For the purpose of carrying out experiments, a specially designed gun was brought from Essen and installed in a secluded part of the Park.  Artillery specialists carried out a number of tests with shells of various patterns; but because I bluntly declined to divulge the formula for the making of “L.K.  Vapor” (so I had named it) until substantial guarantees were given, negotiations were broken off.  I retained, however, the model howitzer as well as a number of special light shells.  The gun was one of extraordinary accuracy, and it was possible, given suitable weather conditions, mechanically to train it upon a given target and without any preliminary “searching” to score a certain hit.

I caused the piece to be mounted on the top platform of the tower at Friar’s Park, and having completed those mathematical calculations with the result of which Mr. Addison has since become familiar, I awaited the return of the new baronet from Russia.  Shortly after his arrival, I invited him to visit Upper Crossleys.

He refused—­in terms which provoked an outburst on Nahemah’s part more violent than I had ever witnessed.  But on his final return to England, she made it her business closely to study his habits and movements.  She sought, feverishly, for some pregnable point of attack. Hlangkuna was tried three times—­and three times failed.  It was the distorted genius of Nahemah, however, which finally dictated a new line of action.  She learned that Sir Marcus was paying attention to Isobel Merlin, the fiancee of Eric Coverly (who in the event of Sir Marcus’s death would inherit the title).

Nahemah propounded to me a theory so strange and so novel that I was lost in admiration of that brilliant intellect which, partly inherited from her forebears, was stimulated and brightened by a cat-like cunning which belonged to the other side of her hybrid personality.

In that district where my suburban villa was situated there were several other isolated establishments which their owners experienced some difficulty in leasing; and one of these—­namely the Red House—­particularly suited the purpose which Nahemah had in view.  The extensive resources now at my disposal enabled me to dispense with the usual formalities which beset the lessee and to obtain possession of the Red House without even appearing in person.

The deeper to complicate the issue, Nahemah carried out the whole of the negotiations over the telephone, and hers was the “voice” afterwards rendered notorious by the press, which issued the directions culminating in the death of Marcus Coverly.

I recognize that the inquiries of the police have placed in your possession many particulars respecting this matter, so that I will not repeat them here but will content myself with explaining the nature of the device employed.  In this case, for the removal of the subject, I had obtained possession of an old telephone and had adjusted it to meet my requirements.