which a coroner's inquiry must
bring."

I confess that I was wavering. The shrewd, clever man at once realized
the position, and again he conducted me to the chamber where the young
girl was lying cold and still.

I shall ever recollect that beautiful face, white and cold like
chiselled marble it seemed, for _rigor mortis_ was apparently already
setting in.

Back again in the library Oswald De Gex took from his safe a bundle of
hundred-pound Bank of England notes, and counted them out--fifty of
them.

He held them in his hand with a sheet of blank notepaper bearing an
address in Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, and a blank form. Thus
he tempted me--and--and at last I fell!

When I had written and signed the certificate, he handed me the bundle
of notes.

I now remember that, at that moment, he took some pastilles from his
pocket and placed one in his mouth. I thought perhaps they were throat
lozenges. Of a sudden, however, the atmosphere seemed to be
overpoweringly oppressive with the odour of heliotrope. It seemed a
house of subtle perfumes!

The effect upon me was that of delirious intoxication. I could hear
nothing and I could think of nothing.

My senses were entirely confused, and I became utterly dazed.

What did it all mean?

I only know that I placed the wad of bank notes in the inner pocket of
my waistcoat, and that I was talking to the millionaire when, of a
sudden, my brain felt as though it had suddenly become frozen.

The scent of verbena became nauseating--even intoxicating. But upon
Oswald De Gex, who was still munching his pastille, the odour
apparently had no effect.

All I recollect further is that I sank suddenly into a big arm-chair,
while my host's face grinned demoniacally in complete satisfaction. I
slowly lapsed into blank unconsciousness.

Little did I at the time dream with what amazing cleverness the trap
into which I had fallen had been baited.

But what happened to me further I will endeavour to describe to you.

CHAPTER THE SECOND

THE SISTER'S STORY

A strange sensation crept over me, for I suddenly felt that my
brain, dazed by that subtle odour of _pot-pourri_, was slowly
unclouding--ever so slowly--until, to my amazement, I found myself
seated upon a garden chair on a long veranda which overlooked a
sloping garden, with the blue-green sunlit sea beyond.

Of the lapse of time I have no idea to this day; nor have I any
knowledge of what happened to me