The door opened, and a handsome, light-haired young man appeared.
"Oh! here you are," cried Polly, jovially. "Doc, this is Mr. Rudolph Zirknitz."
[CHAPTER IX]
THE AUSTRIAN
Cass and Ellis examined the new-comer swiftly as they returned his bow. It was a foreign bow, including a smart click of the heels. Zirknitz was tall, slim, and remarkably handsome, his good looks being set off to the fullest advantage by the quiet perfection of his evening dress. He wore no jewellery, the whitest of linen, the neatest of bows, and a silk hat with a wonderful lustre. As the night was chilly he had on a fur-lined coat with sable cuffs and collar, and his slender hands, encased in grey gloves, held a gold-topped bamboo. Altogether Mr., or Monsieur, or Herr Zirknitz was, to all appearances, a man who valued his looks as part of his stock-in-trade to enable him to carry on his business of adventurer. But, in spite of his care, the hoof betrayed the devil, for there was a rakish, fast air about him which stamped him as dangerous. Ellis thought that such a scamp would not draw the line at murder, so long as he could save himself from punishment.
"I am charmed to meet your friends, madame," said Zirknitz, in good enough English, but with a pronounced foreign accent. "And the names?"
"This is Mr. Cass; that gent is Dr. Ellis."
The smile died away on the Austrian's lips. "Ellis!" he said, in a hesitating manner, "and a doctor--of Dukesfield?"
"Yes, M. Zirknitz," replied Ellis, grimly, "of Dukesfield."
"You saw the body of my poor friend Moxton?"