit nothing. I only repeat that I was not in Cromwell Road on theevening in question."
"But my eyes don't deceive me, man! I saw your face, remember."
"If it was actually my face, it was not in Cromwell Road. That's quitecertain?" laughed old Statham's secretary. "But it was your face."
"It was, I repeat, somebody who resembled me," he declared. "But youhaven't told me what the person was doing in the empty house."
"That's just what I don't know," Barclay replied. "I only know this:When I entered that night I saw nothing of a safe let into the wall.But on going there the next day the safe stood revealed, the door wasopen, and it was empty."
"And so you charge me with being a thief!" cried Rolfe, his cheekflushing.
"Not at all. You asked me for the truth, and I've told you."
"Well, it's evident that you suspect me of sneaking into the house,breaking open the Doctor's safe, and taking the contents," he saidplainly, annoyed.
"The Doctor may have returned himself in secret," Max replied. "Butsuch could hardly be the case, for the door had been blown open byexplosives."
"That would have created a noise," Charlie remarked quickly. "Showsthat whoever did it was a blunderer."
"Exactly. That's just my opinion. What I want to establish is themotive for the secret visit, and who made it."
"Well, I can assure you that I'm in entire ignorance of the existence ofany safe in the Doctor's house."
"And so was I. It was concealed by the furniture until my second visit,on the following morning."
"Curious," Rolfe said. "Very curious indeed. The whole thing is mostremarkable--especially how both father and daughter got away withoutleaving the least trace of their flight."
"Then you don't anticipate foul play?" Max asked quickly.
"Why should one?"
"The Doctor had a good many political enemies."
"We all have enemies. Who has not? But they don't come and murder oneand take away one's household goods."
"Then I am to take it that it was not you I saw at Cromwell Road,Charlie?" asked his friend in deep earnestness, at the same time filledwith suspicion. He felt that his eyes could not deceive him.
"In all seriousness," was the other's reply. "I was not there. Thispersonation of myself shows that there was some very clever anddeeply-laid scheme."
"But you've just declared that a falsehood was permissible where awoman's honour was concerned?"
"Well, and will not every man with a sense of honour towards a womanhold the same opinion? You yourself, Max, for instance, are not the manto give a woman away?"
"I know! I know--only--"
"Only what? Surely you do not disagree with me!"
"In a sense I don't, but I'm anxious to clear up this matter as far asyou yourself are concerned."
Rolfe saw that he had shaken his friend's fixed belief that he had seenhim in Cromwell Road. Max was now debating in his mind whether he hadnot suspected Charlie unjustly. It is so easy to suspect, and sodifficult to satisfy one's self of the actual truth. The mind is, alas!too apt to receive ill-formed impressions contrary to fact.
"It is already cleared up," Rolfe answered without hesitation. "I wasnot there. You were entirely mistaken. Besides, my dear chap, whyshould I go there when I had been particularly asked by Maud not tovisit the house?"
"When did she ask you?"
"Only the night before. That very fact is, in itself, curious. Sheurged me that whatever might occur, I was not to go to the house."
"Then she anticipated something--eh?"
"It seems as though she did."
"And she told Marion something on the night when she and her fatherdisappeared."
"I know."
"You know what she told her?"
"No. Marion refuses to tell me, I wish I could induce her to speak.Marion knows the truth--that's my firm belief."
"And mine also."
"The two girls have some secret in common," Rolfe said. "Can't you getMarion to tell you?"
"She refuses. I've asked her half a dozen times already."
"I wonder why! There must be some reason."
"Of course there is. She is loyal to her friend. But tell me honestly,Charlie. Do you know the Doctor's whereabouts?"
"I tell you honestly that I haven't the slightest idea. The affair isjust as great a mystery to me as to you."
"But why have you kept away from me till to-day?" Barclay asked. "Itisn't like you."
"Well," answered Rolfe, with a slight hesitation, "to tell you thetruth, because I thought your manner had rather changed towards me oflate."
"Why, my dear fellow, I'm sure it never has."
"But you suspected me of being in that house on the night of thedisappearance!"
"Of course, because I saw you."
"Because you thought you saw me," Charlie said, correcting him. "Yousurely would not misjudge me for that."
