“Then, of course, you must make up your mind to take the consequences. You have asked my advice, and I have given it. But if you pursue an obstinate course,” he said, stroking his thin gray beard as though in thought, “if you are so foolishly obstinate you will have yourself alone to blame should disaster fall upon you. I honestly believe that if you continue, you are a doomed man!”
His tone of voice struck me as highly peculiar: he might almost have been passing sentence of death upon me!
I had no reason to doubt his friendliness, yet his intimate acquaintance with Feng, whom I distrusted, puzzled me more than ever.
“What causes you to think that another attempt may be made upon me,” I asked again, looking very straight at my companion.
“Has not the past proved the existence of some mysterious plot against you—that some person or persons are determined that you shall never learn their secret?” he asked again very seriously. “Complaisance is always the best policy before anything we cannot alter.”
I saw the force of his argument, of course, but with firmness replied—
“Nothing shall deter me from solving this mystery, Mr. Humphreys. Nothing.”
CHAPTER XVIII
MISSING!
A week later I was engaged one morning dictating letters to my typist when Hensman rushed into my room, evidently in a state of great agitation.
“Can I speak to you for a moment?” he asked. He was pale and agitated.