ere and
no trace upon the body to indicate what its character might be.
Indeed, everything in the room was precisely as it had been when
Lord Fallowfield walked out last night and left him, beyond the
fact of the overturned chair and a little puddle of clear water
lying about a yard or so from the work-table and, owing to the
waxing and polishing, not yet absorbed by the wood of the floor. As
no one could account for the presence of that, and as it was the
only thing there which might offer a possible clue to the mystery,
the doctor took a small sample of that water and analyzed it. It
was simply plain, everyday, common, or garden pure water, and
nothing more, without the slightest trace of any foreign matter or
of any poisonous substance in it whatsoever. There, old chap,
that's the 'case'--that's the little riddle you're asked to come
down and solve. What do you make of it, eh?"

"Tell you better when I've seen Mr. James Drake and Lord Fallowfield
and--the doctor," said Cleek, and would say no more than that for
the present.

CHAPTER XXVIII

It was somewhere in the neighbourhood of half-past three when the
opportunity to interview those three persons was finally vouchsafed
him; and it may be recorded at once that the meeting did some
violence to his emotions. In short, he found Mr. James Drake (far
from being the frank-faced, impulsive, lovable young pepper-pot which
his actions and words would seem to stand sponsor for) a rather
retiring young man of the "pale and studious" order, absolutely
lacking in personal magnetism, and about the last person in the world
one would expect to do the "all for love" business of the average
hero in the manner he had done. On the other hand, he found the
Earl of Fallowfield an exceedingly frank, pleasant-mannered, rather
boyish-looking gentleman, whose many attractions rendered it easy
to understand why the late Mr. Jefferson P. Drake had conceived
such a warm affection for him, and was at such pains to have him
ever by his side. It seemed, indeed, difficult to believe that he
could possibly be the father of Lady Marjorie Wynde, for his manner
and appearance were so youthful as to make him appear to be nothing
closer than an elder brother. The doctor--that eminent Harley Street
light, Mr. John Strangeways Hague--he found to be full of Harley
Street manners and Harley Street ideas, eminently polite, eminently
cold, and about as pleased to meet a detective police officer a