"No. But your theory regarding falsehoods has, I must admit, causedsome suspicion in my mind."
"Of what?"
"Well, of prevaricating in order to shield a woman--Maud it may be."
"I am not shielding her!" he declared. "There is nothing to shield. Ilove her very dearly indeed, and she loves me devotedly in return.Cannot you imagine, Max, my perturbed state of mind now that she hasdisappeared without a word?"
"Has she sent you no secret message of her safety?" Max asked,seriously.
"Not a word."
"And you do not know, then, if she has not met with foul play?"
"I don't. That's just it! Sometimes--" And he rose from his chair andpaced the room in agony of mind. "Sometimes--I--I feel as if I shall gomad. I love her--just as you love Marion! Sometimes I feel assured ofher safety--that she and her father have been compelled to disappear forpolitical or other reasons--and then at others a horrible idea haunts methat my love may be dead--the victim of some vile, treacherous plot totake from me all that has made my life worth living!"
"Stop!" cried Max, startin
g to his feet and facing him. "You love her--eh?"
"Better--ah! better than my own life!" he cried in deep earnestness, histroubled face being an index of his mind.
"Then--then upon her honour--the honour of the woman you love--swear tome that you have spoken the truth!"
He looked into his friend's eyes for a moment. Then he answered:
"I swear, Max! I swear by my love for Maud that I have spoken thetruth!"
And Barclay stood silent--so puzzled as to be unable to utter a word.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
WHICH PUTS A SERIOUS QUESTION.
At last Max spoke, slowly and with great deliberation.
"And you declare yourself as ignorant as I am myself of theirwhereabouts?"
"I do," was Rolfe's response. Then after a second's hesitation he addedin a changed voice: "I really think, Max, that you are scarcely treatingme fairly in this matter. Sorely it is in my interests to discover thewhereabouts of Maud! I have done my best."
"Well?"
"And I've failed to discover any clue whatever--except one--that--"
And he broke off, without finishing his sentence.
"What have you discovered? Tell me. Be frank with me."
"I've not yet established whether it is a real clue, or whether a merefalse surmise. When I have, I will tell you."
"But cannot we join forces in endeavouring to solve the problem?" Maxsuggested, his suspicion of his friend now removed.
"That is exactly what I would wish. But how shall we begin? Whereshall we commence?" asked Rolfe.
"The truth that it was not you whom I saw leaving the house in CromwellRoad adds fresh mystery to the already astounding circumstance," Maxdeclared. "The man who so closely resembled you was purposely made upto be mistaken for you. There was some strong motive for this. What doyou suggest it could be?"
"To implicate me! But in what?"
The thought of that blood-stained bodice ever haunted Max. It was onthe tip of his tongue to reveal his discovery to his friend, yet onsecond thoughts he resolved to at present retain his secret. He hadwithheld it from the police, therefore he was perfectly justified inwithholding it from Charlie.
The flat denial of the latter regarding his visit to Cromwell Roadcaused him deep reflection. He watched his friend's attitude, and wascompelled to admit within himself that now, at any rate, he was speakingthe truth.
"The only reason for the visit of the man whom I must have mistaken foryourself, Charlie," he said, "must have been to open that safe."
"Probably so."
Then Max explained, in detail, the position of the safe, and how he haddiscovered it being open, and its contents abstracted.
"On your first visit, then, the safe was hidden?"
"Yes. But when I went in the morning it stood revealed, the door blownopen by some explosive."
"By an enemy of the Doctor's," remarked Charlie.
Max did not reply. The Doctor's words regarding his friend on the lastoccasion they had sat together recurred to him at that moment with aqueer significance. The Doctor certainly did not like Rolfe. For whatreason? he wondered. Why had he taken such a sudden dislike to him?
Hitherto, they had been quite friendly, ever since the well-rememberedmeeting at the Villa des Fleurs, in Aix-les-Bains, and the Doctor hadnever, to his knowledge, objected to Maud's association with the smartyoung fellow whose keen business instincts had commended him to such aman as old Sam Statham. The Doctor held no doubt, either secretknowledge of something detrimental to Rolfe, or else entertained one ofthose sudden and unaccountable prejudices which some men form, and whichthey are unable to put behind them.
