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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/27965-8.txt b/27965-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7547d02 --- /dev/null +++ b/27965-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9021 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chestermarke Instinct, by J. S. Fletcher + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Chestermarke Instinct + +Author: J. S. Fletcher + +Release Date: February 2, 2009 [EBook #27965] +[Last updated: December 10, 2012] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHESTERMARKE INSTINCT *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire + + + + + + + + +THE + +CHESTERMARKE + +INSTINCT + + + + +THE MYSTERY STORIES OF + +J. S. FLETCHER + +"_We always feel as though we were really spreading happiness when we +can announce a genuinely satisfactory mystery story, such as J. B. +Fletcher's new one._"--N. P. D. in the New York Globe. + + +THE MIDDLE TEMPLE MURDER [1918] + +"Unquestionably, the detective story of the season and, therefore, one +which no lover of detective fiction should miss."--_The Broadside._ + +THE TALLEYRAND MAXIM [1920] + +"A crackerjack mystery tale; the story of Linford Pratt, who earnestly +desired to get on in life, by hook or by crook--with no objection +whatever to crookedness, so long as it could be performed in safety and +secrecy."--_Knickerbocker Press._ + +THE PARADISE MYSTERY [1920] + +"As a weaver of detective tales Mr. Fletcher is entitled to a seat among +the elect. His numerous followers will find his latest book fully as +absorbing as anything from his pen that has previously appeared."--_New +York Times._ + +DEAD MEN'S MONEY [1920] + +"The story is one that holds the reader with more than the mere interest +of sensational events: Mr. Fletcher writes in a notable style, and he +has a knack for sketching character rapidly. Reminds one of +Stevenson--and Mr. Fletcher sustains the comparison well."--_Newark +Evening News._ + +THE ORANGE-YELLOW DIAMOND [1921] + +"... A rattling good yarn.... The excellence of The Orange yellow +Diamond does not depend, however, entirely upon its plot. It is an +uncommonly well written tale."--_New York Times._ + +_To be published July 1st, 1921:_ + +THE BOROUGH TREASURER + +Blackmail, murder and the secret of an ancient quarry go to make a very +exciting yarn. + +_$2.00 net each at all booksellers or from the Publisher_ + +ALFRED A. KNOPF, New York. + + + + +THE + +CHESTERMARKE + +INSTINCT + + +BY +J. S. FLETCHER + + +NEW YORK +ALFRED A KNOPF +MCMXXI + + +COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY +ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER + + I. The Missing Bank Manager, 9 + + II. The Ellersdeane Deposit, 19 + + III. Mr. Chestermarke Disclaims Liability, 29 + + IV. The Modern Young Woman, 39 + + V. The Search Begins, 49 + + VI. Ellersdeane Hollow, 59 + + VII. The Travelling Tinker, 69 + + VIII. The Saturday Night Stranger, 79 + + IX. No Further Information, 89 + + X. The Chestermarke Way, 99 + + XI. The Search-Warrant, 109 + + XII. The First Find, 119 + + XIII. The Partners Unbend, 129 + + XIV. The Midnight Summons, 139 + + XV. Mr. Frederick Hollis, 149 + + XVI. The Lead Mine, 159 + + XVII. Accident or Murder? 170 + + XVIII. The Incomplete Cheque, 179 + + XIX. The Dead Man's Brother, 189 + + XX. The Other Cheque, 200 + + XXI. About Cent per Cent, 209 + + XXII. Speculation--and Certainty, 221 + + XXIII. The Aggrieved Victim, 230 + + XXIV. Mrs. Carswell? 240 + + XXV. The Portrait, 248 + + XXVI. The Lightning Flash, 257 + + XXVII. The Old Dove-Cot, 266 + + XXVIII. Sound-Proof, 273 + + XXIX. The Sparrows and the Sphere, 279 + + XXX. Wreckage, 289 + + XXXI. The Prisoner Speaks, 295 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MISSING BANK MANAGER + + +Every Monday morning, when the clock of the old parish church in +Scarnham Market-Place struck eight, Wallington Neale asked himself why +on earth he had chosen to be a bank clerk. On all the other mornings of +the week this question never occurred to him: on Sunday he never allowed +a thought of the bank to cross his mind: from Sunday to Saturday he was +firmly settled in the usual rut, and never dreamed of tearing himself +out of it. But Sunday's break was unsettling: there was always an effort +in starting afresh on Monday. The striking of St. Alkmund's clock at +eight on Monday morning invariably found him sitting down to his +breakfast in his rooms, overlooking the quaint old Market-Place, once +more faced by the fact that a week of dull, uninteresting work lay +before him. He would go to the bank at nine, and at the bank he would +remain, more or less, until five. He would do that again on Tuesday, and +on Wednesday, and on Thursday and on Friday, and on Saturday. One +afternoon, strolling in the adjacent country, he had seen a horse +walking round and round and round in a small paddock, turning a crank +which worked some machine or other in an adjoining shed: that horse had +somehow suggested himself to himself. + +On this particular Monday morning, Neale, happening to catch sight of +his reflection in the mirror which stood on his parlour mantelpiece, +propounded the usual question with added force. There were reasons. It +was a beautiful morning. It was early spring. There was a blue sky, and +the rooks and jackdaws were circling in a clear air about the church +tower and over the old Market-Cross. He could hear thrushes singing in +the trees in the Vicarage garden, close by. Everything was young. And he +was young. It would have been affectation on his part to deny either his +youth or his good looks. He glanced at his mirrored self without pride, +but with due recognition of his good figure, his strong muscles, his +handsome, boyish face, with its cluster of chestnut hair and steady grey +eyes. All that, he knew, wanted life, animation, movement. At +twenty-three he was longing for something to take him out of the +treadmill round in which he had been fixed for five years. He had no +taste for handing out money in exchange for cheques, in posting up +ledgers, in writing dull, formal letters. He would have been much +happier with an old flannel shirt, open at the throat, a pick in his +hands, making a new road in a new country, or in driving a path through +some primeval wood. There would have been liberty in either occupation: +he could have flung down the pick at any moment and taken up the +hunter's gun: he could have turned right or left at his own will in the +unexplored forest. But there at the bank it was just doing the same +thing over and over again: what he had done last week he would do again +this week: what had happened last year would happen again this year. It +was all pure, unadulterated, dismal monotony. + +Like most things, it had come about without design: he had just drifted +into it. His father and mother had both died when he was a boy; he had +inherited a small property which brought in precisely one hundred and +fifty pounds a year: it was tied up to him in such a fashion that he +would have his three pounds a week as long as ever he lived. But as his +guardian, Mr. John Horbury, the manager of Chestermarke's Bank at +Scarnham, pointed out to him when he left school, he needed more than +three pounds a week if he wished to live comfortably and like a +gentleman. Still, a hundred and fifty a year of sure and settled income +was a fine thing, an uncommonly fine thing--all that was necessary was +to supplement it. Therefore--a nice, quiet, genteel profession--banking, +to wit. Light work, an honourable calling, an eminently respectable one. +In a few years he would have another hundred and fifty a year: a few +years more, and he would be a manager, with at least six hundred: he +might, well before he was a middle-aged man, be commanding a salary of a +thousand a year. Banking, by all means, counselled Mr. Horbury--and +offered him a vacancy which had just then arisen at Chestermarke's. And +Neale, willing to be guided by a man for whom he had much respect, took +the post, and settled down in the old bank in the quiet, sleepy +market-town, wherein one day was precisely like another day--and every +year his dislike for his work increased, and sometimes grew unbearably +keen, especially when spring skies and spring air set up a sudden +stirring in his blood. On this Monday morning that stirring amounted to +something very like a physical ache. + +"Hang the old bank!" he muttered. "I'd rather be a ploughman!" + +Nevertheless, the bank must be attended, and, at ten minutes to nine, +Neale lighted a cigarette, put on his hat, and strolled slowly across +the Market-Place. Although he knew every single one of its cobblestones, +every shop window, every landmark in it, that queer old square always +fascinated him. It was a bit of old England. The ancient church and +equally ancient Moot Hall spread along one side of it; the other three +sides were filled with gabled and half-timbered houses; the Market-Cross +which stood in the middle of the open space had been erected there in +Henry the Seventh's time. Amidst all the change and development of the +nineteenth century, Scarnham had been left untouched: even the bank +itself was a time-worn building, and the manager's house which flanked +it was still older. Underneath all these ancient structures were queer +nooks and corners, secret passages and stairs, hiding-places, cellarings +going far beneath the gardens at the backs of the houses: Neale, as a +boy, had made many an exploration in them, especially beneath the +bank-house, which was a veritable treasury of concealed stairways and +cunningly contrived doors in the black oak of the panellings. + +But on this occasion Neale did not stare admiringly at the old church, +nor at the pilastered Moot Hall, nor at the toppling gables: his eyes +were fixed on something else, something unusual. As soon as he walked +out of the door of the house in which he lodged he saw his two +fellow-clerks, Shirley and Patten, standing on the steps of the hall by +which entrance was joined to the bank and to the bank-house. They stood +there looking about them. Now they looked towards Finkleway--a narrow +street which led to the railway station at the far end of the town. Now +they looked towards Middlegate--a street which led into the open +country, in the direction of Ellersdeane, where Mr. Gabriel +Chestermarke, senior proprietor of the bank, resided. All that was +unusual. If Patten, a mere boy, had been lounging there, Neale would not +have noticed it. But it was Shirley's first duty, on arriving every +morning, to get the keys at the house door, and to let himself into the +bank by the adjoining private entrance. It was Patten's duty, on +arrival, to take the letter-bag to the post-office and bring the bank's +correspondence back in it. Never, in all his experience, had Neale seen +any of Chestermarke's clerks lounging on the steps at nine o'clock in +the morning, and he quickened his pace. Shirley, turning from a +prolonged stare towards Finkleway, caught sight of him. + +"Can't get in," he observed laconically, in answer to Neale's inquiring +look. "Mr. Horbury isn't there, and he's got the keys." + +"What do you mean--isn't there!" asked Neale, mounting the steps. "Not +in the house?" + +"Mean just what I say," replied Shirley. "Mrs. Carswell says she hasn't +seen him since Saturday. She thinks he's been week-ending. I've been +looking out for him coming along from the station. But if he came in by +the 8.30, he's a long time getting up here. And if he hasn't come by +that, there's no other train till the 10.45." + +Neale made no answer. He, too, glanced towards Finkleway, and then at +the church clock. It was just going to strike nine--and the station was +only eight minutes away at the most. He passed the two junior clerks, +went down the hall to the door of the bank-house, and entered. And just +within he came face to face with the housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell. + +Mrs. Carswell had kept house for Mr. John Horbury for some years--Neale +remembered her from boyhood. He had always been puzzled about her age. +Of late, since he knew more of grown-up folk, he had been still more +puzzled. Sometimes he thought she was forty; sometimes he was sure she +could not be more than thirty-two or three. Anyway, she was a fine, +handsome woman--tall, perfectly shaped, with glossy black hair and dark +eyes, and a firm, resolute mouth. It was rarely that Mrs. Carswell went +out; when she did, she was easily the best-looking woman in Scarnham. +Few Scarnham people, however, had the chance of cultivating her +acquaintance; Mrs. Carswell kept herself to herself and seemed content +to keep up her reputation as a model housekeeper. She ordered Mr. +Horbury's domestic affairs in perfect fashion, and it had come upon +Neale as a surprise to hear Shirley say that Mrs. Carswell did not know +where the manager was. + +"What's all this?" he demanded, as he met her within the hall. "Shirley +says Mr. Horbury isn't at home? Where is he, then?" + +"But I don't know, Mr. Neale," replied the housekeeper. "I know no more +than you do. I've been expecting him to come in by that 8.30 train, but +he can't have done that, or he'd have been up here by now." + +"Perhaps it's late," suggested Neale. + +"No--it's in," she said. "I saw it come in from my window, at the back. +It was on time. So--I don't know what's become of him." + +"But--what about Saturday?" asked Neale. "Shirley says you said Mr. +Horbury went off on Saturday. Didn't he leave any word--didn't he say +where he was going?" + +"Mr. Horbury went out on Saturday evening," answered Mrs. Carswell. "He +didn't say a word about where he was going. He went out just before +dusk, as if for a walk. I'd no idea that he wasn't at home until Sunday +morning. You see, the servants and I went to bed at our usual time on +Saturday night, and though he wasn't in then, I thought nothing of it, +because, of course, he'd his latch-key. He was often out late at night, +as you know, Mr. Neale. And when I found that he hadn't come back, as I +did find out before breakfast yesterday, I thought nothing of that +either--I thought he'd gone to see some friend or other, and had been +persuaded to stop the night. Then, when he didn't come home yesterday at +all, I thought he was staying the week-end somewhere. So I wasn't +anxious, nor surprised. But I am surprised he's not back here first +thing this morning." + +"So am I," agreed Neale. "And more than surprised." He stood for a +moment, running over the list of the manager's friends and acquaintances +in the neighbourhood, and he shook his head as he came to the end of his +mental reckoning of it. "It's very odd," he remarked. "Very surprising, +Mrs. Carswell." + +"It's all the more surprising," remarked the housekeeper, "because of +his going off for his holiday tomorrow. And Miss Fosdyke's coming down +from London today to go with him." + +Neale pricked his ears. Miss Fosdyke was the manager's niece--a young +lady whom Neale remembered as a mere slip of a girl that he had met +years before and never seen since. + +"I didn't know that," he remarked. + +"Neither did Mr. Horbury until Saturday afternoon--that is, for +certain," said Mrs. Carswell. "He'd asked her to go with him to Scotland +on this holiday, but it wasn't settled. However, he got a wire from her, +about tea-time on Saturday, to say she'd go, and would be down here +today. They're to start tomorrow morning." + +Neale turned to the door. He was distinctly puzzled and uneasy. He had +known John Horbury since his own childhood, and had always regarded him +as the personification of everything that was precise, systematic, and +regular. All things considered, it was most remarkable that he should +not be at the bank at opening hours. And already a vague suspicion that +something had happened began to steal into his mind. + +"Did you happen to notice which way he went, Mrs. Carswell?" he asked. +"Was it towards the station?" + +"He went out down the garden and through the orchard," replied the +housekeeper. "He could have got to the station that way, of course. But +I do know that he never said a word about going anywhere by train, and +he'd no bag or anything with him--he'd nothing but that old oak stick he +generally carried when he went out for his walks." + +Neale pushed open the house door and went into the outer hall to the +junior clerks. Little as he cared about banking as a calling, he was +punctilious about rules and observances, and it seemed to him somewhat +indecorous that the staff of a bank should hang about its front door, as +if they were workshop assistants awaiting the arrival of a belated +foreman. + +"Better come inside the house, Shirley," he said. "Patten, you go to the +post-office and get the letters." + +"No good without the bag," answered Patten, a calm youth of seventeen. +"Tried that once before. Don't you know!--they've one key--we've +another." + +"Well, come inside, then," commanded Neale. "It doesn't look well to +hang about those steps." + +"Might just as well go away," muttered Shirley, stepping into the hall. +"If Horbury's got to come back by train from wherever he's gone to, he +can't get here till the 10.45, and then he's got to walk up. Might as +well go home for an hour." + +"The partners'll be here before an hour's over," said Neale. "One of +them's always here by ten." + +Shirley, a somewhat grumpy-countenanced young man, made no answer. He +began to pace the hall with looks of eminent dissatisfaction. But he had +only taken a turn or two when a quietly appointed one-horse coupé +brougham came up to the open door, and a well-known face was seen at its +window. Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, senior proprietor, had come an hour +before his time. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ELLERSDEANE DEPOSIT + + +Had the three young men waiting in that hall not been so familiar with +him by reason of daily and hourly acquaintance, the least observant +amongst them would surely have paused in whatever task he was busied +with, if Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke had crossed his path for the first +time. The senior partner of Chestermarke's Bank was a noticeable person. +Wallington Neale, who possessed some small gift of imagination, always +felt that his principal suggested something more than was accounted for +by his mere presence. He was a little, broadly built man, somewhat +inclined to stoutness, who carried himself in very upright fashion, and +habitually wore the look of a man engaged in operations of serious and +far-reaching importance, further heightened by an air of reserve and a +trick of sparingness in speech. But more noticeable than anything else +in Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke was his head, a member of his body which was +much out of proportion to the rest of it. It was a very big, well-shaped +head, on which, out of doors, invariably rested the latest-styled and +glossiest of silk hats--no man had ever seen Gabriel Chestermarke in any +other form of head-gear, unless it was in a railway carriage, there he +condescended to assume a checked cap. Underneath the brim of the silk +hat looked out a countenance as remarkable as the head of which it was +a part. A broad, smooth forehead, a pair of large, deep-set eyes, the +pupils of which were black as sloes, a prominent, slightly hooked nose, +a firm, thin-lipped mouth, a square, resolute jaw--these features were +thrown into prominence by the extraordinary pallor of Mr. Chestermarke's +face, and the dark shade of the hair which framed it. That black hair, +those black eyes, burning always with a strange, slumbering fire, the +colourless cheeks, the vigorous set of the lips, these made an effect on +all who came in contact with the banker which was of a not wholly +comfortable nature. It was as if you were talking to a statue rather +than to a fellow-creature. + +Mr. Chestermarke stepped quietly from his brougham and walked up the +steps. He was one of those men who are never taken aback and never show +surprise, and as his eyes ran over the three young men, there was no +sign from him that he saw anything out of the common. But he turned to +Neale, as senior clerk, with one word. + +"Well?" + +Neale glanced uncomfortably at the house door. "Mr. Horbury is not at +home," he answered. "He has the keys." + +Mr. Chestermarke made no reply. His hand went to his waistcoat pocket, +his feet moved lower down the hall to a side-door sacred to the +partners. He produced a key, opened the door, and motioned the clerks to +enter. Once within, he turned into the partners' room. Five minutes +passed before his voice was heard. + +"Neale!" + +Neale hurried in and found the banker standing on the hearth-rug, +beneath the portrait of a former Chestermarke, founder of the bank in a +bygone age. He was suddenly struck by the curious resemblance between +that dead Chestermarke and the living one, and he wondered that he had +never seen it before. But Mr. Chestermarke gave him no time for +speculation. + +"Where is Mr. Horbury?" he asked. + +Neale told all he knew: the banker listened in his usual fashion, +keeping his eyes steadily fixed on his informant. When Neale had +finished, Mr. Chestermarke shook his head. + +"If Horbury had meant to come into town by the 8.30 train and had missed +it," he remarked, "he would have wired or telephoned by this. +Telephoned, of course: there are telephones at every station on that +branch line. Very well, let things go on." + +Neale went out and set his fellow-clerks to the usual routine. Patten +went for the letters. Neale carried them into the partners' room. At ten +o'clock the street door was opened. A customer or two began to drop in. +The business of the day had begun. It went on just as it would have gone +on if Mr. Horbury had been away on holiday. And at half-past ten in +walked the junior partner, Mr. Joseph Chestermarke. + +Mr. Joseph was the exact opposite of his uncle. He was so much his +opposite that it was difficult to believe, seeing them together, that +they were related to each other. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke, a man of +apparently thirty years of age, was tall and loose of figure, easy of +demeanour, and a little untidy in his dress. He wore a not over +well-fitting tweed suit, a slouch hat, a flannel shirt. His brown beard +usually needed trimming; he affected loose, flowing neckties, more +suited to an artist than to a banker. His face was amiable in +expression, a little weak, a little speculative. All these +characteristics came out most strongly when he and his uncle were seen +in company: nothing could be more in contrast to the precise severity of +Gabriel than the somewhat slovenly carelessness of Joseph. Joseph, +indeed, was the last man in the world that any one would ever have +expected to see in charge and direction of a bank, and there were people +in Scarnham who said that he was no more than a lay-figure, and that +Gabriel Chestermarke did all the business. + +The junior partner passed through the outer room, nodding affably to the +clerks and went into the private parlour. Several minutes elapsed: then +a bell rang. Neale answered it, and Shirley and Patten glanced at each +other and shook their heads: already they scented an odour of suspicion +and uncertainty. + +"What's up?" whispered Patten, leaning forward over his desk to Shirley, +who stood between it and the counter. "Something wrong?" + +"Something that Gabriel doesn't like, anyhow," muttered Shirley. "Did +you see his eyes when Neale said that Horbury wasn't here? If Horbury +doesn't turn up by this next train--ah!" + +"Think he's sloped?" asked Patten, already seething with boyish desire +of excitement. "Done a bunk with the money?" + +But Shirley shook his head at the closed door through which Neale had +vanished. + +"They're carpeting Neale about it, anyhow," he answered. "Gabriel'll +want to know the whys and wherefores, you bet. But Neale won't tell us +anything--he's too thick with Horbury." + +Neale, entering the partners' room, found them in characteristic +attitudes. The senior partner sat at his desk, stern, upright, his eyes +burning a little more fiercely than usual: the junior, his slouch hat +still on his head, his hands thrust in his pockets, lounged against the +mantelpiece, staring at his uncle. + +"Now, Neale," said Gabriel Chestermarke. "What do you know about this? +Have you any idea where Mr. Horbury is?" + +"None," replied Neale. "None whatever!" + +"When did you see him last?" demanded Gabriel. "You often see him out of +bank hours, I know." + +"I last saw him here at two o'clock on Saturday," replied Neale. "I have +not seen him since." + +"And you never heard him mention that he was thinking of going away for +the week-end?" asked Gabriel. + +"No!" replied Neale. + +He made his answer tersely and definitely, having an idea that the +senior partner looked at him as if he thought that something was being +kept back. And Gabriel, after a moment's pause, shifted some of the +papers on his desk, with an impatient movement. + +"Ask Mr. Horbury's housekeeper to step in here for a few minutes," he +said. + +Neale went out by the private door, and presently returned with Mrs. +Carswell. + +By that time Joseph had lounged over to his own desk and seated himself, +and when the housekeeper came in he tilted his chair back and sat idly +swaying in it while he watched her and his uncle. But Gabriel, waving +Mrs. Carswell to a seat, remained upright as ever, and as he turned to +the housekeeper, he motioned Neale to stay in the room. + +"Just tell us all you know about Mr. Horbury's movements on Saturday +afternoon and evening, Mrs. Carswell," he said. "This is a most +extraordinary business altogether, and I want to account for it. You say +he went out just about dusk." + +Mrs. Carswell repeated the story which she had told to Neale. The two +partners listened; Gabriel keenly attentive; Joseph as if he were no +more than mildly interested. + +"Odd!" remarked Gabriel, when the story had come to an end. "Most +strange! Very well--thank you, Mrs. Carswell. Neale," he added, when the +housekeeper had gone away, "Mr. Horbury always carried the more +important keys on him, didn't he?" + +"Always," responded Neale. + +"Very good! Let things go on," said Gabriel. "But don't come bothering +me or Mr. Joseph Chestermarke unless you're obliged to. Of course, Mr. +Horbury may come in by the next train. That'll do, Neale." + +Neale went back to the outer room. Things went on, but the missing +manager did not come in by the 10.45, and nothing had been heard or seen +of him at noon, when Patten went to get his dinner. Nor had anything +been seen or heard at one o'clock, when Patten came back, and it became +Shirley and Neale's turn to go out. And thereupon arose a difficulty. In +the ordinary course the two elder clerks would have left for an hour and +the manager would have been on duty until they returned. But now the +manager was not there. + +"You go," said Neale to Shirley. "I'll wait. Perhaps Mr. Joseph will +come out." + +Shirley went--but neither of the partners emerged from the private room. +As a rule they both went across to the Scarnham Arms Hotel at half-past +one for lunch--a private room had been kept for them at that old-world +hostelry from time immemorial--but now they remained within their +parlour, apparently interned from their usual business world. And Neale +had a very good idea of what they were doing. The bank's strong room was +entered from that parlour--Gabriel and Joseph were examining and +checking its contents. The knowledge distressed Neale beyond measure, +and it was only by a resolute effort that he could give his mind to his +duties. + +Two o'clock had gone, and Shirley had come back, before the bell rang +again. Neale went into the private room and knew at once that something +had happened. Gabriel stood by his desk, which was loaded with papers +and documents; Joseph leaned against a sideboard, whereon was a decanter +of sherry and a box of biscuits; he had a glass of wine in one hand, and +a half-nibbled biscuit in the other. The smell of the sherry--fine old +brown stuff, which the clerks were permitted to taste now and then, on +such occasions as the partners' birthdays--filled the room. + +"Neale," said Gabriel, "have you been out to lunch? No? Take a glass of +wine and eat a biscuit--we shall all have to put off our lunches for an +hour or so." + +Neale obeyed--more because he was under order than because he was +hungry. He was too much bothered, too full of vague fears, to think of +his midday dinner. He took the glass which Joseph handed to him, and +picked a couple of biscuits out of the box. And at the first sip Gabriel +spoke again. + +"Neale!" he said. "You've been here five years, so one can speak +confidentially. There's something wrong--seriously wrong. Securities are +missing. Securities representing--a lot!" + +Neale's face flushed as if he himself had been charged with abstracting +those securities. His hand shook as he set down his glass, and he looked +helplessly from one partner to another. Joseph merely shook his head, +and poured out another glass of sherry for himself: Gabriel shook his +head, too, but with a different expression. + +"We don't know exactly how things are," he continued. "But there's the +fact--on a superficial examination. And--Horbury! Of all men in the +world, Horbury!" + +"I can't believe it, Mr. Chestermarke!" exclaimed Neale. "Surely, sir, +there's some mistake!" + +Joseph brushed crumbs of biscuit off his beard and wagged his head. + +"No mistake!" he said softly. "None! The thing is--what's best to do? +Because--he'd have laid his plans. It'll all have been thought +out--carefully." + +"I'm afraid so," assented Gabriel. "That's the worst of it. Everything +points to premeditation. And when a man has been so fully trusted----" + +A knock at the door prefaced the introduction of Shirley's head. He +glanced into the room with an obvious desire to see what was going on, +but somehow contrived to fix his eyes on the senior partner. + +"Lord Ellersdeane, sir," he announced. "Can he see you?" + +The two partners looked at each other in evident surprise; then Gabriel +moved to the door and bowed solemnly to some person outside. + +"Will your lordship come in?" he said politely. + +Lord Ellersdeane, a big, bustling, country-squire type of man, came into +the room, nodding cheerily to its occupants. + +"Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Chestermarke," he said. "I understand Horbury +isn't at home, but of course you'll do just as well. The Countess and I +only got back from abroad night before last. She wants her jewels, so +I'll take 'em with me, if you please." + +Gabriel Chestermarke, who was drawing forward a chair, took his hand off +it and stared at his visitor. + +"The Countess's--jewels!" he said. "Does your lordship mean----" + +"Deposited them with Horbury, you know, some weeks ago--when we went +abroad," replied Lord Ellersdeane. "Safe keeping, you know--said he'd +lock 'em up." + +Gabriel turned slowly to Joseph. But Joseph shook his head--and Neale, +glancing from one partner to the other, felt himself turning sick with +apprehension. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MR. CHESTERMARKE DISCLAIMS LIABILITY + + +Gabriel Chestermarke, after that one look at his nephew, turned again to +the Earl, politely motioning him to the chair which he had already drawn +forward. And the Earl, whose eyes had been wandering over the pile of +documents on the senior partner's desk, glancing curiously at the open +door of the strong room, and generally taking in a sense of some unusual +occurrence, dropped into it and looked expectantly at the banker. + +"There's nothing wrong?" he asked suddenly. "You look--surprised." + +Gabriel stiffened his already upright figure. + +"Surprised--yes!" he answered. "And something more than surprised--I am +astonished! Your lordship left the Countess's jewels with our manager? +May I ask when--and under what circumstances?" + +"About six weeks ago," replied the Earl promptly. "As a rule the jewels +are kept at my bankers in London. The Countess wanted them to wear at +the Hunt Ball, so I fetched them from London myself. Then, as we were +going off to the Continent two days after the ball, and sailing direct +from Kingsport to Hamburg, I didn't want the bother of going up to town +with them, and I thought of Horbury. So I drove in here with them one +evening--the night before we sailed, as a matter of fact--and asked him +to lock them up until our return. And as I said just now, we only got +home the night before last, and we're going up to town tomorrow, and the +Countess wants them to take with her. Of course, you've got 'em all +right?" + +Gabriel Chestermarke spread out his hands. + +"I know nothing whatever about them!" he said. "I never heard of them +being here." + +"Nor I," affirmed Joseph. "Not a word!" + +Gabriel looked at Neale, and drew Lord Ellersdeane's attention to him. + +"Our senior clerk--Mr. Neale," he said. "Neale--have you heard of this +transaction?" + +"Never!" replied Neale. "Mr. Horbury never mentioned it to me." + +Gabriel waved his hand towards the open door of the strong room. + +"Any valuables of that sort would have been in there," he remarked. +"There is nothing of that sort there--beyond what I and my nephew know +of. I am sure your lordship's jewels are not there." + +"But--Horbury?" exclaimed the Earl. "Where is he? He would tell you!" + +"We don't know where Mr. Horbury is," answered Gabriel "The truth may as +well be told--he's missing. And so are some of our most valuable +securities." + +The Earl slowly looked from one partner to another. His face flushed, +almost as hotly as if he himself had been accused of theft. + +"Oh, come!" he said. "Horbury, now, of all men! Come--come!--you don't +mean to tell me that Horbury's been playing games of that sort? There +must be some mistake." + +"I shall be glad to be assured that I am making it," said Gabriel +coolly. "But it will be more to the purpose if your lordship will tell +us all about the deposit of these jewels. And--there's an important +matter which I must first mention. We have not the honour of reckoning +your lordship among our customers. Therefore, whatever you handed to +Horbury was handed to him privately--not to us." + +Joseph Chestermarke nodded his head at that, and the Earl stirred a +little uneasily in his chair. + +"Oh, well!" he said. "I--to tell you the truth, I didn't think about +that, Mr. Chestermarke. It's true I don't keep any account with +you--it's never seemed--er, necessary, you know. But, of course, I knew +Horbury so well--he's a member of our golf club and our archæological +society--that----" + +"Precisely," interrupted Gabriel, with a bow. "You came to Mr. Horbury +privately. Not to the firm." + +"I came to him knowing that he was your manager, and a man to be +thoroughly trusted, and that he'd have safes and things in which he +could deposit valuables in perfect safety," answered the Earl. "I never +reflected for a moment on the niceties of the matter. I just explained +to him that I wanted those jewels taken care of, and handed them over. +That's all!" + +"And--their precise nature?" asked Gabriel. + +"And--their value?" added Joseph. + +"As to their nature," replied the Earl, "there was my wife's coronet, +her diamond necklace, and the Ellersdeane butterfly, of which I suppose +all the world's heard--heirloom, you know. It's a thing that can be worn +in a lady's hair or as a pendant--diamonds, of course. As to their +value--well, I had them valued some years ago. They're worth about a +hundred thousand pounds." + +Gabriel turned to his desk and began to arrange some papers on it, and +Neale, who was watching everything with close attention, saw that his +fingers trembled a little. He made no remark, and the silence was next +broken by Joseph Chestermarke's soft accents. + +"Did Horbury give your lordship any receipt, or acknowledgment that he +had received these jewels on deposit?" he asked. "I mean, of course, in +our name?" + +The Earl twisted sharply in his chair, and Neale fancied that he saw a +shade of annoyance pass over his good-natured face. + +"Certainly not!" he answered. "I should never have dreamt of asking for +a receipt from a man whom I knew as well as I knew--or thought I +knew--Horbury. The whole thing was just as if--well, as if I should ask +any friend to take care of something for me for a while." + +"Did Horbury know what you were giving him?" asked Joseph. + +"Of course!" replied the Earl. "As a matter of fact, he'd never seen +these things, and I took them out of their case and showed them to him." + +"And he said he would lock them up?--in our strong room?" suggested the +soft voice. + +"He said nothing about your strong room," answered the Earl. "Nor about +where he'd put them. That was understood. It was understood--a tacit +understanding--that he'd take care of them until our return." + +"Did your lordship give him the date of your return?" persisted Joseph, +with the thorough-going air of a cross-examiner. + +"Yes--I told him exactly when we should be back," replied the Earl. "The +twelfth of May--day before yesterday." + +Joseph moved away from the sideboard towards the hearth, and leaning +against the mantelpiece threw a glance at the strong room. + +"The jewels are not in our possession," he said, half indolently. "There +is nothing of that sort in there. There are two safes in the outer room +of the bank--I should say that Mr. Neale here knows everything that is +in them. Do you know anything of these jewels, Neale?" + +"Nothing!" said Neale. "I never heard of them." + +Gabriel looked up from his papers. + +"None of us have heard of them," he remarked. "Horbury could not have +put them in this strong room without my knowledge. They are certainly +not there. The safes my nephew mentioned just now are used only for +books and papers. Your lordship's casket is not in either." + +The Earl rose slowly from his chair. It was evident to Neale that he was +more surprised than angry: he looked around him as a man looks whose +understanding is suddenly brought up against something unexplainable. + +"All I know is that I handed that casket to Mr. Horbury in his own +dining-room one evening some weeks ago," he said. "That's certain! So I +naturally expect to find it--here." + +"And it is not here--that is equally certain," observed Gabriel. "What +is also certain is that our manager--trusted in more than he should have +been!--is missing, and many of our valuable securities with him. +Therefore----" + +He spread his hands again with an expressive gesture and once more bent +over his papers. Once more there was silence. Then the Earl started--as +if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. + +"I say!" he exclaimed, "don't you think Horbury may have put those +jewels away in his own house?" + +Joseph Chestermarke smiled a little derisively. + +"A hundred thousand pounds' worth!" he said softly. "Not very likely!" + +"But he may have a safe there," urged the Earl. "Most people have a safe +in their houses nowadays--they're so handy, you know, and so cheap. +Don't you think that may be it?" + +"I am not familiar with Horbury's domestic arrangements," said Gabriel. +"I have not been in his house for some years. But as we are desirous of +giving your lordship what assistance we can, we will go into the house +and see if there is anything of the sort. Just tell the housekeeper we +are coming in, Neale." + +The Earl nodded to Mrs. Carswell as she received him and the two +partners in the adjacent hall. + +"This lady will remember my calling on Mr. Horbury one evening a few +weeks ago," he said. "She saw me with him in that room." + +"Certainly!" assented Mrs. Carswell, readily enough. "I remember your +lordship calling on Mr. Horbury very well. One night after dinner--your +lordship was here an hour or so." + +Gabriel Chestermarke opened the door of the dining-room--an +old-fashioned apartment which looked out on a garden and orchard at the +rear of the house. + +"Mrs. Carswell," he said, as they all went in, "has Mr. Horbury a safe +in this room, or in any other room? You know what I mean." + +But the housekeeper shook her head. There was no safe in the house. +There was a plate-chest--there it was, standing in a recess by the +sideboard; she had the key of it. + +"Open that, at any rate," commanded Gabriel. "It's about as unlikely as +anything could be, but we'll leave nothing undone." + +There was nothing in the plate-chest but what Gabriel expected to find +there. He turned again to the housekeeper. + +"Is there anything in this house--cupboard, chest, trunk, anything--in +which Mr. Horbury kept valuables?" he asked. "Any place in which he was +in the habit of locking up papers, for instance?" + +Mrs. Carswell again shook her head. No, she knew of no such place or +receptacle. There was Mr. Horbury's desk, but she believed all its +drawers were open. Her belief proved to be correct: Gabriel himself +opened drawer after drawer, and revealed nothing of consequence. He +turned to the Earl with another expressive spreading out of his hands. + +"I don't see what more we can do to assist your lordship," he said. "I +don't know what more can be done." + +"The question is--so it seems to me--what is to be done," replied the +Earl, whose face had been gradually growing graver. "What, for instance, +are you going to do, Mr. Chestermarke? Let us be plain with each other. +You disclaim all liability in connection with my affair?" + +"Most certainly!" exclaimed Gabriel. "We know nothing of that +transaction. As I have already said, if Horbury took charge of your +lordship's property, he did so as a private individual, not on our +behalf, not in his capacity as our manager. If your lordship had been a +customer of ours----" + +"That would have been a very different matter," said Joseph. "But as we +have never had any dealings with your lordship----" + +"We have, of course, no liability to you," concluded Gabriel. "The true +position of the case is that your lordship handed your property to +Horbury as a friend, not as manager of Chestermarke's Bank." + +"Then let me ask you, what are you going to do?" said the Earl. "I mean, +not about my affair, but about finding your manager?" + +Gabriel looked at his nephew: Joseph shook his head. + +"So far," said Joseph, "we have not quite considered that. We are not +yet fully aware of how things stand. We have a pretty good idea, but it +will take another day." + +"You don't mean to tell me that you're going to let another day elapse +before doing something?" exclaimed the Earl. "Bless my soul!--I'd have +had the hue and cry out before noon today, if I'd been you!" + +"If you'd been Chestermarke's Bank, my lord," remarked Joseph, in his +softest manner, "that's precisely what you would not have done. We don't +want it noised all over the town and neighbourhood that our trusted +manager has suddenly run away with our money--and your jewels--in his +pocket." + +There was a curious note--half-sneering, half-sinister--in the junior +partner's quiet voice which made the Earl turn and look at him with a +sudden new interest. Before either could speak, Neale ventured to say +what he had been wanting to say for half an hour. + +"May I suggest something, sir?" he said, turning to Gabriel. + +"Speak--speak!" assented Gabriel hastily. "Anything you like!" + +"Mr. Horbury may have met with an accident," said Neale. "He was fond of +taking his walks in lonely places--there are plenty outside the town. He +may be lying somewhere even now--helpless." + +"Capital suggestion!--much obliged to you," exclaimed the Earl. "Gad! I +wonder we never thought of that before! Much the most likely thing. I +can't believe that Horbury----" + +Before he could say more, the door of the dining-room was thrown open, a +clear, strong voice was heard speaking to some one without, and in +walked a handsome young woman, who pulled herself up on the threshold to +stare out of a pair of frank grey eyes at the four startled men. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE MODERN YOUNG WOMAN + + +Mrs. Carswell, who had left the gentlemen to themselves after opening +the plate-chest, followed the new-comer into the room and looked +appealingly at the senior partner. + +"This is Miss Fosdyke, sir," she said, as if accounting for the +unceremonious entrance. "Mr. Horbury's----" + +But Miss Fosdyke, having looked round her, entered the arena of +discussion as abruptly as she had entered the room. + +"You're Mr. Chestermarke!" she said, turning to Gabriel. "I remember +you. What's all this, Mr. Chestermarke? I come down from London to meet +my uncle, and to go on with him to Scotland for a holiday, and I learn +that he's disappeared! What is it? What has happened? Why are you all +looking so mysterious? Is something wrong? Where is my uncle?" + +Gabriel, who had assumed his stereotyped expression of calm attention +under this tornado of questions, motioned Joseph to place a chair for +the young lady. But Miss Fosdyke shook her head and returned to the +attack. + +"Please don't keep anything back!" she said. "I am not of the +fainting-to-order type of young woman. Just say what is the matter, if +you please. Mrs. Carswell knows no more----" + +"Than we do," interrupted Joseph, with one of his peculiar smiles. +"Hadn't you better sit down?" + +"Not until I know what has happened," retorted the visitor. "Because if +anything has happened there will be something for me to do, and it's +foolish to sit down when one's got to get up again immediately. Mr. +Chestermarke, are you going to answer my questions?" + +Gabriel bowed stiffly. + +"I have the honour of addressing----" he began. + +"You have the honour--if you like to put it so--of addressing Miss Betty +Fosdyke, who is Mr. John Horbury's niece," replied the young lady +impatiently. "Mrs. Carswell has told you that already. Besides--you saw +me, more than once, when I was a little girl. And that's not so very +long ago. Now, Mr. Chestermarke, where is my uncle?" + +"I do not know where your uncle is," replied Gabriel suddenly, and +losing his starchiness. "I wish to Heaven I did!" + +"None of us know where Mr. John Horbury is," repeated Joseph, in his +suavest tones. "We all wish to Heaven we did!" + +The girl turned and gave the junior partner a look which took in every +inch of him. It was a look which began with a swift speculation and +ended in something very like distaste. But Joseph Chestermarke met it +with his usual quiet smile. + +"It would make such a lot of difference--if we knew!" he murmured. "As +it is--things are unpleasant." + +Miss Fosdyke finished her reflection and turned away. + +"I remember you now," she said calmly. "You're Joseph Chestermarke. Now +I will sit down. And I insist on being told--everything!" + +"My dear young lady!" exclaimed Gabriel, "there is next to nothing to +tell. If you will have the unpleasant truth, here it is. Your uncle, +whom we have trusted for more years than I care to mention, disappeared +on Saturday evening, and nobody knows where he is, nor whither he went. +All we know is that we find some of our property missing--valuable +securities. And this gentleman--Lord Ellersdeane--tells us that six +weeks ago he entrusted jewels worth a hundred thousand pounds to your +uncle's keeping--they, too, are missing. What can we think?" + +The girl's face had flushed, and her brows had drawn together in an +angry frown by the time Gabriel had finished, and Neale, silently +watching her from the background, saw her fingers clench themselves. She +gave a swift glance at the Earl, and then fixed her eyes steadily on +Gabriel. + +"Are you telling me that my uncle is a--thief?" she demanded. "Are you, +Mr. Chestermarke?" + +"I'm not, anyhow!" exclaimed the Earl. "I--I--so far as I'm concerned, I +say there's some mistake." + +"Thank you!" she answered quietly. "But--you, Mr. Chestermarke? +Come--I'm entitled to an answer." + +Gabriel showed signs of deep annoyance. He had the reputation of being a +confirmed woman-hater, and it was plain that he was ill at ease in +presence of this plain-spoken young person. + +"You appear to be a lady of much common sense!" he said. "Therefore----" + +"I have some common sense," interrupted Miss Fosdyke coolly. "And what +amount I possess tells me that I never heard anything more ridiculous in +my life than the suggestion that my uncle should steal anything from +anybody! Why, he was, and is, I hope, a fairly well-to-do man! And if he +wanted money, he'd only to come to me. It so happens that I'm one of the +wealthiest young women in England. If my uncle had wanted a few +thousands or tens of thousands to play ducks and drakes with, he'd only +to ring me up on the telephone, and he'd have had whatever he asked for +in a few hours. That's not boasting, Mr. Chestermarke--that's just plain +truth. My uncle a thief! Mr. Chestermarke!--there's only one word for +your suggestion. Don't think me rude if I tell you what it is. +It's--bosh!" + +Gabriel's colourless face twitched a little, and he drew himself up. + +"I have no acquaintance with modern young ladies," he remarked icily. "I +daresay they have their own way of looking at things--and of expressing +themselves. I, too, have mine. Also I have my own conclusions, and----" + +"I say, Mr. Chestermarke!" said the Earl, hastening to intervene in what +seemed likely to develop into a passage-at-arms. "We're forgetting the +suggestion made just before this lady--Miss Fosdyke, I think?--entered. +Don't let's forget it--it's a good one." + +Miss Fosdyke turned eagerly to the Earl. + +"What suggestion was it?" she asked. "Do tell me? I'm sure you agree +with me--I can see you do. Thank you, again!" + +"This gentleman," said the Earl, pointing to Neale, who had retreated +into a corner and was staring out of the window, "suggests that Horbury +may have met with an accident, you know, and be lying helpless +somewhere. I sincerely hope he isn't but----" + +Miss Fosdyke jumped from her chair. She turned an indignant look on +Gabriel and let it go on to Joseph. + +"You don't mean to tell me that you have not done anything to find my +uncle?" she exclaimed with fiery emphasis. "You've surely had some +search made?--surely!" + +"We knew nothing of his disappearance until ten o'clock this morning," +replied Gabriel, half-angrily. + +"But--since then? Why, you've had five hours!" she said. "Has nothing +been done? Haven't you even told the police?" + +"Certainly not!" answered Gabriel. "It is not our policy." + +Miss Fosdyke made one step to the door and flung it open. + +"Then I shall!" she exclaimed. "Policy, indeed! High time I came down +here, I think! Thank you, Lord Ellersdeane--and the other gentleman--for +the suggestion. Now I'll go and act on it. And when I act, Mr. +Chestermarke, I do it thoroughly!" + +The next moment she had slammed the door, and Gabriel Chestermarke +glanced at his partner. + +"Annoying!" he said. "A most unpleasant young woman! I should have +preferred not to tell the police until--well, at any rate, tomorrow. We +really do not know to what extent we are--but then, what's the use of +talking of that now? We can't prevent her going to the police-station." + +"Why, really, Mr. Chestermarke," observed the Earl, "don't you think +it's the best thing to do? To tell you the truth, considering that I'm +concerned, I was going to do the very same thing myself." + +Gabriel bowed stiffly. + +"We could not have prevented your lordship either," he said, with +another wave of the white hands which seemed to go so well with the +habitual pallor of his face. "All that is within your lordship's +jurisdiction--not in ours. But--especially since this young lady seems +determined to do things in her way--I will tell your lordship why we are +slow to move. It is purely a business reason. It was, as I said, ten +o'clock when we heard that Horbury was missing. That in itself was such +a very strange and unusual thing that my partner and I at once began to +examine the contents of our strong room. We had been so occupied five +hours when your lordship called. Do you think we could examine +everything in five hours? No--nor in ten, nor in twenty! Our task is not +one quarter complete! And why we don't wish publicity at once in +here--we hold a vast number of securities and valuables belonging to +customers. Title-deeds, mortgages--all sorts of things. We have +valuables deposited with us. Up to now we don't know what is safe and +what isn't. We do know this--certain securities of our own, easily +convertible on the market, are gone! Now if we had allowed it to be +known before, say, noon today, that our manager had disappeared, and +these securities with him, what would have been the result? The bank +would have been besieged! Before we let the public know, we ourselves +want to know exactly where we are. We want to be in a position to say to +Smith, 'Your property is safe!'; to Jones, 'Your deeds are here!' Does +your lordship see that? But now, of course," concluded Gabriel, "as this +Miss Fosdyke can and will spread the news all over the town--why, we +must face things." + +The Earl, who had listened to all this with an evident desire to +comprehend and to sympathize, nodded his head. + +"I see--I see, Mr. Chestermarke," he said. "But I say!--I've got another +notion--I'm not a very quick thinker, and I daresay my idea came out of +Mr. Neale's suggestion. Anyway, it's this--for whatever it's worth. I +told you that we only got home night before last--early on Saturday +evening, as a matter of fact. Now, it was known in the town here that +we'd returned--we drove through the Market-Place. Mayn't it be that +Horbury saw us, or heard of our return, and that when he went out that +evening he had the casket in his pocket and was on his way to +Ellersdeane, to return it to me? And that--on his way--he met with some +mishap? Worth considering, you know." + +"I daresay a great many theories might--and will--be raised, my lord," +replied Gabriel. "But----" + +"Does your lordship also think--or suggest--that Horbury also carried +our missing securities in his pocket?" asked Joseph quietly. "Because +we, at any rate, know they're gone!" + +"Oh, well!" said the Earl, "I--I merely suggest it, you know. The +country between here and Ellersdeane is a bit rough and wild--there's +Ellersdeane Hollow, you know--a queer place on a dark night. And if a +man took a short cut--as many people do--through the Hollow, there are +places he could fall into. But, as I say, I merely suggest that as a +reasonable theory." + +"What does your lordship propose to do?" asked Gabriel. + +"I certainly think inquiry should be set going," answered the Earl. + +"Already done," remarked Joseph drily. "Miss Fosdyke has been with the +police five minutes." + +"I mean--it should be done by us," said the Earl. + +"Very well," said Gabriel suddenly, "it shall be done, then. No doubt +your lordship would like to give the police your own story. Mr. Neale, +will you go with Lord Ellersdeane to Superintendent Polke? Your duty +will be to give him the mere information that Mr. Horbury left his house +at a quarter to eight on Saturday evening and has not been heard of +since. No more, Neale. And now," he concluded, with a bow to the Earl, +"your lordship will excuse my partner and myself if we return to a +singularly unpleasant task." + +Lord Ellersdeane and Neale left the bank-house and walked towards the +police-station. They crossed the Market-Place in silence, but as they +turned the corner of the Moot Hall, the elder man spoke, touching his +companion's shoulder with a confidential gesture. + +"I don't believe a word of all that, Mr. Neale!" he said. "Not one +word!" + +Neale started and glanced at the Earl's moody face. + +"Your lordship doesn't believe--?" he began, and checked himself. + +"I don't believe that Horbury's done what those two accuse him of," +affirmed the Earl. "Not for one moment! I can't account for those +missing securities they talk about, but I'll stake my honour that +Horbury hasn't got 'em! Nor my wife's jewels either. You heard and saw +how astounded that girl was. By the by--who is she!" + +"Mr. Horbury's niece--Miss Fosdyke--from London," replied Neale. + +"She spoke of her wealth," remarked the Earl. + +"Yes," said Neale. "She must be wealthy, too. She's the sole proprietor +of Fosdyke's Brewery." + +"Ho-ho!" laughed the Earl. "That's it, eh? Fosdyke's Entire! Of +course--I've seen the name on no end of public-houses in London. Sole +proprietor? Dear me!--why, I have some recollection that Fosdyke, of +that brewery, was at one time a member of Parliament." + +"Yes," assented Neale. "He married Mr. Horbury's sister. Miss Fosdyke is +their only child. Mr. Fosdyke died a few years ago, and she came into +the property last year when she was twenty-one." + +"Lucky young woman!" muttered the Earl. "Fine thing to own a big +brewery. Um! A very modern and up-to-date young lady, too: I liked the +way she stood up to your principals. Of course, she'll have told Polke +all the story by this time. As for ourselves--what had we better do?" + +Neale had considered that question as he came along. + +"There's only one thing to do, my lord," he answered. "We want the +solution of a problem: what became of Mr. Horbury last Saturday night?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SEARCH BEGINS + + +Polke, superintendent of the Scarnham police force, a little, round, +cheery-faced man, whose mutton-chop whiskers suggested much +business-like capacity and an equal amount of common sense, rose from +his desk and bowed as the Earl of Ellersdeane entered his office. + +"I know what your lordship's come for!" he said, with a twinkle of the +eye which betokened infinite comprehension. "The young lady's been +here." + +"And has no doubt told you everything?" remarked the Earl, as he dropped +into the chair which the superintendent drew forward. "Has she?" + +"Pretty well, my lord," replied Polke, with a chuckle. "She's not one to +let much grass grow under her feet, I think." + +"Given you the facts, I suppose?" asked the Earl. + +Polke motioned to Neale to seat himself, and resumed his own seat. He +put his fingers together over his desk and looked from one to the other +of his visitors. + +"I'll give the young lady this much credit," he said. "She can tell one +what she wants in about as few words as could possibly be used! Yes, my +lord--she told me the facts in a couple of sentences. Her uncle +disappeared--nobody knows where he is--suspected already of running away +with your lordship's jewels and Chestermarke's securities. A very nice +business indeed!" + +"What do you think of it?" asked the Earl. + +"As a policeman, nothing--so far," answered Polke, with another twinkle. +"As a man, that I don't believe it!" + +"Nor do I!" said the Earl. "That is, I don't believe that Horbury's +appropriated anything. There's some mistake--and some mystery." + +"We can't get away from the fact that Mr. Horbury has disappeared," +remarked Neale, looking at the superintendent. "That's all I'm sent here +to tell you, Mr. Polke." + +"That's an accepted fact," agreed Polke. "But he's not the first man +who's disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Some men, as your +lordship knows, disappear--and reappear with good reasons for their +absence. Some never reappear. Some men aren't wanted to reappear. When a +man disappears and he's wanted--why, the job is to find him." + +"What does Miss Fosdyke wish?" asked the Earl, nodding assent to these +philosophies. "She would say, of course." + +"Miss Fosdyke's way, my lord--so far as I could gather from ten minutes' +talk with her--is to tell people what to do," answered Polke drily. "She +doesn't ask--she commands! We're to find her uncle--quick. At once. No +pains to be spared. Money no object. A hundred pounds, spot cash, to the +first man, woman, child, who brings her the least fragment of news of +him. That's Miss Fosdyke's method. It's not a bad one--it's only rich +young ladies who can follow it. So I've already put things in train. +Handbills and posters, of course--and the town-crier. I suggested to her +that by tonight, or tomorrow morning, there might be news of Mr. Horbury +without doing all that. No good! Miss Fosdyke--she can tell you a lot +inside a minute--informed me that since she was seventeen she had only +had one motto in life. It's--do it now!" + +"Good!" laughed the Earl. "But--where are you going to begin?" + +"That's the difficulty," agreed Polke. "A gentleman walks out of his +back garden into the dusk--and he's never seen again. I don't know. We +must wait and see if anybody comes forward to say that he, she, or it +saw Mr. Horbury after he left his house on Saturday night. That's all." + +"Somebody must have seen him," said the Earl. + +"Well, you'd think so, my lord," replied Polke, "but he could get away +from the back of his orchard into the open country without being seen. +The geographical position of our town's a bit curious, so your lordship +knows. Here we are on a ridge. Horbury's garden and orchard run down to +the foot of that ridge. At that foot is the river. There's a foot-bridge +over the river, immediately opposite his orchard gate. He could cross +that foot-bridge, and be in the wood on the other side in two minutes +from leaving his house. That wood extends for a good mile into the +country. Oh, yes! he could get away without being seen, and once in that +country, why, he could make his way to one or other of half a dozen +small railway stations. We shall telephone to all of them. That's all in +the routine. But then, that's all supposing that he left the town. +Perhaps he didn't leave the town." + +The Earl started, and Neale looked quickly up from a brown study. + +"Eh?" said the Earl. "Didn't leave the town?" + +"Speaking as a policeman," answered Polke, with a knowing smile, "I +don't know that he even left his house. I only know that his housekeeper +says he did. That's a very different matter. For anything we +know--absolutely know!--Mr. Horbury may have been murdered in his own +house, and buried in his own cellar." + +"You're not joking?" said Neale. "Or--you are!" + +"Far from it, Mr. Neale," answered Polke. "That may seem a very, very +outrageous thing to say, but, I assure you, one never knows what may not +have happened in these cases. However, Mrs. Carswell says he did leave +the house, so we must take her word to begin with, and see if we can +find out where he went. And as your lordship is here, there's just a +question or two I should like to have answered. How many people know +that your lordship handed over these valuables to Mr. Horbury?" + +"So far as I know, no one but the Countess and myself," replied the +Earl. "I never mentioned the matter to any one, and I don't think my +wife would either. There was no need to mention it." + +"Well, I don't know," remarked Polke. "One's got to consider all sorts +of little things in these affairs, or else I wouldn't ask another +question. Does your lordship think it possible the Countess mentioned it +to her maid?" + +The Earl started in his chair. + +"Ah!" he said. "That may be! She may have done that, of course. I hadn't +thought of it." + +"Is the maid a trustworthy woman?" inquired Polke. + +"She's been in our service twelve or fourteen years," replied the Earl. +"We've always found her quite trustworthy. So much so that I've more +than once sent her to my bankers with those very jewels." + +"You took her with you to the Continent, of course, my lord?" asked +Polke. + +"No, we didn't," replied the Earl. "The fact is--we wanted to have, for +once in our lives, a thoroughly unconventional holiday. You know that +the Countess and I are both very fond of walking--well, we had always +had a great desire to have a walking tour, alone, in the Ardennes +district, in early spring. We decided some time ago to have it this +year. So when we set off, six weeks ago, we took no servants--and +precious little luggage--and we enjoyed it all the more. Therefore, of +course, my wife's maid was not with us. She remained at +Ellersdeane--with the rest of the servants." + +Polke seemed to ponder over this last statement. Then he rose from his +chair. + +"Um!" he said. "Well--I'm doing what I can. There's something your +lordship might do." + +"Yes?" asked the Earl. "What, now! It shall be done." + +"Let some of your men take a look round your neighbourhood," answered +the superintendent. "Gamekeepers, now--they're the fellows! Just now +we're having some grand moonlight nights. If your men would look about +the country between here and Ellersdeane, now? And tell the farmers, and +the cottagers, and so forth, and take a particular look round +Ellersdeane Hollow. It would be a help." + +"Excellent idea, Polke," said the Earl. "I'll ride home and set things +going at once. And you'll let me know if anything turns up here during +the evening or the night." + +He strode off to the door and Neale followed. But on the threshold Neale +was pulled up by the superintendent. + +"Mr. Neale!" said Polke. + +Neale turned to see his questioner looking at him with a rather +quizzical expression. + +"What precise message had you for me?" asked Polke. + +"Just what I said," replied Neale. "I was merely to tell you that Mr. +Horbury disappeared from his house on Saturday evening, and has not been +seen since." + +"No further message--from your principals?" suggested Polke. + +"Nothing," said Neale. + +Polke nodded, and with a bow to the Earl sat down again to his desk. He +took up a pen when the door had closed on his visitors, and for a while +busied himself in writing. He was thus occupied when the telephone bell +rang in the farthest corner of his room. He crossed over and laid hold +of the receiver. + +"Yes?" he said quietly. "Yes--this is Polke, superintendent, Scarnham--I +rang you up twenty minutes since. I want you to send me, at once, the +smartest man you have available. Case is disappearance, under mysterious +circumstances, of a bank manager. Securities to a large amount are +missing; valuables also. No expense will be spared here--money no +object. You understand--a first-class man? Tonight? Yes. Good train from +town five-twenty--gets here nine-fifteen. He will catch that? Good. Tell +him report here on arrival. All right. Good-bye." + +Polke rang off and went back to his desk. + +"What New Scotland Yard calls a first-class is very often what I should +call a third-class," he muttered as he picked up his pen. "However, +we'll live in hope that something out of the usual will arrive. Now what +are those two Chestermarkes after? Why didn't one of them come here? +What are they doing? And what's the mystery? James Polke, my boy, here's +a handful for you!" + +If Polke had been able to look into Chestermarke's Bank just then, he +would have failed to notice any particular evidences of mystery. It was +nearly the usual hour for closing when Wallington Neale went back, and +Gabriel Chestermarke immediately told him to follow out the ordinary +routine. The clerks were to finish their work and go their ways, as if +nothing had happened, and, as far as they could, they were to keep their +tongues quiet. As for the partners, food was being sent over for them +from the hotel: they would be obliged to remain at the bank for some +time yet. But there was no need for Neale to stay; he could go when the +day's balancing was done. + +"You heard what instructions this Miss Fosdyke had given the police, I +suppose?" asked Gabriel, as Neale was leaving the parlour. "Raising the +whole town, no doubt?" + +Neale briefly narrated all he knew; the partners listened with the +expression characteristic of each, and made no comment. And in half an +hour Neale handed over the keys to Joseph Chestermarke and went out into +the hall, his labours over. That had been the most exciting day he had +ever known in his life--was what was left of it going to yield anything +still more exciting? + +He stood in the outer hall trying to make up his mind about something. +He wanted to speak to Betty Fosdyke--to talk to her. She had evidently +not recognized him when she came so suddenly into the dining-room of the +bank-house. But why should she, he asked himself?--they had only met +once, when both were children, and she had no doubt forgotten his very +existence. Still-- + +He rang the house bell at last and asked for Mrs. Carswell. The +housekeeper came hurrying to him, a look of expectancy on her face. + +"Has anything been heard, Mr. Neale?" she asked. "Or found out? Have the +police been told yet?" + +"The police know," answered Neale. "And nothing has been heard. Where is +Miss Fosdyke, Mrs. Carswell? I should like to speak to her." + +"Gone to the Scarnham Arms, Mr. Neale," replied the housekeeper. "She +wouldn't stay here, though her room was all ready for her. Said she +wouldn't stop two seconds in a house that belonged to men who suspected +her uncle! So she's gone across there to take rooms. Do--do the partners +suspect Mr. Horbury of something, Mr. Neale?" + +Neale shook his head and turned away. + +"I can't tell you anything, Mrs. Carswell," he answered. "If either Mr. +Chestermarke or Mr. Joseph wish to give you any information, they'll +give it themselves. But I can say this on my own responsibility--if you +know of anything--anything, however small!--that would account for Mr. +Horbury's absence, out with it!" + +"But I don't--I know nothing but what I've told," said Mrs. Carswell. +"Literally nothing!" + +"Nobody knows anything," remarked Neale. "That's the worst of it. +Well--we shall see." + +He went away from the house and crossed the Market-Place to the Scarnham +Arms, an old-world inn which had suffered few alterations during the +last two centuries. And there inside its wide hall, superintending the +removal of various articles of luggage which had just arrived from the +station and in conversation with a much interested landlady, he found +Betty Fosdyke. + +"I may be here for weeks, and I shall certainly be here for days," that +young lady was saying. "Put all these things in the bedroom, and I'll +have what I want taken into the sitting-room later. Now, Mrs. Depledge, +about my dinner. I'll have it in my sitting-room, and I'll have it +early. I----" + +At this moment Miss Fosdyke became aware of Neale's presence, and that +this eminently good-looking young man was not only smiling at her, but +was holding out a hand which he evidently expected to be taken. + +"You've forgotten me!" said Neale. + +Miss Fosdyke's cheeks flushed a little and she held out her hand. + +"Is it--is it Wallie Neale?" she asked. "But--I saw you in the +bank-house--and you didn't speak to me!" + +"You didn't speak to me," retorted Neale, smiling. + +"Didn't know you," she answered. "Heavens!--how you've grown! But--come +upstairs. Mrs. Depledge--dinner for two, mind. Mr. Neale will dine with +me." + +Neale suffered his hostess to lead him upstairs to a private parlour. +And when they were once within it, Miss Fosdyke shut the door and turned +on him. + +"Now, Wallie Neale!" she said, "out with it! What is the meaning of all +this infernal mystery? And where's my uncle?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ELLERSDEANE HOLLOW + + +Neale dropped into a chair and lifted a despairing countenance to his +downright questioner. + +"I don't know!" he said. "I know--nothing!" + +"That is--beyond what I've already been told?" suggested the girl. + +"Beyond what you've been told--exactly," replied Neale. "I'm literally +bewildered. I've been going about all day as if--as if I were dreaming, +or having a nightmare, or--something. I don't understand it at all. I +saw Mr. Horbury, of course, on Saturday--he was all right when I left +him at the bank. He said nothing that suggested anything unusual. The +whole thing is--a real facer! To me--anyhow." + +Betty Fosdyke devoted a whole minute to taking a good look at her +companion: Neale, on his part, made a somewhat shyer examination of her. +He remembered her as a long-legged little girl who had no great promise +of good looks: he was not quite sure that she had grown into good looks +now. But she was an eminently bright and vivacious young woman, strong, +healthy, vigorous, with fine eyes and teeth and hair, and a colour that +betokened an intimate acquaintance with outdoor life. And already, in +the conversation at the bank, and in Polke's report of his interview +with him, he had learnt that she had developed certain characteristics +which he faintly remembered in her as a child, when she had insisted on +having her own way amongst other children. + +"You've grown into quite a handsome young man, Wallie!" she observed +suddenly, with a frank laugh. "I shouldn't have thought you would, +somehow. Am I changed?" + +"I should say--not in character," answered Neale shyly. "I remember you +always wanted to be top dog!" + +"It's my fate!" she said, with a sigh. "I've such a lot of people and +things to look after--one has to be top dog, whether one wants to or +not. But this affair--what's to be done?" + +"I understand from Polke that you've already done everything," replied +Neale. + +"I've given him orders to spare neither trouble nor expense," she +asserted. "He's to send for the very best detective they can give him +from headquarters in London, and search is to be made. Because--now, +Wallie, tell me truthfully--you don't believe for one moment that my +uncle has run away with things?" + +"Not for one second!" asserted Neale stoutly. "Never did!" + +"Then--there's foul play!" exclaimed Betty. "And I'll spend my last +penny to get at the bottom of it! Here I am, and here I stick, until +I've found my uncle, or discovered what's happened to him. And +listen--do you think those two men across there are to be trusted?" + +Neale shook his head as if in appeal to her. + +"I'm their clerk, you know," he replied. "I hate being there at all, but +I am there. I believe they're men of absolute probity as regards +business matters--personally, I'm not very fond of either." + +"Fond!" she exclaimed. "My dear boy!--Joseph is a slimy sneak, and +Gabriel is a bloodless sphinx--I hate both of them!" + +Neale laughed and gave her a look of comprehension. + +"You haven't changed, Betty," he said. "I'm to call you Betty, though +you are grown up?" + +"Since it's the only name I possess, I suppose you are," she answered. +"But now--what can we do--you and I? After all, we're the nearest people +my uncle has in this town. Do let's do something! I'm not the sort to +sit talking--I want action! Can't you suggest something we can do?" + +"There's one thing," replied Neale, after a moment's thought. "Lord +Ellersdeane suggested that possibly Mr. Horbury, hearing that the +Ellersdeanes had got home on Saturday, put the jewels in his pocket and +started out to Ellersdeane with them. I know the exact path he'd have +taken in that case, and I thought of following it this evening--one +might come across something, or hear something, you know." + +"Take me with you, as soon as we've had dinner," she said. "It'll be a +beginning. I mean to turn this neighbourhood upside down for +news--you'll see. Some person or persons must have seen my uncle on +Saturday night!--a man can't disappear like that. It's impossible!" + +"Um!--but men do disappear," remarked Neale. "What I'm hoping is that +there'll eventually--and quickly--be some explanation of this +disappearance, and that Mr. Horbury hasn't met with--shall I put it +plainly?" + +"You'd better put anything plainly to me," she answered. "I don't +understand other methods." + +"It's possible he may have been murdered, you know," said Neale quietly. + +Betty got up from her chair and went over to the window to look out on +the Market-Place. She stood there some time in silence. + +"It shall be a bad job for any man who murdered him if that is so," she +said at last. "I was very fond of my uncle." + +"So was I," said Neale. "But I say--no past tenses yet! Aren't we a bit +previous? He may be all right." + +"Ring the bell and let's hurry up that dinner," she commanded. "I didn't +make it clear that we want it as early as possible. I want to get out, +and to see where he went--I want to do something active!" + +But Miss Betty Fosdyke was obliged to adapt herself to the somewhat +leisurely procedure of highly respectable country-town hotels, whose +cooks will not be hurried, and it was already dusk, and the moonlight +was beginning to throw shadows of gable and spire over the old +Market-Place, when she and Neale set out on their walk. + +"All the better," said Neale. "This is just about the time that he went +out on Saturday night, and under very similar conditions. Now we'll take +the precise path that he'd have taken if he was on his way to +Ellersdeane." + +He led his companion to a corner of the Market-Place, and down a narrow +alley which terminated on an expanse of open ground at the side of the +river. There he made her pause and look round. + +"Now if we're going to do the thing properly," he said, "just attend, +and take notice of what I point out. The town, as you see, stands on +this ridge above us. Here we are at the foot of the gardens and orchards +which slope down from the backs of the houses on this side of the +Market-Place. There is the gate of the bank-house orchard. According to +Mrs. Carswell, Mr. Horbury came out of that gate on Saturday night. What +did he do then? He could have turned to the left, along this river bank, +or to the right, also along the river bank. But, if he meant to walk out +to Ellersdeane--which he would reach in well under an hour--he would +cross this foot-bridge and enter those woods. That's what we've got to +do." + +He led his companion across a narrow bridge, over a strip of sward at +the other side of the river, and into a grove of fir which presently +deepened and thickened as it spread up a gently shelving hillside. The +lights of the town behind them disappeared; the gloom increased; +presently they were alternately crossing patches of moonlight and +plunging into expanses of blackness. And Betty, after stumbling over one +or two of the half-exposed roots which lay across the rough path, +slipped a hand into Neale's arm. + +"You'll have to play guide, Wallie, unless you wish me to break my +neck," she laughed. "My town eyes aren't accustomed to these depths of +gloom and solitude. And now," she went on, as Neale led her confidently +forward through the wood, "let's talk some business. I want to know +about those two--the Chestermarkes. For I've an uneasy feeling that +there's more in this affair than's on the surface, and I want to know +all about the people I'm dealing with. Just remember--beyond the mere +fact of their existence and having seen them once or twice, years ago, I +don't know anything about them. What sort of men are they--as +individuals?" + +"Queer!" replied Neale. "They're both queer. I don't know much about +them. Nobody does. They're all right as business men, much respected and +all that, you know. But as private individuals they're decidedly odd. +They're both old bachelors, at least Gabriel's an old one, and Joseph is +a youngish one. They live sort of hermit lives, as far as one can make +out. Gabriel lives at the old house which I'll show you when we get out +of this wood--you'll see the roofs, anyhow, in this moonlight. Joseph +lives in another old house, but in the town, at the end of Cornmarket. +What they do with themselves at home, Heaven knows! They don't go into +such society as there is; they take no part in the town's affairs. +There's a very good club here for men of their class--they don't belong +to it. You can't get either of 'em to attend a meeting--they keep aloof +from everything. But they both go up to London a great deal--they're +always going. But they never go together--when Gabriel's away, Joseph's +at home; when Joseph's off, Gabriel's on show. There's always one Mr. +Chestermarke to be found at the bank. All the same, Mr. Horbury was the +man who did all the business with customers in the ordinary way. So far +as I know banking," concluded Neale, "I should say he was trusted and +confided in more than most bank managers are." + +"Did they seem very much astonished when they found he'd gone?" asked +Betty. "Did it seem a great shock, a real surprise?" + +"The cleverest man living couldn't tell what either Gabriel or Joseph +Chestermarke thinks about anything," answered Neale. "You know what +Gabriel's face is like--a stone image! And Joseph always looks as if he +was sneering at you, a sort of soft, smiling sneer. No, I couldn't say +they showed surprise, and I don't know what they've found out--they're +the closest, most reserved men about their own affairs that you could +imagine!" + +"But--they say some of their securities are missing," remarked Betty. +"They'll have to let the exact details be known, won't they?" + +"Depends--on them," replied Neale. "They'll only do what they like. And +they don't love you for coming on the scene, I assure you!" + +"But I'm here, nevertheless!" said Betty. "And here I stop! Wallie, +haven't you got even a bit of a theory about all this!" + +"Can't say that I have!" confessed Neale woefully. "I'm not a very +brilliant hand at thinking. The only thing I can think of is that Mr. +Horbury, knowing Lord Ellersdeane had got home on Saturday, thought +he'd hand back those jewels as soon as possible, and set off in the +evening with that intention--possibly to be robbed and murdered on the +way. Sounds horrible--but honestly I can't think of any other theory." + +Betty involuntarily shivered and glanced about her at the dark cavernous +spaces of the wood, which had now thickened into dense masses of oak and +beech. She took a firmer grip of Neale's arm. + +"And he'd come through here!" she exclaimed. "How dangerous!--with those +things in his pocket!" + +"Oh, but he'd think nothing of it!" answered Neale. "He was used to +walking at night--he knew every yard of this neighbourhood. Besides, +he'd know very well that nobody would know what he had on him. What I'd +like to know is--supposing my theory's right, and that he was taking +these jewels to Ellersdeane, how did anybody get to know that he had +them? For the Chestermarkes didn't know they'd been given to him, and I +didn't--nobody at the bank knew." + +A sudden turn in the path brought them to the edge of the wood, and they +emerged on a broad plateau of rough grass, from beneath which a wide +expanse of landscape stretched away, bathed just then in floods of +moonlight. Neale paused and waved his stick towards the shadowy +distances and over the low levels which lay between. + +"Ellersdeane Hollow!" he said. + +Betty paused too, looking silently around. She saw an undulating, broken +stretch of country, half-heath, half-covert, covering a square mile or +so of land, houseless, solitary. In its midst rose a curiously shaped +eminence or promontory, at the highest point of which some ruin or other +lifted gaunt, shapeless walls against the moonlit sky. Far down beneath +it, in a depression amongst the heath-clad undulations, a fire glowed +red in the gloom. And on the further side of this solitude, amidst +groves and plantations, the moonlight shone on the roofs and gables of +half-hidden houses. Over everything hung a deep silence. + +"A wild and lonely scene!" she said. + +Neale raised his stick again and began to point. + +"All this in front of us is called Ellersdeane Hollow," he remarked. +"It's not just one depression, you see--it's a tract of unenclosed land. +It's dangerous to cross, except by the paths--it's honeycombed all over +with disused lead-mines--some of the old shafts are a tremendous depth. +All the same, you see, there's some tinker chap, or some gipsies, camped +out down there and got a fire. That old ruin, up on the crag there, is +called Ellersdeane Tower--one of Lord Ellersdeane's ancestors built it +for an observatory--this path'll lead us right beneath it." + +"Is this the path he would have taken if he'd gone to Ellersdeane on +Saturday night?" asked Betty. + +"Precisely--straight ahead, past the Tower," answered Neale. "And there +is Ellersdeane itself, right away in the distance, amongst its trees. +There!--where the moonlight catches it. Now let your eye follow that far +line of wood, over the tops of the trees about Ellersdeane village--do +you see where the moonlight shines on another high roof? That's Gabriel +Chestermarke's place--the Warren." + +"So--he and Lord Ellersdeane are neighbours!" remarked Betty. + +"Neighbours at a distance of a mile--and who do no more than nod to each +other," answered Neale. "Lord Ellersdeane and Mr. Horbury were what you +might call friends, but I don't believe his lordship ever spoke ten +words with either of the Chestermarkes until this morning. I tell you +the Chestermarkes are regular hermits!--when they're at home or about +Scarnham, anyhow. Now let's go as far as the Tower--you can see all over +the country from that point." + +Betty followed her guide down a narrow path which led in and out through +the undulations of the Hollow until it reached the foot of the +promontory on which stood the old ruin that made such a prominent +landmark. Seen at close quarters Ellersdeane Tower was a place of much +greater size and proportion than it had appeared from the edge of the +wood, and the path to its base was steep and rocky. And here the +loneliness in which she and Neale had so far walked came to an end--on +the edge of the promontory, outlined against the moonlit sky, two men +stood, talking in low tones. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TRAVELLING TINKER + + +Neale's eye caught the gleam of silver braid on the clothing of one of +the two men, and he hastened his steps a little as he and Betty emerged +on the level ground at the top of the steep path. + +"That's a policeman," he said. "It'll be the constable from Ellersdeane. +The other man looks like a gamekeeper. Let's see if they've heard +anything." + +The two figures turned at the sound of footsteps, and came slowly in +Neale's direction. Both recognized him and touched their hats. + +"I suppose you're looking round in search of anything about Mr. +Horbury?" suggested Neale. "Heard any news or found any trace?" + +"Well, we're what you might call taking a preliminary observation, Mr. +Neale," answered the policeman. "His lordship's sent men out all over +the neighbourhood. No, we've heard nothing, nor seen anything, either. +But, then, there's not much chance of hearing anything hereabouts. The +others have gone round asking at houses, and such-like--to find out if +he was seen to pass anywhere. Of course, his lordship was figuring on +the chance that Mr. Horbury might have had a fit, or something of that +sort, and fallen somewhere along this path, between the town and +Ellersdeane House--it's not much followed, this path. But we've seen +nothing--up to now." + +Neale turned to the keeper. + +"Were none of your people about here on Saturday night?" he asked. +"You've a good many watchers on the estate, haven't you?" + +"Yes, sir--a dozen or more," answered the keeper. "But we don't come +this way--this isn't our land. Our beats lie the other way--t'other side +of the village. We never come on to this part at all." + +"This, you know, Mr. Neale," remarked the policeman, jerking his thumb +over the Hollow, "this, in a manner of speaking, belongs to nobody. Some +say it belongs to the Crown--I don't know. All I know is that nobody has +any rights over it--it's been what you might term common land ever since +anybody can remember. This here Mr. Horbury that's missing--your +governor, sir--I once met him out here, and had a bit of talk with him, +and he told me that it isn't even known who worked them old lead-mines +down there, nor who has any rights over all this waste. That, of +course," concluded the policeman, pointing to the glowing fire which +Neale and Betty had seen from the edge of the wood, "that's why chaps +like yonder man come and camp here just as they like--there's nobody to +stop 'em." + +"Who is the man?" asked Neale, glancing at the fire, whose flames made a +red spot amongst the bushes. + +"Most likely a travelling tinker chap, sir, that comes this way now and +again," answered the policeman. "Name of Creasy--Tinner Creasy, the +folks call him. He's come here for many a year, at odd times. Camps out +with his pony and cart, and goes round the villages and farmsteads, +seeing if there's aught to mend, and selling 'em pots and pans and +such-like. Stops a week or two--sometimes longer." + +"And poaches all he can lay hands on," added the gamekeeper. "Only he +takes good care never to go off this Hollow to do it." + +"Have you made any inquiry of him?" asked Neale. + +"We were just thinking of doing that, sir," replied the policeman. "He +roams up and down about here at nights, when he is here. But I don't +know how long he's been camping this time--it's very seldom I ever come +round this way myself--there's naught to come for." + +"Let's go across there and speak to him," said Neale. + +He and Betty followed the two men down the side of the promontory and +across the ups and downs of the Hollow, until they came to a deeper +depression fringed about by a natural palisading of hawthorn. And as +they drew near and could see into the dingle-like recess which the +tinker had selected for his camping-ground they became aware of a +savoury and appetizing odour, and the gamekeeper laughed. + +"Cooking his supper, is Tinner Creasy!" he remarked. "And good stuff he +has in his pot, too!" + +The tinker, now in full view, sat on a log near a tripod, beneath which +crackled a bright fire, burning under a black pot. The leaping flames +revealed a shrewd, weather-beaten face which turned sharply towards the +bushes as the visitors appeared; they also lighted up the tinker's cart +in the background, the browsing pony close by, the implements of the +tinner's trade strewn around on the grass. It was an alluring picture of +vagabond life, and Neale suddenly compared it with the dull existence of +folk who, like himself, were chained to a desk. He would have liked to +sit down by Tinner Creasy and ask him about his doings--but the +policeman had less poetical ideas. + +"Hullo, Tinner!" said he, with easy familiarity. "Here again, what? I +thought we should be seeing your fire some night this spring. Been here +long?" + +The tinker, who had remained seated on his log until he saw that a lady +was of the party, rose and touched the edge of his fur cap to Betty in a +way which indicated that his politeness was entirely for her. + +"Since yesterday," he answered laconically. + +"Only since yesterday!" exclaimed the policeman. "Ah! that's a pity, +now. You wasn't here Saturday night, then?" + +The tinker turned a quizzical eye on the four inquiring faces. + +"How would I be here Saturday night when I only came yesterday?" he +retorted. "You're the sort of chap that wants two answers to one +question! What about Saturday night?" + +The policeman took off his helmet and rubbed the top of his head as if +to encourage his faculties. + +"Nay!" he said. "There's a gentleman missing from Scarnham yonder, and +it's thought he came out this way after dark, Saturday night, and +something happened. But, of course, if you wasn't in these parts +then----" + +"I wasn't, nor within ten miles of 'em," said Creasy. "Who is the +gentleman?" + +"Mr. Horbury, the bank manager," answered the policeman. + +"I know Mr. Horbury," remarked Creasy, with a glance at Neale and Betty. +"I've talked to him a hundred-and-one times on this waste. So it's him, +is it? Well, there's one thing you can be certain about." + +"What?" asked Betty eagerly. + +"Mr. Horbury wouldn't happen aught by accident, hereabouts," answered +the tinker significantly. "He knew every inch of this Hollow. Some +folks, now, might take a header into one o' them old lead-mines. He +wouldn't. He could ha' gone blind-fold over this spot." + +"Well--he's disappeared," observed the policeman. "There's a search +being made, all round. You heard naught last night, I suppose?" + +Creasy gave Neale and Betty a look. + +"Heard plenty of owls, and night-jars, and such-like," he answered, "and +foxes, and weasels, and stoats, and beetles creeping in the grass. +Naught human!" + +The policeman resumed his helmet and sniffed audibly. He and the keeper +moved away and talked together. Then the policeman turned to Neale. + +"Well, we'll be getting back to the village, sir," he said. "If so be as +you see our super, Mr. Neale, you might mention that we're out and +about." + +He and his companion went off by a different path; at the top of a rise +in the ground the policeman turned again. + +"Tinner!" he called. + +"Hullo?" answered Creasy. + +"If you should hear or find aught," said the policeman, "come to me, you +know." + +"All right!" assented Creasy. He picked up some wood and replenished his +fire. And glancing at Neale and Betty, who still lingered, he let fall a +muttered whisper under his breath. "Bide a bit--till those chaps have +gone," he said. "I've a word or two." + +He walked away to his cart after this mysterious communication, dived +under its tilt, evidently felt for and found something, and came back, +glancing over his shoulder to see that keeper and policeman had gone +their ways. + +"I never tell chaps of that sort anything, mister," he said, giving +Neale a sly wink. "Them of my turn of life look on all gamekeepers and +policemen as their natural enemies. They'd both of 'em turn me out o' +this if they could!--only they know they can't. For some reason or other +Ellersdeane Hollow is No Man's Land--and therefore mine. And so--I +wasn't going to say anything to them--not me!" + +"Then there is something you can say?" said Neale. + +"You were here on Saturday!" exclaimed Betty. "You know something!" + +"No, miss, I wasn't here Saturday," answered the tinker, "and I don't +know anything--about what yon man asked, anyway--I told him the truth +about all that. But--you say Mr. Horbury's missing, and that he's +considered to have come this way on Saturday night. So--do either of you +know that?" + +He drew his right hand from behind him, and in the glare of the +firelight showed them, lying across its palm, a briar tobacco-pipe, +silver-mounted. + +"I found that, last night, gathering dry sticks," he said. "It's letters +engraved on the silver band--'J. H. from B. F.' 'J. H.' now?--does that +mean John Horbury?--you see, I know his Christian name." + +Betty uttered a sharp exclamation and took the pipe in her hand. She +turned to Neale with a look of sudden fear. + +"It's the pipe I gave my uncle last Christmas!" she said. "Of course I +know it! Where did you find it?" she went on, turning on Creasy. "Do +tell us--do show us!" + +"Foot of the crag there, miss--right beneath the old tower," answered +Creasy. "And it's just as I found it. I'll give it to you, sir, to take +to Superintendent Polke in Scarnham--he knows me. But just let me point +something out. I ain't a detective, but in my eight-and-forty years I've +had to keep my wits sharpened and my eyes open. Point out to Polke, and +notice yourself--that whenever that pipe was dropped it was being +smoked! The tobacco's caked at the surface--just as it would be if the +pipe had been laid down at the very time the tobacco was burning +well--if you're a smoker you'll know what I mean. That's one thing. The +other is--just observe that the silver band is quite bright and fresh, +and that there are no stains on the briar-wood. What's that indicate, +young lady and young gentleman? Why, that that pipe hadn't been lying so +very long when I found it! Not above a day, I'll warrant." + +"That's very clever of you, very observant!" exclaimed Betty. +"But--won't you show us the exact place where you picked it up?" + +Creasy cast a glance at his cooking pot, stepped to it, and slightly +tilted the lid. Then he signed to them to go back towards the tower by +the path by which they had come. + +"Don't want my supper to boil over, or to burn," he remarked. "It's the +only decent meal I get in the day, you see, miss. But it won't take a +minute to show you where I found the pipe. Now--what's the idea, sir," +he went on, turning to Neale, "about Mr. Horbury's disappearance? Is it +known that he came out here Saturday night?" + +"Not definitely," replied Neale. "But it's believed he did. He was seen +to set off in this direction, and there's a probability that he crossed +over here on his way to Ellersdeane. But he's never been seen since he +left Scarnham." + +"Well," observed Creasy, "as I said just now, he wouldn't happen +anything by accident in an ordinary way. Was there any reason why +anybody should set on him?" + +"There may have been," replied Neal. + +"He wouldn't be likely to have aught valuable on him, surely--that time +o' night?" said the tinker. + +"He may have had," admitted Neale. "I can't tell you more." + +Creasy asked no farther question. He led the way to the foot of the +promontory, at a point where a mass of rock rose sheer out of the hollow +to the plateau crowned by the ruinous tower. + +"Here's where I picked up the pipe," he said. "Lying amongst this +rubbish--stones and dry wood, you see--I just caught the gleam of the +silver band. Now what should Mr. Horbury be doing down here? The path, +you see, is a good thirty yards off. But--he may have fallen over--or +been thrown over--and it's a sixty-feet drop from top to bottom." + +Neale and Betty looked up the face of the rocks and said nothing. And +Creasy presently went on, speaking in a low voice:-- + +"If he met with foul play--if, for instance, he was thrown over here in +a struggle--or if, taking a look from the top there, he got too near the +edge and something gave way," he said, "there's about as good means of +getting rid of a dead man in this Ellersdeane Hollow as in any place in +England! That's a fact!" + +"You mean the lead-mines?" murmured Neale. + +"Right, sir! Do you know how many of these old workings there is?" +asked Creasy. "There's between fifty and sixty within a square mile of +this tower. Some's fenced in--most isn't. Some of their mouths are grown +over with bramble and bracken. And all of 'em are of tremendous depth. A +man could be thrown down one of those mines, sir, and it 'ud be a long +job finding his body! But all that's very frightening to the lady, and +we'll hope nothing of it happened. Still----" + +"It has to be faced," said Betty. "Listen--I am Mr. Horbury's niece, and +I'm offering a reward for news of him. Will you keep your eyes and ears +open while you're in this neighbourhood?" + +The tinker promised that he would do his best, and presently he went +back to his fire, while Neale and Betty turned away towards the town. +Neither spoke until they were half-way through the wood; then Betty +uttered her fears in a question. + +"Do you think the finding of that pipe shows he was--there?" she asked. + +"I'm sure of it," replied Neale. "I wish I wasn't. But--I saw him with +this pipe in his lips at two o'clock on Saturday! I recognized it at +once." + +"Let's hurry on and see the police," said Betty. "We know something now, +at any rate." + +Polke, they were told at the police-station, was in his private house +close by: a polite constable conducted them thither. And presently they +were shown into the superintendent's dining-room, where Polke, +hospitably intent, was mixing a drink for a stranger. The stranger, +evidently just in from a journey, rose and bowed, and Polke waved his +hand at him with a smile, as he looked at the two young people. + +"Here's your man, miss!" said Polke cheerily. "Allow +me--Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, of the Criminal Investigation +Department." