“Good God!” I cried—­“where is all this leading us, Gatton?”

“It is leading us slowly to the truth, Mr. Addison, and that truth, when we come to it, is going to be more horrible than we even suspect.  Passing over much of Mr. Hardacre’s evidence, I come to the death, in Switzerland, of Mr. Roger Coverly, under circumstances so obscure that I fear we shall never know the particulars.  Of one thing, however, I am assured:  there was foul play.”

“You mean that Roger Coverly was—­murdered?”

“I really don’t doubt it,” replied Gatton, who, having filled his pipe, now lighted it.  “I believe he was the first victim.”

“The first victim?”

“Mr. Addison, I agree with the late Sir Burnham’s solicitor, that the spider at the heart of this web is Dr. Damar Greefe.  The shock of his son’s premature death led to a collapse from which Sir Burnham never recovered, and Friar’s Park entered upon the final phase during which it was occupied by Lady Burnham who seems to have been wholly under the influence of this Eurasian doctor.”

“But, my dear Gatton!” I cried—­“where is Lady Burnham?”

“In my opinion, dead!” he answered solemnly.  “Oh, it sounds preposterous, but in the case of this lonely woman who had apparently no living relatives and who was estranged from Sir Marcus and the other members of her husband’s family, it was no very difficult matter to hush up the fact of her death.”

“But, Gatton, you don’t mean that she, too, met with foul play?”

“Most certainly I don’t!  It is as clear as day that the whole object of this elaborate secrecy was to hide the fact of her death!  She was infinitely more useful alive than dead, Mr. Addison; and they hoped to keep up the solemn farce until—­”

“Yes?”

“Until Sir Eric was hanged for the murder of his cousin!”

“Gatton!  What do you mean?”

“He is the last of the Coverlys!” answered Gatton simply.  “There would be no further danger of any one paying off the mortgage.”

“Danger?”

“Exactly.  There is some secret at Friar’s Park—­or at the Bell House—­which necessitates the property remaining in the possession of Dr. Damar Greefe—­as it has virtually remained since Sir Burnham’s death!  So much is clear, and although Eric Coverly has persisted in his obstinate silence, one of my assistants who has been at work on the late Sir Marcus’s papers made a discovery yesterday, which together with what I had learned from Mr. Hardacre and your code message, brought me down to Crossleys post haste.”

“What was this discovery?”

“An invitation from Dr. Damar Greefe, dated only a short time after the death of Sir Burnham, to Sir Marcus, asking him to visit Friar’s Park!  The doctor explained that the state of Lady Coverly’s health made it impossible for her to entertain, but he assured Sir Marcus that she was anxious to see him and to heal any breach which might exist between them.  Most significant of all, the Eurasian proposed that Sir Marcus should put up here!”