"Is Miss Ethelwynn at home?" I inquired. "No; she's gone out for a
walk," replied a feminine voice--that of a maid, evidently. "Who are
you, please?"
"Mr. Kershaw Kirk," I replied, for want of something better to say.
"Oh, Mr. Kirk!" exclaimed the woman. "Is that you, sir? Your voice
sounds so different over the 'phone. Miss Ethelwynn left word that, if
you rang up, I was to tell you that Mr. Langton is back, so you had
better keep out of the way."
"What does Langton know?" I asked, quickly on the alert.
"Nothing yet; only be very careful. Are you coming down here?"
"I don't know," I replied. "I'll ring your mistress up later on to-day.
Is there any other message for me?"
"No, my mistress said nothing else, sir."
"Very well," I said. "Good morning!" and I rang off.
That conversation created further doubts in my mind. Here was a girl
whom both Kirk and myself had seen dead, yet she was still alive, and
actually acting in conjunction with him to keep her father's death a
secret! It was incomprehensible!
What could it mean?
Pelham came to me with some questions concerning the business, but I
only answered mechanically. I could think of nothing--only of the
mysterious, inscrutable affair in Sussex Place. The mystery had
possessed my soul.
At eleven o'clock, suppressing all suspicion I held of Kershaw Kirk, I
called at his house; but his sister showed me a telegram she had
received soon after nine o'clock that morning. It had been handed in at
Charing Cross Station, and was to the effect that he was just leaving
for the Continent.
Another curious circumstance! He had gone to join that crafty-faced
servant, Antonio Merli. Now that Leonard Langton had returned, he
evidently thought it wise to make himself scarce. And yet Langton had
calmly denied all knowledge of him!
A little before five o'clock that afternoon, while sitting in my glass
office in the garage, the man Dick Drake brought me a telegram. It had
been handed in at the Gare du Nord, in Paris, and was from Kirk. His
enigmatical words were:
"Recall all I told you. I thank you sincerely for helping me over a
difficulty last night. Shall rejoin you shortly. If questioned say
nothing. All depends upon you. Silence!"