"Yes," sighed Langton. "Ethelwynn is now beside herself with grief. I have just left her, having broken the dreadful news to her." "Ah!" exclaimed Kirk, "it's surely a dark and bitter revenge--rendered all the worse, Holford, by one vivid fact." "What is that?" "The fact that Doctor Flynn--who was born in Germany, though of British parents, and was an intimate friend of Leftwich--suspecting the truth, told the German's brother-in-law, with this tragic result." "Then Flynn is to blame for Greer's death!" I cried. "Undoubtedly," was Kirk's answer. "Poor Greer!" he added, "He was an old and dear friend of mine. I never suspected that he would be followed abroad, or I would have gone with him. Flynn was no doubt privy to the attempt to be made to secure revenge." "Where is Flynn?" "Gone abroad," replied Langton. "As soon as I told him what Mr. Kirk had said over the telephone, he packed some of his traps, and, making a lame excuse that he had to visit some friends in Germany, he drove to Charing Cross." I stood gazing at the pair before me, my thoughts too full for mere words. Professor Greer's end was, indeed, an unexpected and extraordinary one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ That night, however, proved full of surprises, for when I returned home I found Mabel, sweet, eager and happy, anxiously awaiting me. I noticed she seemed pale, weary and travel-worn, but as she threw herself into my ready arms with a cry of joy at our reunion, she sobbed to me to forgive her for doubting me. "I don't understand you, darling," I said. "I never doubted you for one moment." "Ah!" she sobbed, "you do not know all I've suffered in these long weeks we have been parted." "No," I said. "Tell me, dearest, tell me all." Then, in broken sentences, smiling now and then through her tears, she explained how, on receipt of the false telegram, she had at once gone to Italy, where she was met by Kirk, who told her that I had unfortunately been accused of the crime of forgery, of which I was innocent, and that I was in hiding. He promised, if for the time she concealed her name, he would take her to me. They went to Florence, only to find that I was not there. Thence they went to Faenza, on the Adriatic side of the Apennines, where she was handed over to the care of Pietro Merli, who conducted her about the Continent under the same pretext--always in search of myself, and always preventing her from sending a message home, for fear, the Italian had said, that the English police should be placed on the track. In Vienna, Kirk again met her, Pietro having returned to England.