before their first meeting she had, like many a young andpretty girl, been a sad flirt; that men had hovered about hercontinually, attracted by her sweet beauty and charming daintiness. Hewas not her first love. On the contrary, she had more than one littleserious affair of the heart; first with a young Italian officer ofinfantry at Florence, where she had spent a winter with her father, andagain with the son of a north country ironmaster while staying at theEmpire at Buxton. She had confessed to those, and others. Indeed,hitherto she had never withheld from him any secret concerning her past.Therefore, why should she now refuse to give any account of hermysterious absence!
He was puzzled--puzzled by her attitude and puzzled by her determinationto evade his questions. And, as was but natural, there sprang up in hisbreast the burning fire of jealousy.
The amazing, horrifying thought occurred to him that she, thesweet-faced girl he loved with his whole heart and soul, had, while hehad been absent abroad, met some secret lover, an old "flame" mostprobably, believing that she could excuse herself to her indulgentfather and induce him to make no mention of the affair to him upon hisreturn. He, however, had returned to London a day too early--returnedto learn the bitter and astounding truth.
Time after time, still holding her tiny white hand in his, and lookinginto those dark timid eyes, he urged her to give him some satisfaction.But she steadily refused, declaring:
"I am unable, Frank. And even if I were able, you would never believeme--never!"
"Why are you unable?" he inquired, suspiciously.
"Because secrecy has been imposed upon me."
"By one who is in fear of certain consequences--eh?" he asked furiously.
"Yes," was her faltering response.
"Then is it not right that I, your future husband, should be acquaintedwith what has occurred, Gwen?" he demanded quickly. "By your silence,you are only arousing suspicions within me that may be cruel and unjusttowards you."
"I regret, Frank, that it must remain so. I have given a pledge that Icannot break--even at your request."
"Ah! then your love for me is not so strong as I believed it to be!" hecried reproachfully, letting her hand drop. "How many times have youplaced your arms about my neck and declared your affection for me?" heasked bitterly.
"I do love you, Frank--I swear I love you as much as I have alwaysdone!" she cried wildly, stretching forth her arms to him in herdespair.
"Impossible. You have made a solemn pledge to another--a man. Do youdeny that it is a man?"
"No. I deny nothing that is the truth," she whispered hoarsely, "I darenot tell you the truth for--for that man's sake!"
"You apparently think a great deal of him!" exclaimed Farquhar, withrising anger.
"He is my friend--my best friend, as you will some day learn."
"And you actually tell me this, Gwen!" he cried, staring at her. "You--whom I've loved so truly!"
"I am telling you the truth," she replied, in a voice again strangelycalm. "You need entertain no jealousy of him. He is my friend--mydevoted friend--nothing more."
"And you stay from home for days, and on returning tell me this!" heexclaimed, his brows contracted in fierce anger. "What is this fellow'sname?" he demanded.
"I am not at liberty to tell you," she responded, "believe me if youwill--if not,"--and she shrugged her shoulders without concluding hersentences.
"I have a right to know," he blurted forth.
She realised the effect her words had had upon him. She saw his fiercejealousy and his dark suspicion. Yet what more could she say in thehideous circumstances. She was now the innocent victim of a silenceimposed upon her by the man who had been her protector. How could shebetray him into the hands of his enemies? Ah! her situation was surelyone of the most difficult and maddening in which a girl had ever foundherself.
To tell Frank Farquhar the truth would be to rouse his mad jealousy to agreat pitch. He would seek out Mr Mullet, face him, and create a scenewhich must inevitably bring down upon her friend and protector thevengeance of those who held him so helpless in their unscrupulous hands.
Hence she foresaw the inevitable. It was as plain as it was tragic.Her refusal to give satisfactory replies to Frank's most naturalquestions had aroused his darkest suspicion. He, on his part, discernedin her determination a deliberate attempt to mislead him. During hisabsence she had changed towards him, changed in a most curious way thatheld him mystified.
"You appear, Gwen, to be utterly unconcerned and careless as to whetherI believe you or not," he said gravely, after a few moments' silence."Well, I would like now to speak quite plainly and openly."
"Speak," she said, "I am all attention." She was struggling valiantlywith herself.
Her coolness was feigned. Ah! what would she give if she were atliberty to tell Frank the whole strange and ghastly truth!
"I have put to you a question which you refuse to answer," he said in alow, hard voice. "You have admitted that, by this silence of yours, youare protecting another man. Well--in that case I can only say that Imust leave you in future to your friend's protection. I hope he lovesyou better--better than I!"
"Leave me!" she gasped in a hoarse whisper. "You--you will leave me!Ah! no--no Frank,"--she shrieked in her despair, "you can't mean that--you won't let--"
But her lover had already turned upon his heel, and without furtherwords he left the room--and the house.
She heard the front door slam, and then with a sudden cry of despair sheflung herself upon the couch and buried her head among the silkencushions sobbing.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
INCREASES THE MYSTERY.
The morning was foggy, damp and dark in London, one of those to whichdwellers in the Metropolis are so accustomed in the short December days.
In "Red Mullet's" sitting-room off Oxford Street--that same room inwhich Gwen Griffin had endured her imprisonment--he and Doctor Diamondwere seated.
A fortnight had passed since the red-haired man's visit to Horsford, butin accordance with a promise made he had, late the previous evening,telegraphed to the hunchback, and in response to the message the latterhad left Peterborough by the up-express at nine o'clock that morning.
"Well, Doc," the tall man was saying as he lay stretched lazily in hischair smoking a cigarette. "I'm giving away my friend in order tooblige you, and I've had a lot of difficulty, as you may imagine. Myfriends are a pretty tough crowd, as you know. But I've fulfilled thepromise I made to you, and all will be well providing that young lady,Miss Griffin, only holds her tongue."
"Then you've really obtained a copy of the document for me--eh!"interrupted the ugly little man, his face brightening quickly.
"Yes. I was very nearly caught in the act of taking it. It was kept ina safe, and I had to get hold of the _key_ by a ruse. I kept it a day,and got a typed copy made. Then I retained it to its place."
"By Jove, Mr Mullet, you're a real friend!" cried the Doctor, startingup. "As you know, we've been handicapped hitherto by not knowing thecontext of the document. Ours has been all guesswork."
"Well, it needn't be any more," remarked the red-haired man with a lightlaugh, "for here's a complete copy. You'd better read it out. It's avery remarkable statement." And he produced a typewritten manuscriptwhich the Doctor, after clearing his throat, eagerly read as follows:
"THE TREASURE OF ISRAEL.
"Revealed by a Hebrew Cipher in the Old Testament.
"I, Peter Holmboe, graduate of Helsingfors University, in Finland, late Professor of Hebrew at St Petersburg University, and now resident at Langenfelder Strasse, 17, Altona, Germany, make oath and declare as follows:
"Curious, and perhaps improbable as it may at first appear, I claim to have discovered the actual whereabouts of the hidden treasure of the Jewish Temple, which includes among other things the Ark of the Covenant, the Tablets of moses, and the enormous treasure of gold and silver known to exist before the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon.
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"_The Secret_.
"The secret of the place of concealment is contained in a cipher which runs through certain chapters of the Book of Ezekiel, and which clearly relates the whole story and gives absolute and most complete directions with measurements by which the spot is indicated. And not only this. The same story, in a much more abbreviated form, is, curiously enough, also repeated in the same cipher in certain chapters of Deuteronomy.
"It is a historical fact that when Nebuchadnezzar seized Jerusalem nearly the whole of the treasure of the Temple had disappeared, and it would seem that into the Book of Ezekiel the secret was