I could not think that Kirk was responsible for this second assassination, for, unless Antonio had lied, it had been committed at the very hour when I had been seated with my mysterious neighbour only a few doors away from my own house. So, as you may readily imagine, I was still sorely troubled when at last the maid brought me my hot water and I rose to dress. I quite saw now that the reason why Kirk had called to inspect the new Eckhardt tyre was merely in order to make my acquaintance. Yet it was certainly curious that he should have predicted the visits of the two other men for the same purpose. After breakfast I went, as usual, to the garage, but my mind was still full of the events of the previous night. Kirk had arranged to call for me at eleven and return to Sussex Place, where he intended to search for any finger-marks left by the assassin. Eleven o'clock struck, but he did not arrive. In patience I waited until one, and then returned home to luncheon, as was my habit. His non-arrival confirmed my suspicions. What, I wondered, could have been the purport of that mysterious message in German that he had listened to on the telephone just before we had parted? At two o'clock I called at his house and rang the door-bell. There was no response. Both Kirk and his sister were out. So I returned to the garage, and with Dick Drake, my stout, round-faced, dare-devil driver, who held two records at Brooklands, and was everlastingly being fined for exceeding the speed limit, I worked hard upon the refractory engine of a car which had been sent to me for repair. All day it was misty, but towards evening the fog increased, until it became thick even in Chiswick, therefore I knew that it must be a regular "London particular" in the West End. One driver, indeed, who had come in from Romford, said he had taken four hours to cross London. Hence I resolved to possess my soul in patience and spend a quiet evening at home with my wife and her young sister, who lived with us. Curiously enough, however, I found myself, towards six o'clock, again seized by a sudden and uncontrollable desire to return to Sussex Place in search of my mysterious neighbour. I felt within me a keen, irrepressible anxiety to fathom the curious problem which that shabby man, who declared himself immune from trial in a criminal court, had placed before me. Who could he be, that, like the King himself, he could not be brought before a judge? At times I found myself laughing at his absurd statements, and regarding them as those of a lunatic; but at others I was bound to admit that his seriousness showed him to be in deadly earnest. Well, to cut a long story short, at eight o'clock I took Dick Drake and managed to creep over in the fog to Regent's Park on one of the small cars. The door was opened, as before, by Antonio, who perceptibly started when he recognised me. Yes, Mr. Kirk was there, he admitted, and a few seconds later he came to me in the hall.