dressed to the Chateau,
an infamous and easily deciphered message which, no doubt, had been sent
with the distinct purpose of strengthening the amazing charge against
him. He protested entire ignorance of the sender and of the meaning of
the message, but his accusers would not accept any disclaimer. So
cleverly, indeed, had the message been worded that at the Surete it was
believed to refer to the price he had received for certain bundles of
spurious notes.

Without a doubt the scandalous telegram had been sent at Weirmarsh's
instigation by one of his friends in order to influence the authorities
in Paris.

So far as the doctor was concerned he was ever active in receiving
reports from his cosmopolitan friends abroad. But since his quarrel with
Sir Hugh he had ceased to visit Hill Street, and had, apparently,
dropped the old general's acquaintance.

Sir Hugh was congratulating himself at the easy solution of the
difficulty, but Walter, seated at that little marble-topped table in the
winter sunshine, knowing Weirmarsh's character, remained in daily
apprehension.

The exciting life he led in assisting to watch those whom Scotland Yard
suspected was as nothing compared with the constant fear of the unmasking
of Sir Hugh Elcombe. Doctor Weirmarsh was an enemy, and a formidable one.

The mystery concerning the death of Bellairs had increased rather than
diminished. Each step he had taken in the inquiry only plunged him deeper
and deeper into an inscrutable problem. He had devoted weeks to
endeavouring to solve the mystery, but it remained, alas! inscrutable.

Enid and Mrs. Caldwell had altered their plans, and had gone to Sicily
instead of to Egypt, first visiting Palermo and Syracuse, and were at the
moment staying at the popular "San Domenico" at Taormina, amid that gem
of Mediterranean scenery. Sir Hugh and his wife, much upset by Blanche's
sudden arrival in London, had not gone abroad that winter, but had
remained at Hill Street to comfort Paul's wife and child.

As for Walter, he had of late been wandering far afield, in Petrograd,
Geneva, Rome, Florence, Malaga, and for the past week had been at Monte
Carlo. He was not there wholly for pleasure, for, if the truth be told,
there were seated at the farther end of the _terrasse_ a smartly dressed
man and a woman in whom he had for the past month been taking a very keen
interest.

This pair, of Swiss nationality, he had watched in half a dozen
Continental cities