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SATURDAY NIGHT STRANGER + + +Neale, who had never seen a real, live detective in the flesh, but who +cherished something of a passion for reading sensational fiction and the +reports of criminal cases in the weekly newspapers, looked at the man +from New Scotland Yard with a feeling of surprise. He knew +Detective-Sergeant Starmidge well enough by name and reputation. He was +the man who had unravelled the mysteries of the Primrose Hill murder--a +particularly exciting and underground affair. It was he who had been +intimately associated with the bringing to justice of the Camden Town +Gang--a group of daring and successful criminals which had baffled the +London police for two years. Neale had read all about Starmidge's +activities in both cases, and of the hairbreadth escape he had gone +through in connection with the second. And he had formed an idea of +him--which he now saw to be a totally erroneous one. For Starmidge did +not look at all like a detective--in Neale's opinion. Instead of being +elderly, and sinister, and close of eye and mouth, he was a somewhat +shy-looking, open-faced, fresh-coloured young man, still under thirty, +modest of demeanour, given to smiling, who might from his general +appearance have been, say, a professional cricketer, or a young +commercial traveller, or anything but an expert criminal catcher. + +"Only just got here, and a bit tired, miss," continued Polke, waving his +hand again at the detective. "So I'm just giving him a refresher to +liven his brains up. He'll want 'em--before we've done." + +Betty took the chair which Polke offered her, and looked at the stranger +with interest. She knew nothing about Starmidge, and she thought him +quite different to any preconceived notion which she had ever had of men +of his calling. + +"I hope you'll be able to help us," she said politely, as Starmidge, +murmuring something about his best respects to his host, took a +whisky-and-soda from Polke's hand. "Do you think you will--and has Mr. +Polke told you all about it?" + +"Given him a mere outline, miss," remarked Polke. "I'll prime him before +he goes to bed. Yes--he knows the main facts." + +"And what do you propose to do--first?" demanded Betty. + +Starmidge smiled and set down his glass. + +"Why, first," he answered, "first, I think I should like to see a +photograph of Mr. Horbury." + +Polke moved to a bureau in the corner of his dining-room. + +"I can fit you up," he said. "I've a portrait here that Mr. Horbury gave +me not so long ago. There you are!" + +He produced a cabinet photograph and handed it to Starmidge, who looked +at it and laid it down on the table without comment. + +"I suppose that conveys nothing to you?" asked Betty. + +"Well," replied Starmidge, with another smile, "if a man's missing, one +naturally wants to know what he's like. And if there's any advertising +of him to be done--by poster, I mean--it ought to have a recent portrait +of him." + +"To be sure," agreed Polke. + +"So far as I understand matters," continued Starmidge, "this gentleman +left his house on Saturday evening, hasn't been seen since, and there's +an idea that he probably walked across country to a place called +Ellersdeane. But up to now there's no proof that he did. I think that's +all, Mr. Polke?" + +"All!" assented Polke. + +"No!" said Neale. "Miss Fosdyke and I have brought you some news. Mr. +Horbury must have crossed Ellersdeane Hollow on Saturday night. Look at +this!--and I'll tell you all about it." + +The superintendent and the detective listened silently to Neale's +account of the meeting with Creasy, and Betty, watching Starmidge's +face, saw that he was quietly taking in all the points of importance. + +"Is this tin-man to be depended upon?" he asked, when Neale had +finished. "Is he known?" + +"I know him," answered Polke. "He's come to this neighbourhood for many +years. Yes--an honest chap enough--bit given to poaching, no doubt, but +straight enough in all other ways--no complaint of him that I ever heard +of. I should believe all he says about this." + +"Then, as that's undoubtedly Mr. Horbury's pipe, and as this gentleman +saw him smoking it at two o'clock on Saturday, and as Creasy picked it +up underneath Ellersdeane Tower on Sunday evening," said Starmidge, +"there seems no doubt that Mr. Horbury went that way, and dropped it +where it was found. But--I can't think he was carrying Lord +Ellersdeane's jewels home!" + +"Why?" asked Neale. + +"Is it likely?" suggested Starmidge. "One's got--always--to consider +probability. Is it probable that a bank manager would put a hundred +thousand pounds' worth of jewels in his pocket, and walk across a lonely +stretch of land at that time of night, just to hand them over to their +owner? I think not--especially as he hadn't been asked to do so. I think +that if Mr. Horbury had been in a hurry to deliver up these jewels, he'd +have driven out to Lord Ellersdeane's place." + +"Good!" muttered Polke. "That's the more probable thing." + +"Where are the jewels, then?" asked Neale. + +Starmidge glanced at Polke with one expression, at Betty and Neale with +another. + +"They haven't been searched for yet, have they?" he asked quietly. "They +may be--somewhere about, you know." + +"You mean to search for them?" exclaimed Betty. + +"I don't know what I intend to do," replied Starmidge, smiling. "I +haven't even thought. I shall have thought a lot by morning. But--the +country's being searched, isn't it, for news of Mr. Horbury?--perhaps +we'll hear something. It's a difficult thing for a well-known man to get +clear away from a little place like this. No!--what I'd like to +know--what I want to satisfy myself about is--did Mr. Horbury go away at +all? Is there really anything missing from the bank? Are those jewels +really missing? You see," concluded Starmidge, looking round his circle +of listeners, "there's an awful lot to take into account." + +At that moment Polke's domestic servant tapped at the door and put her +head inside the room. + +"If you please, Mr. Polke, there's Mrs. Pratt, from the Station Hotel, +would like a word with you," she said. + +The superintendent hurried from the room--to return at once with a +stout, middle-aged woman, who, as she entered, raised her veil and +glanced half-suspiciously at Polke's other visitors. + +"All friends here, Mrs. Pratt," said the superintendent reassuringly. +"You know young Mr. Neale well enough. This lady is Mr. Horbury's +niece--anxious to find him. That gentleman's a friend of mine--you can +say aught you like before him. Well, ma'am!--you think you can tell me +something about this affair? What might it be, now?" + +Mrs. Pratt, taking the chair which Starmidge placed for her at the end +of the table, nodded a general greeting to the company, and lifting her +veil and untying her bonnet-strings, revealed a good-natured +countenance. + +"Well, Mr. Polke," she said, turning to the superintendent, "taking your +word for it that we're all friends--me being pretty sure, all the same, +that this gentleman's one of your own profession, which I don't object +to--I'll tell you what it is I've come up for, special, as it were, and +me not waiting until after closing-time to do it. But that town-crier's +been down our way, and hearing him making his call between our house and +the station, and learning what it was all about, thinks I to myself, +'I'd best go up and see the super and tell him what I know.' And," +concluded Mrs. Pratt, beaming around her, "here I am!" + +"Ay--and what do you know, ma'am?" asked Polke. "Something, of course." + +"Or I shouldn't be here," agreed Mrs. Pratt, smoothing out a fold of her +gown. "Well--Saturday afternoon, the time being not so many minutes +after the 5.30 got in, and therefore you might say at the outside twenty +minutes to six, a strange gentleman walked across from the station to +our hotel, which is, as you're all well aware, exactly opposite. I +happened to be in the bar-parlour window at the time, and I saw him +crossing--saw, likewise, from the way he looked about him, and up at the +town above us, that he'd never been in Scarnham before. And happen I'd +best tell you what like he was, while the recollection's fresh in my +mind--a little gentleman he was, very well dressed in what you might +call the professional style; dark clothes and so forth, and a silk +top-hat; I should say about fifty years of age, with a fresh complexion +and a biggish grey moustache and a nicely rolled umbrella--quite the +little swell he was. He made for our door, and I went to the bar-window +to attend to him. He wanted to know if he could get some food, and I +said of course he could--we'd some uncommon nice chops in the house. So +he ordered three chops and setterers--and then he asked if we'd a +telephone in the house, and could he use it. And, of course, I told him +we had, and showed him where it was--after which he wanted a local +directory, and I gave him Scammond's Guide. He turned that over a bit, +and then, when he'd found what he wanted, he went to our telephone +box--which, as you're well aware, Mr. Polke, is in our front hall. And +into it he popped." + +Mrs. Pratt paused a moment, and gave her listeners a knowing look, as if +she was now about to narrate the most important part of her story. + +"But what you mayn't be aware of, Mr. Polke," she continued, "is that +our telephone box, which has glass panels in its upper parts, has at +this present time one of these panels broken--our pot-man did it, +carrying a plank through the hall. So that any one passing to and fro, +as it were, when anybody's using the telephone, can't help hearing a +word or two of what's being said inside. Now, of course, I was passing +in and out, giving orders for this gentleman's chops, when he was in the +box. And I heard a bit of what he said, though I didn't, naturally, hear +aught of what was said to him, nor who by. But it's in consequence of +what I did hear, and of what Tolson, the town-crier, has been shouting +down our way tonight, that I come up here to see you." + +"Much obliged to you, Mrs. Pratt," said Polke. "Very glad to hear +anything that may have to do with Mr. Horbury's disappearance. Now, +what did you hear?" + +"What I heard," replied the landlady, "was this here--disjointed, as you +would term it. First of all I hear the gentleman ask for 'Town 23.' Now, +of course, you know whose number that there is, Mr. Polke." + +"Chestermarke's Bank," said Neale, turning to Betty. + +"Chestermarke's Bank it is, sir," assented Mrs. Pratt. "Which you know +very well, as also do I, having oft called it up. Very well--I didn't +hear no more just then, me going into the dining-room to see that our +maid laid the table proper. But when I was going back to the bar, I +heard more. 'Along the river-side?' says the gentleman, 'Straight on +from where I am--all right.' Then after a minute, 'At seven-thirty, +then?' he says. 'All right--I'll meet you.' And after that he rings +off--and he went into the dining-room, and in due course he had his +chops, and some tart and cheese, and a pint of our bitter ale, and took +his time, and perhaps about a quarter past seven he came to the bar and +paid, and he took a drop of Scotch whisky. After which he says, 'It's +very possible, landlady, that I may have to stop in the town all +night--have you a nice room that you can let me?' 'Certainly, sir,' says +I. 'We've very good rooms, and bathrooms, and every convenience--shall I +show you one?' 'No,' says he, 'this seems a good house, and I'll take +your word for it--keep your best room for me, then.' And after that he +lighted a cigar and went out, saying he'd be back later, and he crossed +the road and went down on the river-bank, and walked slowly along +towards the bottom of the town. And Mr. Polke and company," concluded +Mrs. Pratt, solemnly turning from one listener to another, "that was the +last I saw of him. For--he never came back!" + +"Never came back!" echoed Polke. + +"Not even the ghost of him!" said Mrs. Pratt. "I waited up myself till +twelve, and then I decided that he'd changed his mind and was stopping +with somebody he knew, which person, Mr. Polke, I took to be Mr. +Horbury. Why? 'Cause he'd rung up Chestermarke's Bank--and who should he +want at Chestermarke's Bank at six o'clock of a Saturday evening but Mr. +Horbury? There wouldn't be nobody else there--as Mr. Neale'll agree." + +"You never heard of this gentleman being in the town on Sunday or +today?" asked Polke. + +"Not a word!" replied Mrs. Pratt. "And never saw him go to the station, +neither, to leave the town. Now, as you know, Mr. Polke, we've only two +trains go away from here on Sundays, and there's only four on any +week-day, us being naught but a branch line, and as our bar-parlour +window is exactly opposite the station, I see everybody that goes and +comes--I always was one for looking out of window! And I'm sure that +little gentleman didn't go away neither yesterday nor today. And that's +all I know," concluded Mrs. Pratt, rising, "and if it's any use to you, +you're welcome, and hopeful I am that your poor uncle'll be found, Miss, +for a nicer gentleman I could never wish to meet!" + +Mrs. Pratt departed amidst expressions of gratitude and police +admonitions to keep her news to herself for awhile, and Betty and Neale +turned eagerly to the famous detective. But Starmidge appeared to have +entered upon a period of silence, and made no further observation than +that he would wait upon Miss Fosdyke in the morning, and presently the +two young people followed Mrs. Pratt into the street and turned into the +Market-Place. The last of the evening revellers were just coming out of +the closing taverns, and to a group of them, Tolson, the town-crier, was +dismally calling forth his announcement that one hundred pounds reward +would be paid to any person who first gave news of having seen Mr. John +Horbury on the previous Saturday evening or since. The clanging of his +bell, and the strident notes of his cracked voice, sounded in the +distance as Betty said good-night to Neale and turned sadly into the +Scarnham Arms. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NO FURTHER INFORMATION + + +Chestermarke's clerks found no difficulty in obtaining access to the +bank when they presented themselves at its doors at nine o'clock next +morning. Both partners were already there, and appeared to have been +there for some time. And Joseph at once called Neale into the private +parlour, and drew his attention to a large poster which lay on a +side-table, its ink still wet from the printing press. + +"Let Patten put that up in one of the front windows, Neale," he said. +"It's just come in--I gave the copy for it last night. Read it over--I +think it's satisfactory, eh?" + +Neale bent over the big, bold letters, and silently read the +announcement:-- + + "Messrs. Chestermarke, in view of certain unauthorized rumours, now + circulating in the town and neighbourhood, respecting the + disappearance of their late manager, Mr. John Horbury, take the + earliest opportunity of announcing that all Customers' Securities + and Deposits in their hands are safe, and that business will be + conducted in the usual way." + +"That make things clear?" asked Joseph, closely watching his clerk. "To +our clients, I mean?" + +"Quite clear, I should say," replied Neale. + +"Then get it up at once, before opening hours, and save all the bother +of questions," commanded Joseph. "And if people do come asking +questions--as some of them will!--tell them not to bother +themselves--nor us. We don't want to waste our time interviewing fools +all the morning." + +Neale took the poster and went out, with no further remark. And +presently the junior clerk, with the aid of a few wafers, fixed the +announcement in the window which looked out on the Market-Place, and +people began to gather round and to read it, and, after the usual +fashion of country-born folk, then went away to talk about it. In half +an hour it was known in every shop and tavern parlour in Scarnham +Market-Place that despite the town-crier's announcement, and the wild +rumours of the night before, Chestermarke's Bank was all right, and +Chestermarkes were already speaking of Horbury in the past tense--he was +(wherever he might be) no longer the manager of that ancient concern; he +was the late manager. + +At ten o'clock Superintendent Polke, bluff and cheery as usual, and +Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, eyeing his new surroundings with +appreciative curiosity, strolled round the corner from the +police-station and approached the bank. Half a dozen loungers were +gathered before the window, reading the poster; the two police officials +joined them and also read--in silence. Then, with a look at each other, +they turned into the door which Patten had just opened. Neale hurried to +the counter to meet them. + +"Well, Mr. Neale," said Polke, as if he had called on the most ordinary +business, "we'll just have a word with your principals, if they please. +A mere interchange of views, you know: we shan't keep 'em." + +"They don't want bothering," whispered Neale, bending over the counter. +"Shan't I do instead?" + +"No, sir!" answered Polke. "Nothing but principals will do! Here, +Starmidge, give Mr. Neale one of your official cards." + +Neale took the card and disappeared into the parlour, where he laid it +before Gabriel. + +"Mr. Polke is with him, sir," he said. "They say they won't detain you." + +Gabriel tossed the card over to his nephew with a look of inquiry: +Joseph sneered at it, and threw it into a waste-paper basket. + +"Tell them we don't wish to see them," he answered. "We----" + +"Stop a bit!" interrupted Gabriel. "I think perhaps we'd better see +them. We may as well see them, and have done with it. Bring them in, +Neale." + +Polke and Starmidge, presently entering, found themselves coldly +greeted. Gabriel made the slightest inclination of his head, in response +to Polke's salutation and the detective's bow: Joseph pointedly gave no +heed to either. + +"Well?" demanded the senior partner. + +"We've just called, Mr. Chestermarke, to hear if you've anything to say +to us about this matter of Mr. Horbury's," said Polke. "Of course, you +know it's been put in our hands." + +"Not by us!" snapped Gabriel. + +"Quite so, sir, by Lord Ellersdeane, and by Mr. Horbury's niece, Miss +Fosdyke," assented Polke. "The young lady, of course, is naturally +anxious about her uncle's safety, and Lord Ellersdeane is anxious about +the Countess's jewels. And we hear that securities of yours are +missing." + +"We haven't told you so," retorted Gabriel. + +"We haven't even approached you," remarked Joseph. + +"Just so!" agreed Polke. "But, under the circumstances----" + +"We have nothing to say to you, superintendent," interrupted Gabriel. +"We can't help anything that Lord Ellersdeane has done, nor anything +that Miss Fosdyke likes to do. Lord Ellersdeane is not, and never has +been, a customer of ours. Miss Fosdyke acts independently. If they call +you in--as they seem to have done very thoroughly--it's their look out. +We haven't! When we want your assistance, we'll let you know. At +present--we don't." + +He waved one of the white hands towards the door as he spoke, as if to +command withdrawal. But Polke lingered. + +"You don't propose to give the police any information, then, Mr. +Chestermarke?" he asked quietly. + +"At present we don't propose to give any information to anybody whom it +doesn't concern," replied Gabriel. "As regards the mere surface facts of +Mr. John Horbury's disappearance, you know as much as we do." + +"You don't propose to join in any search for him or any attempt to +discover his whereabouts, sir?" inquired Starmidge, speaking for the +first time. + +Gabriel looked up from his paper, and slowly eyed his questioner. + +"What we propose to do is a matter for ourselves," he answered coldly. +"For no one else." + +Starmidge bowed and turned away, and Polke, after hesitating a moment, +said good-morning and followed him from the room. The two men nodded to +Neale and went out into the Market-Place. + +"Well?" said Polke. + +"Queer couple!" remarked Starmidge. + +Polke jerked his thumb at the poster in the bank window. + +"Of course!" he said, "so long as they can satisfy their customers that +all's right so far as they're concerned, we can't get at what is missing +that belongs to the Chestermarkes." + +"There are ways of finding that out," replied Starmidge quietly. + +"What ways, now?" asked Polke. "We can't make 'em tell us their private +affairs. Supposing Horbury has robbed them, they aren't forced to tell +us how much or how little he's robbed 'em of!" + +"All in good time," remarked the detective. "We're only beginning. Let's +go and talk to this Miss Fosdyke a bit. She doesn't mind what money she +spends on this business, you say?" + +"Not if it costs her her last penny!" answered Polke. + +"All right," said Starmidge. "Fosdyke's Entire represents a lot of +pennies. We'll just have a word or two with her." + +Betty, looking out of her window on the Market-Place, had seen the two +men leave Chestermarke's Bank, and was waiting eagerly for their coming. +She listened intently to Polke's account of the interview with the +partners, and her cheeks glowed indignantly as he brought it to an end. + +"Shameful!" she exclaimed. "To make accusations against my uncle, and +then to refuse to say what they are! But--can't you make them say?" + +"We'll try, in good time," answered Starmidge. "Slow and steady's the +game here. For, whatever it is, it's a deep game." + +"Nothing has been heard since I saw you last night?" asked Betty +anxiously. "No one has brought you any news?" + +"No news of any sort, miss," replied Polke. + +"What's to be done, then, next?" she inquired, looking from one to the +other. "Do let us do something!" + +"Oh, we'll do a lot, Miss Fosdyke, before the day's out," said Starmidge +reassuringly. "I'm going to work just now. Now, the first thing is, +publicity! We must have all this in the newspapers at once." He turned +to the superintendent. "I suppose there's some journalist here in the +town who sends news to the London press, isn't there?" he asked. + +"Parkinson, editor of the 'Scarnham Advertiser,' he does," replied +Polke, with promptitude. "He's a sort of reporter-editor, you +understand, and jolly glad of a bit of extra stuff." + +"That's the first thing," said Starmidge. "The next, we must have a +reward bill printed immediately, and circulated broadcast. It must have +a portrait on it--I'll take that photograph you showed me last night. +And--we'll have to offer a specific reward in each. How much is it to +be, Miss Fosdyke? For you'll have to pay it, you know." + +"Anything you like!" said Betty eagerly. "A thousand pounds?--would that +do, to begin with." + +"We'll say half of it," answered Starmidge. "Very good. Now, Mr. Polke, +if you'll tell me where this Mr. Parkinson's to be found, and where the +best printing office in the place is, I'll go to work." + +"Scammonds are the best printers--and they're quick," said Polke. "But +I'll come with you." + +"Is there anything I can do?" asked Betty. "If I could only be doing +something!" + +Starmidge nodded his comprehension and mused a while. + +"Just so!" he said. "You don't want to sit and wait. Well, there is +something you might do, Miss Fosdyke, as you're Mr. Horbury's niece. Mr. +Polke's been telling me about Mr. Horbury's household arrangements. Now, +as you are a relation, suppose you call on his housekeeper, who was the +last person to see him, and get all the information you can out of her? +Draw her on to talk--you never know what interesting point you mayn't +get in that way. And--are you Mr. Horbury's nearest relation?" + +"Yes--the very nearest--next-of-kin," answered Betty. + +"Then ask to see his papers--his desk--his private belongings," said +Starmidge. "Demand to see them! You've the legal right. And let us +know--you'll always find me somewhere about Mr. Polke's--how you get +on. Now, superintendent, we'll get to work." + +Outside the Scarnham Arms, Starmidge looked at his companion with a sly +smile. + +"Are you anything of a betting man?" he asked. + +"Naught much--odd half-crown now and then," replied Polke. "Why?" + +"Lay you a fiver to a shilling Miss Fosdyke won't see anything of +Horbury's--nor get any information!" answered Starmidge, more slyly than +ever. "She won't be allowed!" + +Polke gave the detective a shrewd look. + +"I dare say!" he said. "Whew!--it's a queer game, this, Starmidge. First +moves of it, anyway." + +"Let's get on to the next," counselled Starmidge. "Where's this +journalist?" + +Mr. Parkinson, a high-browed, shock-headed young man, who combined the +duties of editor and reporter with those of advertisement canvasser and +business manager of the one four-page sheet which Scarnham boasted, +received the two police officials in a small office in which there was +just room for himself and his visitors to squeeze themselves. + +"I was about coming round to you, Mr. Polke," he said. "Can you let me +have the facts of this Horbury affair?" + +"We've come to save you the trouble," answered Polke. "This +gentleman--Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, of the C.I.D., Mr. +Parkinson--wants to have a bit of a transaction with you." + +Parkinson eyed the famous detective with as much wonder as Neale had +felt on the previous evening. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Pleased to meet you, sir--I've heard of you. What +can I do for you, Mr. Starmidge?" + +"Can you wire--at our expense--a full account of all that I shall tell +you, to a London Press agency that'll distribute it amongst all the +London papers at once?" asked Starmidge. "You know what I mean?" + +"I can," answered Parkinson. "And principal provincials, too. It'll be +in all the evening papers this very night, sir." + +"Then come on," said Starmidge, dropping into a chair by the editorial +desk. "I'll tell you all about it." + +Polke listened admiringly while the detective carefully narrated the +facts of what was henceforth to be known as the Scarnham Mystery. +Nothing appeared to have escaped Starmidge's observation and attention. +And he was surprised to find that the detective's presentation of the +case was not that which he himself would have made. Starmidge did no +more than refer to the fact that Lady Ellersdeane's jewels were missing: +he said nothing whatever about the rumours that some of Chestermarke's +securities were said to have disappeared. But on one point he laid great +stress--the visit of the little gentleman with the large grey moustache +to the Station Hotel at Scarnham on the evening whereon John Horbury +disappeared, and to the fragments of conversation overheard by Mrs. +Pratt. He described the stranger as Mrs. Pratt had described him, and +appealed to him, if he read this news, to come forward at once. Finally, +he supplemented his account with a full description of John Horbury, +carefully furnished by the united efforts of Polke and Parkinson, and +wound up by announcing the five hundred pounds reward. + +"All over England, tonight, and tomorrow morning, sir," said Parkinson, +gathering up his copy. "Now I'm off to wire this at once. Great engine +the Press, Mr. Starmidge!--I dare say you find it very useful in your +walk of life." + +Starmidge followed Polke into the Market-Place again. + +"Now for that reward bill," he said. "I don't set so much store by it, +but it's got to be done. It all helps. There's Miss Fosdyke--going to +have a try at her bit." + +He pointed down the broad pavement with an amused smile. Miss Betty +Fosdyke, attired in her smartest, was just entering the portals of +Chestermarke's Bank. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CHESTERMARKE WAY + + +Mrs. Carswell herself opened the door of the bank-house in response to +Miss Fosdyke's ring. She started a little at sight of the visitor, and +her eyes glanced involuntarily and, as it seemed to Betty, with +something of uneasiness, at the side-door which led into the +Chestermarkes' private parlour. And Betty immediately interpreted the +meaning of that glance. + +"No, Mrs. Carswell," she said, before the housekeeper could speak, "I +haven't come to call on either Mr. Gabriel or Mr. Joseph Chestermarke--I +came to see you. Mayn't I come in?" + +Mrs. Carswell stepped back into the hall, and Betty followed. For a +moment the two looked at each other. And in the elder woman's eyes there +was still the same expression, and it was with obvious uncertainty, if +not with positive suspicion, that she waited. + +"You have not heard anything of Mr. Horbury?" asked Betty, who was not +slow to notice the housekeeper's demeanour. + +"Nothing!" replied Mrs. Carswell, with a shake of the head. "Nothing at +all! No one has told me anything." + +Betty turned to the door of the dining-room. + +"Very well," she said. "I dare say you know, Mrs. Carswell, that I am +my uncle's nearest relation. Now I want to go through his papers and +things. I want to see his desk--his last letters--anything--and +everything there is." + +She laid a hand on the door--and Mrs. Carswell suddenly found her +tongue. + +"Oh, miss!" she said, in a low, frightened voice, "you can't! That +room's locked up. So is the study--where all Mr. Horbury's papers are. +So is his bedroom. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke locked them all up last +night--he has the keys. Nobody's to go into them--nor into any other +room--without his permission." + +Betty's cheeks began to glow, and an obstinate look to settle about her +lips. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed. "But I think I shall have something to say to that, +Mrs. Carswell. Ask Mr. Joseph Chestermarke to come here a minute." + +The housekeeper shrunk back. + +"I daren't, Miss Fosdyke!" she answered. "It would be as much as my +place was worth!" + +"I thought you were my uncle's housekeeper," suggested Betty. "Aren't +you? Or are you employed by Mr. Joseph Chestermarke? Come, now?" + +Mrs. Carswell hesitated. It was very evident that she was afraid. But of +what? + +"So far as I know," continued Betty, "this is my uncle's house, and +you're his servant. Am I right or wrong, Mrs. Carswell?" + +"Right as regards my being engaged by Mr. Horbury," replied the +housekeeper. "But the house belongs to--them! Mr. Horbury--so I +understand--had the use of it--it was reckoned as part of his salary. +It's their house, miss." + +"But, anyway, my uncle's effects are his--and I mean to see them," +insisted Betty. "If you won't call Mr. Joseph--or Mr. Gabriel--out, I +shall walk into the bank at the front door, and demand to see them. +You'd better let one of them know I'm here, Mrs. Carswell--I'm not going +to stand any nonsense." + +Mrs. Carswell hesitated a little, but in the end she knocked timidly at +the private door. And presently Joseph Chestermarke opened it, looked +out, saw Betty, and came into the hall. He offered his visitor no polite +greeting, and for once he forgot his accustomed sneering smile. Instead, +he gave the housekeeper a swift look which sent her away in haste, and +he turned to Betty with an air of annoyance. + +"Yes?" he asked abruptly. "What do you want?" + +"I want to go into my uncle's house--into his rooms," said Betty. "I am +his next-of-kin--I wish to examine his papers." + +"You can't!" answered Joseph. "We haven't examined them ourselves yet." + +"What right have you to examine them?" demanded Betty. + +"Every right!" retorted Joseph. + +"Not his private belongings!" she said firmly. + +"This is our house--you're not going into it," declared Joseph. +"Nobody's going into it--without our permission." + +"We'll see about that, Mr. Joseph Chestermarke!" replied Betty. +"If--supposing--my uncle is dead, I've the right to examine anything +he's left. I insist upon it! I insist on seeing his papers, looking +through his desk. And at once!" + +"No!" said Joseph. "Nothing of the sort. We don't know that you've any +right. We don't know that you're his next-of-kin. We're +not--legally--aware that you're his niece. You say you are--but we don't +know it--as a matter of real fact. You'd better go away." + +Betty's cheeks flamed hotly and her eyes flashed. + +"So that's your attitude--to me!" she exclaimed. "Very well! But you +shall soon see whether I am what I say I am. What are you and your uncle +implying, suggesting, hinting at?" she went on, suddenly letting her +naturally hot temper get the better of her. "Do you realize what an +utterly unworthy part you are playing? You accuse my uncle of being a +thief--and you dare not make any specified accusation against him! You +charge him with stealing your securities--and you daren't tell the +police what securities! I don't believe you've a security missing! +Nobody believes it! The police don't believe it. Lord Ellersdeane +doesn't believe it. Why, your own clerk, Mr. Neale, who ought to know, +if anybody does, doesn't believe it! You're telling lies, Mr. Joseph +Chestermarke--there! Lies! I'll denounce you to the whole town--I'll +expose you! I believe my uncle has met with some foul play--and as sure +as I am his niece I'll probe the whole thing to the bottom. Are you +going to admit me to those rooms?" + +The door of the private room, which Joseph had left slightly ajar +behind him, was pushed open a little, and Gabriel's colourless face +looked out. + +"Tell the young woman to go and see a solicitor," he said, and vanished +again. + +Joseph glanced at Betty, who was still staring indignantly at him. + +"You hear?" he said quietly. "Now you'd better go away. You are not +going in there." + +Betty suddenly turned and walked out. She was across the Market-Place +and at the door of the Scarnham Arms before her self-possession had come +back to her. And she was aware then that a gentleman, who had just +alighted from a horse which a groom was leading away to the stable yard, +was looking and smiling at her. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Is it you, Lord Ellersdeane?--I beg your pardon--I +was preoccupied." + +"So I saw," said the Earl. "I'd watched you come across from the Bank. +Is there any news this morning?" + +"Come up to my sitting-room and let us talk," said Betty. She led the +way upstairs and closed her door on herself and her visitor. "No news of +my uncle," she continued, turning to the Earl. "Have you any?" + +The Earl shook his head disappointedly. + +"No!" he replied. "I wish I had! I myself and a lot of my men have been +searching all round Ellersdeane--practically all night. We've made +inquiries at each of the neighbouring villages--without result. Have the +police heard anything?--I've only just come into town." + +"You haven't seen Polke, then?" said Betty. "Oh, well, he heard +something last night." She went on to tell the Earl of the meeting with +the tinker, and of Mrs. Pratt's account of the mysterious stranger, and +of what Starmidge was now doing. "It all seems such slow work," she +concluded, "but I suppose the police can't move any faster." + +"You heard nothing at the bank itself--from the Chestermarkes?" asked +the Earl. + +"I heard sufficient to make me as--as absent-minded as I was when you +met me just now! I went there, as my uncle's nearest relation, with a +simple request to see his papers and things--a very natural desire, +surely. The Chestermarkes have locked up his rooms--and they ordered me +out--showed me the door!" + +"How very extraordinary!" exclaimed the Earl. "Really!--in so many +words?" + +"I think Joseph had the grace to say I had better go away," said Betty. +"And Gabriel--who called me a young woman--told me to go and see a +solicitor, which, of course," she added reflectively, "is precisely what +I shall do--as they will very soon find!" + +The Earl stepped over to one of the windows, and stood for a moment or +two silently looking out on the Market-Place. + +"I don't understand this at all," he said at last. "What is the meaning +of all this reserve on the Chestermarkes' part? Why didn't they tell the +police what securities are missing? Why don't they let you, his niece, +examine Horbury's effects? What right have they to fasten up his +house?" + +"Their house--so Mrs. Carswell says," remarked Betty. + +"Oh, well--it may be their house, strictly speaking," agreed the Earl, +"but Horbury was its tenant, anyway, and the furniture and things in it +are his--I'm sure of that, for he and I shared a similar taste in +collecting old oak, and I know where he bought most of his possessions. +I can't make the behaviour of these people out at all--and I'm getting +more and more uneasy about the whole thing, Miss Fosdyke--as I'm sure +you are. I wonder if the police will find the man who came to the +Station Hotel on Saturday? Now, if they could lay hands on him, and get +to know who he was, and what he wanted, and if he really met your +uncle----" + +The Earl suddenly paused and turned from the window with a glance at +Betty. + +"There's young Mr. Neale coming across from the bank," he observed. "I +think he's coming here. By the by, isn't he a relation of Horbury's?" + +"No," said Betty. "But my uncle was his guardian. Is he coming here, +Lord Ellersdeane?" + +"Straight here," replied the Earl. "Perhaps he's got some news." + +Betty had the door open before Neale could knock at it. He came in with +a smile, and glanced half-whimsically, half as if he had queer news to +give, at the two people who looked so inquiringly at him. + +"Well?" demanded Betty. "What is it, Wallie? Have these two precious +principals sent you with news?" + +"They're not my principals any longer," answered Neale. He laid down +some books and an old jacket on the table. "That's my old working coat," +he went on, with a laugh. "I've worn it for the last time--at +Chestermarke's. They've dismissed me." + +Lord Ellersdeane turned sharply from the window, and Betty indulged in a +cry of indignation. + +"Dismissed--you?" she exclaimed. "Dismissed!" + +"With a quarter's salary in lieu of notice," laughed Neale, slapping his +pocket. "I've got it here--in gold." + +"But--why?" asked Betty. + +Neale shook his head at her. + +"Because you told Joseph that I didn't believe them when they said that +some of their securities were missing," he answered. "You did it! As +soon as you'd gone, they had me in, told me that it was contrary to +their principles to retain servants who took sides with other people +against them, handed me a cheque, and told me to cash it forthwith and +depart. And--here I am!" + +"You don't seem to mind this very much, Mr. Neale," observed the Earl, +looking keenly at this victim of summary treatment. "Do you?" + +"If your lordship really wants to know," answered Neale, "I don't! I'm +truly thankful. It's only what would have happened--in another way. I +meant to leave Chestermarke's. If it hadn't been for Mr. Horbury, I +should have left ages ago. I hate banking! I hated the life. And--I +dislike Chestermarke's! Immensely! Now, I'll go and have a free life +somewhere in Canada or some equally spacious clime--where I can +breathe." + +"Not at all!" said Betty decidedly. "You shall come and be my manager in +London. The brewery wants one, badly. You shall have a handsome salary, +Wallie--much more than you had at that beastly bank!" + +"Very kind of you, I'm sure," laughed Neale. "But I think I'm inclined +to put breweries in the same line with banks. Don't you be too rash, +Betty--I'm not exactly cut out for commercialism. Not," he added +reflectively, "not that I haven't been a very good servant to +Chestermarke's. I have! But Chestermarkes are--what they are!" + +The Earl, who had been watching the two young people with something of +amused interest, suddenly came forward from the window. + +"Mr. Neale!" he said. + +"My lord!" responded Neale. + +"What's your honest opinion about your late principals?" asked the Earl. + +Neale shook his head slowly and significantly. + +"I don't know," he answered. + +"Do you know that they've--just now--refused Miss Fosdyke permission to +examine her uncle's belongings?" continued the Earl. "That they wouldn't +even let her enter the house?" + +"No, I didn't know," replied Neale. "But I'm not surprised. Nothing that +those two could do would ever surprise me." + +"Feeling that, what do you advise in this case?" asked the Earl. +"Come!--you're no longer in their employ--you can speak freely now. What +do you think?" + +"Well," said Neale, after a pause, and speaking with unusual gravity, "I +think the police ought to make a thorough examination of the +bank-house--I'm surprised it hasn't been thought of before." + +The Earl picked up his hat. + +"I've been thinking of it all the morning!" he said. "Come--let us all +go round to Polke." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE SEARCH-WARRANT + + +As they turned out of the Market-Place into the street leading to the +police-station, Lord Ellersdeane and his companions became aware of a +curious figure which was slowly preceding them--that of a very old man +whose massive head and long white hair, falling in thick shocks about +his neck, was innocent of covering, whose tall, erect form was closely +wrapped about in a great, many-caped horseman's cloak which looked as if +it had descended to him from some early Georgian ancestor. In one hand +he carried a long staff; the other clutched an ancient folio; altogether +he was something very much out of the common, and Neale, catching sight +of him, nudged Betty Fosdyke's elbow and pointed ahead. + +"One of the sights of Scarnham!" he whispered. "Old Batterley, the +antiquary. Never seen with a hat, and never without that cloak, his +staff, and a book under his arm. You needn't be astonished if he +suddenly stops and begins reading his book in the open street--it's a +habit of his." + +But the antiquary apparently had other business. He turned into the +police-station, and when the three visitors followed him a moment later, +he was already in Polke's private office, and Polke and Starmidge were +gazing speculatively at him. Polke turned to the newcomers, as the old +man, having fitted on a pair of large spectacles, recognized the Earl +and executed a deep bow. + +"Mr. Batterley's just called with a suggestion, my lord," observed +Polke, good-humouredly. "He's heard of Mr. Horbury's disappearance, and +of the loss of your lordship's jewels, and he says that an explanation +of the whole thing may be got if we search the bank-house." + +"Thoroughly!" said Batterley, with a warning shake of his big head. +"Thoroughly--thoroughly, Mr. Polke! No use just walking through the +rooms, and seeing what any housemaid would see--the thing must be done +properly. Your lordship," he continued, turning to the Earl, "knows that +many houses in our Market-Place possess secret passages, +double-staircases, and the like--Horbury's house is certainly one of +those that do. It has, of course, been modernized. My memory is not +quite as good as it was, but I have a recollection that when I was a +boy, well over seventy years ago--I am, as your lordship is aware, +nearer ninety than eighty--there were hiding-places discovered in the +bank-house at the time Matthew Chestermarke, grandfather of the present +Gabriel, had it altered: in fact, I am quite sure I was taken by my +father to see them. Now, of course, many of these places were bricked +up, and so on, but I think--it is my impression--that a double staircase +was left untouched, and some recesses in the panelling of the +garden-room. That garden-room, Mr. Polke--if you know what I mean?" + +"Mr. Batterley," remarked the Earl, "means the panelled room which looks +out on the garden. Mr. Horbury has used it as a study." + +"The garden-room," continued the old antiquary, "should be particularly +examined. It is into that room that the double staircase opens--by a +door concealed in the recess at the side of the fire-place. There were, +I am sure, recesses behind the panelling in that room. Now, Horbury may +have known of them--he had tastes of an antiquarian disposition--in an +amateur way, you know. At any rate, Mr. Polke, you should examine the +house--and especially that room, for Horbury may have hidden Lord +Ellersdeane's property there. A deeply interesting room that!" added the +old man musingly. "I haven't been in it for some sixty years or so, but +I remember it quite well. It was in that room that Jasper Chestermarke +murdered Sir Gervase Rudd." + +Starmidge, who, like the rest of them, had been listening eagerly to +Batterley's talk, turned sharply to him. + +"Did you say murdered, sir?" he said. + +"A well-known story!" answered the old man half-impatiently, as he rose +from his chair. "An ancestor of these Chestermarkes--he killed a man in +that very room. Well--that's what I suggest, Mr. Polke. And--for another +reason. As Lord Ellersdeane there knows--being, as his lordship is, a +member of our society--the bank-house is so old that underneath it there +may be such matters as old wells, old drains. Now, supposing Horbury had +discovered some way under the present house, some secret passage or +something, and that he went down into it on Sunday--eh? He may have +fallen into one of these places--and be lying there dead or helpless. +It's possible, Mr. Polke, it's quite possible. I make the suggestion to +you for what it's worth, you know." + +The old man bowed himself out and went away, and Polke turned to Lord +Ellersdeane and Betty. + +"I'm glad your lordship's come in," he said. "Quite apart from what Mr. +Batterley suggests, we'll have to examine that bank-house. It's all +nonsense--allowing the Chestermarkes to have their own way about +everything! It's time we examined Horbury's effects." + +Starmidge turned to Betty. + +"Did you succeed in getting in there, Miss Fosdyke?" he asked. + +"No!" replied Betty. "Mr. Joseph Chestermarke absolutely refused me +admittance, and his uncle told me to go to a solicitor." + +"Good advice, certainly," remarked Polke drily. "You'd better take it, +miss. But what's Mr. Neale doing here?" + +"Mr. Neale," said the Earl, "has just been summarily dismissed for--to +put it plainly--taking sides with Miss Fosdyke and myself." + +"Ho, ho!" exclaimed Polke. "Ah! Well, my lord, there's only one thing to +be done, and as your lordship's in town, let us do it at once." + +"What?" asked the Earl. + +"You must come with me before the borough magistrates--they're sitting +now," said Polke, "and make application for a search-warrant. Your +lordship will have to swear that you have lost your jewels, and that +you have good cause to believe that they may be on the premises occupied +lately by Mr. Horbury, to whose care you entrusted them. It's a mere +matter of form--we shall get the warrant at once. Then Starmidge and I +will go and execute it. Miss Fosdyke--just do what I suggest, if you +please. Mr. Neale will take you to Mr. Pellworthy, the solicitor--he was +your uncle's solicitor, and a friend of his. Tell him all about your +visit to the bank this morning. Say that you insist, as next-of-kin, on +having access to your uncle's belongings. Get Mr. Pellworthy to go with +you to the bank. Meet Detective-Sergeant Starmidge and me outside there, +in, say, half an hour. Then--we'll see what happens. Now, my lord, if +you'll come with me, we'll apply for that search-warrant." + +As the Scarnham clocks were striking twelve that morning, Gabriel and +Joseph Chestermarke looked up from their desks to see Shirley's eyes, +large with excitement, gazing at them from the threshold of their +private parlour. + +"Well?" demanded the senior partner. + +The clerk moved nearer to his principal's desk. + +"Mr. Polke's outside, sir, with the gentleman who came in with him +before," announced Shirley. "He says he must see you at once. +And--there's Mr. Pellworthy, sir, with Miss Fosdyke. Mr. Pellworthy +says, sir, that he must see you at once, too." + +Gabriel glanced at his nephew. And Joseph spoke without looking up from +his writing-pad, and as if he knew that his partner was regarding him. + +"Bring them all in," he said. + +He himself criticized his writing as the four callers were ushered in; +he did not even look round at them. Gabriel, more sphinx-like than ever, +regarded each in order with an air of distinct disapproval. And he took +care to speak first. + +"Now, Mr. Pellworthy?" he said sharply. "What do you want?" + +Pellworthy, an elderly man, looked at Gabriel with as much disapproval +as Gabriel had bestowed on him. + +"Mr. Chestermarke," he said quietly, "Miss Fosdyke, as next-of-kin to +Mr. John Horbury--my client--desires to see and examine her uncle's +effects. As you know very well, she is quite within her rights. I must +ask you to give her access to Mr. Horbury's belongings." + +"And what do you want, Mr. Polke?" demanded Gabriel. + +Polke produced a formal-looking document and held it before the banker's +eyes. + +"Merely to show you that, Mr. Chestermarke," he answered. "That's a +search-warrant, sir! It empowers me and Mr. Starmidge here to +search--but I needn't read it to you, Mr. Chestermarke, I think. I +suppose we can go into the house now?" + +Faint spots of colour showed themselves on Gabriel's cheeks. And again +he turned to his nephew. Joseph, however, did not speak. Instead, he +turned to the wall at his side and pressed a bell. A moment later a +maid-servant opened the private door which communicated with the house, +and looked inquiringly and a little nervously inside. Joseph frowned at +her. + +"I rang twice!" he said. "That meant Mrs. Carswell. Send her here." + +The girl hesitated. + +"If you please, sir," she said at last, "Mrs. Carswell isn't in, sir, +she's out." + +Joseph turned sharply--up to this he had remained staring at the papers +on his desk; now he twisted completely round in his chair. + +"Where is she?" he demanded. "Fetch her!" + +"If you please, sir, Mrs. Carswell hasn't been in for quite an hour, +sir," said the girl. "She put on her things and went out, sir, +just--just after that young lady called this morning. She--she's never +come back, sir." + +Polke, who was standing close to Starmidge, quietly nudged the +detective's elbow. Both men watched the junior partner. And both saw the +first signs of something that was very like doubt and anxiety show in +his face. + +"That'll do!" he said to the servant. He rose slowly from his desk, put +a hand in his pocket, and drew out some keys. Without a word, he +slightly motioned the visitors to follow him. + +Out in the hall stood two men, who in spite of their plain clothes, were +obviously policemen. Joseph started and turned to Polke. + +"Damn you!" he snarled under his breath. "Are you going to pester us +with your whole crew? Send those fellows off at once!" + +"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Chestermarke!" replied Polke, in a similar +whisper, "I shall bring as many of my men here as I please. It's your +own fault--you should have been reasonable this morning. Now, sir, +you'll open any door in this house that's locked." + +Joseph suddenly paused and handed over the keys he was dangling. + +"Open them yourself!" he said. + +He turned on his heel, and without another word or look went back into +the private parlour. And Polke, opening the door of the dining-room, +ushered his party inside, and then stepped back to the two men who were +waiting in the hall. + +"Smithson," he said to one of them, "you'll stop at the house-door +here--inside, mind, so as not to attract attention from any customers +coming up this hall to the bank. Jones--come out here with me a minute," +he continued, taking the second man outside. "Look here--I've a quiet +job for you. You know the housekeeper here--Mrs. Carswell? She's +disappeared. May be all right--and it mayn't. Now, you go out and take a +look round for her. And go to the cab-stand at the corner of the Moot +Hall, and just find out if she's taken a taxi from them, and if so, +where she wanted to be driven to. And then come back and tell me--and +when you come back, stay inside the house with Smithson." + +The policeman nodded his comprehension of these instructions and went +out, and Polke turned back to the dining-room and closed the door. He +looked at Starmidge. + +"Now I'm in your hands," he said quietly. "You take charge of this. What +do you wish to do?" + +"One thing particularly at first," answered Starmidge. "And we can all +work at it. Never mind these secret passages and dark corners and holes +in the panels!--at present: we may have a look at these later on. What I +do want to find out is--if there's any letter amongst Mr. Horbury's +papers making an appointment with him last Saturday evening. To put +matters briefly--I want some light on that man who came to the Station +Hotel on Saturday, and who presumably came to meet Mr. Horbury." + +"I see," said Polke. "Good! Then--first?" + +"Here's his desk--and its drawers," suggested Starmidge. "Now, let us +all four take a drawer each and see if we can find any such letter. I'm +going on the presumption that this stranger came down to see Mr. +Horbury, and that on his arrival he telephoned up to let him know he'd +got here. If that presumption is correct, then, in all probability, +there'd been previous correspondence between them as to the man's +visit." + +"If that man came to see Mr. Horbury," remarked the solicitor, "why +didn't he come straight here to the bank-house?" + +"That's just where the mystery lies, sir," replied Starmidge. "All the +mystery of the affair lies in that man's coming at all! Let me find out +who that man was, and what he came for, and if he and Mr. Horbury met, +and where they went when they did meet--and I'll soon tell you--what +would probably make your hair stand on end!" he muttered to himself, as +he pulled a drawer out of the desk and placed it on a centre table +before Betty. "Now, Miss Fosdyke, you get to work on that." + +For over an hour the four curiously assorted searchers examined the +contents of the missing man's desk, of another desk in the study, of +certain letter-racks which hung above the mantelpieces in both rooms, of +drawers in these rooms, of drawers and small cabinets in his bedroom. +Starmidge turned out the pockets of all the clothing he could find: +opened suit-cases, trunks, dressing-cases. They found nothing of the +nature desired. And just as half-past one came, and Polke was wondering +what Starmidge would do next, Jones came back and called him into the +inner hall. + +"I've got some news of her," he whispered. "She's off--from Scarnham, +anyway, sir! I couldn't get any word of her in the town, nor at the +cab-places: in fact, it's only within this last five minutes that I've +got it." + +"Well?" demanded Polke eagerly. "And what is it?" + +"Young Mitchell, who has a taxi-cab of his own, you know," said Jones. +"He told me--heard I was inquiring. He says that at half-past ten, just +as he was coming out of his shed in River Street, Mrs. Carswell came up +and asked him to drive her into Ecclesborough. He did--they got there at +half-past eleven: he set her down at the Exchange Station. Then he came +back--alone. So--she's got two hours' good start, sir--if she really is +off!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FIRST FIND + + +Polke took a step or two on the pavement outside the bank, meditating on +this latest development of a matter that was hourly growing in mystery. +Why had this woman suddenly disappeared? Had she merely gone to +Ecclesborough for the day?--or had she made it her first stage in a +further journey? Why had she taken a taxi-cab for an eighteen-miles' +ride, at considerable expense, when, at twelve o'clock, she could have +got a train which would have carried her to Ecclesborough for fifteen +pence? It seemed as if she had fled. And if she had fled, she had got, +as the constable said, two hours' good start. And in Ecclesborough, +too!--a place with a population of half a million, where there were +three big railway stations, from any one of which a fugitive could set +off east, west, north, south, at pleasure, and with no risk of +attracting attention. Two hours!--Polke knew from long experience what +can be done in two hours by a criminal escaping from justice. + +He turned back to speak to his man--and as he turned, Joseph +Chestermarke came out of the bank. Joseph gave him an insolent stare, +and was about to pass him without recognition. But Polke stopped him. + +"Mr. Chestermarke, you heard that the housekeeper here has disappeared?" +he asked sharply. "Can you tell anything about it?" + +"What have I to do with Horbury's housekeeper?" retorted Joseph. "Do +your own work!" + +He passed on, crossing the Market-Place to the Scarnham Arms, and Polke, +after gazing at him in silence for a moment, beckoned to his policeman. + +"Come inside, Jones," he said. He led the way into the house and through +the hall to the kitchens at the back, where two women servants stood +whispering together. Polke held up a finger to the one who had answered +Joseph Chestermarke's summons to the parlour that morning. "Here!" he +said, "a word with you. Now, exactly when did Mrs. Carswell go out? You +needn't be afraid of speaking, my girl--it'll go no further, and you +know who I am." + +"Not so very long after that young lady was here, Mr. Polke," answered +the girl, readily enough. "Within--oh, a quarter of an hour at the +most." + +"Did she say where she was going--to either of you?" asked Polke. + +"No, sir--not a word!" + +"To neither of us," said the other--an older--woman, drawing nearer. +"She--just went, Mr. Polke." + +"Had any message--telegram, or aught of that sort--come for her?" asked +Polke. "Had anybody been to see her?" + +"There was no message that I know of," said the housemaid. "But Mr. +Joseph came to speak to her." + +"When?" demanded Polke. + +"Just after the young lady had gone. He called her out of the kitchen, +and they stood talking in the passage there a bit," answered the elder +woman. "Of course, Mr. Polke, we didn't hear naught--but we saw 'em." + +"What happened after that?" asked Polke. + +"Naught!--but that Mr. Joseph went away, and she came back in here for a +minute or two and then went upstairs. And next thing she came down +dressed up and went out. She said nothing to us," replied the woman. + +"You saw her go out?" said Polke. + +Both women pointed to the passage which communicated with the hall. + +"When this door's open--as it was," said one, "you can see right +through. Yes--we saw her go through the hall door. Of course we thought +she'd just slipped out into the town for something." + +Polke hesitated--and meditated. What use was it, at that juncture, to +ask for more particular details of this evident flight? Mrs. Carswell +was probably well away from Ecclesborough by that time. He turned back +to the hall--and then looked at the women again. + +"I suppose neither of you ever saw or heard aught of Mr. Horbury on +Saturday night--after he'd gone out?" he inquired. + +The two women glanced at each other in silence. + +"Did you?" repeated Polke. "Come, now!" + +"Well, Mr. Polke," said the elder woman, "we didn't. But, of course, we +know what's going on--couldn't very well not know, now could we, Mr. +Polke? And we can tell you something that may have to do with things." + +"Out with it, then!" commanded Polke. "Keep nothing back." + +"Well," said the woman, "there was somebody stirring about this house in +the middle of Saturday night--between, say, one and two o'clock in the +morning--Sunday morning, of course. Both me and Jane here heard +'em--quite plain. And we thought naught of it, then--leastways, what we +did think was that it was Mr. Horbury. He often came in very late. But +when we found out next morning that he'd never come home--why, then, we +did think it was queer that we'd heard noises." + +"Did you mention that to Mrs. Carswell?" asked Polke. + +"Of course!--but she said she'd heard nothing, and it must have been +rats," replied the elder woman. + +"But I've been here three years and I've never seen a rat in the place." + +"Nor me!" agreed the housemaid. "And it wasn't rats. I heard a door +shut--twice. Plain as I'm speaking to you, Mr. Polke." + +Polke reflected a minute and then turned away. + +"All right, my lasses!" he said. "Well, keep all this to yourselves. +Here--I'll tell you what you can do. Send Miss Fosdyke a nice cup of tea +into the study--send us all one!--we can't leave what we're doing just +yet. And a mouthful of bread and butter with it. Come along, Jones," he +continued, leading the constable away. "Here, you step round to old Mr. +Batterley's--you know where he lives--near the Castle. Mr. Polke's +compliments, and would he be so good as to come to the bank-house and +help us a bit?--he'll know what I mean. Bring him back with you." + +The constable went away, and Polke, after rubbing one of his mutton-chop +whiskers for awhile with an air of great abstraction, returned to the +study. There Mr. Pellworthy and Betty Fosdyke were talking earnestly in +one of the window recesses; Starmidge, at the furthest end of the room, +was examining the old oak panelling. + +"I've sent for Mr. Batterley to give us a hand," said Polke. "I suppose +we'd best examine this room in the way he suggested?" + +Starmidge betrayed no enthusiasm. + +"If he can do any good," he answered. "But I don't attach much +importance to that. However--if there are any secret places around----" + +"There's a nice cup of tea coming in for you and Mr. Pellworthy in a +minute, Miss Fosdyke," said Polke. "We'll all have to put our dinner off +a bit, I reckon." He motioned to the detective to follow him out of the +room. "Here's a nice go!" he whispered. "The housekeeper's off! +Bolted--without a doubt! And--she's got a clear start, too." + +Starmidge turned sharply on the superintendent. + +"Got any clue to where she's gone?" he demanded. + +"She's gone amongst five hundred thousand other men and women," replied +Polke ruefully. "I've found out that much. Drove off in a taxi-cab to +Ecclesborough, as soon as Miss Fosdyke had been here this morning. +And--mark you!--after a few minutes' conversation with Joseph +Chestermarke. Ecclesborough, indeed! Might as well look for a drop of +water in the ocean as for one woman in Ecclesborough! She was set down +at the Exchange Station--why, she may be half-way to London or +Liverpool, or Hull, by now!" + +Starmidge was listening intently. And passing over the superintendent's +opinions and regrets, he fastened on his facts. + +"After a few minutes' conversation with Joseph Chestermarke, you say?" +he observed. "How do you know that?" + +"The servants told me, just now," replied Polke. + +Starmidge glanced at the door of the private parlour. + +"He's gone out," said Polke. + +Just then the door opened and Gabriel emerged, closing and locking it +after him. He paid no attention to the two men, and was passing on +towards the outer hall when Polke hailed him. + +"Mr. Chestermarke," he said, "sorry to trouble you--do you know that the +housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell, has disappeared? You heard what that girl +said this morning? Well, she hasn't come back, and----" + +"No concern of mine, Mr. Police-Superintendent!" interrupted Gabriel. +"Nothing of this is any concern of mine. I shall be obliged to you if +you'll confine your very unnecessary operations to the interior of the +house, and not stand about this outer hall, or keep this door open +between outer and inner halls--I don't want my customers interfered +with as they come and go." + +With that the senior partner passed on, and Starmidge smiled at his +companion. + +"I'm glad he interrupted you, all the same, Mr. Polke," he said. "I was +afraid you were going to say that you knew this woman had gone, in a +hurry, to Ecclesborough." + +"No, I wasn't," replied Polke. "I told him what I did--because I wanted +to know what he'd say." + +"Well--you heard!" said Starmidge. "And what's to be done, now? That +woman's conduct is very suspicious. I think, if I were you, Mr. Polke, I +should get in touch with the Ecclesborough police. Why not? No harm +done. Why not call them up, give them a description of her, and ask them +to keep their eyes open. She mayn't have left Ecclesborough--mayn't +intend leaving. For--look here--!" he drew Polke further away from the +two doors between which they were standing, and lowered his voice to a +whisper--"Supposing," he went on, "supposing there is any secret +understanding between this Mrs. Carswell and Joseph Chestermarke (and it +looks like it, if she went off immediately after a conversation with +him), she may have gone to Ecclesborough simply so that they could meet +there, safely, later on. Eh?" + +"Good notion!" agreed Polke. "Well--we can watch him." + +"I'm beginning to think we must watch him--thought so for the last two +hours," said Starmidge. "But in the meantime, why not put the +Ecclesborough police on to keeping their eyes open for her? Can you +give them a good description?" + +"Know her as well as I know my own wife--by sight," answered Polke. "And +her style of dressing, too. All right--I'll go and do it, now. Well, +there'll be Mr. Batterley coming along in a few minutes--Jones has gone +for him. If he can show you any of their secret places he talked +about----" + +"He's here," said Starmidge, as the old antiquary and the constable +entered the hall. "All right--I'll attend to him." + +But when Polke had gone, and Batterley had been conducted into the +study, or garden-room as he insisted on calling it, Starmidge left the +old man with Mr. Pellworthy and Betty and made an excuse to go out of +the room after the housemaid, who had just brought in the tea for which +Polke had asked. He caught her at the foot of the staircase, and treated +her to one of his most ingratiating smiles. + +"I say!" he said, "Mr. Polke's just been telling me about what you and +the cook told him about Mrs. Carswell--you know. Now, I say--you needn't +say anything--except to cook--but I just want to take a look round Mrs. +Carswell's room. Which is it?" + +The cook, who kept the kitchen door open so as not to lose anything of +these delightful proceedings, came forward. Both accompanied Starmidge +upstairs to show him the room he wanted. And Starmidge thanked them +profusely and in his best manner--after which he turned them politely +out and locked the door. + +Meanwhile Polke went to the police-station and rang up the +Ecclesborough police on the telephone. He gave them a full, accurate, +and precise description of Mrs. Carswell, and a detailed account of her +doings that morning, and begged them to make inquiry at the three great +stations in their town. The man with whom he held conversation calmly +remarked that as each station at Ecclesborough dealt with a few +thousands of separate individuals every day, it was not very likely that +booking-clerks or platform officials would remember any particular +persons, and Polke sorrowfully agreed with him. Nevertheless, he begged +him to do his best--the far-off partner in this interchange of remarks +answered that they would do a lot better if Mr. Polke would tell them +something rather more definite. Polke gave it up at that, and went off +into the Market-Place again, to return to the bank. But before he +reached the bank he ran across Lord Ellersdeane, who, hanging about the +town to hear some result of the search, had been lunching at the +Scarnham Club, and now came out of its door. + +"Any news so far?" asked the Earl. + +Polke glanced round to see that nobody was within hearing. He and Lord +Ellersdeane stepped within the doorway of the club-house. Polke narrated +the story of the various happenings since the granting of the +search-warrant, and the Earl's face grew graver and graver. + +"Mr. Polke," he said at last, "I do not like what I am hearing about all +this. It's a most suspicious thing that the housekeeper should disappear +immediately after Miss Fosdyke's first call this morning, and that she +should have had some conversation with Mr. Joseph Chestermarke before +she went. Really, one dislikes to have to say it of one's neighbours, +and of persons of the standing of the Chestermarkes, but their behaviour +is--is----" + +"Suspicious, my lord, suspicious!" said Polke. "There's no denying it. +And yet, they're what you might call so defiant, so brazen-faced and +insolent, that----" + +"Here's your London man," interrupted the Earl. "What is he after now?" + +Starmidge came out of the door of the bank-house alone. He caught sight +of Polke and Lord Ellersdeane, smiled, and hurried towards them. He +carried something loosely wrapped in brown paper in his hand; as he +stepped into the doorway of the club-house, he took the wrapping off, +and showed a small morocco-covered box on which was a coronet in gold. + +"Does your lordship recognize that?" he asked. + +"My wife's jewel-casket, of course!" exclaimed the Earl. "Of course it +is! Bless me!--where did you find it?" + +"In the chimney, in Mrs. Carswell's bedroom," answered Starmidge, with a +grimace at Polke. "It's empty!" + + + + +Chapter XIII + +THE PARTNERS UNBEND + + +The Earl took the empty casket from the detective's hand and looked at +it, inside and outside, with doubt and wonder. + +"Now what do you take this to mean?" he asked. + +"That we've got three people to find, instead of two, my lord," answered +Starmidge promptly. "We must be after the housekeeper." + +"You found this in her room?" asked Polke. "So--you went up there?" + +"As soon as you'd left me," replied the detective, with a shrewd smile. +"Of course! I wanted to have a look round. I didn't forget the chimney. +She'd put that behind the back of the grate--a favourite hiding-place. I +say she--but, of course, some one else may have put it there. Still--we +must find her. You telephoned to the police at Ecclesborough, +superintendent?" + +"Ay, and got small comfort!" answered Polke. "It's a stiff job looking +for one woman amongst half a million people." + +"She wouldn't stop in Ecclesborough," said Starmidge. "She'll be on her +way further afield, now. You can get anywhere from Ecclesborough, of +course." + +"Of course!" assented Polke. "She would be in any one of half a dozen +big towns within a couple of hours--in some of 'em within an hour--in +London itself within three. This'll be another case of printing a +description. I wish we'd thought of keeping an eye on her before!" + +"We haven't got to the stage where we can think of everything," observed +Starmidge. "We've got to take things as they come. Well--there's one +thing can be done now," he went on, looking at the Earl, "if your +lordship'll be kind enough to do it." + +"I'll do anything that I can," replied Lord Ellersdeane. "What is it?" + +"If your lordship would just make a call on the two Mr. Chestermarkes," +suggested Starmidge. "To tell them, of course, of--that," he added, +pointing to the empty casket. "Your lordship will get some attention--I +suppose. They won't give any attention to Polke or myself. If your +lordship would just tell them that your casket--emptied of its valuable +contents--had been found hidden in Mrs. Carswell's room, perhaps they'll +listen, and--what is much more important--give you their views on the +matter. I," concluded Starmidge, drily, "should very much like to hear +them!" + +The Earl made a wry face. + +"Oh, all right!" he answered. "If I must, I must. It's not a job that +appeals to me, but--very well. I'll go now." + +"And we," said Starmidge, turning to Polke, "had better join the others +and see if the old antiquary gentleman has found any of these secret +places he talked of." + +Lord Ellersdeane found no difficulty in obtaining access to the +partners: he was shown into their room with all due ceremony as soon as +Shirley announced him. He found them evidently relaxing a little after +their lunch, from which they had just returned. They were standing in +characteristic attitudes; Gabriel, smoking a cigar, bolt upright on the +hearth-rug beneath the portrait of his ancestor; Joseph, toying with a +scented cigarette, leaning against the window which looked out on the +garden. For once in a way both seemed more amenable and cordial. + +The Earl held out the empty casket. + +"This," he said, "is the casket in which I handed my wife's jewels to +Mr. Horbury. It is, as you see, empty. It has just been found by the +Scotland Yard man, Starmidge." + +Gabriel glanced at the casket with some interest; Joseph, with none: +neither spoke. + +"In the housekeeper's room--hidden in her fire-place," continued the +Earl, looking from one partner to the other. "That shows, gentlemen, +that the jewels were, after all, in this house--on these premises." + +"There has never been any question of that," said Gabriel quickly. "We, +of course, never doubted what your lordship was good enough to tell +us--naturally!" + +"Not for a moment!" said Joseph. "We felt at once that you had given the +jewels to Horbury." + +The Earl set the casket down on Gabriel's desk and looked a little +uncertain--and uncomfortable. Gabriel indicated the chair which he had +politely moved forward on his visitor's entrance. + +"Won't your lordship sit down?" he said. + +The Earl accepted the invitation and looked from one man to the other. A +sudden impression crossed his mind--never, he thought, were there two +men from whom it was so difficult to get a word as these +Chestermarkes--who had such a queer habit of staring in silence at one! + +"The--the housekeeper appears to have run away," he said haltingly. +"That's--somewhat queer, isn't it?" + +"We understand Mrs. Carswell has left the house--and the town," replied +Gabriel. "As to it's being queer--well, all this is queer!" + +"And--all of a piece!" remarked Joseph. + +The Earl was glad that the junior partner made that remark, and he +turned to him. + +"I understand you saw her--and spoke to her--just before she left, this +morning?" he said hesitatingly. "Did she--er--give you the impression of +being--shall we say, uneasy?" + +"I certainly saw her--and spoke to her," asserted Joseph. "I went to +scold her. I had given her orders that no one was to be allowed access +to certain rooms in the house, and that we were not to be bothered by +callers. She fetched me out to see Miss Fosdyke--I went to scold her for +that. We had our reasons for not permitting access to those rooms. They +have, of course, been frustrated." + +"But at any rate some good's come of it," observed the Earl, pointing +to his casket. "This has been found. And--in the housekeeper's bedroom. +Hidden! And--she's gone. What do you think of it, gentlemen?" + +Gabriel spread his hands and shook his head. But Joseph answered +readily. + +"I should think," he replied, "that's she's gone to meet Horbury." + +The Earl started, glancing keenly from one partner to the other. + +"Then--you still think that Horbury is guilty of--of dishonesty!" he +exclaimed. "Really, I--dear me, such an absolutely upright, honourable +man----" + +"Surface!" said Joseph quietly. "Surface! On the surface, my lord." + +The Earl's face flushed a little with palpable displeasure, and he +turned from the junior to the senior partner. + +"Very good of your lordship," said Gabriel, with the faintest suggestion +of a smile. "But--a man's honesty is bounded by his necessity. We, of +course, are better acquainted with our late manager's qualities--now." + +"You have discovered--something?" asked the Earl anxiously. + +"Up to now," replied Gabriel, "we have kept things to ourselves. But we +don't mind giving your lordship a little--just a little--information. +There is no doubt that Horbury had, for some time past, engaged in +speculation in stocks and shares--none whatever!" + +"To a considerable extent," added Joseph. + +"And--unsuccessfully?" inquired the Earl. + +"We are not yet quite sure of the details," answered Gabriel. "The mere +fact is enough. Of course, no man in his position has any right to +speculate. Had we known that he speculated----" + +"He would have been discharged from our service," said Joseph. "No +banker can retain the services of a manager who--gambles." + +The Earl began to feel almost as uncomfortable as if these two men were +charging him with improper transactions. He was a man of simple mind and +ideas, and he supposed the Chestermarkes knew what they were talking +about. + +"Then you think that this sudden disappearance----" he said. + +"In the history of banking--unwritten, possibly," remarked Joseph, +"there are many similar instances. No end of them, most likely. Bank +managers enjoy vast opportunities of stealing, my lord! And the man who +is best trusted has more opportunities than the man who's watched. We +never suspected--and so we never watched." + +"You have heard of the stranger who came to the town on Saturday night, +and is believed to have telephoned from the Station Hotel to Horbury?" +asked the Earl. "What of him?" + +"We have heard," answered Gabriel. "We don't know any more. We don't +know any such person--from the description. But we have no doubt he did +meet Horbury--and that his visit had something--probably everything--to +do with Horbury's disappearance." + +"But how could he disappear?" asked the Earl. "I mean to say--how could +such a well-known man disappear so completely, without anybody knowing +of it? It seems impossible!" + +"If your lordship will think for a moment," said Joseph, "you will see +that it is not merely not impossible, but very easy. Horbury was a great +pedestrian--he used to boast of his thirty and forty mile walks. Now we +are well within twenty miles of Ecclesborough. Ecclesborough is a very +big town. What was there to prevent Horbury, during Saturday night, from +walking across country to Ecclesborough? Nothing! If, after interviewing +that strange man, he decided to clear out at once, he'd nothing to do +but set off--over a very lonely stretch of country, every inch of which +he knew--to Ecclesborough: he would be in Ecclesborough by an early hour +in the morning. Now in Ecclesborough there are three stations--big +stations. He could get away from any one of them--what booking-clerk or +railway official would pay any particular attention to him? The thing +is--ridiculously easy!" + +"What of the other man?" asked the Earl. "If there were two +men--together--at an early hour--eh?" + +"They need not have caught a train at a very early hour," replied +Joseph. "They need not have been together when they caught any train. I +don't say they went together--I don't say they went to Ecclesborough--I +don't say they caught a train: I only say what, it must be obvious, they +easily could do without attracting attention." + +"The fact of Horbury's disappearance is--unchallengeable," remarked +Gabriel quietly. "We--know why he disappeared." + +"I should think," said Joseph, still more quietly, "that Lord +Ellersdeane also knows--by now." + +"No, I don't!" exclaimed the Earl, a little sharply. "I wish I did!" + +Joseph pointed to the casket. + +"Why have the police been officially--and officiously--searching the +house, then?" he asked. + +"To see if they could get any clue to his disappearance," replied the +Earl. + +"And they found--that!" retorted Joseph. + +"In the housekeeper's room," said the Earl. "She may have appropriated +the jewels." + +"I think your lordship must see that that is very unlikely--without +collusion between Horbury and herself," remarked Gabriel. + +"Mrs. Carswell," said Joseph, "has always been more or less of a +mysterious person. We know nothing about her. I don't even know where +Horbury got her from. But--the probability is that they were in +collusion, and that when he went, she stayed behind, to ascertain how +things turned out on his disappearance; and that she fled when it began +to appear that searching inquiries were to be made into which she might +be drawn." + +The Earl made no reply. He recognized that the Chestermarke observations +and suggestions were rather more than plausible, and much as he fought +against the idea of the missing manager's dishonesty, he could not deny +that the circumstances as set forth by the bankers were suspicious. + +"Your lordship will, of course, follow up this woman?" said Gabriel, +after a brief silence. + +"I suppose the police will," replied the Earl. "But--aren't you going to +do anything yourselves, Mr. Chestermarke? You told me, you know, that +certain securities of yours were missing." + +Gabriel glanced at his nephew--and Joseph nodded. + +"Oh, well!" answered Gabriel. "We don't mind telling your lordship--and +if your lordship pleases, you may tell the police--we are doing +something. We have, in fact, been doing something from an early hour. We +have a very clever man at work just now--he has been at work since he +heard from us twenty-four hours ago. But--our ideas are not those of +Polke. Polke begins his inquiries here. Our inquiries--based on our +knowledge--begin ... elsewhere." + +"You think Horbury will be heard of--elsewhere?" suggested the Earl. + +"Much more likely to be heard of elsewhere than here, my lord!" asserted +Gabriel. + +"But, of course, what we do need not interfere with anything that your +lordship does, or that Miss Fosdyke does, or that the police do." + +"All that any of us want, I suppose, is to find Horbury," said the Earl, +as he rose. "If he's found, then, I conclude, some explanation will +result. You don't believe in searching about here, then?" + +"Let Polke and his men have their way, my lord," replied Gabriel, with a +wave of his hand. "My impression of police methods is that those who +follow them can only follow that particular path. We are not looking +for Horbury--here. He's--elsewhere." + +"So, by this time, are your lordship's jewels," added Joseph +significantly. "They, one may be sure, are not going to be found in or +about Scarnham." + +The Earl said good-day and went out, troubled and wondering. In the hall +he met the search-party. Mr. Batterley had failed to find anything in +the way of secret stairs or passages or openings beyond those already +known to the occupants, and though he was still confident that they +existed, the police had wound up their present investigations to turn to +more palpable things. Polke and the detective listened to the Earl's +account of his interview, and the superintendent sniffed at the mention +of the inquiries instituted by the partners. + +"Ah!" he said incredulously. "Just so! Private inquiry agent, no doubt. +All right--let 'em do what they like. But we're going to do what we +like, my lord, and what we do will be on very different lines. First +thing now--we want that woman!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE MIDNIGHT SUMMONS + + +The search-party separated outside the bank, not too well satisfied with +the result of its labours. The old antiquary walked away obviously +nettled that he was not allowed to pursue his investigations further; +Betty Fosdyke and the solicitor went across to the hotel in deep +conference; the Earl accompanied Starmidge and Polke to the +police-station. And there the detective laid down a firm outline of the +next immediate procedure. It was of no use to half-do things, he +said--they must rouse wholesale attention. Once more the press must be +made use of--the sudden disappearance of Mrs. Carswell must be noised +abroad in the next morning's papers. A police notice describing her must +be got out and sent all over the kingdom. And--last, but certainly not +least--Lord Ellersdeane must offer a substantial reward for the recovery +of, or news of, his missing property. Let the Chestermarkes adopt their +own method--if they had any--of finding the alleged absconding manager; +he, Starmidge, preferred to solve these mysteries by ways of his own. + +It was growing near to dusk when all their necessary arrangements had +been made, and Starmidge was free to seek his long-delayed dinner. He +had put himself up, of his own choice, at a quiet and old-fashioned inn +near the police-station, where he had engaged a couple of rooms and +found a landlady to his liking. He repaired to this retreat now, and ate +and drank in quiet, and smoked a peaceful pipe afterwards, and was glad +of a period of rest. But as he took his ease, he thought and pondered, +and by the time that evening had fairly settled over the little town, he +went out into the streets and sought the ancient corner of Scarnham +which was called Cornmarket. + +Starmidge wanted to take a look at the house in which Joseph +Chestermarke spent his bachelor existence. Since his own arrival in the +town, he had been learning all he could about the two Chestermarkes, and +he was puzzled about them. For a man who was still young, Starmidge had +seen a good deal of the queer side of life, and had known a good many +strange people, but so far he had never come across two such apparently +curious characters as the uncle and nephew who ran the old-fashioned +bank. Their evident indifference to public opinion puzzled him. He could +not understand their ice-cold defiance of what he himself called law. He +never remembered being treated as they had treated him. For Starmidge, +when on duty, considered himself as much the representative of Justice +as any ermined and coifed judge could be, and he had been accustomed--so +far--to attentive and respectful consideration. But neither Gabriel nor +Joseph Chestermarke appeared to have any proper appreciation of the +dignity of a detective-sergeant of the Criminal Investigation +Department, and their eyes had regarded him as if he were something +very inferior indeed. Starmidge, though by no means a vain man, felt +nettled by such treatment, and he accordingly formed something very like +a prejudice against the two partners. That prejudice was quickly +followed by suspicion--especially in the case of Joseph Chestermarke. +According to Starmidge's ideas, the bankers, if they really believed +Horbury to have absconded, if certain securities of theirs really were +missing, if they really thought that Horbury had carried them off, and +the Countess of Ellersdeane's jewels with him, ought to have placed +every information in their power at the disposal of the police: it was +suspicious, and strange, and not at all proper, that they didn't. And it +was suspicious, too, that the housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell, should take +herself off after a brief exchange of words with Joseph. It looked very +much as if the junior partner had either warned her to go, or had told +her to go. Why had she gone _then_?--when she might have gone before. +And why in such haste? Clearly, considering everything, there were +grounds for believing that there was some secret between Mrs. Carswell +and Joseph Chestermarke. + +Anyway, rightly or wrongly, Starmidge was suspicious of the junior +partner in Chestermarke's Bank, and he wanted to know everything that he +could find out about him. He had already learnt that Joseph, like his +uncle, was a confirmed bachelor, and lived in an old house at the corner +of Cornmarket, somewhat--so far as the town-folk could judge--after the +fashion of a hermit. Starmidge would have given a good deal for a really +good excuse to call on Joseph Chestermarke at that house, so that he +might see the inside of it: indeed, if he had only met with a better +reception at the bank, he would have invented such an excuse. But if +Gabriel was icily stand-offish, Joseph was openly sneering and +contemptuous, and the detective knew that no excuse would give him +admittance. Still, there was the outside: he would take a look at that. +Starmidge was a young man of ideas as well as of ability, and without +exactly shaping his thought in so many words, he felt--vaguely perhaps, +but none the less strongly--that just as you can size up some men by the +clothes they wear, so you can get an idea of others by the outer look of +the houses which shelter them. + +Cornmarket in Scarnham lay at the further end of the street called +Finkleway. It was a queer, open space which sloped downhill from the +centre of the ridge on which the middle of the town was built to the +valley through which the little river meandered. Save where the streets, +and the road leading out to the open country and Ellersdeane cut into +it, it was completely enclosed by old houses of the sort which Starmidge +had already admired in the Market-Place: many of them half-timbered, all +of them very ancient. One or two of them were inns; some were evidently +workmen's cottages; others were better-class dwelling-houses. From the +description already furnished to him by Polke, Starmidge at once +recognized Joseph Chestermarke's abode. It was a corner house, abutting +on the road which ran out at the lower angle of this irregular space and +led down to the river and Scarnham Bridge. It was by far the biggest +house thereabouts--a tall, slender, stone-built house of many stories, +towering high above any of the surrounding gables. And save for a very +faint, dull glow which shone through the transom window of the front +door, there was not a vestige of light in a single window of the seven +stories. Cornmarket was a gloomy commonplace, thought Starmidge, but the +little oil lamps in the cottages were riotously cheery in comparison +with the darkness of the tall, gaunt Chestermarke mansion. It looked +like the abode of dead men. + +Starmidge longed to knock at that door--if only to get a peep inside the +hall. But he curbed his desires and went quietly round the corner of the +house. There was a high black wall there which led down to the grassy +bank of the river. From its corner another wall ran along the +river-side, separated from the stream by a path. There was a door set in +this wall, and Starmidge, after carefully looking round in the gloom, +quietly tried it and found it securely locked. + +An intense desire to see the inside of Joseph Chestermarke's garden +seized the detective. Near the door, partly overhanging the garden wall, +partly overshadowing the path and the river-bank, was a tree: Starmidge, +after listening carefully and deciding that no one was coming along the +path, made shift to climb that tree, just then bursting into full leaf. +In another minute he was amongst its middle branches, and peering +inquisitively into the garden which lay between him and the gaunt +outline of the gloom-stricken house. + +The moon was just then rising above the roofs and gables of the town, +and by its rapidly increasing light Starmidge saw that the garden was of +considerable size, running back quite sixty yards from the rear of the +house, and having a corresponding breadth. Like all the gardens which +stretched from the backs of the Market-Place houses to the river-bank, +it was rich in trees--high elms and beeches rose from its lawns, and +made deep shadows across them. But Starmidge was not so much interested +in those trees, fine as they were, as in a building; obviously modern, +which was set in their midst, completely isolated. That it was a +comparatively new building he could see; the moonbeams falling full on +it showed that the stone of which it was built was fresh and unstained +by time or smoke. But what was it? Of what nature, for what purpose? It +was neither stable, nor coach-house, nor summer-house, nor a grouping of +domestic offices. No drive or path led to it: it was built in the middle +of a grass-plot: round it ran a stone-lined trench. Its architecture was +plain but handsome; it possessed two distinctive features which the +detective was quick to notice. One, was that--at any rate on the two +sides which he could see--its windows were set at a height of quite +twelve feet from the ground: the other, that from its flat parapeted +roof rose a conical structure something like the rounded stacks of glass +foundries and potteries. This was obviously a chimney, and from its +mouth at that moment was emerging a slight column of smoke which threw +back curiously coloured reflections, blue, and yellow, and red, to the +moonlight which fell on its thickening spirals. + +Starmidge felt just as much desire to get inside this queer structure as +into the house behind it, and if he could have seen any prospect of +taking a peep through its windows he would have risked detection and +dropped from his perch into the garden. But he judged that if the +windows were twelve feet from the ground on the two sides of the +building which he could see, they would be the same height on the sides +which he couldn't see; moreover, he observed that they were obscured by +either dull red glass or red curtains. Clearly no outsider was intended +to get a peep into this temple of mystery. What was it? What went on +within it? He was about to climb down from the tree when he got some +sort of an answer to these questions. From within the building, muffled +by the evidently thick walls, came the faintest sound of metal beating +on metal--a mere rippling, tinkling sound, light and musical, such as +might have been made by fairy blacksmiths beating on a fairy anvil. But +far away as it sounded, it was clear and unmistakable. + +Starmidge regained the path between the wall and the river and went +slowly forward. The place, he decided, was evidently some sort of a +workshop, in which was a forge: probably Joseph Chestermarke amused +himself with a little amateur work in metals. He thought no more of the +matter just then; he wanted to explore the river-bank along which he now +walked. For according to the story of the landlady of the Station Hotel, +it was on that river-bank that the mysterious stranger was to meet +whoever it was that he spoke to over the telephone, and so far +Starmidge had not had an opportunity of examining its geography. + +There was not much to examine. The river, a mere ditch, eight or ten +yards in breadth, wandered through a level mead at the base of the +valley, separated from the gardens by a wide path. Between Scarnham +Bridge, at the foot of Cornmarket and the corner of Joseph +Chestermarke's big garden, and the end of Cordmaker's Alley, a narrow +street which ran down from the further end of the Market-Place to the +river-side, there were no features of any note or interest. On the other +side of the river lay the deep woods through which Neale and Betty +Fosdyke had passed on their way to Ellersdeane Hollow: Starmidge had +heard all about that expedition, and he glanced curiously at the black +depths of the trees, wondering if John Horbury and the mysterious +stranger, supposing they had met, had turned into these woods to hold +their conference. He presently came to the foot-bridge by which access +to the woods and the other bank of the river was gained, and by it he +lingered for a moment or two, looking at it in its bearings to the +bank-house garden and orchard on his left hand, and to the Station +Hotel, the lights of which he could plainly see down the valley. +Certainly, if John Horbury and the stranger desired to meet in secret, +here was the place. The stranger had nothing to do but stroll along the +river-bank from the hotel; Horbury had only to step out of his orchard +and meet him. Once together, they had only to cross that foot-bridge +into the woods to be immediately in surroundings of great privacy. + +Starmidge turned up Cordmaker's Alley, regained the Market-Place, and +strolled on to Polke's private house. The superintendent was taking his +ease after his day's labours and reading the Ecclesborough evening +newspapers: he tossed one of them over to his visitor. + +"All there!" he said, pointing to some big headlines. "Got it all in, +just as you told it to Parkinson. Full justice to the descriptions of +both Horbury and the Station Hotel stranger. Smart work, eh?" + +"Power of the Press--as Parkinson said," answered Starmidge, with a +laugh. "It's very useful, the Press: I don't know how they managed +without it in the old days of criminal catching, Mr. Polke. Press and +telegraph, eh?--they're valuable adjuncts." + +"You think all that would be in the London papers this evening?" asked +Polke. + +"Sure to be," replied Starmidge. "I'm hoping we'll hear something from +London tomorrow. I say--I've been taking a bit of a look round one or +two places tonight, quietly, you know. What's that curious building in +Joseph Chestermarke's garden?" + +Polke put down his paper and looked unusually interested. + +"I don't know!" he answered. "How did you see it? I've never seen inside +his garden." + +"Climbed a tree on the river-bank and looked over the wall," replied +Starmidge. + +"Well," said Polke, "I did hear, some few years ago, that he was +building something in that garden, but the work was done by +Ecclesborough contractors, and nobody ever knew much about it here. I +believe Joseph's a bit of an amateur experimenter--but I don't know what +he experiments in. Nobody ever goes inside his house--he's a hermit." + +"He's got some sort of a forge there, anyhow," said Starmidge. "Or a +furnace, or something of that sort." + +Then they talked of other things until half-past ten, when the detective +retired to his inn and went to bed. He was sleeping soundly when a +steady knocking at his door roused him, to hear the voice of his +landlady outside. And at the same time he heard the big clock of the +parish church striking midnight. + +"Mr. Starmidge!" said the voice, "there's a policeman wanting you. Will +you go round at once to Mr. Polke's? There's a man come from London +about that piece in the newspapers." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MR. FREDERICK HOLLIS + + +Starmidge hastily pulled some garments about him, and flinging a +travelling-coat over his shoulders, hurried downstairs, to find a +sleepy-looking policeman in the hall. + +"How did this man get here--at this time of night?" he asked, as they +set off towards the police-station. + +"Came in a taxi-cab from Ecclesborough," answered the policeman. "I +haven't heard any particulars, Mr. Starmidge, except that he'd read the +news in the London paper this evening and set off here in consequence. +He's in Mr. Polke's house, sir." + +Starmidge walked into the superintendent's parlour, to find him in +company with a young man, whom the detective at once sized up as a +typical London clerk--a second glance assured him that his clerkship was +of the legal variety. + +"Here's Detective-Sergeant Starmidge," said Polke. "Starmidge, this +gentleman's Mr. Simmons, from London. Mr. Simmons says he's clerk to a +Mr. Hollis, a London solicitor. And, having read that description in the +papers this last evening, he's certain that the man who came to the +Station Hotel here on Saturday is his governor." + +Starmidge sat down and looked again at the visitor--a tall, +sandy-haired, freckled young man, who was obviously a good deal puzzled. + +"Is Mr. Hollis missing, then?" asked Starmidge. + +Simmons looked as if he found it somewhat difficult to explain matters. + +"Well," he answered. "It's this way. I've never seen him since Saturday. +And he hasn't been at his rooms--his private rooms--since Saturday. In +the ordinary course he ought to have been at business first thing +yesterday--we'd some very important business on yesterday morning, which +wasn't done because of his absence. He never turned up yesterday at +all--nor today either--we never heard from or of him. And so, when I +read that description in the papers this evening, I caught the first +express I could get down here--at least to Ecclesborough--I had to motor +from there." + +"That description describes Mr. Hollis, then?" asked Starmidge. + +"Exactly! I'm sure it's Mr. Hollis--it's him to a T!" answered the +clerk. "I recognized it at once." + +"Let's get everything in order," said Starmidge, with a glance at Polke. +"To begin with, who is Mr. Hollis?" + +"Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, 59B South Square, Gray's Inn," replied +Simmons promptly. "Andwell & Hollis is the name of the firm--but there +isn't any Andwell--hasn't been for many a year--he's dead, long since, +is Andwell. Mr. Hollis is the only proprietor." + +"Don't know him at all," remarked Starmidge. "What's his particular line +of practice?" + +"Conveyancing," said Simmons. + +"Then, naturally, I shouldn't," observed Starmidge. "My acquaintance is +chiefly with police-court solicitors. And you say he'd private rooms +some where? Where, now?" + +"Paper Buildings, Temple," replied the clerk. "He'd a suite of rooms +there--he's had 'em for years." + +"Bachelor, then?" inquired the detective. + +"Yes--he's a bachelor," agreed Simmons. + +"You know he hasn't been at his rooms since Saturday--you've ascertained +that?" continued Starmidge. + +"He's never been at his rooms since he left them after breakfast on +Saturday morning," replied Simmons. "I went there at eleven o'clock +Monday--that was yesterday--again at four: twice on Tuesday. I was +coming away from the Temple when I got the paper and read about this +affair." + +"When did you see him last?" asked Starmidge. + +"Half-past-twelve Saturday. He went out--dressed just as it says in your +description. And," concluded the clerk, with a shake of his head which +suggested his own inability to understand matters, "he never said a word +to me about coming down here." + +"Did he say anything to anybody at his rooms about going away?