. He drank so heavily that he could
not get home, so he remained there the night, returning at eight o'clock
next morning."

"And the police officials believed him--eh?" I asked.

"Yes. But next day he left Huacho, expressing a determination to go to
Lima and make a statement to the Consul there. But he never arrived at
the capital, and he has never been seen since."

"Then a grave suspicion rests upon him?" I remarked, reflecting upon my
startling adventure of the previous night.

"Certainly. But the curious thing is that no attempt seems to have been
made by the police authorities in Lima to trace the man. They allowed him
to disappear, and took no notice of the affair, even when the British
Consul reported it. I fancy police methods must be very lax ones there,"
he added.

"But what could have been the method of the assassin?" I asked.

"Why, simply to allow the snake to strike at the sleeping man, I
presume," said the detective. "Yet, one would have thought that after the
snake had bitten him he would have cried out for help. But he did not."

Had the victim, I wondered, swallowed that same tasteless drug that I had
swallowed, and been paralysed, as I had been?

"And the motive of the crime?" I asked.

Edwards shrugged his shoulders, and raised his brows.

"Robbery, I should say," was his reply. "But, strangely enough, there is
no suggestion of theft in this report; neither does there seem to be any
woman in the case."

"You, of course, suspect that my friend Digby and the man Cane, are one
and the same person!" I said. "But is it feasible that if Cane were
really responsible for the death of the real Sir Digby, would he have the
bold audacity to return to London and actually pose as his victim?"

"Yes, Mr. Royle," replied the detective, "I think it most feasible. Great
criminals have the most remarkable audacity. Some really astounding cases
of most impudent impersonation have come under my own observation during
my career in this office."

"Then you adhere to the theory which you formed at first?"

"Most decidedly," he replied; "and while it seems that you have a
surprise to spring upon me very shortly, so have I one to spring upon
you--one which I fear, Mr. Royle," he added very slowly, looking me
gravely in the face--"I fear may come as a great shock to you."

I sat staring at him, unable to utter a syllable.

He was alluding to Phrida, and to the damning evidence against her.

What could he