Page:William Le Queux - The Czar's Spy.djvu/147

Rh "What?" he cried, jumping up. "You've unearthed another body — a woman's?"

"I have. And what is more, I can identify her," I replied. "Her name is Armida, and she was wife of the murdered man Olinto Santini."

"Then both husband and wife were killed?"

"Without a doubt — a double tragedy."

"But the two men who concealed the body! Will you describe them?"

I did so, and he wrote at my dictation, afterwards remarking —

"We must find them." And calling in one of his sub-inspectors, he gave him instructions for the immediate circulation of the description to all the police-stations in the county, saying the two men were wanted on a charge of wilful murder.

When the official had gone out again and we were alone, Mackenzie turned to me and asked —

"What induced you to search the wood? Why did you suspect a second crime?"

His question nonplussed me for the moment.

"Well, you see, I had identified the young man Olinto, and knowing him to be married and devoted to his wife, I suspected that she had accompanied him here. It was entirely a vague surmise. I wondered whether, if the poor fellow had fallen a victim to his enemies, she had not also been struck down."

His lips were pressed together in distinct dissatisfaction. I knew my explanation to be a very lame one, but at all hazards I could not bring Muriel's name into the affair. I had given her my promise, and I intended to keep it.