--for the +week-end, for instance?" asked the detective. "There'd be somebody +there, of course." + +"Only a woman who tidied up for him and got his breakfast ready of a +morning," said Simmons. "He took all his other meals out. No--he said +nothing to her. But he wasn't a week-ender: he very rarely left his +rooms except for the office." + +"Any of his relations been after him?" inquired Starmidge. + +"I don't know anything about his relations--nor friends, either," +answered the clerk. "Don't even know the address of one of them, or I'd +have gone to seek him on Monday--everything's at a standstill. He was a +lonely sort of man--I never heard of his relations or friends." + +"How long have you been with him, then?" asked the detective. "Some +time?" + +"Six years," replied Simmons. + +"And you've no doubt, from the description in the papers, that the +gentleman who came here on Saturday last is Mr. Hollis?" asked +Starmidge. + +The clerk shook his head with an air of conviction. + +"None!" he answered. "None whatever!" + +Starmidge helped himself to a cigar out of an open box which lay on +Polke's table. He lighted it carefully, and smoked for a minute or two +in silence. Then he looked at Polke. + +"Well, there's a very obvious question to put to Mr. Simmons after all +that," he remarked. "Have you any idea," he continued, turning to the +clerk, "of any reason that would bring Mr. Hollis to Scarnham?" + +Simmons shook his head more vigorously than before. + +"Not the ghost of an idea!" he exclaimed. + +"There was no business being done with anybody at Scarnham?" asked +Starmidge. + +"Not in our office!" asserted Simmons. "I'm sure of that. I know all the +business that we have in hand. To tell you the truth, gentlemen, though +you may think me very ignorant, I never even heard of Scarnham myself +until I read the paper this evening." + +"Quite excusable," said Starmidge. "I never heard of it myself until +Monday. Well--this is all very queer, Mr. Simmons. What does Mr. Polke +think? And what's Mr. Polke got to suggest!" + +Polke, who had been listening silently, turned to the clerk. + +"Did you chance to look at Mr. Hollis's letters--recent letters, I +mean--" he asked, "to see if you would find anything inviting him down +here?" + +"I did," replied Simmons promptly. "I looked through all the letters on +his desk and in his drawers yesterday afternoon. I didn't find anything +that explained his absence. And when I was at his rooms this evening I +looked at some letters on his mantelpiece--nothing there. I tell you, I +haven't the least notion as to what could bring him to Scarnham." + +"And I suppose none of your fellow-clerks have, either?" asked Polke. + +Simmons smiled and glanced at Starmidge. + +"We've only myself and another--a junior clerk--and a boy," he said. +"It's not a big practice--only a bit of good conveyancing now and then, +and some family business. Mr. Hollis isn't dependent on it--he's private +means of his own." + +"Aye, just so!" observed Polke. "And I should say, Starmidge, that it +was private business brought him down here--if he's the man, as he +certainly seems to be. But--whose?" + +Starmidge turned again to the clerk. + +"You've a good memory, I can see," he said. "Now, did you ever hear Mr. +Hollis mention the name of Horbury?" + +"Never!" replied Simmons. + +"Did you ever hear him speak of Chestermarke's Bank?" asked Starmidge. + +"No--never! Never heard either name in my life until I saw them in the +papers," asserted Simmons. + +"Who looks after the banking account at Hollis's?" asked the detective. +"I mean, the business account--you know. Not his private one." + +"I do," said Simmons. "Always have done since I went there." + +"You never saw any cheques paid to those names--or any cheques from +them?" inquired Starmidge. "Think, now!" + +"No--I'm absolutely sure of it," said the clerk. "Horbury, perhaps, I +might not remember, but I should have remembered Chestermarke--it's an +uncommon name, that--to me, anyway." + +"Well," said Starmidge, after a pause, during which all three looked at +each other as men look who have come to a dead stop in the progress of +things, "there's one thing very certain, Mr. Simmons. If that was your +governor who came down to the Station Hotel here on Saturday evening +last, he certainly telephoned from there to Chestermarke's Bank as soon +as he arrived. And he got a reply from there, and he evidently went out +to meet whoever sent it--that sender seeming to be Mr. Horbury, the +manager. And so," he concluded, turning to Polke, "what we've got to +find out is--what did Hollis come here at all for?" + +"We shan't find that out tonight," said Polke, with a yawn. + +"Quite so--so we'll adjourn till morning, when Mr. Simmons shall see Mrs. +Pratt--just to establish things," remarked Starmidge. "In the meantime +he'd better come round with me to my place, and I'll get him a bed." + +Neither the police-superintendent nor the detective had the slightest +doubt after hearing Simmons' story that the man who presented himself at +the Station Hotel at Scarnham on the evening of John Horbury's +disappearance was Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, of Gray's Inn. If +they had still retained any doubt it would have disappeared next morning +when they took the clerk down to see Mrs. Pratt. The landlady described +her customer even more fully than before: Simmons had no doubt whatever +that she described his employer: he wouldn't have been more certain, he +said, that Mrs. Pratt was talking about Mr. Hollis, if she'd shown him a +photograph of that gentleman. + +"So we can take that for settled," remarked Polke, as the three left the +hotel and went back to the town. "The man who came here last Saturday +night was Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, of South Square, Gray's Inn, +London. That's established, I take it, Starmidge?" + +"Seems so," agreed the detective. + +"Then the next question is--Where's he got to?" said Polke. + +"I think the next question is--Has anybody ever heard of him in +connection with Mr. Horbury, or the Chestermarkes?" observed Starmidge. +"There's no doubt he came down here to see one or other of +them--Horbury, most likely." + +"And who's to tell us anything?" asked Polke. + +"Miss Fosdyke's a relation of Horbury's," replied Starmidge. "She may +know Hollis by name. Mr. Neale's always been in touch with Horbury--he +may have heard of Hollis. And--so may the bankers." + +"The difficulty is to make them say anything," said Polke. "They'll only +tell what they please." + +"Let's try the other two, anyway," counselled Starmidge. "They may be +able to tell something. For as sure as I am what I am, the whole secret +of this business lies in Hollis's coming down here to see Horbury, and +in what followed on their meeting. If we could only get to know what +Hollis came here for--ah!" + +But they got no further information from either Betty Fosdyke or +Wallington Neale. Neither had ever heard of Mr. Frederick Hollis, of +Gray's Inn. Betty was certain, beyond doubt, that he was no relation of +the missing bank-manager: she had the whole family-tree of the Horburys +at her finger-ends, she declared: no Hollis was connected with even its +outlying twigs. Neale had never heard the name of Hollis mentioned by +Horbury. And he added that he was absolutely sure that during the last +five years no person of that name had ever had dealings with +Chestermarke's Bank--open dealings, at any rate. Secret dealings with +the partners, severally or collectively, or with Horbury, for that +matter, Mr. Hollis might have had, but Neale was certain he had had no +ordinary business with any of them. + +Polke took heart of grace and led Simmons across to the bank. To his +astonishment, the partners now received him readily and politely; they +even listened with apparent interest to the clerk's story, and asked him +some questions arising out of it. But each declared that he knew nothing +about Mr. Frederick Hollis, and was utterly unaware of any reason that +could bring him to Scarnham: it was certainly on no business of theirs, +as a firm, or as private individuals, that he came. + +"He came, of course, to see Horbury," said Joseph at last. "That's dead +certain. No doubt they met. And after that--well, they seem to have +vanished together." + +Gabriel followed Polke into the hall and drew him aside. + +"Did this clerk tell you whether his master was a man of standing?" he +asked. + +"Man of private means, Mr. Chestermarke, with a small, highly +respectable practice--a conveyancing solicitor," answered Polke. + +"Oh!" replied Gabriel. "Just so. Well--we know nothing about him." + +Polke and his companion returned to the Scarnham Arms, where Starmidge +was in consultation with Betty and Neale. + +"They know nothing at all over there," he reported. "Never heard of +Hollis. What's to be done now!" + +"Mr. Simmons must do the next thing," answered the detective. "Get back +to town, Mr. Simmons, and put yourself in communication with every +single one of Mr. Hollis's clients--you know them all, of course. Find +out if any of them gave Mr. Hollis any business that would send him to +Scarnham. Don't leave a stone unturned in that way! And the moment you +have any information, however slight, wire to me, here--on the +instant." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE LEAD MINE + + +Starmidge and Polke presently left--to walk down to the railway station +with the bewildered clerk; when they had gone, Betty turned to Neale, +who was hanging about her sitting-room with no obvious intention of +leaving it. + +"While these people are doing what they can in their way, is there +nothing we can do in ours?" she asked. "I hate sitting here doing +nothing at all! You're a free man now, Wallie--can't you suggest +something?" + +Neale was thoroughly enjoying his first taste of liberty. He felt as if +he had just been released from a long term of imprisonment. To be +absolutely free to do what he liked with himself, during the whole of a +spring day, was a sensation so novel that he was holding closely to it, +half-fearful that it might all be a dream from which it would be a +terrible thing to awake--to see one of Chestermarke's ledgers under his +nose. And this being a wonderfully fine morning, he had formed certain +sly designs of luring Betty away into the country, and having the whole +day with her. A furtive glance at her, however, showed him that Miss +Fosdyke's thoughts and ideas just then were entirely business-like, but +a happy inspiration suggested to him that business and pleasure might be +combined. + +"We ought to go and see if that tinker chap's found out or heard +anything," he said. "You remember he promised to keep his eyes and ears +open. And we might do a little looking round the country for ourselves: +I haven't much faith in those local policemen and gamekeepers. Why not +make a day of it, going round? I know a place--nice old inn, the other +side of Ellersdeane--where we can get some lunch. Much better making +inquiries for ourselves," he concluded insinuatingly, "than sitting +about waiting for news." + +"Didn't I say so?" exclaimed Betty. "Come on, then!--I'm ready. Where +first?" + +"Let's see the tinker first," said Neale. "He's a sharp man--he may have +something else to tell by now." + +He led his companion out of the town by way of Scarnham Bridge, pointing +out Joseph Chestermarke's gloomy house to her as they passed it. + +"I'd give a lot," he remarked, as they turned on to the open moor which +led towards Ellersdeane Hollow, "to know if either of the Chestermarkes +really did know anything about that chap Hollis coming to the town on +Saturday. I shouldn't be a bit surprised if they did. Those detective +fellows like Starmidge are very clever in their way, but they always +seem to me to stop thinking a bit too soon. Now both Starmidge and Polke +seem to take it for certain that this Hollis went to meet Horbury when +he left the Station Hotel. There's no proof that he went to meet +Horbury--none!" + +"Whom might he have gone to meet, then?" demanded Betty. + +"You listen to me a bit," said Neale. "I've been thinking it over. +Hollis comes to the Station Hotel and uses their telephone. Mrs. Pratt +overhears him call up Chestermarke's Bank--that's certain. Then she goes +away, about her business. An interval elapses. Then she hears some +appointment made, with somebody, along the river bank, for that evening. +But--that interval during which Mrs. Pratt didn't overhear? How do we +know that the person with whom Hollis began his conversation was the +same person with whom he finished it? Come, now!" + +"Wallie, that's awfully clever of you!" exclaimed Betty. "How did you +come to think of such an ingenious notion?" + +"Worked it out," answered Neale. "This way! Hollis comes down to +Scarnham to see Chestermarke's Bank--which means one of the partners. He +rings up the bank. He speaks to somebody there. How do we know that +somebody was Horbury? We don't! It may have been Mrs. Carswell. Now +supposing the real person Hollis wanted to see was either Gabriel or +Joseph Chestermarke? Very well--this person who answered from the bank +would put Hollis on to either of them at once. Gabriel has a telephone +at the Warren: Joseph has a telephone at his home yonder behind us. It +may have been with either Gabriel or Joseph that Hollis finished his +conversation. And--if it was finished with one of them, it was, in my +opinion, whatever that's worth, with Master Joseph!" + +"What makes you think that?" asked Betty, startled by the suggestion. + +Neale laid a hand on the girl's arm and turned her round to face the +town. He lifted his stick and pointed at Joseph Chestermarke's high +roof, towering above the houses around it; then he swept the stick +towards the river and its course, plainly to be followed, in the +direction of the station. + +"You see Joseph's house there," he said. "You see the river--the path +along its bank--going right down to the meadow opposite the Station +Hotel? Very well--now, supposing it was Joseph with whom Hollis wound up +that telephone talk, suppose it was Joseph whom Hollis was to see. What +would happen? Joseph knew that Hollis was at the Station Hotel. The +straightest and easiest way from the Station Hotel to Joseph's house +is--straight along the river bank. Now then, call on your memory! What +did Mrs. Pratt tell us? 'When I was going back to the bar,' says Mrs. +Pratt, 'I heard more. "Along the river-side," says the gentleman. +"Straight on from where I am--all right." Then, after a minute, "At +seven-thirty, then?" he says. "All right--I'll meet you." And after +that,' concludes Mrs. Pratt, 'he rings off.' Now, why shouldn't it be +Joseph Chestermarke that he was going to meet?--remember, again, the +river-side path leads straight to Joseph's house. Come!--Mrs. Pratt's +story doesn't point conclusively to Horbury at all. It's as I say--the +telephone conversation may have begun with Horbury, but it may have +ended with--somebody else. And what I say is--who was the precise +person whom Hollis went to meet?" + +"Are you going to tell all that to Starmidge?" asked Betty admiringly. +"Because I'm sure it's never entered his head--so far." + +"Depends," replied Neale. "Let's see if the tinker has anything to tell. +He's at home, anyway. There's his fire." + +A spiral of blue smoke, curling high above the green and gold of the +gorse bushes, revealed Creasy's whereabouts. He had shifted his camp +since their first meeting with him: his tilted cart, his tethered pony, +and his fire, were now in a hollow considerably nearer the town. Neale +and Betty looked down into his retreat to find him busily mending a +collection of pots and pans, evidently gathered up during his round of +the previous day. He greeted his visitors with a smile, and fetched a +three-legged stool from his cart for Betty's better accommodation. + +"Heard anything?" asked Neale, seating himself on a log of wood. + +The tinker pointed to several newspapers which lay near at hand, kept +from blowing away by a stone placed on the uppermost. + +"Only what's in these," he answered. "I've read all that--so I'm pretty +well posted up, mister. I've just read this morning's--bought it in the +town when I went to fetch some bread. Queer affair altogether, I call +it!" + +"Have you looked round about at all?" asked Betty. + +"I've been a good bit over the Hollow, miss," answered Creasy. "But +it's a stiff job seeking anything here. There's nobody knows what a +wilderness this Hollow is until they begin exploring it. +Holes--corners--nooks--crannies--bracken and bushes--it is a wilderness, +and that's a fact! I'd engage to hide myself safely in this square mile +for many a week, against a hundred seekers. It wouldn't a bit surprise +me, you know, if it comes out in the end that Mr. Horbury, after all, +did fall down one of these old shafts. I couldn't believe it possible at +first, knowing that he knew every in and out of the place, but I'm +beginning to think he may have done. There's only one thing against that +theory." + +"What?" asked Betty. + +"Where's the other gentleman?" answered the tinker. "If they came +together on to this waste, one couldn't fall down a shaft without the +other knowing it, eh? And it's scarcely likely they'd both fall down." + +Neale glanced at Betty and shook his head. + +"There you are, you see!" he muttered. "They all hang to the notion that +Hollis did meet Horbury! Mr. Horbury may have been alone, after all, you +know," he went on, turning to Creasy. "There's no proof that the other +gentleman was with him." + +"Aye, well--I'm going on what these paper accounts say," answered +Creasy. "They all take it for granted that those two were together. +Well, about these old shaftings, mister--I did notice something very +early this morning that I thought might be looked into." + +"What is it?" asked Neale. "Don't let's lose any chance of finding +anything out, however small it may be." + +The tinker finished mending a kettle and set it aside amongst other +renovated articles. He lifted the pan of solder off the fire, set it +aside, too, and got up. + +"Come this way, then," he said. "I was going in to Scarnham this noon to +tell Mr Polke about it, but as long as you're here----" + +He led the way through the thick gorse and heather until he came to a +narrow track which wound across the moor in the direction of the town. +There he paused, pointing towards Ellersdeane on the one hand, towards +Scarnham on the other. + +"You see this track, mister?" he said. "You'll notice that it goes to +Ellersdeane village that way, and to Scarnham this. Of course, you can't +see it all the way in either direction, but you can take my word for +it--it does. It comes out at Ellersdeane by the duck-pond, at Scarnham +by the bridge at the foot of Cornmarket. People who know it would follow +it if they wanted a short cut across the moor from the town to the +village--or the opposite, as you might say. Now then, look here--a bit +this way." + +He preceded them along the narrow track until, on an open space in the +moorland, they came to one of the old lead-mine shafts, the mouth of +which had been fenced in by a roughly built wall of stone gathered from +its immediate surroundings. In this wall, extending from its parapet to +the ground, was a wide gap: the stones which had been displaced to make +it had disappeared into the cavernous opening. + +"Now then!" said the tinker, turning on his companions with the +inquiring look of a man who advances a theory which may or may not be +accepted as reasonable, "you see that? What I'd like to know is--is that +a recently made gap? It's difficult to tell. If this bit of a stone +fence had been built with mortar, one could have told. But it's never +had mortar or lime in it!--it's just rough masonry, as you see--stones +picked up off the moor, like all these fences round the old shafts. +But--there's the gap right enough! Do you know what I'm thinking?" + +"No!" murmured Betty, with a glance of fear and doubt at the black vista +which she saw through the gap. "But--don't be afraid to speak." + +"I'm thinking this," continued the tinker: "Supposing a man was +following this track from Ellersdeane to Scarnham, or t'other way about, +as it might be--supposing he was curious to look down one of these old +shafts--supposing he looked down this one, which stands, as you see, not +two yards off the very track he was following--supposing he leaned his +weight on this rotten bit of fencing--supposing it gave way? What?" + +Neale, who had been listening intently, made a movement as if to lay his +hand on the grey stones. Betty seized him impulsively. + +"Don't, Wallie!" she exclaimed. "That frightens me!" + +Creasy lifted his foot and pressed it against the stones at one edge of +the gap. Before even that slight pressure three or four blocks gave way +and dropped inward--the sound of their fall came dully from the depths +beneath. + +"You see," said the tinker, "it's possible. It might be. And--as you can +tell from the time it takes a stone to drop--it's a long way down there. +They're very deep, these old mines." + +Neale turned from the broken wall and looked narrowly at the ground +about it. + +"I don't see any signs of anybody being about here recently," he +remarked. "There are no footmarks." + +"There couldn't be, mister," said Creasy. "You could march a regiment of +soldiers over this moorland grass for many an hour, and there'd be no +footprints on it when they'd gone--it's that wiry and strong. No!--if +half a dozen men had been standing about here when one fell in--or if +two or three men had come here to throw another man in," he added +significantly, "there'd be no footmarks. Try it--you can't grind an +iron-shod heel like mine into this turf." + +"It's all very horrible!" said Betty, still staring at the black gap +with its suggestions of subterranean horror. "If one only knew----" + +The tinker turned and looked at the two young people as if he were +estimating their strength. + +"What are you wondering about?" asked Neale. + +Creasy smiled as he glanced again at Betty. + +"Well," he replied, "you're a pretty strong young fellow, mister, I take +it, and the young lady looks as if she'd got a bit of good muscle about +her. If you two could manage one end of a rope, I'd go down into that +shaft at the other end--a bit of the way, at any rate. And then--I'd let +down a lantern and see if there's aught to be seen." + +Betty turned anxiously to Neale, and Neale looked the tinker over with +appraising eyes. + +"I could pull you up myself," he answered. "You're no great weight. And +haven't those shafts got props and stays down the side?" + +"Aye, but they'll be thoroughly rotten by this," said Creasy. "Well, +we'll try it. Come to my cart--I've plenty of stuff there." + +"You're sure there's no danger?" asked Betty. "Don't imperil yourself!" + +"No danger, so long as you two'll stick to this end of the rope," said +Creasy. "I shan't go too far down." + +The tilted cart proved to contain all sorts of useful things: they +presently returned to the shaft with two coils of stout rope, a crowbar, +a lantern attached to a length of strong cord, and a great +sledge-hammer, with which the tinker drove the crowbar firmly into the +ground some ten or twelve feet from the edge of the gap. He made one end +of the first rope fast to this; the other end he securely knotted about +his waist; one end of the second rope he looped under his armpits, and +handed the other to Neale; then, lighting his lantern, he prepared to +descend, having first explained the management of the ropes to his +assistants. + +"All you've got to do," he said reassuringly to Betty, "is to hold on to +this second rope and let me down, gradual-like. When I say 'Pull,' draw +up--I'll help, hand over hand, up this first rope. Simple enough!--and I +shan't go too far." + +Nevertheless, he exhausted the full length of both ropes, and it seemed +a long time before they heard anything of him. Betty, frightened of what +she might hear, fearful lest Neale should go too near the edge of the +shaft, began to get nervous at the delay, and it was with a great sense +of relief that she at last heard the signal. + +The tinker came hand over hand up the stationary rope, helped by the +second one: his face, appearing over the edge of the gap, was grave and +at first inscrutable. He shook himself when he stepped above ground, as +if he wanted to shake off an impression: then he turned and spoke in a +whisper. + +"It's as I thought it might be!" he said. "There's a dead man down +there!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ACCIDENT OR MURDER? + + +Betty checked the cry of horror which instinctively started to her lips, +and turned to Neale with a look which he was quick to interpret. He +moved nearer to the tinker, who was unwinding the rope from his waist. + +"You couldn't tell--what man?" he asked, in low tones. + +Creasy shook his head with a look of dislike for what he had seen by the +light of his lantern. + +"No!" he answered. "'Twasn't possible, mister. But--a man there is! And +dead, naturally. And--a long way it is, too, down to the bottom of that +place!" + +"What's to be done?" asked Neale. + +The tinker slowly coiled up his ropes, and laid them in order by the +crowbar. + +"There's only one thing to be done," he answered, after a reflective +pause. "We shall have to get him up. That'll be a job! Do you and the +young lady go back to Scarnham, and tell Polke what we've found, and let +him come out here with a man or two. I'll go into Ellersdeane yonder and +get some help--and a windlass--can't do without that. There's a man +that sinks wells in Ellersdeane--I'll get him and his men to come back +with me. Then we can set to work." + +Creasy moved away as he finished speaking, untethered his pony, threw an +old saddle across its back, and without further remark rode off in the +direction of the village, while Neale and Betty turned back to Scarnham. +For a while neither broke the silence which had followed the tinker's +practical suggestions; when Betty at last spoke it was in a hushed +voice. + +"Wallie!" she said, "do you think that can possibly be--Uncle John?" + +"No!" answered Neale sharply, "I don't! I don't believe it possible that +he would be so foolish as to lean over a rotten bit of walling like +that--he'd know the danger of it." + +"Then it must be--the other man--Hollis!" said Betty. + +"Maybe," agreed Neale. "If it is----" + +He paused, and Betty looked at his set face as if she were wondering +what he was thinking of. + +"What?" she asked timidly. "You're uneasy about something." + +"It's a marvel to me--if it is Hollis--however he comes to be there," +answered Neale at last. "According to all we know, he certainly went to +meet somebody on Saturday night. I can't think how anybody who knew the +district would have let a stranger do such a risky thing as to lean over +one of those shafts. Besides, if anybody was with him, and there was an +accident, why hasn't the accident been reported? Betty!--it's more like +murder!" + +"You think he may have been thrown down there?" she asked fearfully. + +"Thrown down or forced down--it's all the same," said Neale. "There may +have been a struggle--a fight. But there, what's the use of speculating? +We don't even know whose body it is yet. Let's get on and tell those +police chaps." + +Turning off the open moor on to the highway at the corner of Scarnham +Bridge, they suddenly came face to face with Gabriel Chestermarke, who, +for once in a way, was walking instead of driving into the town. The two +young people, emerging from the shelter of a high hedgerow which +bordered the moorland at that point, started at sight of the banker's +colourless face, cold and set as usual. But Gabriel betrayed no +surprise, and was in no way taken aback. He lifted his hat in silence, +and was marching on when Neale impulsively hailed him. + +"Mr. Chestermarke!" he exclaimed. + +Gabriel halted and turned, looking at his late clerk with absolute +impassiveness. He made no remark, and stood like a statue, waiting for +Neale to speak. + +"You may like to know," said Neale, coming up to him, "we have just +found the body of a man on the moor--Ellersdeane Hollow." + +Gabriel showed no surprise. No light came into his eyes, no colour to +his cheek. It seemed a long time before his firmly set lips relaxed. + +"A man?" he said quietly. "What man?" + +"We don't know," answered Neale. "All we know is, there's a man's body +lying at the bottom of one of the old shafts up there--near Ellersdeane +Tower. The tinker who camps out there has just seen it--he's been partly +down the shaft." + +"And--did not recognize it?" asked Gabriel. + +"No--it was too far beneath him," replied Neale. "He's gone into the +village to get help." + +Gabriel lingered a moment, and then, lifting his hat again, began to +move forward towards the town. + +"I should advise you to acquaint the police, Mr. Neale," he said. +"Good-morning!" + +He marched away, stiffly upright, across the bridge and up the +Cornmarket, and Neale and Betty followed. + +"Why did you tell--him?" asked Betty. + +Neale threw a glance of something very like scorn after the retreating +figure. + +"Wanted to see how he'd take it!" he answered. "Bah!--Gabriel +Chestermarke's no better than a wax figure! You might as well tell a +marble image any news of this sort as tell him! You'd have thought he'd +have had sufficient human feeling in him to say that he hoped it wasn't +your uncle, anyhow!" + +"No, I shouldn't," said Betty. "I sized Gabriel up--and Joseph, +too--when I walked into their parlour the other afternoon. They haven't +any feelings--you might as well expect to get feeling out of a fish." + +They met Starmidge in the Market-Place--talking to Parkinson. Neale told +the news to both. The journalist dashed into his office for his hat, and +made off to Ellersdeane Hollow: Starmidge turned to the police-station +with his information. + +"No one else knows, I suppose?" he remarked, as they went along. + +"Gabriel Chestermarke knows," answered Neale. "We met him as we were +coming off the moor and I told him." + +"Show any surprise?" asked the detective. + +"Neither surprise nor anything else," said Neale. "Absolutely +unaffected!" + +Polke, hearing the news, immediately bustled into activity, sending for +a cab in which to drive along the road to a point near Ellersdeane +Tower, from which they could reach the lead mine. But he shook his head +when he saw that Betty meant to return. + +"Don't, miss!" he urged. "Stay here in town--you'd far better. It's not +a nice job for ladies, aught of that sort. Wait at the hotel--do, now!" + +"Doing nothing!" exclaimed Betty. "That would be far worse. Let me +go--I'm not afraid of anything. And to hang about, waiting and +wondering--" + +Neale, who had been about to enter the cab with the police, drew back. + +"You go on," he said to Polke. "Get things through--Miss Fosdyke and I +will walk slowly back there. We won't come close up till you can tell us +something definite. Don't you see she's anxious about her uncle?--we +can't keep her waiting." + +He rejoined Betty as Polke and his men drove off: together they turned +again in the direction of the bridge. Once across it and on the moor, +Neale made the girl sit down on a ledge of rock at some distance from +the lead mine, but within sight of it: he himself, while he talked to +her, stood watching the figures grouped about the shaft. Creasy had +evidently succeeded in getting help at once: Neale saw men fixing a +windlass over the mouth of the old mine; saw a man at last disappear +into its depths. And after a long pause he saw from the movements of the +other men that the body had been drawn to the surface and that they were +bending over it. A moment later, Starmidge separated himself from the +rest, and came in Neale's direction. He nodded his head energetically at +Betty as he drew within speaking distance. + +"All right, Miss Fosdyke!" he said. "It's not your uncle. But--it's the +other man, Mr. Neale!--no doubt of it!" + +"Hollis!" exclaimed Neale. + +"It's the man described by Mrs. Pratt and Simmons--that's certain," +answered the detective. "So there's one mystery settled--though it makes +all the rest stranger than ever. Now, Miss Fosdyke, that'll be some +relief to you--so don't come any nearer. But just spare Mr. Neale a few +minutes--I want to speak to him." + +Betty obediently turned back to the ledge of rock, and Neale walked with +Starmidge towards the group around the shaft. + +"Can you tell anything?" he asked. "Are there any signs of violence?--I +mean, does it look as if he'd been----" + +"Thrown in there?" said the detective calmly. "Ah!--it's a bit early to +decide that. The only thing I'm thinking of now is the fact that this is +Hollis! That's certain, Mr. Neale. Now what could he be doing on this +lonely bit of ground? Where does this track lead?" + +"It's a short cut from Scarnham Bridge corner to the middle of +Ellersdeane village," answered Neale, pointing one way and then the +other. + +"And Gabriel Chestermarke lives in Ellersdeane, doesn't he?" asked +Starmidge. "Or close by?" + +Neale indicated certain chimneys rising amongst the trees on the far +side of the Hollow. "He lives there--The Warren," he replied. + +"Um!" mused Starmidge. "I wonder if this poor fellow was making his way +there--to see him?" + +"How should he--a stranger--know of this short cut?" demurred Neale. "I +don't think that's very likely." + +"That's true--unless he'd had it pointed out to him," rejoined +Starmidge. "It's odd, anyway, that his body should be found half-way, as +it were, between Gabriel Chestermarke's place and Joseph Chestermarke's +house--isn't it now? But, Lord bless you!--we're only on the fringe of +this business as yet. Well--just take a look at him." + +Neale walked within the group of bystanders, feeling an intense dislike +and loathing of the whole thing. In obedience to Starmidge's wish, he +looked steadily at the dead man and turned away. + +"You don't know him?--never saw him during the five years you were at +the bank?" whispered the detective. "Think!--make certain, now." + +"Never saw him in my life!" declared Neale, stepping back. "I neither +know him nor anything about him." + +"I wanted you to make sure," said Starmidge. "I thought you +might--possibly--recollect him as somebody who'd called at the bank +during your time." + +"No!" said Neale. "Certainly not! I've never set eyes on him until now. +Of course, he's Hollis, I suppose?" + +"Oh, without doubt!" answered Polke, who caught Neale's question as he +came up. "He's Hollis, right enough. Mr. Neale--here's a difficulty. +It's a queer thing, but there isn't one of us here who knows if this +spot is in Scarnham or in Ellersdeane. Do you? Is it within our borough +boundary, or is it in Ellersdeane parish? The Ellersdeane policeman +there doesn't know, and I'm sure I don't! It's a point of importance, +because the inquest'll have to be held in the parish in which the body +was found." + +The Ellersdeane constable who had followed Polke suddenly raised a +finger and pointed across the heather. + +"Here's a gentleman coming as might know, Mr. Polke," he said. "Mr. +Chestermarke!" + +Neale and Starmidge turned sharply--to see the banker advancing quickly +from the adjacent road. A cab, drawn up a little distance off, showed +that he had driven out to hear the latest news. + +Polke stepped forward to meet the new-comer: Gabriel greeted him in his +usual impassive fashion. + +"This body been recovered?" he asked quietly. + +"A few minutes ago, Mr. Chestermarke," answered Polke. "Will you look at +it?" + +Gabriel moved aside the group of men without further word, and the +others followed him. He looked steadily at the dead man's face and +withdrew. + +"Not known to me," he said, in answer to an inquiring glance from Polke. +"Hollis, I suppose, of course." + +He went off again as suddenly as he had come--and Starmidge drew Neale +aside. + +"Mr. Neale!" he whispered, with a nearer approach to excitement than +Neale had yet seen in him. "Did you see Gabriel Chestermarke's eyes? +He's a liar! As sure as my name's Starmidge, he's a liar! Mr. Neale!--he +knows that dead man!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE INCOMPLETE CHEQUE + + +Neale, startled and amazed by this sudden outburst on the part of a man +whom up to that time he had taken to be unusually cool-headed and +phlegmatic, did not immediately answer. He was watching the Ellersdeane +constable, who was running after Gabriel Chestermarke's rapidly +retreating figure. He saw Gabriel stop, listen to an evident question, +and then lift his hand and point to various features of the Hollow. The +policeman touched his helmet, and came back to Polke. + +"Mr. Chestermarke, sir, says the moorland is in three parishes," he +reported pantingly. "From Scarnham Bridge corner to Ellersdeane Tower +yonder is in Scarnham parish: this side the Hollow is in Ellersdeane; +everything beyond the Tower is in Middlethorpe." + +"Then we're in Scarnham," said Polke. "He'll have to be taken down to +the town mortuary. We'd better see to it at once. What are you going to +do, Starmidge?" he asked, as the detective turned away with Neale. + +"I'll take this short cut back," said Starmidge. "I want to get to the +post-office. Yes, sir!" he went on, as he and Neale slowly walked +towards Betty. "I say--he knew him! knew him, Mr. Neale, knew him!--as +soon as ever he clapped his eyes on him!" + +"You're very certain about it," said Neale. + +"Dead certain!" exclaimed the detective. "I was watching him--purposely. +I've taught myself to watch men. The slightest quiver of a lip--the +least bit of light in an eye--the merest twitch of a little finger--ah! +don't I know 'em all, and know what they mean! And, when Gabriel +Chestermarke stepped up to look at that body, I was watching that face +of his as I've never watched mortal man before!" + +"And you saw--what?" asked Neale. + +"I saw--Recognition!" said Starmidge. "Recognition, sir! I'll stake my +reputation as a detective officer that Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke has seen +that dead man before. He mayn't know him personally. He may never have +spoken to him. But--he knew him! He'd seen him!" + +"Will your conviction of that help at all?" inquired Neale. + +"It'll help me," replied the detective quickly. "I'm gradually getting +some ideas. But I shan't tell Polke--nor anybody else--of it. You can +tell Miss Fosdyke if you like--she'll understand: women have more +intuition than men. Now I'm off--I want to get a wire away to London. +Look here--drop in at the police-station when you get back. We shall +examine Hollis's clothing, you know--there may be some clue to Horbury." + +He hurried off towards the town, and Neale rejoined Betty. And as they +slowly followed the detective, he told her what Starmidge had just said +with such evident belief--and Betty understood, as Starmidge had +prophesied, and she grew more thoughtful than ever. + +"When are we going to find a way out of all this miserable business!" +she suddenly exclaimed. "Are we any nearer a solution because of what's +just happened? Does that help us to finding out what's become of my +uncle?" + +"I suppose one thing's sure to lead to another," said Neale. "That seems +to be the detective's notion, anyhow. If Starmidge is so certain that +Gabriel Chestermarke knew Hollis, he'll work that for all it's worth. +It's my opinion--whatever that's worth!--that Hollis came down here to +see the Chestermarkes. Did he see them? There's the problem. If one +could only find out--that!" + +"I wish you and I could do something--apart from the police," suggested +Betty. "Isn't there anything we could do?" + +Neale pointed ahead to the high roof of Joseph Chestermarke's house +across the river. + +"There's one thing I'd like to do--if I could," he answered. "I'd just +like to know all the secrets of that place! That there are some I'm as +certain as that we're crossing this moor. You see that queer-shaped +structure--sort of conical chimney--sticking up amongst the trees in +Joseph Chestermarke's garden? That's a workshop, or a laboratory, or +something, in which Joseph spends his leisure moments. I'd like to know +what he does there. But nobody knows! Nobody is ever allowed in that +house, nor in the garden. I don't know a single soul in all Scarnham +that's ever been inside either. I'm perfectly certain Mr. Horbury was +never asked there. Once Joseph's across his thresholds, back or front, +there's an end of him--till he comes out again!" + +"But--he doesn't live entirely alone, does he?" asked Betty. + +"As near as can be," replied Neale. "His entire staff consists of an old +man and an old woman--man and wife--who've been with him--oh, ever since +he was born, I believe! You may have seen the old man about the +town--old Palfreman. Everybody knows him--queer, old-fashioned chap: he +goes out to buy in whatever's wanted: the old woman never shows. That's +the trio that live in there--a queer lot, aren't they?" + +"It's all queer!" sighed Betty. "But now that this unfortunate man's +body has been found--Wallie! do you think it possible he was thrown down +that mine? That would mean murder!" + +"If he was thrown down there, already dead," answered Neale grimly, "it +would not only mean murder but that more than one person was concerned +in it. We shall know more when they've examined the body and searched +the clothing. I'm going round to the police-station when I've seen you +back to the hotel--I'm hoping they'll find something that'll settle the +one point that's so worrying." + +"Which point?" asked Betty. + +"The real critical point--in my opinion," answered Neale. "Who it was +that Hollis came to see on Saturday? There may be letters, papers, on +him that'll settle that. And if we once know that--ah! that will make a +difference! Because then--then----" + +"What then?" demanded Betty. + +"Then the police can ask that person if Hollis did meet him!" exclaimed +Neale. "And they can ask, too, what that person did with Hollis. Solve +that, and we'll see daylight!" + +But Betty shook her head with clear indications of doubt as to the +validity of this theory. + +"No!" she said. "It won't come off, Wallie. If there's been foul play, +the guilty people will have had too much cleverness to leave any +evidences on their victim. I don't believe they'll find anything on +Hollis that'll clear things up. Daylight isn't coming from that +quarter!" + +"Where are we to look for it, then?" asked Neale dismally. + +"It's somewhere far back," declared Betty. "I've felt that all along. +The secret of all this affair isn't in anything that's been done here +and lately--it's in something deep down. And how to get at it, and to +find out about my uncle, I don't know." + +Neale felt it worse than idle to offer more theories--speculation was +becoming useless. He left Betty at the Scarnham Arms, and went round to +the police-station to meet Starmidge: together they went over to the +mortuary. And before noon they knew all that medical examination and +careful searching could tell them about the dead man. + +Hollis, said the police-surgeon and another medical man who had been +called in to assist him, bore no marks of violence other than those +which were inevitable in the case of a man who had fallen seventy feet. +His neck was broken; he must have died instantaneously. There was +nothing to show that there had been any struggle previous to his fall. +Had such a struggle taken place, the doctors would have expected to find +certain signs and traces of it on the body: there were none. Everything +seemed to point to the theory that he had leaned over the insecure +fencing of the old shaft to look into its depths; probably to drop +stones into them; that the loose, unmortared parapet had given way with +his weight, and that he had plunged headlong to the bottom. He might +have been pushed in--from behind--of course, but that was conjecture. +Under ordinary circumstances, agreed both doctors, everything would have +seemed to point to accident. And one of them suggested that it was very +probable that what really had happened was this--Hollis, on his way to +call on some person in the neighbourhood, or on his return from such a +call, had crossed the moor, been attracted by inquisitiveness to the old +mine, had leaned over its parapet, and fallen in. Accident!--it all +looked like sheer accident. + +In one of the rooms at the police-station, Neale anxiously watched Polke +and Starmidge examine the dead man's clothing and personal effects. The +detective rapidly laid aside certain articles of the sort which he +evidently expected to find--a purse, a cigar-case; the usual small +things found in a well-to-do man's pockets; a watch and chain; a ring or +two. He gave no particular attention to any of these beyond ascertaining +that there was a good deal of loose money in the purse--some twelve or +fifteen pounds in gold--and pointing out that the watch had stopped at +ten minutes to eight. + +"That shows the time of the accident," he remarked. + +"Are you sure?" suggested Polke doubtfully. "It may merely mean that the +watch ran itself out then." + +Starmidge picked up the watch--a stem winder--and examined it. + +"No," he said, "it's broken--by the fall. See there!--the spring's +snapped. Ten minutes to eight, Saturday night, Mr. Polke--that's when +this affair happened. Now then, this is what I want!" + +From an inner pocket of the dead man's smart morning-coat, he drew a +morocco-leather letter-case, and carefully extracted the papers from it. +With Neale looking on at one side, and Polke at the other, Starmidge +examined every separate paper. Nothing that he found bore any reference +to Scarnham. There were one or two bills--from booksellers--made out to +Frederick Hollis, Esquire. There was a folded playbill which showed that +Mr. Hollis had recently been to a theatre, and--because of some +pencilled notes on its margins--had taken an unusual interest in what he +saw there. There were two or three letters from correspondents who +evidently shared with Mr. Hollis a taste for collecting old books and +engravings. There were some cuttings from newspapers: they, too, related +to collecting. And Neale suddenly got an idea. + +"I say!" he exclaimed. "Mr. Horbury was a bit of a collector of that +sort of thing, as you probably saw from his house. This man may have +run down to see him about some affair of that sort." + +But at that moment Starmidge unfolded a slip of paper which he had drawn +from an inner pocket of the letter-case. He gave one glance at it, and +laid it flat on the table before his companions. + +"No!" he said. "That's probably what brought Hollis down to Scarnham! A +cheque for ten thousand pounds! And--incomplete!" + +The three men bent wonderingly over the bit of pink paper. Neale's quick +eyes took in its contents at a glance. + + LONDON: _May 12th, 1912_. + VANDERKISTE, MULLINEAU & COMPANY, + 563 LOMBARD STREET, E.C. + + Pay .............................. or Order + the sum of Ten Thousand Pounds + £10,000.00. + ................... + +"That's extraordinary!" exclaimed Neale. "Date and amount filled in--and +the names of payee and drawer omitted! What does it mean?" + +"Ah!" said Starmidge, "when we know that, Mr. Neale, we shall know a +lot! But I'm pretty sure of one thing. Mr. Hollis came down here +intending to pay somebody ten thousand pounds. And--he wasn't exactly +certain who that somebody was!" + +"Good!" muttered Polke. "Good! That looks like it." + +"So," said Starmidge, "he didn't fill in either the name of the payee or +his own name until he was--sure! See, Mr. Neale!" + +"Why did he fill in the amount?" remarked Neale, sceptically. + +Starmidge winked at Polke. + +"Very likely to dangle before somebody's eyes," he answered slyly. +"Can't you reconstruct the scene, Mr. Neale? 'Here you are!' says +Hollis, showing this cheque. 'Ten thousand of the very best, lying to be +picked up at my bankers. Say the word, and I'll fill in your name and +mine!' Lay you a pound to a penny that's been it, gentlemen!" + +"Good!" repeated Polke. "Good, sergeant! I believe you're right. Now, +what'll you do about it?" + +The detective carefully folded up the cheque and replaced it in the slit +from which he had taken it. He also replaced all the other papers, put +the letter-case in a stout envelope and handed it to the superintendent. + +"Seal it up and put it away in your safe till the inquest tomorrow," he +said. "What shall I do? Oh, well--you needn't mention it, either of you, +except to Miss Fosdyke, of course--but as soon as the inquest is +adjourned--as it'll have to be--I shall slip back to town and see those +bankers. I don't know, but I don't think it's likely that Mr. Hollis +would have ten thousand pounds always lying at his bank. I should say +this ten thousand has been lodged there for a special purpose. And what +I shall want to find out from them, in that case, is--what special +purpose? And--what had it to do with Scarnham, or anybody at Scarnham? +See? And I'll tell you what, Mr. Polke--I don't know whether we'll +produce that cheque at the inquest on Hollis--at first, anyhow. The +coroner's bound to adjourn--all he'll want tomorrow will be formal +identification of the body--all other evidence can be left till later. +I've wired for Simmons--he'll be able to identify. No--we'll keep this +cheque business back till I've been to London. I shall find out +something from Vanderkistes--they're highly respectable private bankers, +and they'll tell me----" + +At that moment a policeman entered the room and presented Polke with a +card. + +"Gentleman's just come in, sir," he said. "Wants to see you particular." + +Polke glanced at the card, and read the name aloud, with a start of +surprise: "Mr. Leonard Hollis!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE DEAD MAN'S BROTHER + + +Polke hastily followed the policeman from the room--to return +immediately with a quiet-looking elderly gentleman in whom Neale and +Starmidge saw a distinct likeness to the dead man. + +"His brother!" whispered Polke, as he handed a chair to the visitor. "So +you've seen about this in the newspapers, sir?" he went on, turning to +Mr. Leonard Hollis. "And you thought you'd better come over, I suppose?" + +"I have not only read about it in the newspapers," answered the visitor, +"but I last night--very late--received a telegram from my brother's +clerk--Mr. Simmons--who evidently found my address at my brother's +rooms. So I left Birmingham--where I now live--at once, to see you. Now, +have you heard anything of my brother?" + +Polke shook his head solemnly and warningly. + +"I'm sorry to say we have, sir," he replied. "You'd better prepare for +the worst news, Mr. Hollis. We found the body this morning--not two +hours ago. And--we don't know, as yet, how he came by his death. The +doctors say it may have been pure accident. Let's hope it was! But there +are strange circumstances, sir--very strange!" + +Hollis quietly rose from his chair. + +"I suppose I can see him?" he asked. + +Polke led him out of the room, and Starmidge turned to Neale. + +"We're gradually getting at something, Mr. Neale," he said. "All this +leads somewhere, you know. Now, since we found that incomplete cheque, +there's a question I wanted to ask you. You've left Chestermarke's Bank +now, and under the circumstances we're working in you needn't have any +delicacy about answering questions about them. Do you know of any recent +transaction of theirs which involved ten thousand pounds?" + +"No!" replied Neale. "I certainly don't." + +"Nor any sum approaching it?" suggested Starmidge. "Or exceeding it?" + +"Nothing whatever!" reiterated Neale. "I know of all recent banking +transactions at Chestermarke's, and I can't think--I've been thinking +since we saw that cheque--of anything that the cheque had to do with." + +"Well--it's a queer thing," remarked the detective meditatively. "I'll +lay anything Hollis brought that cheque down here for some specific +purpose--and who on earth is there in this place that he could bring it +to but Chestermarke's? However, we'll see if I don't trace something +about it when I get up to town, and then----" + +Polke and the dead man's brother came back, talking earnestly. The +superintendent carefully closed the door, and begging his visitor to be +seated again, turned to Starmidge. + +"I've told Mr. Hollis all the main facts of the case," he said. "Of +course, he identified his brother at once." + +"When did you see him last, sir!" asked Starmidge. + +"Some eight or nine months ago," replied Hollis. "He came to see me, in +Birmingham. Previous to that, I hadn't seen him for several years. I +ought to tell you," he went on, turning to Polke, "that for a great many +years I have lived abroad--tea-planting in Ceylon. I came back to +England about a year ago, and eventually settled down at Edgbaston. I +suppose my brother's clerk found my address on an old letter or +something last night, and wired to me in consequence." + +"When Simmons was here," observed Starmidge, "he said that your brother +seemed to have no relations." + +"I daresay Simmons would get that impression," remarked Hollis. "My +brother was a very reserved man, who was not likely to talk much of his +family. As a matter of fact, I am about the only relation he had--except +some half-cousins, or something of that sort." + +"Can you tell us anything about your brother's position?" asked +Starmidge. "The clerk said he didn't practise very much, and had means +of his own." + +"Quite true," assented Hollis. "I believe he had a comfortable income, +apart from his practice--perhaps five or six hundred a year. He +mentioned to me that he only did business for old clients." + +"Do you think he'd be likely to have a sum of ten thousand pounds lying +at his bankers?" inquired Starmidge. + +Hollis looked sharply at the detective and then shook his head. + +"Not unless it was for some special purpose," he answered. "He might +have such a sum if he'd been selling out securities for re-investment. +But my impression is--in fact, it's more than an impression--I'm sure +that he bought himself an annuity of about the amount I mentioned just +now, some years ago. You see, he'd no children, and he knew that I was a +well-to-do man, so--he used his capital in that a way." + +"Would you be surprised to see a cheque of his drawn for ten thousand +pounds?" asked Starmidge suddenly. + +"Frankly, I should!" replied Hollis, with a smile. "That is, if it was +on his private account." + +"Do you happen to know who kept his private account?" inquired +Starmidge. + +"Yes," answered Hollis. "He banked with an old private firm called +Vanderkiste, Mullineau & Company, of Lombard Street." + +Starmidge, after a whispered word with Polke, took up the envelope in +which he had placed the dead man's letter-case, and produced the cheque. + +"Look at that, sir," he said, laying it before the visitor. "Is that +your brother's handwriting?" + +"His handwriting--oh, yes!" exclaimed Hollis. "Most certainly! +But--there's no signature!" + +"No--and there's no name of any payee," said Starmidge. "That's where +the mystery comes in. But--this--and this letter-case and its +contents--was found on him, and there's no doubt he came down to +Scarnham intending to pay that cheque to somebody. You can't throw any +light on that, sir?" + +The visitor, who continued to regard the cheque with evident amazement, +at last turned away from it and glanced at his three companions. + +"Well," he said, "I don't know that I can. But one principal reason why +I hurried here, after getting Simmons' telegram last night, is this: In +the newspapers there is a good deal of mention of a Mr. John Horbury, +manager of a bank in this town. He, too, you tell me, has disappeared. +Now, I happen to possess a remarkably good memory, and it was at once +stirred by seeing that name. My brother Frederick and I were at school +together at Selburgh--Selburgh Grammar School, you know--quite +thirty-five or six years ago. One of our schoolmates was a John Horbury. +And--he came from this place--Scarnham." + +The three listeners looked at each other. And Neale started, as if at +some sudden reminiscence, and he spoke quickly. + +"I've heard Mr. Horbury speak of his school-days at Selburgh!" he said. +"And--now I come to think of it--he had some books with the school +coat-of-arms on the sides--prizes." + +"Just so!" remarked Hollis. "I remember Jack Horbury very well indeed, +though I never saw him after I left school, nor heard of him either, +until I saw all this news about him in the papers. Of course, your +missing bank manager is the John Horbury my brother and I were at school +with! And I take it that the reason my brother came down to Scarnham +last Saturday was--to see John Horbury." + +Starmidge had been listening to all this with close attention. He was +now more than ever convinced that he was at last on some track--but so +far he could not see many steps ahead. Nevertheless, his next step was +clearly enough discernible. + +"You say you saw your brother some eight or nine months ago, sir?" he +remarked. "Did he mention Mr. Horbury to you at that time?" + +"No, he didn't," replied Hollis. + +"Did he ever--recently, I mean--ever mention his name to you in a +letter?" asked Starmidge. + +"No--never! I don't know," said Hollis, "that he or I ever spoke to each +other of John Horbury from the time we left school. John Horbury was +not, as it were, a very particular chum of ours. We knew him--as we knew +a hundred other boys. As I have already told you, the two names, +Horbury, Scarnham, in the newspapers yesterday, immediately recalled +John Horbury, our schoolmate, to me. Up to then, I don't suppose I'd +ever thought of him for--years! And I don't suppose he'd ever thought of +me, or of my brother. Yet--I feel sure my brother came here to see him. +For business reasons, I suppose?" + +"The odd thing about that, Mr. Hollis," remarked Polke, "is that we +can't find the slightest reason, either from anybody here, or from your +brother's clerk in London, why your brother should come to see Horbury, +whether for business, or for any other purpose. And as to his +remembering Mr. Frederick Hollis, well, here's Mr. Neale--Mr. Horbury +was his guardian--and Mr. Neale, of course, has known him all his life. +Now, Mr. Neale never heard him mention Mr. Frederick Hollis by name at +any time. And there's now staying in the town Mr. Horbury's niece, Miss +Fosdyke; she, too, never heard her uncle speak of any Mr. Hollis. Then, +as to business--the partners at Chestermarke's Bank declare that they +know nothing whatever of your brother--Mr. Gabriel, the senior partner, +has seen the poor gentleman, and didn't recognize him. So--we at any +rate, are as wise as ever. We don't know what your brother came here +for!" + +Hollis bowed his head in full acceptance of the superintendent's +remarks. But he looked up at Starmidge and smiled. + +"Exactly!" he said. "I quite understand you, Mr. Polke. But--I am +convinced that my brother came here to see John Horbury. Why he came, I +know no more than you do--but I hope to know!" + +"You'll stay in the town a bit, sir?" suggested Polke. "You'll want to +make arrangements for your poor brother's funeral, of course. Aught that +we can do, sir, to help, shall be done." + +"I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Polke," replied Hollis. "Yes, I shall +certainly stay in Scarnham. In fact," he went on, rising and looking +quietly from one man to the other, "I shall stay in Scarnham until I, +or you, or somebody have satisfactorily explained how my brother came to +his death! I shall spare neither effort nor money to get at the +truth--that's my determination!" + +"There's somebody else in like case with you, Mr. Hollis," observed +Polke. "Miss Fosdyke's just as concerned about her uncle as you are +about your brother. She declares she'll spend a fortune on finding +him--or finding out what's happened to him. It was Miss Fosdyke insisted +on having Detective-Sergeant Starmidge down at once." + +Hollis quietly scrutinized the detective. + +"Well?" he asked. "And what do you make of it?" + +But Starmidge was not in the mood for saying anything more just then, +and he put his questioner off, asking him, at the same time, to keep the +matter of the cheque to himself. Presently Hollis went away with Neale, +to whom he wished to talk, and Starmidge, after a period of what seemed +to be profound thought, turned to Polke. + +"Superintendent!" he said earnestly. "With your leave, I'd like to try +an experiment." + +"What experiment?" demanded Polke. + +Starmidge pointed to the ten thousand pound cheque, which was still +lying on the table. + +"I'd like to take that cheque across to Chestermarke's Bank, and show it +to the partners," he answered. + +"Good heavens!--why?" exclaimed Polke. "I thought you didn't want +anybody to know about it." + +"Never mind--I've an idea," said the detective. "I'd just like them to +see it, anyway, and," he added, with a wink, "I'd like to see them when +they do see it!" + +"You know best," said Polke. "If you think it well, do it." + +Starmidge put the cheque in an envelope and walked over to the bank. He +was shown into the partners' room almost immediately, and the two men +glanced at him with evident curiosity. + +"Sorry to trouble you, gentlemen," said Starmidge, in his politest +manner. "There's a little matter you might help us in. We've been +searching this unfortunate gentleman's clothing, you know, for papers +and so on. And in his letter-case we found--this!" + +He had the cheque ready behind his back, and he suddenly brought it +forward, and laid it immediately before the partners, on Gabriel's desk, +at the same time stepping back so that he could observe both men. + +"Queer, isn't it, gentlemen?" he remarked quietly. "Incomplete!" + +Gabriel Chestermarke, in spite of his habitual control, started: Joseph, +bending nearer to the desk, made a curious sound of surprise. A second +later they both looked at Starmidge--each as calm as ever. "Well?" said +Gabriel. + +"You don't know anything about that, gentlemen?" asked Starmidge, +affecting great innocence. + +"Nothing!" answered Gabriel. + +"Of course not!" murmured Joseph, a little derisively. + +"I thought you might recognize that handwriting," suggested Starmidge, +using one of his previously invented excuses. + +"No!" replied Gabriel. "Don't know it!" + +"From Adam's writing," added Joseph. + +"You know the name of the bankers, I suppose, gentlemen?" asked the +detective. + +"Vanderkiste? Oh, yes!" assented Gabriel. "Well-known city firm. But I +don't think we've ever done business with them," he added, turning to +his nephew. + +"Never!" replied Joseph. "In my time, at any rate." + +Starmidge picked up the cheque and carefully replaced it in its +envelope. + +"Much obliged to you, gentlemen," he said, retreating towards the door. +"Oh!--you'll be interested in hearing, no doubt, that the dead man's +brother, Mr. Leonard Hollis, of Birmingham, has come. He's identified +the body." + +"And what does he think, or suggest?" asked Joseph, glancing out of the +corners of his eyes at Starmidge. "Has he any suggestions--or ideas?" + +"He thinks his brother came here to meet Mr. Horbury," answered +Starmidge. + +"That's so evident that it's no news," remarked Joseph. "Perhaps he can +suggest where Horbury's to be found." + +Starmidge bowed and went out and straight back to Polke. He handed him +the cheque and the letter-case. + +"Lock 'em up!" he said. "Now then, listen! You can do all that's +necessary about that inquest. I'm off to town. Sit down, and I'll tell +you why. And what I tell you, keep to yourself." + +That evening, Starmidge, who had driven quietly across the country from +Scarnham to Ecclesborough, joined a London express at the Midland +Station in the big town. The carriages were unusually full, and he had +some difficulty in finding the corner seat that he particularly desired. +But he got one, at last, at the very end of the train, and he had only +just settled himself in it when he saw Gabriel Chestermarke hurry past. +Starmidge put his head out of the window and watched--Gabriel entered a +first-class compartment in the next coach. + +"First stop Nottingham!" mused the detective. And he pulled a sheaf of +telegram forms out of his pocket, and leisurely began to write a message +which before he signed his name to it had run into many words. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE OTHER CHEQUE + + +Starmidge sent off his telegram when the train stopped at Nottingham, +and thereafter went to sleep, secure in the knowledge that it would be +promptly acted upon by its recipients. And when, soon after eleven +o'clock, the express ran into St. Pancras, he paid no particular +attention to Gabriel Chestermarke. He had no desire, indeed, that the +banker should see him, and he hung back when the crowded carriages +cleared, and the platform became a scene of bustle and animation. But he +had no difficulty in distinguishing Gabriel's stiffly erect figure as it +made its way towards the hall of the station, and his sharp eyes were +quick to notice a quietly dressed, unobtrusive sort of man who sauntered +along, caught sight of the banker, and swung round to follow him. +Starmidge watched both pass along towards the waiting lines of +vehicles--then he turned on his heel and went to the refreshment room +and straight to a man who evidently expected him. + +"You got the wire in good time, then?" said Starmidge. + +"Plenty!" answered the other man laconically. "I've put a good man on to +him. See anything of them?" + +"Yes--but I didn't know our man," remarked Starmidge. "Who is he? Will +he do what I want?" + +"He's all right--fellow who's just been promoted, and, of course, he's +naturally keen," replied Starmidge's companion. "Name of Gandam. That +was a pretty good and full description of the man you want followed, +Starmidge," he went on, with a smile. "You don't leave much out!" + +"I didn't want him to be overlooked, and I didn't want to show up +myself," said Starmidge. "I noticed that our man spotted him quick. Now, +look here--I'll be at headquarters first thing tomorrow morning--I want +this chap Gandam's report. Nine-thirty sharp! Now we'll have a drink, +and I'll get home." + +"Good case, this?" asked the other man, as they pledged each other. +"Getting on with it?" + +"Tell you more tomorrow," answered Starmidge. "When--and if--I know +more. Nine-thirty, mind!" + +But when Starmidge met his companion of the night before at nine-thirty +next morning, it was to find him in conversation with the other man, and +to see dissatisfaction on the countenances of both. And Starmidge, a +naturally keen observer, knew what had happened. He frowned as he looked +at Gandam. + +"You don't mean to say he slipped you!" he exclaimed. + +"I don't know about slipped," muttered Gandam. "I lost him, anyway, Mr. +Starmidge, and I don't see how I can be blamed, either. Perhaps you +might have done differently, but----" + +"Tell about it!" interrupted Starmidge. "What happened?" + +"I spotted him, of course, from your description, as soon as he got out +of the train," replied Gandam. "No mistaking him, naturally--he's an +extra good one to watch. He'd no luggage--not even a handbag. I followed +him to the taxi-cabs. I was close by when he stepped into one, and I +heard what he said. 'Stage door--Adalbert Theatre.' Off he went--I +followed in another taxi. I stopped mine and got out, just in time to +see him walk up the entry to the stage-door. He went in. It was then +half-past eleven; they were beginning to close. I waited and waited +until at last they closed the stage-door. I'll take my oath he'd never +come out!--never!" + +Starmidge made a face of intense disgust. + +"No, of course he hadn't!" he exclaimed. "He'd gone out at the front. I +suppose that never struck you? I know that stage-door of the +Adalbert--it's up a passage. If you'd stood at the end of that passage, +man, you could have kept an eye on the front and stage-door at the same +time. But, of course, it never struck you that a man could go in at the +back of a place and come out at the front, did it? Well--that's off for +the present. And so am I." + +Vexed and disappointed that Gabriel Chestermarke had not been tracked to +wherever he was staying in London, Starmidge went out, hailed a +taxi-cab, and was driven down to the city. He did not particularly +concern himself about Gabriel's visit to the stage-door of the Adalbert +Theatre; it was something, after all, to know he had gone there: if need +arose, he might be traced from that theatre, in which, very possibly, he +had some financial interest. What Starmidge had desired to ascertain +was the banker's London address: he had already learned in Scarnham that +Gabriel Chestermarke was constantly in London for days at a time--he +must have some permanent address at which he could be found. And +Starmidge foresaw that he might wish to find him--perhaps in a hurry. + +But just then his chief concern was with another banking +firm--Vanderkiste's. He walked slowly along Lombard Street until he came +to the house--a quiet, sober, eminently respectable-looking old business +place, quite unlike the palatial affairs in which the great banking +corporations of modern origin carry on their transactions. There was no +display of marble and plaster and plate glass and mahogany and heavy +plethoric fittings--a modest brass plate affixed to the door was the +only sign and announcement that banking business was carried on within. +Equally old-fashioned and modest was the interior--and Starmidge was +quick to notice that the clerks were all elderly or middle-aged men, +solemn and grave as undertakers. + +The presentation of the detective's official card procured him speedy +entrance to a parlour in which sat two old gentlemen, who were evidently +greatly surprised to see him. They were so much surprised indeed, as to +be almost childishly interested, and Starmidge had never had such +attentive listeners in his life as these two elderly city men, to whom +crime and detention were as unfamiliar as higher finance was to their +visitor. They followed Starmidge's story point by point, nodding every +now and then as he drew their attention to particular passages, and the +detective saw that they comprehended all he said. He made an end at +last--and Mr. Vanderkiste, a white-bearded, benevolent-looking +gentleman, looked at Mr. Mullineau, a little, rosy-faced man, and shook +his head. + +"It would be an unusual thing, certainly," he observed, "for Mr. +Frederick Hollis to have ten thousand pounds lying here to his credit. +Mr. Hollis was an old customer--we knew him very well--but he didn't +keep a lot of money here. We--er--know his circumstances. He bought +himself a very nice annuity some years ago--it was paid into his account +here twice a year. But--ten thousand pounds!" + +Mr. Mullineau leaned forward. + +"We don't know if Frederick Hollis paid any large amount in lately, you +know," he observed. "Hadn't you better summon Linthwaite?" + +"Our manager," remarked Mr. Vanderkiste, as he touched a bell. "Ah, yes, +of course--he'll know. Mr. Linthwaite," he continued, as another elderly +man entered the room, "can you tell us what Mr. Frederick Hollis's +balance in our hands is?" + +"I have just been looking it up, sir," replied the manager, "in +consequence of this sad news in the papers. Ten thousand, eight hundred, +seventy-nine, five, four, Mr. Vanderkiste." + +"Ten thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine pounds, five shillings and +fourpence," repeated Mr. Vanderkiste. "Ah! An unusually large amount, I +think, Mr. Linthwaite?" + +"Just so, sir," agreed the manager. "The reason is that rather more +than a week ago Mr. Hollis called here himself with a cheque for ten +thousand pounds which he paid into his account, explaining to me that it +had been handed to him for a special purpose, and that he should draw a +cheque for his own against it, for the same amount, very shortly." + +"Ah!" remarked Mr. Vanderkiste. "Has the cheque which he paid in been +cleared?" + +"We cleared it at once," replied the manager. "Oh, yes! But the cheque +which Mr. Hollis spoke of drawing against it has not come in--and now, +of course----" + +"Just so," said Mr. Vanderkiste. "Now that he's dead, of course, his +cheque is no good. Um! That will do, thank you, Mr. Linthwaite." + +He turned and looked at Starmidge when the manager had withdrawn. + +"That explains matters," he said. "The ten thousand pounds had been paid +to Mr. Frederick Hollis for a special purpose." + +"But--by whom?" asked Starmidge. "That's precisely what I want to know! +The knowledge will help me--ah!--I don't know how much it mayn't help +me! For there's no doubt about it, gentlemen, Hollis went down to +Scarnham to pay ten thousand pounds to somebody on somebody else's +account! He was, I am sure, as it were, ambassador for somebody. Who +was--who is--that somebody? Almost certainly, the person who gave Hollis +the cheque your manager has just mentioned--and whose ten thousand +pounds is, as a matter of fact, still lying in your hands! Who is that +person? What bank was the cheque drawn on? Let me have an answer to +both these questions, and----" + +The two old gentlemen exchanged looks, and Mr. Mullineau quietly rose +and left the room. In his absence Mr. Vanderkiste shook his head at the +detective. + +"A very, very queer case, officer!" he remarked. + +"An extraordinary case, sir," agreed Starmidge. "Before we get to the +end of it there'll be some strange revelations, Mr. Vanderkiste." + +"So I should imagine--so I should imagine!" assented the old gentleman. +"Very remarkable proceedings altogether! We shall be deeply interested +in hearing how matters progress. Of course, this affair of the ten +thousand pounds is very curious. We----" + +Mr. Mullineau came back--with a slip of paper, which he handed to the +detective. + +"That gives you the information you want," he said. + +Starmidge read aloud what the manager had written down on his +principal's instructions. + +"Drawer--Helen Lester," he read. "Bank--London & Universal: Pall Mall +Branch." He looked up at the two partners. "I suppose you gentlemen +don't know who this Mrs. or Miss Helen Lester is?" he inquired. + +"No--not at all," answered Mr. Mullineau. "Nor does Linthwaite. I +thought Mr. Hollis might have told him something about that special +purpose. But--he told him nothing." + +"You'll have to go to the London & Universal people," observed Mr. +Vanderkiste. "They, of course, will know all about this customer." + +Mullineau looked inquiringly at his partner. + +"Don't you think that--as there are almost certain to be some +complications about this matter--Linthwaite had better go with Detective +Starmidge?" he suggested. "The situation, as regards the ten thousand +pounds, is a somewhat curious one. This Miss or Mrs. Lester will want to +recover it. Now, according to what Mr. Starmidge tells us, no body, so +far as he's aware, is in possession of any facts, papers, letters, +anything, relating to it. I think there should be some consultation +between ourselves and this other bank which is concerned." + +"Excellent suggestion!" agreed Mr. Vanderkiste. "Let him go--by all +means." + +Half an hour later, Starmidge found himself closeted with another lot of +bankers. But these were younger men, who were quicker to grasp +situations and comprehend points, and they quickly understood what the +detective was after: moreover, they were already well posted up in those +details of the Scarnham mystery which had already appeared in the +newspapers. + +"What you want," said one of them, a young and energetic man, addressing +Starmidge at the end of their preliminary conversation, "is to find out +for what purpose Mrs. Lester gave Mr. Frederick Hollis ten thousand +pounds?" + +"Precisely," replied Starmidge. "It will go far towards clearing up a +good many things." + +"I have no doubt Mrs. Lester will tell you readily enough," said the +banker. "In fact, as things are, I should say she'll only be too glad to +give you any information you want. That ten thousand pounds being in +Messrs. Vanderkiste's hands, in Hollis's name, and Hollis being dead, +there will be bother--not serious, of course, but still formal +bother--about recovering it. Very well--Mrs. Lester, who, I may tell +you, is a wealthy customer of ours, lives in the country as a rule, and +I happen to know she's there now. I'll write down her address. Tell her, +by all means, that you have been to see us on the matter." + +Starmidge left Mr. Linthwaite talking with the London & Universal +people; he himself, now that he had got the desired information, had no +more to say. Outside the bank he opened the slip of paper which had just +been handed to him, and saw that another journey lay before him. Mrs. +Lester lived at Lowdale Court, near Chesham. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ABOUT CENT PER CENT. + + +Starmidge, lingering a moment on the steps of the bank to consider +whether he would go straight to Chesham or repair to headquarters for a +consultation with his superior, was suddenly joined by the manager who +had just given him his information. + +"You are going down to Lowdale Court?" asked the manager. + +"During the morning--yes," answered Starmidge. + +"If it will be any help to you," said the manager, "I'll ring up Mrs. +Lester on the telephone, and let her know you're coming. She's rather a +nervous woman and it will pave the way for you if I give you a sort of +introduction. Besides--" here he paused, and looked at the detective +with an inquiring air--"don't you think Mrs. Lester had better be +warned--at once--not to speak of this matter until she's seen you?" + +"You think she may be approached?" asked Starmidge. + +The manager wagged his head and smiled knowingly. + +"I think there's something so very queer about this affair that Mrs. +Lester ought to be seen at once," he said. + +"She shall be!" answered Starmidge. "Tell her I'll be down there within +two hours--I'll motor there. Thank you for your suggestion. Now I'll +just run to headquarters and then be straight off." + +He hailed a passing taxi-cab and drove to New Scotland Yard, where he +was presently closeted with a high personage in deep and serious +consultation, the result of which was that by twelve o'clock, Starmidge +and a fellow-officer, one Easleby, in whom he had great confidence, were +spinning away towards the beech-clad hills of Buckinghamshire, and +discussing the features and probabilities of the queer business which +took them there. Before two, they were in the pleasant valley which lies +between Chenies and Chesham and pulling up at the door of a fine old +Jacobean house, which, set in the midst of delightful lawns and gardens, +looked down on the windings of the river Chess. And practical as both +men were, and well experienced in their profession, it struck both as +strange that they should come to such a quiet and innocent-looking place +to seek some explanation of a mystery which had surely some connection +with crime. + +The two detectives were immediately shown into a morning room in which +sat a little, middle-aged lady in a widow's cap and weeds, who looked at +her visitors half-timidly, half-welcomingly. She sat by a small table on +which lay a heap of newspapers, and Starmidge's sharp eyes saw at once +that she had been reading the published details of the Scarnham affair. + +"You have no doubt been informed by your bankers that we were coming, +ma'am?" began Starmidge, when he and Easleby had seated themselves near +Mrs. Lester. "The manager there was good enough to say he'd telephone +you." + +Mrs. Lester, who had been curiously inspecting her callers and appeared +somewhat relieved to find that they were quite ordinary-looking beings, +entirely unlike her own preconceived notions of detectives, bowed her +head. + +"Yes," she answered, "my bankers telephoned that an officer from +Scotland Yard would call on me this morning, and that I was to speak +freely to him, and in confidence, but--I really don't quite know what it +is that I'm to talk to you about, though I suppose I can guess." + +"This, ma'am," answered Starmidge, bending towards the pile of +newspapers and tapping a staring head-line with his finger. "I see +you've been reading it up. I have been in charge of this affair since +Monday last, and I came up to town last night about it--specially. You +will have read in this morning's paper that the body of Mr. Frederick +Hollis was found at Scarnham yesterday?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Lester, with a sigh. "I have read of that. Of course, I +knew Mr. Hollis--he was an old friend of my husband. I saw him last +week. But--what took Mr. Hollis down to Scarnham? I have been in the +habit of seeing Mr. Hollis constantly--regularly--and I never even heard +him mention Scarnham, nor any person living at Scarnham. There are many +persons mentioned in these newspaper accounts," continued Mrs. Lester, +"in connection with this affair whose names I never heard before--yet +they are mentioned as if Mr. Hollis had something to do with them. Why +did he go there?" + +"That, ma'am, is precisely what we want to find out from you!" replied +Starmidge, with a side glance at his fellow-detective. "It's just what +we've come for!" + +He was watching Mrs. Lester very closely as he spoke, and he saw that up +to that moment she had certainly no explanation in her own mind as to +the reason of this police visit. + +"But what can I tell you?" she exclaimed. "As I have said, I don't know +why Frederick Hollis went to Scarnham! He never mentioned Scarnham to me +when he was here last week." + +"Let me tell you something that is not in the papers--yet--ma'am," said +Starmidge. "I think it will explain matters to you. When we examined Mr. +Hollis's effects at Scarnham, yesterday morning, after the finding of +his body, we found in his letter-case a cheque for ten thousand +pounds----" + +Starmidge stopped suddenly. Mrs. Lester had started, and her pale face +had grown paler. Her eyes dilated as she looked at the two men. + +"A cheque!" she exclaimed. "For--ten thousand pounds. On--him? +And--whose cheque?" + +"It was a curious cheque, ma'am," replied Starmidge. "It was drawn on +Mr. Hollis's bankers, Vanderkiste, Mullineau & Company, of Lombard +Street. It was dated. It was filled in for ten thousand pounds--in words +and in figures. But it was not signed--and it was not made out to any +body. No name of payee, you understand, ma'am, no name of payer. But--it +is very evident Mr. Hollis made out that cheque intending to pay it +to--somebody. What we want to know is--who is--or was, that somebody? I +came up to town to try to find that out! I went to Mr. Hollis's bankers +this morning. They told me that last week Mr. Hollis paid into his +account there a cheque for ten thousand pounds, drawn by Helen Lester, +and told their manager that he should be drawing a cheque for his own +against it in a day or two. I then went to your bank, ma'am, saw your +bankers, and got your address. Now, Mrs. Lester, there's no doubt +whatever that the cheque which we found on Mr. Hollis is the cheque he +spoke of to Vanderkiste's manager. And we want you, if you please, to +tell us two things: For what purpose did you give Mr. Hollis ten +thousand pounds?--To whom was he to pay it? Tell us, ma'am--and we shall +have gone a long way to clearing this affair! And--it's more serious +than you'd think." + +Mrs. Lester, who had listened to Starmidge with absorbed and almost +frightened attention, looked anxiously at both men before she replied to +the detective's direct inquiry. + +"You will respect my confidence, of course?" she asked at last. +"Whatever I say to you will be in strict confidence?" + +"Whatever you tell us, Mrs. Lester," answered Starmidge, "we shall have +to report to our superiors at the Criminal Investigation Department. You +may rely on their discretion--fully. But if there is any secret in +this, ma'am, it will all have to come out, now that it's an affair of +police investigation. Far better tell us here and now!" + +"There'll be no publication of anything without Mrs. Lester's knowledge +and consent," remarked Easleby, who guessed at the reason of the lady's +diffidence. "This is a private matter, so far. All that she can tell us +will be for police information--only." + +"I shall have to mention the affairs of--some other person," said Mrs. +Lester. "But--I suppose it's absolutely necessary? Now that you know +what you do, for instance, I suppose I could be made to give evidence, +eh!" + +"I'm afraid you're quite right, ma'am," admitted Starmidge. "The mystery +of Mr. Hollis's death will certainly have to be cleared up. Now that +this cheque affair is out, you could be called as a witness at the +inquest. Better tell us, ma'am--and leave things to us." + +Mrs. Lester, after a moment's reflection, looked steadily at her +visitors. "Very well!" she answered, "I suppose I had better. Indeed, I +have been feeling, ever since my bankers rang me up this morning, that I +should have to tell you--though I still can't see how anything that I +can tell you has to do--that is, precisely--with Mr. Hollis's visit to +Scarnham. Yet--it may--perhaps must have. The fact is, I recently called +in Mr. Hollis, as an old friend, to give me some advice. I must tell you +that my husband died last year--now about eight months ago. We have an +only son--who is an officer in the Army." + +"You had better give us his name--and regiment, ma'am," suggested +Starmidge. + +Mrs. Lester hesitated a little. + +"Very well," she said at last. "He is Lieutenant Guy Lester, of the 55th +Lancers. Stationed where? At present at Maychester. Now I have got to +tell you what is both painful and unpleasant for me to tell. My husband, +though a very kind father, was a very strict one. When our son went +into the Army, his father made him a certain yearly allowance which he +himself considered a very handsome one. But my husband," continued Mrs. +Lester, with a faint smile, "had been engaged in commercial pursuits all +his life, until a year or two before his death, and he did not know that +the expenses, and the--well, the style of living in a crack cavalry +regiment are--what they are. More than once Guy asked his father to +increase his allowance--considerably. His father always refused--he was +a strict and, in some ways, a very hard man about money. And so--my son +had recourse to a money-lender." + +Starmidge, who was sitting close by his fellow-detective, pressed his +elbow against Easleby's sleeve--at last they were getting at something. + +"Just so, ma'am," he said encouragingly. "Nothing remarkable in all this +so far--quite an everyday matter, I assure you! Nothing for you to +distress yourself about, either--all that can be kept quiet." + +"Well," continued Mrs. Lester, "my son borrowed money from a +money-lender in London, expecting, of course, to pay it back on his +father's death. I must tell you that my husband married very late in +life--he was quite thirty years my senior. No doubt this money-lender +acquainted himself with Mr. Lester's age--and state of health." + +"He would, ma'am, he would!" agreed Starmidge. + +"He'd take particular good care of that, ma'am," added Easleby. "They +always do--in such cases." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Lester, "but, you see, when my husband died, he did not +leave Guy anything at all! He left everything to me. So Guy had nothing +to pay the money-lender with. Then, of course, the money-lender began to +press him, and in the end Guy was obliged to come and tell me all about +it. That was only a few weeks ago. And it was very bad news, because the +man claimed much--very much--more money than he had ever advanced. His +demands were outrageous!" + +Starmidge gave Mrs. Lester a keen glance, and realized an idea of her +innocence in financial matters. + +"Ah!" he observed, "they are very grasping, ma'am, some of these +money-lenders! How much was this particular one asking of your son, +now?" + +"He demanded between fourteen and fifteen thousand pounds," replied Mrs. +Lester. "An abominable demand!--for my son assured me that at the very +outside he had not had more than seven or eight thousand." + +"And--what happened, ma'am?" inquired Starmidge sympathetically. "The +man pestered you, of course!" + +"Guy made him one or two offers," answered Mrs. Lester. "Of course I +would have made them good--to get rid of the affair. It was no use--he +had papers and things signed by Guy--who had borrowed all the money +since he came of age--and he refused to abate a penny. The last time +that Guy called on him, he told him flatly that he would have his +fifteen thousand to the last shilling. It was, of course, extortion!" + +Starmidge and Easleby exchanged looks. Both felt that they were on the +very edge of a discovery. + +"To be sure, ma'am," asserted Starmidge. "Absolute extortion! And--what +is the name of the money-lending gentleman?" + +"His name," replied Mrs. Lester, "is Godwin Markham." + +"Did you ever see him, ma'am?" asked Starmidge. + +Mrs. Lester looked her astonishment. + +"I?" she exclaimed. "No--never!" + +"Did your son ever describe him to you?--his personal appearance, I +mean," inquired Starmidge. + +Mrs. Lester shook her head. + +"No!" she replied. "Indeed, I have heard my son say that he never saw +Markham himself but once. He did his--business, I suppose you would call +it--with the manager--who always said--when this recent pressing +began--that he was powerless--he could only do what Mr. Markham bade him +do." + +"Precisely!" said Starmidge. "There generally is a manager whose chief +business is to say that sort of thing, ma'am. Dear me!--and where, +ma'am, is this Mr. Godwin Markham's office? You know that, no doubt?" + +"Oh, yes--it is in Conduit Street--off New Bond Street," replied Mrs. +Lester. + +"Of course you never went there?" asked Starmidge. "No, of course not. +All was done through your son, until you called in Mr. Hollis. Now, when +did you call in Mr. Hollis, Mrs. Lester?--the date's important." + +"About a fortnight ago," replied Mrs. Lester--"I sent for him--I told +him all about it--I asked his advice. At his suggestion I gave him a +cheque for ten thousand pounds. He said he would make an endeavour to +settle the whole thing for that amount, and have everything cleared up. +He took the cheque away with him." + +"Between then--that day when he was here and you gave him the cheque," +asked Starmidge, "and last Saturday, when we know Mr. Hollis went to +Scarnham, did you hear of or from Mr. Hollis at all?" + +"Only in this way," replied Mrs. Lester. "When he left me, he said that +before approaching Markham, as intermediary, he should like to see Guy, +and hear what his account of the transactions was, and that he would ask +my son to come up to town from Maychester and meet him. I heard from Guy +at the end of last week--last Saturday morning, as a matter of +fact--that he had been to town, that he had lunched with Mr. Hollis at +Mr. Hollis's club, and that after discussing the whole affair, Mr. +Hollis said that he would make a determined effort to settle the matter +at once. And after that," concluded Mrs. Lester, "I heard no more or +anything until I read of this Scarnham affair in the newspapers." + +"And now that you have read it, ma'am, and have heard what I have to +tell," said Starmidge, "do you connect it in any way with Mr. Guy +Lester's affair?" + +Mrs. Lester looked puzzled. She considered the detective's proposition +in silence for a time. + +"No!" she answered at last. "Really, I don't!" + +Starmidge got up, and Easleby followed his lead. + +"Well, ma'am," said Starmidge, "there is a connection, without doubt, +and I think that within a very short time we shall have discovered what +it is. What you have told us has been of great assistance--the very +greatest assistance. And you can make your mind easy for the present--I +don't see any reason for any unpleasant publicity just now--in fact, I +think you'll find there won't be any. The unpleasant publicity, ma'am," +concluded Starmidge, with an almost imperceptible wink at Easleby, "will +be for--some other people." + +The two detectives bowed themselves out, re-entered their car, and were +driven on to Chesham. Neither had touched food since breakfast-time and +each was hungry. They discovered an old-fashioned hotel in the main +street of the little town, and were presently confronting a round of +cold beef, a cold ham, and two foaming tankards, in the snug parlour +which they had to themselves. + +"One result of our profession, young Starmidge," observed the +middle-aged Easleby, bending towards his companion over a well-filled +plate, "is that it makes a man indulge in a tremendous lot of what you +might call intellectual speculation!" + +"What are you speculating about?" asked Starmidge. + +"This--on information received," replied Easleby, as he lifted his +tankard. "There are the names of three Scarnham gentlemen before +me--Gabriel Chestermarke, Joseph Chestermarke, John Horbury. Now, +then--which of the three sports the other name of Godwin Markham?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +SPECULATION--AND CERTAINTY + + +Starmidge ate and drank in silence for awhile, evidently pondering his +companion's question. + +"Yes," he said at last, "there's all that in it. It may be any one of +the three. You never know! Yet, according to all I've been told, +Horbury's a thoroughly straight man of business." + +"According to all I've been told," remarked Easleby, "and all I've been +told about anything has been told by yourself, the two Chestermarkes +have the reputation of being thoroughly straight men of +business--outwardly. But one thing is certain, my lad, after what we've +just learned--Hollis went down to Scarnham to offer that cheque to one +of these three men. And whichever it was, that man's Godwin Markham! +It's a double-life business, Jack--the man's Godwin Markham here in +London, and he's somebody else in--somewhere else. Dead certainty, my +lad!" + +"It's not Horbury," said Starmidge, after some reflection. "I'll stake +my reputation, such as it is, on that!" + +"You don't know," replied Easleby. "Remember, Mrs. Lester said this son +of hers always did business with a manager. That's a usual thing with +these big money-lending offices--the real man doesn't show. For aught +you know, Horbury may have been running a money-lender's office in town, +unknown to anybody, under the name of Godwin Markham. And--he may have +wanted new funds for it, and he may have collared those securities which +the Chestermarkes say are missing, and he may have appropriated Lord +Ellersdeane's jewels--d'ye see? You never can tell--in any of these +cases. You see, my lad, you've been going, all along, on the basis, the +supposition, that Horbury's an innocent man, and the victim of foul +play. But--he may be a guilty man! Lord bless you!--I don't attach any +importance to reputation and character, not I! It isn't ten years since +Jim Chambers and myself had a case in point--a bank manager who was +churchwarden, Sunday-School teacher, this, that, and t'other in the way +of piety and respectability--all a cloak to cover as clever a bit of +thievery and fraud as ever I heard of!--he got ten years, that chap, and +he ought to have been hanged. As I say, you never can make certain. +Hollis may have found out that Godwin Markham of Conduit Street was in +reality John Horbury of Scarnham, and then----" + +"I'll tell you what!" interrupted Starmidge, who had been thinking as +well as listening. "There's a very sure and certain way of finding out +who Godwin Markham is! Do you remember?--Mrs. Lester said her son had +only seen him once. Well, once is enough!--he'd remember him. We must go +to Maychester right away and see this young Lester, and get him to +describe the man he saw." + +"Good notion, of course," assented Easleby. "Where is Maychester, now?" + +"Essex," replied Starmidge. + +"That would certainly be a solver," said Easleby. "But there's something +else we could do, following up your special line of thought. Now, honour +bright, which of these men do you take Godwin Markham to be?" + +"Gabriel Chestermarke!" answered Starmidge promptly. "It's established +that he's constantly in London--as much in London as in Scarnham. +Gabriel Chestermarke certainly--with, no doubt, Joseph in collusion. The +probability is that they run that money-lending office in Conduit Street +under the name of Godwin Markham. They're within the law." + +"What about the Moneylenders' Act?" asked Easleby. "Compulsory +registration, you know." + +"It's this way," explained Starmidge. "The object of that Act was to +enable a borrower to know for certain who it was that was lending him +the money he borrowed. So registration was made compulsory. But, as in +the case of many another Act of Parliament, Easleby, evasion is not only +possible, but easy. A money-lender can register in a name which isn't +his own if it's one which he generally uses in his business. So--there +you are! I've seen that name Godwin Markham advertised ever since I was +a youngster--it's an old established business, well known. There's +nothing to prevent Abraham Moses from styling himself Fitzwilliam +Simpkins, if he's always done business as Fitzwilliam Simpkins--see? +And--it's highly probable that, as he's so much in town, Gabriel +Chestermarke lives in town under the name of Godwin Markham--double-life +business, as you suggest. But you were going to suggest something else. +What?" + +"This," said Easleby. "You know that Gabriel Chestermarke went to +the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre the other night. Go +there--officially--and find out if he called there as Gabriel +Chestermarke. That'll solve a lot." + +"We'll both go!" assented Starmidge. "It's a good notion--I hadn't +thought of it. Whom shall we try to see?" + +"Top man of all," counselled Easleby. "Lessee, manager, whatever he is. +Our cards'll manage it." + +"I'm obliged to you, old man!" exclaimed Starmidge. "It's a bright idea! +Of course, somebody there'll know who the man was that called last +night--know his name, of course. And in that case----" + +"Aye, but don't you anticipate too much, my lad!" interrupted Easleby. +"There's no doubt that Gandam traced your Gabriel Chestermarke to the +stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre--and lost him there. But, you know, +for anything you know, Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of Scarnham, +may have had legitimate and proper business at that theatre. For aught +you know, Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke may be owner of that +theatre--ground-landlord--part-proprietor--financier. He may have a +mortgage on it. All sorts of reasons occur to me as to why Mr. Gabriel +Chestermarke may have called. He might be a personal friend of the +manager's, or the principal actor's--called to take 'em out to supper, +d'ye see, on his arrival in town. So--whoever we see there, you want to +go guardedly, eh?" + +"I'll tell you what," said Starmidge, "I'll leave it to you. I'll go +with you, of course, but you manage it." + +"Right, my lad!" assented Easleby. "All I shall want'll be a copy of +this morning's newspaper--to lead up from." + +One of the London morning journals had been making a great feature of +the Scarnham affair from the moment Parkinson, on Starmidge's +inspiration, had supplied the Press with its details, and it had that +day printed an exhaustive résumé of the entire history of the case, +brought up to the discovery of Frederick Hollis's body. Easleby bought a +copy of this issue as soon as he and Starmidge returned to town, and +carefully blue-pencilled the cross-headed columns and the staring +capitals above them. With the folded paper in his hand, and Starmidge at +his heel, he repaired to the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre at a +quarter to eight, when the actors and actresses were beginning to pass +in for their evening's work and thrust his head into the glass-fronted +cage in which the stage door-keeper sat. + +"A word with you, mister," whimpered Easleby. "A quiet word, you +understand. Me and my friend here are from the Yard--New Scotland Yard, +you know, and we've an inquiry to make. Our cards, d'ye see?