"Rather fragile for the spike of a mace, isn't it?"
"True. I confess I am as much puzzled as yourself to name the weapon of which this once formed part."
For a long time Idris continued to puzzle over the question, polishing the steel fragment till it gleamed with a silvery-azure light. He suggested its connection with all kinds of impossible weapons, but could come to no satisfactory conclusion. Then, vexed by Godfrey's scepticism, he said:—
"Well, old wiseacre, if this be not Orm's skull, tell me whose it is?"
"Impossible to say—at present. My opinion is that it is not an ancient skull at all, but a modern one. The future will perhaps show whether I am right. As 'there's a Divinity that shapes' human affairs, it may be that the earthquake of to-night has been sent for a purpose. It has had the effect of loosening the fragment of steel hitherto immovably fixed in the cavity of the skull. You will, perhaps, consider me fanciful, Idris, but I have a presentiment that we are on the threshold of a startling discovery to which this piece of steel forms a clue."
CHAPTER XI THE LEGEND OF THE RUNIC RING
On the morning after his adventure on the seashore Idris went out with the intention of calling upon Mademoiselle Rivière: and that he might not lack reasonable pretext for his visit, he took with him the book which she had asked him to return. Apart altogether from the charm of her beauty Lorelie interested him, both as being the daughter of Captain Rochefort, and likewise as the depositary of some strange secret relating to his father's history. Though earnestly pressed by Idris she had firmly declined to give any account of Eric Marville from the time of his escape to the sinking of the yacht in Ormsby Race. It was difficult to assign a motive for her refusal, but Idris did not doubt that in course of time he would be able to overcome her reticence: and therefore, if only on this account, Lorelie Rivière was a person whose friendship it behoved him to cultivate.
The way to her villa, The Cedars, took him past Saint Oswald's Church, and moved by a sudden impulse, he turned aside to enter the edifice, which in more than one sense was hallowed ground to him, inasmuch as it was here that he had first met with Lorelie.