ofthousands of pounds more. There, in that very room in which I stood,had the Greer process of hardening steel been perfected, a process nowused in hardening the armour-plates of our newest Dreadnoughts. Yet themaster brain which had thought out those various combinations, and byyears of patience had perfected the result, was now before me, inactiveand dead.
I shuddered at sight of that disfigured face, hideous in its limpinertness and horrible to the gaze. But Kershaw Kirk, his eyes narrowerand his face more aquiline, continued his minute investigation of everyobject in the room. I watched him with increasing interest, noticingthe negative result of all his labours.
"I shall return again to-morrow when it is light," at last he said;"artificial light is of little use to me in this matter. Perhaps you'llcome with me again--eh?"
"I'll try," I said, though, to be candid, I was not very keen upon asecond visit to the presence of the disfigured body of the Professor. Icould not see why Kirk was so anxious to avoid the police and to keepthe affair out of the papers.
"The body must be buried before long," I remarked. "How will you obtaina medical certificate and get it buried by an undertaker?"
"Mr. Holford," he said, turning to me with an expression of slightannoyance upon his face, "I beg of you not to anticipate difficulty. Itis the worst attitude a man can take up--especially in trying to solve aproblem such as this. The future kindly leave entirely with me."
At that moment I was fingering a small test-tube containing some thickgrey-coloured liquid, and as I turned I accidentally dropped it upon thetiles with which the Professor had had the place paved. In an instantthere was a bright flash, almost like a magnesium light, so brilliantthat for a second we were both blinded.
"I wonder what that was?" he remarked, startled by the result. "Onemust be careful in handling what the dead man has left behind."
"Evidently," I said; "we cannot tell what these various experimentalapparatus and tubes contain. Therefore we should handle themdelicately."
And I bent to the table to examine another tube containing some brightred crystals held over an extinguished spirit-lamp by a brass holder, anaction which my companion, I noticed, watched with a curious expression.
Was it suspicion of myself?
"Well, my dear friend," he exclaimed suddenly as he stood beside thetable, "the problem is, as you see, rendered the more difficult ofsolution by the inexplicable fate which has overtaken the Professor'sdaughter. Here is a man against whom, as far as we know, nobody in theworld had a grudge, who receives a telegram which he is careful todestroy, makes a preconcerted signal at his drawing-room window, andgoes upon a journey to Edinburgh. We know that he went, for theconductor recollects asking if he would take an early cup of tea.Again, he received his daughter's telegram and replied to it. Yet atthe same time he was in Edinburgh he was in this very room behind twolocked doors of which he alone had the key, the victim of a brutallymurderous attack! These doors were locked, and to enter here both heand the assassin must have passed through the boudoir within a yard orso of his daughter."
"Is there no other means of access except through the boudoir?" Iasked. "Have the windows been examined?"
"Yes; all the windows were screwed down on the inside. To-morrow, inthe light, you shall satisfy yourself. I must come here to search forany finger-prints," was his hasty reply. "When I caused these doors tobe opened, I was careful not to allow the locksmith to see that anytragedy had occurred. The man was paid, and went away in ignorance.Yet when Miss Ethelwynn realised the truth she was as one demented. Atfirst she refused to leave the place, but I persuaded her, and she wentwith her maid to her aunt's. I impressed upon her the value of silence,and she gave me her word that she would say nothing of what hadoccurred."
"What about her maid Morgan?"
"She is ignorant of the truth," he said, with a grim smile. "Well, thisevening, it appears, the dead man's daughter returns in secret, enterswith her latch-key the house where her father is lying, removes her hatcarefully, and then--"
"Yes," I said. "And then? What do you believe occurred?"
He was silent, his deep-set eyes downcast in thought.
"Well, I--I hardly know what to think," he declared. "It almost seemsas though she shared the same fate as her father. That horribledisfiguration is most remarkable."
"Her entry here in secret and the strange fate that has overtaken herincreases the mystery tenfold!" I declared. "Why didn't she callAntonio?"
"Perhaps that was her intention, but she was prevented," suggested myfriend. And I saw that his glance was fixed upon me curiously, asthough he were deliberately gauging my character and intelligence.
"But to me it appears as though her intention might have been to reachthe laboratory unobserved," I said. "She may, indeed, have been up herefor aught we know to the contrary."
"I hardly think so. She was far too horrified at sight of the body ofher father, to whom she was so devoted. The scene when she saw him deadwas very painful."
"But might she not have been induced to return by morbid curiosity?" Isuggested.
"You've already told me that she was beside herself with grief."
"Well," he replied, with a sigh and a final glance across to where thedark object was huddled in the opposite corner, "no purpose, I think,can be served by remaining here longer to-night. We must return in themorning. I only brought you here in order that you might fullyunderstand the exact problem now before us. Come along."
"But I don't see, Mr. Kirk, how it is possible for me to help you. I'mquite a novice in this kind of thing," I said.
"You are not a detective. If you were, I should not seek your aid," hesnapped, as he led the way to the door and switched off the lights. "Iknow you think it rather strange that I have not called a doctor and thepolice, and had a post-mortem, and allowed the newspaper reporters to`work up' a big sensation; but, as I've already told you, our successdepends upon absolute secrecy. The affair is a startling one to you, nodoubt; but if you were aware of what the tragedy really means you wouldbe dumbfounded. Why, the newspapers could make a world-wide sensationof it if only they got at the true facts; but they never will, I assureyou--never."
"Then even I may not know the true facts?" I asked, as I stood with himagain in the boudoir.
"As far as the tragedy is concerned, you already know them. They arejust as I have told you. But there are other facts--facts concerningmyself and also the Professor--which I am not permitted to divulge.They must," he added, "remain a secret."
"Well--if you are not perfectly frank with me, Mr. Kirk," I protested,"I cannot see how I can regard you as a sincere friend. This is aserious and complicated problem, in which you require my assistance inan endeavour to seek a solution. How can I form any conclusions or helpyou if you deliberately hold back from me some of the circumstances?"
"I have held back none," was his hasty response--"at least, none whichhave any bearing whatever upon the tragedy. It is of myself and my ownconnection with Greer that I am speaking. I was the first personcalled, before there was even a suspicion of anything wrong. The factis, the dead man trusted me implicitly."
"And, according to your showing, certain enemies of yours suspected thetruth--that your friendship for the Professor was only feigned."
My companion looked me straight in the face with his narrow-set eyes,and replied:
"My dear Mr. Holford, what my enemies say was, I admit, perfectlycorrect. I have sought to conceal nothing. Greer believed that I washis friend, but I hated him. I had good cause to do so!"
The man's crafty eyes again met mine, and I saw in them an expressionwhich I had never noticed before. Was it possible that he was theunknown assassin, and was only misleading me by clever and cunningdevices?
I recollected that he had told me that the Professor had stolen from himsome valuable secret. Well, if he did not fear the crime of retaliationbeing brought home to him, why did he not go openly and lay the factsbefore the police? His ev
asive replies and thin excuses appeared to beutterly ridiculous. In my foolish ignorance I still believed KershawKirk to be an ordinary individual, much like myself. The remarkabletruth had not then been revealed to me--as it was later.
We descended to the dining-room, where Antonio and his brother Pietrowere still watching beside the couch whereon lay the poor girl who hadmet with such a strange and inexplicable fate.
Kirk again knelt beside her, and for a long time searched for any woundshe might bear. But he found none.
"Remember, Antonio, no person must enter this house under any pretextwhatever," my companion ordered.
The Red Room Page 6
