For it
seemed to correspond roughly with the appearance in the neighborhood
of this man--whom he now met for the first time."
Again Gatton paused, taking out his pipe and pouch, and:
"Who was this person?" I asked.
"A certain Dr. Damar Greefe!"
"Good God!" I cried--"where is all this leading us, Gatton?"
"It is leading us slowly to the truth, Mr. Addison, and that truth,
when we come to it, is going to be more horrible than we even suspect.
Passing over much of Mr. Hardacre's evidence, I come to the death, in
Switzerland, of Mr. Roger Coverly, under circumstances so obscure that
I fear we shall never know the particulars. Of one thing, however, I
am assured: there was foul play."
"You mean that Roger Coverly was--murdered?"
"I really don't doubt it," replied Gatton, who, having filled his
pipe, now lighted it. "I believe he was the first victim."
"The _first_ victim?"
"Mr. Addison, I agree with the late Sir Burnham's solicitor, that the
spider at the heart of this web is Dr. Damar Greefe. The shock of his
son's premature death led to a collapse from which Sir Burnham never
recovered, and Friar's Park entered upon the final phase during which
it was occupied by Lady Burnham who seems to have been wholly under
the influence of this Eurasian doctor."
"But, my dear Gatton!" I cried--"where _is_ Lady Burnham?"
"In my opinion, dead!" he answered solemnly. "Oh, it sounds
preposterous, but in the case of this lonely woman who had apparently
no living relatives and who was estranged from Sir Marcus and the
other members of her husband's family, it was no very difficult
matter to hush up the fact of her death.
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