the same time contained a veiled threat of exposure of the affair inSussex Place.
This I concluded, and, ringing up an express messenger, dispatched it tothe advertisement offices of the paper.
Then, with sudden resolve, I went forth to Wimpole Street to call uponLeonard Langton.
I found him in his cosy, well-furnished chambers, busy writing letters,while the round-faced man seated in a big arm-chair by the fire smokinga pipe he introduced as his chum with whom he shared chambers, DoctorHamilton Flynn.
"Flynn's a specialist on the nose and throat," he laughed. "He has hisconsulting rooms along in Harley Street, and we pig it here together."
"Jolly comfortable quarters," I remarked, glancing round. "I calledhere before, but you were out."
"Yes, so sorry!" he exclaimed. "Sit down and have a cigar," and hehanded me a box of most excellent weeds.
"Well," exclaimed the smart young fellow who was the confidentialsecretary of Sir Albert Oppenheim, "I'm really glad to see you again,Mr. Holford. That was a most mysterious incident at Sussex Place theother evening," he added. "I'm still convinced that somebody was in thehouse. The Professor's furnace was alight, you recollect, and thelaboratory door stood open."
"Langton has told me all about it," remarked the doctor in a deep voice;"very curious, it seems."
"Most extraordinary," I declared, "and the more so that Merli, thebutler, should have suddenly disappeared. The other day I met him inRome."
"Met Antonio!" gasped Ethelwynn's lover, staring at me in amazement."Have you been to Italy?"
"Yes. I told him of our search, but he declared himself ignorant ofeverything, though he admitted having seen you passing through thebuffet at Calais-Maritime."
"What is he doing in Rome?"
"I have no idea; I was there in a vain endeavour to recover my lostwife. She has been misled by a forged telegram purporting to come frommyself, and is somewhere on the Continent. Where, however, I cannottell."
"You've lost your wife, eh?" asked the doctor, glancing strangely acrossat his companion, I thought. His face was dark and aquiline, hisshoulders sloped. He was not a man to be trusted. "You think she'sbeen tricked?" he added. "Why?"
"Ah, at present I can form no theory as to the motive. If I could Imight perchance discover the person responsible for her disappearance,"and I briefly told him of my frantic journey to the Italian capital.
"And now I am going to Strassburg tomorrow," I added.
"Why to Strassburg?" inquired Doctor Flynn, regarding me fixedly withthose keen eyes of his.
"Because Professor Greer is there, and I have an idea that he can tellme something."
"The Professor is no longer there," was Langton's quick interruption."Half an hour ago I spoke to Ethelwynn on the telephone, and she told methat she had just heard by telegraph from her father that he had leftfor Linz on his way to Hungary."
My heart fell within me. Evidently my telegram signed Kirk had scaredthe man passing himself off as the Professor.
"But I might go on to Linz, or catch him up somewhere in Hungary," Isuggested.
"It would be futile, my dear fellow," said Langton.
"Why?"
"Well, just at present Professor Greer wishes to be left entirely aloneby his friends."
"But there must be some reason," I cried, for there seemed on every handto be a conspiracy of silence again me.
"There is a reason," replied the young man in a low, calm voice, "onewhich, however, seems mysterious."
"Ah!" I cried. "Then even you are mystified by these strangehappenings?"
"Yes," he replied, knocking the ash from his cigar, "I have had certainsuspicions aroused, Holford--vague suspicions of something wrong in theProfessor's household. Antonio is absent, the servants have all beenpaid and dispersed, the house in Sussex place is closed, and--"
"And the Professor is a fugitive, fleeing towards Hungary," I added."Has not Miss Ethelwynn told you anything?"
"What she has told me has been in complete confidence. It has caused mea great deal of surprise and apprehension, Holford, and this surprisehas been increased by what you have told me this evening--that your wifehas been enticed away, and is missing."
"But what connection can my wife possibly have with any occurrence atthe house of Professor Greer?" I demanded. "She was in ignorance ofeverything. She was not even acquainted with Greer. I might tell youthat to-day I have been down to Broadstairs and seen Miss Ethelwynn," Iadded.
"Ethelwynn did not seem to remember ever having met you when I told herof our encounter at the door, and the subsequent events."
"I am a friend of the Professor's, not of his daughter," I hastened toexplain. "But are you absolutely certain that a journey to Strassburgto-morrow would be useless?"
"Absolutely. If Greer consented to see his friends I would be the firstto see him."
"And he has refused even you, eh?" I asked, smiling within myself atthe superior knowledge I possessed.
"He has. He refuses, too, to allow his daughter to go to him."
"But why?" I asked.
"For reasons known, I suppose, to himself."
"Does he give none?"
"He vaguely answers that certain matters concerning a great scientificdiscovery he has made compel him at present to hold aloof from bothfamily and friends. He fears, I think, that someone who has discoveredhis secret may betray it."
"But surely Ethelwynn would not?" I cried. "I desire to see theProfessor because I feel confident he can, if he will, explain themotive of the trap into which my wife has fallen."
"If he refuses to see his own daughter he will hardly see you," remarkedthe dark-faced doctor. "Under exactly what circumstances has Mrs.Holford disappeared?"
I briefly explained, at the same time regarding the round-shoulderedspecialist with some antagonism. To me, it appeared as though he wereerecting an invisible barrier between myself and the knowledge of thetruth. He seemed entirely Langton's friend, corroborating his everyword.
And the more curious became his attitude when at last I remarked withfirm and resolute air:
"Well, if Professor Greer refuses to see me, then I shall invoke the aidof the police. They will probably very soon discover him, wherever hemay be."
"I hardly think that would be a wise policy," remarked Flynn, tossinghis cigar-end into the fire, and rising quickly from his chair, "unless,of course, you could make some direct charge against him."
I was silent for a moment.
"And if I did? What then?" I asked, speaking boldly in a clear voice,my eyes fixed upon his, for remember I was fighting for knowledge of mydear wife's whereabouts.
"Well--if you did," was his deliberate reply, "it would be you yourselfthat would suffer, Mr. Holford, and no one else."
Was it not astounding, startling?
This doctor, the bosom friend of Ethelwynn's lover, had given me exactlythe same threatening reply as Antonio had given me on the Pincian inRome.
What could it mean? The reason why the false Professor was avoidingfriends and enemies alike was, of course, sufficiently plain to me. Butfor what reason was my well-beloved Mabel, the loving wife whom Iadored, held in the unscrupulous hands of those who killed ProfessorGreer?
And why was every effort of mine to discover her met only by threats ofimpending disaster?
I gazed at the two men before me in silent defiance.
If it cost me my own life I intended to discover her and hold her dearform once again in my arms.
She was mine--mine before God and before man; and these persons seekingfor some mysterious motive to shield the false Professor should notfurther stand in the way of justice.
"You think I dare not go to the police!" I cried at last. "Very well,if you care to come with me to Scotland Yard now--for I am goingstraight there--I will, in the presence of both of you, unfold a strangetale which they'll be very much surprised to hear."
"You believe you know the truth!" laughed Langton. "No, my dea
rHolford. Don't be such a fool! The police cannot help in this affair,for the mystery is far too complicated. Keep your own counsel."
"Yes," I sneered, "and depend upon the man of whom you have denied allknowledge--the man Kershaw Kirk."
"Kershaw Kirk!" gasped the doctor, and I saw that he went pale, his darkeyes starting from his head. "Do you know him? Is he--is he yourfriend, Mr. Holford--or--_or your enemy_?"
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
GWEN REVEALS SOMETHING.
It struck me that this keen-eyed,
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