--I shall +ask you to take 'em inside in a minute. But first, a word with you. Do +you remember a gentleman coming here last night, late, who nodded to +you and walked straight in? Little, stiffly built gentleman, very pale +face, holds himself well up--what?" + +"I know him," answered the door-keeper, much impressed by the official +cards which Easleby held before his nose. "Seen him here many a time, +but I don't know his name. He's a friend of Mr. Castlemayne's, and he's +the entry, d'ye see--walks in as he likes." + +"Ah, just so--and who may Mr. Castlemayne be, now?" asked Easleby +confidentially. + +"Mr. Castlemayne?" repeated the door-keeper. "Why, he's the lessee, of +course!--the boss!" + +"Ah, the boss, is he?" said Easleby. "Much obliged to you, sir. Well, +now, then, just take these two cards to Mr. Castlemayne, will you, and +ask him if he'll be good enough to see their owners for a few minutes on +very important private business?" + +The door-keeper departed up a dark passage, and Easleby pointed +Starmidge to a playbill which hung, framed on the wall, behind them. + +"There you are!" he said, indicating a line near the big capitals at the +top. "'Lessee and Manager--Mr. Leopold Castlemayne.' That's our man. +Fancy name, of course--real name Tom Smith, or Jim Johnson, you know. +But, Lord bless you, what's in a name? Haven't we got a case in point?" + +"There's a good deal in what's in a name in our case, old man!" retorted +Starmidge. "You're off it there!" + +Easleby was about to combat this reply when a boy appeared, and +intimated that Mr. Castlemayne would see the gentlemen at once. And the +two detectives followed up one passage and down another, and round +corners and across saloons and foyers, until they were shown into a snug +room, half office, half parlour, very comfortably furnished and +ornamented, wherein, at a desk, and alone, sat a gentleman in evening +dress, whose countenance, well-fed though it was, seemed to be just then +clouded with suspicion and something that looked very like anxiety. He +glanced up from the cards which lay before him to the two men who had +sent them in, and silently pointed them to chairs near his own. + +"Good-evening, sir," said Easleby, with a polite bow. "Sorry to +interrupt you, Mr. Castlemayne, but you see our business from our cards, +and we've called, sir, to ask if you can give us a bit of much-wanted +information. I don't know, sir," continued Easleby, laying the +blue-pencilled newspaper on the lessee's desk, "if you've read in the +papers any account of the affair which is here called the Scarnham +Mystery!" + +Mr. Leopold Castlemayne glanced at the columns to which Easleby pointed, +rubbed his chin, and nodded. + +"Yes--yes!" he said. "I have just seen the papers. Case of a strange +disappearance--bank manager--isn't it?" + +"It's more than that, sir," replied Easleby. "It's a case of--all sorts +of things. Now you're wondering, Mr. Castlemayne, why we come to you? +I'll explain. You'll see there, sir, the name--blue-pencilled--Gabriel +Chestermarke. Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke is a banker at Scarnham. You +don't happen to know him, Mr. Castlemayne?" + +The two detectives watched the lessee narrowly as that question was put. +And each knew instantly that the prompt reply was a truthful one. + +"Never heard of him in my life," said Mr. Castlemayne. + +"Thank you, sir," said Easleby. "Just so! Well, sir, my friend +here--Detective-Sergeant Starmidge--has been down at Scarnham in charge +of this case from the first, and he's formed some ideas about this Mr. +Gabriel Chestermarke. Last night Gabriel Chestermarke travelled up to +town from Ecclesborough--Mr. Starmidge arranged for him to be shadowed +when he arrived at St. Pancras. A man of ours--not quite as experienced +as he might be, you understand, sir--did shadow him--and lost him. He +lost him here at your theatre, Mr. Castlemayne." + +"Ah!" said the lessee, half indifferently. "Got amongst the audience, I +suppose?" + +"No, sir," replied Easleby. "Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, sir, entered your +stage-door at about eleven-thirty--walked straight in. But he never came +out of that door--so he must have left by another exit." + +Mr. Leopold Castlemayne suddenly sat up very erect and rigid. His face +flushed a little, his lips parted; he looked from one man to the other. + +"Mr.--Gabriel--Chestermarke!" he said. "Entered my +stage-door--eleven-thirty--last night? Here!--describe him!" + +Easleby glanced at Starmidge. And Starmidge, as if he were describing a +picture, gave a full and accurate account of Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke's +appearance from head to foot. + +The lessee suddenly jumped from his chair, walked over to a door, opened +it, and looked into an inner room. Evidently satisfied, he closed the +door again, came back, seated himself, thrust his hands in his pockets, +and looked at the detectives. + +"All in confidence--strict confidence?" he said. "All right, then!--I +understand. I tell you, I don't know any Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, +of Scarnham! The man you've described--the man who came here last +night--is Godwin Markham, the Conduit Street money-lender--damn him!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE AGGRIEVED VICTIM + + +If Mr. Leopold Castlemayne's last word was expressive, his next actions +were suggestive and significant. Returning to the door of the inner +room, he turned the key in it; crossing to the door by which the +detectives had been shown in, he locked that also; proceeding to a +cupboard in an adjacent recess, he performed an unlocking process--after +which he produced a decanter, a syphon, three glasses, and a box of +cigars. He silently placed these luxuries on a desk before his visitors, +and hospitably invited their attention. + +"Yes!" he said presently, proceeding to help the two men to refreshment, +and pressing the cigars upon them, "I've good reason to say that, +gentlemen! Godwin Markham, indeed! I ought to know him! If I don't look +out, that devil of a bloodsucker is going to ruin me--he is, so!" + +Easleby gave Starmidge an almost imperceptible wink as he lighted a +cigar. It was evident that Mr. Leopold Castlemayne was not only willing +to talk, but was uncommonly glad to have somebody to talk to. Indeed, +his moody countenance began to clear as his tongue became unloosed; he +was obviously at that stage when a man is thankful to give confidences +to any fellow-creature. + +"I've done business with gentlemen of your profession before," he went +on, nodding to his visitors over the rim of his tumbler, "and I know +you're to be trusted--naturally, you hear a good many queer things and +queer secrets in your line of life. And as you come to me in confidence, +I'll tell you a thing or two in confidence. It may help you--if you're +certain that the man you're wanting is the man who came here last night. +Do you want him?" + +"We--may do," replied Easleby. "We don't know yet. Mr. Starmidge here is +much disposed to think that we shall. But let's be clear, sir. We're all +three agreed that we're talking about the same man? Starmidge has +accurately described a certain man who without doubt entered your +stage-door about eleven-thirty last night----" + +"And left, with me, by the box-office door, in the front street, a few +minutes later," murmured the lessee. "That's how it was." + +"Just so," agreed Easleby. "Now, Starmidge up to now has only known that +man as Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, senior partner in Chestermarke's Bank, +at Scarnham, while you, up to now----" + +"Have only known him as Godwin Markham, money-lender, financial agent, +and so on, of Conduit Street," interrupted Castlemayne. "And known him a +lot too much for my peace, I can tell you! Of course, we're talking of +the same man! I can quite believe he runs a double show. I know that +he's a great deal away from town. It's very rarely that he's to be +found at Conduit Street--very, very rarely indeed--he's a clever manager +there, who sees everybody and does everything. And I know that he's +quite two-thirds of his time away from his own house--so, of course, +he's got to put it in somewhere else." + +"His own house!" said Starmidge, catching at an idea which presented +itself. "You know where he lives in London, then, Mr. Castlemayne?" + +"Do I know where my own mother lives!" exclaimed the lessee. "I should +think I do! He's a neighbour of mine--lives close by me, up Primrose +Hill way. Nice little bachelor establishment he has--Oakfield Villa. +Spent many an evening there with him--Sunday evenings, of course. Oh, +yes--I know all about him--as Godwin Markham. Bless me!--so he's a +country banker, is he? And mixed up in this affair, eh? Gosh!--I hope +you'll find out that he murdered his manager, and that you'll be able to +hang him--I'd treat the town to a free show if you could hang him in +public on my stage, I would, indeed!" + +"You were going to tell us something, sir?" suggested Easleby. +"Something that you thought might help us." + +"I hope it will help you--and me, too!" responded Castlemayne, who was +obviously incensed and truculent. "'Pon my honour, when I got your +cards, I wondered if I'd been sleep-walking last night, and had gone and +done for this man--I really did! It was all I could do to keep from +punching his nose last night in the open street, and I left him feeling +very bad indeed! It's this way--I dare say you know that men like me, +in this business, want a bit of financing when we start. All right!--we +do, like most other people. Now, when I thought of taking up the lease +of this spot, a few years ago, I wanted money. I knew this man Markham +as a neighbour, and I mentioned the matter to him, not knowing then he +was the Markham of Conduit Street. He let me know who he was, then, and +he offered to do things privately--no need to go to his office, do you +see? And--he found me in necessary capital. And I dare say I signed +papers without thoroughly understanding 'em. And, of course, when you +get into the hands of a fellow like that, it's like putting your foot on +a piece of butter in the street--you're down before you know what's +happened! But I ain't down yet, my boys!" concluded Mr. Castlemayne, +drinking off the contents of his glass, and replenishing it. "And damme +if I'm going to be, without a bit of a fight for it, that I ain't!" + +"Putting some pressure on you, I suppose, sir?" suggested Easleby, who +knew that their host would tell anything and everything if left to +himself. "Wants his pound of flesh, no doubt?" + +This Shakespearean allusion appeared to be lost on the lessee, but he +evidently understood what pressure meant. + +"Pressure!" he exclaimed. "Yah!--there's nothing would suit that fellow +better than to have one of his victims under one of those steam-hammers +that they have nowadays, and to bring it down on him till he'd crushed +the last drop of blood out of his toes! Pressure!--I'll tell you! This +place didn't do well at first--everybody in town, in our line, anyway, +knows that--but even in these days I paid him his interest regular--down +on the nail, mind, as prompt as the date came round. But now--things are +different. I'm doing well--in a bit I could pay my gentleman off--though +not just yet. But there's big money ahead--this house has caught on, got +a reputation, become popular. And now what d'ye think my lord +wants--what he's screwing me for? Turns out that in one of those +confounded papers I signed there's a clause, that if I didn't repay him +by a certain date I should surrender my lease to him! I no doubt signed +it, not quite understanding--but damme if he didn't keep it dark till +the date was expired! And now, when I've worked things up, not only as +lessee, mind you, but as manager--to success and big prospects, hanged +if he doesn't want to collar my lease with all its fine possibilities, +and put me into work for him at a blooming salary!" + +"Dear me, sir!" exclaimed Easleby. "Now--what might that exactly mean? +We're not up in these matters, you know." + +"Mean?" vociferated the lessee. "It 'ud mean this. I've paid that man as +much in interest as the original loan was. He now wants my lease, all my +interest, all my chances of reward--this lease is worth many a thousand +a year now! If I surrender my lease peaceably--without fuss, you +understand--he'll wipe off my original debt to him and give me a +blooming salary of twenty-five quid a week--me! Gosh!--he ought to be +burnt alive!" + +"And if you don't?" asked Starmidge, deeply interested by this +sidelight on financial dealings. "What then?" + +"Then he relies on his damn paper and my signature to it, and turns me +out!" replied the aggrieved one. "Thievery!--that's what I call it. +That's his blooming ultimatum--came in last night to tell me. I hope +you'll catch him and hang him!" + +The two detectives had long since realized that Mr. Leopold +Castlemayne's interest in the banker-money-lender was a purely personal +one, based on his own unlucky dealings with him. But they wished for +something outside that interest, and Starmidge, after a word or two of +condolence, and another of advice to go to a shrewd and smart solicitor, +asked a plain question. + +"You say you've been on terms of--shall we call it neighbourly +intimacy?--with this man," he remarked. "Have you ever met his nephew?" + +The lessee made a face expressive of deep scorn. + +"Nephew!" he exclaimed. "Yah!--d'ye think a fellow like that 'ud have a +nephew? I don't believe he's any relations that's flesh and blood! I +don't believe he ever had a mother! I believe he's one of these ghouls +you read about in the story-books--what's he look like? A +bloodsucker!--that's what he is!" + +Starmidge gave his host an accurate description of Joseph Chestermarke. + +"Did you ever see a man like that at this Markham's house?" he asked. + +"Never!" answered the lessee. + +"Or at his office?" persisted Starmidge. + +"No--don't know such a man! I've only been to the offices in Conduit +Street a few times," said Castlemayne. "The chap you see there is a +fellow called Stipp--Mr. James Stipp. A nice, smooth-tongued, +mealy-mouthed chap--you know. I say--d'ye think you'll be able to fasten +anything on to Markham, or Chestermarke, or whatever his name is?" + +Easleby responded jocularly that they certainly wouldn't if they sat +there, and after solemnly assuring Mr. Leopold Castlemayne that his +confidence would be severely respected, he and Starmidge went away. Once +outside they walked for awhile in silence, each reflecting on what he +had just heard. + +"Well," remarked Starmidge at last, "we're certain on one point now, +anyway. Godwin Markham, money-lender, of Conduit Street, is the same +person as Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of Scarnham. That's flat! And +now that we've got to know that much, how much nearer am I to finding +out the real thing that I'm after?" + +"Which is--exactly what?" asked Easleby. + +"I was called in," answered Starmidge, "to find out the secret of John +Horbury's disappearance. It isn't my business to interfere with Gabriel +Chestermarke or Godwin Markham in his money-lending affairs--nor to +trace Lord Ellersdeane's missing jewels. My job is--to find John +Horbury, or to get to know what happened to him." + +"And all this helps," answered Easleby. "Haven't you got anything?" + +"Don't know that I have," admitted Starmidge. "Just now, anyway. I've +had a dozen ideas--but they're a bit mixed at present. Have you--after +what we've found out?" + +"What sort of banking business is it the Chestermarkes carry on down +there at Scarnham?" asked Easleby. "I suppose you'd get a general idea." + +"Usual thing in a small country town," replied Starmidge. "Highly +respectable, county family business, I should say, from what I saw and +heard." + +"All the squires, and the parsons, and the farmers, and better sort of +tradesmen go to 'em, I suppose?" suggested Easleby. "And all the nice +old ladies and that sort--an extra-respectable connection, eh?" + +"Just as I say--regular country-town business," said Starmidge, half +impatiently. + +"Um!" remarked Easleby. "Now, if you were a highly respectable +country-town banker, with a connection of that sort amongst very proper +people, and if it so happened that you were living a double life, and +running a money-lending business in London, do you think you'd want your +banking customers to know what you were after when you weren't banking!" + +"What do you think he'd do?" asked Starmidge. + +"I'm not quite sure," replied Easleby, with candour. "But I think I +shall get there, all the same. Now, didn't you say that from all the +accounts supplied to you, this Mr. John Horbury was an eminently proper +sort of person? Very well--supposing it suddenly came to his knowledge +that his employer--or employers, for I expect both Chestermarkes are in +at it--were notorious money-lenders in London, and that they carried on +this secret business in the greedy and grasping fashion--what do you +suppose he'd do?--especially if he was, as you say Horbury was, a man of +considerable means?" + +"What do you think he'd do?" asked Starmidge. + +"I think it's quite on the cards that he'd chuck his job there and +then," said Easleby, "and not only that, but that he'd probably threaten +exposure. Men of a very severe type of commercial religion would, my +lad!--I know 'em!" + +"You're suggesting--what?" inquired the younger detective. + +"I'm suggesting that on that night of Hollis's visit to Scarnham, +Horbury, through Hollis, became acquainted with the Chestermarke +secret," replied Easleby, "and that he let the Chestermarkes know it. +And in that case--what would happen?" + +Starmidge walked slowly on at his companion's side, thinking. He was +trying to fit together a great many things; he felt as a child feels who +is presented with a puzzle in many pieces and told to put them together. + +"I know what you're after," he said suddenly. "You think the +Chestermarkes murdered Horbury?" + +"If you want it plain and straight," replied Easleby, "I do!" + +"There's the other man--Hollis," suggested Starmidge. + +"I should say they finished him as well," said Easleby. "Easy enough +job, that, on the evidence. Supposing one of 'em took Hollis off, alone, +across that moor you've told me about, and induced him to look into that +old lead-mine? What easier than to push him into it? Meanwhile, the +other could settle Horbury. Murder, my lad!--that's what all this comes +to. I've known men murdered for less than that." + +Again Starmidge reflected in silence. + +"There's only one thing puzzles me on that point," he said eventually. +"It's not a puzzle, either--it's a doubt. Do you think the +Chestermarkes--or, we'll say Gabriel, as we're certain about him--do you +think Gabriel would be so keen about keeping his secret as to go to that +length? Do you think he's cultivated it as a secret--that it's been a +really important secret?" + +"We can soon solve that," answered Easleby. "At least--tomorrow +morning." + +"How?" demanded Starmidge. + +"By calling," said Easleby, "on Mr. Godwin Markham, in Conduit Street." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +MRS. CARSWELL? + + +Starmidge looked at his companion as if in doubt about Easleby's exact +meaning. + +"According to what the theatre chap said just now," he remarked, +"Markham is very rarely to be found in Conduit Street." + +"Exactly," agreed Easleby. "That's why I want to go there." + +Starmidge shook his head. + +"Don't follow!" he said. "Make it clear." + +Easleby tapped his fellow-detective's arm. + +"You said just now--would Gabriel Chestermarke be so keen about keeping +his secret as to go to any length in keeping it," he answered "Now I say +we can solve that by calling at his office. His manager, as Castlemayne +told us, is one Stipp--Mr. Stipp. I propose to see Mr. Stipp. You and I +must be fools if, inside ten minutes, we can't find out if Stipp knows +that Godwin Markham is Gabriel Chestermarke! We will find out! And if we +find out that Stipp doesn't know that, if we find that Stipp is utterly +unaware that there is such a person as Gabriel Chestermarke, or, at any +rate, that he doesn't connect Gabriel Chestermarke with Godwin +Markham--why, then----" + +He ended with a dry laugh, and waved his hand as if the matter were +settled. But Starmidge had a love of precision, and liked matters to be +put in plain words. + +"Well--and what then?" he demanded. + +"What, then?" exclaimed Easleby. "Why, then we shall know, for a +certainty, that Gabriel Chestermarke is keen about his secret! If he +keeps it from the man who does his business for him here in London, he'd +go to any length to keep it safe if it was threatened by his manager at +Scarnham. Is that clear, my lad?" + +The two men in the course of their slow strolling away from the Adalbert +Theatre had come to the end of Shaftesbury Avenue, and had drawn aside +from the crowds during the last minute or two to exchange their +confidences in private. + +Starmidge looked meditatively at the thronging multitudes of Piccadilly +Circus, and watched them awhile before he answered his companion's last +observation. + +"I don't want to precipitate matters," he said at last. "I don't want an +anti-climax. Suppose we found Markham--or Chestermarke--there? Or +supposing he came in?" + +"Excellent!--in either case," replied Easleby. "Serve our purpose equally +well. If he's there, you betray the greatest surprise at seeing him--you +can act up to that. If he should come in, you're equally surprised--see! +We haven't gone there about any Chestermarke, you know--we aren't going +to let it out there that we know what we do know--not likely!" + +"What have we gone there for then?" asked Starmidge. + +"We've gone to say that Mrs. Helen Lester, of Lowdale Court, near +Chesham, has informed us, the police, that she placed a certain sum of +money in the hands of her friend, Mr. Frederick Hollis, for the purpose +of clearing off a debt contracted by her son, Lieutenant Lester, with +Mr. Godwin Markham; that Mr. Hollis had been found dead under strange +circumstances at Scarnham, and that we should be vastly obliged to Mr. +Markham if he can give us any information or light on the matter, or +hints about it," replied Easleby. "That, of course, is what we shall +say--and all that we shall say--to Mr. James Stipp. If, however, we find +Gabriel Chestermarke there--well, then, we shall say nothing--at first. +We shall leave him to do the saying--it'll be his job to begin." + +"All right," assented Starmidge, after a moment's reflection. "We'll try +it! Meet you tomorrow morning, then--corner of Conduit Street and New +Bond Street--say at ten-thirty. Now I'm going home." + +Starmidge, being a bachelor, tenanted a small flat in Westminster, +within easy reach of headquarters. He repaired to it immediately on +leaving Easleby, intent on spending a couple of hours in ease and +comfort before retiring to bed. But he had scarcely put on his slippers, +lighted his pipe, mixed a whisky-and-soda, and picked up a book, when a +knock at his outer door sent him to open it and to find Gandam standing +in the lobby. Gandam glanced at him with a smile which was half +apologetic and half triumphant. + +"I've been to the office after you, Mr. Starmidge," he said. "They gave +me your address, so I came on here." + +Starmidge saw that the man was full of news, and he motioned him to +enter and led him to his sitting-room. + +"You've heard something, then?" he asked. + +"Seen something, Mr. Starmidge," answered Gandam, taking the chair which +Starmidge pointed to. "I'm afraid I didn't hear anything--I wish I had!" + +Starmidge gave his visitor a drink and dropped into his own easy-chair +again. + +"Chestermarke, of course!" he suggested. "Well--what!" + +"I happened to catch sight of him this evening," replied Gandam. "Sheer +accident it was--but there's no mistaking him. Half-past six I was +coming along Piccadilly, and I saw him leaving the Camellia Club. +He----" + +"What sort of a club's that, now?" asked Starmidge. + +"Social club--men about town, sporting men, actors, journalists, so on," +replied Gandam. "I know a bit about it--had a case relating to it not so +long ago. Well--he went along Piccadilly, and, of course, I followed +him--I wasn't going to lose sight of him after that set-back of last +night, Mr. Starmidge! He crossed the Circus, and went into the Café +Monico. I followed him in there. Do you know that downstairs saloon +there?" + +"I know it," assented Starmidge. + +"He went straight down to it," continued Gandam. "And as I knew that he +didn't know me, I presently followed. When I'd got down he'd taken a +seat at a table in a quiet corner, and the waiter was bringing him a +glass of sherry. There was a bit of talk between 'em--Chestermarke +seemed to be telling the waiter that he was expecting somebody, and he'd +wait a bit before giving an order. So I sat down--in another corner--and +as I judged it was going to be a longish job, I ordered a bit of dinner. +Of course I kept an eye on him--quietly. He read a newspaper, smoked a +cigarette, and sipped his sherry. And at last--perhaps ten minutes after +he'd got in--a woman came down the stairs, looked round, and went +straight over to where he was sitting." + +"Describe her," said Starmidge. + +"Tallish, very good figure, very good-looking, well-dressed, but +quietly," replied Gandam. "Had a veil on when she came in, but lifted it +when she sat down by Chestermarke. What I should call a handsome woman, +Mr. Starmidge--and, I should say, about thirty-five to forty. Dark hair, +dark eyes--taking expression." + +"Mrs. Carswell, for a fiver!" thought Starmidge. "Well?" he said aloud. +"You say she went straight over to him?" + +"Straight to him--and began talking at once," answered Gandam. "It +seemed to me that it was what you might call an adjourned meeting--they +began talking as if they were sort of taking up a conversation. But she +did most of the talking. He ordered some dinner for both of 'em as soon +as she came--she talked while they ate. Of course, being right across +the room from them, I couldn't catch a word that was said, but she +seemed to be explaining something to him the whole time, and I could see +he was surprised--more than once." + +"It must have been something uncommonly surprising to make him show +signs of surprise!" muttered Starmidge, who had a vivid recollection of +Gabriel Chestermarke's granite countenance. "Yes?--go on." + +"They were there about three-quarters of an hour," continued Gandam. "Of +course, I ate my dinner while they ate theirs, and I took good care not +to let them see that I was watching them. As soon as I saw signs of a +move on their part--when she began putting on her gloves--I paid my +waiter and slipped out upstairs to the front entrance. I got a taxi-cab +driver to pull up by the kerb and wait for me, and told him who I was +and what I was after, and that if those two got into a cab he was to +follow wherever they went--cautiously. Gave him a description of the +man, you know. Then I hung round till they came out. They parted at +once--she went off up Regent Street----" + +"I wish you'd had another man with you!" exclaimed Starmidge. "I'd give +a lot to get hold of that woman. She's probably the housekeeper who +disappeared from the bank, you know." + +"So I guessed, Mr. Starmidge, but what could I do?" said Gandam. "I +couldn't follow both, and it was the man you'd put me on to. I decided, +of course, for him. Well--he tried to get my cab; when he found it was +engaged, he walked on a bit to the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and got +one there. And, of course, we followed. A longish follow, too!--right +away up to the back of Regent's Park. You know those detached +houses--foot of Primrose Hill? It's one of those--he was a cute chap, my +driver, and he contrived to slow down and keep well behind, and yet to +see where Chestermarke got out. The name of the house is Oakfield +Villa--it's on the gateposts. Of course, I made sure. I sent my man +off--and then I hung round some time, passing and re-passing once or +twice. And I saw Chestermarke in a front room--the blinds were not +drawn--and he was in a smoking-cap and jacket, so I reckoned he was safe +for the night. But I can watch the house all night if you think it's +necessary, you know, Mr. Starmidge." + +"No!" answered Starmidge. "Not at all. But I'll tell you what--you be +about there first thing tomorrow morning. Can you hang about without +attracting attention?" + +"Easily!" replied Gandam. "Easiest thing in the world. Do you know where +a little lodge stands, as you go into Primrose Hill, the St. John's Wood +side? Well, his house is close by that. On the other side of the road +there's a little path leading over a bridge into the Park--close by the +corner of the Zoo--I can watch from that path. You can rely on me, Mr. +Starmidge. I'll not lose sight of him this time." + +Starmidge saw that the man was deeply anxious to atone for his mistake +of the previous night, and he nodded assent. + +"All right," he said, "but--take another man with you. Two are better +than one in a job like that--and Chestermarke might be meeting that +woman again. Watch the house carefully tomorrow morning from first +thing--follow him wherever he goes. If he should meet the woman, and +they part after meeting, one of you follow her. And listen--I shall be +at headquarters at twelve o'clock tomorrow. Contrive to telephone me +there as to what you're doing. But--don't lose him--or her, if you see +her again." + +"One thing more," said Gandam, as he rose to go. "Supposing he goes off +by train? Do I follow?" + +"No," answered Starmidge after a moment's reflection, "but manage to +find out where he goes." + +He sat and thought a long time after his visitor had left, and his +thoughts all centred on one fact: the undoubted fact that Gabriel +Chestermarke and Mrs. Carswell had met. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE PORTRAIT + + +The offices of Mr. Godwin Markham, at which the two detectives presented +themselves soon after half-past ten next morning, were by no means +extensive in size or palatial in appearance. They were situated in the +second floor of a building in Conduit Street, and apparently consisted +of no more than two rooms, which, if not exactly shabby, were somewhat +well-worn as to furniture and fittings. It was evident, too, that Mr. +Godwin Markham's clerical staff was not extensive. There was a young man +clerk, and a young woman clerk in the outer office: the first was +turning over a pile of circulars at the counter; the second, seated at a +typewriter, was taking down a letter which was being dictated to her by +a man who, still hatted and overcoated, had evidently just arrived, and +was leaning against the mantelpiece with his hands in his pockets. He +was a very ordinary, plain-countenanced, sandy-haired, quite +commercial-looking man, this, who might have been anything from a Stock +Exchange clerk to a suburban house-agent. But there was a sudden +alertness in his eye as he turned it on the visitors, which showed them +that he was well equipped in mental acuteness, and probably as alert as +his features were commonplace. + +The circular-sorting young man looked up with indifference as Easleby +approached the counter, and when the detective asked if Mr. Godwin +Markham could be seen, turned silently and interrogatively to the man +who leaned against the mantelpiece. He, interrupting his dictation, came +forward again, narrowly but continually eyeing the two men. + +"Mr. Markham is not in town, gentlemen," he said, in a quick, +business-like fashion, which convinced Starmidge that the speaker was +not uttering any mere excuse. "He was here yesterday for an hour or two, +but he will be away for some days now. Can I do anything for you?--his +manager." + +Easleby handed over the two professional cards which he had in +readiness, and leaned across the counter. + +"A word or two in private," he whispered confidentially. "Business +matter." + +Starmidge, watching Mr. James Stipp's face closely as he looked at the +cards, saw that he was not the sort of man to be taken unawares. There +was not the faintest flicker of an eyelid, not a motion of the lips, not +the tiniest start of surprise, no show of unusual interest on the +manager's part: he nodded, opened a door in the counter, and waved the +two detectives towards the inner room. + +"Be seated, gentlemen," he said, following them inside. "You'll excuse +me a minute--important letter to get off--I won't keep you long." + +He closed the door upon them and Starmidge and Easleby glanced round +before taking the chairs to which Mr. Stipp had pointed. There was +little to see. A big, roomy desk, middle-Victorian in style, some heavy +middle-Victorian chairs, a well-worn carpet and rug, a book-case filled +with peerages, baronetages, county directories, Army lists, Navy lists, +and other similar volumes of reference to high life, a map or two on the +walls, a heavy safe in a corner--these things were all there was to look +at. Except one thing--which Starmidge was quick to see. Over the +mantelpiece, with an almanac on one side of it, and an interest-table on +the other, hung a somewhat faded photograph of Gabriel Chestermarke. + +The younger detective tapped his companion's arm and silently indicated +this grim counterfeit of the man in whose doings they were so keenly +interested just then. + +"That's--the man!" he whispered. "Chestermarke! Gabriel!" + +Easleby opened mouth and eyes and stared with eager interest. + +"Egad!" he muttered. "That's lucky! Makes it all the easier. I'll lay +you anything you like, my lad, this manager doesn't know anything--not a +thing!--about the double identity business. We shall soon find +out--leave it to me--at first, anyway. A few plain questions----" + +Mr. Stipp came bustling in, closing the door behind him. He took off +overcoat and hat, ran his fingers through his light hair, and, seating +himself, glanced smilingly at his visitors. + +"Well, gentlemen!" he demanded. "What can I do for you now? Want to make +some inquiries?" + +"Just a few small inquiries, sir," replied Easleby. "I haven't the +pleasure of knowing your name--Mr.----?" + +"Stipp's my name, sir," answered the manager promptly. "Stipp--James +Stipp." + +"Thank you, sir," said Easleby, with great politeness. "Well, Mr. Stipp, +you see from our cards who we are. We've called on you--as representing +Mr. Godwin Markham--on behalf--informally, Mr. Stipp--of Mrs. Lester, of +Lowdale Court, Chesham." + +Mr. Stipp's face showed a little surprise at this announcement, and he +glanced from one man to the other as if he were puzzled. + +"Oh!" he said. "Dear me! Why--what has Mrs. Lester called you in for?" + +Easleby, who had brought another marked newspaper with him, laid it on +the manager's desk. + +"You've no doubt read of this Scarnham affair, Mr. Stipp?" he asked, +pointing to his own blue pencillings. "Most people have, I think. Or +perhaps it's escaped your notice." + +"Hardly could!" answered Mr. Stipp, with a friendly smile. "Yes--I've +read it. Most extraordinary! One of the most puzzling cases I ever did +read. Are you in at it? But this call hasn't anything to do with that, +surely? If it has--what?" + +"This much," answered Easleby. "Mrs. Lester has told us, of course, that +her son, the young officer, is in debt to your governor. Well, last +week, Mrs. Lester handed a certain sum of money to the Mr. Frederick +Hollis who's been found dead at Scarnham, to be applied to the +settlement of her son's liability in that respect." + +Mr. Stipp showed undoubted surprise at this announcement. + +"She did!" he exclaimed. "Gave Mr. Hollis money--for that? Why!--Mr. +Hollis never told me of it!" + +In the course of a long professional experience Easleby had learned to +control his facial expression; Starmidge was gradually progressing +towards perfection in that art. But each man was hard put to it to check +an expression of astonishment. And Easleby showed some slight sign of +perplexity when he replied. + +"Mr. Hollis has--called on you, then?" he said. + +"Hollis was here last Friday afternoon," answered Mr. Stipp. "Called on +me at five o'clock--just before I was leaving for the day. He never +offered me any money! Glad if he had--it's time young Lester paid up." + +"What did Hollis come for, then, if that's a fair question?" asked +Easleby. + +"He came, I should say, to take a look at us, and find out who he'd got +to deal with," replied the manager, smiling. "In plain language, to make +an inquiry or two. He told me he'd been empowered by Mrs. Lester to deal +with us, and he wanted the particulars of what we'd advanced to her son, +and he got them--from me. But he never made me any offer. He just found +out what he wanted to know--and went away." + +"And, evidently, next day travelled to Scarnham," observed Easleby. +"Now, Mr. Stipp, have you any idea whether his visit to Scarnham was in +connection with the money affair of yours and young Lester's?" + +Again the look of undoubted surprise; again the appearance of genuine +perplexity. + +"I?" exclaimed Mr. Stipp. "Not the least! Not the ghost of an idea! What +could his visit to Scarnham have to do with us? Nothing!--that I know +of, anyway." + +"You don't think it rather remarkable that Mr. Hollis should go down +there the very day after he called on you?" asked Starmidge, putting in +a question for the first time. + +"Why should I?" asked Mr. Stipp. "What do I know about him and his +arrangements? He never mentioned Scarnham to me." + +Easleby laid a finger on the marked newspaper. + +"You see some names of Scarnham people there, Mr. Stipp?" he observed. +"Those names--Horbury--Chestermarke. You don't happen to know 'em?" + +"I don't know them," replied the manager, with obvious sincerity. +"Banking people, all of them, aren't they? I might have heard their +names, in a business way, some time--but I don't recall them at all." + +"You said that Mr. Markham was here yesterday," suggested Starmidge. +"Did you tell him--you'll excuse my asking, but it's important--did you +tell him that Hollis had called last Friday on behalf of Mrs. Lester?" + +"I just mentioned it," replied Mr. Stipp. "He took no particular +notice--except to say that what we claim from young Lester will have to +be--paid." + +"You don't know if he knew Hollis?" inquired Starmidge. + +The manager shook his head in a fashion which seemed to indicate that +Hollis's case was no particular business of either his or his +principal's. + +"I don't think he did," he answered. "Never said so, anyhow. But, I say! +you'll excuse me, now--what is it you're trying to get at? Do you think +Hollis went to Scarnham on this business of young Lester's? And if you +do, why?" + +Easleby rose, and Starmidge followed his example. + +"We don't know yet--exactly--why Hollis went to Scarnham," said the +elder detective. "We hoped you could help us. But, as you can't--well, +we're much obliged, Mr. Stipp. That your governor over the chimney-piece +there?" + +"Taken a few years ago," replied Mr. Stipp carelessly. "I say--you don't +know what Hollis was empowered to offer us, do you?" + +The two detectives looked at each other; a quiet nod from Starmidge +indicated that he left it to Easleby to answer this question. And after +a moment's reflection, Easleby spoke. + +"Mr. Hollis was empowered to offer ten thousand pounds in full +satisfaction, Mr. Stipp," he said. "And what's more--a cheque for that +amount was found on his dead body when it was discovered. Now, sir, +you'll understand why we want to know who it was that he went to see at +Scarnham!" + +Both men were watching the money-lender's manager with redoubled +attention. But it needed no very keen eye to see that the surprise which +Mr. Stipp had already shown at various stages of the interview was +nothing to that which he now felt. And in the midst of his astonishment +the two detectives bade him good-day and left him, disregarding an +entreaty to stop and tell him more. + +"My lad!" said Easleby, when he and Starmidge were out in the street +again, "that chap has no more conception that his master is Gabriel +Chestermarke than we had--twenty-four hours since--that Gabriel +Chestermarke and Godwin Markham are one and the same man. He's a clever +chap, this Gabriel--and now you can see how important it's been for him +to keep his secret. What's next to be done? We ought to keep in touch +with him from now." + +"I'm expecting word from Gandam at noon at headquarters," answered +Starmidge, who had already told Easleby of the visit of the previous +night. "Let's ride down there and hear if any message has come in." + +But as their taxi-cab turned out of Whitehall into New Scotland Yard +they overtook Gandam, hurrying along. Starmidge stopped the cab and +jumped out. + +"Any news?" he asked sharply. + +"He's off, Mr. Starmidge!" replied Gandam. "I've just come straight from +watching him away. He left his house about nine-twenty, walked to the +St. John's Wood Station, went down to Baker Street, and on to King's +Cross Metropolitan. We followed him, of course. He walked across to St. +Pancras, and left by the ten-thirty express." + +"Did you manage to find out where he booked for!" demanded Starmidge. + +"Ecclesborough," answered Gandam. "Heard him! I was close behind." + +"He was alone, I suppose?" asked Starmidge. + +"Alone all the time, Mr. Starmidge," assented Gandam. "Never saw a sign +of the other party." + +Starmidge rejoined Easleby. For the last twenty-four hours he had let +his companion supervise matters, but now, having decided on a certain +policy, he took affairs into his own hands. + +"Now, then," he said, "he's off--back to Scarnham. A word or two at the +office, Easleby, and I'm after him. And you'll come with me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE LIGHTNING FLASH + + +At half-past seven that evening Starmidge and Easleby stepped out of a +London express at Ecclesborough, and walked out to the front of the +station to get a taxi-cab for Scarnham. The newsboys were rushing across +the station square with the latest editions of the evening papers, and +Starmidge's quick ear caught the meaning of their unfamiliar +North-country shoutings. + +"Latest about the Scarnham mystery," he said, stopping a lad and taking +a couple of papers from him. "Something about the adjourned inquest--of +course that would be today. Now then--what's this?" + +He drew aside to a quiet corner of the station portico, and with his +companion looking over his shoulder, read aloud a passage from the +latest of the two papers. + +"'An important witness gave evidence this afternoon at the adjourned +inquest held at Scarnham on the body of Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, +of London, who was recently found lying dead at the bottom of one of the +old lead-mines in Ellersdeane Hollow. It will be remembered that the +circumstances of this discovery--already familiar to our +readers--allied with the mysterious disappearance of Mr. John Horbury, +and the presumed theft of the Countess of Ellersdeane's jewels, seem to +indicate an extraordinary crime, and opinion varies considerably in the +Scarnham district as to whether Mr. Hollis--the reason of whose visit to +Scarnham is still unexplained--fell into the old mine by accident, or +whether he was thrown in. + +"'At the beginning of the proceedings this afternoon, a shepherd named +James Livesey, of Ellersdeane, employed by Mr. Marchant, farmer, of the +same place, was immediately called. He stated in answer to questions put +by the Coroner, that on Monday morning last he had gone with his +employer to an out-of-the-way part of Northumberland to buy new stock, +and in consequence of his absence from home had not heard of the +Scarnham affair until his return this morning, when, on Mr. Marchant's +advice, he had at once called on the Coroner's office to volunteer +information. + +"'Livesey's evidence, in brief, was as follows: At nine o'clock last +Saturday evening, he was walking home from Scarnham to Ellersdeane by a +track which crosses the Hollow, and cuts into the high road between the +town and the village at a point near the Warren, an isolated house which +is the private residence of Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of +Scarnham. As he reached this point, he saw Mr. John Horbury, whom he +knew very well by sight, accompanied by a stranger, come out of the +Hollow by another path, cross the high road, and walk down the lane +which leads to the Warren. They were talking very earnestly, but Mr. +Horbury saw him and said good-night in answer to his own greeting. There +was a strong moonlight at the time, and he saw the stranger's face +clearly. He was quite sure that the stranger was the dead man whose body +had just been shown to him at the mortuary. + +"'Questioned further, Livesey positively adhered to all his statements. +He was certain of the time; certain of the identity of the two +gentlemen. He knew Mr. Horbury very well indeed; had known him for many +years; Mr. Horbury had often talked to him when they met in the fields +and lanes of the neighbourhood. He had no doubt at all that the dead man +he had seen in the mortuary was the gentleman who was with Mr. Horbury +on Saturday night. He had noticed him particularly as the two gentlemen +passed him, and had wondered who he was. The moon was very bright that +night: he saw Mr. Hollis quite plainly: he would have known him again at +any time. He was positive that the two gentlemen entered the lane which +led to Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke's house. They were evidently making a +direct line for it when he first saw them, and they crossed the high +road straight to its entrance. That lane led nowhere else than to the +Warren--it was locally called the lane, but it was really a sort of +carriage-drive to Mr. Chestermarke's front door, and there was a gate at +the high-road entrance to it. He saw Mr. Horbury and his companion enter +that gate; he heard it clash behind them. + +"'Questioned by Mr. Polke, superintendent of police at Scarnham, Livesey +said that when he first saw the two gentlemen they were coming from the +direction of Ellersdeane Tower. There was a path right across the +Hollow, from a point in front of the Warren, to the Tower, and thence to +the woods on the Scarnham side. That was the path the two gentlemen were +on. He was absolutely certain about the time, for two reasons. Just +before he saw Mr. Horbury and his companion, he heard the clock at +Scarnham Parish Church strike nine, and after they had passed him he had +gone on to the Green Archer public-house, and had noticed that it was +ten minutes past nine when he entered. Further questioned, he said he +saw no one else on the Hollow but the two gentlemen. + +"'At the conclusion of Livesey's evidence, the Coroner announced to the +jury that, having had the gist of the witness's testimony communicated +to him earlier in the day, he had sent his officer to request Mr. +Gabriel Chestermarke's attendance. The officer, however, had returned to +say that Mr. Chestermarke was away on business, and that it was not +known when he would be back at the bank. As it was highly important that +the jury should know at once if Mr. Horbury and Mr. Hollis called at the +Warren on Saturday evening last, he, the Coroner, had sent for Mr. +Chestermarke's butler, who would doubtless be able to give information +on that point. They would adjourn for an hour until the witness +attended.'" + +"That's the end of it--in that paper," remarked Starmidge. "Let's see if +the other has any later news. Ah!--here we are!--there is more in the +stop press space of this one. Now then----" + +He held the second newspaper half in front of himself, half in front of +Easleby, and again rapidly read over the report. + +"'Scarnham--further adjournment. On the Coroner's inquiry being resumed +at four o'clock, Thomas Beavers, butler to Mr. Chestermarke at the +Warren, said that so far as he knew, Mr. Horbury did not call on his +master on Saturday evening last, nor did any gentleman call who answered +the description of Mr. Hollis. It was impossible for anybody to call at +the Warren, in the ordinary way, without his, the butler's, knowledge. +As a matter of fact, the witness continued, Mr. Chestermarke was not at +home during the greater part of that evening. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke +had dined at the Warren at seven o'clock, and at half-past eight he and +his uncle left the house together. Mr. Chestermarke did not return until +eleven. Asked by Mr. Polke, superintendent of police, if he knew in +which direction Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Joseph Chestermarke proceeded when +they went away, the witness said that a short time after they left the +house, he, in drawing the curtains of the dining-room window, saw them +walking in a side-path of the garden, apparently in close conversation. +He saw neither of them after that until Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke +returned home, alone, at the time he had mentioned. + +"'Later. The inquest was further adjourned at the close of this +afternoon's proceedings. Before adjourning, the Coroner informed the +jury that he understood there were rumours in the town to the effect +that Mr. Hollis had been strangled before being thrown into the old +lead-mine. He need hardly say that there were not the slightest grounds +for those rumours. But the medical men had some suspicion that the +unfortunate gentleman might have been poisoned, and he, the Coroner, +thought it well to tell them that a specialist was being sent down by +the Home Office, who, with the Scarnham doctors, would perform an +autopsy on his arrival. The result would be placed before the jury when +these proceedings were resumed.'" + +Starmidge dropped the paper and looked at Easleby with an expression of +astonishment. + +"Poison!" he exclaimed. "That's a new idea! Poisoned first!--and thrown +into that old mine after? That's--but, there, what's the good of +theorizing? Pick out the best of those cars, and let's get to Scarnham +as quick as possible. Something's got to be done tonight." + +Easleby made no immediate answer. But presently, when they were in a +fast motor and leaving the Ecclesborough streets behind them, he shook +his head, and spoke more gravely than was usual with him. + +"The big question, my lad," he said, "is--what to do? And there's +another--what's been done--and possibly, what's being done? It's my +impression something's being done now--still going on!" + +"I know one thing!" exclaimed Starmidge determinedly. "We'll confront +Gabriel Chestermarke tonight with what we know. That's positive!" + +"If we can find him," said Easleby. "You don't know! The coming down to +Ecclesborough may have been all a blind. You can reach a lot of places +from Ecclesborough--and you can leave a train at more than one place +between Ecclesborough and London." + +"I telephoned Polke to keep an eye on him, anyway, if he did arrive at +either Scarnham or the Warren," answered Starmidge, still grimly +determined. "And it's my impression that he has come down--to see that +nephew of his. Easleby!--they're both in at it. Both!" + +Again the elder detective made no answer. He was obviously much +impressed by the recent developments as related in the newspapers which +they had just read, and was deep in thought about them and the +possibilities which they suggested to him. + +"Well!" he said at last, as the high roofs of Scarnham came in view, +"we'll hear what Polke has to tell. Something may have happened since +those inquest proceedings this afternoon." + +But Polke, when they reached his office, had little to tell. Lord +Ellersdeane, Betty Fosdyke, and Stephen Hollis were with him, evidently +in consultation, and Starmidge at once saw that Betty looked distressed +and anxious in no ordinary degree. All turned eagerly on the two +detectives. But Starmidge addressed himself straight to Polke with one +direct inquiry. + +"Seen him?--heard of him?" he asked. + +"Not a word!" answered Polke. "Nor a sign! If he came down by that train +you spoke of, he ought to have been in the town by four o'clock at the +outside. But he's never been to the bank, and he certainly hadn't +arrived at his house three-quarters of an hour ago. And since ten +o'clock this morning t'other's disappeared, too!" + +"What--Joseph?" exclaimed Starmidge. + +"Just so!" replied Polke, with the expression of a man who feels that +things are getting too much for individual effort, "He was at the bank +at eight o'clock this morning--one of my men saw him go in by the back +way--orchard way, you know. The clerks say he went out--that way +again--at ten, and he's never been seen since." + +"His house!" said Starmidge. "Have you tried that?" + +"Know nothing of him there--the old man and old woman said so, at any +rate," answered Polke. "He seems to have cleared out. And now here's +fresh bother, though I don't know if it's anything to do with this. Mr. +Neale's missing--never been seen since six yesterday evening. Miss +Fosdyke's anxious----" + +"He was to see me at nine last night," said Betty. "No one has seen him. +His landlady says he never returned home last night. Do you think +anything can have happened----" + +"If anything's happened to Mr. Neale," interrupted Starmidge, "it's all +of a piece with the rest of it. Now, superintendent!" he went on, +turning to Polke, "never mind what news I've brought--we've got to find +these two Chestermarkes at once! We must go, some of us, to the Warren, +some to the Cornmarket. See here!--Easleby and I will go on to the +Cornmarket now--you get some of your men and follow. If we hear nothing +there--then, the Warren. But--quick!" + +The two detectives hurried out of the police-station; Lord Ellersdeane +and Betty, after a word or two with Polke, followed. Outside, Starmidge +and Easleby paused a moment, consulting; the Earl stepped forward to +speak to them. + +"As regards Mr. Neale," he began, "Miss Fosdyke thinks you ought to know +that----" + +A sudden searching flash, as of lightning, glared across the open space +in front, lighting up the tower of the old church, the high roofs of the +ancient houses, and the drifting clouds above them. Then a crash as of +terrible thunder shook the little town from end to end, and as it died +away the street lamps went out, and the tinkle of falling glass sounded +on the pavements of the Market-Place. And in the second of dead silence +which followed, a woman's voice, shrill, terrified, shrieked loudly, +once, somewhere in the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE OLD DOVE-COT + + +On the previous evening, Wallington Neale, who had spent most of the day +with Betty Fosdyke, endeavouring to gain some further light on the +disappearance of her uncle, had left her at eight o'clock in order to +keep a business appointment. He was honourary treasurer of the Scarnham +Cricket Club: the weekly meeting of the committee of which important +institution was due that night at the Hope and Anchor Inn, an old tavern +in the Cornmarket. Thither Neale repaired, promising to rejoin Betty at +nine o'clock. There was little business to be done at the meeting: by a +quarter to nine it was all over and Neale was going away. And as he +walked down the long sanded passage which led from the committee-room to +the front entrance of the inn, old Rob Walford, the landlord, came out +of the bow-windowed bar-parlour, beckoned him, with a mystery-suggesting +air, to follow, and led him into a private room, the door of which he +carefully closed. + +Walford, a shrewd-eyed, astute old fellow, well known in Scarnham for +his business abilities and his penetration, chiefly into other people's +affairs, looked at Neale with a mingled expression of meaning and +inquiry. + +"Mr. Neale!" he whispered, glancing round at the panelling of the old +parlour in which they stood, as if he feared that its ancient boards +might conceal eavesdroppers, "I wanted a word with you--in private. +How's this here affair going? Is aught being done? Is aught being found +out? Is that detective chap any good?--him from London, I mean. Is there +aught new--since this morning?" + +"Not to my knowledge, Mr. Walford," answered Neale, who knew well that +the old innkeeper was hand-in-glove with the Scarnham police, and +invariably kept himself well primed with information about their doings. +"I should think you know nearly everything--just as much as I do--more, +perhaps." + +The landlord poked a stout forefinger into Neale's waistcoat. + +"Aye!" he said. "Aye, so I do!--as to what you might call surface +matter, Mr. Neale. But--about the main thing, which, in my opinion, is +the whereabouts of John Horbury? Does yon young lady at the Scarnham +Arms know aught more about her uncle? Do you? Does anybody? Is there +aught behind, like; aught that hasn't come out on the top?" + +"I don't know of anything," replied Neale. "I wish I did! Miss Fosdyke's +very anxious indeed about her uncle: she'd give anything or do anything +to get news of him. It's all rot, you know, to say he's run away--it's +my impression he's never gone out of Scarnham or the neighbourhood. But +where he is, and whether dead or alive, is beyond my comprehension," he +concluded, shaking his head. "If he's alive, why don't we hear +something, or find out something?" + +Walford gave his companion a quick glance out of his shrewd old eyes. + +"He might be under such circumstances as wouldn't admit of that there, +Mr. Neale," he said. "But come!--I've got something to tell +you--something that I found out not half an hour ago. I was going on to +tell Polke about it at once, but I remembered that you were in the house +at this cricket club meeting, so I thought you'd do instead--you can +tell Polke. I'm in a bit of a hurry myself--you know it's Wymington +Races tomorrow, and I'm off there tonight, at once, to meet a man that I +do a bit of business with in these matters--we make a book together, +d'ye see--so I can't stop. But come this way." + +He led Neale out into the long sanded passage, and down through the rear +of the old house into a big stable-yard, enclosed by variously shaped +buildings, more or less in an almost worn-out and dilapidated condition, +whose roofs and gables showed picturesquely against the sky, faintly +lighted by the waning moon. To one of these, a tower-like erection, +considerably higher than the rest, the old landlord pointed. + +"I suppose you know that these back premises of mine partly overlook +Joseph Chestermarke's garden?" he whispered. "They do, anyway--you can +see right over his garden and the back of his house--that is, in bits, +for he's a fine lot of tall trees round his lawns. But there's a very +fair view of that workshop he's built from the top storey of this old +dove-cot of mine--we use it as a store-house. Come up--and mind these +here broken steps--there's no rail, you see, and you could easy fall +over." + +He led his companion up a flight of much-worn stone stairs which were +built against the wall of the old dove-cot; through an open doorway +twenty feet above; across a rickety floor; and up another stairway of +wood, into a chamber in which was a latticed window, from which most of +the glass and the woodwork had disappeared. + +"Now, then," he said, taking Neale to this outlook, and pointing +downwards. "There you are!--you see what I mean?" + +Neale looked out. Joseph Chestermarke's big garden lay beneath him. As +Walford had said, much of it was obscured by trees, but there was a good +prospect of one side of the laboratory from where Neale was standing. +That side was furnished with a door--and on the level of that door at +the extreme end of the building was a window fitted with a +light-coloured blind. All the other windows, as in the case of the side +which Neale had seen previously from the tree on the river-bank, were +high up in the walls and fitted with red material. And from the +curiously shaped smoke stack in the flat roof, the same differently +tinted vapours which he had noticed on the same occasion were curling up +above the elms and beeches. + +"Now look here!" whispered the landlord. "D'ye see that one window with +the whitish blind and the light behind it? I came up here, maybe half an +hour ago, to see if we were out of something that's kept here, and I +chanced to look out on to Joseph Chestermarke's garden. Mr. +Neale!--there's a man in that room with the light-coloured blind--I saw +his shadow on the blind, pass and repass, you understand, twice, while I +looked. And--it's not Joseph Chestermarke!" + +"Could you tell?--had you any idea?--whose shadow it was?" demanded +Neale eagerly. + +"No!--he passed in a sort of slanting direction--back and forward--just +once," answered Walford. "But--his build was, I should say, about the +like of John Horbury's. Mr. Neale--Horbury might be locked up there! +He's a bad 'un, is Joe Chestermarke--oh, he's a rank bad 'un, my +lad!--though most folk don't know it. You don't know what mayn't be +happening, or what mayn't have happened in yon place! But look here--I +can't stop. Me and Sam Barraclough's going off to Wymington now, in his +motor--he'll be waiting at this minute. You do what I say--stop here and +watch a bit. And if you see aught, go to Polke and insist on the police +searching that place. That's my advice!" + +"I shall do that, in any case, after what you've said," muttered Neale, +who was staring at the lighted window. "But I'll watch here a bit. +You've said nothing of this to anybody else?" + +"No," replied the landlord. "As I said, I knew you were in the house. +Well, I'm off, then. Shan't be back till late tomorrow night--and I hope +you'll have some news by then, Mr. Neale." + +Walford went off across the creaking floor and down the stairs, and +Neale leaned out of the dismantled window and stared into the garden +beneath. Was it possible, he wondered, that there was anything in the +old fellow's suggestion?--possible that the missing bank manager was +really concealed in that mysterious laboratory, or workshop, or whatever +the place was, into which Joseph Chestermarke never allowed any person +to enter? And if he was there at all, was it with his consent, or +against his will, or--what? Was he being kept a prisoner--or was +he--hiding? + +In spite of his own knowledge of Horbury, and of Betty Fosdyke's +assertions of her uncle's absolute innocence, Neale had all along been +conscious of a vague, uneasy feeling that, after all, there might be +something of an unexplained nature in which the manager had been, or was +concerned. It might have something to do with the missing jewels; it +might be mixed up with Frederick Hollis's death; it might be that +Horbury and Joseph Chestermarke were jointly concerned in--but there he +was at a loss, not knowing or being able to speculate on what they could +be concerned in. Strange beyond belief it was, nevertheless, that old +Rob Walford should think the shadow he had seen to be the missing man's! +Supposing---- + +The door of Joseph Chestermarke's laboratory suddenly opened, letting +out a glare of light across the lawn in front. And Joseph came out, +carrying a sort of sieve-like arrangement, full of glowing ashes. He +went away to some distant part of the garden with his burden; came back, +disappeared; re-appeared with more ashes; went again down the garden. +And each time he left the door wide open. A sudden notion--which he +neglected to think over--flashed into Neale's mind. He left the upper +chamber of the old dove-cot, made his way down the stairs to the yard +beneath, turned the corner of the buildings, and by the aid of some +loose timber which lay piled against it, climbed to the top of Joseph +Chestermarke's wall. A moment of hesitation, and then he quietly dropped +to the other side, noiselessly, on the soft mould of the border. From +behind a screen of laurel bushes he looked out on the laboratory, at +close quarters. + +Joseph was still coming and going with his sieve--now that Neale saw him +at a few yards distance he saw that the junior partner and amateur +experimenter was evidently cleaning out his furnace. The place into +which he threw the ashes was at the far end of the garden; at least +three minutes was occupied in each journey. And--yielding to a sudden +impulse--when Joseph made his next excursion and had his back fairly +turned, Neale crossed the lawn in half a dozen agile and stealthy +strides, and within a few seconds had slipped within the open door and +behind it. + +A moment later, and he knew he was trapped. Joseph came back--and did +not enter. Neale heard him fling the sieve on the gravel. Then the door +was pulled to with a metallic bang, from without, and the same action +which closed it also cut off the electric light. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +SOUND-PROOF + + +It needed no more than a moment's reflection to prove to Neale that he +had made a serious mistake in obeying that first impulse. Joseph +Chestermarke had gone away--probably for the night. And there had been +something in the metallic clang of that closing door, something in the +sure and certain fashion in which it had closed into its frame, +something in the utter silence which had followed the sudden extinction +of the light, which made the captive feel that he might beat upon door +or wall as hard and as long as he pleased without attracting any +attention. This place into which he had come of his own free will was no +ordinary place--already he felt that he was in a trap out of which it +was not going to be easy to escape. + +He stood for a moment, heart thumping and pulses throbbing, to listen +and to look. But he saw nothing--beyond the faint indication of the +waning moonlight outside the red-curtained, circular windows high above +him, and a fainter speck of glowing cinder, left behind in the recently +emptied furnace. He heard nothing, either, save a very faint crackling +of the expiring ashes in that furnace. Presently even that minute sound +died down, the one speck of light went out, and the silence and gloom +were intense. + +Neale now knew that unless Joseph Chestermarke came back to his workshop +he was doomed to spend the night in it--and possibly part of the next +day. He felt sure that it was impossible to obtain release otherwise +than by Joseph's coming. He could do nothing--in all probability--to +release himself. No one in the town would have the remotest idea that he +was fastened up within those walls. The only man to whom such an idea +could come on hearing that he, Neale, was missing, was old Rob +Walford--and Walford, by that time, would be well on his way to +Wymington, thirty miles off, and as he was to be there all night, and +all next day, he would hear nothing until his return to Scarnham, +twenty-four hours hence. No!--he was caught. Joseph Chestermarke had had +no idea of catching him--but he had caught him all the same. + +And now that he was safely caught, Neale began to wonder why he had +slipped into that place. He had an elementary idea, of course--he had +wanted to find out if anybody was concealed in that room which the +landlord had pointed out. Certainly he had felt no fear about meeting +Joseph Chestermarke. Yet--now that he was there--he did not know what he +should have done if Joseph had come in, as he expected he would, nor +what he should, or could do now that he was in complete possession. If +he had been able to face Joseph, he would have demanded information, +point-blank, about the shadow on the blind; he even had some misty +notion about enforcing it, if need be. But--he was now helpless. He +could do no good; he could not tell Polke or anybody else what Walford +had reported. And if he was to be left there all night--which seemed +likely--he had only got himself into a highly unpleasant situation. + +He moved at last, feeling about in the darkness. His hands encountered +smooth, blank walls, on each side of the door. He dared not step forward +lest he should run against machinery or meet with some cavity in the +flooring. And reflecting that the small, insignificant gleam which it +would make could scarcely be noticed from outside, he struck a match, +and carefully holding it within the flap of his outstretched jacket, +looked around him. A first quick glance gave him a general idea of his +surroundings. Immediately in front of him was the furnace; a little to +its side was a lathe; on one side of the place a long table stood, +covered with a multitude of tools, chemical apparatus, and the like; on +the other was a blank wall. And in that blank wall, to which Neale +chiefly directed his attention during the few seconds for which the +match burned, was a door. + +The match went out; he dropped it on the floor and moved forward in the +darkness to the door which he had just seen. That, of course, must open +into the inner room to the outer window of which Walford had drawn his +attention. He went on until his outstretched fingers touched the door. +Then he cautiously struck another match and looked the door up and down. +What he saw added to the mystery of the whole adventure. Neale had seen +doors of that sort before, more than once--but they were the doors of +very big safes or of strong rooms. Before the second match burned +through he knew that this particular door was of some metal--steel, +most likely--that it was set into a framework of similar metal, and that +the room to which it afforded entrance was probably sound-proof. + +He struck a third match and a fourth. By their light he saw there was +but one small keyhole to the door, and he judged from that that it was +fitted with some patent mechanical lock. There was no way by which he +could open it, of course, and though he stood for a long time listening +with straining ears against it he could not detect the slightest sound +from whatever chamber or recess lay behind it. If there really was a man +in there, thought Neale, he must surely feel himself to be in a living +tomb. And after a time, taking the risk of being heard from outside the +laboratory, he beat heavily upon the door with his fist. No response +came: the silence all around him was more oppressive, if possible, than +before. + +The expenditure of more matches enabled Neale to examine further into +the conditions of what seemed likely to be his own prison for some +hours. He was not sorry to see that in one corner stood an old settee, +furnished with rugs and cushions--if he was obliged to remain locked up +all night, he would, at any rate, be able to get some rest. But beyond +this, the furnace, a tall three-fold screen, evidently used to assist in +the manipulation of draughts, and the lathe, table, and apparatus which +he had already seen, there was nothing in the place. There was no way of +getting at the windows in the top of the high walls: even if he could +have got at them they were too small for a man to squeeze through. And +he was about to sit down on the settee and wait the probably slow and +tedious course of events, when he caught sight of an object at the end +of the table which startled him, and made him wonder more than anything +he had seen up to that moment. + +That object was a big loaf of bread. He struck yet another match and +looked at it more narrowly. It was one of those large loaves which +bakers make for the use of families. Close by it lay a knife: a nearer +inspection showed Neale that a slice had recently been cut from the +loaf: he knew that by the fact that the crumb was still soft and fresh +on the surface, in spite of the great heat of the place. It was scarcely +likely that Joseph Chestermarke would eat unbuttered bread during his +experiments and labours--why, then, was the loaf there? Could it be that +this bread was--that the slice which had just been cut was--the ration +given to somebody behind that door? + +This idea filled Neale with the first spice of fear which he had felt +since entering the laboratory. The idea of a man being fastened up in a +sound-proof chamber and fed on dry bread suggested possibilities which +he did not and could not contemplate without a certain horror. And if +there really was such a prisoner in that room, or cell, or whatever the +place was, who could it be but John Horbury? And if it was John Horbury, +how, under what circumstances, had he been brought there, why was he +being kept there? + +Neale sat down at last on the settee, and in the silence and darkness +gave himself up to thoughts of a nature which he had never known in his +life before. Here, at any rate, was adventure!--and of a decidedly +unpleasant sort. He was not afraid for himself. He had a revolver in his +hip-pocket, loaded--he had been carrying it since Tuesday, with some +strange notion that it might be wanted. Certainly he might have to go +without food for perhaps many hours--but he suddenly remembered that in +the pocket of his Norfolk jacket he had a biggish box of first-rate +chocolate, which he had bought on his way to the cricket club meeting, +with a view of presenting it to Betty, later on. He could get through a +day on that, he thought, if it were necessary--as for the loaf of bread, +something seemed to nauseate him at the mere thought of trying to +swallow a mouthful of it. + +The rest of the evening went: the silence was never broken. Not a sound +came from the mysterious chamber behind him. No step sounded on the +gravel without: no hand unlocked the door from the garden. Now and then +he heard the clock of the parish church strike the hours. At last he +slept--at first fitfully; later soundly--and when he woke it was +morning, and the sunlight was pouring in through the red-curtained +windows high in the walls of his prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE SPARROWS AND THE SPHERE + + +Neale was instantly awake and on the alert. He sprang to his feet, +shivering a little in spite of the rugs which he had wrapped about him +before settling down. A slight current of cold air struck him as he +rose--looking in the direction from which it seemed to come, he saw that +one of the circular windows in the high wall above him was open, and +that a fresh north-east wind was blowing the curtain aside. The +laboratory, hot and close enough when he had entered it the previous +evening, was now cool; the morning breeze freshened and sharpened his +wits. He pulled out his watch, which he had been careful to wind up +before lying down. Seven o'clock!--in spite of his imprisonment and his +unusual couch, he had slept to his accustomed hour of waking. + +Knowing that Joseph Chestermarke might walk in upon him at any moment, +Neale kept himself on the look out, in readiness to adopt a determined +attitude whenever he was discovered. By that time he had come to the +conclusion that whether force would be necessary or not in any meeting +with Joseph, it would be no unwise thing to let that worthy see at once +that he had to deal with an armed man. He accordingly saw to it that his +revolver, already loaded, was easily get-at-able, and the flap of his +hip-pocket unbuttoned: under the circumstances, he was not going to be +slow in producing that revolver in suggestive, if not precisely menacing +fashion. This done, he opened his box of chocolate, calculated its +resources, and ate a modest quantity. And while he ate, he looked about +him. In the morning light everything in his surroundings showed clearly +that his cursory inspection of the night before had been productive of +definite conclusions. There was no doubt whatever of the character of +the mysterious door set so solidly and closely in its framework in the +blank wall: the door of the strong room at Chestermarke's Bank was not +more suggestive of security. + +He went over to the outer door when he had eaten his chocolate, and +examined that at his leisure. That, in lesser degree, was set into the +wall as strongly as the inner one. He saw no means of opening it from +the inside: it was evidently secured by a patent mechanical lock of +which Joseph Chestermarke presumably carried the one key. He turned from +it to look more closely at a shelf of books and papers which projected +from the wall above the table. Papers and books were all of a scientific +nature, most of them relating to experimental chemistry, some to +mechanics. He noticed that there were several books on poisons; his +glance fell from those books to various bottles and phials on the table, +fashioned of dark-coloured glass and three-cornered in shape, which he +supposed to contain poisonous solutions. So Joseph dabbled in +toxicology, did he? thought Neale--in that case, perhaps, there was +something in the theory which had been gaining ground during the last +twenty-four hours--that Hollis had been poisoned first and thrown into +the old lead-mine later on. And--what of the somebody, Horbury or +whoever it was, that lay behind that grim-looking door? Neale had never +heard a sound during the time which had elapsed before he dropped +asleep, never a faintest rustle since he had been awake again. Was it +possible that a dead man lay there--murdered? + +A cheerful chirping and twittering in the space behind him caused him to +turn sharply away from the books and bottles. Then he saw that he was no +longer alone. Half a score sparrows, busy, bustling little bodies, had +come in by the open window, and were strutting about amongst the grey +ashes in front of the furnace. + +Neale's glance suddenly fell on the loaf of bread, close at hand on the +edge of the table, and on the knife which lay by it. Mechanically, +without any other idea than that of feeding the sparrows and diverting +himself by watching their antics, he picked up the knife, quietly cut +off a half-slice of the loaf, and, crumbling it in his fingers, threw +the crumbs on the floor. For a minute or two he watched his visitors +fighting over this generous dole; then he turned to the shelf again, to +take down a book, the title of which had attracted him. Neale was an +enthusiastic member of the Territorial Force, and had already gained his +sergeant's stripes in the local battalion; he was accordingly deeply +interested in all military matters--this book certainly related to those +matters, though in a way with which he was happily as yet unfamiliar. +For its title was "On the Use of High Explosive in Modern Warfare," and +though Neale was no great reader, he was well enough versed in current +affairs to know the name of the author, a foreign scientist of +world-wide reputation. + +He opened the book as he stood there, and was soon absorbed in the +preface; so absorbed indeed, that it was some little time before he +became aware that the cheerful twittering behind him had ceased. It had +made a welcome diversion, that innocent chirping of the little brown +birds, and when it ceased, he missed it. He turned suddenly--and dropped +the book. + +Seven or eight of the sparrows were already lying on the floor +motionless. Some lay on their sides, some on their backs; all looked as +if they were already dead. Two were still on their feet; at any other +time Neale would have laughed to see the way in which they staggered +about, for all the world as if they were drunk. And as he watched one +collapsed; the other, after an ineffective effort to spread its wings, +rolled to one side and dropped helplessly. And Neale made another +turn--to stare at the loaf of bread and to wonder what devilry lay in +it. Poison? Of course it was poison! And--what of this man in that +jealously guarded room, behind that steel door? Had he also eaten of the +loaf? + +He turned to the sparrows again at last, stood staring at them as if +they fascinated him, and eventually went over to the foot of the furnace +and picked one up. Then he found, with something of a shock, that the +small thing was not dead. The little body was warm with life; he felt +the steady, regular beating of the tiny heart. He laid the bird down +gently, and picked up its companions, one by one, examining each. And +each was warm, and the heart of each was beating. The sparrows were not +dead--but they were drugged--and they were very fast asleep. + +Neale now began to develop theories. If a mere tiny crumb of that loaf +could put a sparrow, a remarkably vigorous and physically strong little +bird--to sleep within a minute or two, what effect would, say, a good +thick slice of it produce upon a human being? Anyway, the probability +was that the captive in that room was lying in a heavily drugged +condition, and that that was the reason of his silence. He would +wake--and surely some sound, however faint, would come. He himself would +wait--listening. The morning wore on--he waited, watched, listened. None +came--nothing had happened. He ate more of his chocolate. He read the +book on explosives. It interested him deeply--so deeply that in spite of +his anxiety, his hunger, his uncertainty as to what might happen, sooner +or later, he became absorbed in it. And once more he was called from its +pages by the sparrows. + +The sparrows were coming to life. After lying stupefied for some four or +five hours they were showing signs of animation. One by one they were +moving, staggering to their feet, beginning to chirp. And as he watched +them, first one and then the other got the use of its wings; and, +finally, with one consent, they flew off to the open window--to +disappear. + +Thereafter, Neale listened more keenly than ever for any sound from that +mysterious room. But no sound came. The afternoon passed wearily away; +the light began to fail, and at last he had to confess to himself that +the waiting, the being always on the alert, the enforced seclusion and +detention, the desire for proper food and drink--especially the +latter--was becoming too much for him, and that his nerves were +beginning to suffer. Was Joseph Chestermarke never coming? Had he gone +off somewhere?--possibly leaving a dead man behind, whose body was only +a few yards away. There was no spark of comfort visible save one. Old +Rob Walford would be home late that night from Wymington--sooner or +later he would hear of Neale's disappearance and he would sharpen his +naturally acute wits and come to the right conclusion. Yet--that might +be as far off as tomorrow. + +As the darkness came, Neale, now getting desperate for want of food, was +suddenly startled by two sounds which, coming abruptly at almost the +same time, made him literally jump. One--the first--was a queer thump, +thump, thump, which seemed to be both close at hand and yet a thousand +miles away. The second was Joseph Chestermarke's voice in the garden +outside--heard clearly through the open window. He was bidding somebody +to tell a cab-driver to wait for him at the foot of the bridge. The next +minute, Neale heard a key plunged into the outer door--before it turned, +he, following out a scheme which he had decided on during his long +watch, had leaped behind the screen that stood near the furnace. Ere the +door could open, he was safely hidden--and in that second he heard the +thumping repeated and knew that it came from the inner room. + +The electric light blazed up as Joseph Chestermarke strode in. He put +the door to behind him without quite closing it, and walked into the +middle of the laboratory, feeling in his waistcoat pocket for something +as he advanced. And Neale, peering at him through the high screen, felt +afraid of him for the first time in his life. For the junior partner had +shaved off his beard and moustache, and the face which was thus clearly +revealed, and on which the bright light shone vividly, was one of such +mean and malevolent cruelty that the watcher felt himself turn sick with +dread. + +Joseph went straight to the door in the far wall, unlocked it with a +twist of the key which he had brought from his pocket, and walked in. +The click of an electric light switch followed, and Neale stared hard +and nervously into the hitherto hidden room. But he saw nothing but +Joseph Chestermarke, standing, hands planted on his sides, staring at +something hidden by the door. Next instant Joseph spoke--menacingly, +sneeringly. + +"So you're round again after one of your long sleeps, are you?" he said. +"That's lucky! Now then, have you come to your senses?" + +Neale thought his heart would burst as he waited for the unseen man's +voice. But before he heard any voice he heard something which turned his +blood cold with horror--the clanking, plain, unmistakable, of a chain! +Whoever was in there was chained!--chained like a dog. And following on +that metallic sound came a weary moan. + +"Come on, now!" said Joseph. "None of that! Are you going to sign that +paper? Speak, now!" + +It seemed to Neale an age before an answer came. But it came at +last--and in Horbury's voice. But what a changed voice! Thin, weak, +weary--the voice of a man slowly being done to death. + +"How long are you going to keep me here?" it asked. "How long----" + +"Sign that paper on the table there, and you'll be out of this within +twenty-four hours," replied Joseph. "And--listen, you!--you'll have good +food--and wine--wine!--within ten minutes. Come on, now!" + +Further silence was followed by another moan, and at the sound of that, +Neale, whose teeth had been clenched firmly for the last minute or two, +slipped his hand round to the pocket in which the revolver lay. + +"Don't be a damned fool!" said Joseph. "Sign and have done with it! +There's the pen--sign! You could have signed any time the last week and +been free. Get it done--damn you, I tell you, get it done! It's your +last chance. I'm off tonight. If I leave you here, it's in your grave. +Nobody'll ever come near this place for weeks--you'll be dead--starved +to death, mind!--long before that. Do you hear me? Come on, now!--sign!" + +Neale half drew the revolver from his pocket. But, as he was about to +step from behind the screen, a sudden step sounded on the gravel outside +the outer door, and he shrank back, watching. The door opened--was +thrown back with some violence--and at the same instant Joseph darted +from the inner room, livid with anger, to confront Gabriel Chestermarke. + +That the younger man had not expected to encounter the elder was +instantly evident to Neale. Joseph drew back, step by step, watching his +uncle, until his back was against the door through which he had just +rushed. His hand went out behind him and pulled the door to, heavily. +And as it closed he spoke--and Neale knew that there was fear in his +voice. + +"What--what--is it?" he got out. "When did you come in here? Why----" +Gabriel Chestermarke had come to a halt in the middle of the floor, and +he was standing very still. His face was paler than ever, and his eyes +burned in their deep-set sockets like live coals. And suddenly he lifted +a forefinger and pointed it straight at his nephew. + +"Thief!" he said, with a quietness which was startlingly impressive to +the excited spectator. "Thief! Thief and liar--and murderer, for aught I +know! But you are found out. Scoundrel!--you stole those securities! You +stole those jewels! Don't trifle--don't attempt to dispute! I know! You +got the jewels last Saturday night--you took those securities at the +same time. You may have murdered that man Hollis for anything I know to +the contrary--probably you did. But--no fencing with me! Now speak! +Where are the jewels? Where are those securities? And--where is Horbury! +Answer!--without lying. You devil!--I tell you I know--_know_! I have +seen Mrs. Carswell!" + +Gabriel had moved a little as he went on speaking--moved nearer to his +nephew, still pointing the incriminating and accusing finger at him. And +Joseph had moved, too--backward. He was watching his uncle with a queer +expression. Neale saw the tip of his tongue emerge from his lips, as if +the lips had become dry, and he wanted to moisten them. And suddenly his +face changed, and Neale, closely watching him, saw his hand go quickly +to his breast pocket, and caught the gleam of a revolver.... + +Neale was a cricketer--of reputation and experience. On a felt-covered +stand close by him lay a couple of heavy spherical objects, fashioned of +some shining-surfaced metal and about the size of a cricket ball, which +he had previously noticed and handled in looking round. He snatched one +of them up now, and flung it hard and straight at Joseph Chestermarke, +intending to stun him. But for once in a way he missed his mark; the +missile crashed against the wall behind. And then came a great flash, +and the roar of all the world going to pieces, and a mighty lifting and +upheaving--and he saw and felt and knew no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +WRECKAGE + + +The four people standing beneath the portico of the police-station +remained as if spell-bound for a full moment after the sudden flash and +the sudden roar. Betty Fosdyke unconsciously clutched at Lord +Ellersdeane's arm: Lord Ellersdeane spoke, wonderingly. + +"Thunder?" he exclaimed. "Strange!" + +Easleby turned sharply from Starmidge, who, holding by one of the +pillars, was staring towards the quarter of the Market-Place, from +whence the scream of dire fear had come. + +"That's no thunder, my lord!" he said. "That's an explosion!--and a +terrible one, too! Are there any gasworks close at hand? It was +like----" + +Polke came rushing out of the lobby behind them, followed by some of his +men. And at the same instant people began running along the pavements, +calling to each other. + +"Did you hear that?" cried the superintendent excitedly. "An explosion! +Which direction?" + +Starmidge suddenly started, as if from a reverie. He put up his hand and +wiped something from his cheek, and held the hand out to a shaft of +light which came from the open door behind them. A smear of blood lay +across his open palm. + +"A splinter of falling glass," he said quietly. "Come on, all of you! +That was an explosion--and I guess where! Get help, Polke--come on to +the Cornmarket! Get the firemen out." + +He set off running towards the end of the Market-Place, followed by +Easleby, and at a slower pace by Lord Ellersdeane and Betty. Crowds were +beginning to run in the same direction: very soon the two detectives +found it difficult to thread a way through them. But within a few +minutes they were in the Cornmarket, and Starmidge, seizing his +companion's arm, dragged him round the corner of Joseph Chestermarke's +house to the high garden wall which ran down the slope to the river +bank. And as they turned the corner, he pointed. + +"As I thought!" he muttered. "It's Joseph Chestermarke's workshop! +Something's happened. Look there!" + +The wall, a good ten feet high on that side, was blown to pieces, and +lay, a mass of fallen masonry, on the green sward by the roadside. +Through the gap thus made, Starmidge plunged into the garden--to be +brought up at once by the twisted and interlaced boughs of the trees +which had been lopped off as though by some giant ax, and then +instantaneously transformed into a cunningly interwoven fence. The air +was still thick with fine dust, and the atmosphere was charged with a +curious, acid odour, which made eyes and nostrils smart. + +"No ordinary burst up, this!" muttered Starmidge, as he and Easleby +forced their way through branches and obstacles to the open lawn. "My +God!--look at it! Blown to pieces!" + +The two men stood for a moment staring at the scene before them, as it +was revealed in the faint light of a waning moon. Neither had ever seen +the effect of high explosives before, and they remained transfixed with +utter astonishment at what they saw. Never, until then, had either +believed it possible that such ruin could be wrought by such means. + +The laboratory was a mass of shapeless wreckage. It seemed as if the +roof had been blown into the sky--only to collapse again on the +shattered walls. The masonry and woodwork lay all over lawns and +gardens, and amidst the surrounding bushes and trees. In the middle of +it yawned a black, deep cavity, from the heart of which curled a wisp of +yellowish smoke. Between these ruins and the house a beech tree of +considerable size had been completely uprooted, and had crashed down on +the lower windows of the house, part of the wall and roof of which had +been wrecked. And on the opposite side of the garden a great gap had +been made in the smaller trees, and the shrubberies beneath them by the +falling in of Rob Walford's old dove-cot, the ancient walls and timber +roof of which had completely collapsed under the force of the explosion. + +Over the actual area of the wreckage everything was still as death, save +for a faint crackling where some loose wood was just catching fire. +Starmidge began to make his way towards it. + +"The thing is," he said mechanically, "the thing is, the thing is--yes, +is--was--there anybody here--anybody here! We must have lights." + +And just then as he came to where the burst of flame was growing +bigger, and Polke with a body of firemen and constables came hurrying +through a gap in the lower wall, he caught sight of a man's face, turned +up to the half-light. Easleby saw it at the same time--together they +went nearer. And Starmidge bent down and found himself looking at +Gabriel Chestermarke. + +"Him!" he whispered. "Then he came--here!" + +"He's gone, anyway," muttered Easleby. "Dead as can be!" He lifted +himself erect and called to Polke who was making his way towards them. +"Bring a lantern!" he said. "There's a dead man here!" + +"And keep the crowd out," called Starmidge. "Keep everybody out--while +we look round." + +But at that moment he caught sight of Betty Fosdyke, who, with Lord +Ellersdeane in close attendance, had made her way into the garden and +was clambering towards him. Starmidge stepped back to her. + +"Hadn't you better go back?" he urged. "There'll be unpleasant sights. +Do go back!--amongst the trees, anyway. We've found one dead man +already, and there'll probably be----" + +"No!" she said firmly. "I won't! Not until I know who's here. Because I +think--I'm afraid Mr. Neale may be here. I must--I will stop! I'm not +afraid. Whose body have you found?" + +"Gabriel Chestermarke's," replied Starmidge quietly. "Dead! +And--whoever's here, Miss Fosdyke, I don't see how he can possibly be +alive. Do go back and let us search." + +But Betty turned away and began to search, climbing from one mass of +wreckage to another. Presently an exclamation from her brought the +others hurriedly to her side. She pointed between two slabs of stone. + +"There!" she whispered. "A man's--face!" + +Starmidge turned to Lord Ellersdeane. + +"Get her away--aside--anywhere--for a minute!" he muttered. "Let's see +what condition he's in, anyway. The other--was blown to pieces." + +Lord Ellersdeane took a firm grip of Betty's arm and turned her round. + +"That was not--Mr. Neale?" he asked. + +"No!" she said faintly. "No!" + +"Then leave them to deal with that, and let us look elsewhere," he said. +"Come--after all, you don't know that he would be here." + +"Where else should he be?" she answered. "I'm sure he's here, somewhere. +Help me!" + +She turned away with him in another direction, and the two detectives, +with some of the firemen helping them, got to work on the place which +she had pointed out. Presently Polke directed the light of a bulls'-eye +on the dead face beneath them. He broke into an exclamation of +amazement. + +"Who's this?" he demanded. "Look!" + +One of the firemen bent closer, and suddenly glanced up at the +superintendent. + +"It's young Chestermarke, sir," he said. "He must have shaved his beard +off. But--it's him!" + +They took out what was to be found of Joseph Chestermarke at that +particular spot, and went on to search for the rest of him, and for +anything else. And eventually they came across Neale--unconscious, but +alive. His partial protection by the projecting iron walls of the +furnace had saved him; he had evidently been carried back with them when +the explosion occurred and wedged between them and the outer wall of the +laboratory. He came round to find a doctor administering restoratives to +him on one side, and Betty Fosdyke kneeling at the other. And suddenly +he remembered, and made a great shift to speak. + +"All right!" he muttered at length. "Bit knocked out, that's all! +But--Horbury! Horbury's--somewhere! Get at him!" + +They got at the missing bank manager at last--he, too, had been saved by +the thick wall which stood between him and the explosion. He was alive +and conscious when they had dug down to him--and his rescuers stared +from him to each other when they saw that the broken links of a steel +chain were still securely manacled about his waist. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE PRISONER SPEAKS + + +It was not until a week later that Neale, with a bandaged head and one +arm in a sling, and Betty Fosdyke, inexpressibly thankful that the +recent terrible catastrophe had at any rate brought relief in its train, +were allowed to visit Horbury for their first interview of more than a +few minutes' duration. Neale had made a quick recovery; beyond the +fracture of a small bone in his arm, some cuts on his head, and a +general shock to his system, he was little the worse for his experience. +But the elder victim had suffered more severely; he had suffered, too, +from a week's ill-treatment and starvation. Nevertheless, he managed an +approving smile when the two young people were brought to his bedside, +and he looked at them afterwards in a narrow and scrutinizing fashion, +which made Betty redden and grow somewhat conscious. + +"Not more than three-quarters of an hour at most, the nurse said," she +remarked, as they sat down at the bedside. "So if you have anything to +say, Uncle John, you must get it said within that." + +"One can say a lot within three-quarters of an hour, my dear," answered +the invalid. "There is something I wanted to say," he went on, glancing +at Neale. "I suppose there has been an inquest on the two +Chestermarkes?" + +"Adjourned--until you're all right," replied Neale. "You and I, of +course, are the two important witnesses. You--principally. You know +everything--I only came in at the end." + +"I suppose there are--and have been--all sorts of rumours?" said +Horbury. "I don't see how anybody but myself could know all that +happened in this horrible business. Hollis, for instance?