Everard accuses her of driving his wife to insanity, creating the howling ghost of Roger Unthank, and victimising an attempted murderer. She questions his identity. Everard spends the night outside his own house, waiting for the ghost of Roger Unthank. It appears, and Everard discovers that the howling, haunting ghost of Roger Unthank was a half-mad Roger Unthank. He is not dead, but has been hiding in Black Wood and terrorising the Domineys with the help of his mother. Seaman returns from London. Princess Eiderstrom returns from Africa with Doctor Schmidt, who immediately recognises Everard as the original Everard Dominey. Everard reveals that he killed Leopold von Ragastein when he learned of his plan. He is the reason Wolff disappeared – Wolff knew the truth and was trying to inform Seaman – and he has delivered both the map and the memoirs to the English government. Seaman and Schmidt are arrested, Eiderstrom leaves in disgrace, and Everard is left with his wife, who now acknowledges him as her true husband. The majority of this novel takes place just before the start of World War I, which takes place in chapter 27. The political intrigues of the novel – the initial spy mission for von Ragastein, the fights between Mr. Seaman and Duke Henry, and the presence of Ambassador Terniloff, among others – are focused entirely on the struggle between the British and the Germans, with Great Britain as the "good" side and Germany the "bad" one. Another main theme in the book is the metamorphosing capacities of the dark wilderness. Roger Unthank goes to Black Wood after a traumatic event, and returns years later a crazed man. Everard Dominey goes to Africa after a traumatic event, and returns years later a new, reformed man. Both Lady Dominey and Princess Eiderstrom propose, at various points during the impersonation, that their true lovers were left behind in Africa, and what returned is a false similarity. The book was so popular in its time that it sold over 1 million copies in 1920 alone, and was the 8th best-selling novel of the year in the United States. David Lehman called it "escapism on a grand scale" and "far and away the best" of Oppenheim's thriller novels. "The Guardian" put it on its definitive list of "1000 Novels Everyone Must Read" in 2009, under the "Crime" category.