"Upon your own admission, Mabel has fallen a victim of a plot merely because I became too active and too inquisitive. You feared lest I might discover something." "I have admitted nothing, my dear sir!" he cried. "One day you will withdraw all these malicious words--mark me," he added, in a hard voice, lowering his weapon and replacing it in his hip-pocket as I released my convulsive grip. "I've lost my wife, Mr. Kirk, and you know where she is," I said. "In that you are quite mistaken," he declared. "As I've already explained, I've not yet had opportunity for making inquiry. I believed," he added in reproach, "that you would assist me in this strange affair concerning Professor Greer. Yet my confidence in you, Holford, has been sadly misplaced. Recall for one moment what I told you--of the seriousness of what was at stake, and of the absolute necessity for complete secrecy. Yet to-night you threaten to bungle the whole affair by going to the police." "I've lost my wife!" I interrupted. "She's the victim of some plot or other, and it is to find her that I intend to invoke the aid of Scotland Yard." "Well, by adopting that course, you would not find her--but you'd lose her," was the old fellow's brief response. "Antonio told me the very same thing when we met in Rome!" I exclaimed. "Your threat shows me that you are in league in this conspiracy of silence." Kershaw Kirk burst out laughing, as though he considered my anger a huge joke. It annoyed me that he did not take me seriously, and that he regarded the loss of Mabel so lightly. "Look here, Mr. Holford," he said at last, looking straight into my face. "It's plain that you suspect me of being the assassin of Professor Greer. That being so, I've nothing more to say. Yet I would ask you to regard the present situation both logically and calmly. Do you for one moment suppose that were I guilty I would have taken you to Sussex Place and explained the whole affair in detail? Is it, indeed, to be supposed that I would place myself so entirely and completely in the hands of a stranger?" I shook my head dubiously. "Well," he went on, "I repeat to you now all that I told you that night, and assert that all I told you was the truth." "But how do you account for Ethelwynn being still alive?" I interrupted quickly. "There is an explanation of that," he declared; "one that you will probably be told very shortly. Fortunately, the poor girl was not dead, though I confess I was entirely deceived by the symptoms. You will remember that the mirror remained unclouded by her breath?" "I remember every incident, alas! only too vividly," was my slow, distinct reply. "But," I asked very pointedly, "pray tell me, Mr. Kirk, what was your object in calling upon me and inducing me to go to Sussex Place?" He thrust his hands into his trousers pockets and smiled. "An ulterior one--as you may imagine. But one which was as much in your interests as in ours."