--have they +come to any conclusion about his death?" + +"None!" replied Neale. "All that's known is that he was found at the +bottom of one of the old lead mines. We," he added, nodding at Betty, +"were there when he was taken out." + +Horbury's face clouded. + +"And I," he said, shaking his head, "was there when--but I'll tell you +two all about it. I should like to go over it all again--before the +inquest is resumed. Not that I've forgotten it," he went on, with a +shudder. "I will never do that! It's all like a bad dream. You remember +the Saturday night when all this began, Neale? If I had had any idea of +what was to happen during the next week----! + +"That night, between half-past five and six o'clock, I was rung up on +the telephone. Greatly to my surprise I found the caller to be Frederick +Hollis, an old schoolmate of mine, whom I had only seen once--I'll tell +you when later--since we were at school together. Hollis said he had +come down specially from London to see me; he was at the Station Hotel, +about to have some food, and would like to meet me later. He said he +had reasons for not coming to the Bank House; he wished to meet me in +some quiet place about the town. I told him to walk along the river-side +at half-past seven, and I would meet him. And after I had dined I went +out through my garden and orchard and met him coming along. I took him +over the foot-bridge into the woods. + +"Hollis told me an extraordinary story--yet one which did not surprise +me as much as you might think. I knew that he was a solicitor in London. +He said that only a few days before this interview a lady friend of his +had privately asked his advice. She was a Mrs. Lester, the widow of a +man--an old friend of Hollis's--who in his time made a very big fortune. +They had an only son, a lad who went into the Army, and into a crack +cavalry regiment. The father made his son a handsome, but not sufficient +allowance--the son, finding it impossible to get it increased, had +recourse, after he was of age, to a London money-lender, named Godwin +Markham, of Conduit Street, from whom, in course of time, he borrowed +some seven or eight thousand pounds. Old Lester died--instead of leaving +a handsome fortune to the son, he left every penny he had to his wife. +The lad was pressed for repayment--Markham claimed some fifteen or +sixteen thousand. Young Lester was obliged to tell his mother. She urged +him to make terms--for cash. Markham would not abate a penny of his +claim. So Mrs. Lester called in Frederick Hollis and asked his advice. +At his suggestion she gave him a cheque for ten thousand pounds: he was +to see Markham and endeavour to get a settlement for that sum. + +"The day before he came down to Scarnham--Friday--Hollis did two things. +He got young Lester to come up to town and tell him the exact +particulars of his financial dealings with Godwin Markham. Primed with +these, and knowing that the demand was extortionate, he went, alone, to +Markham's office in Conduit Street. Markham was away, but Hollis saw the +manager, a man named Stipp. He saw something more, too. On Stipp's +mantelpiece he saw a portrait which he recognized immediately as one of +Gabriel Chestermarke. + +"Now, you want to know how Hollis knew Gabriel Chestermarke. In this +way: I told you just now that Hollis and I had only met once since our +school-days. Some few years ago--I think the year before you came into +the bank, Neale--Hollis came up North on a holiday. He was a bit of an +archæologist; he was looking round the old towns, and he took Scarnham +in his itinerary. Knowing that an old schoolmate of his was manager at +Chestermarke's Bank in Scarnham, he called in to see me. He and I +lunched together at the Scarnham Arms. I showed him round the town a +bit, after bank hours. And as we were standing in the upper-room window +of the Arms, Gabriel Chestermarke came out of the bank and stood talking +to some person in the Market-Place for awhile. I drew Hollis's attention +to him, and asked, jocularly, if he had ever seen a more remarkable and +striking countenance? He answered that it was one which, once seen, +would not readily be forgotten. And he had not forgotten it once he saw +the portrait at Markham's office--he knew very well that it was +extremely unlikely that so noticeable a man as Gabriel Chestermarke +could have a double. + +"Now, Hollis was a sharp fellow. He immediately began to suspect things. +He talked awhile with Stipp, and contrived to find out that the portrait +over the mantelpiece was that of Godwin Markham. He also found out that +Mr. Godwin Markham was rarely to be found at his office--that there was +no such thing as daily, or even weekly attendance there by him. And +after mutual desires that the Lester affair should be satisfactorily +settled, but without telling Stipp anything about the ten thousand +pounds, he left the office with a promise to call a few days later. + +"Next day, certain of what he had discovered, Hollis came down to see +me, and told me all that I have just told you. It did not surprise me as +much as you would think. I knew that for a great many years Gabriel +Chestermarke had spent practically half his time in London--I had always +felt sure that he had a finger in some business there, and I naturally +concluded that he had some sort of a _pied-à-terre_ in London as well. +One fact had always struck me as peculiar--he never allowed letters to +be sent on to him from Scarnham to London. Anything that required his +personal attention had to await his return. So that when I heard all +that Hollis had to tell, I was not so greatly astonished. In fact, the +one thing that immediately occupied my thoughts was--was Joseph +Chestermarke also concerned in the Godwin Markham money-lending +business? He, too, was constantly away in London--or believed to be so. +He, too, never had letters sent on to him. Taking everything into +consideration, I came to the conclusion that Joseph was in all +probability his uncle's partner in the Conduit Street concern, just as +he was in the bank at home. + +"Hollis and I walked about the paths in the wood for some time, +discussing this affair. I asked at last what he proposed to do. He +inquired if I thought the Chestermarkes would be keen about preserving +their secret. I replied that in my opinion, seeing that they were highly +respectable country-town bankers, chiefly doing business with +ultra-respectable folk, they would be very sorry indeed to have it come +out that they were also money-lenders in London, and evidently very +extortionate ones. Hollis then said that that was his own opinion, and +it would influence the line he proposed to take. He said that he had a +cheque in his pocket, already made out for ten thousand pounds, and only +requiring filling up with the names of payee and drawer; he would like +to see Gabriel Chestermarke, tell him what he had discovered, offer him +the cheque in full satisfaction of young Lester's liabilities to the +Markham concern, and hint plainly that if his offer of it was not +accepted, he would take steps which would show that Gabriel Chestermarke +and Godwin Markham were one and the same person. + +"Now, I had no objection to this. I had not told you of it, Neale, but I +had already determined to resign my position as manager at +Chestermarke's. I had grown tired of it. I was going to resign as soon +as I returned from my holiday. So I assented to Hollis's proposal, and +offered to accompany him to the Warren--I don't mind admitting that I +was a little--perhaps a good deal--eager to see how Gabriel would behave +when he discovered that his double dealing was found out--and known to +me. We therefore set off across Ellersdeane Hollow. I have been told +while lying here that some of you found the pipe which you, Betty, gave +me last Christmas, lying near the old tower--quite right. I lost it +there that night, as I was showing Hollis the view, in the moonlight, +from the top of the crags. I meant to pick it up as we returned, but +what happened put it completely out of my mind. + +"Hollis and I crossed the moor and the high road and went into the +little lane, or carriage-drive, which leads to the Warren. Half-way down +it we met Joseph Chestermarke. He was coming away from the Warren--from +the garden. He, of course, wanted to know if we were going to see his +uncle. I told him that my companion, Mr. Frederick Hollis, a London +solicitor, had come specially from town to see Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, +and that, being an old friend of mine, he had first come to see me. +Joseph therefore said that we were too late to find his uncle at home: +Gabriel, he went on, had been suffering terribly from insomnia, and, by +his doctor's advice, he was trying the effect of a long solitary walk +every night before going to bed, and he had just started out over the +moor at the back of his house. Turning to Hollis, he asked if he could +do anything--was his visit about banking business? + +"Now I determined to settle at once the question as to Joseph's +participation in the affairs of the Conduit Street concern. Before +Hollis could reply, I spoke. I said, 'Mr. Hollis wishes to see your +uncle on the affairs of Lieutenant Lester and the Godwin Markham loans.' +I watched Joseph closely. The moonlight was full on his face. He +started--a little. And he gave me a swift, queer look which was gone as +quickly as it came--it meant 'So you know!' Then he answered in quite an +assured, off-hand manner, 'Oh, I know all about that, of course! I can +deal with it as well as my uncle could. Come back across the moor to my +house--we'll have a drink, and a cigar, and talk it over with Mr. +Hollis.' + +"I nudged Hollis's arm, and we turned back with Joseph towards Scarnham, +crossing the Hollow in another direction, by a track which leads +straight from a point exactly opposite the Warren to the foot of +Scarnham Bridge, near the wall of Joseph Chestermarke's house. It is not +a very long way--half an hour's sharp walk. We did not begin talking +business--as a matter of fact, Hollis began talking about the curious +nature of that patch of moorland and about the old lead-mines. And when +we were nearly half-way, the affair happened which, I suppose, led to +all that has happened since. It--gave Joseph Chestermarke an opening. + +"Having lost my pipe, and being now going in a different direction from +that necessary to recover it, I had nothing to smoke. Joseph +Chestermarke offered me a cigar. He opened his case. I was taking a +cigar from it when Hollis stepped aside to one of the old shafts which +stood close by, and resting his hands on the parapet leaned over the +coping, either to look down or to drop something down. Before we had +grasped what he was doing, certainly before either of us could cry out +and warn him, the parapet completely collapsed before him and he +disappeared into the mine! He was gone in a second--with just one +scream. And after that--we heard nothing. + +"We hurried to the place and got as near as we dared. Joseph +Chestermarke dropped on his hands and knees, and peered over and +listened. There was not a sound--except the occasional dropping of +loosened pebbles. And we both knew that in that drop of seventy or +eighty feet, Hollis must certainly have met his death. + +"We hastened away to the town--to summon assistance. I don't think we +had any very clear ideas, except to tell the police, and to see if we +could get one of the fire brigade men to go down. I was in a dreadful +state about the affair. I felt as though some blame attached to me. By +the time we reached the bridge I felt like fainting. And Joseph +suggested we should go in through his garden door to his workshop--he +had some brandy there, he said--it would revive me. He took me in, up +the garden, and into the workshop: I dropped down on a couch he had +there, feeling very ill. He went to a side table, mixed something which +looked--and tasted--like brandy and soda, brought it to me, and bade me +drink it right off. I did so--and within I should say a minute, I knew +nothing more. + +"The next I knew I awoke in pitch darkness, feeling very ill. It was +some little time before I could gather my wits together. Then I +remembered what had happened. I felt about--I was lying on what appeared +to be a couch or small bed, covered with rugs. But there was something +strange--apart from the darkness and the silence. Then I discovered that +I was chained!--chained round my waist, and that the chain had other +chains attached to it. I felt along one of them, then along the +other--they terminated in rings in a wall. + +"I can't tell you what I felt until daylight came--I knew, however, that +I was at Joseph Chestermarke's--perhaps at Gabriel's--mercy. I had +discovered their secret--Hollis was out of the way--but what were they +going to do with me? Oddly enough, though I had always had a secret +dislike of Gabriel, and even some sort of fear of him, believing him to +be a cruel and implacable man, it was Joseph that I now feared. It was +he who had drugged and trapped me without a doubt. Why? Then I +remembered something else. I had told Joseph--but not Gabriel--about my +temporary custody of Lady Ellersdeane's jewels, and he knew where they +were safely deposited at the bank--in a certain small safe in the strong +room, of which he had a duplicate key. + +"I found myself--when the light came--in a small room, or cell, in which +was a bed, a table, a chair, a dressing-table, evidently a retreat for +Joseph when he was working in his laboratory at night. But I soon saw +that it was also a strong room. I could hear nothing--the silence was +terrible. And--eventually--so was my hunger. I could rise--I could even +pace about a little--but there was no food there--and no water. + +"I don't know how long it was, nor when it was, that Joseph Chestermarke +came. But when he came, he brought his true character with him. I could +not have believed that any human being could be so callous, so brutal, +so coldly indifferent to another's sufferings. I thought as I listened +to him of all I had heard about that ancestor of his who had killed a +man in cold blood in the old house at the bank--and I knew that Joseph +Chestermarke would kill me with no more compunction, and no less, than +he would show in crushing a beetle that crossed his path. + +"His cruelty came out in his frankness. He told me plainly that he had +me in his power. Nobody knew where I was--nobody could get to know. His +uncle knew nothing of the Hollis affair--no one knew. No one would be +told. His uncle, moreover, believed I had run away with convertible +securities and Lady Ellersdeane's jewels--he, Joseph, would take care +that he and everybody should continue to think so. And then he told me +cynically that he had helped himself to the missing securities and to +the jewels as well--the event of Saturday night, he said, had just given +him the chance he wanted, and in a few days he would be out of this +country and in another, where his great talent as a chemist and an +inventor would be valued and put to grand use. But he was not going +empty-handed, not he!--he was going with as much as ever he could rake +together. + +"And it was on that first occasion that he told me what he wanted of me. +You know, Neale, that I am trustee for two or three families in this +town. Joseph knew that I held certain securities--deposited in a private +safe of mine at the bank--which could be converted into cash in, say, +London, at an hour's notice. He had already helped himself to them, and +had prepared a document which only needed my signature to enable him to +deal with them. That signature would have put nearly a quarter of a +million into his pocket. + +"He used every endeavour to make me sign the paper which he brought. He +said that if I would sign, he would leave an ample supply of the best +food and drink within my reach, and that I should be released within +thirty-six hours, by which time he would be out of England. When I +steadily refused he had recourse to cruelty. Twice he beat me severely +with a dog-whip; another time he assaulted me with hands and feet, like +a madman. And then, when he found physical violence was no good, he told +me he would slowly starve me to death. But he was doing that all along. +The first three days I had nothing but a little soup and dry bread--the +remaining part of the time, nothing but dry bread. And during the last +two days, I knew that there was something in that bread which sent me +off into long, continued periods of absolute unconsciousness. And--I was +glad! + +"That's all. You know the rest--better than I do. I don't know yet how +that explosion came about. He had been in to me only a few minutes +before it happened, badgering me again to sign that authority. And--I +felt myself weakening. Flesh and blood were alike at their end of +endurance. Then--it came! And as I say, that's all!--but there's one +thing I wanted to ask you. Have those jewels been found?" + +"Yes!" replied Neale. "They were found--all safe--in a suit-case in +Joseph's house, along with a lot of other valuables--money, securities, +and so on. He was evidently about to be off; in fact, the luggage was +all ready, and so was a cab which he'd ordered, and in which he was +presumably going to Ellersdeane." + +"And another thing," said Horbury, turning from one to the other, "I +heard this morning that you'd left the Bank, Neale. What are you going +to do? What has happened?" + +Betty looked at Neale warningly, stooped over the invalid, kissed him, +rose and took Neale's unwounded arm. + +"No more talk today, Uncle John!" she commanded. "Wait until tomorrow. +Then--if you're very good--we shall perhaps tell you what is going to +happen to--both of us!" + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Chestermarke Instinct, by J. S. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/27965-8.zip b/27965-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf35847 --- /dev/null +++ b/27965-8.zip diff --git a/27965-h.zip b/27965-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..83f43f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/27965-h.zip diff --git a/27965-h/27965-h.htm b/27965-h/27965-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c75fba --- /dev/null +++ b/27965-h/27965-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8976 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Chestermarke Instinct, by J. S. Fletcher. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Chestermarke Instinct, by J. S. Fletcher + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Chestermarke Instinct + +Author: J. S. Fletcher + +Release Date: February 2, 2009 [EBook #27965] +[Last updated: December 10, 2012] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHESTERMARKE INSTINCT *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>THE</h1> + +<h1>CHESTERMARKE</h1> + +<h1>INSTINCT</h1> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="THE_MYSTERY_STORIES_OF" id="THE_MYSTERY_STORIES_OF"></a>THE MYSTERY STORIES OF</h3> + +<h2>J. S. FLETCHER</h2> + +<p><i>"We always feel as though we were really spreading happiness when we +can announce a genuinely satisfactory mystery story, such as J. B. +Fletcher's new one."</i>—N. P. D. in the New York Globe.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>THE MIDDLE TEMPLE MURDER [1918]</p> + +<p>"Unquestionably, the detective story of the season and, therefore, one +which no lover of detective fiction should miss."—<i>The Broadside.</i></p> + +<p>THE TALLEYRAND MAXIM [1920]</p> + +<p>"A crackerjack mystery tale; the story of Linford Pratt, who earnestly +desired to get on in life, by hook or by crook—with no objection +whatever to crookedness, so long as it could be performed in safety and +secrecy."—<i>Knickerbocker Press.</i></p> + +<p>THE PARADISE MYSTERY [1920]</p> + +<p>"As a weaver of detective tales Mr. Fletcher is entitled to a seat among +the elect. His numerous followers will find his latest book fully as +absorbing as anything from his pen that has previously appeared."—<i>New +York Times.</i></p> + +<p>DEAD MEN'S MONEY [1920]</p> + +<p>"The story is one that holds the reader with more than the mere interest +of sensational events: Mr. Fletcher writes in a notable style, and he +has a knack for sketching character rapidly. Reminds one of +Stevenson—and Mr. Fletcher sustains the comparison well."—<i>Newark +Evening News.</i></p> + +<p>THE ORANGE-YELLOW DIAMOND [1921]</p> + +<p>"... A rattling good yarn.... The excellence of The Orange yellow +Diamond does not depend, however, entirely upon its plot. It is an +uncommonly well written tale."—<i>New York Times.</i></p> + +<p><i>To be published July 1st, 1921:</i></p> + +<p>THE BOROUGH TREASURER</p> + +<p>Blackmail, murder and the secret of an ancient quarry go to make a very +exciting yarn.</p> + +<h4><i>$2.00 net each at all booksellers or from the Publisher</i></h4> + +<h3>ALFRED A. KNOPF, New York.</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h1>THE</h1> + +<h1>CHESTERMARKE</h1> + +<h1>INSTINCT</h1> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>J. S. FLETCHER</h2> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>NEW YORK</h3> + +<h3>ALFRED A KNOPF</h3> + +<h3>MCMXXI</h3> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h3>COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc.</span></h3> + +<h3>PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='right'>CHAPTER</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>I.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Missing Bank Manager,</td><td align='right'>9</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>II.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Ellersdeane Deposit,</td><td align='right'>19</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>III.</b></a></td><td align='left'>Mr. Chestermarke Disclaims Liability,</td><td align='right'>29</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>IV.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Modern Young Woman,</td><td align='right'>39</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>V.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Search Begins,</td><td align='right'>49</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>VI.</b></a></td><td align='left'>Ellersdeane Hollow,</td><td align='right'>59</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>VII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Travelling Tinker,</td><td align='right'>69</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>VIII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Saturday Night Stranger,</td><td align='right'>79</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>IX.</b></a></td><td align='left'>No Further Information,</td><td align='right'>89</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>X.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Chestermarke Way,</td><td align='right'>99</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>XI.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Search-Warrant,</td><td align='right'>109</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>XII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The First Find,</td><td align='right'>119</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#Chapter_XIII"><b>XIII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Partners Unbend,</td><td align='right'>129</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>XIV.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Midnight Summons,</td><td align='right'>139</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>XV.</b></a></td><td align='left'>Mr. Frederick Hollis,</td><td align='right'>149</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>XVI.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Lead Mine,</td><td align='right'>159</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>XVII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>Accident or Murder?</td><td align='right'>170</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>XVIII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Incomplete Cheque,</td><td align='right'>179</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>XIX.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Dead Man's Brother,</td><td align='right'>189</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>XX.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Other Cheque,</td><td align='right'>200</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>XXI.</b></a></td><td align='left'>About Cent per Cent,</td><td align='right'>209</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>XXII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>Speculation—and Certainty,</td><td align='right'>221</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>XXIII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Aggrieved Victim,</td><td align='right'>230</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>XXIV.</b></a></td><td align='left'>Mrs. Carswell?</td><td align='right'>240</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>XXV.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Portrait,</td><td align='right'>248</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>XXVI.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Lightning Flash,</td><td align='right'>257</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>XXVII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Old Dove-Cot,</td><td align='right'>266</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>XXVIII.</b></a></td><td align='left'>Sound-Proof,</td><td align='right'>273</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>XXIX.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Sparrows and the Sphere,</td><td align='right'>279</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>XXX.</b></a></td><td align='left'>Wreckage,</td><td align='right'>289</td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><b>XXXI.</b></a></td><td align='left'>The Prisoner Speaks,</td><td align='right'>295</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h2>THE MISSING BANK MANAGER</h2> + +<p>Every Monday morning, when the clock of the old parish church in +Scarnham Market-Place struck eight, Wallington Neale asked himself why +on earth he had chosen to be a bank clerk. On all the other mornings of +the week this question never occurred to him: on Sunday he never allowed +a thought of the bank to cross his mind: from Sunday to Saturday he was +firmly settled in the usual rut, and never dreamed of tearing himself +out of it. But Sunday's break was unsettling: there was always an effort +in starting afresh on Monday. The striking of St. Alkmund's clock at +eight on Monday morning invariably found him sitting down to his +breakfast in his rooms, overlooking the quaint old Market-Place, once +more faced by the fact that a week of dull, uninteresting work lay +before him. He would go to the bank at nine, and at the bank he would +remain, more or less, until five. He would do that again on Tuesday, and +on Wednesday, and on Thursday and on Friday, and on Saturday. One +afternoon, strolling in the adjacent country, he had seen a horse +walking round and round and round in a small paddock, turning a crank +which worked some machine or other in an adjoining shed: that horse had +somehow suggested himself to himself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<p>On this particular Monday morning, Neale, happening to catch sight of +his reflection in the mirror which stood on his parlour mantelpiece, +propounded the usual question with added force. There were reasons. It +was a beautiful morning. It was early spring. There was a blue sky, and +the rooks and jackdaws were circling in a clear air about the church +tower and over the old Market-Cross. He could hear thrushes singing in +the trees in the Vicarage garden, close by. Everything was young. And he +was young. It would have been affectation on his part to deny either his +youth or his good looks. He glanced at his mirrored self without pride, +but with due recognition of his good figure, his strong muscles, his +handsome, boyish face, with its cluster of chestnut hair and steady grey +eyes. All that, he knew, wanted life, animation, movement. At +twenty-three he was longing for something to take him out of the +treadmill round in which he had been fixed for five years. He had no +taste for handing out money in exchange for cheques, in posting up +ledgers, in writing dull, formal letters. He would have been much +happier with an old flannel shirt, open at the throat, a pick in his +hands, making a new road in a new country, or in driving a path through +some primeval wood. There would have been liberty in either occupation: +he could have flung down the pick at any moment and taken up the +hunter's gun: he could have turned right or left at his own will in the +unexplored forest. But there at the bank it was just doing the same +thing over and over again: what he had done last week he would do again +this week:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> what had happened last year would happen again this year. It +was all pure, unadulterated, dismal monotony.</p> + +<p>Like most things, it had come about without design: he had just drifted +into it. His father and mother had both died when he was a boy; he had +inherited a small property which brought in precisely one hundred and +fifty pounds a year: it was tied up to him in such a fashion that he +would have his three pounds a week as long as ever he lived. But as his +guardian, Mr. John Horbury, the manager of Chestermarke's Bank at +Scarnham, pointed out to him when he left school, he needed more than +three pounds a week if he wished to live comfortably and like a +gentleman. Still, a hundred and fifty a year of sure and settled income +was a fine thing, an uncommonly fine thing—all that was necessary was +to supplement it. Therefore—a nice, quiet, genteel profession—banking, +to wit. Light work, an honourable calling, an eminently respectable one. +In a few years he would have another hundred and fifty a year: a few +years more, and he would be a manager, with at least six hundred: he +might, well before he was a middle-aged man, be commanding a salary of a +thousand a year. Banking, by all means, counselled Mr. Horbury—and +offered him a vacancy which had just then arisen at Chestermarke's. And +Neale, willing to be guided by a man for whom he had much respect, took +the post, and settled down in the old bank in the quiet, sleepy +market-town, wherein one day was precisely like another day—and every +year his dislike for his work increased, and sometimes grew unbearably +keen, especially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> when spring skies and spring air set up a sudden +stirring in his blood. On this Monday morning that stirring amounted to +something very like a physical ache.</p> + +<p>"Hang the old bank!" he muttered. "I'd rather be a ploughman!"</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the bank must be attended, and, at ten minutes to nine, +Neale lighted a cigarette, put on his hat, and strolled slowly across +the Market-Place. Although he knew every single one of its cobblestones, +every shop window, every landmark in it, that queer old square always +fascinated him. It was a bit of old England. The ancient church and +equally ancient Moot Hall spread along one side of it; the other three +sides were filled with gabled and half-timbered houses; the Market-Cross +which stood in the middle of the open space had been erected there in +Henry the Seventh's time. Amidst all the change and development of the +nineteenth century, Scarnham had been left untouched: even the bank +itself was a time-worn building, and the manager's house which flanked +it was still older. Underneath all these ancient structures were queer +nooks and corners, secret passages and stairs, hiding-places, cellarings +going far beneath the gardens at the backs of the houses: Neale, as a +boy, had made many an exploration in them, especially beneath the +bank-house, which was a veritable treasury of concealed stairways and +cunningly contrived doors in the black oak of the panellings.</p> + +<p>But on this occasion Neale did not stare admiringly at the old church, +nor at the pilastered Moot Hall,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> nor at the toppling gables: his eyes +were fixed on something else, something unusual. As soon as he walked +out of the door of the house in which he lodged he saw his two +fellow-clerks, Shirley and Patten, standing on the steps of the hall by +which entrance was joined to the bank and to the bank-house. They stood +there looking about them. Now they looked towards Finkleway—a narrow +street which led to the railway station at the far end of the town. Now +they looked towards Middlegate—a street which led into the open +country, in the direction of Ellersdeane, where Mr. Gabriel +Chestermarke, senior proprietor of the bank, resided. All that was +unusual. If Patten, a mere boy, had been lounging there, Neale would not +have noticed it. But it was Shirley's first duty, on arriving every +morning, to get the keys at the house door, and to let himself into the +bank by the adjoining private entrance. It was Patten's duty, on +arrival, to take the letter-bag to the post-office and bring the bank's +correspondence back in it. Never, in all his experience, had Neale seen +any of Chestermarke's clerks lounging on the steps at nine o'clock in +the morning, and he quickened his pace. Shirley, turning from a +prolonged stare towards Finkleway, caught sight of him.</p> + +<p>"Can't get in," he observed laconically, in answer to Neale's inquiring +look. "Mr. Horbury isn't there, and he's got the keys."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean—isn't there!" asked Neale, mounting the steps. "Not +in the house?"</p> + +<p>"Mean just what I say," replied Shirley. "Mrs. Carswell says she hasn't +seen him since Saturday.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> She thinks he's been week-ending. I've been +looking out for him coming along from the station. But if he came in by +the 8.30, he's a long time getting up here. And if he hasn't come by +that, there's no other train till the 10.45."</p> + +<p>Neale made no answer. He, too, glanced towards Finkleway, and then at +the church clock. It was just going to strike nine—and the station was +only eight minutes away at the most. He passed the two junior clerks, +went down the hall to the door of the bank-house, and entered. And just +within he came face to face with the housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carswell had kept house for Mr. John Horbury for some years—Neale +remembered her from boyhood. He had always been puzzled about her age. +Of late, since he knew more of grown-up folk, he had been still more +puzzled. Sometimes he thought she was forty; sometimes he was sure she +could not be more than thirty-two or three. Anyway, she was a fine, +handsome woman—tall, perfectly shaped, with glossy black hair and dark +eyes, and a firm, resolute mouth. It was rarely that Mrs. Carswell went +out; when she did, she was easily the best-looking woman in Scarnham. +Few Scarnham people, however, had the chance of cultivating her +acquaintance; Mrs. Carswell kept herself to herself and seemed content +to keep up her reputation as a model housekeeper. She ordered Mr. +Horbury's domestic affairs in perfect fashion, and it had come upon +Neale as a surprise to hear Shirley say that Mrs. Carswell did not know +where the manager was.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What's all this?" he demanded, as he met her within the hall. "Shirley +says Mr. Horbury isn't at home? Where is he, then?"</p> + +<p>"But I don't know, Mr. Neale," replied the housekeeper. "I know no more +than you do. I've been expecting him to come in by that 8.30 train, but +he can't have done that, or he'd have been up here by now."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it's late," suggested Neale.</p> + +<p>"No—it's in," she said. "I saw it come in from my window, at the back. +It was on time. So—I don't know what's become of him."</p> + +<p>"But—what about Saturday?" asked Neale. "Shirley says you said Mr. +Horbury went off on Saturday. Didn't he leave any word—didn't he say +where he was going?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Horbury went out on Saturday evening," answered Mrs. Carswell. "He +didn't say a word about where he was going. He went out just before +dusk, as if for a walk. I'd no idea that he wasn't at home until Sunday +morning. You see, the servants and I went to bed at our usual time on +Saturday night, and though he wasn't in then, I thought nothing of it, +because, of course, he'd his latch-key. He was often out late at night, +as you know, Mr. Neale. And when I found that he hadn't come back, as I +did find out before breakfast yesterday, I thought nothing of that +either—I thought he'd gone to see some friend or other, and had been +persuaded to stop the night. Then, when he didn't come home yesterday at +all, I thought he was staying the week-end<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> somewhere. So I wasn't +anxious, nor surprised. But I am surprised he's not back here first +thing this morning."</p> + +<p>"So am I," agreed Neale. "And more than surprised." He stood for a +moment, running over the list of the manager's friends and acquaintances +in the neighbourhood, and he shook his head as he came to the end of his +mental reckoning of it. "It's very odd," he remarked. "Very surprising, +Mrs. Carswell."</p> + +<p>"It's all the more surprising," remarked the housekeeper, "because of +his going off for his holiday tomorrow. And Miss Fosdyke's coming down +from London today to go with him."</p> + +<p>Neale pricked his ears. Miss Fosdyke was the manager's niece—a young +lady whom Neale remembered as a mere slip of a girl that he had met +years before and never seen since.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know that," he remarked.</p> + +<p>"Neither did Mr. Horbury until Saturday afternoon—that is, for +certain," said Mrs. Carswell. "He'd asked her to go with him to Scotland +on this holiday, but it wasn't settled. However, he got a wire from her, +about tea-time on Saturday, to say she'd go, and would be down here +today. They're to start tomorrow morning."</p> + +<p>Neale turned to the door. He was distinctly puzzled and uneasy. He had +known John Horbury since his own childhood, and had always regarded him +as the personification of everything that was precise, systematic, and +regular. All things considered, it was most remarkable that he should +not be at the bank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> at opening hours. And already a vague suspicion that +something had happened began to steal into his mind.</p> + +<p>"Did you happen to notice which way he went, Mrs. Carswell?" he asked. +"Was it towards the station?"</p> + +<p>"He went out down the garden and through the orchard," replied the +housekeeper. "He could have got to the station that way, of course. But +I do know that he never said a word about going anywhere by train, and +he'd no bag or anything with him—he'd nothing but that old oak stick he +generally carried when he went out for his walks."</p> + +<p>Neale pushed open the house door and went into the outer hall to the +junior clerks. Little as he cared about banking as a calling, he was +punctilious about rules and observances, and it seemed to him somewhat +indecorous that the staff of a bank should hang about its front door, as +if they were workshop assistants awaiting the arrival of a belated +foreman.</p> + +<p>"Better come inside the house, Shirley," he said. "Patten, you go to the +post-office and get the letters."</p> + +<p>"No good without the bag," answered Patten, a calm youth of seventeen. +"Tried that once before. Don't you know!—they've one key—we've +another."</p> + +<p>"Well, come inside, then," commanded Neale. "It doesn't look well to +hang about those steps."</p> + +<p>"Might just as well go away," muttered Shirley, stepping into the hall. +"If Horbury's got to come back by train from wherever he's gone to, he +can't get here till the 10.45, and then he's got to walk up. Might as +well go home for an hour."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The partners'll be here before an hour's over," said Neale. "One of +them's always here by ten."</p> + +<p>Shirley, a somewhat grumpy-countenanced young man, made no answer. He +began to pace the hall with looks of eminent dissatisfaction. But he had +only taken a turn or two when a quietly appointed one-horse coupé +brougham came up to the open door, and a well-known face was seen at its +window. Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, senior proprietor, had come an hour +before his time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h2>THE ELLERSDEANE DEPOSIT</h2> + +<p>Had the three young men waiting in that hall not been so familiar with +him by reason of daily and hourly acquaintance, the least observant +amongst them would surely have paused in whatever task he was busied +with, if Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke had crossed his path for the first +time. The senior partner of Chestermarke's Bank was a noticeable person. +Wallington Neale, who possessed some small gift of imagination, always +felt that his principal suggested something more than was accounted for +by his mere presence. He was a little, broadly built man, somewhat +inclined to stoutness, who carried himself in very upright fashion, and +habitually wore the look of a man engaged in operations of serious and +far-reaching importance, further heightened by an air of reserve and a +trick of sparingness in speech. But more noticeable than anything else +in Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke was his head, a member of his body which was +much out of proportion to the rest of it. It was a very big, well-shaped +head, on which, out of doors, invariably rested the latest-styled and +glossiest of silk hats—no man had ever seen Gabriel Chestermarke in any +other form of head-gear, unless it was in a railway carriage, there he +condescended to assume a checked cap. Underneath the brim of the silk +hat looked out a countenance as remarkable as the head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> of which it was +a part. A broad, smooth forehead, a pair of large, deep-set eyes, the +pupils of which were black as sloes, a prominent, slightly hooked nose, +a firm, thin-lipped mouth, a square, resolute jaw—these features were +thrown into prominence by the extraordinary pallor of Mr. Chestermarke's +face, and the dark shade of the hair which framed it. That black hair, +those black eyes, burning always with a strange, slumbering fire, the +colourless cheeks, the vigorous set of the lips, these made an effect on +all who came in contact with the banker which was of a not wholly +comfortable nature. It was as if you were talking to a statue rather +than to a fellow-creature.</p> + +<p>Mr. Chestermarke stepped quietly from his brougham and walked up the +steps. He was one of those men who are never taken aback and never show +surprise, and as his eyes ran over the three young men, there was no +sign from him that he saw anything out of the common. But he turned to +Neale, as senior clerk, with one word.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>Neale glanced uncomfortably at the house door. "Mr. Horbury is not at +home," he answered. "He has the keys."</p> + +<p>Mr. Chestermarke made no reply. His hand went to his waistcoat pocket, +his feet moved lower down the hall to a side-door sacred to the +partners. He produced a key, opened the door, and motioned the clerks to +enter. Once within, he turned into the partners' room. Five minutes +passed before his voice was heard.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Neale!"</p> + +<p>Neale hurried in and found the banker standing on the hearth-rug, +beneath the portrait of a former Chestermarke, founder of the bank in a +bygone age. He was suddenly struck by the curious resemblance between +that dead Chestermarke and the living one, and he wondered that he had +never seen it before. But Mr. Chestermarke gave him no time for +speculation.</p> + +<p>"Where is Mr. Horbury?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Neale told all he knew: the banker listened in his usual fashion, +keeping his eyes steadily fixed on his informant. When Neale had +finished, Mr. Chestermarke shook his head.</p> + +<p>"If Horbury had meant to come into town by the 8.30 train and had missed +it," he remarked, "he would have wired or telephoned by this. +Telephoned, of course: there are telephones at every station on that +branch line. Very well, let things go on."</p> + +<p>Neale went out and set his fellow-clerks to the usual routine. Patten +went for the letters. Neale carried them into the partners' room. At ten +o'clock the street door was opened. A customer or two began to drop in. +The business of the day had begun. It went on just as it would have gone +on if Mr. Horbury had been away on holiday. And at half-past ten in +walked the junior partner, Mr. Joseph Chestermarke.</p> + +<p>Mr. Joseph was the exact opposite of his uncle. He was so much his +opposite that it was difficult to believe, seeing them together, that +they were related to each other. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke, a man of +apparently thirty years of age, was tall and loose of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> figure, easy of +demeanour, and a little untidy in his dress. He wore a not over +well-fitting tweed suit, a slouch hat, a flannel shirt. His brown beard +usually needed trimming; he affected loose, flowing neckties, more +suited to an artist than to a banker. His face was amiable in +expression, a little weak, a little speculative. All these +characteristics came out most strongly when he and his uncle were seen +in company: nothing could be more in contrast to the precise severity of +Gabriel than the somewhat slovenly carelessness of Joseph. Joseph, +indeed, was the last man in the world that any one would ever have +expected to see in charge and direction of a bank, and there were people +in Scarnham who said that he was no more than a lay-figure, and that +Gabriel Chestermarke did all the business.</p> + +<p>The junior partner passed through the outer room, nodding affably to the +clerks and went into the private parlour. Several minutes elapsed: then +a bell rang. Neale answered it, and Shirley and Patten glanced at each +other and shook their heads: already they scented an odour of suspicion +and uncertainty.</p> + +<p>"What's up?" whispered Patten, leaning forward over his desk to Shirley, +who stood between it and the counter. "Something wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Something that Gabriel doesn't like, anyhow," muttered Shirley. "Did +you see his eyes when Neale said that Horbury wasn't here? If Horbury +doesn't turn up by this next train—ah!"</p> + +<p>"Think he's sloped?" asked Patten, already seething with boyish desire +of excitement. "Done a bunk with the money?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Shirley shook his head at the closed door through which Neale had +vanished.</p> + +<p>"They're carpeting Neale about it, anyhow," he answered. "Gabriel'll +want to know the whys and wherefores, you bet. But Neale won't tell us +anything—he's too thick with Horbury."</p> + +<p>Neale, entering the partners' room, found them in characteristic +attitudes. The senior partner sat at his desk, stern, upright, his eyes +burning a little more fiercely than usual: the junior, his slouch hat +still on his head, his hands thrust in his pockets, lounged against the +mantelpiece, staring at his uncle.</p> + +<p>"Now, Neale," said Gabriel Chestermarke. "What do you know about this? +Have you any idea where Mr. Horbury is?"</p> + +<p>"None," replied Neale. "None whatever!"</p> + +<p>"When did you see him last?" demanded Gabriel. "You often see him out of +bank hours, I know."</p> + +<p>"I last saw him here at two o'clock on Saturday," replied Neale. "I have +not seen him since."</p> + +<p>"And you never heard him mention that he was thinking of going away for +the week-end?" asked Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"No!" replied Neale.</p> + +<p>He made his answer tersely and definitely, having an idea that the +senior partner looked at him as if he thought that something was being +kept back. And Gabriel, after a moment's pause, shifted some of the +papers on his desk, with an impatient movement.</p> + +<p>"Ask Mr. Horbury's housekeeper to step in here for a few minutes," he +said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>Neale went out by the private door, and presently returned with Mrs. +Carswell.</p> + +<p>By that time Joseph had lounged over to his own desk and seated himself, +and when the housekeeper came in he tilted his chair back and sat idly +swaying in it while he watched her and his uncle. But Gabriel, waving +Mrs. Carswell to a seat, remained upright as ever, and as he turned to +the housekeeper, he motioned Neale to stay in the room.</p> + +<p>"Just tell us all you know about Mr. Horbury's movements on Saturday +afternoon and evening, Mrs. Carswell," he said. "This is a most +extraordinary business altogether, and I want to account for it. You say +he went out just about dusk."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carswell repeated the story which she had told to Neale. The two +partners listened; Gabriel keenly attentive; Joseph as if he were no +more than mildly interested.</p> + +<p>"Odd!" remarked Gabriel, when the story had come to an end. "Most +strange! Very well—thank you, Mrs. Carswell. Neale," he added, when the +housekeeper had gone away, "Mr. Horbury always carried the more +important keys on him, didn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Always," responded Neale.</p> + +<p>"Very good! Let things go on," said Gabriel. "But don't come bothering +me or Mr. Joseph Chestermarke unless you're obliged to. Of course, Mr. +Horbury may come in by the next train. That'll do, Neale."</p> + +<p>Neale went back to the outer room. Things went on, but the missing +manager did not come in by the 10.45, and nothing had been heard or seen +of him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> at noon, when Patten went to get his dinner. Nor had anything +been seen or heard at one o'clock, when Patten came back, and it became +Shirley and Neale's turn to go out. And thereupon arose a difficulty. In +the ordinary course the two elder clerks would have left for an hour and +the manager would have been on duty until they returned. But now the +manager was not there.</p> + +<p>"You go," said Neale to Shirley. "I'll wait. Perhaps Mr. Joseph will +come out."</p> + +<p>Shirley went—but neither of the partners emerged from the private room. +As a rule they both went across to the Scarnham Arms Hotel at half-past +one for lunch—a private room had been kept for them at that old-world +hostelry from time immemorial—but now they remained within their +parlour, apparently interned from their usual business world. And Neale +had a very good idea of what they were doing. The bank's strong room was +entered from that parlour—Gabriel and Joseph were examining and +checking its contents. The knowledge distressed Neale beyond measure, +and it was only by a resolute effort that he could give his mind to his +duties.</p> + +<p>Two o'clock had gone, and Shirley had come back, before the bell rang +again. Neale went into the private room and knew at once that something +had happened. Gabriel stood by his desk, which was loaded with papers +and documents; Joseph leaned against a sideboard, whereon was a decanter +of sherry and a box of biscuits; he had a glass of wine in one hand, and +a half-nibbled biscuit in the other. The smell of the sherry—fine old +brown stuff, which the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> clerks were permitted to taste now and then, on +such occasions as the partners' birthdays—filled the room.</p> + +<p>"Neale," said Gabriel, "have you been out to lunch? No? Take a glass of +wine and eat a biscuit—we shall all have to put off our lunches for an +hour or so."</p> + +<p>Neale obeyed—more because he was under order than because he was +hungry. He was too much bothered, too full of vague fears, to think of +his midday dinner. He took the glass which Joseph handed to him, and +picked a couple of biscuits out of the box. And at the first sip Gabriel +spoke again.</p> + +<p>"Neale!" he said. "You've been here five years, so one can speak +confidentially. There's something wrong—seriously wrong. Securities are +missing. Securities representing—a lot!"</p> + +<p>Neale's face flushed as if he himself had been charged with abstracting +those securities. His hand shook as he set down his glass, and he looked +helplessly from one partner to another. Joseph merely shook his head, +and poured out another glass of sherry for himself: Gabriel shook his +head, too, but with a different expression.</p> + +<p>"We don't know exactly how things are," he continued. "But there's the +fact—on a superficial examination. And—Horbury! Of all men in the +world, Horbury!"</p> + +<p>"I can't believe it, Mr. Chestermarke!" exclaimed Neale. "Surely, sir, +there's some mistake!"</p> + +<p>Joseph brushed crumbs of biscuit off his beard and wagged his head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No mistake!" he said softly. "None! The thing is—what's best to do? +Because—he'd have laid his plans. It'll all have been thought +out—carefully."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid so," assented Gabriel. "That's the worst of it. Everything +points to premeditation. And when a man has been so fully trusted——"</p> + +<p>A knock at the door prefaced the introduction of Shirley's head. He +glanced into the room with an obvious desire to see what was going on, +but somehow contrived to fix his eyes on the senior partner.</p> + +<p>"Lord Ellersdeane, sir," he announced. "Can he see you?"</p> + +<p>The two partners looked at each other in evident surprise; then Gabriel +moved to the door and bowed solemnly to some person outside.</p> + +<p>"Will your lordship come in?" he said politely.</p> + +<p>Lord Ellersdeane, a big, bustling, country-squire type of man, came into +the room, nodding cheerily to its occupants.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Chestermarke," he said. "I understand Horbury +isn't at home, but of course you'll do just as well. The Countess and I +only got back from abroad night before last. She wants her jewels, so +I'll take 'em with me, if you please."</p> + +<p>Gabriel Chestermarke, who was drawing forward a chair, took his hand off +it and stared at his visitor.</p> + +<p>"The Countess's—jewels!" he said. "Does your lordship mean——"</p> + +<p>"Deposited them with Horbury, you know, some weeks ago—when we went +abroad," replied Lord Ellersdeane. "Safe keeping, you know—said he'd +lock 'em up."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gabriel turned slowly to Joseph. But Joseph shook his head—and Neale, +glancing from one partner to the other, felt himself turning sick with +apprehension.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h2>MR. CHESTERMARKE DISCLAIMS LIABILITY</h2> + +<p>Gabriel Chestermarke, after that one look at his nephew, turned again to +the Earl, politely motioning him to the chair which he had already drawn +forward. And the Earl, whose eyes had been wandering over the pile of +documents on the senior partner's desk, glancing curiously at the open +door of the strong room, and generally taking in a sense of some unusual +occurrence, dropped into it and looked expectantly at the banker.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing wrong?" he asked suddenly. "You look—surprised."</p> + +<p>Gabriel stiffened his already upright figure.</p> + +<p>"Surprised—yes!" he answered. "And something more than surprised—I am +astonished! Your lordship left the Countess's jewels with our manager? +May I ask when—and under what circumstances?"</p> + +<p>"About six weeks ago," replied the Earl promptly. "As a rule the jewels +are kept at my bankers in London. The Countess wanted them to wear at +the Hunt Ball, so I fetched them from London myself. Then, as we were +going off to the Continent two days after the ball, and sailing direct +from Kingsport to Hamburg, I didn't want the bother of going up to town +with them, and I thought of Horbury. So I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> drove in here with them one +evening—the night before we sailed, as a matter of fact—and asked him +to lock them up until our return. And as I said just now, we only got +home the night before last, and we're going up to town tomorrow, and the +Countess wants them to take with her. Of course, you've got 'em all +right?"</p> + +<p>Gabriel Chestermarke spread out his hands.</p> + +<p>"I know nothing whatever about them!" he said. "I never heard of them +being here."</p> + +<p>"Nor I," affirmed Joseph. "Not a word!"</p> + +<p>Gabriel looked at Neale, and drew Lord Ellersdeane's attention to him.</p> + +<p>"Our senior clerk—Mr. Neale," he said. "Neale—have you heard of this +transaction?"</p> + +<p>"Never!" replied Neale. "Mr. Horbury never mentioned it to me."</p> + +<p>Gabriel waved his hand towards the open door of the strong room.</p> + +<p>"Any valuables of that sort would have been in there," he remarked. +"There is nothing of that sort there—beyond what I and my nephew know +of. I am sure your lordship's jewels are not there."</p> + +<p>"But—Horbury?" exclaimed the Earl. "Where is he? He would tell you!"</p> + +<p>"We don't know where Mr. Horbury is," answered Gabriel "The truth may as +well be told—he's missing. And so are some of our most valuable +securities."</p> + +<p>The Earl slowly looked from one partner to another. His face flushed, +almost as hotly as if he himself had been accused of theft.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, come!" he said. "Horbury, now, of all men! Come—come!—you don't +mean to tell me that Horbury's been playing games of that sort? There +must be some mistake."</p> + +<p>"I shall be glad to be assured that I am making it," said Gabriel +coolly. "But it will be more to the purpose if your lordship will tell +us all about the deposit of these jewels. And—there's an important +matter which I must first mention. We have not the honour of reckoning +your lordship among our customers. Therefore, whatever you handed to +Horbury was handed to him privately—not to us."</p> + +<p>Joseph Chestermarke nodded his head at that, and the Earl stirred a +little uneasily in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well!" he said. "I—to tell you the truth, I didn't think about +that, Mr. Chestermarke. It's true I don't keep any account with +you—it's never seemed—er, necessary, you know. But, of course, I knew +Horbury so well—he's a member of our golf club and our archæological +society—that——"</p> + +<p>"Precisely," interrupted Gabriel, with a bow. "You came to Mr. Horbury +privately. Not to the firm."</p> + +<p>"I came to him knowing that he was your manager, and a man to be +thoroughly trusted, and that he'd have safes and things in which he +could deposit valuables in perfect safety," answered the Earl. "I never +reflected for a moment on the niceties of the matter. I just explained +to him that I wanted those jewels taken care of, and handed them over. +That's all!"</p> + +<p>"And—their precise nature?" asked Gabriel.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And—their value?" added Joseph.</p> + +<p>"As to their nature," replied the Earl, "there was my wife's coronet, +her diamond necklace, and the Ellersdeane butterfly, of which I suppose +all the world's heard—heirloom, you know. It's a thing that can be worn +in a lady's hair or as a pendant—diamonds, of course. As to their +value—well, I had them valued some years ago. They're worth about a +hundred thousand pounds."</p> + +<p>Gabriel turned to his desk and began to arrange some papers on it, and +Neale, who was watching everything with close attention, saw that his +fingers trembled a little. He made no remark, and the silence was next +broken by Joseph Chestermarke's soft accents.</p> + +<p>"Did Horbury give your lordship any receipt, or acknowledgment that he +had received these jewels on deposit?" he asked. "I mean, of course, in +our name?"</p> + +<p>The Earl twisted sharply in his chair, and Neale fancied that he saw a +shade of annoyance pass over his good-natured face.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not!" he answered. "I should never have dreamt of asking for +a receipt from a man whom I knew as well as I knew—or thought I +knew—Horbury. The whole thing was just as if—well, as if I should ask +any friend to take care of something for me for a while."</p> + +<p>"Did Horbury know what you were giving him?" asked Joseph.</p> + +<p>"Of course!" replied the Earl. "As a matter of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> fact, he'd never seen +these things, and I took them out of their case and showed them to him."</p> + +<p>"And he said he would lock them up?—in our strong room?" suggested the +soft voice.</p> + +<p>"He said nothing about your strong room," answered the Earl. "Nor about +where he'd put them. That was understood. It was understood—a tacit +understanding—that he'd take care of them until our return."</p> + +<p>"Did your lordship give him the date of your return?" persisted Joseph, +with the thorough-going air of a cross-examiner.</p> + +<p>"Yes—I told him exactly when we should be back," replied the Earl. "The +twelfth of May—day before yesterday."</p> + +<p>Joseph moved away from the sideboard towards the hearth, and leaning +against the mantelpiece threw a glance at the strong room.</p> + +<p>"The jewels are not in our possession," he said, half indolently. "There +is nothing of that sort in there. There are two safes in the outer room +of the bank—I should say that Mr. Neale here knows everything that is +in them. Do you know anything of these jewels, Neale?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" said Neale. "I never heard of them."</p> + +<p>Gabriel looked up from his papers.</p> + +<p>"None of us have heard of them," he remarked. "Horbury could not have +put them in this strong room without my knowledge. They are certainly +not there. The safes my nephew mentioned just now are used only for +books and papers. Your lordship's casket is not in either."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Earl rose slowly from his chair. It was evident to Neale that he was +more surprised than angry: he looked around him as a man looks whose +understanding is suddenly brought up against something unexplainable.</p> + +<p>"All I know is that I handed that casket to Mr. Horbury in his own +dining-room one evening some weeks ago," he said. "That's certain! So I +naturally expect to find it—here."</p> + +<p>"And it is not here—that is equally certain," observed Gabriel. "What +is also certain is that our manager—trusted in more than he should have +been!—is missing, and many of our valuable securities with him. +Therefore——"</p> + +<p>He spread his hands again with an expressive gesture and once more bent +over his papers. Once more there was silence. Then the Earl started—as +if a thought had suddenly occurred to him.</p> + +<p>"I say!" he exclaimed, "don't you think Horbury may have put those +jewels away in his own house?"</p> + +<p>Joseph Chestermarke smiled a little derisively.</p> + +<p>"A hundred thousand pounds' worth!" he said softly. "Not very likely!"</p> + +<p>"But he may have a safe there," urged the Earl. "Most people have a safe +in their houses nowadays—they're so handy, you know, and so cheap. +Don't you think that may be it?"</p> + +<p>"I am not familiar with Horbury's domestic arrangements," said Gabriel. +"I have not been in his house for some years. But as we are desirous of +giving your lordship what assistance we can, we will go into the house +and see if there is anything of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> sort. Just tell the housekeeper we +are coming in, Neale."</p> + +<p>The Earl nodded to Mrs. Carswell as she received him and the two +partners in the adjacent hall.</p> + +<p>"This lady will remember my calling on Mr. Horbury one evening a few +weeks ago," he said. "She saw me with him in that room."</p> + +<p>"Certainly!" assented Mrs. Carswell, readily enough. "I remember your +lordship calling on Mr. Horbury very well. One night after dinner—your +lordship was here an hour or so."</p> + +<p>Gabriel Chestermarke opened the door of the dining-room—an +old-fashioned apartment which looked out on a garden and orchard at the +rear of the house.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Carswell," he said, as they all went in, "has Mr. Horbury a safe +in this room, or in any other room? You know what I mean."</p> + +<p>But the housekeeper shook her head. There was no safe in the house. +There was a plate-chest—there it was, standing in a recess by the +sideboard; she had the key of it.</p> + +<p>"Open that, at any rate," commanded Gabriel. "It's about as unlikely as +anything could be, but we'll leave nothing undone."</p> + +<p>There was nothing in the plate-chest but what Gabriel expected to find +there. He turned again to the housekeeper.</p> + +<p>"Is there anything in this house—cupboard, chest, trunk, anything—in +which Mr. Horbury kept valuables?" he asked. "Any place in which he was +in the habit of locking up papers, for instance?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Carswell again shook her head. No, she knew of no such place or +receptacle. There was Mr. Horbury's desk, but she believed all its +drawers were open. Her belief proved to be correct: Gabriel himself +opened drawer after drawer, and revealed nothing of consequence. He +turned to the Earl with another expressive spreading out of his hands.</p> + +<p>"I don't see what more we can do to assist your lordship," he said. "I +don't know what more can be done."</p> + +<p>"The question is—so it seems to me—what is to be done," replied the +Earl, whose face had been gradually growing graver. "What, for instance, +are you going to do, Mr. Chestermarke? Let us be plain with each other. +You disclaim all liability in connection with my affair?"</p> + +<p>"Most certainly!" exclaimed Gabriel. "We know nothing of that +transaction. As I have already said, if Horbury took charge of your +lordship's property, he did so as a private individual, not on our +behalf, not in his capacity as our manager. If your lordship had been a +customer of ours——"</p> + +<p>"That would have been a very different matter," said Joseph. "But as we +have never had any dealings with your lordship——"</p> + +<p>"We have, of course, no liability to you," concluded Gabriel. "The true +position of the case is that your lordship handed your property to +Horbury as a friend, not as manager of Chestermarke's Bank."</p> + +<p>"Then let me ask you, what are you going to do?" said the Earl. "I mean, +not about my affair, but about finding your manager?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gabriel looked at his nephew: Joseph shook his head.</p> + +<p>"So far," said Joseph, "we have not quite considered that. We are not +yet fully aware of how things stand. We have a pretty good idea, but it +will take another day."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to tell me that you're going to let another day elapse +before doing something?" exclaimed the Earl. "Bless my soul!—I'd have +had the hue and cry out before noon today, if I'd been you!"</p> + +<p>"If you'd been Chestermarke's Bank, my lord," remarked Joseph, in his +softest manner, "that's precisely what you would not have done. We don't +want it noised all over the town and neighbourhood that our trusted +manager has suddenly run away with our money—and your jewels—in his +pocket."</p> + +<p>There was a curious note—half-sneering, half-sinister—in the junior +partner's quiet voice which made the Earl turn and look at him with a +sudden new interest. Before either could speak, Neale ventured to say +what he had been wanting to say for half an hour.</p> + +<p>"May I suggest something, sir?" he said, turning to Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Speak—speak!" assented Gabriel hastily. "Anything you like!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Horbury may have met with an accident," said Neale. "He was fond of +taking his walks in lonely places—there are plenty outside the town. He +may be lying somewhere even now—helpless."</p> + +<p>"Capital suggestion!—much obliged to you," exclaimed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> the Earl. "Gad! I +wonder we never thought of that before! Much the most likely thing. I +can't believe that Horbury——"</p> + +<p>Before he could say more, the door of the dining-room was thrown open, a +clear, strong voice was heard speaking to some one without, and in +walked a handsome young woman, who pulled herself up on the threshold to +stare out of a pair of frank grey eyes at the four startled men.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h2>THE MODERN YOUNG WOMAN</h2> + +<p>Mrs. Carswell, who had left the gentlemen to themselves after opening +the plate-chest, followed the new-comer into the room and looked +appealingly at the senior partner.</p> + +<p>"This is Miss Fosdyke, sir," she said, as if accounting for the +unceremonious entrance. "Mr. Horbury's——"</p> + +<p>But Miss Fosdyke, having looked round her, entered the arena of +discussion as abruptly as she had entered the room.</p> + +<p>"You're Mr. Chestermarke!" she said, turning to Gabriel. "I remember +you. What's all this, Mr. Chestermarke? I come down from London to meet +my uncle, and to go on with him to Scotland for a holiday, and I learn +that he's disappeared! What is it? What has happened? Why are you all +looking so mysterious? Is something wrong? Where is my uncle?"</p> + +<p>Gabriel, who had assumed his stereotyped expression of calm attention +under this tornado of questions, motioned Joseph to place a chair for +the young lady. But Miss Fosdyke shook her head and returned to the +attack.</p> + +<p>"Please don't keep anything back!" she said. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> am not of the +fainting-to-order type of young woman. Just say what is the matter, if +you please. Mrs. Carswell knows no more——"</p> + +<p>"Than we do," interrupted Joseph, with one of his peculiar smiles. +"Hadn't you better sit down?"</p> + +<p>"Not until I know what has happened," retorted the visitor. "Because if +anything has happened there will be something for me to do, and it's +foolish to sit down when one's got to get up again immediately. Mr. +Chestermarke, are you going to answer my questions?"</p> + +<p>Gabriel bowed stiffly.</p> + +<p>"I have the honour of addressing——" he began.</p> + +<p>"You have the honour—if you like to put it so—of addressing Miss Betty +Fosdyke, who is Mr. John Horbury's niece," replied the young lady +impatiently. "Mrs. Carswell has told you that already. Besides—you saw +me, more than once, when I was a little girl. And that's not so very +long ago. Now, Mr. Chestermarke, where is my uncle?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know where your uncle is," replied Gabriel suddenly, and +losing his starchiness. "I wish to Heaven I did!"</p> + +<p>"None of us know where Mr. John Horbury is," repeated Joseph, in his +suavest tones. "We all wish to Heaven we did!"</p> + +<p>The girl turned and gave the junior partner a look which took in every +inch of him. It was a look which began with a swift speculation and +ended in something very like distaste. But Joseph Chestermarke met it +with his usual quiet smile.</p> + +<p>"It would make such a lot of difference—if we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> knew!" he murmured. "As +it is—things are unpleasant."</p> + +<p>Miss Fosdyke finished her reflection and turned away.</p> + +<p>"I remember you now," she said calmly. "You're Joseph Chestermarke. Now +I will sit down. And I insist on being told—everything!"</p> + +<p>"My dear young lady!" exclaimed Gabriel, "there is next to nothing to +tell. If you will have the unpleasant truth, here it is. Your uncle, +whom we have trusted for more years than I care to mention, disappeared +on Saturday evening, and nobody knows where he is, nor whither he went. +All we know is that we find some of our property missing—valuable +securities. And this gentleman—Lord Ellersdeane—tells us that six +weeks ago he entrusted jewels worth a hundred thousand pounds to your +uncle's keeping—they, too, are missing. What can we think?"</p> + +<p>The girl's face had flushed, and her brows had drawn together in an +angry frown by the time Gabriel had finished, and Neale, silently +watching her from the background, saw her fingers clench themselves. She +gave a swift glance at the Earl, and then fixed her eyes steadily on +Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Are you telling me that my uncle is a—thief?" she demanded. "Are you, +Mr. Chestermarke?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not, anyhow!" exclaimed the Earl. "I—I—so far as I'm concerned, I +say there's some mistake."</p> + +<p>"Thank you!" she answered quietly. "But—you, Mr. Chestermarke? +Come—I'm entitled to an answer."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gabriel showed signs of deep annoyance. He had the reputation of being a +confirmed woman-hater, and it was plain that he was ill at ease in +presence of this plain-spoken young person.</p> + +<p>"You appear to be a lady of much common sense!" he said. "Therefore——"</p> + +<p>"I have some common sense," interrupted Miss Fosdyke coolly. "And what +amount I possess tells me that I never heard anything more ridiculous in +my life than the suggestion that my uncle should steal anything from +anybody! Why, he was, and is, I hope, a fairly well-to-do man! And if he +wanted money, he'd only to come to me. It so happens that I'm one of the +wealthiest young women in England. If my uncle had wanted a few +thousands or tens of thousands to play ducks and drakes with, he'd only +to ring me up on the telephone, and he'd have had whatever he asked for +in a few hours. That's not boasting, Mr. Chestermarke—that's just plain +truth. My uncle a thief! Mr. Chestermarke!—there's only one word for +your suggestion. Don't think me rude if I tell you what it is. +It's—bosh!"</p> + +<p>Gabriel's colourless face twitched a little, and he drew himself up.</p> + +<p>"I have no acquaintance with modern young ladies," he remarked icily. "I +daresay they have their own way of looking at things—and of expressing +themselves. I, too, have mine. Also I have my own conclusions, and——"</p> + +<p>"I say, Mr. Chestermarke!" said the Earl, hastening to intervene in what +seemed likely to develop into a passage-at-arms. "We're forgetting the +suggestion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> made just before this lady—Miss Fosdyke, I think?—entered. +Don't let's forget it—it's a good one."</p> + +<p>Miss Fosdyke turned eagerly to the Earl.</p> + +<p>"What suggestion was it?" she asked. "Do tell me? I'm sure you agree +with me—I can see you do. Thank you, again!"</p> + +<p>"This gentleman," said the Earl, pointing to Neale, who had retreated +into a corner and was staring out of the window, "suggests that Horbury +may have met with an accident, you know, and be lying helpless +somewhere. I sincerely hope he isn't but——"</p> + +<p>Miss Fosdyke jumped from her chair. She turned an indignant look on +Gabriel and let it go on to Joseph.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to tell me that you have not done anything to find my +uncle?" she exclaimed with fiery emphasis. "You've surely had some +search made?—surely!"</p> + +<p>"We knew nothing of his disappearance until ten o'clock this morning," +replied Gabriel, half-angrily.</p> + +<p>"But—since then? Why, you've had five hours!" she said. "Has nothing +been done? Haven't you even told the police?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not!" answered Gabriel. "It is not our policy."</p> + +<p>Miss Fosdyke made one step to the door and flung it open.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall!" she exclaimed. "Policy, indeed! High time I came down +here, I think! Thank you, Lord Ellersdeane—and the other gentleman—for +the suggestion. Now I'll go and act on it. And when I act, Mr. +Chestermarke, I do it thoroughly!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p>The next moment she had slammed the door, and Gabriel Chestermarke +glanced at his partner.</p> + +<p>"Annoying!" he said. "A most unpleasant young woman! I should have +preferred not to tell the police until—well, at any rate, tomorrow. We +really do not know to what extent we are—but then, what's the use of +talking of that now? We can't prevent her going to the police-station."</p> + +<p>"Why, really, Mr. Chestermarke," observed the Earl, "don't you think +it's the best thing to do? To tell you the truth, considering that I'm +concerned, I was going to do the very same thing myself."</p> + +<p>Gabriel bowed stiffly.</p> + +<p>"We could not have prevented your lordship either," he said, with +another wave of the white hands which seemed to go so well with the +habitual pallor of his face. "All that is within your lordship's +jurisdiction—not in ours. But—especially since this young lady seems +determined to do things in her way—I will tell your lordship why we are +slow to move. It is purely a business reason. It was, as I said, ten +o'clock when we heard that Horbury was missing. That in itself was such +a very strange and unusual thing that my partner and I at once began to +examine the contents of our strong room. We had been so occupied five +hours when your lordship called. Do you think we could examine +everything in five hours? No—nor in ten, nor in twenty! Our task is not +one quarter complete! And why we don't wish publicity at once in +here—we hold a vast number of securities and valuables belonging to +customers. Title-deeds, mortgages—all sorts of things. We<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> have +valuables deposited with us. Up to now we don't know what is safe and +what isn't. We do know this—certain securities of our own, easily +convertible on the market, are gone! Now if we had allowed it to be +known before, say, noon today, that our manager had disappeared, and +these securities with him, what would have been the result? The bank +would have been besieged! Before we let the public know, we ourselves +want to know exactly where we are. We want to be in a position to say to +Smith, 'Your property is safe!'; to Jones, 'Your deeds are here!' Does +your lordship see that? But now, of course," concluded Gabriel, "as this +Miss Fosdyke can and will spread the news all over the town—why, we +must face things."</p> + +<p>The Earl, who had listened to all this with an evident desire to +comprehend and to sympathize, nodded his head.</p> + +<p>"I see—I see, Mr. Chestermarke," he said. "But I say!—I've got another +notion—I'm not a very quick thinker, and I daresay my idea came out of +Mr. Neale's suggestion. Anyway, it's this—for whatever it's worth. I +told you that we only got home night before last—early on Saturday +evening, as a matter of fact. Now, it was known in the town here that +we'd returned—we drove through the Market-Place. Mayn't it be that +Horbury saw us, or heard of our return, and that when he went out that +evening he had the casket in his pocket and was on his way to +Ellersdeane, to return it to me? And that—on his way—he met with some +mishap? Worth considering, you know."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I daresay a great many theories might—and will—be raised, my lord," +replied Gabriel. "But——"</p> + +<p>"Does your lordship also think—or suggest—that Horbury also carried +our missing securities in his pocket?" asked Joseph quietly. "Because +we, at any rate, know they're gone!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well!" said the Earl, "I—I merely suggest it, you know. The +country between here and Ellersdeane is a bit rough and wild—there's +Ellersdeane Hollow, you know—a queer place on a dark night. And if a +man took a short cut—as many people do—through the Hollow, there are +places he could fall into. But, as I say, I merely suggest that as a +reasonable theory."</p> + +<p>"What does your lordship propose to do?" asked Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"I certainly think inquiry should be set going," answered the Earl.</p> + +<p>"Already done," remarked Joseph drily. "Miss Fosdyke has been with the +police five minutes."</p> + +<p>"I mean—it should be done by us," said the Earl.</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Gabriel suddenly, "it shall be done, then. No doubt +your lordship would like to give the police your own story. Mr. Neale, +will you go with Lord Ellersdeane to Superintendent Polke? Your duty +will be to give him the mere information that Mr. Horbury left his house +at a quarter to eight on Saturday evening and has not been heard of +since. No more, Neale. And now," he concluded, with a bow to the Earl, +"your lordship will excuse my partner and myself if we return to a +singularly unpleasant task."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>Lord Ellersdeane and Neale left the bank-house and walked towards the +police-station. They crossed the Market-Place in silence, but as they +turned the corner of the Moot Hall, the elder man spoke, touching his +companion's shoulder with a confidential gesture.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe a word of all that, Mr. Neale!" he said. "Not one +word!"</p> + +<p>Neale started and glanced at the Earl's moody face.</p> + +<p>"Your lordship doesn't believe—?" he began, and checked himself.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that Horbury's done what those two accuse him of," +affirmed the Earl. "Not for one moment! I can't account for those +missing securities they talk about, but I'll stake my honour that +Horbury hasn't got 'em! Nor my wife's jewels either. You heard and saw +how astounded that girl was. By the by—who is she!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Horbury's niece—Miss Fosdyke—from London," replied Neale.</p> + +<p>"She spoke of her wealth," remarked the Earl.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Neale. "She must be wealthy, too. She's the sole proprietor +of Fosdyke's Brewery."</p> + +<p>"Ho-ho!" laughed the Earl. "That's it, eh? Fosdyke's Entire! Of +course—I've seen the name on no end of public-houses in London. Sole +proprietor? Dear me!—why, I have some recollection that Fosdyke, of +that brewery, was at one time a member of Parliament."</p> + +<p>"Yes," assented Neale. "He married Mr. Horbury's sister. Miss Fosdyke is +their only child. Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> Fosdyke died a few years ago, and she came into +the property last year when she was twenty-one."</p> + +<p>"Lucky young woman!" muttered the Earl. "Fine thing to own a big +brewery. Um! A very modern and up-to-date young lady, too: I liked the +way she stood up to your principals. Of course, she'll have told Polke +all the story by this time. As for ourselves—what had we better do?"</p> + +<p>Neale had considered that question as he came along.</p> + +<p>"There's only one thing to do, my lord," he answered. "We want the +solution of a problem: what became of Mr. Horbury last Saturday night?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h2>THE SEARCH BEGINS</h2> + +<p>Polke, superintendent of the Scarnham police force, a little, round, +cheery-faced man, whose mutton-chop whiskers suggested much +business-like capacity and an equal amount of common sense, rose from +his desk and bowed as the Earl of Ellersdeane entered his office.</p> + +<p>"I know what your lordship's come for!" he said, with a twinkle of the +eye which betokened infinite comprehension. "The young lady's been +here."</p> + +<p>"And has no doubt told you everything?" remarked the Earl, as he dropped +into the chair which the superintendent drew forward. "Has she?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty well, my lord," replied Polke, with a chuckle. "She's not one to +let much grass grow under her feet, I think."</p> + +<p>"Given you the facts, I suppose?" asked the Earl.</p> + +<p>Polke motioned to Neale to seat himself, and resumed his own seat. He +put his fingers together over his desk and looked from one to the other +of his visitors.</p> + +<p>"I'll give the young lady this much credit," he said. "She can tell one +what she wants in about as few words as could possibly be used! Yes, my +lord—she told me the facts in a couple of sentences. Her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> uncle +disappeared—nobody knows where he is—suspected already of running away +with your lordship's jewels and Chestermarke's securities. A very nice +business indeed!"</p> + +<p>"What do you think of it?" asked the Earl.</p> + +<p>"As a policeman, nothing—so far," answered Polke, with another twinkle. +"As a man, that I don't believe it!"</p> + +<p>"Nor do I!" said the Earl. "That is, I don't believe that Horbury's +appropriated anything. There's some mistake—and some mystery."</p> + +<p>"We can't get away from the fact that Mr. Horbury has disappeared," +remarked Neale, looking at the superintendent. "That's all I'm sent here +to tell you, Mr. Polke."</p> + +<p>"That's an accepted fact," agreed Polke. "But he's not the first man +who's disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Some men, as your +lordship knows, disappear—and reappear with good reasons for their +absence. Some never reappear. Some men aren't wanted to reappear. When a +man disappears and he's wanted—why, the job is to find him."</p> + +<p>"What does Miss Fosdyke wish?" asked the Earl, nodding assent to these +philosophies. "She would say, of course."</p> + +<p>"Miss Fosdyke's way, my lord—so far as I could gather from ten minutes' +talk with her—is to tell people what to do," answered Polke drily. "She +doesn't ask—she commands! We're to find her uncle—quick. At once. No +pains to be spared. Money no object. A hundred pounds, spot cash, to the +first man, woman, child, who brings her the least fragment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> of news of +him. That's Miss Fosdyke's method. It's not a bad one—it's only rich +young ladies who can follow it. So I've already put things in train. +Handbills and posters, of course—and the town-crier. I suggested to her +that by tonight, or tomorrow morning, there might be news of Mr. Horbury +without doing all that. No good! Miss Fosdyke—she can tell you a lot +inside a minute—informed me that since she was seventeen she had only +had one motto in life. It's—do it now!"</p> + +<p>"Good!" laughed the Earl. "But—where are you going to begin?"</p> + +<p>"That's the difficulty," agreed Polke. "A gentleman walks out of his +back garden into the dusk—and he's never seen again. I don't know. We +must wait and see if anybody comes forward to say that he, she, or it +saw Mr. Horbury after he left his house on Saturday night. That's all."</p> + +<p>"Somebody must have seen him," said the Earl.</p> + +<p>"Well, you'd think so, my lord," replied Polke, "but he could get away +from the back of his orchard into the open country without being seen. +The geographical position of our town's a bit curious, so your lordship +knows. Here we are on a ridge. Horbury's garden and orchard run down to +the foot of that ridge. At that foot is the river. There's a foot-bridge +over the river, immediately opposite his orchard gate. He could cross +that foot-bridge, and be in the wood on the other side in two minutes +from leaving his house. That wood extends for a good mile into the +country. Oh, yes! he could get away without being seen, and once in that +country, why,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> he could make his way to one or other of half a dozen +small railway stations. We shall telephone to all of them. That's all in +the routine. But then, that's all supposing that he left the town. +Perhaps he didn't leave the town."</p> + +<p>The Earl started, and Neale looked quickly up from a brown study.</p> + +<p>"Eh?" said the Earl. "Didn't leave the town?"</p> + +<p>"Speaking as a policeman," answered Polke, with a knowing smile, "I +don't know that he even left his house. I only know that his housekeeper +says he did. That's a very different matter. For anything we +know—absolutely know!—Mr. Horbury may have been murdered in his own +house, and buried in his own cellar."</p> + +<p>"You're not joking?" said Neale. "Or—you are!"</p> + +<p>"Far from it, Mr. Neale," answered Polke. "That may seem a very, very +outrageous thing to say, but, I assure you, one never knows what may not +have happened in these cases. However, Mrs. Carswell says he did leave +the house, so we must take her word to begin with, and see if we can +find out where he went. And as your lordship is here, there's just a +question or two I should like to have answered. How many people know +that your lordship handed over these valuables to Mr. Horbury?"</p> + +<p>"So far as I know, no one but the Countess and myself," replied the +Earl. "I never mentioned the matter to any one, and I don't think my +wife would either. There was no need to mention it."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," remarked Polke. "One's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> got to consider all sorts +of little things in these affairs, or else I wouldn't ask another +question. Does your lordship think it possible the Countess mentioned it +to her maid?"</p> + +<p>The Earl started in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he said. "That may be! She may have done that, of course. I hadn't +thought of it."</p> + +<p>"Is the maid a trustworthy woman?" inquired Polke.</p> + +<p>"She's been in our service twelve or fourteen years," replied the Earl. +"We've always found her quite trustworthy. So much so that I've more +than once sent her to my bankers with those very jewels."</p> + +<p>"You took her with you to the Continent, of course, my lord?" asked +Polke.</p> + +<p>"No, we didn't," replied the Earl. "The fact is—we wanted to have, for +once in our lives, a thoroughly unconventional holiday. You know that +the Countess and I are both very fond of walking—well, we had always +had a great desire to have a walking tour, alone, in the Ardennes +district, in early spring. We decided some time ago to have it this +year. So when we set off, six weeks ago, we took no servants—and +precious little luggage—and we enjoyed it all the more. Therefore, of +course, my wife's maid was not with us. She remained at +Ellersdeane—with the rest of the servants."</p> + +<p>Polke seemed to ponder over this last statement. Then he rose from his +chair.</p> + +<p>"Um!" he said. "Well—I'm doing what I can. There's something your +lordship might do."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes?" asked the Earl. "What, now! It shall be done."</p> + +<p>"Let some of your men take a look round your neighbourhood," answered +the superintendent. "Gamekeepers, now—they're the fellows! Just now +we're having some grand moonlight nights. If your men would look about +the country between here and Ellersdeane, now? And tell the farmers, and +the cottagers, and so forth, and take a particular look round +Ellersdeane Hollow. It would be a help."</p> + +<p>"Excellent idea, Polke," said the Earl. "I'll ride home and set things +going at once. And you'll let me know if anything turns up here during +the evening or the night."</p> + +<p>He strode off to the door and Neale followed. But on the threshold Neale +was pulled up by the superintendent.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Neale!" said Polke.</p> + +<p>Neale turned to see his questioner looking at him with a rather +quizzical expression.</p> + +<p>"What precise message had you for me?" asked Polke.</p> + +<p>"Just what I said," replied Neale. "I was merely to tell you that Mr. +Horbury disappeared from his house on Saturday evening, and has not been +seen since."</p> + +<p>"No further message—from your principals?" suggested Polke.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Neale.</p> + +<p>Polke nodded, and with a bow to the Earl sat down again to his desk. He +took up a pen when the door had closed on his visitors, and for a while +busied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> himself in writing. He was thus occupied when the telephone bell +rang in the farthest corner of his room. He crossed over and laid hold +of the receiver.</p> + +<p>"Yes?" he said quietly. "Yes—this is Polke, superintendent, Scarnham—I +rang you up twenty minutes since. I want you to send me, at once, the +smartest man you have available. Case is disappearance, under mysterious +circumstances, of a bank manager. Securities to a large amount are +missing; valuables also. No expense will be spared here—money no +object. You understand—a first-class man? Tonight? Yes. Good train from +town five-twenty—gets here nine-fifteen. He will catch that? Good. Tell +him report here on arrival. All right. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>Polke rang off and went back to his desk.</p> + +<p>"What New Scotland Yard calls a first-class is very often what I should +call a third-class," he muttered as he picked up his pen. "However, +we'll live in hope that something out of the usual will arrive. Now what +are those two Chestermarkes after? Why didn't one of them come here? +What are they doing? And what's the mystery? James Polke, my boy, here's +a handful for you!"</p> + +<p>If Polke had been able to look into Chestermarke's Bank just then, he +would have failed to notice any particular evidences of mystery. It was +nearly the usual hour for closing when Wallington Neale went back, and +Gabriel Chestermarke immediately told him to follow out the ordinary +routine. The clerks were to finish their work and go their ways, as if +nothing had happened, and, as far as they could, they were to keep their +tongues quiet. As for the partners,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> food was being sent over for them +from the hotel: they would be obliged to remain at the bank for some +time yet. But there was no need for Neale to stay; he could go when the +day's balancing was done.</p> + +<p>"You heard what instructions this Miss Fosdyke had given the police, I +suppose?" asked Gabriel, as Neale was leaving the parlour. "Raising the +whole town, no doubt?"</p> + +<p>Neale briefly narrated all he knew; the partners listened with the +expression characteristic of each, and made no comment. And in half an +hour Neale handed over the keys to Joseph Chestermarke and went out into +the hall, his labours over. That had been the most exciting day he had +ever known in his life—was what was left of it going to yield anything +still more exciting?</p> + +<p>He stood in the outer hall trying to make up his mind about something. +He wanted to speak to Betty Fosdyke—to talk to her. She had evidently +not recognized him when she came so suddenly into the dining-room of the +bank-house. But why should she, he asked himself?—they had only met +once, when both were children, and she had no doubt forgotten his very +existence. Still—</p> + +<p>He rang the house bell at last and asked for Mrs. Carswell. The +housekeeper came hurrying to him, a look of expectancy on her face.</p> + +<p>"Has anything been heard, Mr. Neale?" she asked. "Or found out? Have the +police been told yet?"</p> + +<p>"The police know," answered Neale. "And nothing has been heard. Where is +Miss Fosdyke, Mrs. Carswell? I should like to speak to her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Gone to the Scarnham Arms, Mr. Neale," replied the housekeeper. "She +wouldn't stay here, though her room was all ready for her. Said she +wouldn't stop two seconds in a house that belonged to men who suspected +her uncle! So she's gone across there to take rooms. Do—do the partners +suspect Mr. Horbury of something, Mr. Neale?"</p> + +<p>Neale shook his head and turned away.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you anything, Mrs. Carswell," he answered. "If either Mr. +Chestermarke or Mr. Joseph wish to give you any information, they'll +give it themselves. But I can say this on my own responsibility—if you +know of anything—anything, however small!—that would account for Mr. +Horbury's absence, out with it!"</p> + +<p>"But I don't—I know nothing but what I've told," said Mrs. Carswell. +"Literally nothing!"</p> + +<p>"Nobody knows anything," remarked Neale. "That's the worst of it. +Well—we shall see."</p> + +<p>He went away from the house and crossed the Market-Place to the Scarnham +Arms, an old-world inn which had suffered few alterations during the +last two centuries. And there inside its wide hall, superintending the +removal of various articles of luggage which had just arrived from the +station and in conversation with a much interested landlady, he found +Betty Fosdyke.</p> + +<p>"I may be here for weeks, and I shall certainly be here for days," that +young lady was saying. "Put all these things in the bedroom, and I'll +have what I want taken into the sitting-room later. Now, Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> Depledge, +about my dinner. I'll have it in my sitting-room, and I'll have it +early. I——"</p> + +<p>At this moment Miss Fosdyke became aware of Neale's presence, and that +this eminently good-looking young man was not only smiling at her, but +was holding out a hand which he evidently expected to be taken.</p> + +<p>"You've forgotten me!" said Neale.</p> + +<p>Miss Fosdyke's cheeks flushed a little and she held out her hand.</p> + +<p>"Is it—is it Wallie Neale?" she asked. "But—I saw you in the +bank-house—and you didn't speak to me!"</p> + +<p>"You didn't speak to me," retorted Neale, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Didn't know you," she answered. "Heavens!—how you've grown! But—come +upstairs. Mrs. Depledge—dinner for two, mind. Mr. Neale will dine with +me."</p> + +<p>Neale suffered his hostess to lead him upstairs to a private parlour. +And when they were once within it, Miss Fosdyke shut the door and turned +on him.</p> + +<p>"Now, Wallie Neale!" she said, "out with it! What is the meaning of all +this infernal mystery? And where's my uncle?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h2>ELLERSDEANE HOLLOW</h2> + +<p>Neale dropped into a chair and lifted a despairing countenance to his +downright questioner.</p> + +<p>"I don't know!" he said. "I know—nothing!"</p> + +<p>"That is—beyond what I've already been told?" suggested the girl.</p> + +<p>"Beyond what you've been told—exactly," replied Neale. "I'm literally +bewildered. I've been going about all day as if—as if I were dreaming, +or having a nightmare, or—something. I don't understand it at all. I +saw Mr. Horbury, of course, on Saturday—he was all right when I left +him at the bank. He said nothing that suggested anything unusual. The +whole thing is—a real facer! To me—anyhow."</p> + +<p>Betty Fosdyke devoted a whole minute to taking a good look at her +companion: Neale, on his part, made a somewhat shyer examination of her. +He remembered her as a long-legged little girl who had no great promise +of good looks: he was not quite sure that she had grown into good looks +now. But she was an eminently bright and vivacious young woman, strong, +healthy, vigorous, with fine eyes and teeth and hair, and a colour that +betokened an intimate acquaintance with outdoor life. And already, in +the conversation at the bank, and in Polke's report of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> interview +with him, he had learnt that she had developed certain characteristics +which he faintly remembered in her as a child, when she had insisted on +having her own way amongst other children.