------------------------------------------------------------------------ The time drew near for the departure of the wedded couple. Hilda, looking charming in her travelling-dress, was going round and saying good-bye to the guests. The last farewell spoken, she looked round for her husband. A sudden premonition of something disastrous, something awful, assailed her and communicated itself to the others. Where was Raife? A dozen voices cried out. There was a hurried search in every room where he could possibly be. A few moments of agonised suspense and wonder, and then the horrible truth was revealed. The bridegroom had disappeared! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ On the cliffs of Cromer were a hat and coat. The local police had been duly informed of the event, and the inspector, with a sergeant, were investigating the circumstances. "Looks like suicide," said the inspector. "It's a good coat, too. Well, let's get to work. What's in the pockets? We shall have the newspaper men round presently, and we must be ready for them when they get here. Curse the newspapers! Our job would be much easier if it were not for them. They smell out a tragedy like a fly finds treacle." First came a silver card-case, with coronet and initials in multi-coloured jewels, "R.R." The cards were inscribed "Sir Raife Remington, Bart., Aldborough Park, Tunbridge Wells." This was a card-case presented by Hilda Muirhead in the happy days of courtship, which ended in marriage. A letter, in brief, rasping sentences, was the next discovery. "Kismet! Allah wills it. It was not to be. There is a curse in my life, and now I abandon my life." The letter was not signed. The inspector tossed the letter to the sergeant, who, having read it, remarked, laconically: "Ten to one, there's a woman in the case." The newspapers were very busy for many days after Raife's coat and hat had been found on the cliffs at Cromer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Again Doctor Malsano sat in his den, and there was an expression of triumph on his face. Gilda Tempest was there, and the doctor spoke soothingly. "Gilda, we are approaching the end. You played your part very well the other day at the wedding ceremony." Gilda shuddered. The full force of the crime that she had been compelled to commit, confronted her. Case-hardened, and soaked in the jaundiced atmosphere of criminality, the doctor continued to smile. "Ha! ha! Remington thought he would escape. Your father killed him and he killed your father. But I am here, and his son shall not escape. Gilda, you must complete the ruin of that young fool. The vendetta is not complete." Gilda writhed as the old man murmured these hateful words. She loved Raife, and, in her sane moments, would have given more than her life for him. The baneful influence of her uncle had led her to wield a fateful power over the man she loved.