nt when he left the Bachelors' and his arrival, a little over an hour
afterwards, at Half Moon Street--where, or how, we know not. Perhaps he
drove to her house, and there, at her invitation, drank something. Yet,
however it happened, the result was the same; she killed him, even though
she was the first friend to whom he sent in his distress--killed him
because she had somehow learnt of his secret engagement to Lady Blanche
Herbert."

"Yours is certainly a remarkable theory," admitted Walter Fetherston.
"May I ask the name of the woman to whom you refer?"

"Yes; she was the woman who loved him so passionately," replied
Trendall--"Enid Orlebar."

"Then you really suspect _her_?" asked Fetherston breathlessly.

"Only as far as certain facts are concerned; and that since Harry's death
she has been unceasingly interested in the career of the man Barker."

"Are you quite certain of this?" gasped Fetherston.

"Quite; it is proved beyond the shadow of a doubt."

"Then Enid Orlebar killed him?"

"That if she actually did not kill him with her own hand, she at least
knew well who did," was the other's cold, hard reply. "She killed him for
two reasons; first, because by poor Harry's death she prevented the
exposure of some great secret!"

Walter Fetherston made no reply.

Those inquiries, instituted by Scotland Yard, had resulted in exactly the
same theory as his own independent efforts--that Harry Bellairs had been
secretly done to death by the woman, who, upon her own admission to him,
had been summoned to the young officer's side.

CHAPTER XXIV

WHAT THE DEAD MAN LEFT

IT was news to Fetherston that Bellairs had dined at his club on that
fateful night.

He had believed that Enid had dined with him. He had proved beyond all
doubt that she had been to his rooms that afternoon during Barker's
absence. That feather from the boa, and the perfume, were sufficient
evidence of her visit.

Yet why had Barker remained in the neighbourhood of Piccadilly Circus if
sent by his master with a message to Richmond? He could not doubt a
single word that Trendall had told him, for the latter's information was
beyond question. Well he knew with what care and cunning such an inquiry
would have been made, and how every point would have been proved before
being reported to that ever active man who was head of that Department of
the Home Office that never sleeps.

"What secret do you suggest might have been divulged?" he