</p> + +<p>"You've grown into quite a handsome young man, Wallie!" she observed +suddenly, with a frank laugh. "I shouldn't have thought you would, +somehow. Am I changed?"</p> + +<p>"I should say—not in character," answered Neale shyly. "I remember you +always wanted to be top dog!"</p> + +<p>"It's my fate!" she said, with a sigh. "I've such a lot of people and +things to look after—one has to be top dog, whether one wants to or +not. But this affair—what's to be done?"</p> + +<p>"I understand from Polke that you've already done everything," replied +Neale.</p> + +<p>"I've given him orders to spare neither trouble nor expense," she +asserted. "He's to send for the very best detective they can give him +from headquarters in London, and search is to be made. Because—now, +Wallie, tell me truthfully—you don't believe for one moment that my +uncle has run away with things?"</p> + +<p>"Not for one second!" asserted Neale stoutly. "Never did!"</p> + +<p>"Then—there's foul play!" exclaimed Betty. "And I'll spend my last +penny to get at the bottom of it! Here I am, and here I stick, until +I've found my uncle, or discovered what's happened to him. And +listen—do you think those two men across there are to be trusted?"</p> + +<p>Neale shook his head as if in appeal to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm their clerk, you know," he replied. "I hate being there at all, but +I am there. I believe they're men of absolute probity as regards +business matters—personally, I'm not very fond of either."</p> + +<p>"Fond!" she exclaimed. "My dear boy!—Joseph is a slimy sneak, and +Gabriel is a bloodless sphinx—I hate both of them!"</p> + +<p>Neale laughed and gave her a look of comprehension.</p> + +<p>"You haven't changed, Betty," he said. "I'm to call you Betty, though +you are grown up?"</p> + +<p>"Since it's the only name I possess, I suppose you are," she answered. +"But now—what can we do—you and I? After all, we're the nearest people +my uncle has in this town. Do let's do something! I'm not the sort to +sit talking—I want action! Can't you suggest something we can do?"</p> + +<p>"There's one thing," replied Neale, after a moment's thought. "Lord +Ellersdeane suggested that possibly Mr. Horbury, hearing that the +Ellersdeanes had got home on Saturday, put the jewels in his pocket and +started out to Ellersdeane with them. I know the exact path he'd have +taken in that case, and I thought of following it this evening—one +might come across something, or hear something, you know."</p> + +<p>"Take me with you, as soon as we've had dinner," she said. "It'll be a +beginning. I mean to turn this neighbourhood upside down for +news—you'll see. Some person or persons must have seen my uncle on +Saturday night!—a man can't disappear like that. It's impossible!"</p> + +<p>"Um!—but men do disappear," remarked Neale.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> "What I'm hoping is that +there'll eventually—and quickly—be some explanation of this +disappearance, and that Mr. Horbury hasn't met with—shall I put it +plainly?"</p> + +<p>"You'd better put anything plainly to me," she answered. "I don't +understand other methods."</p> + +<p>"It's possible he may have been murdered, you know," said Neale quietly.</p> + +<p>Betty got up from her chair and went over to the window to look out on +the Market-Place. She stood there some time in silence.</p> + +<p>"It shall be a bad job for any man who murdered him if that is so," she +said at last. "I was very fond of my uncle."</p> + +<p>"So was I," said Neale. "But I say—no past tenses yet! Aren't we a bit +previous? He may be all right."</p> + +<p>"Ring the bell and let's hurry up that dinner," she commanded. "I didn't +make it clear that we want it as early as possible. I want to get out, +and to see where he went—I want to do something active!"</p> + +<p>But Miss Betty Fosdyke was obliged to adapt herself to the somewhat +leisurely procedure of highly respectable country-town hotels, whose +cooks will not be hurried, and it was already dusk, and the moonlight +was beginning to throw shadows of gable and spire over the old +Market-Place, when she and Neale set out on their walk.</p> + +<p>"All the better," said Neale. "This is just about the time that he went +out on Saturday night, and under very similar conditions. Now we'll take +the precise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> path that he'd have taken if he was on his way to +Ellersdeane."</p> + +<p>He led his companion to a corner of the Market-Place, and down a narrow +alley which terminated on an expanse of open ground at the side of the +river. There he made her pause and look round.</p> + +<p>"Now if we're going to do the thing properly," he said, "just attend, +and take notice of what I point out. The town, as you see, stands on +this ridge above us. Here we are at the foot of the gardens and orchards +which slope down from the backs of the houses on this side of the +Market-Place. There is the gate of the bank-house orchard. According to +Mrs. Carswell, Mr. Horbury came out of that gate on Saturday night. What +did he do then? He could have turned to the left, along this river bank, +or to the right, also along the river bank. But, if he meant to walk out +to Ellersdeane—which he would reach in well under an hour—he would +cross this foot-bridge and enter those woods. That's what we've got to +do."</p> + +<p>He led his companion across a narrow bridge, over a strip of sward at +the other side of the river, and into a grove of fir which presently +deepened and thickened as it spread up a gently shelving hillside. The +lights of the town behind them disappeared; the gloom increased; +presently they were alternately crossing patches of moonlight and +plunging into expanses of blackness. And Betty, after stumbling over one +or two of the half-exposed roots which lay across the rough path, +slipped a hand into Neale's arm.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to play guide, Wallie, unless you wish<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> me to break my +neck," she laughed. "My town eyes aren't accustomed to these depths of +gloom and solitude. And now," she went on, as Neale led her confidently +forward through the wood, "let's talk some business. I want to know +about those two—the Chestermarkes. For I've an uneasy feeling that +there's more in this affair than's on the surface, and I want to know +all about the people I'm dealing with. Just remember—beyond the mere +fact of their existence and having seen them once or twice, years ago, I +don't know anything about them. What sort of men are they—as +individuals?"</p> + +<p>"Queer!" replied Neale. "They're both queer. I don't know much about +them. Nobody does. They're all right as business men, much respected and +all that, you know. But as private individuals they're decidedly odd. +They're both old bachelors, at least Gabriel's an old one, and Joseph is +a youngish one. They live sort of hermit lives, as far as one can make +out. Gabriel lives at the old house which I'll show you when we get out +of this wood—you'll see the roofs, anyhow, in this moonlight. Joseph +lives in another old house, but in the town, at the end of Cornmarket. +What they do with themselves at home, Heaven knows! They don't go into +such society as there is; they take no part in the town's affairs. +There's a very good club here for men of their class—they don't belong +to it. You can't get either of 'em to attend a meeting—they keep aloof +from everything. But they both go up to London a great deal—they're +always going. But they never go together—when Gabriel's away, Joseph's +at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> home; when Joseph's off, Gabriel's on show. There's always one Mr. +Chestermarke to be found at the bank. All the same, Mr. Horbury was the +man who did all the business with customers in the ordinary way. So far +as I know banking," concluded Neale, "I should say he was trusted and +confided in more than most bank managers are."</p> + +<p>"Did they seem very much astonished when they found he'd gone?" asked +Betty. "Did it seem a great shock, a real surprise?"</p> + +<p>"The cleverest man living couldn't tell what either Gabriel or Joseph +Chestermarke thinks about anything," answered Neale. "You know what +Gabriel's face is like—a stone image! And Joseph always looks as if he +was sneering at you, a sort of soft, smiling sneer. No, I couldn't say +they showed surprise, and I don't know what they've found out—they're +the closest, most reserved men about their own affairs that you could +imagine!"</p> + +<p>"But—they say some of their securities are missing," remarked Betty. +"They'll have to let the exact details be known, won't they?"</p> + +<p>"Depends—on them," replied Neale. "They'll only do what they like. And +they don't love you for coming on the scene, I assure you!"</p> + +<p>"But I'm here, nevertheless!" said Betty. "And here I stop! Wallie, +haven't you got even a bit of a theory about all this!"</p> + +<p>"Can't say that I have!" confessed Neale woefully. "I'm not a very +brilliant hand at thinking. The only thing I can think of is that Mr. +Horbury, knowing Lord Ellersdeane had got home on Saturday,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> thought +he'd hand back those jewels as soon as possible, and set off in the +evening with that intention—possibly to be robbed and murdered on the +way. Sounds horrible—but honestly I can't think of any other theory."</p> + +<p>Betty involuntarily shivered and glanced about her at the dark cavernous +spaces of the wood, which had now thickened into dense masses of oak and +beech. She took a firmer grip of Neale's arm.</p> + +<p>"And he'd come through here!" she exclaimed. "How dangerous!—with those +things in his pocket!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but he'd think nothing of it!" answered Neale. "He was used to +walking at night—he knew every yard of this neighbourhood. Besides, +he'd know very well that nobody would know what he had on him. What I'd +like to know is—supposing my theory's right, and that he was taking +these jewels to Ellersdeane, how did anybody get to know that he had +them? For the Chestermarkes didn't know they'd been given to him, and I +didn't—nobody at the bank knew."</p> + +<p>A sudden turn in the path brought them to the edge of the wood, and they +emerged on a broad plateau of rough grass, from beneath which a wide +expanse of landscape stretched away, bathed just then in floods of +moonlight. Neale paused and waved his stick towards the shadowy +distances and over the low levels which lay between.</p> + +<p>"Ellersdeane Hollow!" he said.</p> + +<p>Betty paused too, looking silently around. She saw an undulating, broken +stretch of country, half-heath,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> half-covert, covering a square mile or +so of land, houseless, solitary. In its midst rose a curiously shaped +eminence or promontory, at the highest point of which some ruin or other +lifted gaunt, shapeless walls against the moonlit sky. Far down beneath +it, in a depression amongst the heath-clad undulations, a fire glowed +red in the gloom. And on the further side of this solitude, amidst +groves and plantations, the moonlight shone on the roofs and gables of +half-hidden houses. Over everything hung a deep silence.</p> + +<p>"A wild and lonely scene!" she said.</p> + +<p>Neale raised his stick again and began to point.</p> + +<p>"All this in front of us is called Ellersdeane Hollow," he remarked. +"It's not just one depression, you see—it's a tract of unenclosed land. +It's dangerous to cross, except by the paths—it's honeycombed all over +with disused lead-mines—some of the old shafts are a tremendous depth. +All the same, you see, there's some tinker chap, or some gipsies, camped +out down there and got a fire. That old ruin, up on the crag there, is +called Ellersdeane Tower—one of Lord Ellersdeane's ancestors built it +for an observatory—this path'll lead us right beneath it."</p> + +<p>"Is this the path he would have taken if he'd gone to Ellersdeane on +Saturday night?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>"Precisely—straight ahead, past the Tower," answered Neale. "And there +is Ellersdeane itself, right away in the distance, amongst its trees. +There!—where the moonlight catches it. Now let your eye follow that far +line of wood, over the tops of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> trees about Ellersdeane village—do +you see where the moonlight shines on another high roof? That's Gabriel +Chestermarke's place—the Warren."</p> + +<p>"So—he and Lord Ellersdeane are neighbours!" remarked Betty.</p> + +<p>"Neighbours at a distance of a mile—and who do no more than nod to each +other," answered Neale. "Lord Ellersdeane and Mr. Horbury were what you +might call friends, but I don't believe his lordship ever spoke ten +words with either of the Chestermarkes until this morning. I tell you +the Chestermarkes are regular hermits!—when they're at home or about +Scarnham, anyhow. Now let's go as far as the Tower—you can see all over +the country from that point."</p> + +<p>Betty followed her guide down a narrow path which led in and out through +the undulations of the Hollow until it reached the foot of the +promontory on which stood the old ruin that made such a prominent +landmark. Seen at close quarters Ellersdeane Tower was a place of much +greater size and proportion than it had appeared from the edge of the +wood, and the path to its base was steep and rocky. And here the +loneliness in which she and Neale had so far walked came to an end—on +the edge of the promontory, outlined against the moonlit sky, two men +stood, talking in low tones.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h2>THE TRAVELLING TINKER</h2> + +<p>Neale's eye caught the gleam of silver braid on the clothing of one of +the two men, and he hastened his steps a little as he and Betty emerged +on the level ground at the top of the steep path.</p> + +<p>"That's a policeman," he said. "It'll be the constable from Ellersdeane. +The other man looks like a gamekeeper. Let's see if they've heard +anything."</p> + +<p>The two figures turned at the sound of footsteps, and came slowly in +Neale's direction. Both recognized him and touched their hats.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you're looking round in search of anything about Mr. +Horbury?" suggested Neale. "Heard any news or found any trace?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we're what you might call taking a preliminary observation, Mr. +Neale," answered the policeman. "His lordship's sent men out all over +the neighbourhood. No, we've heard nothing, nor seen anything, either. +But, then, there's not much chance of hearing anything hereabouts. The +others have gone round asking at houses, and such-like—to find out if +he was seen to pass anywhere. Of course, his lordship was figuring on +the chance that Mr. Horbury might have had a fit, or something of that +sort,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> and fallen somewhere along this path, between the town and +Ellersdeane House—it's not much followed, this path. But we've seen +nothing—up to now."</p> + +<p>Neale turned to the keeper.</p> + +<p>"Were none of your people about here on Saturday night?" he asked. +"You've a good many watchers on the estate, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir—a dozen or more," answered the keeper. "But we don't come +this way—this isn't our land. Our beats lie the other way—t'other side +of the village. We never come on to this part at all."</p> + +<p>"This, you know, Mr. Neale," remarked the policeman, jerking his thumb +over the Hollow, "this, in a manner of speaking, belongs to nobody. Some +say it belongs to the Crown—I don't know. All I know is that nobody has +any rights over it—it's been what you might term common land ever since +anybody can remember. This here Mr. Horbury that's missing—your +governor, sir—I once met him out here, and had a bit of talk with him, +and he told me that it isn't even known who worked them old lead-mines +down there, nor who has any rights over all this waste. That, of +course," concluded the policeman, pointing to the glowing fire which +Neale and Betty had seen from the edge of the wood, "that's why chaps +like yonder man come and camp here just as they like—there's nobody to +stop 'em."</p> + +<p>"Who is the man?" asked Neale, glancing at the fire, whose flames made a +red spot amongst the bushes.</p> + +<p>"Most likely a travelling tinker chap, sir, that comes this way now and +again," answered the policeman. "Name of Creasy—Tinner Creasy, the +folks<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> call him. He's come here for many a year, at odd times. Camps out +with his pony and cart, and goes round the villages and farmsteads, +seeing if there's aught to mend, and selling 'em pots and pans and +such-like. Stops a week or two—sometimes longer."</p> + +<p>"And poaches all he can lay hands on," added the gamekeeper. "Only he +takes good care never to go off this Hollow to do it."</p> + +<p>"Have you made any inquiry of him?" asked Neale.</p> + +<p>"We were just thinking of doing that, sir," replied the policeman. "He +roams up and down about here at nights, when he is here. But I don't +know how long he's been camping this time—it's very seldom I ever come +round this way myself—there's naught to come for."</p> + +<p>"Let's go across there and speak to him," said Neale.</p> + +<p>He and Betty followed the two men down the side of the promontory and +across the ups and downs of the Hollow, until they came to a deeper +depression fringed about by a natural palisading of hawthorn. And as +they drew near and could see into the dingle-like recess which the +tinker had selected for his camping-ground they became aware of a +savoury and appetizing odour, and the gamekeeper laughed.</p> + +<p>"Cooking his supper, is Tinner Creasy!" he remarked. "And good stuff he +has in his pot, too!"</p> + +<p>The tinker, now in full view, sat on a log near a tripod, beneath which +crackled a bright fire, burning under a black pot. The leaping flames +revealed a shrewd, weather-beaten face which turned sharply towards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> the +bushes as the visitors appeared; they also lighted up the tinker's cart +in the background, the browsing pony close by, the implements of the +tinner's trade strewn around on the grass. It was an alluring picture of +vagabond life, and Neale suddenly compared it with the dull existence of +folk who, like himself, were chained to a desk. He would have liked to +sit down by Tinner Creasy and ask him about his doings—but the +policeman had less poetical ideas.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, Tinner!" said he, with easy familiarity. "Here again, what? I +thought we should be seeing your fire some night this spring. Been here +long?"</p> + +<p>The tinker, who had remained seated on his log until he saw that a lady +was of the party, rose and touched the edge of his fur cap to Betty in a +way which indicated that his politeness was entirely for her.</p> + +<p>"Since yesterday," he answered laconically.</p> + +<p>"Only since yesterday!" exclaimed the policeman. "Ah! that's a pity, +now. You wasn't here Saturday night, then?"</p> + +<p>The tinker turned a quizzical eye on the four inquiring faces.</p> + +<p>"How would I be here Saturday night when I only came yesterday?" he +retorted. "You're the sort of chap that wants two answers to one +question! What about Saturday night?"</p> + +<p>The policeman took off his helmet and rubbed the top of his head as if +to encourage his faculties.</p> + +<p>"Nay!" he said. "There's a gentleman missing from Scarnham yonder, and +it's thought he came out this way after dark, Saturday night, and +something<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> happened. But, of course, if you wasn't in these parts +then——"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't, nor within ten miles of 'em," said Creasy. "Who is the +gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Horbury, the bank manager," answered the policeman.</p> + +<p>"I know Mr. Horbury," remarked Creasy, with a glance at Neale and Betty. +"I've talked to him a hundred-and-one times on this waste. So it's him, +is it? Well, there's one thing you can be certain about."</p> + +<p>"What?" asked Betty eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Horbury wouldn't happen aught by accident, hereabouts," answered +the tinker significantly. "He knew every inch of this Hollow. Some +folks, now, might take a header into one o' them old lead-mines. He +wouldn't. He could ha' gone blind-fold over this spot."</p> + +<p>"Well—he's disappeared," observed the policeman. "There's a search +being made, all round. You heard naught last night, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>Creasy gave Neale and Betty a look.</p> + +<p>"Heard plenty of owls, and night-jars, and such-like," he answered, "and +foxes, and weasels, and stoats, and beetles creeping in the grass. +Naught human!"</p> + +<p>The policeman resumed his helmet and sniffed audibly. He and the keeper +moved away and talked together. Then the policeman turned to Neale.</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll be getting back to the village, sir," he said. "If so be as +you see our super, Mr. Neale, you might mention that we're out and +about."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<p>He and his companion went off by a different path; at the top of a rise +in the ground the policeman turned again.</p> + +<p>"Tinner!" he called.</p> + +<p>"Hullo?" answered Creasy.</p> + +<p>"If you should hear or find aught," said the policeman, "come to me, you +know."</p> + +<p>"All right!" assented Creasy. He picked up some wood and replenished his +fire. And glancing at Neale and Betty, who still lingered, he let fall a +muttered whisper under his breath. "Bide a bit—till those chaps have +gone," he said. "I've a word or two."</p> + +<p>He walked away to his cart after this mysterious communication, dived +under its tilt, evidently felt for and found something, and came back, +glancing over his shoulder to see that keeper and policeman had gone +their ways.</p> + +<p>"I never tell chaps of that sort anything, mister," he said, giving +Neale a sly wink. "Them of my turn of life look on all gamekeepers and +policemen as their natural enemies. They'd both of 'em turn me out o' +this if they could!—only they know they can't. For some reason or other +Ellersdeane Hollow is No Man's Land—and therefore mine. And so—I +wasn't going to say anything to them—not me!"</p> + +<p>"Then there is something you can say?" said Neale.</p> + +<p>"You were here on Saturday!" exclaimed Betty. "You know something!"</p> + +<p>"No, miss, I wasn't here Saturday," answered the tinker, "and I don't +know anything—about what yon man asked, anyway—I told him the truth +about all that. But—you say Mr. Horbury's missing, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> that he's +considered to have come this way on Saturday night. So—do either of you +know that?"</p> + +<p>He drew his right hand from behind him, and in the glare of the +firelight showed them, lying across its palm, a briar tobacco-pipe, +silver-mounted.</p> + +<p>"I found that, last night, gathering dry sticks," he said. "It's letters +engraved on the silver band—'J. H. from B. F.' 'J. H.' now?—does that +mean John Horbury?—you see, I know his Christian name."</p> + +<p>Betty uttered a sharp exclamation and took the pipe in her hand. She +turned to Neale with a look of sudden fear.</p> + +<p>"It's the pipe I gave my uncle last Christmas!" she said. "Of course I +know it! Where did you find it?" she went on, turning on Creasy. "Do +tell us—do show us!"</p> + +<p>"Foot of the crag there, miss—right beneath the old tower," answered +Creasy. "And it's just as I found it. I'll give it to you, sir, to take +to Superintendent Polke in Scarnham—he knows me. But just let me point +something out. I ain't a detective, but in my eight-and-forty years I've +had to keep my wits sharpened and my eyes open. Point out to Polke, and +notice yourself—that whenever that pipe was dropped it was being +smoked! The tobacco's caked at the surface—just as it would be if the +pipe had been laid down at the very time the tobacco was burning +well—if you're a smoker you'll know what I mean. That's one thing. The +other is—just observe that the silver band is quite bright and fresh, +and that there are no stains on the briar-wood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> What's that indicate, +young lady and young gentleman? Why, that that pipe hadn't been lying so +very long when I found it! Not above a day, I'll warrant."</p> + +<p>"That's very clever of you, very observant!" exclaimed Betty. +"But—won't you show us the exact place where you picked it up?"</p> + +<p>Creasy cast a glance at his cooking pot, stepped to it, and slightly +tilted the lid. Then he signed to them to go back towards the tower by +the path by which they had come.</p> + +<p>"Don't want my supper to boil over, or to burn," he remarked. "It's the +only decent meal I get in the day, you see, miss. But it won't take a +minute to show you where I found the pipe. Now—what's the idea, sir," +he went on, turning to Neale, "about Mr. Horbury's disappearance? Is it +known that he came out here Saturday night?"</p> + +<p>"Not definitely," replied Neale. "But it's believed he did. He was seen +to set off in this direction, and there's a probability that he crossed +over here on his way to Ellersdeane. But he's never been seen since he +left Scarnham."</p> + +<p>"Well," observed Creasy, "as I said just now, he wouldn't happen +anything by accident in an ordinary way. Was there any reason why +anybody should set on him?"</p> + +<p>"There may have been," replied Neal.</p> + +<p>"He wouldn't be likely to have aught valuable on him, surely—that time +o' night?" said the tinker.</p> + +<p>"He may have had," admitted Neale. "I can't tell you more."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>Creasy asked no farther question. He led the way to the foot of the +promontory, at a point where a mass of rock rose sheer out of the hollow +to the plateau crowned by the ruinous tower.</p> + +<p>"Here's where I picked up the pipe," he said. "Lying amongst this +rubbish—stones and dry wood, you see—I just caught the gleam of the +silver band. Now what should Mr. Horbury be doing down here? The path, +you see, is a good thirty yards off. But—he may have fallen over—or +been thrown over—and it's a sixty-feet drop from top to bottom."</p> + +<p>Neale and Betty looked up the face of the rocks and said nothing. And +Creasy presently went on, speaking in a low voice:—</p> + +<p>"If he met with foul play—if, for instance, he was thrown over here in +a struggle—or if, taking a look from the top there, he got too near the +edge and something gave way," he said, "there's about as good means of +getting rid of a dead man in this Ellersdeane Hollow as in any place in +England! That's a fact!"</p> + +<p>"You mean the lead-mines?" murmured Neale.</p> + +<p>"Right, sir! Do you know how many of these old workings there is?" +asked Creasy. "There's between fifty and sixty within a square mile of +this tower. Some's fenced in—most isn't. Some of their mouths are grown +over with bramble and bracken. And all of 'em are of tremendous depth. A +man could be thrown down one of those mines, sir, and it 'ud be a long +job finding his body! But all that's very frightening to the lady, and +we'll hope nothing of it happened. Still——"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It has to be faced," said Betty. "Listen—I am Mr. Horbury's niece, and +I'm offering a reward for news of him. Will you keep your eyes and ears +open while you're in this neighbourhood?"</p> + +<p>The tinker promised that he would do his best, and presently he went +back to his fire, while Neale and Betty turned away towards the town. +Neither spoke until they were half-way through the wood; then Betty +uttered her fears in a question.</p> + +<p>"Do you think the finding of that pipe shows he was—there?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure of it," replied Neale. "I wish I wasn't. But—I saw him with +this pipe in his lips at two o'clock on Saturday! I recognized it at +once."</p> + +<p>"Let's hurry on and see the police," said Betty. "We know something now, +at any rate."</p> + +<p>Polke, they were told at the police-station, was in his private house +close by: a polite constable conducted them thither. And presently they +were shown into the superintendent's dining-room, where Polke, +hospitably intent, was mixing a drink for a stranger. The stranger, +evidently just in from a journey, rose and bowed, and Polke waved his +hand at him with a smile, as he looked at the two young people.</p> + +<p>"Here's your man, miss!" said Polke cheerily. "Allow +me—Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, of the Criminal Investigation +Department."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h2>THE SATURDAY NIGHT STRANGER</h2> + +<p>Neale, who had never seen a real, live detective in the flesh, but who +cherished something of a passion for reading sensational fiction and the +reports of criminal cases in the weekly newspapers, looked at the man +from New Scotland Yard with a feeling of surprise. He knew +Detective-Sergeant Starmidge well enough by name and reputation. He was +the man who had unravelled the mysteries of the Primrose Hill murder—a +particularly exciting and underground affair. It was he who had been +intimately associated with the bringing to justice of the Camden Town +Gang—a group of daring and successful criminals which had baffled the +London police for two years. Neale had read all about Starmidge's +activities in both cases, and of the hairbreadth escape he had gone +through in connection with the second. And he had formed an idea of +him—which he now saw to be a totally erroneous one. For Starmidge did +not look at all like a detective—in Neale's opinion. Instead of being +elderly, and sinister, and close of eye and mouth, he was a somewhat +shy-looking, open-faced, fresh-coloured young man, still under thirty, +modest of demeanour, given to smiling, who might from his general +appearance have been, say, a professional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> cricketer, or a young +commercial traveller, or anything but an expert criminal catcher.</p> + +<p>"Only just got here, and a bit tired, miss," continued Polke, waving his +hand again at the detective. "So I'm just giving him a refresher to +liven his brains up. He'll want 'em—before we've done."</p> + +<p>Betty took the chair which Polke offered her, and looked at the stranger +with interest. She knew nothing about Starmidge, and she thought him +quite different to any preconceived notion which she had ever had of men +of his calling.</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll be able to help us," she said politely, as Starmidge, +murmuring something about his best respects to his host, took a +whisky-and-soda from Polke's hand. "Do you think you will—and has Mr. +Polke told you all about it?"</p> + +<p>"Given him a mere outline, miss," remarked Polke. "I'll prime him before +he goes to bed. Yes—he knows the main facts."</p> + +<p>"And what do you propose to do—first?" demanded Betty.</p> + +<p>Starmidge smiled and set down his glass.</p> + +<p>"Why, first," he answered, "first, I think I should like to see a +photograph of Mr. Horbury."</p> + +<p>Polke moved to a bureau in the corner of his dining-room.</p> + +<p>"I can fit you up," he said. "I've a portrait here that Mr. Horbury gave +me not so long ago. There you are!"</p> + +<p>He produced a cabinet photograph and handed it to Starmidge, who looked +at it and laid it down on the table without comment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I suppose that conveys nothing to you?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>"Well," replied Starmidge, with another smile, "if a man's missing, one +naturally wants to know what he's like. And if there's any advertising +of him to be done—by poster, I mean—it ought to have a recent portrait +of him."</p> + +<p>"To be sure," agreed Polke.</p> + +<p>"So far as I understand matters," continued Starmidge, "this gentleman +left his house on Saturday evening, hasn't been seen since, and there's +an idea that he probably walked across country to a place called +Ellersdeane. But up to now there's no proof that he did. I think that's +all, Mr. Polke?"</p> + +<p>"All!" assented Polke.</p> + +<p>"No!" said Neale. "Miss Fosdyke and I have brought you some news. Mr. +Horbury must have crossed Ellersdeane Hollow on Saturday night. Look at +this!—and I'll tell you all about it."</p> + +<p>The superintendent and the detective listened silently to Neale's +account of the meeting with Creasy, and Betty, watching Starmidge's +face, saw that he was quietly taking in all the points of importance.</p> + +<p>"Is this tin-man to be depended upon?" he asked, when Neale had +finished. "Is he known?"</p> + +<p>"I know him," answered Polke. "He's come to this neighbourhood for many +years. Yes—an honest chap enough—bit given to poaching, no doubt, but +straight enough in all other ways—no complaint of him that I ever heard +of. I should believe all he says about this."</p> + +<p>"Then, as that's undoubtedly Mr. Horbury's pipe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> and as this gentleman +saw him smoking it at two o'clock on Saturday, and as Creasy picked it +up underneath Ellersdeane Tower on Sunday evening," said Starmidge, +"there seems no doubt that Mr. Horbury went that way, and dropped it +where it was found. But—I can't think he was carrying Lord +Ellersdeane's jewels home!"</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Neale.</p> + +<p>"Is it likely?" suggested Starmidge. "One's got—always—to consider +probability. Is it probable that a bank manager would put a hundred +thousand pounds' worth of jewels in his pocket, and walk across a lonely +stretch of land at that time of night, just to hand them over to their +owner? I think not—especially as he hadn't been asked to do so. I think +that if Mr. Horbury had been in a hurry to deliver up these jewels, he'd +have driven out to Lord Ellersdeane's place."</p> + +<p>"Good!" muttered Polke. "That's the more probable thing."</p> + +<p>"Where are the jewels, then?" asked Neale.</p> + +<p>Starmidge glanced at Polke with one expression, at Betty and Neale with +another.</p> + +<p>"They haven't been searched for yet, have they?" he asked quietly. "They +may be—somewhere about, you know."</p> + +<p>"You mean to search for them?" exclaimed Betty.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what I intend to do," replied Starmidge, smiling. "I +haven't even thought. I shall have thought a lot by morning. But—the +country's being searched, isn't it, for news of Mr. Horbury?—perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +we'll hear something. It's a difficult thing for a well-known man to get +clear away from a little place like this. No!—what I'd like to +know—what I want to satisfy myself about is—did Mr. Horbury go away at +all? Is there really anything missing from the bank? Are those jewels +really missing? You see," concluded Starmidge, looking round his circle +of listeners, "there's an awful lot to take into account."</p> + +<p>At that moment Polke's domestic servant tapped at the door and put her +head inside the room.</p> + +<p>"If you please, Mr. Polke, there's Mrs. Pratt, from the Station Hotel, +would like a word with you," she said.</p> + +<p>The superintendent hurried from the room—to return at once with a +stout, middle-aged woman, who, as she entered, raised her veil and +glanced half-suspiciously at Polke's other visitors.</p> + +<p>"All friends here, Mrs. Pratt," said the superintendent reassuringly. +"You know young Mr. Neale well enough. This lady is Mr. Horbury's +niece—anxious to find him. That gentleman's a friend of mine—you can +say aught you like before him. Well, ma'am!—you think you can tell me +something about this affair? What might it be, now?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pratt, taking the chair which Starmidge placed for her at the end +of the table, nodded a general greeting to the company, and lifting her +veil and untying her bonnet-strings, revealed a good-natured +countenance.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Polke," she said, turning to the superintendent, "taking your +word for it that we're<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> all friends—me being pretty sure, all the same, +that this gentleman's one of your own profession, which I don't object +to—I'll tell you what it is I've come up for, special, as it were, and +me not waiting until after closing-time to do it. But that town-crier's +been down our way, and hearing him making his call between our house and +the station, and learning what it was all about, thinks I to myself, +'I'd best go up and see the super and tell him what I know.' And," +concluded Mrs. Pratt, beaming around her, "here I am!"</p> + +<p>"Ay—and what do you know, ma'am?" asked Polke. "Something, of course."</p> + +<p>"Or I shouldn't be here," agreed Mrs. Pratt, smoothing out a fold of her +gown. "Well—Saturday afternoon, the time being not so many minutes +after the 5.30 got in, and therefore you might say at the outside twenty +minutes to six, a strange gentleman walked across from the station to +our hotel, which is, as you're all well aware, exactly opposite. I +happened to be in the bar-parlour window at the time, and I saw him +crossing—saw, likewise, from the way he looked about him, and up at the +town above us, that he'd never been in Scarnham before. And happen I'd +best tell you what like he was, while the recollection's fresh in my +mind—a little gentleman he was, very well dressed in what you might +call the professional style; dark clothes and so forth, and a silk +top-hat; I should say about fifty years of age, with a fresh complexion +and a biggish grey moustache and a nicely rolled umbrella—quite the +little swell he was. He made for our door, and I went to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> the bar-window +to attend to him. He wanted to know if he could get some food, and I +said of course he could—we'd some uncommon nice chops in the house. So +he ordered three chops and setterers—and then he asked if we'd a +telephone in the house, and could he use it. And, of course, I told him +we had, and showed him where it was—after which he wanted a local +directory, and I gave him Scammond's Guide. He turned that over a bit, +and then, when he'd found what he wanted, he went to our telephone +box—which, as you're well aware, Mr. Polke, is in our front hall. And +into it he popped."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Pratt paused a moment, and gave her listeners a knowing look, as if +she was now about to narrate the most important part of her story.</p> + +<p>"But what you mayn't be aware of, Mr. Polke," she continued, "is that +our telephone box, which has glass panels in its upper parts, has at +this present time one of these panels broken—our pot-man did it, +carrying a plank through the hall. So that any one passing to and fro, +as it were, when anybody's using the telephone, can't help hearing a +word or two of what's being said inside. Now, of course, I was passing +in and out, giving orders for this gentleman's chops, when he was in the +box. And I heard a bit of what he said, though I didn't, naturally, hear +aught of what was said to him, nor who by. But it's in consequence of +what I did hear, and of what Tolson, the town-crier, has been shouting +down our way tonight, that I come up here to see you."</p> + +<p>"Much obliged to you, Mrs. Pratt," said Polke. "Very glad to hear +anything that may have to do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> with Mr. Horbury's disappearance. Now, +what did you hear?"</p> + +<p>"What I heard," replied the landlady, "was this here—disjointed, as you +would term it. First of all I hear the gentleman ask for 'Town 23.' Now, +of course, you know whose number that there is, Mr. Polke."</p> + +<p>"Chestermarke's Bank," said Neale, turning to Betty.</p> + +<p>"Chestermarke's Bank it is, sir," assented Mrs. Pratt. "Which you know +very well, as also do I, having oft called it up. Very well—I didn't +hear no more just then, me going into the dining-room to see that our +maid laid the table proper. But when I was going back to the bar, I +heard more. 'Along the river-side?' says the gentleman, 'Straight on +from where I am—all right.' Then after a minute, 'At seven-thirty, +then?' he says. 'All right—I'll meet you.' And after that he rings +off—and he went into the dining-room, and in due course he had his +chops, and some tart and cheese, and a pint of our bitter ale, and took +his time, and perhaps about a quarter past seven he came to the bar and +paid, and he took a drop of Scotch whisky. After which he says, 'It's +very possible, landlady, that I may have to stop in the town all +night—have you a nice room that you can let me?' 'Certainly, sir,' says +I. 'We've very good rooms, and bathrooms, and every convenience—shall I +show you one?' 'No,' says he, 'this seems a good house, and I'll take +your word for it—keep your best room for me, then.' And after that he +lighted a cigar and went out, saying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> he'd be back later, and he crossed +the road and went down on the river-bank, and walked slowly along +towards the bottom of the town. And Mr. Polke and company," concluded +Mrs. Pratt, solemnly turning from one listener to another, "that was the +last I saw of him. For—he never came back!"</p> + +<p>"Never came back!" echoed Polke.</p> + +<p>"Not even the ghost of him!" said Mrs. Pratt. "I waited up myself till +twelve, and then I decided that he'd changed his mind and was stopping +with somebody he knew, which person, Mr. Polke, I took to be Mr. +Horbury. Why? 'Cause he'd rung up Chestermarke's Bank—and who should he +want at Chestermarke's Bank at six o'clock of a Saturday evening but Mr. +Horbury? There wouldn't be nobody else there—as Mr. Neale'll agree."</p> + +<p>"You never heard of this gentleman being in the town on Sunday or +today?" asked Polke.</p> + +<p>"Not a word!" replied Mrs. Pratt. "And never saw him go to the station, +neither, to leave the town. Now, as you know, Mr. Polke, we've only two +trains go away from here on Sundays, and there's only four on any +week-day, us being naught but a branch line, and as our bar-parlour +window is exactly opposite the station, I see everybody that goes and +comes—I always was one for looking out of window! And I'm sure that +little gentleman didn't go away neither yesterday nor today. And that's +all I know," concluded Mrs. Pratt, rising, "and if it's any use to you, +you're welcome, and hopeful I am that your poor uncle'll be found, Miss, +for a nicer gentleman I could never wish to meet!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mrs. Pratt departed amidst expressions of gratitude and police +admonitions to keep her news to herself for awhile, and Betty and Neale +turned eagerly to the famous detective. But Starmidge appeared to have +entered upon a period of silence, and made no further observation than +that he would wait upon Miss Fosdyke in the morning, and presently the +two young people followed Mrs. Pratt into the street and turned into the +Market-Place. The last of the evening revellers were just coming out of +the closing taverns, and to a group of them, Tolson, the town-crier, was +dismally calling forth his announcement that one hundred pounds reward +would be paid to any person who first gave news of having seen Mr. John +Horbury on the previous Saturday evening or since. The clanging of his +bell, and the strident notes of his cracked voice, sounded in the +distance as Betty said good-night to Neale and turned sadly into the +Scarnham Arms.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h2>NO FURTHER INFORMATION</h2> + +<p>Chestermarke's clerks found no difficulty in obtaining access to the +bank when they presented themselves at its doors at nine o'clock next +morning. Both partners were already there, and appeared to have been +there for some time. And Joseph at once called Neale into the private +parlour, and drew his attention to a large poster which lay on a +side-table, its ink still wet from the printing press.</p> + +<p>"Let Patten put that up in one of the front windows, Neale," he said. +"It's just come in—I gave the copy for it last night. Read it over—I +think it's satisfactory, eh?"</p> + +<p>Neale bent over the big, bold letters, and silently read the +announcement:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Messrs. Chestermarke, in view of certain unauthorized rumours, now +circulating in the town and neighbourhood, respecting the +disappearance of their late manager, Mr. John Horbury, take the +earliest opportunity of announcing that all Customers' Securities +and Deposits in their hands are safe, and that business will be +conducted in the usual way."</p></div> + +<p>"That make things clear?" asked Joseph, closely watching his clerk. "To +our clients, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Quite clear, I should say," replied Neale.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then get it up at once, before opening hours, and save all the bother +of questions," commanded Joseph. "And if people do come asking +questions—as some of them will!—tell them not to bother +themselves—nor us. We don't want to waste our time interviewing fools +all the morning."</p> + +<p>Neale took the poster and went out, with no further remark. And +presently the junior clerk, with the aid of a few wafers, fixed the +announcement in the window which looked out on the Market-Place, and +people began to gather round and to read it, and, after the usual +fashion of country-born folk, then went away to talk about it. In half +an hour it was known in every shop and tavern parlour in Scarnham +Market-Place that despite the town-crier's announcement, and the wild +rumours of the night before, Chestermarke's Bank was all right, and +Chestermarkes were already speaking of Horbury in the past tense—he was +(wherever he might be) no longer the manager of that ancient concern; he +was the late manager.</p> + +<p>At ten o'clock Superintendent Polke, bluff and cheery as usual, and +Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, eyeing his new surroundings with +appreciative curiosity, strolled round the corner from the +police-station and approached the bank. Half a dozen loungers were +gathered before the window, reading the poster; the two police officials +joined them and also read—in silence. Then, with a look at each other, +they turned into the door which Patten had just opened. Neale hurried to +the counter to meet them.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Neale," said Polke, as if he had called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> on the most ordinary +business, "we'll just have a word with your principals, if they please. +A mere interchange of views, you know: we shan't keep 'em."</p> + +<p>"They don't want bothering," whispered Neale, bending over the counter. +"Shan't I do instead?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir!" answered Polke. "Nothing but principals will do! Here, +Starmidge, give Mr. Neale one of your official cards."</p> + +<p>Neale took the card and disappeared into the parlour, where he laid it +before Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Polke is with him, sir," he said. "They say they won't detain you."</p> + +<p>Gabriel tossed the card over to his nephew with a look of inquiry: +Joseph sneered at it, and threw it into a waste-paper basket.</p> + +<p>"Tell them we don't wish to see them," he answered. "We——"</p> + +<p>"Stop a bit!" interrupted Gabriel. "I think perhaps we'd better see +them. We may as well see them, and have done with it. Bring them in, +Neale."</p> + +<p>Polke and Starmidge, presently entering, found themselves coldly +greeted. Gabriel made the slightest inclination of his head, in response +to Polke's salutation and the detective's bow: Joseph pointedly gave no +heed to either.</p> + +<p>"Well?" demanded the senior partner.</p> + +<p>"We've just called, Mr. Chestermarke, to hear if you've anything to say +to us about this matter of Mr. Horbury's," said Polke. "Of course, you +know it's been put in our hands."</p> + +<p>"Not by us!" snapped Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Quite so, sir, by Lord Ellersdeane, and by Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> Horbury's niece, Miss +Fosdyke," assented Polke. "The young lady, of course, is naturally +anxious about her uncle's safety, and Lord Ellersdeane is anxious about +the Countess's jewels. And we hear that securities of yours are +missing."</p> + +<p>"We haven't told you so," retorted Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"We haven't even approached you," remarked Joseph.</p> + +<p>"Just so!" agreed Polke. "But, under the circumstances——"</p> + +<p>"We have nothing to say to you, superintendent," interrupted Gabriel. +"We can't help anything that Lord Ellersdeane has done, nor anything +that Miss Fosdyke likes to do. Lord Ellersdeane is not, and never has +been, a customer of ours. Miss Fosdyke acts independently. If they call +you in—as they seem to have done very thoroughly—it's their look out. +We haven't! When we want your assistance, we'll let you know. At +present—we don't."</p> + +<p>He waved one of the white hands towards the door as he spoke, as if to +command withdrawal. But Polke lingered.</p> + +<p>"You don't propose to give the police any information, then, Mr. +Chestermarke?" he asked quietly.</p> + +<p>"At present we don't propose to give any information to anybody whom it +doesn't concern," replied Gabriel. "As regards the mere surface facts of +Mr. John Horbury's disappearance, you know as much as we do."</p> + +<p>"You don't propose to join in any search for him or any attempt to +discover his whereabouts, sir?" inquired Starmidge, speaking for the +first time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>Gabriel looked up from his paper, and slowly eyed his questioner.</p> + +<p>"What we propose to do is a matter for ourselves," he answered coldly. +"For no one else."</p> + +<p>Starmidge bowed and turned away, and Polke, after hesitating a moment, +said good-morning and followed him from the room. The two men nodded to +Neale and went out into the Market-Place.</p> + +<p>"Well?" said Polke.</p> + +<p>"Queer couple!" remarked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>Polke jerked his thumb at the poster in the bank window.</p> + +<p>"Of course!" he said, "so long as they can satisfy their customers that +all's right so far as they're concerned, we can't get at what is missing +that belongs to the Chestermarkes."</p> + +<p>"There are ways of finding that out," replied Starmidge quietly.</p> + +<p>"What ways, now?" asked Polke. "We can't make 'em tell us their private +affairs. Supposing Horbury has robbed them, they aren't forced to tell +us how much or how little he's robbed 'em of!"</p> + +<p>"All in good time," remarked the detective. "We're only beginning. Let's +go and talk to this Miss Fosdyke a bit. She doesn't mind what money she +spends on this business, you say?"</p> + +<p>"Not if it costs her her last penny!" answered Polke.</p> + +<p>"All right," said Starmidge. "Fosdyke's Entire represents a lot of +pennies. We'll just have a word or two with her."</p> + +<p>Betty, looking out of her window on the Market-Place,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> had seen the two +men leave Chestermarke's Bank, and was waiting eagerly for their coming. +She listened intently to Polke's account of the interview with the +partners, and her cheeks glowed indignantly as he brought it to an end.</p> + +<p>"Shameful!" she exclaimed. "To make accusations against my uncle, and +then to refuse to say what they are! But—can't you make them say?"</p> + +<p>"We'll try, in good time," answered Starmidge. "Slow and steady's the +game here. For, whatever it is, it's a deep game."</p> + +<p>"Nothing has been heard since I saw you last night?" asked Betty +anxiously. "No one has brought you any news?"</p> + +<p>"No news of any sort, miss," replied Polke.</p> + +<p>"What's to be done, then, next?" she inquired, looking from one to the +other. "Do let us do something!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, we'll do a lot, Miss Fosdyke, before the day's out," said Starmidge +reassuringly. "I'm going to work just now. Now, the first thing is, +publicity! We must have all this in the newspapers at once." He turned +to the superintendent. "I suppose there's some journalist here in the +town who sends news to the London press, isn't there?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Parkinson, editor of the 'Scarnham Advertiser,' he does," replied +Polke, with promptitude. "He's a sort of reporter-editor, you +understand, and jolly glad of a bit of extra stuff."</p> + +<p>"That's the first thing," said Starmidge. "The next, we must have a +reward bill printed immediately, and circulated broadcast. It must have +a portrait<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> on it—I'll take that photograph you showed me last night. +And—we'll have to offer a specific reward in each. How much is it to +be, Miss Fosdyke? For you'll have to pay it, you know."</p> + +<p>"Anything you like!" said Betty eagerly. "A thousand pounds?—would that +do, to begin with."</p> + +<p>"We'll say half of it," answered Starmidge. "Very good. Now, Mr. Polke, +if you'll tell me where this Mr. Parkinson's to be found, and where the +best printing office in the place is, I'll go to work."</p> + +<p>"Scammonds are the best printers—and they're quick," said Polke. "But +I'll come with you."</p> + +<p>"Is there anything I can do?" asked Betty. "If I could only be doing +something!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge nodded his comprehension and mused a while.</p> + +<p>"Just so!" he said. "You don't want to sit and wait. Well, there is +something you might do, Miss Fosdyke, as you're Mr. Horbury's niece. Mr. +Polke's been telling me about Mr. Horbury's household arrangements. Now, +as you are a relation, suppose you call on his housekeeper, who was the +last person to see him, and get all the information you can out of her? +Draw her on to talk—you never know what interesting point you mayn't +get in that way. And—are you Mr. Horbury's nearest relation?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—the very nearest—next-of-kin," answered Betty.</p> + +<p>"Then ask to see his papers—his desk—his private belongings," said +Starmidge. "Demand to see them! You've the legal right. And let us +know—you'll always find me somewhere about Mr. Polke's—how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> you get +on. Now, superintendent, we'll get to work."</p> + +<p>Outside the Scarnham Arms, Starmidge looked at his companion with a sly +smile.</p> + +<p>"Are you anything of a betting man?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Naught much—odd half-crown now and then," replied Polke. "Why?"</p> + +<p>"Lay you a fiver to a shilling Miss Fosdyke won't see anything of +Horbury's—nor get any information!" answered Starmidge, more slyly than +ever. "She won't be allowed!"</p> + +<p>Polke gave the detective a shrewd look.</p> + +<p>"I dare say!" he said. "Whew!—it's a queer game, this, Starmidge. First +moves of it, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Let's get on to the next," counselled Starmidge. "Where's this +journalist?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Parkinson, a high-browed, shock-headed young man, who combined the +duties of editor and reporter with those of advertisement canvasser and +business manager of the one four-page sheet which Scarnham boasted, +received the two police officials in a small office in which there was +just room for himself and his visitors to squeeze themselves.</p> + +<p>"I was about coming round to you, Mr. Polke," he said. "Can you let me +have the facts of this Horbury affair?"</p> + +<p>"We've come to save you the trouble," answered Polke. "This +gentleman—Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, of the C.I.D., Mr. +Parkinson—wants to have a bit of a transaction with you."</p> + +<p>Parkinson eyed the famous detective with as much wonder as Neale had +felt on the previous evening.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Pleased to meet you, sir—I've<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> heard of you. What +can I do for you, Mr. Starmidge?"</p> + +<p>"Can you wire—at our expense—a full account of all that I shall tell +you, to a London Press agency that'll distribute it amongst all the +London papers at once?" asked Starmidge. "You know what I mean?"</p> + +<p>"I can," answered Parkinson. "And principal provincials, too. It'll be +in all the evening papers this very night, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then come on," said Starmidge, dropping into a chair by the editorial +desk. "I'll tell you all about it."</p> + +<p>Polke listened admiringly while the detective carefully narrated the +facts of what was henceforth to be known as the Scarnham Mystery. +Nothing appeared to have escaped Starmidge's observation and attention. +And he was surprised to find that the detective's presentation of the +case was not that which he himself would have made. Starmidge did no +more than refer to the fact that Lady Ellersdeane's jewels were missing: +he said nothing whatever about the rumours that some of Chestermarke's +securities were said to have disappeared. But on one point he laid great +stress—the visit of the little gentleman with the large grey moustache +to the Station Hotel at Scarnham on the evening whereon John Horbury +disappeared, and to the fragments of conversation overheard by Mrs. +Pratt. He described the stranger as Mrs. Pratt had described him, and +appealed to him, if he read this news, to come forward at once. Finally, +he supplemented his account with a full description of John Horbury, +carefully furnished by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> the united efforts of Polke and Parkinson, and +wound up by announcing the five hundred pounds reward.</p> + +<p>"All over England, tonight, and tomorrow morning, sir," said Parkinson, +gathering up his copy. "Now I'm off to wire this at once. Great engine +the Press, Mr. Starmidge!—I dare say you find it very useful in your +walk of life."</p> + +<p>Starmidge followed Polke into the Market-Place again.</p> + +<p>"Now for that reward bill," he said. "I don't set so much store by it, +but it's got to be done. It all helps. There's Miss Fosdyke—going to +have a try at her bit."</p> + +<p>He pointed down the broad pavement with an amused smile. Miss Betty +Fosdyke, attired in her smartest, was just entering the portals of +Chestermarke's Bank.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h2>THE CHESTERMARKE WAY</h2> + +<p>Mrs. Carswell herself opened the door of the bank-house in response to +Miss Fosdyke's ring. She started a little at sight of the visitor, and +her eyes glanced involuntarily and, as it seemed to Betty, with +something of uneasiness, at the side-door which led into the +Chestermarkes' private parlour. And Betty immediately interpreted the +meaning of that glance.</p> + +<p>"No, Mrs. Carswell," she said, before the housekeeper could speak, "I +haven't come to call on either Mr. Gabriel or Mr. Joseph Chestermarke—I +came to see you. Mayn't I come in?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carswell stepped back into the hall, and Betty followed. For a +moment the two looked at each other. And in the elder woman's eyes there +was still the same expression, and it was with obvious uncertainty, if +not with positive suspicion, that she waited.</p> + +<p>"You have not heard anything of Mr. Horbury?" asked Betty, who was not +slow to notice the housekeeper's demeanour.</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" replied Mrs. Carswell, with a shake of the head. "Nothing at +all! No one has told me anything."</p> + +<p>Betty turned to the door of the dining-room.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said. "I dare say you know,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> Mrs. Carswell, that I am +my uncle's nearest relation. Now I want to go through his papers and +things. I want to see his desk—his last letters—anything—and +everything there is."</p> + +<p>She laid a hand on the door—and Mrs. Carswell suddenly found her +tongue.</p> + +<p>"Oh, miss!" she said, in a low, frightened voice, "you can't! That +room's locked up. So is the study—where all Mr. Horbury's papers are. +So is his bedroom. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke locked them all up last +night—he has the keys. Nobody's to go into them—nor into any other +room—without his permission."</p> + +<p>Betty's cheeks began to glow, and an obstinate look to settle about her +lips.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she exclaimed. "But I think I shall have something to say to that, +Mrs. Carswell. Ask Mr. Joseph Chestermarke to come here a minute."</p> + +<p>The housekeeper shrunk back.</p> + +<p>"I daren't, Miss Fosdyke!" she answered. "It would be as much as my +place was worth!"</p> + +<p>"I thought you were my uncle's housekeeper," suggested Betty. "Aren't +you? Or are you employed by Mr. Joseph Chestermarke? Come, now?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carswell hesitated. It was very evident that she was afraid. But of +what?</p> + +<p>"So far as I know," continued Betty, "this is my uncle's house, and +you're his servant. Am I right or wrong, Mrs. Carswell?"</p> + +<p>"Right as regards my being engaged by Mr. Horbury," replied the +housekeeper. "But the house belongs to—them! Mr. Horbury—so I +understand—had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> the use of it—it was reckoned as part of his salary. +It's their house, miss."</p> + +<p>"But, anyway, my uncle's effects are his—and I mean to see them," +insisted Betty. "If you won't call Mr. Joseph—or Mr. Gabriel—out, I +shall walk into the bank at the front door, and demand to see them. +You'd better let one of them know I'm here, Mrs. Carswell—I'm not going +to stand any nonsense."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Carswell hesitated a little, but in the end she knocked timidly at +the private door. And presently Joseph Chestermarke opened it, looked +out, saw Betty, and came into the hall. He offered his visitor no polite +greeting, and for once he forgot his accustomed sneering smile. Instead, +he gave the housekeeper a swift look which sent her away in haste, and +he turned to Betty with an air of annoyance.</p> + +<p>"Yes?" he asked abruptly. "What do you want?"</p> + +<p>"I want to go into my uncle's house—into his rooms," said Betty. "I am +his next-of-kin—I wish to examine his papers."</p> + +<p>"You can't!" answered Joseph. "We haven't examined them ourselves yet."</p> + +<p>"What right have you to examine them?" demanded Betty.</p> + +<p>"Every right!" retorted Joseph.</p> + +<p>"Not his private belongings!" she said firmly.</p> + +<p>"This is our house—you're not going into it," declared Joseph. +"Nobody's going into it—without our permission."</p> + +<p>"We'll see about that, Mr. Joseph Chestermarke!" replied Betty. +"If—supposing—my uncle is dead,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> I've the right to examine anything +he's left. I insist upon it! I insist on seeing his papers, looking +through his desk. And at once!"</p> + +<p>"No!" said Joseph. "Nothing of the sort. We don't know that you've any +right. We don't know that you're his next-of-kin. We're +not—legally—aware that you're his niece. You say you are—but we don't +know it—as a matter of real fact. You'd better go away."</p> + +<p>Betty's cheeks flamed hotly and her eyes flashed.</p> + +<p>"So that's your attitude—to me!" she exclaimed. "Very well! But you +shall soon see whether I am what I say I am. What are you and your uncle +implying, suggesting, hinting at?" she went on, suddenly letting her +naturally hot temper get the better of her. "Do you realize what an +utterly unworthy part you are playing? You accuse my uncle of being a +thief—and you dare not make any specified accusation against him! You +charge him with stealing your securities—and you daren't tell the +police what securities! I don't believe you've a security missing! +Nobody believes it! The police don't believe it. Lord Ellersdeane +doesn't believe it. Why, your own clerk, Mr. Neale, who ought to know, +if anybody does, doesn't believe it! You're telling lies, Mr. Joseph +Chestermarke—there! Lies! I'll denounce you to the whole town—I'll +expose you! I believe my uncle has met with some foul play—and as sure +as I am his niece I'll probe the whole thing to the bottom. Are you +going to admit me to those rooms?"</p> + +<p>The door of the private room, which Joseph had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> left slightly ajar +behind him, was pushed open a little, and Gabriel's colourless face +looked out.</p> + +<p>"Tell the young woman to go and see a solicitor," he said, and vanished +again.</p> + +<p>Joseph glanced at Betty, who was still staring indignantly at him.</p> + +<p>"You hear?" he said quietly. "Now you'd better go away. You are not +going in there."</p> + +<p>Betty suddenly turned and walked out. She was across the Market-Place +and at the door of the Scarnham Arms before her self-possession had come +back to her. And she was aware then that a gentleman, who had just +alighted from a horse which a groom was leading away to the stable yard, +was looking and smiling at her.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Is it you, Lord Ellersdeane?—I beg your pardon—I +was preoccupied."</p> + +<p>"So I saw," said the Earl. "I'd watched you come across from the Bank. +Is there any news this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Come up to my sitting-room and let us talk," said Betty. She led the +way upstairs and closed her door on herself and her visitor. "No news of +my uncle," she continued, turning to the Earl. "Have you any?"</p> + +<p>The Earl shook his head disappointedly.</p> + +<p>"No!" he replied. "I wish I had! I myself and a lot of my men have been +searching all round Ellersdeane—practically all night. We've made +inquiries at each of the neighbouring villages—without result. Have the +police heard anything?—I've only just come into town."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You haven't seen Polke, then?" said Betty. "Oh, well, he heard +something last night." She went on to tell the Earl of the meeting with +the tinker, and of Mrs. Pratt's account of the mysterious stranger, and +of what Starmidge was now doing. "It all seems such slow work," she +concluded, "but I suppose the police can't move any faster."</p> + +<p>"You heard nothing at the bank itself—from the Chestermarkes?" asked +the Earl.</p> + +<p>"I heard sufficient to make me as—as absent-minded as I was when you +met me just now! I went there, as my uncle's nearest relation, with a +simple request to see his papers and things—a very natural desire, +surely. The Chestermarkes have locked up his rooms—and they ordered me +out—showed me the door!"</p> + +<p>"How very extraordinary!" exclaimed the Earl. "Really!—in so many +words?"</p> + +<p>"I think Joseph had the grace to say I had better go away," said Betty. +"And Gabriel—who called me a young woman—told me to go and see a +solicitor, which, of course," she added reflectively, "is precisely what +I shall do—as they will very soon find!"</p> + +<p>The Earl stepped over to one of the windows, and stood for a moment or +two silently looking out on the Market-Place.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand this at all," he said at last. "What is the meaning +of all this reserve on the Chestermarkes' part? Why didn't they tell the +police what securities are missing? Why don't they let you, his niece, +examine Horbury's effects? What right have they to fasten up his +house?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Their house—so Mrs. Carswell says," remarked Betty.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well—it may be their house, strictly speaking," agreed the Earl, +"but Horbury was its tenant, anyway, and the furniture and things in it +are his—I'm sure of that, for he and I shared a similar taste in +collecting old oak, and I know where he bought most of his possessions. +I can't make the behaviour of these people out at all—and I'm getting +more and more uneasy about the whole thing, Miss Fosdyke—as I'm sure +you are. I wonder if the police will find the man who came to the +Station Hotel on Saturday? Now, if they could lay hands on him, and get +to know who he was, and what he wanted, and if he really met your +uncle——"</p> + +<p>The Earl suddenly paused and turned from the window with a glance at +Betty.</p> + +<p>"There's young Mr. Neale coming across from the bank," he observed. "I +think he's coming here. By the by, isn't he a relation of Horbury's?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Betty. "But my uncle was his guardian. Is he coming here, +Lord Ellersdeane?"</p> + +<p>"Straight here," replied the Earl. "Perhaps he's got some news."</p> + +<p>Betty had the door open before Neale could knock at it. He came in with +a smile, and glanced half-whimsically, half as if he had queer news to +give, at the two people who looked so inquiringly at him.</p> + +<p>"Well?" demanded Betty. "What is it, Wallie? Have these two precious +principals sent you with news?"</p> + +<p>"They're not my principals any longer," answered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> Neale. He laid down +some books and an old jacket on the table. "That's my old working coat," +he went on, with a laugh. "I've worn it for the last time—at +Chestermarke's. They've dismissed me."</p> + +<p>Lord Ellersdeane turned sharply from the window, and Betty indulged in a +cry of indignation.</p> + +<p>"Dismissed—you?" she exclaimed. "Dismissed!"</p> + +<p>"With a quarter's salary in lieu of notice," laughed Neale, slapping his +pocket. "I've got it here—in gold."</p> + +<p>"But—why?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>Neale shook his head at her.</p> + +<p>"Because you told Joseph that I didn't believe them when they said that +some of their securities were missing," he answered. "You did it! As +soon as you'd gone, they had me in, told me that it was contrary to +their principles to retain servants who took sides with other people +against them, handed me a cheque, and told me to cash it forthwith and +depart. And—here I am!"</p> + +<p>"You don't seem to mind this very much, Mr. Neale," observed the Earl, +looking keenly at this victim of summary treatment. "Do you?"</p> + +<p>"If your lordship really wants to know," answered Neale, "I don't! I'm +truly thankful. It's only what would have happened—in another way. I +meant to leave Chestermarke's. If it hadn't been for Mr. Horbury, I +should have left ages ago. I hate banking! I hated the life. And—I +dislike Chestermarke's! Immensely! Now, I'll go and have a free life +somewhere in Canada or some equally spacious clime—where I can +breathe."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Not at all!" said Betty decidedly. "You shall come and be my manager in +London. The brewery wants one, badly. You shall have a handsome salary, +Wallie—much more than you had at that beastly bank!"</p> + +<p>"Very kind of you, I'm sure," laughed Neale. "But I think I'm inclined +to put breweries in the same line with banks. Don't you be too rash, +Betty—I'm not exactly cut out for commercialism. Not," he added +reflectively, "not that I haven't been a very good servant to +Chestermarke's. I have! But Chestermarkes are—what they are!"</p> + +<p>The Earl, who had been watching the two young people with something of +amused interest, suddenly came forward from the window.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Neale!" he said.</p> + +<p>"My lord!" responded Neale.</p> + +<p>"What's your honest opinion about your late principals?" asked the Earl.</p> + +<p>Neale shook his head slowly and significantly.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," he answered.</p> + +<p>"Do you know that they've—just now—refused Miss Fosdyke permission to +examine her uncle's belongings?" continued the Earl. "That they wouldn't +even let her enter the house?"</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't know," replied Neale. "But I'm not surprised. Nothing that +those two could do would ever surprise me."</p> + +<p>"Feeling that, what do you advise in this case?" asked the Earl. +"Come!—you're no longer in their employ—you can speak freely now. What +do you think?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well," said Neale, after a pause, and speaking with unusual gravity, "I +think the police ought to make a thorough examination of the +bank-house—I'm surprised it hasn't been thought of before."</p> + +<p>The Earl picked up his hat.</p> + +<p>"I've been thinking of it all the morning!" he said. "Come—let us all +go round to Polke."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h2>THE SEARCH-WARRANT</h2> + +<p>As they turned out of the Market-Place into the street leading to the +police-station, Lord Ellersdeane and his companions became aware of a +curious figure which was slowly preceding them—that of a very old man +whose massive head and long white hair, falling in thick shocks about +his neck, was innocent of covering, whose tall, erect form was closely +wrapped about in a great, many-caped horseman's cloak which looked as if +it had descended to him from some early Georgian ancestor. In one hand +he carried a long staff; the other clutched an ancient folio; altogether +he was something very much out of the common, and Neale, catching sight +of him, nudged Betty Fosdyke's elbow and pointed ahead.</p> + +<p>"One of the sights of Scarnham!" he whispered. "Old Batterley, the +antiquary. Never seen with a hat, and never without that cloak, his +staff, and a book under his arm. You needn't be astonished if he +suddenly stops and begins reading his book in the open street—it's a +habit of his."</p> + +<p>But the antiquary apparently had other business. He turned into the +police-station, and when the three visitors followed him a moment later, +he was already in Polke's private office, and Polke and Starmidge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> were +gazing speculatively at him. Polke turned to the newcomers, as the old +man, having fitted on a pair of large spectacles, recognized the Earl +and executed a deep bow.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Batterley's just called with a suggestion, my lord," observed +Polke, good-humouredly. "He's heard of Mr. Horbury's disappearance, and +of the loss of your lordship's jewels, and he says that an explanation +of the whole thing may be got if we search the bank-house."</p> + +<p>"Thoroughly!" said Batterley, with a warning shake of his big head. +"Thoroughly—thoroughly, Mr. Polke! No use just walking through the +rooms, and seeing what any housemaid would see—the thing must be done +properly. Your lordship," he continued, turning to the Earl, "knows that +many houses in our Market-Place possess secret passages, +double-staircases, and the like—Horbury's house is certainly one of +those that do. It has, of course, been modernized. My memory is not +quite as good as it was, but I have a recollection that when I was a +boy, well over seventy years ago—I am, as your lordship is aware, +nearer ninety than eighty—there were hiding-places discovered in the +bank-house at the time Matthew Chestermarke, grandfather of the present +Gabriel, had it altered: in fact, I am quite sure I was taken by my +father to see them. Now, of course, many of these places were bricked +up, and so on, but I think—it is my impression—that a double staircase +was left untouched, and some recesses in the panelling of the +garden-room. That garden-room, Mr. Polke—if you know what I mean?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mr. Batterley," remarked the Earl, "means the panelled room which looks +out on the garden. Mr. Horbury has used it as a study."</p> + +<p>"The garden-room," continued the old antiquary, "should be particularly +examined. It is into that room that the double staircase opens—by a +door concealed in the recess at the side of the fire-place. There were, +I am sure, recesses behind the panelling in that room. Now, Horbury may +have known of them—he had tastes of an antiquarian disposition—in an +amateur way, you know. At any rate, Mr. Polke, you should examine the +house—and especially that room, for Horbury may have hidden Lord +Ellersdeane's property there. A deeply interesting room that!" added the +old man musingly. "I haven't been in it for some sixty years or so, but +I remember it quite well. It was in that room that Jasper Chestermarke +murdered Sir Gervase Rudd."</p> + +<p>Starmidge, who, like the rest of them, had been listening eagerly to +Batterley's talk, turned sharply to him.</p> + +<p>"Did you say murdered, sir?" he said.</p> + +<p>"A well-known story!" answered the old man half-impatiently, as he rose +from his chair. "An ancestor of these Chestermarkes—he killed a man in +that very room. Well—that's what I suggest, Mr. Polke. And—for another +reason. As Lord Ellersdeane there knows—being, as his lordship is, a +member of our society—the bank-house is so old that underneath it there +may be such matters as old wells, old drains. Now, supposing Horbury had +discovered some way under the present house, some secret passage or +something,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> and that he went down into it on Sunday—eh? He may have +fallen into one of these places—and be lying there dead or helpless. +It's possible, Mr. Polke, it's quite possible. I make the suggestion to +you for what it's worth, you know."</p> + +<p>The old man bowed himself out and went away, and Polke turned to Lord +Ellersdeane and Betty.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad your lordship's come in," he said. "Quite apart from what Mr. +Batterley suggests, we'll have to examine that bank-house. It's all +nonsense—allowing the Chestermarkes to have their own way about +everything! It's time we examined Horbury's effects."</p> + +<p>Starmidge turned to Betty.</p> + +<p>"Did you succeed in getting in there, Miss Fosdyke?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No!" replied Betty. "Mr. Joseph Chestermarke absolutely refused me +admittance, and his uncle told me to go to a solicitor."</p> + +<p>"Good advice, certainly," remarked Polke drily. "You'd better take it, +miss. But what's Mr. Neale doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Neale," said the Earl, "has just been summarily dismissed for—to +put it plainly—taking sides with Miss Fosdyke and myself."</p> + +<p>"Ho, ho!" exclaimed Polke. "Ah! Well, my lord, there's only one thing to +be done, and as your lordship's in town, let us do it at once."</p> + +<p>"What?" asked the Earl.</p> + +<p>"You must come with me before the borough magistrates—they're sitting +now," said Polke, "and make application for a search-warrant. Your +lordship will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> have to swear that you have lost your jewels, and that +you have good cause to believe that they may be on the premises occupied +lately by Mr. Horbury, to whose care you entrusted them. It's a mere +matter of form—we shall get the warrant at once. Then Starmidge and I +will go and execute it. Miss Fosdyke—just do what I suggest, if you +please. Mr. Neale will take you to Mr. Pellworthy, the solicitor—he was +your uncle's solicitor, and a friend of his. Tell him all about your +visit to the bank this morning. Say that you insist, as next-of-kin, on +having access to your uncle's belongings. Get Mr. Pellworthy to go with +you to the bank. Meet Detective-Sergeant Starmidge and me outside there, +in, say, half an hour. Then—we'll see what happens. Now, my lord, if +you'll come with me, we'll apply for that search-warrant."</p> + +<p>As the Scarnham clocks were striking twelve that morning, Gabriel and +Joseph Chestermarke looked up from their desks to see Shirley's eyes, +large with excitement, gazing at them from the threshold of their +private parlour.</p> + +<p>"Well?" demanded the senior partner.</p> + +<p>The clerk moved nearer to his principal's desk.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Polke's outside, sir, with the gentleman who came in with him +before," announced Shirley. "He says he must see you at once. +And—there's Mr. Pellworthy, sir, with Miss Fosdyke. Mr. Pellworthy +says, sir, that he must see you at once, too."</p> + +<p>Gabriel glanced at his nephew. And Joseph spoke without looking up from +his writing-pad, and as if he knew that his partner was regarding him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Bring them all in," he said.</p> + +<p>He himself criticized his writing as the four callers were ushered in; +he did not even look round at them. Gabriel, more sphinx-like than ever, +regarded each in order with an air of distinct disapproval. And he took +care to speak first.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mr. Pellworthy?" he said sharply. "What do you want?"</p> + +<p>Pellworthy, an elderly man, looked at Gabriel with as much disapproval +as Gabriel had bestowed on him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Chestermarke," he said quietly, "Miss Fosdyke, as next-of-kin to +Mr. John Horbury—my client—desires to see and examine her uncle's +effects. As you know very well, she is quite within her rights. I must +ask you to give her access to Mr. Horbury's belongings."</p> + +<p>"And what do you want, Mr. Polke?" demanded Gabriel.</p> + +<p>Polke produced a formal-looking document and held it before the banker's +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Merely to show you that, Mr. Chestermarke," he answered. "That's a +search-warrant, sir! It empowers me and Mr. Starmidge here to +search—but I needn't read it to you, Mr. Chestermarke, I think. I +suppose we can go into the house now?"</p> + +<p>Faint spots of colour showed themselves on Gabriel's cheeks. And again +he turned to his nephew. Joseph, however, did not speak. Instead, he +turned to the wall at his side and pressed a bell. A moment later a +maid-servant opened the private door which communicated with the house, +and looked inquiringly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> and a little nervously inside. Joseph frowned at +her.</p> + +<p>"I rang twice!" he said. "That meant Mrs. Carswell. Send her here."</p> + +<p>The girl hesitated.</p> + +<p>"If you please, sir," she said at last, "Mrs. Carswell isn't in, sir, +she's out."</p> + +<p>Joseph turned sharply—up to this he had remained staring at the papers +on his desk; now he twisted completely round in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Where is she?" he demanded. "Fetch her!"</p> + +<p>"If you please, sir, Mrs. Carswell hasn't been in for quite an hour, +sir," said the girl. "She put on her things and went out, sir, +just—just after that young lady called this morning. She—she's never +come back, sir."</p> + +<p>Polke, who was standing close to Starmidge, quietly nudged the +detective's elbow. Both men watched the junior partner. And both saw the +first signs of something that was very like doubt and anxiety show in +his face.</p> + +<p>"That'll do!" he said to the servant. He rose slowly from his desk, put +a hand in his pocket, and drew out some keys. Without a word, he +slightly motioned the visitors to follow him.</p> + +<p>Out in the hall stood two men, who in spite of their plain clothes, were +obviously policemen. Joseph started and turned to Polke.</p> + +<p>"Damn you!" he snarled under his breath. "Are you going to pester us +with your whole crew? Send those fellows off at once!"</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Chestermarke!" replied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> Polke, in a similar +whisper, "I shall bring as many of my men here as I please. It's your +own fault—you should have been reasonable this morning. Now, sir, +you'll open any door in this house that's locked."</p> + +<p>Joseph suddenly paused and handed over the keys he was dangling.</p> + +<p>"Open them yourself!" he said.</p> + +<p>He turned on his heel, and without another word or look went back into +the private parlour. And Polke, opening the door of the dining-room, +ushered his party inside, and then stepped back to the two men who were +waiting in the hall.</p> + +<p>"Smithson," he said to one of them, "you'll stop at the house-door +here—inside, mind, so as not to attract attention from any customers +coming up this hall to the bank. Jones—come out here with me a minute," +he continued, taking the second man outside. "Look here—I've a quiet +job for you. You know the housekeeper here—Mrs. Carswell? She's +disappeared. May be all right—and it mayn't. Now, you go out and take a +look round for her. And go to the cab-stand at the corner of the Moot +Hall, and just find out if she's taken a taxi from them, and if so, +where she wanted to be driven to. And then come back and tell me—and +when you come back, stay inside the house with Smithson."</p> + +<p>The policeman nodded his comprehension of these instructions and went +out, and Polke turned back to the dining-room and closed the door. He +looked at Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Now I'm in your hands," he said quietly. "You take charge of this. What +do you wish to do?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>"One thing particularly at first," answered Starmidge. "And we can all +work at it. Never mind these secret passages and dark corners and holes +in the panels!—at present: we may have a look at these later on. What I +do want to find out is—if there's any letter amongst Mr. Horbury's +papers making an appointment with him last Saturday evening. To put +matters briefly—I want some light on that man who came to the Station +Hotel on Saturday, and who presumably came to meet Mr. Horbury."</p> + +<p>"I see," said Polke. "Good! Then—first?"</p> + +<p>"Here's his desk—and its drawers," suggested Starmidge. "Now, let us +all four take a drawer each and see if we can find any such letter. I'm +going on the presumption that this stranger came down to see Mr. +Horbury, and that on his arrival he telephoned up to let him know he'd +got here. If that presumption is correct, then, in all probability, +there'd been previous correspondence between them as to the man's +visit."</p> + +<p>"If that man came to see Mr. Horbury," remarked the solicitor, "why +didn't he come straight here to the bank-house?"</p> + +<p>"That's just where the mystery lies, sir," replied Starmidge. "All the +mystery of the affair lies in that man's coming at all! Let me find out +who that man was, and what he came for, and if he and Mr. Horbury met, +and where they went when they did meet—and I'll soon tell you—what +would probably make your hair stand on end!" he muttered to himself, as +he pulled a drawer out of the desk and placed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> it on a centre table +before Betty. "Now, Miss Fosdyke, you get to work on that."</p> + +<p>For over an hour the four curiously assorted searchers examined the +contents of the missing man's desk, of another desk in the study, of +certain letter-racks which hung above the mantelpieces in both rooms, of +drawers in these rooms, of drawers and small cabinets in his bedroom. +Starmidge turned out the pockets of all the clothing he could find: +opened suit-cases, trunks, dressing-cases. They found nothing of the +nature desired. And just as half-past one came, and Polke was wondering +what Starmidge would do next, Jones came back and called him into the +inner hall.</p> + +<p>"I've got some news of her," he whispered. "She's off—from Scarnham, +anyway, sir! I couldn't get any word of her in the town, nor at the +cab-places: in fact, it's only within this last five minutes that I've +got it."</p> + +<p>"Well?" demanded Polke eagerly. "And what is it?"</p> + +<p>"Young Mitchell, who has a taxi-cab of his own, you know," said Jones. +"He told me—heard I was inquiring. He says that at half-past ten, just +as he was coming out of his shed in River Street, Mrs. Carswell came up +and asked him to drive her into Ecclesborough. He did—they got there at +half-past eleven: he set her down at the Exchange Station. Then he came +back—alone. So—she's got two hours' good start, sir—if she really is +off!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h2>THE FIRST FIND</h2> + +<p>Polke took a step or two on the pavement outside the bank, meditating on +this latest development of a matter that was hourly growing in mystery. +Why had this woman suddenly disappeared? Had she merely gone to +Ecclesborough for the day?—or had she made it her first stage in a +further journey? Why had she taken a taxi-cab for an eighteen-miles' +ride, at considerable expense, when, at twelve o'clock, she could have +got a train which would have carried her to Ecclesborough for fifteen +pence? It seemed as if she had fled. And if she had fled, she had got, +as the constable said, two hours' good start. And in Ecclesborough, +too!—a place with a population of half a million, where there were +three big railway stations, from any one of which a fugitive could set +off east, west, north, south, at pleasure, and with no risk of +attracting attention. Two hours!—Polke knew from long experience what +can be done in two hours by a criminal escaping from justice.</p> + +<p>He turned back to speak to his man—and as he turned, Joseph +Chestermarke came out of the bank. Joseph gave him an insolent stare, +and was about to pass him without recognition. But Polke stopped him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mr. Chestermarke, you heard that the housekeeper here has disappeared?" +he asked sharply. "Can you tell anything about it?"</p> + +<p>"What have I to do with Horbury's housekeeper?" retorted Joseph. "Do +your own work!"</p> + +<p>He passed on, crossing the Market-Place to the Scarnham Arms, and Polke, +after gazing at him in silence for a moment, beckoned to his policeman.</p> + +<p>"Come inside, Jones," he said. He led the way into the house and through +the hall to the kitchens at the back, where two women servants stood +whispering together. Polke held up a finger to the one who had answered +Joseph Chestermarke's summons to the parlour that morning. "Here!" he +said, "a word with you. Now, exactly when did Mrs. Carswell go out? You +needn't be afraid of speaking, my girl—it'll go no further, and you +know who I am."</p> + +<p>"Not so very long after that young lady was here, Mr. Polke," answered +the girl, readily enough. "Within—oh, a quarter of an hour at the +most."</p> + +<p>"Did she say where she was going—to either of you?" asked Polke.</p> + +<p>"No, sir—not a word!"</p> + +<p>"To neither of us," said the other—an older—woman, drawing nearer. +"She—just went, Mr. Polke."</p> + +<p>"Had any message—telegram, or aught of that sort—come for her?" asked +Polke. "Had anybody been to see her?"</p> + +<p>"There was no message that I know of," said the housemaid. "But Mr. +Joseph came to speak to her."</p> + +<p>"When?" demanded Polke.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Just after the young lady had gone. He called her out of the kitchen, +and they stood talking in the passage there a bit," answered the elder +woman. "Of course, Mr. Polke, we didn't hear naught—but we saw 'em."</p> + +<p>"What happened after that?" asked Polke.</p> + +<p>"Naught!—but that Mr. Joseph went away, and she came back in here for a +minute or two and then went upstairs. And next thing she came down +dressed up and went out. She said nothing to us," replied the woman.</p> + +<p>"You saw her go out?" said Polke.</p> + +<p>Both women pointed to the passage which communicated with the hall.</p> + +<p>"When this door's open—as it was," said one, "you can see right +through. Yes—we saw her go through the hall door. Of course we thought +she'd just slipped out into the town for something."</p> + +<p>Polke hesitated—and meditated. What use was it, at that juncture, to +ask for more particular details of this evident flight? Mrs. Carswell +was probably well away from Ecclesborough by that time. He turned back +to the hall—and then looked at the women again.</p> + +<p>"I suppose neither of you ever saw or heard aught of Mr. Horbury on +Saturday night—after he'd gone out?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>The two women glanced at each other in silence.</p> + +<p>"Did you?" repeated Polke. "Come, now!"</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Polke," said the elder woman, "we didn't. But, of course, we +know what's going on—couldn't very well not know, now could we, Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> +Polke? And we can tell you something that may have to do with things."</p> + +<p>"Out with it, then!" commanded Polke. "Keep nothing back."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the woman, "there was somebody stirring about this house in +the middle of Saturday night—between, say, one and two o'clock in the +morning—Sunday morning, of course. Both me and Jane here heard +'em—quite plain. And we thought naught of it, then—leastways, what we +did think was that it was Mr. Horbury. He often came in very late. But +when we found out next morning that he'd never come home—why, then, we +did think it was queer that we'd heard noises."</p> + +<p>"Did you mention that to Mrs. Carswell?" asked Polke.</p> + +<p>"Of course!—but she said she'd heard nothing, and it must have been +rats," replied the elder woman.</p> + +<p>"But I've been here three years and I've never seen a rat in the place."</p> + +<p>"Nor me!" agreed the housemaid. "And it wasn't rats. I heard a door +shut—twice. Plain as I'm speaking to you, Mr. Polke."</p> + +<p>Polke reflected a minute and then turned away.</p> + +<p>"All right, my lasses!" he said. "Well, keep all this to yourselves. +Here—I'll tell you what you can do. Send Miss Fosdyke a nice cup of tea +into the study—send us all one!—we can't leave what we're doing just +yet. And a mouthful of bread and butter with it. Come along, Jones," he +continued, leading the constable away. "Here, you step round to old Mr. +Batterley's—you know where he lives—near the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> Castle. Mr. Polke's +compliments, and would he be so good as to come to the bank-house and +help us a bit?—he'll know what I mean. Bring him back with you."</p> + +<p>The constable went away, and Polke, after rubbing one of his mutton-chop +whiskers for awhile with an air of great abstraction, returned to the +study. There Mr. Pellworthy and Betty Fosdyke were talking earnestly in +one of the window recesses; Starmidge, at the furthest end of the room, +was examining the old oak panelling.</p> + +<p>"I've sent for Mr. Batterley to give us a hand," said Polke. "I suppose +we'd best examine this room in the way he suggested?"</p> + +<p>Starmidge betrayed no enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"If he can do any good," he answered. "But I don't attach much +importance to that. However—if there are any secret places around——"</p> + +<p>"There's a nice cup of tea coming in for you and Mr. Pellworthy in a +minute, Miss Fosdyke," said Polke. "We'll all have to put our dinner off +a bit, I reckon." He motioned to the detective to follow him out of the +room. "Here's a nice go!" he whispered. "The housekeeper's off! +Bolted—without a doubt! And—she's got a clear start, too."</p> + +<p>Starmidge turned sharply on the superintendent.</p> + +<p>"Got any clue to where she's gone?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"She's gone amongst five hundred thousand other men and women," replied +Polke ruefully. "I've found out that much. Drove off in a taxi-cab to +Ecclesborough, as soon as Miss Fosdyke had been here this morning. +And—mark you!—after a few minutes'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> conversation with Joseph +Chestermarke. Ecclesborough, indeed! Might as well look for a drop of +water in the ocean as for one woman in Ecclesborough! She was set down +at the Exchange Station—why, she may be half-way to London or +Liverpool, or Hull, by now!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge was listening intently. And passing over the superintendent's +opinions and regrets, he fastened on his facts.</p> + +<p>"After a few minutes' conversation with Joseph Chestermarke, you say?" +he observed. "How do you know that?"</p> + +<p>"The servants told me, just now," replied Polke.</p> + +<p>Starmidge glanced at the door of the private parlour.</p> + +<p>"He's gone out," said Polke.</p> + +<p>Just then the door opened and Gabriel emerged, closing and locking it +after him. He paid no attention to the two men, and was passing on +towards the outer hall when Polke hailed him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Chestermarke," he said, "sorry to trouble you—do you know that the +housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell, has disappeared? You heard what that girl +said this morning? Well, she hasn't come back, and——"</p> + +<p>"No concern of mine, Mr. Police-Superintendent!" interrupted Gabriel. +"Nothing of this is any concern of mine. I shall be obliged to you if +you'll confine your very unnecessary operations to the interior of the +house, and not stand about this outer hall, or keep this door open +between outer and inner halls—I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> don't want my customers interfered +with as they come and go."</p> + +<p>With that the senior partner passed on, and Starmidge smiled at his +companion.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad he interrupted you, all the same, Mr. Polke," he said. "I was +afraid you were going to say that you knew this woman had gone, in a +hurry, to Ecclesborough."</p> + +<p>"No, I wasn't," replied Polke. "I told him what I did—because I wanted +to know what he'd say."</p> + +<p>"Well—you heard!" said Starmidge. "And what's to be done, now? That +woman's conduct is very suspicious. I think, if I were you, Mr. Polke, I +should get in touch with the Ecclesborough police. Why not? No harm +done. Why not call them up, give them a description of her, and ask them +to keep their eyes open. She mayn't have left Ecclesborough—mayn't +intend leaving. For—look here—!" he drew Polke further away from the +two doors between which they were standing, and lowered his voice to a +whisper—"Supposing," he went on, "supposing there is any secret +understanding between this Mrs. Carswell and Joseph Chestermarke (and it +looks like it, if she went off immediately after a conversation with +him), she may have gone to Ecclesborough simply so that they could meet +there, safely, later on. Eh?"</p> + +<p>"Good notion!" agreed Polke. "Well—we can watch him."</p> + +<p>"I'm beginning to think we must watch him—thought so for the last two +hours," said Starmidge. "But in the meantime, why not put the +Ecclesborough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> police on to keeping their eyes open for her? Can you +give them a good description?"