formation now because I don't know where
she is--and I want to track her."

He crossed his big hands with an air of Christian resignation, and
looked up at the panels of the coffered ceiling. "In that," he answered,
"I may honestly say, I can't help you. Humbug apart, I have not known
Mrs. Yorke-Bannerman's address--or Maisie's either--ever since my poor
friend's death. Prudent woman, Mrs. Yorke-Bannerman! She went away, I
believe, to somewhere in North Wales, and afterwards to Brittany. But
she probably changed her name; and--she did not confide in me."

I went on to ask him a few questions about the case, premising that I
did so in the most friendly spirit. "Oh, I can only tell you what is
publicly known," he answered, beaming, with the usual professional
pretence of the most sphinx-like reticence. "But the plain facts, as
universally admitted, were these. I break no confidence. Yorke-Bannerman
had a rich uncle from whom he had expectations--a certain Admiral Scott
Prideaux. This uncle had lately made a will in Yorke-Bannerman's
favour; but he was a cantankerous old chap--naval, you know
autocratic--crusty--given to changing his mind with each change of
the wind, and easily offended by his relations--the sort of cheerful old
party who makes a new will once every month, disinheriting the nephew
he last dined with. Well, one day the Admiral was taken ill, at his own
house, and Yorke-Bannerman attended him. OUR contention was--I speak
now as my old friend's counsel--that Scott Prideaux, getting as tired of
life as we were all tired of him, and weary of this recurrent worry of
will-making, determined at last to clear out for good from a world where
he was so little appreciated, and, therefore, tried to poison himself."

"With aconitine?" I suggested, eagerly.

"Unfortunately, yes; he made use of aconitine for that otherwise
laudable purpose. Now, as ill luck would have it"--Mayfield's wrinkles
deepened--"Yorke-Bannerman and Sebastian, then two rising doctors
engaged in physiological researches together, had just been occupied in
experimenting upon this very drug--testing the use of aconitine.
Indeed, you will no doubt remember"--he crossed his fat hands again
comfortably--"it was these precise researches on a then little-known
poison that first brought Sebastian prominently before the public. What
was the consequence?" His smooth, persuasive voice flowed on as if I
were a concentrated jury. "The Admiral grew rapidly wo