CHAPTER IX.
STRANGE DISCLOSURES ARE MADE The strange letter of Elma Heath, combined with what Lydia Moreton had told me, aroused within me a determination to investigate the mystery.
From the moment I had landed from the _Lola_ on that hot, breathless night at Leghorn, mystery had crowded upon mystery until it was all bewildering.
It was now proved that the sweet-faced girl, the original of the torn photograph, held a secret, and that, by her own words, she knew that death was approaching.

The incomprehensible attempt upon my life, the strange actions of Hornby and Chater--who, by the way, seemed to have entirely disappeared--the assassination of the man who by masquerading as the Italian waiter had met his death, and the murder of Olinto's wife were all problems which required solution.
Had it not been for the mystery of it all--and mystery ever arouses the human curiosity--I should have given up trying to get at the truth.

Yet as a man with some leisure, and knowing by that letter of Elma Heath's that she was in sore distress, I redoubled my efforts to ascertain the reason of it all.
The mystery of the _Lola_ was still a mystery along the Mediterranean.
At every French and Italian port the yacht's false name and general build was written in the police-books, while at Lloyd's the name _Lola_ was marked down as among the mysterious craft at sea.
Chater was missing, while Hornby was abroad.

Perhaps they were both cruising again, with their yacht repainted and bearing a fresh name.

But why?
What had been their motive?
Stirred by the complete mystery which now seemed to enshroud the unfortunate girl, I set before myself the task of elucidating it.
Hitherto I had remained passive rather than active, but I now realized by that curious letter that at least one woman's life was at stake--that Elma Heath was in possession of some secret.
On leaving Leghorn I had given up all hope of tracing the mysterious yachtsman, and had left the matter in the hands of the Italian police.
But, without any effort on my own part, I seemed to have been drawn into a veritable network of strange incidents, all of which combined to form the most complete and remarkable enigma ever presented in life.