"No doubt, and I dare say I'll say it again," returned Teddy, smiling. "It's my opinion, although I dare say if I were in the same predicament, I should act the same way, but what puzzles me is that Adrian did not himself reply to your advertisement. He knew he'd be quite safe with you, and besides there was a paragraph in several papers stating that Trevanna was getting well and had exonerated him." "That's what makes me fear Adrian is dead," said Olive, turning her pale face towards him. "Dead!--nonsense," cried Teddy hastily. "Why should he be dead? He wouldn't commit suicide, it is unlikely he has met with an accident, and no one would harm him, for he hadn't an enemy in the world." "No, that's true. Adrian has no enemy, but there is a man who does not like me, so out of revenge he might harm Adrian." "A man who does not like you?" repeated Teddy in surprise. "Yes; Dr. Roversmire," she answered, coming up close to him, and laying her gloved hand on his arm. "He wanted to marry me, and I refused him because I loved Adrian. Suppose he wanted to remove Adrian from his path." "The supposition is too idle. But suppose he did, what then? Do you think he would murder him?" "No," she said, in a low voice, "but Dr. Roversmire is a theosophist, a believer in occult science. He comes from India, where they say these people have strange, unholy powers. What if he had lured Adrian to his house at Hampstead, and disintegrated his body." Teddy Rudall smiled at this, for he was a matter-of-fact young man, very sceptical of the powers asserted to be exercised by the theosophists. "That's a lot of nonsense, you know," he said lightly. "That theosophy is all bosh. I've been to lots of their meetings, and it's the same kind of rubbish as table-turning and mesmerism. You surely don't believe in it?" "I did not, but since Adrian has vanished so strangely I confess I feel a little afraid." "Of Dr. Roversmire?" "Yes; he called to see me last week, and from the way he spoke I feel sure he knows something of Adrian." "At all events, you may be sure there is no disintegration business about it," said Teddy decisively, "for these gentry can scatter their own body to the winds, but they can't do it with any one else's." "But he might have got rid of Adrian by some other means?" "Adrian isn't the sort of fellow to allow himself to be got rid of easily," retorted Rudall soothingly. "Come, Miss Maunders, that wretched Indian juggler, whom I remember having seen here, has upset your nerves with his mad talk. I'm certain Adrian is all right and this 'D' who is coming here to-day will no doubt be able to tell us where he is." "I hope so," began Olive, when suddenly there came a ring at the door, and they looked quickly at one another.