"I am sure that Lady Dyke met her death in his residence; but it is impossible to say now if he was aware of her presence. He was in London at the time, that is quite certain." "Do the police know all this?" "No." "I am glad of it. Mensmore did not kill my wife. The suggestion is absurd--wildly absurd." "Things look black against him, nevertheless." "I tell you it is nonsense. You are on the wrong track, Bruce. What possible reason could he have had to decoy my wife to his flat and there murder her?" "None, perhaps." "Then why do you hesitate to agree with me?" "Because there is a woman in the case." "Another woman?" "Yes; Mensmore's sister, or half-sister, to be exact. She also lives in Raleigh Mansions." "Indeed. So all kinds of things have been going on without my knowledge. Yet you promised faithfully to keep me informed of every incident that transpired." "I am sorry, Dyke; but you were so upset--" "Upset, man. Don't you realize that this affair is all I have to think about in the world?" The baronet was so disturbed that Claude at once made up his mind to tell him as little as possible in the future. These constant possibilities of rupture between them must be avoided at all hazard. To change the conversation he said: "Never mind; this time you must pardon my inadvertence. How do your wife's people bear the continued mystery of her disappearance?" "At first they were awfully cut up. But lately they have been reconciled to her death, which they say must have resulted from accident, and that her identity must have been mixed up with that of some other person. Such things do happen, you know. Anyway, her sister has gone into mourning for her. You didn't hear, I suppose, that I have made my little nephew my heir?" "Was that step necessary at your time of life?" "I shall never marry again, Bruce." "Well, let us drop the subject. You have done right as regards the boy under present circumstances; but, as a man of the world, I only point out that it is an unwise thing to bring up a youngster in expectation of something which chance might determine differently." "Chance! There is no chance! My wife cannot return from the grave!" "True. You have done right, no doubt. But the suddenness of the thing caused me to speak unwittingly." They were silent for a little while, when Sir Charles returned to the subject nearest his heart. "Has your search developed in other directions?" Bruce fenced with the query. "To be candid," he said, "I am now most busily engaged in the not very difficult task of throwing dust in the eyes of the police. My motives are hardly definite to myself, but I do not want this unfortunate man, Mensmore, to be arrested until I have personally become convinced of his guilt." "You are right. Your instinct seldom fails you. I question if he ever, to his own knowledge, saw my wife."