r. Gregg, that I have sought you in confidence.
Nobody must know that I have come here to you, or they would suspect;
and if suspicion fell upon me it would bring upon me a fate worse than
death. Remember, therefore, that my future is entirely in your hands."

"I don't quite understand," I said, rising and standing before her in
the fading twilight, while the rain drove upon the old diamond window
panes. "But I can only assure you that whatever confidence you repose in
me, I shall never abuse, Miss Leithcourt."

"I know, I know!" she said quickly. "I trust you in this matter
implicitly. I have come to you for many reasons, chief of them being
that if a second victim has fallen beneath the hand of the assassin, it
is, I know, a woman."

"A woman! Whom?"

"At present I cannot tell you. I must first establish the true facts. If
this woman were really stricken down, then her body lies concealed
somewhere in the vicinity. We must find it and bring home the crime to
the guilty one."

"But if we succeed in finding it, could we place our hand upon the
assassin?" I asked, looking straight at her.

"If we find it, the crime would then tell its own tale--it would convict
the person in whose hand I have seen that fatal weapon," was her clear,
bold answer.

"Then you wish me to assist you in this search, Miss Leithcourt?" I
said, wondering if her suspicions rested upon that mysterious yachtsman,
Philip Hornby, the man to whom she was engaged.

"Yes, I would beg of you to do your utmost in secret to endeavor to
discover the body of the second victim. It is a woman--of that I am
certain. Find her, and we shall then be able to bring the crime home to
the assassin."

"But my search may bring suspicion upon me," I remarked. "It will be
difficult to examine the whole wood without arousing the curiosity of
somebody--the keeper or the police."

"I have already thought of that," she said. "I will pretend to-morrow to
lose this watch-bracelet in the wood," and she held up her slim wrist to
show me the little enameled watch set in her bracelet. "Then you and I
will search for it diligently, and the police will never suspect the
real reason of our investigation. To-morrow I shall write to you telling
you about my loss, and you will come over to Rannoch and offer to help
me."

I was silent for a moment.

"Is Mr. Woodroffe back at the castle? I heard he was to return to-day."

"No. I had a letter from him from Bordeaux a week ago