scursive essay rather than an informative article, although I had
enlivened it with some account of my experiences at Upper Crossleys.
But at the moment that I had set pen to paper I had realized the
difficulty of expressing, within the scope of a newspaper
contribution, the peculiar conditions which ruled in that oddly
deserted village. And at Gatton's request I had been most guarded in
my treatment of the two abortive attempts made upon my own life by the
Eurasian doctor.

The appeal in Isobel's eyes, as I have said, was very difficult to
resist, but after all I had little substantial consolation to offer;
and in the circumstances I shall be understood, I think, when I say
that it was with an odd sense of relief that I finally took my
departure from her flat. To long for the right to comfort a woman as
only a lover may do, and to suspect that this sweet privilege might
have been his for the asking, is a torture which no man can suffer
unmoved.

Anticipating, almost hourly, a further message from Gatton, I went
first to the _Planet_ offices, but although I lunched at the club and
returned later, no news reached me there; whereupon, I proceeded to my
cottage. As I walked down the high-street of the onetime village,
passing that police-box at which (so far as my part in it was
concerned) the first scenes of the drama actually had been laid, I was
seized with wonder on reflecting that all these episodes, strange and
tragic, had been crowded into so short a space of time.

An officer was on duty there as on the night when I had first made
acquaintance with the green eyes of the woman of mystery; but I did
not know the man and I walked on deep in meditation, until, arriving
at the Red House, other and dreadful reflections were aroused by the
sight of that deserted building.

There were no spectators to-day, for the first excitement aroused by
the crime had begun to subside, and I did not even notice a constable
posted there. Whereby I concluded that the investigations at the Red
House had been terminated and that no more was hoped for from an
examination of those premises.

Coates was awaiting me as I entered my cottage with the news that
Inspector Gatton had telephoned an hour before from Crossleys,
confirming his telegram and stating that he would call immediately he
arrived in London. This was stimulating, and I only regretted that I
had not been at home personally to speak to him. Then:

"Sir Eric Coverly also r