“And I was fool enough to think that Humphreys was my friend and you were my enemy, Doctor,” I said with some shame as I thought of how completely I had been deceived.
“Well,” laughed Feng, “that’s all over now. But I’m glad I was able to deceive you because it helped me to deceive Humphreys. He was quite aware of your feeling towards me. You are fairly transparent, Yelverton, if you don’t mind my saying so!”
“The position was very extraordinary. Humphreys got Audley out of the way—I will explain that later—and that, he thought, would leave Thelma unprotected. But he never expected your interest in the bride. You became a very unwelcome bit of grit in a very well-oiled machine. You were constantly with Thelma, she was never left alone for a moment—and you were in the way.”
And the shrewd old man smiled mysteriously.
CHAPTER XXII
THE SECRET DISCLOSED
“But what was the mystery of Audley’s disappearance?” I asked Feng, in breathless eagerness, now that the enigma was in course of solution.
“Well, Humphreys at first did his level best to prevent the marriage, but finding that impossible he went very cleverly to work. Audley, who was a young man of means—though he pretended that his profession was that of electrical engineer—had, Humphreys discovered, fallen into the hands of a man named Graydon, a friend of his, who lived in the same house as Audley and who was one of a gang of note forgers.
“By clever means this gang had used Audley for their own purposes, even to the extent of sometimes inducing him to assume Graydon’s identity. Harold Ruthen was one of Graydon’s accomplices in passing spurious notes, hence old Humphreys knew of Audley’s connection with the forgers. After Thelma’s marriage which he had tried in vain to prevent, it was highly necessary for the furtherance of Humphreys’ sinister plan, to get her husband away. He therefore caused to be sent to him at Mürren a veiled message that the police were making inquiries in London and that he had better at once efface himself, even from his wife. This he did, leaving Thelma in your care.”
“But was Stanley really a forger?” I asked.
“At first I thought so, but later I found that the poor fellow had acted in all innocence. He was being blackmailed by the gang and thus forced to assist them, until he received that warning and fled,” replied Feng. “I was all the time watching the very deep game played by the wily old crook who posed as an invalid. With Audley out of the way he expected that it would be easy to complete his plans. Instead, to his great chagrin, you came forward as the bride’s companion and protector. It was then that he determined, if you still continued to watch over the girl, from whose husband he had contrived to part her, that your activities should be suppressed. It then became my active duty to keep guard over both of you, which I did to the best of my ability.