"Remember that all you have heard to-day must be kept secret. Nobody
must know that we have been to Mrs Popejoy's. There is a mystery
surrounding this lady named Cloud, and when we get to the bottom of it
we shall, I feel certain, obtain a clue to the cause of your poor
master's death. You, his faithful servant, were, I feel assured,
devoted to him, therefore it behoves us both to work in unison with a
view to discovering the truth."
"Certainly, sir; I shall not utter a single word of what I have heard
to-day. But," he added, "do you believe that my poor master was
murdered?"
"It's an open question," I replied. "There are one or two facts which,
puzzling the doctors, may be taken as suspicious, yet there are others
which seem quite plain, and point to death from natural causes."
Then, having given him certain instructions how to act if he discovered
anything further regarding the mysterious Aline, he alighted at the
corner of Cranbourne Street, while I drove on to my own rooms, full of
saddest memories of the man who had for years been one of my closest
friends.