“Arthur says that at this Chetney was greatly moved.

“‘You entirely misunderstand me, Arthur,’ he returned.  ’I did not know the governor was ill, or I would have gone to him the instant I arrived.  My only reason for not doing so was because I thought he was still angry with me.  I shall return with you immediately, as soon as I have said good-by to the Princess.  It is a final good-by.  After to-night I shall never see her again.’

“‘Do you mean that?’ Arthur cried.

“‘Yes,’ Chetney answered.  ’When I returned to London I had no intention of seeking her again, and I am here only through a mistake.’  He then told Arthur that he had separated from the Princess even before he went to Central Africa, and that, moreover, while at Cairo on his way south, he had learned certain facts concerning her life there during the previous season, which made it impossible for him to ever wish to see her again.  Their separation was final and complete.

“‘She deceived me cruelly,’ he said; ’I cannot tell you how cruelly.  During the two years when I was trying to obtain my father’s consent to our marriage she was in love with a Russian diplomat.  During all that time he was secretly visiting her here in London, and her trip to Cairo was only an excuse to meet him there.’

“‘Yet you are here with her to-night,’ Arthur protested, ’only a few hours after your return.’

“‘That is easily explained,’ Chetney answered.  ’As I finished dinner to-night at the hotel, I received a note from her from this address.  In it she said she had just learned of my arrival, and begged me to come to her at once.  She wrote that she was in great and present trouble, dying of an incurable illness, and without friends or money.  She begged me, for the sake of old times, to come to her assistance.  During the last two years in the jungle all my former feeling for Zichy has utterly passed away, but no one could have dismissed the appeal she made in that letter.  So I came here, and found her, as you have seen her, quite as beautiful as she ever was, in very good health, and, from the look of the house, in no need of money.

“’I asked her what she meant by writing me that she was dying in a garret, and she laughed, and said she had done so because she was afraid, unless I thought she needed help, I would not try to see her.  That was where we were when you arrived.  And now,’ Chetney added, ’I will say good-by to her, and you had better return home.  No, you can trust me, I shall follow you at once.  She has no influence over me now, but I believe, in spite of the way she has used me, that she is, after her queer fashion, still fond of me, and when she learns that this good-by is final there may be a scene, and it is not fair to her that you should be here.  So, go home at once, and tell the governor that I am following you in ten minutes.’

“‘That,’ said Arthur, ’is the way we parted.  I never left him on more friendly terms.  I was happy to see him alive again, I was happy to think he had returned in time to make up his quarrel with my father, and I was happy that at last he was shut of that woman.  I was never better pleased with him in my life.’  He turned to Inspector Lyle, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, taking notes of all he told us.