"Yes!" said Levendale, quietly. "But it is, though! All right, Purdie--come this way." Purdie followed Levendale into a small room on the right of the hall--a room in which the remains of a cold, evidently impromptu supper lay on a table lighted by a shaded lamp. Two men had been partaking of that supper, but Levendale was alone. He gave his visitor another queer smile, and pointed, first to a chair and then to a decanter. "Sit down--take a drink," he said. "This is a queer meeting! We haven't seen each other since--" "Good God, man!" broke in Purdie, staring at his host. "What's it all mean? Are you--disguised?" Levendale laughed--ruefully--and glanced at the mean garments which Mrs. Goldmark had spoken of. "Necessity!" he said. "Had to! Ah!--I've been through some queer times--and in queer places. Look here--what do you know?" "Know!" cried Purdie. "You want me to tell you all I know--in a sentence? Man!--it would take a month! What do you know? That's more like it!" Levendale passed a hand across his forehead--there was a weariness in his gesture which showed his visitor that he was dead beat. "Aye, just so!" he said. "But--tell me! has John Purvis come looking for his brother?" "He has!" answered Purdie. "He's in London just now." "Has he told about that diamond?--told the police?" demanded Levendale. "He has!" repeated Purdie. "That's all known. Stephen Purvis--where is he?" "Upstairs--asleep--dead tired out," said Levendale. "We both are! Night and day--day and night--I could fall on this floor and sleep--" "You've been after that diamond?" suggested Purdie. "That--and something else," said Levendale. "Something else?" asked Purdie. "What then?" "Eighty thousand pounds," answered Levendale. "Just that!" Purdie stood staring at him. Then he suddenly put a question. "Do you know who murdered that old man in Praed Street?" he demanded. "That's what I'm after." "No!" said Levendale, promptly. "I don't even know that he was murdered!" He, too, stared at his visitor for a moment; then "But I know more than a little about his being robbed," he added significantly. Purdie shook his head. He was puzzled and mystified beyond measure. "This is getting too deep for me!" he said. "You're the biggest mystery of all, Levendale. Look here!" he went on. "What are you going to do? This queer disappearance of yours--this being away--coming back without your beard and dressed like that!--aren't you going to explain? The police--" "Yes!" said Levendale. "Ten o'clock this morning--the police-station. Be there--all of you--anybody--anybody who likes--I'm going to tell the police all I know. Purvis and I, we can't do any more--baffled, you understand! But now--go away, Purdie, and let me sleep--I'm dead done for!" Within ten minutes of leaving them, Purdie was back with Lauriston and Melky Rubinstein, and motioning them away from Sussex Square.