Gilbert suddenly started, for an extraordinary notion had come into his mind. His father saw the start, and thought he knew its meaning. The two men looked at each other strangely.

"Only two men in the world, I feel certain, knew of that chamber,"

Eversleigh resumed. "One was the mechanic who devised and made it, the other was----"

"Cooper Silwood!" exclaimed Gilbert.

"Yes, Cooper Silwood."

"But Silwood is dead, so you would say that it was the other? That seems absurd."

"It is absurd. What would the mechanic who made the box care about taking anything out of the secret chamber? Once his job of making the thing was finished, he would be finished with it altogether. No, it was not the mechanic."

Gilbert was silent.

"Don't you see?" asked Eversleigh.

"Silwood!"

"Precisely."

"But that is impossible. Dead men do not open secret chambers," said Gilbert, but there was something curious and suggestive in the manner of his saying it.

"No. Dead men do not open secret chambers, but living ones do. Silwood is not dead! He is alive!"

Eversleigh's voice rose into a shout and then cracked.

"It seems inconceivable."

"Yet there is no other conclusion. The maker of the box being out of the question, it follows that it must have been Silwood. I believe he was here last night and removed from the secret chamber something of particular value to him."

"Silwood might have told some one of it," objected Gilbert.

"Is it likely? You know he was the least communicative of men."

"What about Williamson?"

"I feel confident he knew nothing of it either. Don't you see this secret chamber was a receptacle in which Silwood hid papers or other things he had an object in concealing? You may be certain he told no one of it. If he had told any one, would he not have told me? No, Gilbert; from the moment I knew of Whittaker's discovery I suspected the truth."

"But the certificate of his death?"

"It was a false certificate."

"Strange I had not thought of that before, once I knew the kind of man he was!"

"Silwood is alive," Eversleigh once more, but with less vigour, declared, after a pause of some duration.

All through the conversation up to this point he had carried himself, supported by excitement, with some degree of his former buoyancy, but now he seemed to sink rapidly into a state of apathy, while Gilbert regarded him anxiously.

"I don't know what's to be done next," murmured Eversleigh, feebly.

"Some one must go to Italy," said Gilbert, emphatically, "and find out the truth--that's what must be done!"

"Then," said his father, "you must go!"

CHAPTER x.x.x

"I?" asked Gilbert.

"Yes," Francis Eversleigh replied, with some decision. "I can do nothing. In fact, I am physically and mentally unfit to do anything of importance at present. The discovery of the secret chamber, indicating as it must that Silwood is alive, supplied me with a sort of stimulus, but that is pa.s.sing off, and I feel as weak and helpless as a child. I feel," he went on, while he slowly put his hand to his forehead, "as if I were going mad. It is an awful feeling!"

"Father!"

"Oh," cried Eversleigh, "this business will be the death of me! I know it!"

These words, Gilbert told himself, were caused by the reaction to which his father had alluded, and were not to be taken literally, but he gazed solicitously at the other.

"No wonder you are depressed, father," he said, in a sympathetic tone.

"Well, I'll go to Italy," he added in another voice.

"That's right! Don't mind me! You must go at once, my boy."

"Yes, but what about Bennet? We have rather lost sight of him, have we not?"

"I think we need not consider Bennet at the moment. I shall answer his lawyer and say you are willing to be retained for Bennet's defence."

"You deem that best?"

"What choice have I, Gilbert?"

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders.

"There is no alternative," continued Eversleigh. "But some time must pa.s.s before the trial; indeed, you will have a good many weeks to come and go upon. Surely that will give you plenty of room for making your inquiries. Still, there is no saying--the task may be very difficult."

Eversleigh paused, lost in thought.

"You would not bring the police into the thing?" Gilbert asked suggestively.

"Not at first. Later, perhaps, but I don't know; it must depend on circ.u.mstances one can neither foresee nor control. I shall certainly say not a word at this juncture to the police."

"What about the Foreign Office people?"

"Yes, that is a good idea. I think your best plan is to go and see, if you can, Sir John Manners, the Under-Secretary, whom I know very well.

I'll give you a note to him, and request him to make your path as smooth as possible. If you see him personally, I should be inclined to tell him in confidence what we now believe about Silwood--that is, if he is at all encouraging in his manner. You must judge for yourself."