</p> + +<p>"Know her as well as I know my own wife—by sight," answered Polke. "And +her style of dressing, too. All right—I'll go and do it, now. Well, +there'll be Mr. Batterley coming along in a few minutes—Jones has gone +for him. If he can show you any of their secret places he talked +about——"</p> + +<p>"He's here," said Starmidge, as the old antiquary and the constable +entered the hall. "All right—I'll attend to him."</p> + +<p>But when Polke had gone, and Batterley had been conducted into the +study, or garden-room as he insisted on calling it, Starmidge left the +old man with Mr. Pellworthy and Betty and made an excuse to go out of +the room after the housemaid, who had just brought in the tea for which +Polke had asked. He caught her at the foot of the staircase, and treated +her to one of his most ingratiating smiles.</p> + +<p>"I say!" he said, "Mr. Polke's just been telling me about what you and +the cook told him about Mrs. Carswell—you know. Now, I say—you needn't +say anything—except to cook—but I just want to take a look round Mrs. +Carswell's room. Which is it?"</p> + +<p>The cook, who kept the kitchen door open so as not to lose anything of +these delightful proceedings, came forward. Both accompanied Starmidge +upstairs to show him the room he wanted. And Starmidge thanked them +profusely and in his best manner—after which he turned them politely +out and locked the door.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Polke went to the police-station and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> rang up the +Ecclesborough police on the telephone. He gave them a full, accurate, +and precise description of Mrs. Carswell, and a detailed account of her +doings that morning, and begged them to make inquiry at the three great +stations in their town. The man with whom he held conversation calmly +remarked that as each station at Ecclesborough dealt with a few +thousands of separate individuals every day, it was not very likely that +booking-clerks or platform officials would remember any particular +persons, and Polke sorrowfully agreed with him. Nevertheless, he begged +him to do his best—the far-off partner in this interchange of remarks +answered that they would do a lot better if Mr. Polke would tell them +something rather more definite. Polke gave it up at that, and went off +into the Market-Place again, to return to the bank. But before he +reached the bank he ran across Lord Ellersdeane, who, hanging about the +town to hear some result of the search, had been lunching at the +Scarnham Club, and now came out of its door.</p> + +<p>"Any news so far?" asked the Earl.</p> + +<p>Polke glanced round to see that nobody was within hearing. He and Lord +Ellersdeane stepped within the doorway of the club-house. Polke narrated +the story of the various happenings since the granting of the +search-warrant, and the Earl's face grew graver and graver.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Polke," he said at last, "I do not like what I am hearing about all +this. It's a most suspicious thing that the housekeeper should disappear +immediately after Miss Fosdyke's first call this morning, and that she +should have had some conversation with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> Mr. Joseph Chestermarke before +she went. Really, one dislikes to have to say it of one's neighbours, +and of persons of the standing of the Chestermarkes, but their behaviour +is—is——"</p> + +<p>"Suspicious, my lord, suspicious!" said Polke. "There's no denying it. +And yet, they're what you might call so defiant, so brazen-faced and +insolent, that——"</p> + +<p>"Here's your London man," interrupted the Earl. "What is he after now?"</p> + +<p>Starmidge came out of the door of the bank-house alone. He caught sight +of Polke and Lord Ellersdeane, smiled, and hurried towards them. He +carried something loosely wrapped in brown paper in his hand; as he +stepped into the doorway of the club-house, he took the wrapping off, +and showed a small morocco-covered box on which was a coronet in gold.</p> + +<p>"Does your lordship recognize that?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"My wife's jewel-casket, of course!" exclaimed the Earl. "Of course it +is! Bless me!—where did you find it?"</p> + +<p>"In the chimney, in Mrs. Carswell's bedroom," answered Starmidge, with a +grimace at Polke. "It's empty!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Chapter_XIII" id="Chapter_XIII"></a>Chapter XIII</h2> + +<h2>THE PARTNERS UNBEND</h2> + +<p>The Earl took the empty casket from the detective's hand and looked at +it, inside and outside, with doubt and wonder.</p> + +<p>"Now what do you take this to mean?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"That we've got three people to find, instead of two, my lord," answered +Starmidge promptly. "We must be after the housekeeper."</p> + +<p>"You found this in her room?" asked Polke. "So—you went up there?"</p> + +<p>"As soon as you'd left me," replied the detective, with a shrewd smile. +"Of course! I wanted to have a look round. I didn't forget the chimney. +She'd put that behind the back of the grate—a favourite hiding-place. I +say she—but, of course, some one else may have put it there. Still—we +must find her. You telephoned to the police at Ecclesborough, +superintendent?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, and got small comfort!" answered Polke. "It's a stiff job looking +for one woman amongst half a million people."</p> + +<p>"She wouldn't stop in Ecclesborough," said Starmidge. "She'll be on her +way further afield, now. You can get anywhere from Ecclesborough, of +course."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Of course!" assented Polke. "She would be in any one of half a dozen +big towns within a couple of hours—in some of 'em within an hour—in +London itself within three. This'll be another case of printing a +description. I wish we'd thought of keeping an eye on her before!"</p> + +<p>"We haven't got to the stage where we can think of everything," observed +Starmidge. "We've got to take things as they come. Well—there's one +thing can be done now," he went on, looking at the Earl, "if your +lordship'll be kind enough to do it."</p> + +<p>"I'll do anything that I can," replied Lord Ellersdeane. "What is it?"</p> + +<p>"If your lordship would just make a call on the two Mr. Chestermarkes," +suggested Starmidge. "To tell them, of course, of—that," he added, +pointing to the empty casket. "Your lordship will get some attention—I +suppose. They won't give any attention to Polke or myself. If your +lordship would just tell them that your casket—emptied of its valuable +contents—had been found hidden in Mrs. Carswell's room, perhaps they'll +listen, and—what is much more important—give you their views on the +matter. I," concluded Starmidge, drily, "should very much like to hear +them!"</p> + +<p>The Earl made a wry face.</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right!" he answered. "If I must, I must. It's not a job that +appeals to me, but—very well. I'll go now."</p> + +<p>"And we," said Starmidge, turning to Polke, "had better join the others +and see if the old antiquary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> gentleman has found any of these secret +places he talked of."</p> + +<p>Lord Ellersdeane found no difficulty in obtaining access to the +partners: he was shown into their room with all due ceremony as soon as +Shirley announced him. He found them evidently relaxing a little after +their lunch, from which they had just returned. They were standing in +characteristic attitudes; Gabriel, smoking a cigar, bolt upright on the +hearth-rug beneath the portrait of his ancestor; Joseph, toying with a +scented cigarette, leaning against the window which looked out on the +garden. For once in a way both seemed more amenable and cordial.</p> + +<p>The Earl held out the empty casket.</p> + +<p>"This," he said, "is the casket in which I handed my wife's jewels to +Mr. Horbury. It is, as you see, empty. It has just been found by the +Scotland Yard man, Starmidge."</p> + +<p>Gabriel glanced at the casket with some interest; Joseph, with none: +neither spoke.</p> + +<p>"In the housekeeper's room—hidden in her fire-place," continued the +Earl, looking from one partner to the other. "That shows, gentlemen, +that the jewels were, after all, in this house—on these premises."</p> + +<p>"There has never been any question of that," said Gabriel quickly. "We, +of course, never doubted what your lordship was good enough to tell +us—naturally!"</p> + +<p>"Not for a moment!" said Joseph. "We felt at once that you had given the +jewels to Horbury."</p> + +<p>The Earl set the casket down on Gabriel's desk and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> looked a little +uncertain—and uncomfortable. Gabriel indicated the chair which he had +politely moved forward on his visitor's entrance.</p> + +<p>"Won't your lordship sit down?" he said.</p> + +<p>The Earl accepted the invitation and looked from one man to the other. A +sudden impression crossed his mind—never, he thought, were there two +men from whom it was so difficult to get a word as these +Chestermarkes—who had such a queer habit of staring in silence at one!</p> + +<p>"The—the housekeeper appears to have run away," he said haltingly. +"That's—somewhat queer, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"We understand Mrs. Carswell has left the house—and the town," replied +Gabriel. "As to it's being queer—well, all this is queer!"</p> + +<p>"And—all of a piece!" remarked Joseph.</p> + +<p>The Earl was glad that the junior partner made that remark, and he +turned to him.</p> + +<p>"I understand you saw her—and spoke to her—just before she left, this +morning?" he said hesitatingly. "Did she—er—give you the impression of +being—shall we say, uneasy?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly saw her—and spoke to her," asserted Joseph. "I went to +scold her. I had given her orders that no one was to be allowed access +to certain rooms in the house, and that we were not to be bothered by +callers. She fetched me out to see Miss Fosdyke—I went to scold her for +that. We had our reasons for not permitting access to those rooms. They +have, of course, been frustrated."</p> + +<p>"But at any rate some good's come of it," observed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> the Earl, pointing +to his casket. "This has been found. And—in the housekeeper's bedroom. +Hidden! And—she's gone. What do you think of it, gentlemen?"</p> + +<p>Gabriel spread his hands and shook his head. But Joseph answered +readily.</p> + +<p>"I should think," he replied, "that's she's gone to meet Horbury."</p> + +<p>The Earl started, glancing keenly from one partner to the other.</p> + +<p>"Then—you still think that Horbury is guilty of—of dishonesty!" he +exclaimed. "Really, I—dear me, such an absolutely upright, honourable +man——"</p> + +<p>"Surface!" said Joseph quietly. "Surface! On the surface, my lord."</p> + +<p>The Earl's face flushed a little with palpable displeasure, and he +turned from the junior to the senior partner.</p> + +<p>"Very good of your lordship," said Gabriel, with the faintest suggestion +of a smile. "But—a man's honesty is bounded by his necessity. We, of +course, are better acquainted with our late manager's qualities—now."</p> + +<p>"You have discovered—something?" asked the Earl anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Up to now," replied Gabriel, "we have kept things to ourselves. But we +don't mind giving your lordship a little—just a little—information. +There is no doubt that Horbury had, for some time past, engaged in +speculation in stocks and shares—none whatever!"</p> + +<p>"To a considerable extent," added Joseph.</p> + +<p>"And—unsuccessfully?" inquired the Earl.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We are not yet quite sure of the details," answered Gabriel. "The mere +fact is enough. Of course, no man in his position has any right to +speculate. Had we known that he speculated——"</p> + +<p>"He would have been discharged from our service," said Joseph. "No +banker can retain the services of a manager who—gambles."</p> + +<p>The Earl began to feel almost as uncomfortable as if these two men were +charging him with improper transactions. He was a man of simple mind and +ideas, and he supposed the Chestermarkes knew what they were talking +about.</p> + +<p>"Then you think that this sudden disappearance——" he said.</p> + +<p>"In the history of banking—unwritten, possibly," remarked Joseph, +"there are many similar instances. No end of them, most likely. Bank +managers enjoy vast opportunities of stealing, my lord! And the man who +is best trusted has more opportunities than the man who's watched. We +never suspected—and so we never watched."</p> + +<p>"You have heard of the stranger who came to the town on Saturday night, +and is believed to have telephoned from the Station Hotel to Horbury?" +asked the Earl. "What of him?"</p> + +<p>"We have heard," answered Gabriel. "We don't know any more. We don't +know any such person—from the description. But we have no doubt he did +meet Horbury—and that his visit had something—probably everything—to +do with Horbury's disappearance."</p> + +<p>"But how could he disappear?" asked the Earl.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> "I mean to say—how could +such a well-known man disappear so completely, without anybody knowing +of it? It seems impossible!"</p> + +<p>"If your lordship will think for a moment," said Joseph, "you will see +that it is not merely not impossible, but very easy. Horbury was a great +pedestrian—he used to boast of his thirty and forty mile walks. Now we +are well within twenty miles of Ecclesborough. Ecclesborough is a very +big town. What was there to prevent Horbury, during Saturday night, from +walking across country to Ecclesborough? Nothing! If, after interviewing +that strange man, he decided to clear out at once, he'd nothing to do +but set off—over a very lonely stretch of country, every inch of which +he knew—to Ecclesborough: he would be in Ecclesborough by an early hour +in the morning. Now in Ecclesborough there are three stations—big +stations. He could get away from any one of them—what booking-clerk or +railway official would pay any particular attention to him? The thing +is—ridiculously easy!"</p> + +<p>"What of the other man?" asked the Earl. "If there were two +men—together—at an early hour—eh?"</p> + +<p>"They need not have caught a train at a very early hour," replied +Joseph. "They need not have been together when they caught any train. I +don't say they went together—I don't say they went to Ecclesborough—I +don't say they caught a train: I only say what, it must be obvious, they +easily could do without attracting attention."</p> + +<p>"The fact of Horbury's disappearance is—unchallengeable,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> remarked +Gabriel quietly. "We—know why he disappeared."</p> + +<p>"I should think," said Joseph, still more quietly, "that Lord +Ellersdeane also knows—by now."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't!" exclaimed the Earl, a little sharply. "I wish I did!"</p> + +<p>Joseph pointed to the casket.</p> + +<p>"Why have the police been officially—and officiously—searching the +house, then?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"To see if they could get any clue to his disappearance," replied the +Earl.</p> + +<p>"And they found—that!" retorted Joseph.</p> + +<p>"In the housekeeper's room," said the Earl. "She may have appropriated +the jewels."</p> + +<p>"I think your lordship must see that that is very unlikely—without +collusion between Horbury and herself," remarked Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Carswell," said Joseph, "has always been more or less of a +mysterious person. We know nothing about her. I don't even know where +Horbury got her from. But—the probability is that they were in +collusion, and that when he went, she stayed behind, to ascertain how +things turned out on his disappearance; and that she fled when it began +to appear that searching inquiries were to be made into which she might +be drawn."</p> + +<p>The Earl made no reply. He recognized that the Chestermarke observations +and suggestions were rather more than plausible, and much as he fought +against the idea of the missing manager's dishonesty, he could not deny +that the circumstances as set forth by the bankers were suspicious.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Your lordship will, of course, follow up this woman?" said Gabriel, +after a brief silence.</p> + +<p>"I suppose the police will," replied the Earl. "But—aren't you going to +do anything yourselves, Mr. Chestermarke? You told me, you know, that +certain securities of yours were missing."</p> + +<p>Gabriel glanced at his nephew—and Joseph nodded.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well!" answered Gabriel. "We don't mind telling your lordship—and +if your lordship pleases, you may tell the police—we are doing +something. We have, in fact, been doing something from an early hour. We +have a very clever man at work just now—he has been at work since he +heard from us twenty-four hours ago. But—our ideas are not those of +Polke. Polke begins his inquiries here. Our inquiries—based on our +knowledge—begin ... elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"You think Horbury will be heard of—elsewhere?" suggested the Earl.</p> + +<p>"Much more likely to be heard of elsewhere than here, my lord!" asserted +Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"But, of course, what we do need not interfere with anything that your +lordship does, or that Miss Fosdyke does, or that the police do."</p> + +<p>"All that any of us want, I suppose, is to find Horbury," said the Earl, +as he rose. "If he's found, then, I conclude, some explanation will +result. You don't believe in searching about here, then?"</p> + +<p>"Let Polke and his men have their way, my lord," replied Gabriel, with a +wave of his hand. "My impression of police methods is that those who +follow them can only follow that particular path. We are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> not looking +for Horbury—here. He's—elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"So, by this time, are your lordship's jewels," added Joseph +significantly. "They, one may be sure, are not going to be found in or +about Scarnham."</p> + +<p>The Earl said good-day and went out, troubled and wondering. In the hall +he met the search-party. Mr. Batterley had failed to find anything in +the way of secret stairs or passages or openings beyond those already +known to the occupants, and though he was still confident that they +existed, the police had wound up their present investigations to turn to +more palpable things. Polke and the detective listened to the Earl's +account of his interview, and the superintendent sniffed at the mention +of the inquiries instituted by the partners.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he said incredulously. "Just so! Private inquiry agent, no doubt. +All right—let 'em do what they like. But we're going to do what we +like, my lord, and what we do will be on very different lines. First +thing now—we want that woman!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h2>THE MIDNIGHT SUMMONS</h2> + +<p>The search-party separated outside the bank, not too well satisfied with +the result of its labours. The old antiquary walked away obviously +nettled that he was not allowed to pursue his investigations further; +Betty Fosdyke and the solicitor went across to the hotel in deep +conference; the Earl accompanied Starmidge and Polke to the +police-station. And there the detective laid down a firm outline of the +next immediate procedure. It was of no use to half-do things, he +said—they must rouse wholesale attention. Once more the press must be +made use of—the sudden disappearance of Mrs. Carswell must be noised +abroad in the next morning's papers. A police notice describing her must +be got out and sent all over the kingdom. And—last, but certainly not +least—Lord Ellersdeane must offer a substantial reward for the recovery +of, or news of, his missing property. Let the Chestermarkes adopt their +own method—if they had any—of finding the alleged absconding manager; +he, Starmidge, preferred to solve these mysteries by ways of his own.</p> + +<p>It was growing near to dusk when all their necessary arrangements had +been made, and Starmidge was free to seek his long-delayed dinner. He +had put himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> up, of his own choice, at a quiet and old-fashioned inn +near the police-station, where he had engaged a couple of rooms and +found a landlady to his liking. He repaired to this retreat now, and ate +and drank in quiet, and smoked a peaceful pipe afterwards, and was glad +of a period of rest. But as he took his ease, he thought and pondered, +and by the time that evening had fairly settled over the little town, he +went out into the streets and sought the ancient corner of Scarnham +which was called Cornmarket.</p> + +<p>Starmidge wanted to take a look at the house in which Joseph +Chestermarke spent his bachelor existence. Since his own arrival in the +town, he had been learning all he could about the two Chestermarkes, and +he was puzzled about them. For a man who was still young, Starmidge had +seen a good deal of the queer side of life, and had known a good many +strange people, but so far he had never come across two such apparently +curious characters as the uncle and nephew who ran the old-fashioned +bank. Their evident indifference to public opinion puzzled him. He could +not understand their ice-cold defiance of what he himself called law. He +never remembered being treated as they had treated him. For Starmidge, +when on duty, considered himself as much the representative of Justice +as any ermined and coifed judge could be, and he had been accustomed—so +far—to attentive and respectful consideration. But neither Gabriel nor +Joseph Chestermarke appeared to have any proper appreciation of the +dignity of a detective-sergeant of the Criminal Investigation +Department, and their eyes had regarded him as if he were something +very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> inferior indeed. Starmidge, though by no means a vain man, felt +nettled by such treatment, and he accordingly formed something very like +a prejudice against the two partners. That prejudice was quickly +followed by suspicion—especially in the case of Joseph Chestermarke. +According to Starmidge's ideas, the bankers, if they really believed +Horbury to have absconded, if certain securities of theirs really were +missing, if they really thought that Horbury had carried them off, and +the Countess of Ellersdeane's jewels with him, ought to have placed +every information in their power at the disposal of the police: it was +suspicious, and strange, and not at all proper, that they didn't. And it +was suspicious, too, that the housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell, should take +herself off after a brief exchange of words with Joseph. It looked very +much as if the junior partner had either warned her to go, or had told +her to go. Why had she gone <i>then</i>?—when she might have gone before. +And why in such haste? Clearly, considering everything, there were +grounds for believing that there was some secret between Mrs. Carswell +and Joseph Chestermarke.</p> + +<p>Anyway, rightly or wrongly, Starmidge was suspicious of the junior +partner in Chestermarke's Bank, and he wanted to know everything that he +could find out about him. He had already learnt that Joseph, like his +uncle, was a confirmed bachelor, and lived in an old house at the corner +of Cornmarket, somewhat—so far as the town-folk could judge—after the +fashion of a hermit. Starmidge would have given a good deal for a really +good excuse to call on Joseph Chestermarke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> at that house, so that he +might see the inside of it: indeed, if he had only met with a better +reception at the bank, he would have invented such an excuse. But if +Gabriel was icily stand-offish, Joseph was openly sneering and +contemptuous, and the detective knew that no excuse would give him +admittance. Still, there was the outside: he would take a look at that. +Starmidge was a young man of ideas as well as of ability, and without +exactly shaping his thought in so many words, he felt—vaguely perhaps, +but none the less strongly—that just as you can size up some men by the +clothes they wear, so you can get an idea of others by the outer look of +the houses which shelter them.</p> + +<p>Cornmarket in Scarnham lay at the further end of the street called +Finkleway. It was a queer, open space which sloped downhill from the +centre of the ridge on which the middle of the town was built to the +valley through which the little river meandered. Save where the streets, +and the road leading out to the open country and Ellersdeane cut into +it, it was completely enclosed by old houses of the sort which Starmidge +had already admired in the Market-Place: many of them half-timbered, all +of them very ancient. One or two of them were inns; some were evidently +workmen's cottages; others were better-class dwelling-houses. From the +description already furnished to him by Polke, Starmidge at once +recognized Joseph Chestermarke's abode. It was a corner house, abutting +on the road which ran out at the lower angle of this irregular space and +led down to the river and Scarnham Bridge. It was by far the biggest +house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> thereabouts—a tall, slender, stone-built house of many stories, +towering high above any of the surrounding gables. And save for a very +faint, dull glow which shone through the transom window of the front +door, there was not a vestige of light in a single window of the seven +stories. Cornmarket was a gloomy commonplace, thought Starmidge, but the +little oil lamps in the cottages were riotously cheery in comparison +with the darkness of the tall, gaunt Chestermarke mansion. It looked +like the abode of dead men.</p> + +<p>Starmidge longed to knock at that door—if only to get a peep inside the +hall. But he curbed his desires and went quietly round the corner of the +house. There was a high black wall there which led down to the grassy +bank of the river. From its corner another wall ran along the +river-side, separated from the stream by a path. There was a door set in +this wall, and Starmidge, after carefully looking round in the gloom, +quietly tried it and found it securely locked.</p> + +<p>An intense desire to see the inside of Joseph Chestermarke's garden +seized the detective. Near the door, partly overhanging the garden wall, +partly overshadowing the path and the river-bank, was a tree: Starmidge, +after listening carefully and deciding that no one was coming along the +path, made shift to climb that tree, just then bursting into full leaf. +In another minute he was amongst its middle branches, and peering +inquisitively into the garden which lay between him and the gaunt +outline of the gloom-stricken house.</p> + +<p>The moon was just then rising above the roofs and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> gables of the town, +and by its rapidly increasing light Starmidge saw that the garden was of +considerable size, running back quite sixty yards from the rear of the +house, and having a corresponding breadth. Like all the gardens which +stretched from the backs of the Market-Place houses to the river-bank, +it was rich in trees—high elms and beeches rose from its lawns, and +made deep shadows across them. But Starmidge was not so much interested +in those trees, fine as they were, as in a building; obviously modern, +which was set in their midst, completely isolated. That it was a +comparatively new building he could see; the moonbeams falling full on +it showed that the stone of which it was built was fresh and unstained +by time or smoke. But what was it? Of what nature, for what purpose? It +was neither stable, nor coach-house, nor summer-house, nor a grouping of +domestic offices. No drive or path led to it: it was built in the middle +of a grass-plot: round it ran a stone-lined trench. Its architecture was +plain but handsome; it possessed two distinctive features which the +detective was quick to notice. One, was that—at any rate on the two +sides which he could see—its windows were set at a height of quite +twelve feet from the ground: the other, that from its flat parapeted +roof rose a conical structure something like the rounded stacks of glass +foundries and potteries. This was obviously a chimney, and from its +mouth at that moment was emerging a slight column of smoke which threw +back curiously coloured reflections, blue, and yellow, and red, to the +moonlight which fell on its thickening spirals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p> + +<p>Starmidge felt just as much desire to get inside this queer structure as +into the house behind it, and if he could have seen any prospect of +taking a peep through its windows he would have risked detection and +dropped from his perch into the garden. But he judged that if the +windows were twelve feet from the ground on the two sides of the +building which he could see, they would be the same height on the sides +which he couldn't see; moreover, he observed that they were obscured by +either dull red glass or red curtains. Clearly no outsider was intended +to get a peep into this temple of mystery. What was it? What went on +within it? He was about to climb down from the tree when he got some +sort of an answer to these questions. From within the building, muffled +by the evidently thick walls, came the faintest sound of metal beating +on metal—a mere rippling, tinkling sound, light and musical, such as +might have been made by fairy blacksmiths beating on a fairy anvil. But +far away as it sounded, it was clear and unmistakable.</p> + +<p>Starmidge regained the path between the wall and the river and went +slowly forward. The place, he decided, was evidently some sort of a +workshop, in which was a forge: probably Joseph Chestermarke amused +himself with a little amateur work in metals. He thought no more of the +matter just then; he wanted to explore the river-bank along which he now +walked. For according to the story of the landlady of the Station Hotel, +it was on that river-bank that the mysterious stranger was to meet +whoever it was that he spoke to over the telephone, and so far +Starmidge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> had not had an opportunity of examining its geography.</p> + +<p>There was not much to examine. The river, a mere ditch, eight or ten +yards in breadth, wandered through a level mead at the base of the +valley, separated from the gardens by a wide path. Between Scarnham +Bridge, at the foot of Cornmarket and the corner of Joseph +Chestermarke's big garden, and the end of Cordmaker's Alley, a narrow +street which ran down from the further end of the Market-Place to the +river-side, there were no features of any note or interest. On the other +side of the river lay the deep woods through which Neale and Betty +Fosdyke had passed on their way to Ellersdeane Hollow: Starmidge had +heard all about that expedition, and he glanced curiously at the black +depths of the trees, wondering if John Horbury and the mysterious +stranger, supposing they had met, had turned into these woods to hold +their conference. He presently came to the foot-bridge by which access +to the woods and the other bank of the river was gained, and by it he +lingered for a moment or two, looking at it in its bearings to the +bank-house garden and orchard on his left hand, and to the Station +Hotel, the lights of which he could plainly see down the valley. +Certainly, if John Horbury and the stranger desired to meet in secret, +here was the place. The stranger had nothing to do but stroll along the +river-bank from the hotel; Horbury had only to step out of his orchard +and meet him. Once together, they had only to cross that foot-bridge +into the woods to be immediately in surroundings of great privacy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> + +<p>Starmidge turned up Cordmaker's Alley, regained the Market-Place, and +strolled on to Polke's private house. The superintendent was taking his +ease after his day's labours and reading the Ecclesborough evening +newspapers: he tossed one of them over to his visitor.</p> + +<p>"All there!" he said, pointing to some big headlines. "Got it all in, +just as you told it to Parkinson. Full justice to the descriptions of +both Horbury and the Station Hotel stranger. Smart work, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Power of the Press—as Parkinson said," answered Starmidge, with a +laugh. "It's very useful, the Press: I don't know how they managed +without it in the old days of criminal catching, Mr. Polke. Press and +telegraph, eh?—they're valuable adjuncts."</p> + +<p>"You think all that would be in the London papers this evening?" asked +Polke.</p> + +<p>"Sure to be," replied Starmidge. "I'm hoping we'll hear something from +London tomorrow. I say—I've been taking a bit of a look round one or +two places tonight, quietly, you know. What's that curious building in +Joseph Chestermarke's garden?"</p> + +<p>Polke put down his paper and looked unusually interested.</p> + +<p>"I don't know!" he answered. "How did you see it? I've never seen inside +his garden."</p> + +<p>"Climbed a tree on the river-bank and looked over the wall," replied +Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Polke, "I did hear, some few years ago, that he was +building something in that garden, but the work was done by +Ecclesborough contractors,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> and nobody ever knew much about it here. I +believe Joseph's a bit of an amateur experimenter—but I don't know what +he experiments in. Nobody ever goes inside his house—he's a hermit."</p> + +<p>"He's got some sort of a forge there, anyhow," said Starmidge. "Or a +furnace, or something of that sort."</p> + +<p>Then they talked of other things until half-past ten, when the detective +retired to his inn and went to bed. He was sleeping soundly when a +steady knocking at his door roused him, to hear the voice of his +landlady outside. And at the same time he heard the big clock of the +parish church striking midnight.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Starmidge!" said the voice, "there's a policeman wanting you. Will +you go round at once to Mr. Polke's? There's a man come from London +about that piece in the newspapers."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h2>MR. FREDERICK HOLLIS</h2> + +<p>Starmidge hastily pulled some garments about him, and flinging a +travelling-coat over his shoulders, hurried downstairs, to find a +sleepy-looking policeman in the hall.</p> + +<p>"How did this man get here—at this time of night?" he asked, as they +set off towards the police-station.</p> + +<p>"Came in a taxi-cab from Ecclesborough," answered the policeman. "I +haven't heard any particulars, Mr. Starmidge, except that he'd read the +news in the London paper this evening and set off here in consequence. +He's in Mr. Polke's house, sir."</p> + +<p>Starmidge walked into the superintendent's parlour, to find him in +company with a young man, whom the detective at once sized up as a +typical London clerk—a second glance assured him that his clerkship was +of the legal variety.</p> + +<p>"Here's Detective-Sergeant Starmidge," said Polke. "Starmidge, this +gentleman's Mr. Simmons, from London. Mr. Simmons says he's clerk to a +Mr. Hollis, a London solicitor. And, having read that description in the +papers this last evening, he's certain that the man who came to the +Station Hotel here on Saturday is his governor."</p> + +<p>Starmidge sat down and looked again at the visitor—a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> tall, +sandy-haired, freckled young man, who was obviously a good deal puzzled.</p> + +<p>"Is Mr. Hollis missing, then?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>Simmons looked as if he found it somewhat difficult to explain matters.</p> + +<p>"Well," he answered. "It's this way. I've never seen him since Saturday. +And he hasn't been at his rooms—his private rooms—since Saturday. In +the ordinary course he ought to have been at business first thing +yesterday—we'd some very important business on yesterday morning, which +wasn't done because of his absence. He never turned up yesterday at +all—nor today either—we never heard from or of him. And so, when I +read that description in the papers this evening, I caught the first +express I could get down here—at least to Ecclesborough—I had to motor +from there."</p> + +<p>"That description describes Mr. Hollis, then?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Exactly! I'm sure it's Mr. Hollis—it's him to a T!" answered the +clerk. "I recognized it at once."</p> + +<p>"Let's get everything in order," said Starmidge, with a glance at Polke. +"To begin with, who is Mr. Hollis?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, 59<span class="smcap">b</span> South Square, Gray's Inn," replied +Simmons promptly. "Andwell & Hollis is the name of the firm—but there +isn't any Andwell—hasn't been for many a year—he's dead, long since, +is Andwell. Mr. Hollis is the only proprietor."</p> + +<p>"Don't know him at all," remarked Starmidge. "What's his particular line +of practice?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Conveyancing," said Simmons.</p> + +<p>"Then, naturally, I shouldn't," observed Starmidge. "My acquaintance is +chiefly with police-court solicitors. And you say he'd private rooms +some where? Where, now?"</p> + +<p>"Paper Buildings, Temple," replied the clerk. "He'd a suite of rooms +there—he's had 'em for years."</p> + +<p>"Bachelor, then?" inquired the detective.</p> + +<p>"Yes—he's a bachelor," agreed Simmons.</p> + +<p>"You know he hasn't been at his rooms since Saturday—you've ascertained +that?" continued Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"He's never been at his rooms since he left them after breakfast on +Saturday morning," replied Simmons. "I went there at eleven o'clock +Monday—that was yesterday—again at four: twice on Tuesday. I was +coming away from the Temple when I got the paper and read about this +affair."</p> + +<p>"When did you see him last?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Half-past-twelve Saturday. He went out—dressed just as it says in your +description. And," concluded the clerk, with a shake of his head which +suggested his own inability to understand matters, "he never said a word +to me about coming down here."</p> + +<p>"Did he say anything to anybody at his rooms about going away?—for the +week-end, for instance?" asked the detective. "There'd be somebody +there, of course."</p> + +<p>"Only a woman who tidied up for him and got his breakfast ready of a +morning," said Simmons.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> "He took all his other meals out. No—he said +nothing to her. But he wasn't a week-ender: he very rarely left his +rooms except for the office."</p> + +<p>"Any of his relations been after him?" inquired Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything about his relations—nor friends, either," +answered the clerk. "Don't even know the address of one of them, or I'd +have gone to seek him on Monday—everything's at a standstill. He was a +lonely sort of man—I never heard of his relations or friends."</p> + +<p>"How long have you been with him, then?" asked the detective. "Some +time?"</p> + +<p>"Six years," replied Simmons.</p> + +<p>"And you've no doubt, from the description in the papers, that the +gentleman who came here on Saturday last is Mr. Hollis?" asked +Starmidge.</p> + +<p>The clerk shook his head with an air of conviction.</p> + +<p>"None!" he answered. "None whatever!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge helped himself to a cigar out of an open box which lay on +Polke's table. He lighted it carefully, and smoked for a minute or two +in silence. Then he looked at Polke.</p> + +<p>"Well, there's a very obvious question to put to Mr. Simmons after all +that," he remarked. "Have you any idea," he continued, turning to the +clerk, "of any reason that would bring Mr. Hollis to Scarnham?"</p> + +<p>Simmons shook his head more vigorously than before.</p> + +<p>"Not the ghost of an idea!" he exclaimed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There was no business being done with anybody at Scarnham?" asked +Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Not in our office!" asserted Simmons. "I'm sure of that. I know all the +business that we have in hand. To tell you the truth, gentlemen, though +you may think me very ignorant, I never even heard of Scarnham myself +until I read the paper this evening."</p> + +<p>"Quite excusable," said Starmidge. "I never heard of it myself until +Monday. Well—this is all very queer, Mr. Simmons. What does Mr. Polke +think? And what's Mr. Polke got to suggest!"</p> + +<p>Polke, who had been listening silently, turned to the clerk.</p> + +<p>"Did you chance to look at Mr. Hollis's letters—recent letters, I +mean—" he asked, "to see if you would find anything inviting him down +here?"</p> + +<p>"I did," replied Simmons promptly. "I looked through all the letters on +his desk and in his drawers yesterday afternoon. I didn't find anything +that explained his absence. And when I was at his rooms this evening I +looked at some letters on his mantelpiece—nothing there. I tell you, I +haven't the least notion as to what could bring him to Scarnham."</p> + +<p>"And I suppose none of your fellow-clerks have, either?" asked Polke.</p> + +<p>Simmons smiled and glanced at Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"We've only myself and another—a junior clerk—and a boy," he said. +"It's not a big practice—only a bit of good conveyancing now and then, +and some family business. Mr. Hollis isn't dependent on it—he's private +means of his own."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Aye, just so!" observed Polke. "And I should say, Starmidge, that it +was private business brought him down here—if he's the man, as he +certainly seems to be. But—whose?"</p> + +<p>Starmidge turned again to the clerk.</p> + +<p>"You've a good memory, I can see," he said. "Now, did you ever hear Mr. +Hollis mention the name of Horbury?"</p> + +<p>"Never!" replied Simmons.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear him speak of Chestermarke's Bank?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"No—never! Never heard either name in my life until I saw them in the +papers," asserted Simmons.</p> + +<p>"Who looks after the banking account at Hollis's?" asked the detective. +"I mean, the business account—you know. Not his private one."</p> + +<p>"I do," said Simmons. "Always have done since I went there."</p> + +<p>"You never saw any cheques paid to those names—or any cheques from +them?" inquired Starmidge. "Think, now!"</p> + +<p>"No—I'm absolutely sure of it," said the clerk. "Horbury, perhaps, I +might not remember, but I should have remembered Chestermarke—it's an +uncommon name, that—to me, anyway."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Starmidge, after a pause, during which all three looked at +each other as men look who have come to a dead stop in the progress of +things, "there's one thing very certain, Mr. Simmons. If that was your +governor who came down to the Station Hotel here on Saturday evening +last, he certainly telephoned from there to Chestermarke's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> Bank as soon +as he arrived. And he got a reply from there, and he evidently went out +to meet whoever sent it—that sender seeming to be Mr. Horbury, the +manager. And so," he concluded, turning to Polke, "what we've got to +find out is—what did Hollis come here at all for?"</p> + +<p>"We shan't find that out tonight," said Polke, with a yawn.</p> + +<p>"Quite so—so we'll adjourn till morning, when Mr. Simmons shall see Mrs. +Pratt—just to establish things," remarked Starmidge. "In the meantime +he'd better come round with me to my place, and I'll get him a bed."</p> + +<p>Neither the police-superintendent nor the detective had the slightest +doubt after hearing Simmons' story that the man who presented himself at +the Station Hotel at Scarnham on the evening of John Horbury's +disappearance was Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, of Gray's Inn. If +they had still retained any doubt it would have disappeared next morning +when they took the clerk down to see Mrs. Pratt. The landlady described +her customer even more fully than before: Simmons had no doubt whatever +that she described his employer: he wouldn't have been more certain, he +said, that Mrs. Pratt was talking about Mr. Hollis, if she'd shown him a +photograph of that gentleman.</p> + +<p>"So we can take that for settled," remarked Polke, as the three left the +hotel and went back to the town. "The man who came here last Saturday +night was Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, of South Square, Gray's Inn, +London. That's established, I take it, Starmidge?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Seems so," agreed the detective.</p> + +<p>"Then the next question is—Where's he got to?" said Polke.</p> + +<p>"I think the next question is—Has anybody ever heard of him in +connection with Mr. Horbury, or the Chestermarkes?" observed Starmidge. +"There's no doubt he came down here to see one or other of +them—Horbury, most likely."</p> + +<p>"And who's to tell us anything?" asked Polke.</p> + +<p>"Miss Fosdyke's a relation of Horbury's," replied Starmidge. "She may +know Hollis by name. Mr. Neale's always been in touch with Horbury—he +may have heard of Hollis. And—so may the bankers."</p> + +<p>"The difficulty is to make them say anything," said Polke. "They'll only +tell what they please."</p> + +<p>"Let's try the other two, anyway," counselled Starmidge. "They may be +able to tell something. For as sure as I am what I am, the whole secret +of this business lies in Hollis's coming down here to see Horbury, and +in what followed on their meeting. If we could only get to know what +Hollis came here for—ah!"</p> + +<p>But they got no further information from either Betty Fosdyke or +Wallington Neale. Neither had ever heard of Mr. Frederick Hollis, of +Gray's Inn. Betty was certain, beyond doubt, that he was no relation of +the missing bank-manager: she had the whole family-tree of the Horburys +at her finger-ends, she declared: no Hollis was connected with even its +outlying twigs. Neale had never heard the name of Hollis mentioned by +Horbury. And he added that he was absolutely sure that during the last +five<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> years no person of that name had ever had dealings with +Chestermarke's Bank—open dealings, at any rate. Secret dealings with +the partners, severally or collectively, or with Horbury, for that +matter, Mr. Hollis might have had, but Neale was certain he had had no +ordinary business with any of them.</p> + +<p>Polke took heart of grace and led Simmons across to the bank. To his +astonishment, the partners now received him readily and politely; they +even listened with apparent interest to the clerk's story, and asked him +some questions arising out of it. But each declared that he knew nothing +about Mr. Frederick Hollis, and was utterly unaware of any reason that +could bring him to Scarnham: it was certainly on no business of theirs, +as a firm, or as private individuals, that he came.</p> + +<p>"He came, of course, to see Horbury," said Joseph at last. "That's dead +certain. No doubt they met. And after that—well, they seem to have +vanished together."</p> + +<p>Gabriel followed Polke into the hall and drew him aside.</p> + +<p>"Did this clerk tell you whether his master was a man of standing?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"Man of private means, Mr. Chestermarke, with a small, highly +respectable practice—a conveyancing solicitor," answered Polke.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" replied Gabriel. "Just so. Well—we know nothing about him."</p> + +<p>Polke and his companion returned to the Scarnham Arms, where Starmidge +was in consultation with Betty and Neale.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>"They know nothing at all over there," he reported. "Never heard of +Hollis. What's to be done now!"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Simmons must do the next thing," answered the detective. "Get back +to town, Mr. Simmons, and put yourself in communication with every +single one of Mr. Hollis's clients—you know them all, of course. Find +out if any of them gave Mr. Hollis any business that would send him to +Scarnham. Don't leave a stone unturned in that way! And the moment you +have any information, however slight, wire to me, here—on the +instant."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h2>THE LEAD MINE</h2> + +<p>Starmidge and Polke presently left—to walk down to the railway station +with the bewildered clerk; when they had gone, Betty turned to Neale, +who was hanging about her sitting-room with no obvious intention of +leaving it.</p> + +<p>"While these people are doing what they can in their way, is there +nothing we can do in ours?" she asked. "I hate sitting here doing +nothing at all! You're a free man now, Wallie—can't you suggest +something?"</p> + +<p>Neale was thoroughly enjoying his first taste of liberty. He felt as if +he had just been released from a long term of imprisonment. To be +absolutely free to do what he liked with himself, during the whole of a +spring day, was a sensation so novel that he was holding closely to it, +half-fearful that it might all be a dream from which it would be a +terrible thing to awake—to see one of Chestermarke's ledgers under his +nose. And this being a wonderfully fine morning, he had formed certain +sly designs of luring Betty away into the country, and having the whole +day with her. A furtive glance at her, however, showed him that Miss +Fosdyke's thoughts and ideas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> just then were entirely business-like, but +a happy inspiration suggested to him that business and pleasure might be +combined.</p> + +<p>"We ought to go and see if that tinker chap's found out or heard +anything," he said. "You remember he promised to keep his eyes and ears +open. And we might do a little looking round the country for ourselves: +I haven't much faith in those local policemen and gamekeepers. Why not +make a day of it, going round? I know a place—nice old inn, the other +side of Ellersdeane—where we can get some lunch. Much better making +inquiries for ourselves," he concluded insinuatingly, "than sitting +about waiting for news."</p> + +<p>"Didn't I say so?" exclaimed Betty. "Come on, then!—I'm ready. Where +first?"</p> + +<p>"Let's see the tinker first," said Neale. "He's a sharp man—he may have +something else to tell by now."</p> + +<p>He led his companion out of the town by way of Scarnham Bridge, pointing +out Joseph Chestermarke's gloomy house to her as they passed it.</p> + +<p>"I'd give a lot," he remarked, as they turned on to the open moor which +led towards Ellersdeane Hollow, "to know if either of the Chestermarkes +really did know anything about that chap Hollis coming to the town on +Saturday. I shouldn't be a bit surprised if they did. Those detective +fellows like Starmidge are very clever in their way, but they always +seem to me to stop thinking a bit too soon. Now both Starmidge and Polke +seem to take it for certain that this Hollis went to meet Horbury when +he left the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> Station Hotel. There's no proof that he went to meet +Horbury—none!"</p> + +<p>"Whom might he have gone to meet, then?" demanded Betty.</p> + +<p>"You listen to me a bit," said Neale. "I've been thinking it over. +Hollis comes to the Station Hotel and uses their telephone. Mrs. Pratt +overhears him call up Chestermarke's Bank—that's certain. Then she goes +away, about her business. An interval elapses. Then she hears some +appointment made, with somebody, along the river bank, for that evening. +But—that interval during which Mrs. Pratt didn't overhear? How do we +know that the person with whom Hollis began his conversation was the +same person with whom he finished it? Come, now!"</p> + +<p>"Wallie, that's awfully clever of you!" exclaimed Betty. "How did you +come to think of such an ingenious notion?"</p> + +<p>"Worked it out," answered Neale. "This way! Hollis comes down to +Scarnham to see Chestermarke's Bank—which means one of the partners. He +rings up the bank. He speaks to somebody there. How do we know that +somebody was Horbury? We don't! It may have been Mrs. Carswell. Now +supposing the real person Hollis wanted to see was either Gabriel or +Joseph Chestermarke? Very well—this person who answered from the bank +would put Hollis on to either of them at once. Gabriel has a telephone +at the Warren: Joseph has a telephone at his home yonder behind us. It +may have been with either Gabriel or Joseph that Hollis finished his +conversation. And—if it was finished with one of them, it was, in my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +opinion, whatever that's worth, with Master Joseph!"</p> + +<p>"What makes you think that?" asked Betty, startled by the suggestion.</p> + +<p>Neale laid a hand on the girl's arm and turned her round to face the +town. He lifted his stick and pointed at Joseph Chestermarke's high +roof, towering above the houses around it; then he swept the stick +towards the river and its course, plainly to be followed, in the +direction of the station.</p> + +<p>"You see Joseph's house there," he said. "You see the river—the path +along its bank—going right down to the meadow opposite the Station +Hotel? Very well—now, supposing it was Joseph with whom Hollis wound up +that telephone talk, suppose it was Joseph whom Hollis was to see. What +would happen? Joseph knew that Hollis was at the Station Hotel. The +straightest and easiest way from the Station Hotel to Joseph's house +is—straight along the river bank. Now then, call on your memory! What +did Mrs. Pratt tell us? 'When I was going back to the bar,' says Mrs. +Pratt, 'I heard more. "Along the river-side," says the gentleman. +"Straight on from where I am—all right." Then, after a minute, "At +seven-thirty, then?" he says. "All right—I'll meet you." And after +that,' concludes Mrs. Pratt, 'he rings off.' Now, why shouldn't it be +Joseph Chestermarke that he was going to meet?—remember, again, the +river-side path leads straight to Joseph's house. Come!—Mrs. Pratt's +story doesn't point conclusively to Horbury at all. It's as I say—the +telephone conversation may have begun with Horbury, but it may have +ended with—somebody else. And what I say<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> is—who was the precise +person whom Hollis went to meet?"</p> + +<p>"Are you going to tell all that to Starmidge?" asked Betty admiringly. +"Because I'm sure it's never entered his head—so far."</p> + +<p>"Depends," replied Neale. "Let's see if the tinker has anything to tell. +He's at home, anyway. There's his fire."</p> + +<p>A spiral of blue smoke, curling high above the green and gold of the +gorse bushes, revealed Creasy's whereabouts. He had shifted his camp +since their first meeting with him: his tilted cart, his tethered pony, +and his fire, were now in a hollow considerably nearer the town. Neale +and Betty looked down into his retreat to find him busily mending a +collection of pots and pans, evidently gathered up during his round of +the previous day. He greeted his visitors with a smile, and fetched a +three-legged stool from his cart for Betty's better accommodation.</p> + +<p>"Heard anything?" asked Neale, seating himself on a log of wood.</p> + +<p>The tinker pointed to several newspapers which lay near at hand, kept +from blowing away by a stone placed on the uppermost.</p> + +<p>"Only what's in these," he answered. "I've read all that—so I'm pretty +well posted up, mister. I've just read this morning's—bought it in the +town when I went to fetch some bread. Queer affair altogether, I call +it!"</p> + +<p>"Have you looked round about at all?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>"I've been a good bit over the Hollow, miss," answered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> Creasy. "But +it's a stiff job seeking anything here. There's nobody knows what a +wilderness this Hollow is until they begin exploring it. +Holes—corners—nooks—crannies—bracken and bushes—it is a wilderness, +and that's a fact! I'd engage to hide myself safely in this square mile +for many a week, against a hundred seekers. It wouldn't a bit surprise +me, you know, if it comes out in the end that Mr. Horbury, after all, +did fall down one of these old shafts. I couldn't believe it possible at +first, knowing that he knew every in and out of the place, but I'm +beginning to think he may have done. There's only one thing against that +theory."</p> + +<p>"What?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>"Where's the other gentleman?" answered the tinker. "If they came +together on to this waste, one couldn't fall down a shaft without the +other knowing it, eh? And it's scarcely likely they'd both fall down."</p> + +<p>Neale glanced at Betty and shook his head.</p> + +<p>"There you are, you see!" he muttered. "They all hang to the notion that +Hollis did meet Horbury! Mr. Horbury may have been alone, after all, you +know," he went on, turning to Creasy. "There's no proof that the other +gentleman was with him."</p> + +<p>"Aye, well—I'm going on what these paper accounts say," answered +Creasy. "They all take it for granted that those two were together. +Well, about these old shaftings, mister—I did notice something very +early this morning that I thought might be looked into."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Neale. "Don't let's lose any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> chance of finding +anything out, however small it may be."</p> + +<p>The tinker finished mending a kettle and set it aside amongst other +renovated articles. He lifted the pan of solder off the fire, set it +aside, too, and got up.</p> + +<p>"Come this way, then," he said. "I was going in to Scarnham this noon to +tell Mr Polke about it, but as long as you're here——"</p> + +<p>He led the way through the thick gorse and heather until he came to a +narrow track which wound across the moor in the direction of the town. +There he paused, pointing towards Ellersdeane on the one hand, towards +Scarnham on the other.</p> + +<p>"You see this track, mister?" he said. "You'll notice that it goes to +Ellersdeane village that way, and to Scarnham this. Of course, you can't +see it all the way in either direction, but you can take my word for +it—it does. It comes out at Ellersdeane by the duck-pond, at Scarnham +by the bridge at the foot of Cornmarket. People who know it would follow +it if they wanted a short cut across the moor from the town to the +village—or the opposite, as you might say. Now then, look here—a bit +this way."</p> + +<p>He preceded them along the narrow track until, on an open space in the +moorland, they came to one of the old lead-mine shafts, the mouth of +which had been fenced in by a roughly built wall of stone gathered from +its immediate surroundings. In this wall, extending from its parapet to +the ground, was a wide gap: the stones which had been displaced to make +it had disappeared into the cavernous opening.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now then!" said the tinker, turning on his companions with the +inquiring look of a man who advances a theory which may or may not be +accepted as reasonable, "you see that? What I'd like to know is—is that +a recently made gap? It's difficult to tell. If this bit of a stone +fence had been built with mortar, one could have told. But it's never +had mortar or lime in it!—it's just rough masonry, as you see—stones +picked up off the moor, like all these fences round the old shafts. +But—there's the gap right enough! Do you know what I'm thinking?"</p> + +<p>"No!" murmured Betty, with a glance of fear and doubt at the black vista +which she saw through the gap. "But—don't be afraid to speak."</p> + +<p>"I'm thinking this," continued the tinker: "Supposing a man was +following this track from Ellersdeane to Scarnham, or t'other way about, +as it might be—supposing he was curious to look down one of these old +shafts—supposing he looked down this one, which stands, as you see, not +two yards off the very track he was following—supposing he leaned his +weight on this rotten bit of fencing—supposing it gave way? What?"</p> + +<p>Neale, who had been listening intently, made a movement as if to lay his +hand on the grey stones. Betty seized him impulsively.</p> + +<p>"Don't, Wallie!" she exclaimed. "That frightens me!"</p> + +<p>Creasy lifted his foot and pressed it against the stones at one edge of +the gap. Before even that slight pressure three or four blocks gave way +and dropped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> inward—the sound of their fall came dully from the depths +beneath.</p> + +<p>"You see," said the tinker, "it's possible. It might be. And—as you can +tell from the time it takes a stone to drop—it's a long way down there. +They're very deep, these old mines."</p> + +<p>Neale turned from the broken wall and looked narrowly at the ground +about it.</p> + +<p>"I don't see any signs of anybody being about here recently," he +remarked. "There are no footmarks."</p> + +<p>"There couldn't be, mister," said Creasy. "You could march a regiment of +soldiers over this moorland grass for many an hour, and there'd be no +footprints on it when they'd gone—it's that wiry and strong. No!—if +half a dozen men had been standing about here when one fell in—or if +two or three men had come here to throw another man in," he added +significantly, "there'd be no footmarks. Try it—you can't grind an +iron-shod heel like mine into this turf."</p> + +<p>"It's all very horrible!" said Betty, still staring at the black gap +with its suggestions of subterranean horror. "If one only knew——"</p> + +<p>The tinker turned and looked at the two young people as if he were +estimating their strength.</p> + +<p>"What are you wondering about?" asked Neale.</p> + +<p>Creasy smiled as he glanced again at Betty.</p> + +<p>"Well," he replied, "you're a pretty strong young fellow, mister, I take +it, and the young lady looks as if she'd got a bit of good muscle about +her. If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> you two could manage one end of a rope, I'd go down into that +shaft at the other end—a bit of the way, at any rate. And then—I'd let +down a lantern and see if there's aught to be seen."</p> + +<p>Betty turned anxiously to Neale, and Neale looked the tinker over with +appraising eyes.</p> + +<p>"I could pull you up myself," he answered. "You're no great weight. And +haven't those shafts got props and stays down the side?"</p> + +<p>"Aye, but they'll be thoroughly rotten by this," said Creasy. "Well, +we'll try it. Come to my cart—I've plenty of stuff there."</p> + +<p>"You're sure there's no danger?" asked Betty. "Don't imperil yourself!"</p> + +<p>"No danger, so long as you two'll stick to this end of the rope," said +Creasy. "I shan't go too far down."</p> + +<p>The tilted cart proved to contain all sorts of useful things: they +presently returned to the shaft with two coils of stout rope, a crowbar, +a lantern attached to a length of strong cord, and a great +sledge-hammer, with which the tinker drove the crowbar firmly into the +ground some ten or twelve feet from the edge of the gap. He made one end +of the first rope fast to this; the other end he securely knotted about +his waist; one end of the second rope he looped under his armpits, and +handed the other to Neale; then, lighting his lantern, he prepared to +descend, having first explained the management of the ropes to his +assistants.</p> + +<p>"All you've got to do," he said reassuringly to Betty, "is to hold on to +this second rope and let me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> down, gradual-like. When I say 'Pull,' draw +up—I'll help, hand over hand, up this first rope. Simple enough!—and I +shan't go too far."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, he exhausted the full length of both ropes, and it seemed +a long time before they heard anything of him. Betty, frightened of what +she might hear, fearful lest Neale should go too near the edge of the +shaft, began to get nervous at the delay, and it was with a great sense +of relief that she at last heard the signal.</p> + +<p>The tinker came hand over hand up the stationary rope, helped by the +second one: his face, appearing over the edge of the gap, was grave and +at first inscrutable. He shook himself when he stepped above ground, as +if he wanted to shake off an impression: then he turned and spoke in a +whisper.</p> + +<p>"It's as I thought it might be!" he said. "There's a dead man down +there!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h2>ACCIDENT OR MURDER?</h2> + +<p>Betty checked the cry of horror which instinctively started to her lips, +and turned to Neale with a look which he was quick to interpret. He +moved nearer to the tinker, who was unwinding the rope from his waist.</p> + +<p>"You couldn't tell—what man?" he asked, in low tones.</p> + +<p>Creasy shook his head with a look of dislike for what he had seen by the +light of his lantern.</p> + +<p>"No!" he answered. "'Twasn't possible, mister. But—a man there is! And +dead, naturally. And—a long way it is, too, down to the bottom of that +place!"</p> + +<p>"What's to be done?" asked Neale.</p> + +<p>The tinker slowly coiled up his ropes, and laid them in order by the +crowbar.</p> + +<p>"There's only one thing to be done," he answered, after a reflective +pause. "We shall have to get him up. That'll be a job! Do you and the +young lady go back to Scarnham, and tell Polke what we've found, and let +him come out here with a man or two. I'll go into Ellersdeane yonder and +get some help—and a windlass—can't do without that. There's a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> +that sinks wells in Ellersdeane—I'll get him and his men to come back +with me. Then we can set to work."</p> + +<p>Creasy moved away as he finished speaking, untethered his pony, threw an +old saddle across its back, and without further remark rode off in the +direction of the village, while Neale and Betty turned back to Scarnham. +For a while neither broke the silence which had followed the tinker's +practical suggestions; when Betty at last spoke it was in a hushed +voice.</p> + +<p>"Wallie!" she said, "do you think that can possibly be—Uncle John?"</p> + +<p>"No!" answered Neale sharply, "I don't! I don't believe it possible that +he would be so foolish as to lean over a rotten bit of walling like +that—he'd know the danger of it."</p> + +<p>"Then it must be—the other man—Hollis!" said Betty.</p> + +<p>"Maybe," agreed Neale. "If it is——"</p> + +<p>He paused, and Betty looked at his set face as if she were wondering +what he was thinking of.</p> + +<p>"What?" she asked timidly. "You're uneasy about something."</p> + +<p>"It's a marvel to me—if it is Hollis—however he comes to be there," +answered Neale at last. "According to all we know, he certainly went to +meet somebody on Saturday night. I can't think how anybody who knew the +district would have let a stranger do such a risky thing as to lean over +one of those shafts. Besides, if anybody was with him, and there was an +accident, why hasn't the accident been reported? Betty!—it's more like +murder!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You think he may have been thrown down there?" she asked fearfully.</p> + +<p>"Thrown down or forced down—it's all the same," said Neale. "There may +have been a struggle—a fight. But there, what's the use of speculating? +We don't even know whose body it is yet. Let's get on and tell those +police chaps."</p> + +<p>Turning off the open moor on to the highway at the corner of Scarnham +Bridge, they suddenly came face to face with Gabriel Chestermarke, who, +for once in a way, was walking instead of driving into the town. The two +young people, emerging from the shelter of a high hedgerow which +bordered the moorland at that point, started at sight of the banker's +colourless face, cold and set as usual. But Gabriel betrayed no +surprise, and was in no way taken aback. He lifted his hat in silence, +and was marching on when Neale impulsively hailed him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Chestermarke!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Gabriel halted and turned, looking at his late clerk with absolute +impassiveness. He made no remark, and stood like a statue, waiting for +Neale to speak.</p> + +<p>"You may like to know," said Neale, coming up to him, "we have just +found the body of a man on the moor—Ellersdeane Hollow."</p> + +<p>Gabriel showed no surprise. No light came into his eyes, no colour to +his cheek. It seemed a long time before his firmly set lips relaxed.</p> + +<p>"A man?" he said quietly. "What man?"</p> + +<p>"We don't know," answered Neale. "All we know is, there's a man's body +lying at the bottom of one of the old shafts up there—near Ellersdeane<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> +Tower. The tinker who camps out there has just seen it—he's been partly +down the shaft."</p> + +<p>"And—did not recognize it?" asked Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"No—it was too far beneath him," replied Neale. "He's gone into the +village to get help."</p> + +<p>Gabriel lingered a moment, and then, lifting his hat again, began to +move forward towards the town.</p> + +<p>"I should advise you to acquaint the police, Mr. Neale," he said. +"Good-morning!"</p> + +<p>He marched away, stiffly upright, across the bridge and up the +Cornmarket, and Neale and Betty followed.</p> + +<p>"Why did you tell—him?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>Neale threw a glance of something very like scorn after the retreating +figure.</p> + +<p>"Wanted to see how he'd take it!" he answered. "Bah!—Gabriel +Chestermarke's no better than a wax figure! You might as well tell a +marble image any news of this sort as tell him! You'd have thought he'd +have had sufficient human feeling in him to say that he hoped it wasn't +your uncle, anyhow!"</p> + +<p>"No, I shouldn't," said Betty. "I sized Gabriel up—and Joseph, +too—when I walked into their parlour the other afternoon. They haven't +any feelings—you might as well expect to get feeling out of a fish."</p> + +<p>They met Starmidge in the Market-Place—talking to Parkinson. Neale told +the news to both. The journalist dashed into his office for his hat, and +made off to Ellersdeane Hollow: Starmidge turned to the police-station +with his information.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No one else knows, I suppose?" he remarked, as they went along.</p> + +<p>"Gabriel Chestermarke knows," answered Neale. "We met him as we were +coming off the moor and I told him."</p> + +<p>"Show any surprise?" asked the detective.</p> + +<p>"Neither surprise nor anything else," said Neale. "Absolutely +unaffected!"</p> + +<p>Polke, hearing the news, immediately bustled into activity, sending for +a cab in which to drive along the road to a point near Ellersdeane +Tower, from which they could reach the lead mine. But he shook his head +when he saw that Betty meant to return.</p> + +<p>"Don't, miss!" he urged. "Stay here in town—you'd far better. It's not +a nice job for ladies, aught of that sort. Wait at the hotel—do, now!"</p> + +<p>"Doing nothing!" exclaimed Betty. "That would be far worse. Let me +go—I'm not afraid of anything. And to hang about, waiting and +wondering—"</p> + +<p>Neale, who had been about to enter the cab with the police, drew back.</p> + +<p>"You go on," he said to Polke. "Get things through—Miss Fosdyke and I +will walk slowly back there. We won't come close up till you can tell us +something definite. Don't you see she's anxious about her uncle?—we +can't keep her waiting."</p> + +<p>He rejoined Betty as Polke and his men drove off: together they turned +again in the direction of the bridge. Once across it and on the moor, +Neale made the girl sit down on a ledge of rock at some distance from +the lead mine, but within sight of it: he himself, while he talked to +her, stood watching the figures<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> grouped about the shaft. Creasy had +evidently succeeded in getting help at once: Neale saw men fixing a +windlass over the mouth of the old mine; saw a man at last disappear +into its depths. And after a long pause he saw from the movements of the +other men that the body had been drawn to the surface and that they were +bending over it. A moment later, Starmidge separated himself from the +rest, and came in Neale's direction. He nodded his head energetically at +Betty as he drew within speaking distance.</p> + +<p>"All right, Miss Fosdyke!" he said. "It's not your uncle. But—it's the +other man, Mr. Neale!—no doubt of it!"</p> + +<p>"Hollis!" exclaimed Neale.</p> + +<p>"It's the man described by Mrs. Pratt and Simmons—that's certain," +answered the detective. "So there's one mystery settled—though it makes +all the rest stranger than ever. Now, Miss Fosdyke, that'll be some +relief to you—so don't come any nearer. But just spare Mr. Neale a few +minutes—I want to speak to him."</p> + +<p>Betty obediently turned back to the ledge of rock, and Neale walked with +Starmidge towards the group around the shaft.</p> + +<p>"Can you tell anything?" he asked. "Are there any signs of violence?—I +mean, does it look as if he'd been——"</p> + +<p>"Thrown in there?" said the detective calmly. "Ah!—it's a bit early to +decide that. The only thing I'm thinking of now is the fact that this is +Hollis! That's certain, Mr. Neale. Now what could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> he be doing on this +lonely bit of ground? Where does this track lead?"</p> + +<p>"It's a short cut from Scarnham Bridge corner to the middle of +Ellersdeane village," answered Neale, pointing one way and then the +other.</p> + +<p>"And Gabriel Chestermarke lives in Ellersdeane, doesn't he?" asked +Starmidge. "Or close by?"</p> + +<p>Neale indicated certain chimneys rising amongst the trees on the far +side of the Hollow. "He lives there—The Warren," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Um!" mused Starmidge. "I wonder if this poor fellow was making his way +there—to see him?"</p> + +<p>"How should he—a stranger—know of this short cut?" demurred Neale. "I +don't think that's very likely."</p> + +<p>"That's true—unless he'd had it pointed out to him," rejoined +Starmidge. "It's odd, anyway, that his body should be found half-way, as +it were, between Gabriel Chestermarke's place and Joseph Chestermarke's +house—isn't it now? But, Lord bless you!—we're only on the fringe of +this business as yet. Well—just take a look at him."</p> + +<p>Neale walked within the group of bystanders, feeling an intense dislike +and loathing of the whole thing. In obedience to Starmidge's wish, he +looked steadily at the dead man and turned away.</p> + +<p>"You don't know him?—never saw him during the five years you were at +the bank?" whispered the detective. "Think!—make certain, now."</p> + +<p>"Never saw him in my life!" declared Neale, stepping back. "I neither +know him nor anything about him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I wanted you to make sure," said Starmidge. "I thought you +might—possibly—recollect him as somebody who'd called at the bank +during your time."</p> + +<p>"No!" said Neale. "Certainly not! I've never set eyes on him until now. +Of course, he's Hollis, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, without doubt!" answered Polke, who caught Neale's question as he +came up. "He's Hollis, right enough. Mr. Neale—here's a difficulty. +It's a queer thing, but there isn't one of us here who knows if this +spot is in Scarnham or in Ellersdeane. Do you? Is it within our borough +boundary, or is it in Ellersdeane parish? The Ellersdeane policeman +there doesn't know, and I'm sure I don't! It's a point of importance, +because the inquest'll have to be held in the parish in which the body +was found."</p> + +<p>The Ellersdeane constable who had followed Polke suddenly raised a +finger and pointed across the heather.</p> + +<p>"Here's a gentleman coming as might know, Mr. Polke," he said. "Mr. +Chestermarke!"</p> + +<p>Neale and Starmidge turned sharply—to see the banker advancing quickly +from the adjacent road. A cab, drawn up a little distance off, showed +that he had driven out to hear the latest news.</p> + +<p>Polke stepped forward to meet the new-comer: Gabriel greeted him in his +usual impassive fashion.</p> + +<p>"This body been recovered?" he asked quietly.</p> + +<p>"A few minutes ago, Mr. Chestermarke," answered Polke. "Will you look at +it?"</p> + +<p>Gabriel moved aside the group of men without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> further word, and the +others followed him. He looked steadily at the dead man's face and +withdrew.</p> + +<p>"Not known to me," he said, in answer to an inquiring glance from Polke. +"Hollis, I suppose, of course."</p> + +<p>He went off again as suddenly as he had come—and Starmidge drew Neale +aside.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Neale!" he whispered, with a nearer approach to excitement than +Neale had yet seen in him. "Did you see Gabriel Chestermarke's eyes? +He's a liar! As sure as my name's Starmidge, he's a liar! Mr. Neale!—he +knows that dead man!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h2>THE INCOMPLETE CHEQUE</h2> + +<p>Neale, startled and amazed by this sudden outburst on the part of a man +whom up to that time he had taken to be unusually cool-headed and +phlegmatic, did not immediately answer. He was watching the Ellersdeane +constable, who was running after Gabriel Chestermarke's rapidly +retreating figure. He saw Gabriel stop, listen to an evident question, +and then lift his hand and point to various features of the Hollow. The +policeman touched his helmet, and came back to Polke.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Chestermarke, sir, says the moorland is in three parishes," he +reported pantingly. "From Scarnham Bridge corner to Ellersdeane Tower +yonder is in Scarnham parish: this side the Hollow is in Ellersdeane; +everything beyond the Tower is in Middlethorpe."</p> + +<p>"Then we're in Scarnham," said Polke. "He'll have to be taken down to +the town mortuary. We'd better see to it at once. What are you going to +do, Starmidge?" he asked, as the detective turned away with Neale.</p> + +<p>"I'll take this short cut back," said Starmidge. "I want to get to the +post-office. Yes, sir!" he went on, as he and Neale slowly walked +towards Betty. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> say—he knew him! knew him, Mr. Neale, knew him!—as +soon as ever he clapped his eyes on him!"</p> + +<p>"You're very certain about it," said Neale.</p> + +<p>"Dead certain!" exclaimed the detective. "I was watching him—purposely. +I've taught myself to watch men. The slightest quiver of a lip—the +least bit of light in an eye—the merest twitch of a little finger—ah! +don't I know 'em all, and know what they mean! And, when Gabriel +Chestermarke stepped up to look at that body, I was watching that face +of his as I've never watched mortal man before!"</p> + +<p>"And you saw—what?" asked Neale.</p> + +<p>"I saw—Recognition!" said Starmidge. "Recognition, sir! I'll stake my +reputation as a detective officer that Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke has seen +that dead man before. He mayn't know him personally. He may never have +spoken to him. But—he knew him! He'd seen him!"</p> + +<p>"Will your conviction of that help at all?" inquired Neale.</p> + +<p>"It'll help me," replied the detective quickly. "I'm gradually getting +some ideas. But I shan't tell Polke—nor anybody else—of it. You can +tell Miss Fosdyke if you like—she'll understand: women have more +intuition than men. Now I'm off—I want to get a wire away to London. +Look here—drop in at the police-station when you get back. We shall +examine Hollis's clothing, you know—there may be some clue to Horbury."</p> + +<p>He hurried off towards the town, and Neale rejoined Betty. And as they +slowly followed the detective,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> he told her what Starmidge had just said +with such evident belief—and Betty understood, as Starmidge had +prophesied, and she grew more thoughtful than ever.</p> + +<p>"When are we going to find a way out of all this miserable business!" +she suddenly exclaimed. "Are we any nearer a solution because of what's +just happened? Does that help us to finding out what's become of my +uncle?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose one thing's sure to lead to another," said Neale. "That seems +to be the detective's notion, anyhow. If Starmidge is so certain that +Gabriel Chestermarke knew Hollis, he'll work that for all it's worth. +It's my opinion—whatever that's worth!—that Hollis came down here to +see the Chestermarkes. Did he see them? There's the problem. If one +could only find out—that!"</p> + +<p>"I wish you and I could do something—apart from the police," suggested +Betty. "Isn't there anything we could do?"</p> + +<p>Neale pointed ahead to the high roof of Joseph Chestermarke's house +across the river.</p> + +<p>"There's one thing I'd like to do—if I could," he answered. "I'd just +like to know all the secrets of that place! That there are some I'm as +certain as that we're crossing this moor. You see that queer-shaped +structure—sort of conical chimney—sticking up amongst the trees in +Joseph Chestermarke's garden? That's a workshop, or a laboratory, or +something, in which Joseph spends his leisure moments. I'd like to know +what he does there. But nobody knows! Nobody is ever allowed in that +house, nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> in the garden. I don't know a single soul in all Scarnham +that's ever been inside either. I'm perfectly certain Mr. Horbury was +never asked there. Once Joseph's across his thresholds, back or front, +there's an end of him—till he comes out again!"</p> + +<p>"But—he doesn't live entirely alone, does he?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>"As near as can be," replied Neale. "His entire staff consists of an old +man and an old woman—man and wife—who've been with him—oh, ever since +he was born, I believe! You may have seen the old man about the +town—old Palfreman. Everybody knows him—queer, old-fashioned chap: he +goes out to buy in whatever's wanted: the old woman never shows. That's +the trio that live in there—a queer lot, aren't they?"</p> + +<p>"It's all queer!" sighed Betty. "But now that this unfortunate man's +body has been found—Wallie! do you think it possible he was thrown down +that mine? That would mean murder!"</p> + +<p>"If he was thrown down there, already dead," answered Neale grimly, "it +would not only mean murder but that more than one person was concerned +in it. We shall know more when they've examined the body and searched +the clothing. I'm going round to the police-station when I've seen you +back to the hotel—I'm hoping they'll find something that'll settle the +one point that's so worrying."</p> + +<p>"Which point?" asked Betty.</p> + +<p>"The real critical point—in my opinion," answered Neale. "Who it was +that Hollis came to see on Saturday? There may be letters, papers, on +him that'll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> settle that. And if we once know that—ah! that will make a +difference! Because then—then——"</p> + +<p>"What then?" demanded Betty.</p> + +<p>"Then the police can ask that person if Hollis did meet him!" exclaimed +Neale. "And they can ask, too, what that person did with Hollis. Solve +that, and we'll see daylight!"</p> + +<p>But Betty shook her head with clear indications of doubt as to the +validity of this theory.</p> + +<p>"No!" she said. "It won't come off, Wallie. If there's been foul play, +the guilty people will have had too much cleverness to leave any +evidences on their victim. I don't believe they'll find anything on +Hollis that'll clear things up. Daylight isn't coming from that +quarter!"</p> + +<p>"Where are we to look for it, then?" asked Neale dismally.</p> + +<p>"It's somewhere far back," declared Betty. "I've felt that all along. +The secret of all this affair isn't in anything that's been done here +and lately—it's in something deep down. And how to get at it, and to +find out about my uncle, I don't know."</p> + +<p>Neale felt it worse than idle to offer more theories—speculation was +becoming useless. He left Betty at the Scarnham Arms, and went round to +the police-station to meet Starmidge: together they went over to the +mortuary. And before noon they knew all that medical examination and +careful searching could tell them about the dead man.</p> + +<p>Hollis, said the police-surgeon and another medical man who had been +called in to assist him, bore no marks of violence other than those +which were inevitable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> in the case of a man who had fallen seventy feet. +His neck was broken; he must have died instantaneously. There was +nothing to show that there had been any struggle previous to his fall. +Had such a struggle taken place, the doctors would have expected to find +certain signs and traces of it on the body: there were none. Everything +seemed to point to the theory that he had leaned over the insecure +fencing of the old shaft to look into its depths; probably to drop +stones into them; that the loose, unmortared parapet had given way with +his weight, and that he had plunged headlong to the bottom. He might +have been pushed in—from behind—of course, but that was conjecture. +Under ordinary circumstances, agreed both doctors, everything would have +seemed to point to accident. And one of them suggested that it was very +probable that what really had happened was this—Hollis, on his way to +call on some person in the neighbourhood, or on his return from such a +call, had crossed the moor, been attracted by inquisitiveness to the old +mine, had leaned over its parapet, and fallen in. Accident!—it all +looked like sheer accident.</p> + +<p>In one of the rooms at the police-station, Neale anxiously watched Polke +and Starmidge examine the dead man's clothing and personal effects. The +detective rapidly laid aside certain articles of the sort which he +evidently expected to find—a purse, a cigar-case; the usual small +things found in a well-to-do man's pockets; a watch and chain; a ring or +two. He gave no particular attention to any of these beyond ascertaining +that there was a good deal of loose money<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> in the purse—some twelve or +fifteen pounds in gold—and pointing out that the watch had stopped at +ten minutes to eight.</p> + +<p>"That shows the time of the accident," he remarked.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" suggested Polke doubtfully. "It may merely mean that the +watch ran itself out then."</p> + +<p>Starmidge picked up the watch—a stem winder—and examined it.</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "it's broken—by the fall. See there!—the spring's +snapped. Ten minutes to eight, Saturday night, Mr. Polke—that's when +this affair happened. Now then, this is what I want!"</p> + +<p>From an inner pocket of the dead man's smart morning-coat, he drew a +morocco-leather letter-case, and carefully extracted the papers from it. +With Neale looking on at one side, and Polke at the other, Starmidge +examined every separate paper. Nothing that he found bore any reference +to Scarnham. There were one or two bills—from booksellers—made out to +Frederick Hollis, Esquire. There was a folded playbill which showed that +Mr. Hollis had recently been to a theatre, and—because of some +pencilled notes on its margins—had taken an unusual interest in what he +saw there. There were two or three letters from correspondents who +evidently shared with Mr. Hollis a taste for collecting old books and +engravings. There were some cuttings from newspapers: they, too, related +to collecting. And Neale suddenly got an idea.</p> + +<p>"I say!" he exclaimed. "Mr. Horbury was a bit of a collector of that +sort of thing, as you probably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> saw from his house. This man may have +run down to see him about some affair of that sort."</p> + +<p>But at that moment Starmidge unfolded a slip of paper which he had drawn +from an inner pocket of the letter-case. He gave one glance at it, and +laid it flat on the table before his companions.</p> + +<p>"No!" he said. "That's probably what brought Hollis down to Scarnham! A +cheque for ten thousand pounds! And—incomplete!"</p> + +<p>The three men bent wonderingly over the bit of pink paper. Neale's quick +eyes took in its contents at a glance.</p> + +<p><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;"><span class="smcap">London</span>: <i>May 12th, 1912</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 15em;"><span class="smcap">Vanderkiste, Mullineau & Company</span>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 20em;">563 <span class="smcap">Lombard Street, E.C.</span></span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Pay .............................. or Order</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">the sum of Ten Thousand Pounds</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">£10,000.00.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 26em;">...................</span><br /><br /> +</p> + +<p>"That's extraordinary!" exclaimed Neale. "Date and amount filled in—and +the names of payee and drawer omitted! What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Starmidge, "when we know that, Mr. Neale, we shall know a +lot! But I'm pretty sure of one thing. Mr. Hollis came down here +intending to pay somebody ten thousand pounds. And—he wasn't exactly +certain who that somebody was!"</p> + +<p>"Good!" muttered Polke. "Good! That looks like it."</p> + +<p>"So," said Starmidge, "he didn't fill in either the name of the payee or +his own name until he was—sure! See, Mr. Neale!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why did he fill in the amount?" remarked Neale, sceptically.</p> + +<p>Starmidge winked at Polke.</p> + +<p>"Very likely to dangle before somebody's eyes," he answered slyly. +"Can't you reconstruct the scene, Mr. Neale? 'Here you are!' says +Hollis, showing this cheque. 'Ten thousand of the very best, lying to be +picked up at my bankers. Say the word, and I'll fill in your name and +mine!' Lay you a pound to a penny that's been it, gentlemen!"</p> + +<p>"Good!" repeated Polke. "Good, sergeant! I believe you're right. Now, +what'll you do about it?"</p> + +<p>The detective carefully folded up the cheque and replaced it in the slit +from which he had taken it. He also replaced all the other papers, put +the letter-case in a stout envelope and handed it to the superintendent.</p> + +<p>"Seal it up and put it away in your safe till the inquest tomorrow," he +said. "What shall I do? Oh, well—you needn't mention it, either of you, +except to Miss Fosdyke, of course—but as soon as the inquest is +adjourned—as it'll have to be—I shall slip back to town and see those +bankers. I don't know, but I don't think it's likely that Mr. Hollis +would have ten thousand pounds always lying at his bank. I should say +this ten thousand has been lodged there for a special purpose. And what +I shall want to find out from them, in that case, is—what special +purpose? And—what had it to do with Scarnham, or anybody at Scarnham? +See? And I'll tell you what, Mr. Polke—I don't know whether we'll +produce that cheque at the inquest on Hollis—at first, anyhow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> The +coroner's bound to adjourn—all he'll want tomorrow will be formal +identification of the body—all other evidence can be left till later. +I've wired for Simmons—he'll be able to identify. No—we'll keep this +cheque business back till I've been to London. I shall find out +something from Vanderkistes—they're highly respectable private bankers, +and they'll tell me——"</p> + +<p>At that moment a policeman entered the room and presented Polke with a +card.</p> + +<p>"Gentleman's just come in, sir," he said. "Wants to see you particular."</p> + +<p>Polke glanced at the card, and read the name aloud, with a start of +surprise: "Mr. Leonard Hollis!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h2>THE DEAD MAN'S BROTHER</h2> + +<p>Polke hastily followed the policeman from the room—to return +immediately with a quiet-looking elderly gentleman in whom Neale and +Starmidge saw a distinct likeness to the dead man.</p> + +<p>"His brother!" whispered Polke, as he handed a chair to the visitor. "So +you've seen about this in the newspapers, sir?" he went on, turning to +Mr. Leonard Hollis. "And you thought you'd better come over, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"I have not only read about it in the newspapers," answered the visitor, +"but I last night—very late—received a telegram from my brother's +clerk—Mr. Simmons—who evidently found my address at my brother's +rooms. So I left Birmingham—where I now live—at once, to see you. Now, +have you heard anything of my brother?"</p> + +<p>Polke shook his head solemnly and warningly.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to say we have, sir," he replied. "You'd better prepare for +the worst news, Mr. Hollis. We found the body this morning—not two +hours ago. And—we don't know, as yet, how he came by his death. The +doctors say it may have been pure accident. Let's hope it was! But there +are strange circumstances, sir—very strange!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> + +<p>Hollis quietly rose from his chair.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I can see him?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Polke led him out of the room, and Starmidge turned to Neale.</p> + +<p>"We're gradually getting at something, Mr. Neale," he said. "All this +leads somewhere, you know. Now, since we found that incomplete cheque, +there's a question I wanted to ask you. You've left Chestermarke's Bank +now, and under the circumstances we're working in you needn't have any +delicacy about answering questions about them. Do you know of any recent +transaction of theirs which involved ten thousand pounds?"</p> + +<p>"No!" replied Neale. "I certainly don't."</p> + +<p>"Nor any sum approaching it?" suggested Starmidge. "Or exceeding it?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing whatever!" reiterated Neale. "I know of all recent banking +transactions at Chestermarke's, and I can't think—I've been thinking +since we saw that cheque—of anything that the cheque had to do with."</p> + +<p>"Well—it's a queer thing," remarked the detective meditatively. "I'll +lay anything Hollis brought that cheque down here for some specific +purpose—and who on earth is there in this place that he could bring it +to but Chestermarke's? However, we'll see if I don't trace something +about it when I get up to town, and then——"</p> + +<p>Polke and the dead man's brother came back, talking earnestly. The +superintendent carefully closed the door, and begging his visitor to be +seated again, turned to Starmidge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I've told Mr. Hollis all the main facts of the case," he said. "Of +course, he identified his brother at once."</p> + +<p>"When did you see him last, sir!" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Some eight or nine months ago," replied Hollis. "He came to see me, in +Birmingham. Previous to that, I hadn't seen him for several years. I +ought to tell you," he went on, turning to Polke, "that for a great many +years I have lived abroad—tea-planting in Ceylon. I came back to +England about a year ago, and eventually settled down at Edgbaston. I +suppose my brother's clerk found my address on an old letter or +something last night, and wired to me in consequence."</p> + +<p>"When Simmons was here," observed Starmidge, "he said that your brother +seemed to have no relations."</p> + +<p>"I daresay Simmons would get that impression," remarked Hollis. "My +brother was a very reserved man, who was not likely to talk much of his +family. As a matter of fact, I am about the only relation he had—except +some half-cousins, or something of that sort."</p> + +<p>"Can you tell us anything about your brother's position?" asked +Starmidge. "The clerk said he didn't practise very much, and had means +of his own."</p> + +<p>"Quite true," assented Hollis. "I believe he had a comfortable income, +apart from his practice—perhaps five or six hundred a year. He +mentioned to me that he only did business for old clients."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you think he'd be likely to have a sum of ten thousand pounds lying +at his bankers?" inquired Starmidge.</p> + +<p>Hollis looked sharply at the detective and then shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Not unless it was for some special purpose," he answered. "He might +have such a sum if he'd been selling out securities for re-investment. +But my impression is—in fact, it's more than an impression—I'm sure +that he bought himself an annuity of about the amount I mentioned just +now, some years ago. You see, he'd no children, and he knew that I was a +well-to-do man, so—he used his capital in that a way."</p> + +<p>"Would you be surprised to see a cheque of his drawn for ten thousand +pounds?" asked Starmidge suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Frankly, I should!" replied Hollis, with a smile. "That is, if it was +on his private account."</p> + +<p>"Do you happen to know who kept his private account?" inquired +Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Hollis. "He banked with an old private firm called +Vanderkiste, Mullineau & Company, of Lombard Street."</p> + +<p>Starmidge, after a whispered word with Polke, took up the envelope in +which he had placed the dead man's letter-case, and produced the cheque.</p> + +<p>"Look at that, sir," he said, laying it before the visitor. "Is that +your brother's handwriting?"</p> + +<p>"His handwriting—oh, yes!" exclaimed Hollis. "Most certainly! +But—there's no signature!"</p> + +<p>"No—and there's no name of any payee," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> Starmidge. "That's where +the mystery comes in. But—this—and this letter-case and its +contents—was found on him, and there's no doubt he came down to +Scarnham intending to pay that cheque to somebody. You can't throw any +light on that, sir?"</p> + +<p>The visitor, who continued to regard the cheque with evident amazement, +at last turned away from it and glanced at his three companions.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "I don't know that I can. But one principal reason why +I hurried here, after getting Simmons' telegram last night, is this: In +the newspapers there is a good deal of mention of a Mr. John Horbury, +manager of a bank in this town. He, too, you tell me, has disappeared. +Now, I happen to possess a remarkably good memory, and it was at once +stirred by seeing that name. My brother Frederick and I were at school +together at Selburgh—Selburgh Grammar School, you know—quite +thirty-five or six years ago. One of our schoolmates was a John Horbury. +And—he came from this place—Scarnham."