"When I have seen my wife and consulted with her I will give you an
answer, Miss Greer," I said. "I admit that what I have learnt to-day
has held me in surprise and removed many doubts from my mind."
Kirk was explaining how the tiny golden doll, the little charm which had
been discovered after the tragedy, had been traced through the
well-known jeweller in Bond Street who made it, to the Professor as
purchaser; and how Greer had admitted buying it for the purpose of
giving to Ethelwynn to hang upon her bracelet. But he had lost it on
the previous day. Therefore it was not a clue to the assassin, as we
had at first suspected.
Just then the grave-eyed Antonio reopened the door, bowing, and
announcing to his master that the motor-cab was at the door.
Thereupon Professor Greer shook my hand, with a parting appeal to me to
preserve silence.
"You will, no doubt, meet your wife ere long, and she will explain much
which is to you still a mystery. Remember that her devotion to you was
the cause of her absence. She believed that you were in danger. That
story was told her to keep her away from you, and thus draw you off the
inquiry in which we feared you might be only too successful. Adieu, Mr.
Holford! When I return, in a week's time, I hope you will come and have
a further chat with me. In the meantime, I can only beg you to forgive
me for being the unwilling means of causing you either horror,
annoyance, or anxiety."
And, with a hurried good-bye to the others, he turned and left the room.
"A point upon which I require elucidation," I said, turning to Kirk, "is
the reason why you and those other men were so inquisitive regarding the
new Eckhardt tyre."
"Why I called to see the tyre was simple enough," he said. "Max
Leftwich was posing as the inventor of the tyre in question, and thereby
trying to disguise his real profession of German secret agent. But as I
had come across him in Berlin three years before in the guise of a small
money-lender, I doubted his inventive genius. I came to you in order to
examine the Eckhardt tyre, and I satisfied myself that Leftwich's tyre
was a mere worthless imitation. My assistants also came to your garage
for the same purpose, just as I predicted they would. Leftwich had
opened a depot in Charing Cross Road for the sale of motor accessories,
and the `improved Eckhardt tyre' was one of the inventions he claimed to
be his."
"But you also had a further motive?" I suggested.
"Certainly, Holford," was his quick reply. "I confess that I had
watched you for a year, and I felt that I could rely upon you. I wished
to enlist your services as one of my assistants, and to initiate you
into work for which the Government would pay well. It would assuredly
have been worth your while to leave your business to the care of your
manager, Mr. Pelham, and take service in the department of which I hold
control. But, remember, when I asked you to come here, even I was
deceived. I believed that my friend Greer, with whom I had had a slight
quarrel a few weeks before, was dead. When I found what had really
occurred, I saw that the only danger lay in your discovering the truth.
Hence all that tangled chain of subterfuges."
"But surely the Professor might, even now, be charged with murder--or at
least with manslaughter!" I remarked.
"My father may, Mr. Holford, if you do not preserve his terrible
secret!" cried Ethelwynn. "Upon you alone depends all the future!"
Once again I demanded the truth concerning Mabel and news of her
whereabouts, but all Kirk would tell me was what Greer had already
said--only a promise that we should meet, and that when we did she would
make full and ample explanation.
I returned to Bath Road utterly bewildered, and, seated with Gwen,
related to her the whole facts from the first, just as I have here
recounted them.
She sat staring at me open-mouthed.
"But where is Mabel?" she cried in alarm. "The Professor and the others
have returned from abroad, yet she is still absent. Will they accord
you no satisfaction?"
"None!" I replied with a weary sigh. "I don't know, after all, whether
to accept what has been related to me, or whether to disbelieve it."
"The fact that the police refused to inquire into your story, Harry,
seems sufficient proof that this man Kirk is a powerful and influential
person. Indeed, does it not tend to confirm the story that the
Professor did not die, and that he really killed the German in
self-defence?"
I admitted that it did. And then I made up my mind that, as Kirk would
give me no satisfaction concerning Mabel, I, on my part, would decline
to enter into any bond of secrecy.
My wife was worth far more to me than any international complication.
What was Germany's wrath at being foiled in her dastardly attempt to
obtain the secret of the new steel, to Mabel's honour and her love?
Two lagging days had gone by.
Kershaw Kirk had called in the evening about seven o'clock, but I
refused to see him. I sent word by Annie that I was out driving a car.
"Tell Mr. Holford to come in and see me the instant he returns. I must
speak to him at the earliest possible moment," he had said. And this
was the message which the maid had brought to me when the astute
official of the British Government had left.
Just before ten I entered Kirk's close little den. He was seated in his
bead slippers and old velvet coat, while behind him stood the grey
parrot, which screeched loudly as Miss Kirk opened the door to admit me.
Seated opposite him, near the fire, was Leonard Langton, pale-faced and
grave.
"Ah, Holford!" cried Kirk, springing from his chair, sharp-eyed and
alert. "I called on you some time ago. I wanted to--to make an
announcement to you," he added, with a slight catch in his voice, I
thought.
"Of what?"
He took from his table a long telegram. I recognised that it was from
the Continent by the fact that it was on green "tape" pasted upon a
form. Attached to it was a square, dark red label, bearing the words,
"Government telegram: with priority."
"Read that!" he said simply.