"Poor fellow," she said tenderly. "Tchigorsky beyond a doubt." Ralph turned away, as if in grief. But the grin on his face was the grin of Mephistopheles. CHAPTER XXXV MRS. MAY IS PLEASED Geoffrey was fain to confess that he couldn't quite follow. He turned to Ralph, who once more had recovered his old expression--an expression tinged with profound regret. From the hall below came the tones of Rupert Ravenspur demanding to know what it was all about. "Go and tell your grandfather," Ralph said quietly. "Everybody who comes near us is fated, it seems. Poor Tchigorsky is no more. He was a mysterious man, and wonderfully reticent as to his past life, but he was the most interesting man I ever met. But I shall never hear anything more about Tibet." "He was a very old friend of yours?" Marion asked. "Not so very old," Ralph replied. "And I should hardly call him a friend. We were mutually interested in certain scientific matters. But as to the marvelous side of things he told me nothing." Speaking by the letter this was perfectly true. Tchigorsky had told Ralph nothing, for the simple reason that they had learned and suffered together. "Then why did he come here?" Marion demanded. "To try to solve the mystery. He declared that Orientalism was at the bottom of it. But we shall never know now. Tchigorsky is no more, and such knowledge as he may have possessed has gone down to the sea with him." Marion turned away with a sigh. Slight as their acquaintance had been, she had been drawn to Tchigorsky, she said. Strange that whoever tried to help the house of Ravenspur should come under the ban. "But Tchigorsky was drowned," said Ralph. "No, indeed," Marion replied. "Oh, I know there are no signs of violence on the body. I know how dangerous the broken balustrade is; but I have my opinions all the same." "You are wrong in this case," Ralph said, as he walked away. Presently other people began to arrive. For the first time for many years Ravenspur was invaded by strangers--a policeman or two, a fussily polite inspector, a journalist with a colleague, pushing everywhere. They would have interviewed Rupert Ravenspur, but the cold glitter of his eye awed even them. The police let Ralph alone, but Geoffrey was subjected to severe questioning. On the whole he came out of the ordeal better than Ralph had anticipated. "You managed that very well," he said. "I feel horribly mean and guilty. All these prevarications--" "Call them lies, if you like," Ralph put in coolly. "It doesn't matter. Think of the good cause. If ever the end may justify the means it is here. You are deceiving only our enemies; you are injuring nobody. And you are giving Tchigorsky a heaven-sent opportunity." "I doubt it, uncle. Clever as Tchigorsky is, well as he may disguise himself, he will fail. Did not Princess Zaza pick you both out at Lassa?"