“The question, my friend, is this:  Did Robert Redmayne murder Michael Pendean and Bendigo Redmayne?  And you can ask yourself a still more vital question:  Are these two men dead at all?”

Jenny shivered violently.  She put out her hand instinctively and it clutched Mark Brendon’s arm where he sat next to her.  He looked at her and saw that her eyes were fixed with strange doubt and horror upon Doria; while the Italian himself showed a considerable amount of surprise at Peter’s conclusion.

“Corpo di Bacco!  Then—­” he asked.

“Then we may be said to enlarge the scope of the inquiry a good deal,” answered Mr. Ganns mildly.  He turned to Jenny.

“This is calculated to flutter you, young lady, when you think of your second marriage,” he said.  “But we’re not asserting anything; we’re only just having a friendly chat.  Facts are what we want; and if the fact is that Robert Redmayne didn’t kill Michael Pendean, that doesn’t mean for a moment that Mr. Pendean isn’t dead.  You must not let theories frighten you now, since you certainly did not allow them to do so in the past.”

“More than ever it is necessary that my unhappy brother should be secured,” declared Albert.  “It is interesting to remember,” he added, “that poor Bendigo first thought he had to do with a ghost when the arrival of his brother was reported to him.  He was very superstitious, as sailors often are, and not until Jenny had seen and spoken with her uncle, did Bendigo believe that a living man wanted to see him.”

“The fact that it was actually Robert Redmayne and no ghost is proved by that incident, Ganns,” added Mark Brendon.  “That the man who came to ‘Crow’s Nest’ was in truth Robert Redmayne we can rest assured through Mrs. Doria, who knew her uncle exceedingly well.  It only remains to prove with equal certainty that the wanderer here is Redmayne, and one can feel very little question that he is.  It is of course marvellous that he escaped discovery and arrest; but it may not be as marvellous as it seems.  Stranger things have happened.  And who else could it be in any case?”

“That reminds me,” replied Ganns.  “There has been mention made of Mr. Bendigo’s log.  He kept a careful diary—­so it was reported.  I should like to have that book, Albert, for in your statement you tell me that you preserved it.”

“I did and it is here,” replied his friend.  “That and dear Bendigo’s ‘Bible,’ as I call it—­a copy of ’Moby Dick’—­I brought away.  As yet I have not consulted the diary—­it was too intimate and distressed me.  But I was looking forward to doing so.”

“The parcel containing both books is in a drawer in the library.  I’ll get them,” said Jenny.  She left the apartment where they sat overlooking the lake and returned immediately with a parcel wrapped in brown paper.

“Why do you need this, Peter?” asked Albert, and while he was satisfied with the reply, Brendon was not.