Gerard, who was quite aware of this manœuvre, which was calculated to confirm his suspicions, invited his too effusive acquaintance into the little back-room, where he expected to find his cousin. He was annoyed to discover that Geoffrey had disappeared, and he conjectured that, with his usual impetuosity, Geoffrey had gone off to invest in a revolver or a thick stick. He was angry with his cousin for this unexpected defection, but there was no help for it, and he asked his suspicious guest to take a chair by the fire, while he himself took one on the opposite side of the hearth. “I didn’t expect to find you here,” said Mr. Candover, when they had exchanged comments upon the weather, which was cold and wet. “I understood that you were staying at your uncle’s place.” “So I was till yesterday, when I found out my wife’s address, and came here at once to see her.” “By-the-bye, what have you done with her? It was to see her I came. I’m in sad disgrace with her, for having introduced some people to her, some of whom turned out to be rather less strait-laced than she cared for her friends to be. I suppose she told you about it?” And Mr. Candover threw at the young man a piercing look. “Yes. I told her she was silly and ungrateful.” “Where is she?” “I’ve sent her to see my solicitor. A most unpleasant thing happened here last night. Two sham detectives came with a pretended warrant for her arrest.” “You don’t say so!” Gerard was sitting with his face to the light, while Mr. Candover was in shadow. The elder man, therefore, had the advantage, in that he read the face of the younger like a book, while Gerard was not even aware of the curious and furtive movements by which his visitor had taken something out of one of his pockets and was holding it against his breast, just covered by his overcoat. But Gerard, feeling uneasy that his own expression had betrayed him, and that the red blood was rushing into his face, looked down at the fender, and as he did so, perceived that the poker was missing. At once suspecting something, he looked up and round the room, believing that his cousin Geoffrey was in hiding somewhere. As he turned his head, he saw a sudden movement on the part of Mr. Candover, and then, almost at the same moment, there was a crash, a thud, and some one burst out of the cupboard close to the visitor’s chair; the next moment Mr. Candover was lying on the floor, stunned and motionless, with a great wound in his head, from which the blood was flowing, while Geoffrey, flushed and excited, was standing over him with his own weapon, the poker, bent and stained, in his right hand, and in his left the revolver which he had wrenched from Mr. Candover’s hand. “I’ve settled him, I think!” said Geoffrey hoarsely, as he bent over the motionless body of the adventurer. “I’m afraid you have, by Jove!” said Gerard, in an awestruck whisper. CHAPTER XXIII