He watched Rolfe’s face as he spoke, yet save a very slight flush upon the cheeks he was in no way perturbed.
“Well, I’ve been away nearly the whole time,” was the other’s reply. “The whole affair is most curious.”
“And haven’t you seen Maud since?”
He hesitated slightly, and in that hesitation Max detected falsehood.
“No,” was his reply.
“What? And haven’t you endeavoured to find out her whereabouts?” cried Max, staring at him. “If Marion had disappeared, I think I should have left no stone unturned in order to discover the truth.”
“I have tried to solve the mystery, and failed,” was his rather lame response.
“But where are they—where can they be? It’s most extraordinary that the doctor should not send me word in confidence of their secret hiding-place. I was his most intimate friend.”
“Well,” he said. “The fact is that until this moment I believed you were well aware of their whereabouts, but could not, in face of your friendship, betray them.”
Max looked him straight in the face. Was he lying?