"Oh, I forgot to tell you!" I exclaimed. "I'm not going to-day. I've
changed my mind."
"Not going? Why, I thought you intended to see the Professor in
Strassburg?" she cried.
"He has left," I sighed; "I learned last night that he is on his way to
Hungary."
"And will you not follow?" asked the girl in reproach. "Will you not
try to discover where Mabel is?"
"I've tried, Gwen--and failed," I answered despairingly.
"You have not told me all, Harry," she said, looking across at me. At
the head of the table was Mabel's empty place. "You have concealed
something from me," she declared.
"It is nothing that you should know," was my quick reply. "My own
private business does not concern you, Gwen--or Mabel either."
"But surely I ought to know the truth? Mabel has been decoyed away
abroad, and there must be some motive for it," she replied in bitter
complaint.
"Of course, my dear girl, but even I, in the knowledge of what has
passed, cannot discern what the motive can be. If I could, all would be
plain sailing, and we would soon recover her," I said.
"Who is this Professor of whom you have spoken?" she asked, leaning her
elbows upon the table, and gazing straight into my eyes.
"Professor Greer, the well-known chemist."
"Greer?" echoed the girl, staring at me strangely.
"Yes, why?"
But she hesitated, as though disinclined to tell me something which was
upon her mind.
"You know the Professor, eh, Harry?"
"I've met him once," I replied, which was perfectly true.
"And only once?" she asked.
"Only once," was my quick response.
"That's curious."
"Why?"
"Well--well, I suppose I ought not to tell you, for, of course, Harry--
it's no business of mine," remarked the girl, "but as Mabel is now
missing, no fact should be concealed, and I think you really ought to
know that--"
"That what?" I cried. "Tell me quickly, Gwen! Conceal nothing from
me!"
"Well, that Mabel one morning received a note delivered by express
messenger, and I asked her whom it was from. She seemed unusually
flurried, and told me that it was from Professor Greer."
"But she never knew him!" I gasped. "What day was that?"
"The day before you returned from Glasgow."
"The same day on which she received that telegram from Italy purporting
to be signed by me!"