"Where's Antonio?" I demanded. "Gone." "Abroad?" "I--well, how can I tell? He's left here. That's all I know," replied this mysterious man very lamely. I sniffed in suspicion. "Do, I beg of you, tell me more of this affair, Mr. Kirk," I urged, speaking quickly. "If you are really my friend, if you really wish me to assist you, why not instruct me how to act? If you will tell me the truth, I will keep a still tongue." "You will be more silent if you remain in ignorance," was his response. "Listen! I must get away," and before I could prevent him he had closed the door quietly behind him. I noticed that he was attired in clothes quite different from his usual habit. Indeed, he was smartly dressed, wearing a black overcoat with a velvet collar, and well-ironed silk hat. "Stay and face Langton," I urged. "Take him into your confidence. Surely no good can be served by this elusiveness." "You don't know what you're saying, man!" he cried. "Let me pass. I've been listening to all you told the young man. Your story was quite a feasible one. Keep it up, and affect entire ignorance of me. It is the only way if we are to place our hand upon poor Greer's assassin." "The proper course for me to pursue, Mr. Kirk, is to--" "Footsteps! I must go!" he cried hoarsely, in a voice which plainly betrayed his intense agitation and anxiety not to come face to face with the dead girl's lover. "I'll try and see you to-morrow or next day. Remain in patience till you hear from me. Good-bye." And the next instant he ran lightly down the steps and sped away to the left, out of sight. All this had happened within three minutes. Scarce had he disappeared, when Langton, accompanied by two constables, turned the corner, and found me on guard at the door. I felt bewildered. Kirk's sudden appearance at the door of that house of mystery had taken me so aback that I had scarcely yet recovered. Did not his admission that the faithful Antonio had left bear out Langton's story of having seen the fellow passing through the buffet at Calais station? The young man had, I saw, been explaining his suspicions to the constables on their way to the house. I was glad that there was only a blank wall opposite, otherwise my action in allowing Kirk to leave the place might easily have been observed and misconstrued. What, I wondered, was the reason of my strange friend being in there alone? Why had the lights been so suddenly extinguished when Langton had rung the bell? That he feared Langton was evident. Why? Within myself I resolved to put some guarded questions and ascertain, if possible, what Ethelwynn's lover knew of this man who had so ingeniously drawn me into that maelstrom of doubt and grim tragedy.