hich
I as surely felt.

"For your sake," she murmured, "we must find out how he met with his
death."

"The verdict was Found drowned," I murmured.

"People will change their opinion now," she answered. "Besides, you and
I know that he was not drowned."

"You are sure of that?" I asked.

"Quite," she answered. "He had letters with him, I know, and papers for
you. Besides, he carried always with him a number of trifles by which
he could have been identified. When he was searched at the police
station his pockets were empty. He had been robbed. Guy, he had, as I
have had, one unflinching, relentless enemy. Tell me, was Colonel Ray
in Braster at the time?"

"No," I answered hoarsely. "I cannot tell you. I will have no more to
do with it. The matter is over--let it rest,"

"But, my poor boy," she said quietly, "it will not be allowed to rest.
Can't you see that this girl's statement does away with the theory that
he was washed up from the sea? He met with his death there on the
sands. He left Braster to visit you, and he was found within a few
yards of your cottage dead, and with marks of violence upon him. You
will be suspected, perhaps charged. It is inevitable. Now tell me the
truth. Was Mostyn Ray in Braster at the time?"

"He lectured that night in the village," I answered.

Her eyes gleamed with a strange fire.

"I knew it!" she exclaimed. "I have him at last, then. I saw him
falter when I spoke of your father. Guy, I will save you, but I would
give the rest of my days to bring this home to Mostyn Ray."

I shook my head.

"You will never do it," I declared. "There might be suspicion, but
there will never be any proof. If there was any murder done at all, it
was done without witnesses."

"We shall see about that," she muttered. "There is what you call
circumstantial evidence. It has hanged people before now."

We remained silent for several moments. All this time she was watching
me.

"Guy," she said softly, "you are very like what he was--at your age."

Her cloak had fallen back. She was wearing a black evening gown with a
string of pearls around her neck. The excitement had given her a faint
colour, and something like tears softened her eyes as she looked across
at me. But the more I looked at her the more anxious I was to see her
no more. Her words reminded me of the past. I remembered that it was
she who had been my father's evil genius, she who had brought this
terrible disgrace upon him, and