"The one main point we have first to decide, Charlie," he said at last,standing at the window and gazing thoughtfully down into the narrowLondon street, "is whether or not then has been foul play."
Rolfe made no reply, a circumstance which caused him to turn and lookstraight into his friend's face. He saw a change there.
His countenance was blanched; but whether by fear of the loss of thewoman he loved, or by a guilty knowledge, Max knew not.
"Marion can tell us," he answered at last. "But she refuses."
"You, her brother, can surely obtain the truth from her?"
"Not when you, her lover, fail," Charlie responded, his brows knitdeeply.
"But a moment ago you said you had a clue?"
"I think I have one. It is only a surmise."
"And in what direction does it trend?"
"Towards foul play," he said hoarsely.
"Political?"
"It may be."
"And were both victims of the plot?"
"I cannot tell. At present I'm making all the secret inquiriespossible--far afield in a Continental city. It takes time, care, andpatience. As soon as I obtain anything tangible, I will tell you. Butfirst of all, Max," he added, "I wish to have your assurance that you nolonger suspect me. I am not your enemy--why should you be mine?"
"I am not, my dear fellow," declared Barclay. "How can I be the enemyof Marion's brother? I was only suspicious. You would have been thesame in similar circumstances, I'm sure."
"Probably," laughed Charlie. "Yet what you've told me about theendeavour to implicate myself in the affair is certainly extraordinary.I don't see any motive."
"Except that you were known by the conspirators, whoever they are, to beMaud's lover."
"If so, then they intend, most probably, to bring some false chargeagainst me. And--and--"
"And what?" asked Max in some surprise.
"Why, don't you see?" he said hoarsely, staring straight into hisfriend's face with a horrified expression as a terrible truth arosewithin him. "Don't you see that you yourself, Max, would become theprincipal witness against me!"
Max stood wondering at the other's sudden anticipation of disaster.What could he dread if this denial of his was the actual truth?
Again he grew suspicious.
"How can I be witness against you if you are innocent of any connectionwith the affair?" he queried.
"Because the Doctor's enemies have done this, in order to shieldthemselves."
"But if the Doctor is really still alive, what have you to fear?"
"Is he alive? That is the point."
"Marion gives me to understand that both he and Maud are safe," Maxresponded quickly.
The other shook his head dubiously, saying: "If she has told you that,then it is exactly contrary to what she has given me to understand."
"What? She has expressed a suspicion of foul play?"
"Yes--more than a suspicion."
"Well--this is certainly strange," Max declared. "Marion has all alongbeen trying to allay my fears."
"Because she feared to upset you, perhaps. With me it is different.She does not mind my feelings."
"I'm sure she does, Charlie. She's devoted to you. And she ought tobe. Few brothers would do what you have done."
"That's quite outside the question," he said, quickly pacing anxiouslyup and down the room. "She told me distinctly the other day that herfears were of the worst."
"Ah! if you could only induce her to tell us what Maud confessed to her.It was a confession--a serious and tragic one, I believe."
"Yes. It was, no doubt; and if she would only speak we could, Ibelieve, quickly get at the truth," Rolfe said. "To me it seemsincredible that the Doctor, your most intimate friend, should not havefound some secret manner by which to communicate with you, and assureyou of his safety."
There was a pause. Suddenly Max turned to the speaker and exclaimed--
"Tell me, Charlie. Be perfectly frank with me. Have you, do you think,at any time recently given some cause for offence to the Doctor?"
"Why do you ask that?" inquired the other in quick surprise.
"I have reasons for asking. I'll tell you after you've answered myquestion."
"I don't know," he laughed uneasily. "Some men, and especiallyforeigners, are very easily of
fended."
"But have you offended the Doctor?"
"Perhaps. A man never knows when he gives unintentional offence."
"Are you aware of having done anything to offend him?"
"No, except that Maud asked me not to visit there so often, as herfather did not approve of it."
"Did she ever tell you that the Doctor had suddenly entertained adislike of you?"
"Certainly not. I always believed that he was very friendly disposedtowards me. But--well--why do you ask all this?"
"I merely ask for information."
"Of course, but you promised to tell me the reason."
"Well, the fact is this. On the afternoon prior to their disappearance,the Doctor expressed feelings towards you that were not exactlyfriendly. It seemed to me that he had formed some