"In my opinion, dead!" he answered solemnly. "Oh, it sounds preposterous, but in the case of this lonely woman who had apparently no living relatives and who was estranged from Sir Marcus and the other members of her husband's family, it was no very difficult matter to hush up the fact of her death." "But, Gatton, you don't mean that she, too, met with foul play?" "Most certainly I don't! It is as clear as day that the whole object of this elaborate secrecy was to _hide_ the fact of her death! She was infinitely more useful alive than dead, Mr. Addison; and they hoped to keep up the solemn farce until--" "Yes?" "Until Sir Eric was hanged for the murder of his cousin!" "Gatton! What do you mean?" "He is the last of the Coverlys!" answered Gatton simply. "There would be no further danger of any one paying off the mortgage." "Danger?" "Exactly. There is some secret at Friar's Park--or at the Bell House--which necessitates the property remaining in the possession of Dr. Damar Greefe--as it has virtually remained since Sir Burnham's death! So much is clear, and although Eric Coverly has persisted in his obstinate silence, one of my assistants who has been at work on the late Sir Marcus's papers made a discovery yesterday, which together with what I had learned from Mr. Hardacre and your code message, brought me down to Crossleys post haste." "What was this discovery?" "An invitation from Dr. Damar Greefe, dated only a short time after the death of Sir Burnham, to Sir Marcus, asking him to visit Friar's Park! The doctor explained that the state of Lady Coverly's health made it impossible for her to entertain, but he assured Sir Marcus that she was anxious to see him and to heal any breach which might exist between them. Most significant of all, the Eurasian proposed that Sir Marcus should put up _here_!" "At the Abbey Inn?" "Exactly. Now the 'best room' of the inn is that which you have been occupying--and it is that which Sir Marcus would have occupied had he accepted the doctor's invitation. Listen then: all these clews seemed to point to Friar's Park, but the receipt of your message mentioning one Damar Greefe as being a suspicious party, and asking me to look up his record, quite tipped the scales. I saw, frankly, that you had made a false move, but nevertheless it served my purpose, and I determined to look into the Crossleys end of the inquiry personally, without giving Dr. Damar Greefe reason to suspect that I was in any way associated with the matter. "I picked up one or two hints from the county police as to the geography as well as the 'notables' of the neighborhood; and the plan which you put into execution to-night, I had adopted last night!" "What! You visited Friar's Park?"