Barrant had returned with a feeling of irritation¹ against the mischances of events which had brought an important piece of evidence to light after his departure for London. He had chosen to commence inquiries² into Sisily’s disappearance³ as soon as he had reached London instead of going to Scotland Yard, where a guarded telegram from Inspector⁴ Dawfield awaited him, and although he had hastened to obey the summons back to Cornwall as soon as he received it, two valuable days had been lost. It was true that in that time he had found traces of the girl which he believed would lead to her early arrest, but the letter, with its implication that the dead man was aware of his impending⁵ doom⁶, was a highly significant clue, and strengthened Barrant’s original belief that the real mystery of Robert Turold’s death lay much deeper than the plausible⁷ surface of events indicated.

He sat now, with a kind of sombre thoughtfulness, listening to Mr. Brimsdown’s account of his first meeting with his dead client. That story carried with it a suggestion of adventure and mystery, but it was difficult to say whether those elements had anything to do with Robert Turold’s death, thirty years later. It brought up the image of a man, rugged⁸ and dominant⁹ even in youth, winning his way into the heart of a middle-aged¹⁰ lawyer by the story of his determination to possess an old English title. Most men have the spirit of Romance hidden in them somewhere, and chance or good luck had sent Robert Turold, on his return to England, to the one

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