"Ah," he said at last, "the loss of Mrs. Holford has upset you, and causes you to make all sorts of wild and ridiculous statements, it seems. Kirk says they would not listen to you at Scotland Yard--and no wonder!" "Then you know Kirk, eh--you who denied all knowledge of him when we first met!" I cried. "It was he who placed the poor Professor's remains in the furnace in the laboratory, for from the ashes I recovered various scraps of his clothing which are now in my possession." "Rubbish, my dear sir!" laughed the young man. "You don't know Kirk--or who he is!" "I know him to be an adventurer who has two places of residence," I said. "But an adventurer is not necessarily a scoundrel," Langton replied. "Many a good-hearted wanderer becomes a cosmopolitan and an adventurer, but he still retains all the traits and all the honour of a gentleman." "Not in Kirk's case!" I cried. "You've evidently quarrelled with him," remarked Langton. "I've quarrelled with him in so far as I mean to expose the secret assassination of Professor Greer and those who, for their own purposes, are making pretence that the dead man is still alive," I answered boldly. "By the latter, I take it, you mean ourselves?" observed the dead man's daughter. "I include all who lie, well knowing that the Professor is dead and all traces of his body have been destroyed," was my meaning response. "What's this story of yours about Miss Greer presenting an appearance of death?" asked Langton. "Tell me--it is the first time I've heard this." In a few brief sentences I told them of our discovery in the dining-room, and of the removal of the girl in a cab on that foggy night. At my words both looked genuinely puzzled. "What do you say to that?" asked her lover. "I know nothing--nothing whatever of it!" she declared. "I can only think that Mr. Holford must be dreaming." "Surely not when, with my own hands, I held a mirror to your lips to obtain traces of your breath!" I exclaimed. "Ask Antonio. He will tell you how he and his brother Pietro placed you in a cab at Kirk's orders." "At Kirk's orders?" echoed the young man. "Ask him for yourself," I said. They were both full of surprise and anxiety at what I had alleged. Was it possible that I had been mistaken in Ethelwynn's attitude, and that she genuinely believed that her father still lived? But that could not be, for had she not seen him dead with her own eyes? No. The girl, aided by her lover, was carrying out a cunningly-devised scheme effectively to seal my lips. My wife Mabel had, before her disappearance, been in communication with the impostor whom Ethelwynn had apparently taken under her protection. This was a point that was most puzzling. Could this girl and my wife have been secretly acquainted? If so, then it was more than probable that she might have knowledge of Mabel's whereabouts.