I have no right to be happy while the wretch who killed him is still at large.
We have failed hitherto, but we may succeed yet! and when we succeed I shall marry you."
"My darling!" cried Lucian in ecstasy; and then in a more subdued tone: "I'll do all I can to find out the truth.
But, after all, from what point can I begin afresh?"
"From the point of Mrs. Vrain," said Diana unexpectedly.
"Mrs. Vrain!" cried the startled Lucian. "Do you still suspect her?"
"Yes, I do!"
"But she has cleared herself on the most undeniable evidence."
"Not in my eyes," said Diana obstinately. "If Mrs. Vrain is innocent, how did she find out that the unknown man murdered in Geneva Square was my father?"
"By his assumption of the name of Berwin, which was mentioned in the advertisement; also from the description of the body, and particularly by the mention of the cicatrice on the right cheek, and of the loss of the little finger of the left hand." Diana started.
"I never heard that about the little finger," she said hurriedly. "Are you sure?"
"Yes.
I saw myself when I knew your father as Berwin, that he had lost that little finger."
"Then, Lucian, you did not see my father!"
"What!" cried Denzil, hardly able to credit her words.
"My father never lost a finger!" cried Diana, starting to her feet. "Ah, Lucian, I now begin to see light.
That man who called himself Berwin, who was murdered, was not my father.
No, I believe—on my soul, I believe that my father, Mark Vrain, is alive!"
CHAPTER XXIII A STARTLING THEORY
When Diana declared that her father yet lived, Lucian drew back from her in amazement, for of all impossible things said of this impossible case this saying of hers was the strangest and most incredible.
Hitherto, not a suspicion had entered his mind but that the man so mysteriously slain in Geneva Square was Mark Vrain, and, for the moment, he thought that Diana was distraught to deny so positive a fact.
"It is impossible," said he, shaking his head, "quite impossible.
Mrs. Vrain identified the corpse, and so did other people who knew your father well."
"As to Mrs. Vrain," said Diana contemptuously, "I quite believe she would lie to gain her own ends.
And it may be that the man who was murdered was like my father in the face, but—"
"He had the mark on his cheek," interrupted Lucian, impatient of this obstinate belief in the criminality of Lydia. "I know that mark well," replied Miss Vrain. "My father received it in a duel he fought in his youth, when he was a student in a German university; but the missing finger." She shook her head.
"He might have lost the finger while you were in Australia," suggested the barrister.
"He might," rejoined Diana doubtfully, "but it is unlikely.
As to other people identifying the body, they no doubt did so by looking at the face and its scar.
Still, I do not believe the murdered man was my father."
"If not, why should Mrs. Vrain identify the body as that of her husband?"
"Why?
Because she wanted to get the assurance money."
"She may have been misled by the resemblance of the dead man to your father."
"And who provided that resemblance?
My dear Lucian, I would not be at all surprised to learn that there was conspiracy as well as murder in this matter.
My father left his home, and Lydia could not find him.
I quite believe that.
As she cannot prove his death, she finds it impossible to obtain the assurance money; so what does she do?"
"I cannot guess," said Lucian, anxious to hear Diana's theory.
"Why, she finds a man who resembles my father, and sets him to play the part of the recluse in Geneva Square.
She selects a man in ill health and given to drink, that he may die the sooner; and, by being buried as Mark Vrain, give her the money she wants.
When you told me of this man Berwin's coughing and drinking, I thought it strange, as my father had no consumptive disease when I left him, and never, during his life, was he given to over-indulgence in drink.
Now I see the truth.
This dead man was Lydia's puppet."
"Even granting that this is so, which I doubt, Diana, why should the man be murdered?"
"Why?" cried Diana fiercely. "Because he was not dying quickly enough for that woman's purpose.
She did not kill him herself, if her alibi is to be credited, but she employed Ferruci to murder him."
"You forget Signor Ferruci also proved an alibi."
"A very doubtful one," said Miss Vrain scornfully. "You did not ask that Dr. Jorce the questions you should have done.