I held my breath.
Chapter Eight.
A Fresh Turn in Affairs.
Here was the whole affair in danger of being exposed to the police and public by this young man’s encounter with the Professor’s servant! If it were exposed, then I should be compelled to give some account of myself. It would certainly be difficult to convince the police that I had no knowledge of the Professor’s death.
“Well,” I remarked, “that Antonio should be leaving Calais seems somewhat curious, but perhaps it may have only been somebody resembling him.”
“Of course, I’m not quite sure,” the young man replied; “but is it not curious that Miss Greer and the servants are all out? The Professor is always so very careful of his experiments and the contents of his laboratory that the house is never left untenanted.”
“I’ve called quite by chance and upon business,” I explained. “I’m a motor-car engineer, and I live in Chiswick. My name is Holford.”
“Mine’s Langton—Leonard Langton,” he answered. Then, after a second’s hesitation, he added, “Ethelwynn—Miss Greer—is to become my wife. That’s why I’m surprised that she hasn’t kept the appointment I made.”