“He was to have been married quite soon.”
“So I understood. Mrs. Goodsall, the actress, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Curiously enough, I met him yesterday at the club of a friend of mine. I hadn’t seen him for years.”
I called a hansom directly I left the office and drove to Albemarle Street. A small group was watching the house from the other side of the road. The windows were boarded up and the stonework round them blackened with smoke. I knocked at the door, and it was opened by Ughtred Gascoyne’s servant. He had reason to remember me with gratitude, for I knew that servants are the adventurer’s staunchest allies or greatest enemies.
“Will you step inside, sir? Lord Gascoyne has been here most of the day. He’s just gone.”
I did not wish to meet his lordship.
“When do you expect him to return?”
“Not till to-morrow, sir.”
I went in. There was a gruesome smell of charred wood and stuffs. I followed Mason upstairs.