By some means he had tracked her down, and had visited her with the view of obtaining her forgiveness of the past, and inducing her to resume their married life. To his request she had returned an obstinate refusal, in which he seemed to have acquiesced, as he announced his intention of returning to London on the following day. On the evening of the fatal day, Mrs. Mayhew had left them alone after dinner, apparently on fairly amicable terms. She could only conjecture that, during her absence, he had sought to alter her daughter’s resolution, that high words had ensued, and that in the violence of his passion he had first taken her life and then his own. Mrs. Mayhew, otherwise Madame Makris, was a clever woman and had told her story well; she had kept out of it anything that would arouse suspicions of the past. But Grewgus, with his knowledge, was able to read between the lines. Edwards had felt his old criminal instincts rising within him. So long a time had elapsed without any action being taken that he had concluded the past was done with. To the successful accomplishment of any future schemes, his wife was necessary. He had tracked her down to this lonely Devonshire village, and used all his arts of persuasion to induce her to return to him. A man of brutal and violent passions, he had been maddened by her refusal, and in a fit of frenzy bordering on delirium had killed her. After he had mastered the facts, Grewgus went round to Lydon’s office. The young man knew what he had come for. He and Gloria had read the same news at breakfast. “I wonder if she was wearing her mascot when he killed her?” said Lydon in a musing tone. “It saved her from the consequences of her lover’s bullet, but not from her husband’s.” “And so that is the end of three out of the four,” observed Grewgus in the same thoughtful voice. “I wonder if Nemesis has yet overtaken that gloomy miscreant, John Whitehouse, or if he is living somewhere a life of smug respectability on his ill-gotten gains?” But that question has not been answered yet. For all that is known to the contrary, John Whitehouse, as great a criminal as the others, may be leading the life suggested by the detective. THE END. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES Minor spelling inconsistencies (_e.g._ moneylender/money-lender, note-book/note book, womenfolk/women-folk, etc.) have been preserved. Alterations to the text: Abandon the use of drop-caps. Add ToC. Punctuation: a few missing/invisible periods. [Chapter Two] Change “a gorgeous carved sapphire _make_ into a pendant” to _made_. “very shortly after the _terribly_ tragedy, with instructions” to _terrible_. [Chapter Six] “on a considerable _snm_ of money for its purchase” to _sum_. [Chapter Eleven] “The _Storments_ had a small private sitting-room” to _Stormonts_. [Chapter Seventeen] “with something of a snarl in his _voiec_” to _voice_. [End of text]