tered by someone in De Gex's pay.
Then almost before the will could be proved in the girl's favour,
Senor Serrano learned that the girl herself had died in England. Since
then he had been constantly occupied in straightening out his late
client's affairs, and had now come to London for the first time in
order to see Oswald De Gex, who had been constantly pressing for a
settlement of the estate. He had seen him on the previous day, when he
appeared to be anxious that the affair should be cleared up.

"As he spoke of his late partner, and of his daughter, tears came to
his eyes," said the Spanish lawyer, speaking in French.

Tears in the eyes of Oswald De Gex! I smiled at the thought.

As for Rivero he now became just as puzzled as I was myself.

To me the motive of poor Gabrielle Engledue's death was now quite
apparent, and, moreover, it seemed that the reason De Gex required a
forged death certificate was because he was not exactly certain
whether by a post-mortem examination any trace of the drug could be
found. He was not quite sure that one or other of the great London
pathologists might not identify orosin. With the Count's death on the
Continent he had taken the risk, well knowing that any ordinary doctor
would pronounce death as being due to heart failure, as indeed it was.
In London, however, he felt impelled to take precautions, and they
were very elaborate and cunning ones, as I now knew.

With the motive thus apparent, I felt myself on the verge of triumph.
Yet without full knowledge of what occurred to my poor beloved on that
night how could I denounce the arch-criminal whose favours were now
being sought by the great ones of the land.

I was still in a quandary. I had established to my own satisfaction
that Tito Moroni, the doctor of the Via Cavezzo, was the person who
had distilled the orosin, and who had no doubt introduced it to his
wealthy but unscrupulous patient as a means of ridding himself of
unwanted persons and enriching himself at the same time. Indeed, these
facts were eventually proved up to the hilt.

The motives for the deaths of the Conde de Chamartin, his daughter,
and the philanthropic Dutch financier, were all quite plain, but, of
course, I had said nothing to Rivero, or to anybody else, regarding my
acceptance of a bribe to assist De Gex in the committal of a crime.

I confess that on that night of horror I had no suspicion of foul
play, for knowing the great financier as a person