"He's gone, sir! Clean out of the window--jumped it like a cat!"
Wolfenden sprang to the curtains. The night wind was blowing into the room through the open casement. Fainter and fainter down the long avenue came the sound of galloping horses. Dr. Franklin Wilmot had certainly gone!
Wolfenden turned from the window to find himself face to face with Dr. Whitlett.
"What on earth is the matter with your friend Wilmot?" he exclaimed. "He has just gone off through the window like a madman!"
"Wilmot!" the doctor exclaimed. "I never knew any one of that name in my life. The fellow's a rank impostor!"
For a moment Wolfenden was speechless. Then, with a presence of mind which afterwards he marvelled at, he asked no more questions, but stepped up to the writing-table.
"Blatherwick," he said hurriedly, "we seem to have made a bad mistake. Will you try and rearrange these papers exactly as the admiral left them, and do not let him know that any one has entered the room or seen them."
Mr. Blatherwick commenced his task with trembling fingers.
"I will do my best," he said nervously. "But I am not supposed to touch anything upon this table at all. If the admiral finds me here, he will be very angry."
"I will take the blame," Wolfenden said. "Do your best."
He took the country doctor by the arm and hurried him into the smoking-room.
"This is a most extraordinary affair, Dr. Whitlett," he said gravely. "I presume that this letter, then, is a forgery?"
The doctor took the note of introduction which Wilmot had brought, and adjusting his pince-nez, read it hastily through.
"A forgery from the beginning to end," he declared, turning it over and looking at it helplessly. "I have never known any one of the name in my life!"
"It is written on notepaper stamped with your address," Wolfenden remarked. "It is also, I suppose, a fair imitation of your handwriting, for Lady Deringham accepted it as such?"
"I will tell you," he said, "all that I know of the affair. I started out to pay some calls this evening about six o'clock. As I turned into the main road I met a strange brougham and pair of horses being driven very slowly. There was a man who looked like a gentleman's servant sitting by the side of the coachman, and as I passed them the latter asked a question, and I am almost certain that I heard my name mentioned. I was naturally a little curious, and I kept looking back all along the road to see which way they turned after passing my house. As a matter of fact, although I pulled up and waited in the middle of the road, I saw no more of the carriage. When at last I drove on, I knew that one of two things must have happened. Either the carriage must have come to a standstill and remained stationary in the road, or it must have turned in at my gate. The hedge was down a little higher up the road, and I could see distinctly that they had not commenced to climb the hill. It seemed very odd to me, but I had an important call to make, so I drove on and got through as quickly as I could. On my way home I passed your north entrance, and, looking up the avenue, I saw the same brougham on its way up to the house. I had half a mind to run in then--I wish now that I had--but instead of doing so I drove quickly home. There I found that a gentleman had called a few minutes after I had left home, and finding me out had asked permission to leave a note. The girl had shown him into the study, and he had remained there about ten minutes. Afterwards he had let himself out and driven away. When I looked for the note for me there was none, but the writing materials had been used, and a sheet of notepaper was gone. I happened to remember that there was only one out. The whole thing seemed to me so singular that I ordered the dogcart out again and drove straight over here."