“She’s a darling!” agreed Isobel, and when I met her glance across the table she blushed entrancingly.

Then, in a moment, tears were in her eyes; and knowing of whom she was thinking, I sat abashed—­guilty and repentant.  I had transgressed against the murdered man; and there and then I made a solemn, silent vow that no word of love again should pass my lips until the fit and proper time of mourning was over.  Because I faithfully kept this vow, I dare to hope that my sin is forgiven me.

Luncheon at that homely house, with Isobel, was an unalloyed delight; and I regretted every passing minute which brought me nearer to the time when I must depart.  But when at last I said good-by it was a new world upon which I looked—­a new life upon which I entered.  I have said that to-day I venture to hope my poor human transgression is forgiven me.  Yet it did not go unpunished.  Little did I dream, in my strange new happiness, how soon I was to return to that house—­how soon I was to know the deadliest terror of my life.

CHAPTER XXIV

A CONFERENCE—­INTERRUPTED

“The case has narrowed down,” said Gatton, “from my point of view, into the quest of one man—­”

“Dr. Damar Greefe!”

“Precisely.  You have asked me what I found at Friar’s Park and the Bell House, and I can answer you very briefly.  Nothing!  The latter place, had quite obviously been fired in a systematic and deliberate way.  I suspect that the contents of the rooms had been soaked with petrol.  It burned to a shell and then collapsed.  At the present moment it is merely a mound of smoking ashes.

“Of course, the local fire-brigade was hopelessly ill-equipped, but even with the most up-to-date appliances I doubt if the conflagration could have been extinguished.  The men watching the house were thrown quite off their guard when flames began to leap out of the windows:  hence, the escape of Damar Greefe.”

“You are sure he did escape?”

Gatton stared at me grimly.

“To whom do you suppose you are indebted for the telephone trick?” he asked.  “Besides—­Blythe, the fool, actually heard the car at the moment that it came out on to the highroad!  Oh, they bungled the thing villainously.  My Marathon feat saved your life, Mr. Addison, but it looks like losing me the case!  We have the Hawkins couple.  But, although a graceless pair, they were more dupes than knaves.  I am convinced, personally, that neither of them suspected that Lady Burnham Coverly was dead.  Damar Greefe had represented to them that she had lost her reason.”

“Good heavens! what a scheme!”

“What a scheme, indeed.  Hawkins seems to have considered that his duty—­which was merely to keep intruders out of the park—­was dictated by necessity.  He thought that if Lady Coverly’s real condition became known she would be removed to a madhouse!  He also thought that a nurse was in attendance.”