</p> + +<p>The three listeners looked at each other. And Neale started, as if at +some sudden reminiscence, and he spoke quickly.</p> + +<p>"I've heard Mr. Horbury speak of his school-days at Selburgh!" he said. +"And—now I come to think of it—he had some books with the school +coat-of-arms on the sides—prizes."</p> + +<p>"Just so!" remarked Hollis. "I remember Jack Horbury very well indeed, +though I never saw him after I left school, nor heard of him either, +until I saw all this news about him in the papers. Of course,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> your +missing bank manager is the John Horbury my brother and I were at school +with! And I take it that the reason my brother came down to Scarnham +last Saturday was—to see John Horbury."</p> + +<p>Starmidge had been listening to all this with close attention. He was +now more than ever convinced that he was at last on some track—but so +far he could not see many steps ahead. Nevertheless, his next step was +clearly enough discernible.</p> + +<p>"You say you saw your brother some eight or nine months ago, sir?" he +remarked. "Did he mention Mr. Horbury to you at that time?"</p> + +<p>"No, he didn't," replied Hollis.</p> + +<p>"Did he ever—recently, I mean—ever mention his name to you in a +letter?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"No—never! I don't know," said Hollis, "that he or I ever spoke to each +other of John Horbury from the time we left school. John Horbury was +not, as it were, a very particular chum of ours. We knew him—as we knew +a hundred other boys. As I have already told you, the two names, +Horbury, Scarnham, in the newspapers yesterday, immediately recalled +John Horbury, our schoolmate, to me. Up to then, I don't suppose I'd +ever thought of him for—years! And I don't suppose he'd ever thought of +me, or of my brother. Yet—I feel sure my brother came here to see him. +For business reasons, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"The odd thing about that, Mr. Hollis," remarked Polke, "is that we +can't find the slightest reason, either from anybody here, or from your +brother's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> clerk in London, why your brother should come to see Horbury, +whether for business, or for any other purpose. And as to his +remembering Mr. Frederick Hollis, well, here's Mr. Neale—Mr. Horbury +was his guardian—and Mr. Neale, of course, has known him all his life. +Now, Mr. Neale never heard him mention Mr. Frederick Hollis by name at +any time. And there's now staying in the town Mr. Horbury's niece, Miss +Fosdyke; she, too, never heard her uncle speak of any Mr. Hollis. Then, +as to business—the partners at Chestermarke's Bank declare that they +know nothing whatever of your brother—Mr. Gabriel, the senior partner, +has seen the poor gentleman, and didn't recognize him. So—we at any +rate, are as wise as ever. We don't know what your brother came here +for!"</p> + +<p>Hollis bowed his head in full acceptance of the superintendent's +remarks. But he looked up at Starmidge and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Exactly!" he said. "I quite understand you, Mr. Polke. But—I am +convinced that my brother came here to see John Horbury. Why he came, I +know no more than you do—but I hope to know!"</p> + +<p>"You'll stay in the town a bit, sir?" suggested Polke. "You'll want to +make arrangements for your poor brother's funeral, of course. Aught that +we can do, sir, to help, shall be done."</p> + +<p>"I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Polke," replied Hollis. "Yes, I shall +certainly stay in Scarnham. In fact," he went on, rising and looking +quietly from one man to the other, "I shall stay in Scarnham<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> until I, +or you, or somebody have satisfactorily explained how my brother came to +his death! I shall spare neither effort nor money to get at the +truth—that's my determination!"</p> + +<p>"There's somebody else in like case with you, Mr. Hollis," observed +Polke. "Miss Fosdyke's just as concerned about her uncle as you are +about your brother. She declares she'll spend a fortune on finding +him—or finding out what's happened to him. It was Miss Fosdyke insisted +on having Detective-Sergeant Starmidge down at once."</p> + +<p>Hollis quietly scrutinized the detective.</p> + +<p>"Well?" he asked. "And what do you make of it?"</p> + +<p>But Starmidge was not in the mood for saying anything more just then, +and he put his questioner off, asking him, at the same time, to keep the +matter of the cheque to himself. Presently Hollis went away with Neale, +to whom he wished to talk, and Starmidge, after a period of what seemed +to be profound thought, turned to Polke.</p> + +<p>"Superintendent!" he said earnestly. "With your leave, I'd like to try +an experiment."</p> + +<p>"What experiment?" demanded Polke.</p> + +<p>Starmidge pointed to the ten thousand pound cheque, which was still +lying on the table.</p> + +<p>"I'd like to take that cheque across to Chestermarke's Bank, and show it +to the partners," he answered.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!—why?" exclaimed Polke. "I thought you didn't want +anybody to know about it."</p> + +<p>"Never mind—I've an idea," said the detective.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> "I'd just like them to +see it, anyway, and," he added, with a wink, "I'd like to see them when +they do see it!"</p> + +<p>"You know best," said Polke. "If you think it well, do it."</p> + +<p>Starmidge put the cheque in an envelope and walked over to the bank. He +was shown into the partners' room almost immediately, and the two men +glanced at him with evident curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to trouble you, gentlemen," said Starmidge, in his politest +manner. "There's a little matter you might help us in. We've been +searching this unfortunate gentleman's clothing, you know, for papers +and so on. And in his letter-case we found—this!"</p> + +<p>He had the cheque ready behind his back, and he suddenly brought it +forward, and laid it immediately before the partners, on Gabriel's desk, +at the same time stepping back so that he could observe both men.</p> + +<p>"Queer, isn't it, gentlemen?" he remarked quietly. "Incomplete!"</p> + +<p>Gabriel Chestermarke, in spite of his habitual control, started: Joseph, +bending nearer to the desk, made a curious sound of surprise. A second +later they both looked at Starmidge—each as calm as ever. "Well?" said +Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"You don't know anything about that, gentlemen?" asked Starmidge, +affecting great innocence.</p> + +<p>"Nothing!" answered Gabriel.</p> + +<p>"Of course not!" murmured Joseph, a little derisively.</p> + +<p>"I thought you might recognize that handwriting,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> suggested Starmidge, +using one of his previously invented excuses.</p> + +<p>"No!" replied Gabriel. "Don't know it!"</p> + +<p>"From Adam's writing," added Joseph.</p> + +<p>"You know the name of the bankers, I suppose, gentlemen?" asked the +detective.</p> + +<p>"Vanderkiste? Oh, yes!" assented Gabriel. "Well-known city firm. But I +don't think we've ever done business with them," he added, turning to +his nephew.</p> + +<p>"Never!" replied Joseph. "In my time, at any rate."</p> + +<p>Starmidge picked up the cheque and carefully replaced it in its +envelope.</p> + +<p>"Much obliged to you, gentlemen," he said, retreating towards the door. +"Oh!—you'll be interested in hearing, no doubt, that the dead man's +brother, Mr. Leonard Hollis, of Birmingham, has come. He's identified +the body."</p> + +<p>"And what does he think, or suggest?" asked Joseph, glancing out of the +corners of his eyes at Starmidge. "Has he any suggestions—or ideas?"</p> + +<p>"He thinks his brother came here to meet Mr. Horbury," answered +Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"That's so evident that it's no news," remarked Joseph. "Perhaps he can +suggest where Horbury's to be found."</p> + +<p>Starmidge bowed and went out and straight back to Polke. He handed him +the cheque and the letter-case.</p> + +<p>"Lock 'em up!" he said. "Now then, listen! You can do all that's +necessary about that inquest. I'm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> off to town. Sit down, and I'll tell +you why. And what I tell you, keep to yourself."</p> + +<p>That evening, Starmidge, who had driven quietly across the country from +Scarnham to Ecclesborough, joined a London express at the Midland +Station in the big town. The carriages were unusually full, and he had +some difficulty in finding the corner seat that he particularly desired. +But he got one, at last, at the very end of the train, and he had only +just settled himself in it when he saw Gabriel Chestermarke hurry past. +Starmidge put his head out of the window and watched—Gabriel entered a +first-class compartment in the next coach.</p> + +<p>"First stop Nottingham!" mused the detective. And he pulled a sheaf of +telegram forms out of his pocket, and leisurely began to write a message +which before he signed his name to it had run into many words.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h2>THE OTHER CHEQUE</h2> + +<p>Starmidge sent off his telegram when the train stopped at Nottingham, +and thereafter went to sleep, secure in the knowledge that it would be +promptly acted upon by its recipients. And when, soon after eleven +o'clock, the express ran into St. Pancras, he paid no particular +attention to Gabriel Chestermarke. He had no desire, indeed, that the +banker should see him, and he hung back when the crowded carriages +cleared, and the platform became a scene of bustle and animation. But he +had no difficulty in distinguishing Gabriel's stiffly erect figure as it +made its way towards the hall of the station, and his sharp eyes were +quick to notice a quietly dressed, unobtrusive sort of man who sauntered +along, caught sight of the banker, and swung round to follow him. +Starmidge watched both pass along towards the waiting lines of +vehicles—then he turned on his heel and went to the refreshment room +and straight to a man who evidently expected him.</p> + +<p>"You got the wire in good time, then?" said Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Plenty!" answered the other man laconically. "I've put a good man on to +him. See anything of them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—but I didn't know our man," remarked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> Starmidge. "Who is he? Will +he do what I want?"</p> + +<p>"He's all right—fellow who's just been promoted, and, of course, he's +naturally keen," replied Starmidge's companion. "Name of Gandam. That +was a pretty good and full description of the man you want followed, +Starmidge," he went on, with a smile. "You don't leave much out!"</p> + +<p>"I didn't want him to be overlooked, and I didn't want to show up +myself," said Starmidge. "I noticed that our man spotted him quick. Now, +look here—I'll be at headquarters first thing tomorrow morning—I want +this chap Gandam's report. Nine-thirty sharp! Now we'll have a drink, +and I'll get home."</p> + +<p>"Good case, this?" asked the other man, as they pledged each other. +"Getting on with it?"</p> + +<p>"Tell you more tomorrow," answered Starmidge. "When—and if—I know +more. Nine-thirty, mind!"</p> + +<p>But when Starmidge met his companion of the night before at nine-thirty +next morning, it was to find him in conversation with the other man, and +to see dissatisfaction on the countenances of both. And Starmidge, a +naturally keen observer, knew what had happened. He frowned as he looked +at Gandam.</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say he slipped you!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"I don't know about slipped," muttered Gandam. "I lost him, anyway, Mr. +Starmidge, and I don't see how I can be blamed, either. Perhaps you +might have done differently, but——"</p> + +<p>"Tell about it!" interrupted Starmidge. "What happened?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I spotted him, of course, from your description, as soon as he got out +of the train," replied Gandam. "No mistaking him, naturally—he's an +extra good one to watch. He'd no luggage—not even a handbag. I followed +him to the taxi-cabs. I was close by when he stepped into one, and I +heard what he said. 'Stage door—Adalbert Theatre.' Off he went—I +followed in another taxi. I stopped mine and got out, just in time to +see him walk up the entry to the stage-door. He went in. It was then +half-past eleven; they were beginning to close. I waited and waited +until at last they closed the stage-door. I'll take my oath he'd never +come out!—never!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge made a face of intense disgust.</p> + +<p>"No, of course he hadn't!" he exclaimed. "He'd gone out at the front. I +suppose that never struck you? I know that stage-door of the +Adalbert—it's up a passage. If you'd stood at the end of that passage, +man, you could have kept an eye on the front and stage-door at the same +time. But, of course, it never struck you that a man could go in at the +back of a place and come out at the front, did it? Well—that's off for +the present. And so am I."</p> + +<p>Vexed and disappointed that Gabriel Chestermarke had not been tracked to +wherever he was staying in London, Starmidge went out, hailed a +taxi-cab, and was driven down to the city. He did not particularly +concern himself about Gabriel's visit to the stage-door of the Adalbert +Theatre; it was something, after all, to know he had gone there: if need +arose, he might be traced from that theatre, in which, very possibly, he +had some financial interest. What Starmidge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> had desired to ascertain +was the banker's London address: he had already learned in Scarnham that +Gabriel Chestermarke was constantly in London for days at a time—he +must have some permanent address at which he could be found. And +Starmidge foresaw that he might wish to find him—perhaps in a hurry.</p> + +<p>But just then his chief concern was with another banking +firm—Vanderkiste's. He walked slowly along Lombard Street until he came +to the house—a quiet, sober, eminently respectable-looking old business +place, quite unlike the palatial affairs in which the great banking +corporations of modern origin carry on their transactions. There was no +display of marble and plaster and plate glass and mahogany and heavy +plethoric fittings—a modest brass plate affixed to the door was the +only sign and announcement that banking business was carried on within. +Equally old-fashioned and modest was the interior—and Starmidge was +quick to notice that the clerks were all elderly or middle-aged men, +solemn and grave as undertakers.</p> + +<p>The presentation of the detective's official card procured him speedy +entrance to a parlour in which sat two old gentlemen, who were evidently +greatly surprised to see him. They were so much surprised indeed, as to +be almost childishly interested, and Starmidge had never had such +attentive listeners in his life as these two elderly city men, to whom +crime and detention were as unfamiliar as higher finance was to their +visitor. They followed Starmidge's story point by point, nodding every +now and then as he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> drew their attention to particular passages, and the +detective saw that they comprehended all he said. He made an end at +last—and Mr. Vanderkiste, a white-bearded, benevolent-looking +gentleman, looked at Mr. Mullineau, a little, rosy-faced man, and shook +his head.</p> + +<p>"It would be an unusual thing, certainly," he observed, "for Mr. +Frederick Hollis to have ten thousand pounds lying here to his credit. +Mr. Hollis was an old customer—we knew him very well—but he didn't +keep a lot of money here. We—er—know his circumstances. He bought +himself a very nice annuity some years ago—it was paid into his account +here twice a year. But—ten thousand pounds!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Mullineau leaned forward.</p> + +<p>"We don't know if Frederick Hollis paid any large amount in lately, you +know," he observed. "Hadn't you better summon Linthwaite?"</p> + +<p>"Our manager," remarked Mr. Vanderkiste, as he touched a bell. "Ah, yes, +of course—he'll know. Mr. Linthwaite," he continued, as another elderly +man entered the room, "can you tell us what Mr. Frederick Hollis's +balance in our hands is?"</p> + +<p>"I have just been looking it up, sir," replied the manager, "in +consequence of this sad news in the papers. Ten thousand, eight hundred, +seventy-nine, five, four, Mr. Vanderkiste."</p> + +<p>"Ten thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine pounds, five shillings and +fourpence," repeated Mr. Vanderkiste. "Ah! An unusually large amount, I +think, Mr. Linthwaite?"</p> + +<p>"Just so, sir," agreed the manager. "The reason<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> is that rather more +than a week ago Mr. Hollis called here himself with a cheque for ten +thousand pounds which he paid into his account, explaining to me that it +had been handed to him for a special purpose, and that he should draw a +cheque for his own against it, for the same amount, very shortly."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" remarked Mr. Vanderkiste. "Has the cheque which he paid in been +cleared?"</p> + +<p>"We cleared it at once," replied the manager. "Oh, yes! But the cheque +which Mr. Hollis spoke of drawing against it has not come in—and now, +of course——"</p> + +<p>"Just so," said Mr. Vanderkiste. "Now that he's dead, of course, his +cheque is no good. Um! That will do, thank you, Mr. Linthwaite."</p> + +<p>He turned and looked at Starmidge when the manager had withdrawn.</p> + +<p>"That explains matters," he said. "The ten thousand pounds had been paid +to Mr. Frederick Hollis for a special purpose."</p> + +<p>"But—by whom?" asked Starmidge. "That's precisely what I want to know! +The knowledge will help me—ah!—I don't know how much it mayn't help +me! For there's no doubt about it, gentlemen, Hollis went down to +Scarnham to pay ten thousand pounds to somebody on somebody else's +account! He was, I am sure, as it were, ambassador for somebody. Who +was—who is—that somebody? Almost certainly, the person who gave Hollis +the cheque your manager has just mentioned—and whose ten thousand +pounds is, as a matter of fact, still lying in your hands! Who is that +person? What bank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> was the cheque drawn on? Let me have an answer to +both these questions, and——"</p> + +<p>The two old gentlemen exchanged looks, and Mr. Mullineau quietly rose +and left the room. In his absence Mr. Vanderkiste shook his head at the +detective.</p> + +<p>"A very, very queer case, officer!" he remarked.</p> + +<p>"An extraordinary case, sir," agreed Starmidge. "Before we get to the +end of it there'll be some strange revelations, Mr. Vanderkiste."</p> + +<p>"So I should imagine—so I should imagine!" assented the old gentleman. +"Very remarkable proceedings altogether! We shall be deeply interested +in hearing how matters progress. Of course, this affair of the ten +thousand pounds is very curious. We——"</p> + +<p>Mr. Mullineau came back—with a slip of paper, which he handed to the +detective.</p> + +<p>"That gives you the information you want," he said.</p> + +<p>Starmidge read aloud what the manager had written down on his +principal's instructions.</p> + +<p>"Drawer—Helen Lester," he read. "Bank—London & Universal: Pall Mall +Branch." He looked up at the two partners. "I suppose you gentlemen +don't know who this Mrs. or Miss Helen Lester is?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"No—not at all," answered Mr. Mullineau. "Nor does Linthwaite. I +thought Mr. Hollis might have told him something about that special +purpose. But—he told him nothing."</p> + +<p>"You'll have to go to the London & Universal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> people," observed Mr. +Vanderkiste. "They, of course, will know all about this customer."</p> + +<p>Mullineau looked inquiringly at his partner.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think that—as there are almost certain to be some +complications about this matter—Linthwaite had better go with Detective +Starmidge?" he suggested. "The situation, as regards the ten thousand +pounds, is a somewhat curious one. This Miss or Mrs. Lester will want to +recover it. Now, according to what Mr. Starmidge tells us, no body, so +far as he's aware, is in possession of any facts, papers, letters, +anything, relating to it. I think there should be some consultation +between ourselves and this other bank which is concerned."</p> + +<p>"Excellent suggestion!" agreed Mr. Vanderkiste. "Let him go—by all +means."</p> + +<p>Half an hour later, Starmidge found himself closeted with another lot of +bankers. But these were younger men, who were quicker to grasp +situations and comprehend points, and they quickly understood what the +detective was after: moreover, they were already well posted up in those +details of the Scarnham mystery which had already appeared in the +newspapers.</p> + +<p>"What you want," said one of them, a young and energetic man, addressing +Starmidge at the end of their preliminary conversation, "is to find out +for what purpose Mrs. Lester gave Mr. Frederick Hollis ten thousand +pounds?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely," replied Starmidge. "It will go far towards clearing up a +good many things."</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt Mrs. Lester will tell you readily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> enough," said the +banker. "In fact, as things are, I should say she'll only be too glad to +give you any information you want. That ten thousand pounds being in +Messrs. Vanderkiste's hands, in Hollis's name, and Hollis being dead, +there will be bother—not serious, of course, but still formal +bother—about recovering it. Very well—Mrs. Lester, who, I may tell +you, is a wealthy customer of ours, lives in the country as a rule, and +I happen to know she's there now. I'll write down her address. Tell her, +by all means, that you have been to see us on the matter."</p> + +<p>Starmidge left Mr. Linthwaite talking with the London & Universal +people; he himself, now that he had got the desired information, had no +more to say. Outside the bank he opened the slip of paper which had just +been handed to him, and saw that another journey lay before him. Mrs. +Lester lived at Lowdale Court, near Chesham.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h2>ABOUT CENT PER CENT.</h2> + +<p>Starmidge, lingering a moment on the steps of the bank to consider +whether he would go straight to Chesham or repair to headquarters for a +consultation with his superior, was suddenly joined by the manager who +had just given him his information.</p> + +<p>"You are going down to Lowdale Court?" asked the manager.</p> + +<p>"During the morning—yes," answered Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"If it will be any help to you," said the manager, "I'll ring up Mrs. +Lester on the telephone, and let her know you're coming. She's rather a +nervous woman and it will pave the way for you if I give you a sort of +introduction. Besides—" here he paused, and looked at the detective +with an inquiring air—"don't you think Mrs. Lester had better be +warned—at once—not to speak of this matter until she's seen you?"</p> + +<p>"You think she may be approached?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>The manager wagged his head and smiled knowingly.</p> + +<p>"I think there's something so very queer about this affair that Mrs. +Lester ought to be seen at once," he said.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She shall be!" answered Starmidge. "Tell her I'll be down there within +two hours—I'll motor there. Thank you for your suggestion. Now I'll +just run to headquarters and then be straight off."</p> + +<p>He hailed a passing taxi-cab and drove to New Scotland Yard, where he +was presently closeted with a high personage in deep and serious +consultation, the result of which was that by twelve o'clock, Starmidge +and a fellow-officer, one Easleby, in whom he had great confidence, were +spinning away towards the beech-clad hills of Buckinghamshire, and +discussing the features and probabilities of the queer business which +took them there. Before two, they were in the pleasant valley which lies +between Chenies and Chesham and pulling up at the door of a fine old +Jacobean house, which, set in the midst of delightful lawns and gardens, +looked down on the windings of the river Chess. And practical as both +men were, and well experienced in their profession, it struck both as +strange that they should come to such a quiet and innocent-looking place +to seek some explanation of a mystery which had surely some connection +with crime.</p> + +<p>The two detectives were immediately shown into a morning room in which +sat a little, middle-aged lady in a widow's cap and weeds, who looked at +her visitors half-timidly, half-welcomingly. She sat by a small table on +which lay a heap of newspapers, and Starmidge's sharp eyes saw at once +that she had been reading the published details of the Scarnham affair.</p> + +<p>"You have no doubt been informed by your bankers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> that we were coming, +ma'am?" began Starmidge, when he and Easleby had seated themselves near +Mrs. Lester. "The manager there was good enough to say he'd telephone +you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lester, who had been curiously inspecting her callers and appeared +somewhat relieved to find that they were quite ordinary-looking beings, +entirely unlike her own preconceived notions of detectives, bowed her +head.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she answered, "my bankers telephoned that an officer from +Scotland Yard would call on me this morning, and that I was to speak +freely to him, and in confidence, but—I really don't quite know what it +is that I'm to talk to you about, though I suppose I can guess."</p> + +<p>"This, ma'am," answered Starmidge, bending towards the pile of +newspapers and tapping a staring head-line with his finger. "I see +you've been reading it up. I have been in charge of this affair since +Monday last, and I came up to town last night about it—specially. You +will have read in this morning's paper that the body of Mr. Frederick +Hollis was found at Scarnham yesterday?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Lester, with a sigh. "I have read of that. Of course, I +knew Mr. Hollis—he was an old friend of my husband. I saw him last +week. But—what took Mr. Hollis down to Scarnham? I have been in the +habit of seeing Mr. Hollis constantly—regularly—and I never even heard +him mention Scarnham, nor any person living at Scarnham. There are many +persons mentioned in these newspaper accounts," continued Mrs. Lester, +"in connection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> with this affair whose names I never heard before—yet +they are mentioned as if Mr. Hollis had something to do with them. Why +did he go there?"</p> + +<p>"That, ma'am, is precisely what we want to find out from you!" replied +Starmidge, with a side glance at his fellow-detective. "It's just what +we've come for!"</p> + +<p>He was watching Mrs. Lester very closely as he spoke, and he saw that up +to that moment she had certainly no explanation in her own mind as to +the reason of this police visit.</p> + +<p>"But what can I tell you?" she exclaimed. "As I have said, I don't know +why Frederick Hollis went to Scarnham! He never mentioned Scarnham to me +when he was here last week."</p> + +<p>"Let me tell you something that is not in the papers—yet—ma'am," said +Starmidge. "I think it will explain matters to you. When we examined Mr. +Hollis's effects at Scarnham, yesterday morning, after the finding of +his body, we found in his letter-case a cheque for ten thousand +pounds——"</p> + +<p>Starmidge stopped suddenly. Mrs. Lester had started, and her pale face +had grown paler. Her eyes dilated as she looked at the two men.</p> + +<p>"A cheque!" she exclaimed. "For—ten thousand pounds. On—him? +And—whose cheque?"</p> + +<p>"It was a curious cheque, ma'am," replied Starmidge. "It was drawn on +Mr. Hollis's bankers, Vanderkiste, Mullineau & Company, of Lombard +Street. It was dated. It was filled in for ten thousand pounds—in words +and in figures. But it was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> signed—and it was not made out to any +body. No name of payee, you understand, ma'am, no name of payer. But—it +is very evident Mr. Hollis made out that cheque intending to pay it +to—somebody. What we want to know is—who is—or was, that somebody? I +came up to town to try to find that out! I went to Mr. Hollis's bankers +this morning. They told me that last week Mr. Hollis paid into his +account there a cheque for ten thousand pounds, drawn by Helen Lester, +and told their manager that he should be drawing a cheque for his own +against it in a day or two. I then went to your bank, ma'am, saw your +bankers, and got your address. Now, Mrs. Lester, there's no doubt +whatever that the cheque which we found on Mr. Hollis is the cheque he +spoke of to Vanderkiste's manager. And we want you, if you please, to +tell us two things: For what purpose did you give Mr. Hollis ten +thousand pounds?—To whom was he to pay it? Tell us, ma'am—and we shall +have gone a long way to clearing this affair! And—it's more serious +than you'd think."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lester, who had listened to Starmidge with absorbed and almost +frightened attention, looked anxiously at both men before she replied to +the detective's direct inquiry.</p> + +<p>"You will respect my confidence, of course?" she asked at last. +"Whatever I say to you will be in strict confidence?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever you tell us, Mrs. Lester," answered Starmidge, "we shall have +to report to our superiors at the Criminal Investigation Department. You +may rely on their discretion—fully. But if there is any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> secret in +this, ma'am, it will all have to come out, now that it's an affair of +police investigation. Far better tell us here and now!"</p> + +<p>"There'll be no publication of anything without Mrs. Lester's knowledge +and consent," remarked Easleby, who guessed at the reason of the lady's +diffidence. "This is a private matter, so far. All that she can tell us +will be for police information—only."</p> + +<p>"I shall have to mention the affairs of—some other person," said Mrs. +Lester. "But—I suppose it's absolutely necessary? Now that you know +what you do, for instance, I suppose I could be made to give evidence, +eh!"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid you're quite right, ma'am," admitted Starmidge. "The mystery +of Mr. Hollis's death will certainly have to be cleared up. Now that +this cheque affair is out, you could be called as a witness at the +inquest. Better tell us, ma'am—and leave things to us."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lester, after a moment's reflection, looked steadily at her +visitors. "Very well!" she answered, "I suppose I had better. Indeed, I +have been feeling, ever since my bankers rang me up this morning, that I +should have to tell you—though I still can't see how anything that I +can tell you has to do—that is, precisely—with Mr. Hollis's visit to +Scarnham. Yet—it may—perhaps must have. The fact is, I recently called +in Mr. Hollis, as an old friend, to give me some advice. I must tell you +that my husband died last year—now about eight months ago. We have an +only son—who is an officer in the Army."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You had better give us his name—and regiment, ma'am," suggested +Starmidge.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lester hesitated a little.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said at last. "He is Lieutenant Guy Lester, of the 55th +Lancers. Stationed where? At present at Maychester. Now I have got to +tell you what is both painful and unpleasant for me to tell. My husband, +though a very kind father, was a very strict one. When our son went +into the Army, his father made him a certain yearly allowance which he +himself considered a very handsome one. But my husband," continued Mrs. +Lester, with a faint smile, "had been engaged in commercial pursuits all +his life, until a year or two before his death, and he did not know that +the expenses, and the—well, the style of living in a crack cavalry +regiment are—what they are. More than once Guy asked his father to +increase his allowance—considerably. His father always refused—he was +a strict and, in some ways, a very hard man about money. And so—my son +had recourse to a money-lender."</p> + +<p>Starmidge, who was sitting close by his fellow-detective, pressed his +elbow against Easleby's sleeve—at last they were getting at something.</p> + +<p>"Just so, ma'am," he said encouragingly. "Nothing remarkable in all this +so far—quite an everyday matter, I assure you! Nothing for you to +distress yourself about, either—all that can be kept quiet."</p> + +<p>"Well," continued Mrs. Lester, "my son borrowed money from a +money-lender in London, expecting, of course, to pay it back on his +father's death. I must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> tell you that my husband married very late in +life—he was quite thirty years my senior. No doubt this money-lender +acquainted himself with Mr. Lester's age—and state of health."</p> + +<p>"He would, ma'am, he would!" agreed Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"He'd take particular good care of that, ma'am," added Easleby. "They +always do—in such cases."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Lester, "but, you see, when my husband died, he did not +leave Guy anything at all! He left everything to me. So Guy had nothing +to pay the money-lender with. Then, of course, the money-lender began to +press him, and in the end Guy was obliged to come and tell me all about +it. That was only a few weeks ago. And it was very bad news, because the +man claimed much—very much—more money than he had ever advanced. His +demands were outrageous!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge gave Mrs. Lester a keen glance, and realized an idea of her +innocence in financial matters.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" he observed, "they are very grasping, ma'am, some of these +money-lenders! How much was this particular one asking of your son, +now?"</p> + +<p>"He demanded between fourteen and fifteen thousand pounds," replied Mrs. +Lester. "An abominable demand!—for my son assured me that at the very +outside he had not had more than seven or eight thousand."</p> + +<p>"And—what happened, ma'am?" inquired Starmidge sympathetically. "The +man pestered you, of course!"</p> + +<p>"Guy made him one or two offers," answered Mrs. Lester. "Of course I +would have made them good—to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> get rid of the affair. It was no use—he +had papers and things signed by Guy—who had borrowed all the money +since he came of age—and he refused to abate a penny. The last time +that Guy called on him, he told him flatly that he would have his +fifteen thousand to the last shilling. It was, of course, extortion!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge and Easleby exchanged looks. Both felt that they were on the +very edge of a discovery.</p> + +<p>"To be sure, ma'am," asserted Starmidge. "Absolute extortion! And—what +is the name of the money-lending gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"His name," replied Mrs. Lester, "is Godwin Markham."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see him, ma'am?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lester looked her astonishment.</p> + +<p>"I?" she exclaimed. "No—never!"</p> + +<p>"Did your son ever describe him to you?—his personal appearance, I +mean," inquired Starmidge.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lester shook her head.</p> + +<p>"No!" she replied. "Indeed, I have heard my son say that he never saw +Markham himself but once. He did his—business, I suppose you would call +it—with the manager—who always said—when this recent pressing +began—that he was powerless—he could only do what Mr. Markham bade him +do."</p> + +<p>"Precisely!" said Starmidge. "There generally is a manager whose chief +business is to say that sort of thing, ma'am. Dear me!—and where, +ma'am, is this Mr. Godwin Markham's office? You know that, no doubt?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes—it is in Conduit Street—off New Bond Street," replied Mrs. +Lester.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Of course you never went there?" asked Starmidge. "No, of course not. +All was done through your son, until you called in Mr. Hollis. Now, when +did you call in Mr. Hollis, Mrs. Lester?—the date's important."</p> + +<p>"About a fortnight ago," replied Mrs. Lester—"I sent for him—I told +him all about it—I asked his advice. At his suggestion I gave him a +cheque for ten thousand pounds. He said he would make an endeavour to +settle the whole thing for that amount, and have everything cleared up. +He took the cheque away with him."</p> + +<p>"Between then—that day when he was here and you gave him the cheque," +asked Starmidge, "and last Saturday, when we know Mr. Hollis went to +Scarnham, did you hear of or from Mr. Hollis at all?"</p> + +<p>"Only in this way," replied Mrs. Lester. "When he left me, he said that +before approaching Markham, as intermediary, he should like to see Guy, +and hear what his account of the transactions was, and that he would ask +my son to come up to town from Maychester and meet him. I heard from Guy +at the end of last week—last Saturday morning, as a matter of +fact—that he had been to town, that he had lunched with Mr. Hollis at +Mr. Hollis's club, and that after discussing the whole affair, Mr. +Hollis said that he would make a determined effort to settle the matter +at once. And after that," concluded Mrs. Lester, "I heard no more or +anything until I read of this Scarnham affair in the newspapers."</p> + +<p>"And now that you have read it, ma'am, and have heard what I have to +tell," said Starmidge, "do you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> connect it in any way with Mr. Guy +Lester's affair?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lester looked puzzled. She considered the detective's proposition +in silence for a time.</p> + +<p>"No!" she answered at last. "Really, I don't!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge got up, and Easleby followed his lead.</p> + +<p>"Well, ma'am," said Starmidge, "there is a connection, without doubt, +and I think that within a very short time we shall have discovered what +it is. What you have told us has been of great assistance—the very +greatest assistance. And you can make your mind easy for the present—I +don't see any reason for any unpleasant publicity just now—in fact, I +think you'll find there won't be any. The unpleasant publicity, ma'am," +concluded Starmidge, with an almost imperceptible wink at Easleby, "will +be for—some other people."</p> + +<p>The two detectives bowed themselves out, re-entered their car, and were +driven on to Chesham. Neither had touched food since breakfast-time and +each was hungry. They discovered an old-fashioned hotel in the main +street of the little town, and were presently confronting a round of +cold beef, a cold ham, and two foaming tankards, in the snug parlour +which they had to themselves.</p> + +<p>"One result of our profession, young Starmidge," observed the +middle-aged Easleby, bending towards his companion over a well-filled +plate, "is that it makes a man indulge in a tremendous lot of what you +might call intellectual speculation!"</p> + +<p>"What are you speculating about?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"This—on information received," replied Easleby,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> as he lifted his +tankard. "There are the names of three Scarnham gentlemen before +me—Gabriel Chestermarke, Joseph Chestermarke, John Horbury. Now, +then—which of the three sports the other name of Godwin Markham?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h2>SPECULATION—AND CERTAINTY</h2> + +<p>Starmidge ate and drank in silence for awhile, evidently pondering his +companion's question.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said at last, "there's all that in it. It may be any one of +the three. You never know! Yet, according to all I've been told, +Horbury's a thoroughly straight man of business."</p> + +<p>"According to all I've been told," remarked Easleby, "and all I've been +told about anything has been told by yourself, the two Chestermarkes +have the reputation of being thoroughly straight men of +business—outwardly. But one thing is certain, my lad, after what we've +just learned—Hollis went down to Scarnham to offer that cheque to one +of these three men. And whichever it was, that man's Godwin Markham! +It's a double-life business, Jack—the man's Godwin Markham here in +London, and he's somebody else in—somewhere else. Dead certainty, my +lad!"</p> + +<p>"It's not Horbury," said Starmidge, after some reflection. "I'll stake +my reputation, such as it is, on that!"</p> + +<p>"You don't know," replied Easleby. "Remember, Mrs. Lester said this son +of hers always did business with a manager. That's a usual thing with +these big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> money-lending offices—the real man doesn't show. For aught +you know, Horbury may have been running a money-lender's office in town, +unknown to anybody, under the name of Godwin Markham. And—he may have +wanted new funds for it, and he may have collared those securities which +the Chestermarkes say are missing, and he may have appropriated Lord +Ellersdeane's jewels—d'ye see? You never can tell—in any of these +cases. You see, my lad, you've been going, all along, on the basis, the +supposition, that Horbury's an innocent man, and the victim of foul +play. But—he may be a guilty man! Lord bless you!—I don't attach any +importance to reputation and character, not I! It isn't ten years since +Jim Chambers and myself had a case in point—a bank manager who was +churchwarden, Sunday-School teacher, this, that, and t'other in the way +of piety and respectability—all a cloak to cover as clever a bit of +thievery and fraud as ever I heard of!—he got ten years, that chap, and +he ought to have been hanged. As I say, you never can make certain. +Hollis may have found out that Godwin Markham of Conduit Street was in +reality John Horbury of Scarnham, and then——"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what!" interrupted Starmidge, who had been thinking as +well as listening. "There's a very sure and certain way of finding out +who Godwin Markham is! Do you remember?—Mrs. Lester said her son had +only seen him once. Well, once is enough!—he'd remember him. We must go +to Maychester right away and see this young Lester, and get him to +describe the man he saw."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Good notion, of course," assented Easleby. "Where is Maychester, now?"</p> + +<p>"Essex," replied Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"That would certainly be a solver," said Easleby. "But there's something +else we could do, following up your special line of thought. Now, honour +bright, which of these men do you take Godwin Markham to be?"</p> + +<p>"Gabriel Chestermarke!" answered Starmidge promptly. "It's established +that he's constantly in London—as much in London as in Scarnham. +Gabriel Chestermarke certainly—with, no doubt, Joseph in collusion. The +probability is that they run that money-lending office in Conduit Street +under the name of Godwin Markham. They're within the law."</p> + +<p>"What about the Moneylenders' Act?" asked Easleby. "Compulsory +registration, you know."</p> + +<p>"It's this way," explained Starmidge. "The object of that Act was to +enable a borrower to know for certain who it was that was lending him +the money he borrowed. So registration was made compulsory. But, as in +the case of many another Act of Parliament, Easleby, evasion is not only +possible, but easy. A money-lender can register in a name which isn't +his own if it's one which he generally uses in his business. So—there +you are! I've seen that name Godwin Markham advertised ever since I was +a youngster—it's an old established business, well known. There's +nothing to prevent Abraham Moses from styling himself Fitzwilliam +Simpkins, if he's always done business as Fitzwilliam Simpkins—see?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> +And—it's highly probable that, as he's so much in town, Gabriel +Chestermarke lives in town under the name of Godwin Markham—double-life +business, as you suggest. But you were going to suggest something else. +What?"</p> + +<p>"This," said Easleby. "You know that Gabriel Chestermarke went to +the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre the other night. Go +there—officially—and find out if he called there as Gabriel +Chestermarke. That'll solve a lot."</p> + +<p>"We'll both go!" assented Starmidge. "It's a good notion—I hadn't +thought of it. Whom shall we try to see?"</p> + +<p>"Top man of all," counselled Easleby. "Lessee, manager, whatever he is. +Our cards'll manage it."</p> + +<p>"I'm obliged to you, old man!" exclaimed Starmidge. "It's a bright idea! +Of course, somebody there'll know who the man was that called last +night—know his name, of course. And in that case——"</p> + +<p>"Aye, but don't you anticipate too much, my lad!" interrupted Easleby. +"There's no doubt that Gandam traced your Gabriel Chestermarke to the +stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre—and lost him there. But, you know, +for anything you know, Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of Scarnham, +may have had legitimate and proper business at that theatre. For aught +you know, Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke may be owner of that +theatre—ground-landlord—part-proprietor—financier. He may have a +mortgage on it. All sorts of reasons occur to me as to why Mr. Gabriel +Chestermarke may have called. He might be a personal friend of the +manager's, or the principal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> actor's—called to take 'em out to supper, +d'ye see, on his arrival in town. So—whoever we see there, you want to +go guardedly, eh?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what," said Starmidge, "I'll leave it to you. I'll go +with you, of course, but you manage it."</p> + +<p>"Right, my lad!" assented Easleby. "All I shall want'll be a copy of +this morning's newspaper—to lead up from."</p> + +<p>One of the London morning journals had been making a great feature of +the Scarnham affair from the moment Parkinson, on Starmidge's +inspiration, had supplied the Press with its details, and it had that +day printed an exhaustive résumé of the entire history of the case, +brought up to the discovery of Frederick Hollis's body. Easleby bought a +copy of this issue as soon as he and Starmidge returned to town, and +carefully blue-pencilled the cross-headed columns and the staring +capitals above them. With the folded paper in his hand, and Starmidge at +his heel, he repaired to the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre at a +quarter to eight, when the actors and actresses were beginning to pass +in for their evening's work and thrust his head into the glass-fronted +cage in which the stage door-keeper sat.</p> + +<p>"A word with you, mister," whimpered Easleby. "A quiet word, you +understand. Me and my friend here are from the Yard—New Scotland Yard, +you know, and we've an inquiry to make. Our cards, d'ye see?—I shall +ask you to take 'em inside in a minute. But first, a word with you. Do +you remember a gentleman coming here last night, late,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> who nodded to +you and walked straight in? Little, stiffly built gentleman, very pale +face, holds himself well up—what?"</p> + +<p>"I know him," answered the door-keeper, much impressed by the official +cards which Easleby held before his nose. "Seen him here many a time, +but I don't know his name. He's a friend of Mr. Castlemayne's, and he's +the entry, d'ye see—walks in as he likes."</p> + +<p>"Ah, just so—and who may Mr. Castlemayne be, now?" asked Easleby +confidentially.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Castlemayne?" repeated the door-keeper. "Why, he's the lessee, of +course!—the boss!"</p> + +<p>"Ah, the boss, is he?" said Easleby. "Much obliged to you, sir. Well, +now, then, just take these two cards to Mr. Castlemayne, will you, and +ask him if he'll be good enough to see their owners for a few minutes on +very important private business?"</p> + +<p>The door-keeper departed up a dark passage, and Easleby pointed +Starmidge to a playbill which hung, framed on the wall, behind them.</p> + +<p>"There you are!" he said, indicating a line near the big capitals at the +top. "'Lessee and Manager—Mr. Leopold Castlemayne.' That's our man. +Fancy name, of course—real name Tom Smith, or Jim Johnson, you know. +But, Lord bless you, what's in a name? Haven't we got a case in point?"</p> + +<p>"There's a good deal in what's in a name in our case, old man!" retorted +Starmidge. "You're off it there!"</p> + +<p>Easleby was about to combat this reply when a boy appeared, and +intimated that Mr. Castlemayne would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> see the gentlemen at once. And the +two detectives followed up one passage and down another, and round +corners and across saloons and foyers, until they were shown into a snug +room, half office, half parlour, very comfortably furnished and +ornamented, wherein, at a desk, and alone, sat a gentleman in evening +dress, whose countenance, well-fed though it was, seemed to be just then +clouded with suspicion and something that looked very like anxiety. He +glanced up from the cards which lay before him to the two men who had +sent them in, and silently pointed them to chairs near his own.</p> + +<p>"Good-evening, sir," said Easleby, with a polite bow. "Sorry to +interrupt you, Mr. Castlemayne, but you see our business from our cards, +and we've called, sir, to ask if you can give us a bit of much-wanted +information. I don't know, sir," continued Easleby, laying the +blue-pencilled newspaper on the lessee's desk, "if you've read in the +papers any account of the affair which is here called the Scarnham +Mystery!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Leopold Castlemayne glanced at the columns to which Easleby pointed, +rubbed his chin, and nodded.</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes!" he said. "I have just seen the papers. Case of a strange +disappearance—bank manager—isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It's more than that, sir," replied Easleby. "It's a case of—all sorts +of things. Now you're wondering, Mr. Castlemayne, why we come to you? +I'll explain. You'll see there, sir, the name—blue-pencilled—Gabriel +Chestermarke. Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> is a banker at Scarnham. You +don't happen to know him, Mr. Castlemayne?"</p> + +<p>The two detectives watched the lessee narrowly as that question was put. +And each knew instantly that the prompt reply was a truthful one.</p> + +<p>"Never heard of him in my life," said Mr. Castlemayne.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," said Easleby. "Just so! Well, sir, my friend +here—Detective-Sergeant Starmidge—has been down at Scarnham in charge +of this case from the first, and he's formed some ideas about this Mr. +Gabriel Chestermarke. Last night Gabriel Chestermarke travelled up to +town from Ecclesborough—Mr. Starmidge arranged for him to be shadowed +when he arrived at St. Pancras. A man of ours—not quite as experienced +as he might be, you understand, sir—did shadow him—and lost him. He +lost him here at your theatre, Mr. Castlemayne."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said the lessee, half indifferently. "Got amongst the audience, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," replied Easleby. "Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, sir, entered your +stage-door at about eleven-thirty—walked straight in. But he never came +out of that door—so he must have left by another exit."</p> + +<p>Mr. Leopold Castlemayne suddenly sat up very erect and rigid. His face +flushed a little, his lips parted; he looked from one man to the other.</p> + +<p>"Mr.—Gabriel—Chestermarke!" he said. "Entered my +stage-door—eleven-thirty—last night? Here!—describe him!"</p> + +<p>Easleby glanced at Starmidge. And Starmidge, as if he were describing a +picture, gave a full and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> accurate account of Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke's +appearance from head to foot.</p> + +<p>The lessee suddenly jumped from his chair, walked over to a door, opened +it, and looked into an inner room. Evidently satisfied, he closed the +door again, came back, seated himself, thrust his hands in his pockets, +and looked at the detectives.</p> + +<p>"All in confidence—strict confidence?" he said. "All right, then!—I +understand. I tell you, I don't know any Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, +of Scarnham! The man you've described—the man who came here last +night—is Godwin Markham, the Conduit Street money-lender—damn him!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h2>THE AGGRIEVED VICTIM</h2> + +<p>If Mr. Leopold Castlemayne's last word was expressive, his next actions +were suggestive and significant. Returning to the door of the inner +room, he turned the key in it; crossing to the door by which the +detectives had been shown in, he locked that also; proceeding to a +cupboard in an adjacent recess, he performed an unlocking process—after +which he produced a decanter, a syphon, three glasses, and a box of +cigars. He silently placed these luxuries on a desk before his visitors, +and hospitably invited their attention.</p> + +<p>"Yes!" he said presently, proceeding to help the two men to refreshment, +and pressing the cigars upon them, "I've good reason to say that, +gentlemen! Godwin Markham, indeed! I ought to know him! If I don't look +out, that devil of a bloodsucker is going to ruin me—he is, so!"</p> + +<p>Easleby gave Starmidge an almost imperceptible wink as he lighted a +cigar. It was evident that Mr. Leopold Castlemayne was not only willing +to talk, but was uncommonly glad to have somebody to talk to. Indeed, +his moody countenance began to clear as his tongue became unloosed; he +was obviously at that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> stage when a man is thankful to give confidences +to any fellow-creature.</p> + +<p>"I've done business with gentlemen of your profession before," he went +on, nodding to his visitors over the rim of his tumbler, "and I know +you're to be trusted—naturally, you hear a good many queer things and +queer secrets in your line of life. And as you come to me in confidence, +I'll tell you a thing or two in confidence. It may help you—if you're +certain that the man you're wanting is the man who came here last night. +Do you want him?"</p> + +<p>"We—may do," replied Easleby. "We don't know yet. Mr. Starmidge here is +much disposed to think that we shall. But let's be clear, sir. We're all +three agreed that we're talking about the same man? Starmidge has +accurately described a certain man who without doubt entered your +stage-door about eleven-thirty last night——"</p> + +<p>"And left, with me, by the box-office door, in the front street, a few +minutes later," murmured the lessee. "That's how it was."</p> + +<p>"Just so," agreed Easleby. "Now, Starmidge up to now has only known that +man as Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, senior partner in Chestermarke's Bank, +at Scarnham, while you, up to now——"</p> + +<p>"Have only known him as Godwin Markham, money-lender, financial agent, +and so on, of Conduit Street," interrupted Castlemayne. "And known him a +lot too much for my peace, I can tell you! Of course, we're talking of +the same man! I can quite believe he runs a double show. I know that +he's a great deal away from town. It's very rarely that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> he's to be +found at Conduit Street—very, very rarely indeed—he's a clever manager +there, who sees everybody and does everything. And I know that he's +quite two-thirds of his time away from his own house—so, of course, +he's got to put it in somewhere else."</p> + +<p>"His own house!" said Starmidge, catching at an idea which presented +itself. "You know where he lives in London, then, Mr. Castlemayne?"</p> + +<p>"Do I know where my own mother lives!" exclaimed the lessee. "I should +think I do! He's a neighbour of mine—lives close by me, up Primrose +Hill way. Nice little bachelor establishment he has—Oakfield Villa. +Spent many an evening there with him—Sunday evenings, of course. Oh, +yes—I know all about him—as Godwin Markham. Bless me!—so he's a +country banker, is he? And mixed up in this affair, eh? Gosh!—I hope +you'll find out that he murdered his manager, and that you'll be able to +hang him—I'd treat the town to a free show if you could hang him in +public on my stage, I would, indeed!"</p> + +<p>"You were going to tell us something, sir?" suggested Easleby. +"Something that you thought might help us."</p> + +<p>"I hope it will help you—and me, too!" responded Castlemayne, who was +obviously incensed and truculent. "'Pon my honour, when I got your +cards, I wondered if I'd been sleep-walking last night, and had gone and +done for this man—I really did! It was all I could do to keep from +punching his nose last night in the open street, and I left him feeling +very bad indeed! It's this way—I dare say you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> know that men like me, +in this business, want a bit of financing when we start. All right!—we +do, like most other people. Now, when I thought of taking up the lease +of this spot, a few years ago, I wanted money. I knew this man Markham +as a neighbour, and I mentioned the matter to him, not knowing then he +was the Markham of Conduit Street. He let me know who he was, then, and +he offered to do things privately—no need to go to his office, do you +see? And—he found me in necessary capital. And I dare say I signed +papers without thoroughly understanding 'em. And, of course, when you +get into the hands of a fellow like that, it's like putting your foot on +a piece of butter in the street—you're down before you know what's +happened! But I ain't down yet, my boys!" concluded Mr. Castlemayne, +drinking off the contents of his glass, and replenishing it. "And damme +if I'm going to be, without a bit of a fight for it, that I ain't!"</p> + +<p>"Putting some pressure on you, I suppose, sir?" suggested Easleby, who +knew that their host would tell anything and everything if left to +himself. "Wants his pound of flesh, no doubt?"</p> + +<p>This Shakespearean allusion appeared to be lost on the lessee, but he +evidently understood what pressure meant.</p> + +<p>"Pressure!" he exclaimed. "Yah!—there's nothing would suit that fellow +better than to have one of his victims under one of those steam-hammers +that they have nowadays, and to bring it down on him till he'd crushed +the last drop of blood out of his toes! Pressure!—I'll tell you! This +place didn't do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> well at first—everybody in town, in our line, anyway, +knows that—but even in these days I paid him his interest regular—down +on the nail, mind, as prompt as the date came round. But now—things are +different. I'm doing well—in a bit I could pay my gentleman off—though +not just yet. But there's big money ahead—this house has caught on, got +a reputation, become popular. And now what d'ye think my lord +wants—what he's screwing me for? Turns out that in one of those +confounded papers I signed there's a clause, that if I didn't repay him +by a certain date I should surrender my lease to him! I no doubt signed +it, not quite understanding—but damme if he didn't keep it dark till +the date was expired! And now, when I've worked things up, not only as +lessee, mind you, but as manager—to success and big prospects, hanged +if he doesn't want to collar my lease with all its fine possibilities, +and put me into work for him at a blooming salary!"</p> + +<p>"Dear me, sir!" exclaimed Easleby. "Now—what might that exactly mean? +We're not up in these matters, you know."</p> + +<p>"Mean?" vociferated the lessee. "It 'ud mean this. I've paid that man as +much in interest as the original loan was. He now wants my lease, all my +interest, all my chances of reward—this lease is worth many a thousand +a year now! If I surrender my lease peaceably—without fuss, you +understand—he'll wipe off my original debt to him and give me a +blooming salary of twenty-five quid a week—me! Gosh!—he ought to be +burnt alive!"</p> + +<p>"And if you don't?" asked Starmidge, deeply interested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> by this +sidelight on financial dealings. "What then?"</p> + +<p>"Then he relies on his damn paper and my signature to it, and turns me +out!" replied the aggrieved one. "Thievery!—that's what I call it. +That's his blooming ultimatum—came in last night to tell me. I hope +you'll catch him and hang him!"</p> + +<p>The two detectives had long since realized that Mr. Leopold +Castlemayne's interest in the banker-money-lender was a purely personal +one, based on his own unlucky dealings with him. But they wished for +something outside that interest, and Starmidge, after a word or two of +condolence, and another of advice to go to a shrewd and smart solicitor, +asked a plain question.</p> + +<p>"You say you've been on terms of—shall we call it neighbourly +intimacy?—with this man," he remarked. "Have you ever met his nephew?"</p> + +<p>The lessee made a face expressive of deep scorn.</p> + +<p>"Nephew!" he exclaimed. "Yah!—d'ye think a fellow like that 'ud have a +nephew? I don't believe he's any relations that's flesh and blood! I +don't believe he ever had a mother! I believe he's one of these ghouls +you read about in the story-books—what's he look like? A +bloodsucker!—that's what he is!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge gave his host an accurate description of Joseph Chestermarke.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see a man like that at this Markham's house?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Never!" answered the lessee.</p> + +<p>"Or at his office?" persisted Starmidge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No—don't know such a man! I've only been to the offices in Conduit +Street a few times," said Castlemayne. "The chap you see there is a +fellow called Stipp—Mr. James Stipp. A nice, smooth-tongued, +mealy-mouthed chap—you know. I say—d'ye think you'll be able to fasten +anything on to Markham, or Chestermarke, or whatever his name is?"</p> + +<p>Easleby responded jocularly that they certainly wouldn't if they sat +there, and after solemnly assuring Mr. Leopold Castlemayne that his +confidence would be severely respected, he and Starmidge went away. Once +outside they walked for awhile in silence, each reflecting on what he +had just heard.</p> + +<p>"Well," remarked Starmidge at last, "we're certain on one point now, +anyway. Godwin Markham, money-lender, of Conduit Street, is the same +person as Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of Scarnham. That's flat! And +now that we've got to know that much, how much nearer am I to finding +out the real thing that I'm after?"</p> + +<p>"Which is—exactly what?" asked Easleby.</p> + +<p>"I was called in," answered Starmidge, "to find out the secret of John +Horbury's disappearance. It isn't my business to interfere with Gabriel +Chestermarke or Godwin Markham in his money-lending affairs—nor to +trace Lord Ellersdeane's missing jewels. My job is—to find John +Horbury, or to get to know what happened to him."</p> + +<p>"And all this helps," answered Easleby. "Haven't you got anything?"</p> + +<p>"Don't know that I have," admitted Starmidge. "Just now, anyway. I've +had a dozen ideas—but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> they're a bit mixed at present. Have you—after +what we've found out?"</p> + +<p>"What sort of banking business is it the Chestermarkes carry on down +there at Scarnham?" asked Easleby. "I suppose you'd get a general idea."</p> + +<p>"Usual thing in a small country town," replied Starmidge. "Highly +respectable, county family business, I should say, from what I saw and +heard."</p> + +<p>"All the squires, and the parsons, and the farmers, and better sort of +tradesmen go to 'em, I suppose?" suggested Easleby. "And all the nice +old ladies and that sort—an extra-respectable connection, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Just as I say—regular country-town business," said Starmidge, half +impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Um!" remarked Easleby. "Now, if you were a highly respectable +country-town banker, with a connection of that sort amongst very proper +people, and if it so happened that you were living a double life, and +running a money-lending business in London, do you think you'd want your +banking customers to know what you were after when you weren't banking!"</p> + +<p>"What do you think he'd do?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"I'm not quite sure," replied Easleby, with candour. "But I think I +shall get there, all the same. Now, didn't you say that from all the +accounts supplied to you, this Mr. John Horbury was an eminently proper +sort of person? Very well—supposing it suddenly came to his knowledge +that his employer—or employers, for I expect both Chestermarkes are in +at it—were notorious money-lenders in London, and that they carried on +this secret business in the greedy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> and grasping fashion—what do you +suppose he'd do?—especially if he was, as you say Horbury was, a man of +considerable means?"</p> + +<p>"What do you think he'd do?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"I think it's quite on the cards that he'd chuck his job there and +then," said Easleby, "and not only that, but that he'd probably threaten +exposure. Men of a very severe type of commercial religion would, my +lad!—I know 'em!"</p> + +<p>"You're suggesting—what?" inquired the younger detective.</p> + +<p>"I'm suggesting that on that night of Hollis's visit to Scarnham, +Horbury, through Hollis, became acquainted with the Chestermarke +secret," replied Easleby, "and that he let the Chestermarkes know it. +And in that case—what would happen?"</p> + +<p>Starmidge walked slowly on at his companion's side, thinking. He was +trying to fit together a great many things; he felt as a child feels who +is presented with a puzzle in many pieces and told to put them together.</p> + +<p>"I know what you're after," he said suddenly. "You think the +Chestermarkes murdered Horbury?"</p> + +<p>"If you want it plain and straight," replied Easleby, "I do!"</p> + +<p>"There's the other man—Hollis," suggested Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"I should say they finished him as well," said Easleby. "Easy enough +job, that, on the evidence. Supposing one of 'em took Hollis off, alone, +across that moor you've told me about, and induced him to look into that +old lead-mine? What easier than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> to push him into it? Meanwhile, the +other could settle Horbury. Murder, my lad!—that's what all this comes +to. I've known men murdered for less than that."</p> + +<p>Again Starmidge reflected in silence.</p> + +<p>"There's only one thing puzzles me on that point," he said eventually. +"It's not a puzzle, either—it's a doubt. Do you think the +Chestermarkes—or, we'll say Gabriel, as we're certain about him—do you +think Gabriel would be so keen about keeping his secret as to go to that +length? Do you think he's cultivated it as a secret—that it's been a +really important secret?"</p> + +<p>"We can soon solve that," answered Easleby. "At least—tomorrow +morning."</p> + +<p>"How?" demanded Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"By calling," said Easleby, "on Mr. Godwin Markham, in Conduit Street."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h2>MRS. CARSWELL?</h2> + +<p>Starmidge looked at his companion as if in doubt about Easleby's exact +meaning.</p> + +<p>"According to what the theatre chap said just now," he remarked, +"Markham is very rarely to be found in Conduit Street."</p> + +<p>"Exactly," agreed Easleby. "That's why I want to go there."</p> + +<p>Starmidge shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Don't follow!" he said. "Make it clear."</p> + +<p>Easleby tapped his fellow-detective's arm.</p> + +<p>"You said just now—would Gabriel Chestermarke be so keen about keeping +his secret as to go to any length in keeping it," he answered "Now I say +we can solve that by calling at his office. His manager, as Castlemayne +told us, is one Stipp—Mr. Stipp. I propose to see Mr. Stipp. You and I +must be fools if, inside ten minutes, we can't find out if Stipp knows +that Godwin Markham is Gabriel Chestermarke! We will find out! And if we +find out that Stipp doesn't know that, if we find that Stipp is utterly +unaware that there is such a person as Gabriel Chestermarke, or, at any +rate, that he doesn't connect Gabriel Chestermarke with Godwin +Markham—why, then——"</p> + +<p>He ended with a dry laugh, and waved his hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> as if the matter were +settled. But Starmidge had a love of precision, and liked matters to be +put in plain words.</p> + +<p>"Well—and what then?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"What, then?" exclaimed Easleby. "Why, then we shall know, for a +certainty, that Gabriel Chestermarke is keen about his secret! If he +keeps it from the man who does his business for him here in London, he'd +go to any length to keep it safe if it was threatened by his manager at +Scarnham. Is that clear, my lad?"</p> + +<p>The two men in the course of their slow strolling away from the Adalbert +Theatre had come to the end of Shaftesbury Avenue, and had drawn aside +from the crowds during the last minute or two to exchange their +confidences in private.</p> + +<p>Starmidge looked meditatively at the thronging multitudes of Piccadilly +Circus, and watched them awhile before he answered his companion's last +observation.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to precipitate matters," he said at last. "I don't want an +anti-climax. Suppose we found Markham—or Chestermarke—there? Or +supposing he came in?"</p> + +<p>"Excellent!—in either case," replied Easleby. "Serve our purpose equally +well. If he's there, you betray the greatest surprise at seeing him—you +can act up to that. If he should come in, you're equally surprised—see! +We haven't gone there about any Chestermarke, you know—we aren't going +to let it out there that we know what we do know—not likely!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What have we gone there for then?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"We've gone to say that Mrs. Helen Lester, of Lowdale Court, near +Chesham, has informed us, the police, that she placed a certain sum of +money in the hands of her friend, Mr. Frederick Hollis, for the purpose +of clearing off a debt contracted by her son, Lieutenant Lester, with +Mr. Godwin Markham; that Mr. Hollis had been found dead under strange +circumstances at Scarnham, and that we should be vastly obliged to Mr. +Markham if he can give us any information or light on the matter, or +hints about it," replied Easleby. "That, of course, is what we shall +say—and all that we shall say—to Mr. James Stipp. If, however, we find +Gabriel Chestermarke there—well, then, we shall say nothing—at first. +We shall leave him to do the saying—it'll be his job to begin."</p> + +<p>"All right," assented Starmidge, after a moment's reflection. "We'll try +it! Meet you tomorrow morning, then—corner of Conduit Street and New +Bond Street—say at ten-thirty. Now I'm going home."</p> + +<p>Starmidge, being a bachelor, tenanted a small flat in Westminster, +within easy reach of headquarters. He repaired to it immediately on +leaving Easleby, intent on spending a couple of hours in ease and +comfort before retiring to bed. But he had scarcely put on his slippers, +lighted his pipe, mixed a whisky-and-soda, and picked up a book, when a +knock at his outer door sent him to open it and to find Gandam standing +in the lobby. Gandam glanced at him with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> a smile which was half +apologetic and half triumphant.</p> + +<p>"I've been to the office after you, Mr. Starmidge," he said. "They gave +me your address, so I came on here."</p> + +<p>Starmidge saw that the man was full of news, and he motioned him to +enter and led him to his sitting-room.</p> + +<p>"You've heard something, then?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Seen something, Mr. Starmidge," answered Gandam, taking the chair which +Starmidge pointed to. "I'm afraid I didn't hear anything—I wish I had!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge gave his visitor a drink and dropped into his own easy-chair +again.</p> + +<p>"Chestermarke, of course!" he suggested. "Well—what!"</p> + +<p>"I happened to catch sight of him this evening," replied Gandam. "Sheer +accident it was—but there's no mistaking him. Half-past six I was +coming along Piccadilly, and I saw him leaving the Camellia Club. +He——"</p> + +<p>"What sort of a club's that, now?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Social club—men about town, sporting men, actors, journalists, so on," +replied Gandam. "I know a bit about it—had a case relating to it not so +long ago. Well—he went along Piccadilly, and, of course, I followed +him—I wasn't going to lose sight of him after that set-back of last +night, Mr. Starmidge! He crossed the Circus, and went into the Café +Monico. I followed him in there. Do you know that downstairs saloon +there?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I know it," assented Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"He went straight down to it," continued Gandam. "And as I knew that he +didn't know me, I presently followed. When I'd got down he'd taken a +seat at a table in a quiet corner, and the waiter was bringing him a +glass of sherry. There was a bit of talk between 'em—Chestermarke +seemed to be telling the waiter that he was expecting somebody, and he'd +wait a bit before giving an order. So I sat down—in another corner—and +as I judged it was going to be a longish job, I ordered a bit of dinner. +Of course I kept an eye on him—quietly. He read a newspaper, smoked a +cigarette, and sipped his sherry. And at last—perhaps ten minutes after +he'd got in—a woman came down the stairs, looked round, and went +straight over to where he was sitting."</p> + +<p>"Describe her," said Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Tallish, very good figure, very good-looking, well-dressed, but +quietly," replied Gandam. "Had a veil on when she came in, but lifted it +when she sat down by Chestermarke. What I should call a handsome woman, +Mr. Starmidge—and, I should say, about thirty-five to forty. Dark hair, +dark eyes—taking expression."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Carswell, for a fiver!" thought Starmidge. "Well?" he said aloud. +"You say she went straight over to him?"</p> + +<p>"Straight to him—and began talking at once," answered Gandam. "It +seemed to me that it was what you might call an adjourned meeting—they +began talking as if they were sort of taking up a conversation. But she +did most of the talking. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> ordered some dinner for both of 'em as soon +as she came—she talked while they ate. Of course, being right across +the room from them, I couldn't catch a word that was said, but she +seemed to be explaining something to him the whole time, and I could see +he was surprised—more than once."</p> + +<p>"It must have been something uncommonly surprising to make him show +signs of surprise!" muttered Starmidge, who had a vivid recollection of +Gabriel Chestermarke's granite countenance. "Yes?—go on."</p> + +<p>"They were there about three-quarters of an hour," continued Gandam. "Of +course, I ate my dinner while they ate theirs, and I took good care not +to let them see that I was watching them. As soon as I saw signs of a +move on their part—when she began putting on her gloves—I paid my +waiter and slipped out upstairs to the front entrance. I got a taxi-cab +driver to pull up by the kerb and wait for me, and told him who I was +and what I was after, and that if those two got into a cab he was to +follow wherever they went—cautiously. Gave him a description of the +man, you know. Then I hung round till they came out. They parted at +once—she went off up Regent Street——"</p> + +<p>"I wish you'd had another man with you!" exclaimed Starmidge. "I'd give +a lot to get hold of that woman. She's probably the housekeeper who +disappeared from the bank, you know."</p> + +<p>"So I guessed, Mr. Starmidge, but what could I do?" said Gandam. "I +couldn't follow both, and it was the man you'd put me on to. I decided, +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> course, for him. Well—he tried to get my cab; when he found it was +engaged, he walked on a bit to the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and got +one there. And, of course, we followed. A longish follow, too!—right +away up to the back of Regent's Park. You know those detached +houses—foot of Primrose Hill? It's one of those—he was a cute chap, my +driver, and he contrived to slow down and keep well behind, and yet to +see where Chestermarke got out. The name of the house is Oakfield +Villa—it's on the gateposts. Of course, I made sure. I sent my man +off—and then I hung round some time, passing and re-passing once or +twice. And I saw Chestermarke in a front room—the blinds were not +drawn—and he was in a smoking-cap and jacket, so I reckoned he was safe +for the night. But I can watch the house all night if you think it's +necessary, you know, Mr. Starmidge."</p> + +<p>"No!" answered Starmidge. "Not at all. But I'll tell you what—you be +about there first thing tomorrow morning. Can you hang about without +attracting attention?"</p> + +<p>"Easily!" replied Gandam. "Easiest thing in the world. Do you know where +a little lodge stands, as you go into Primrose Hill, the St. John's Wood +side? Well, his house is close by that. On the other side of the road +there's a little path leading over a bridge into the Park—close by the +corner of the Zoo—I can watch from that path. You can rely on me, Mr. +Starmidge. I'll not lose sight of him this time."</p> + +<p>Starmidge saw that the man was deeply anxious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> to atone for his mistake +of the previous night, and he nodded assent.</p> + +<p>"All right," he said, "but—take another man with you. Two are better +than one in a job like that—and Chestermarke might be meeting that +woman again. Watch the house carefully tomorrow morning from first +thing—follow him wherever he goes. If he should meet the woman, and +they part after meeting, one of you follow her. And listen—I shall be +at headquarters at twelve o'clock tomorrow. Contrive to telephone me +there as to what you're doing. But—don't lose him—or her, if you see +her again."</p> + +<p>"One thing more," said Gandam, as he rose to go. "Supposing he goes off +by train? Do I follow?"</p> + +<p>"No," answered Starmidge after a moment's reflection, "but manage to +find out where he goes."</p> + +<p>He sat and thought a long time after his visitor had left, and his +thoughts all centred on one fact: the undoubted fact that Gabriel +Chestermarke and Mrs. Carswell had met.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h2>THE PORTRAIT</h2> + +<p>The offices of Mr. Godwin Markham, at which the two detectives presented +themselves soon after half-past ten next morning, were by no means +extensive in size or palatial in appearance. They were situated in the +second floor of a building in Conduit Street, and apparently consisted +of no more than two rooms, which, if not exactly shabby, were somewhat +well-worn as to furniture and fittings. It was evident, too, that Mr. +Godwin Markham's clerical staff was not extensive. There was a young man +clerk, and a young woman clerk in the outer office: the first was +turning over a pile of circulars at the counter; the second, seated at a +typewriter, was taking down a letter which was being dictated to her by +a man who, still hatted and overcoated, had evidently just arrived, and +was leaning against the mantelpiece with his hands in his pockets. He +was a very ordinary, plain-countenanced, sandy-haired, quite +commercial-looking man, this, who might have been anything from a Stock +Exchange clerk to a suburban house-agent. But there was a sudden +alertness in his eye as he turned it on the visitors, which showed them +that he was well equipped in mental acuteness, and probably as alert as +his features were commonplace.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> + +<p>The circular-sorting young man looked up with indifference as Easleby +approached the counter, and when the detective asked if Mr. Godwin +Markham could be seen, turned silently and interrogatively to the man +who leaned against the mantelpiece. He, interrupting his dictation, came +forward again, narrowly but continually eyeing the two men.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Markham is not in town, gentlemen," he said, in a quick, +business-like fashion, which convinced Starmidge that the speaker was +not uttering any mere excuse. "He was here yesterday for an hour or two, +but he will be away for some days now. Can I do anything for you?—his +manager."</p> + +<p>Easleby handed over the two professional cards which he had in +readiness, and leaned across the counter.</p> + +<p>"A word or two in private," he whispered confidentially. "Business +matter."</p> + +<p>Starmidge, watching Mr. James Stipp's face closely as he looked at the +cards, saw that he was not the sort of man to be taken unawares. There +was not the faintest flicker of an eyelid, not a motion of the lips, not +the tiniest start of surprise, no show of unusual interest on the +manager's part: he nodded, opened a door in the counter, and waved the +two detectives towards the inner room.</p> + +<p>"Be seated, gentlemen," he said, following them inside. "You'll excuse +me a minute—important letter to get off—I won't keep you long."</p> + +<p>He closed the door upon them and Starmidge and Easleby glanced round +before taking the chairs to which Mr. Stipp had pointed. There was +little to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> see. A big, roomy desk, middle-Victorian in style, some heavy +middle-Victorian chairs, a well-worn carpet and rug, a book-case filled +with peerages, baronetages, county directories, Army lists, Navy lists, +and other similar volumes of reference to high life, a map or two on the +walls, a heavy safe in a corner—these things were all there was to look +at. Except one thing—which Starmidge was quick to see. Over the +mantelpiece, with an almanac on one side of it, and an interest-table on +the other, hung a somewhat faded photograph of Gabriel Chestermarke.</p> + +<p>The younger detective tapped his companion's arm and silently indicated +this grim counterfeit of the man in whose doings they were so keenly +interested just then.</p> + +<p>"That's—the man!" he whispered. "Chestermarke! Gabriel!"</p> + +<p>Easleby opened mouth and eyes and stared with eager interest.</p> + +<p>"Egad!" he muttered. "That's lucky! Makes it all the easier. I'll lay +you anything you like, my lad, this manager doesn't know anything—not a +thing!—about the double identity business. We shall soon find +out—leave it to me—at first, anyway. A few plain questions——"</p> + +<p>Mr. Stipp came bustling in, closing the door behind him. He took off +overcoat and hat, ran his fingers through his light hair, and, seating +himself, glanced smilingly at his visitors.</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen!" he demanded. "What can I do for you now? Want to make +some inquiries?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Just a few small inquiries, sir," replied Easleby. "I haven't the +pleasure of knowing your name—Mr.——?"</p> + +<p>"Stipp's my name, sir," answered the manager promptly. "Stipp—James +Stipp."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," said Easleby, with great politeness. "Well, Mr. Stipp, +you see from our cards who we are. We've called on you—as representing +Mr. Godwin Markham—on behalf—informally, Mr. Stipp—of Mrs. Lester, of +Lowdale Court, Chesham."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stipp's face showed a little surprise at this announcement, and he +glanced from one man to the other as if he were puzzled.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he said. "Dear me! Why—what has Mrs. Lester called you in for?"</p> + +<p>Easleby, who had brought another marked newspaper with him, laid it on +the manager's desk.</p> + +<p>"You've no doubt read of this Scarnham affair, Mr. Stipp?" he asked, +pointing to his own blue pencillings. "Most people have, I think. Or +perhaps it's escaped your notice."</p> + +<p>"Hardly could!" answered Mr. Stipp, with a friendly smile. "Yes—I've +read it. Most extraordinary! One of the most puzzling cases I ever did +read. Are you in at it? But this call hasn't anything to do with that, +surely? If it has—what?"</p> + +<p>"This much," answered Easleby. "Mrs. Lester has told us, of course, that +her son, the young officer, is in debt to your governor. Well, last +week, Mrs. Lester handed a certain sum of money to the Mr. Frederick +Hollis who's been found dead at Scarnham,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> to be applied to the +settlement of her son's liability in that respect."</p> + +<p>Mr. Stipp showed undoubted surprise at this announcement.</p> + +<p>"She did!" he exclaimed. "Gave Mr. Hollis money—for that? Why!—Mr. +Hollis never told me of it!"</p> + +<p>In the course of a long professional experience Easleby had learned to +control his facial expression; Starmidge was gradually progressing +towards perfection in that art. But each man was hard put to it to check +an expression of astonishment. And Easleby showed some slight sign of +perplexity when he replied.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hollis has—called on you, then?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Hollis was here last Friday afternoon," answered Mr. Stipp. "Called on +me at five o'clock—just before I was leaving for the day. He never +offered me any money! Glad if he had—it's time young Lester paid up."</p> + +<p>"What did Hollis come for, then, if that's a fair question?" asked +Easleby.</p> + +<p>"He came, I should say, to take a look at us, and find out who he'd got +to deal with," replied the manager, smiling. "In plain language, to make +an inquiry or two. He told me he'd been empowered by Mrs. Lester to deal +with us, and he wanted the particulars of what we'd advanced to her son, +and he got them—from me. But he never made me any offer. He just found +out what he wanted to know—and went away."</p> + +<p>"And, evidently, next day travelled to Scarnham,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> observed Easleby. +"Now, Mr. Stipp, have you any idea whether his visit to Scarnham was in +connection with the money affair of yours and young Lester's?"</p> + +<p>Again the look of undoubted surprise; again the appearance of genuine +perplexity.</p> + +<p>"I?" exclaimed Mr. Stipp. "Not the least! Not the ghost of an idea! What +could his visit to Scarnham have to do with us? Nothing!—that I know +of, anyway."</p> + +<p>"You don't think it rather remarkable that Mr. Hollis should go down +there the very day after he called on you?" asked Starmidge, putting in +a question for the first time.</p> + +<p>"Why should I?" asked Mr. Stipp. "What do I know about him and his +arrangements? He never mentioned Scarnham to me."</p> + +<p>Easleby laid a finger on the marked newspaper.</p> + +<p>"You see some names of Scarnham people there, Mr. Stipp?" he observed. +"Those names—Horbury—Chestermarke. You don't happen to know 'em?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know them," replied the manager, with obvious sincerity. +"Banking people, all of them, aren't they? I might have heard their +names, in a business way, some time—but I don't recall them at all."</p> + +<p>"You said that Mr. Markham was here yesterday," suggested Starmidge. +"Did you tell him—you'll excuse my asking, but it's important—did you +tell him that Hollis had called last Friday on behalf of Mrs. Lester?"</p> + +<p>"I just mentioned it," replied Mr. Stipp. "He took no particular +notice—except to say that what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> we claim from young Lester will have to +be—paid."</p> + +<p>"You don't know if he knew Hollis?" inquired Starmidge.</p> + +<p>The manager shook his head in a fashion which seemed to indicate that +Hollis's case was no particular business of either his or his +principal's.</p> + +<p>"I don't think he did," he answered. "Never said so, anyhow. But, I say! +you'll excuse me, now—what is it you're trying to get at? Do you think +Hollis went to Scarnham on this business of young Lester's? And if you +do, why?"</p> + +<p>Easleby rose, and Starmidge followed his example.</p> + +<p>"We don't know yet—exactly—why Hollis went to Scarnham," said the +elder detective. "We hoped you could help us. But, as you can't—well, +we're much obliged, Mr. Stipp. That your governor over the chimney-piece +there?"</p> + +<p>"Taken a few years ago," replied Mr. Stipp carelessly. "I say—you don't +know what Hollis was empowered to offer us, do you?"</p> + +<p>The two detectives looked at each other; a quiet nod from Starmidge +indicated that he left it to Easleby to answer this question. And after +a moment's reflection, Easleby spoke.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hollis was empowered to offer ten thousand pounds in full +satisfaction, Mr. Stipp," he said. "And what's more—a cheque for that +amount was found on his dead body when it was discovered. Now, sir, +you'll understand why we want to know who it was that he went to see at +Scarnham!"</p> + +<p>Both men were watching the money-lender's manager<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> with redoubled +attention. But it needed no very keen eye to see that the surprise which +Mr. Stipp had already shown at various stages of the interview was +nothing to that which he now felt. And in the midst of his astonishment +the two detectives bade him good-day and left him, disregarding an +entreaty to stop and tell him more.</p> + +<p>"My lad!" said Easleby, when he and Starmidge were out in the street +again, "that chap has no more conception that his master is Gabriel +Chestermarke than we had—twenty-four hours since—that Gabriel +Chestermarke and Godwin Markham are one and the same man. He's a clever +chap, this Gabriel—and now you can see how important it's been for him +to keep his secret. What's next to be done? We ought to keep in touch +with him from now."</p> + +<p>"I'm expecting word from Gandam at noon at headquarters," answered +Starmidge, who had already told Easleby of the visit of the previous +night. "Let's ride down there and hear if any message has come in."</p> + +<p>But as their taxi-cab turned out of Whitehall into New Scotland Yard +they overtook Gandam, hurrying along. Starmidge stopped the cab and +jumped out.</p> + +<p>"Any news?" he asked sharply.</p> + +<p>"He's off, Mr. Starmidge!" replied Gandam. "I've just come straight from +watching him away. He left his house about nine-twenty, walked to the +St. John's Wood Station, went down to Baker Street, and on to King's +Cross Metropolitan. We followed him, of course. He walked across to St. +Pancras, and left by the ten-thirty express."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Did you manage to find out where he booked for!" demanded Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Ecclesborough," answered Gandam. "Heard him! I was close behind."</p> + +<p>"He was alone, I suppose?" asked Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Alone all the time, Mr. Starmidge," assented Gandam. "Never saw a sign +of the other party."</p> + +<p>Starmidge rejoined Easleby. For the last twenty-four hours he had let +his companion supervise matters, but now, having decided on a certain +policy, he took affairs into his own hands.</p> + +<p>"Now, then," he said, "he's off—back to Scarnham. A word or two at the +office, Easleby, and I'm after him. And you'll come with me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h2>THE LIGHTNING FLASH</h2> + +<p>At half-past seven that evening Starmidge and Easleby stepped out of a +London express at Ecclesborough, and walked out to the front of the +station to get a taxi-cab for Scarnham. The newsboys were rushing across +the station square with the latest editions of the evening papers, and +Starmidge's quick ear caught the meaning of their unfamiliar +North-country shoutings.</p> + +<p>"Latest about the Scarnham mystery," he said, stopping a lad and taking +a couple of papers from him. "Something about the adjourned inquest—of +course that would be today. Now then—what's this?"</p> + +<p>He drew aside to a quiet corner of the station portico, and with his +companion looking over his shoulder, read aloud a passage from the +latest of the two papers.</p> + +<p>"'An important witness gave evidence this afternoon at the adjourned +inquest held at Scarnham on the body of Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, +of London, who was recently found lying dead at the bottom of one of the +old lead-mines in Ellersdeane Hollow. It will be remembered that the +circumstances of this discovery—already familiar to our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +readers—allied with the mysterious disappearance of Mr. John Horbury, +and the presumed theft of the Countess of Ellersdeane's jewels, seem to +indicate an extraordinary crime, and opinion varies considerably in the +Scarnham district as to whether Mr. Hollis—the reason of whose visit to +Scarnham is still unexplained—fell into the old mine by accident, or +whether he was thrown in.</p> + +<p>"'At the beginning of the proceedings this afternoon, a shepherd named +James Livesey, of Ellersdeane, employed by Mr. Marchant, farmer, of the +same place, was immediately called. He stated in answer to questions put +by the Coroner, that on Monday morning last he had gone with his +employer to an out-of-the-way part of Northumberland to buy new stock, +and in consequence of his absence from home had not heard of the +Scarnham affair until his return this morning, when, on Mr. Marchant's +advice, he had at once called on the Coroner's office to volunteer +information.</p> + +<p>"'Livesey's evidence, in brief, was as follows: At nine o'clock last +Saturday evening, he was walking home from Scarnham to Ellersdeane by a +track which crosses the Hollow, and cuts into the high road between the +town and the village at a point near the Warren, an isolated house which +is the private residence of Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of +Scarnham. As he reached this point, he saw Mr. John Horbury, whom he +knew very well by sight, accompanied by a stranger, come out of the +Hollow by another path, cross the high road, and walk down the lane +which leads to the Warren. They were talking very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> earnestly, but Mr. +Horbury saw him and said good-night in answer to his own greeting. There +was a strong moonlight at the time, and he saw the stranger's face +clearly. He was quite sure that the stranger was the dead man whose body +had just been shown to him at the mortuary.</p> + +<p>"'Questioned further, Livesey positively adhered to all his statements. +He was certain of the time; certain of the identity of the two +gentlemen. He knew Mr. Horbury very well indeed; had known him for many +years; Mr. Horbury had often talked to him when they met in the fields +and lanes of the neighbourhood. He had no doubt at all that the dead man +he had seen in the mortuary was the gentleman who was with Mr. Horbury +on Saturday night. He had noticed him particularly as the two gentlemen +passed him, and had wondered who he was. The moon was very bright that +night: he saw Mr. Hollis quite plainly: he would have known him again at +any time. He was positive that the two gentlemen entered the lane which +led to Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke's house. They were evidently making a +direct line for it when he first saw them, and they crossed the high +road straight to its entrance. That lane led nowhere else than to the +Warren—it was locally called the lane, but it was really a sort of +carriage-drive to Mr. Chestermarke's front door, and there was a gate at +the high-road entrance to it. He saw Mr. Horbury and his companion enter +that gate; he heard it clash behind them.</p> + +<p>"'Questioned by Mr. Polke, superintendent of police at Scarnham, Livesey +said that when he first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> saw the two gentlemen they were coming from the +direction of Ellersdeane Tower. There was a path right across the +Hollow, from a point in front of the Warren, to the Tower, and thence to +the woods on the Scarnham side. That was the path the two gentlemen were +on. He was absolutely certain about the time, for two reasons. Just +before he saw Mr. Horbury and his companion, he heard the clock at +Scarnham Parish Church strike nine, and after they had passed him he had +gone on to the Green Archer public-house, and had noticed that it was +ten minutes past nine when he entered. Further questioned, he said he +saw no one else on the Hollow but the two gentlemen.</p> + +<p>"'At the conclusion of Livesey's evidence, the Coroner announced to the +jury that, having had the gist of the witness's testimony communicated +to him earlier in the day, he had sent his officer to request Mr. +Gabriel Chestermarke's attendance. The officer, however, had returned to +say that Mr. Chestermarke was away on business, and that it was not +known when he would be back at the bank. As it was highly important that +the jury should know at once if Mr. Horbury and Mr. Hollis called at the +Warren on Saturday evening last, he, the Coroner, had sent for Mr. +Chestermarke's butler, who would doubtless be able to give information +on that point. They would adjourn for an hour until the witness +attended.'"</p> + +<p>"That's the end of it—in that paper," remarked Starmidge. "Let's see if +the other has any later news. Ah!—here we are!—there is more in the +stop press space of this one. Now then——"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> + +<p>He held the second newspaper half in front of himself, half in front of +Easleby, and again rapidly read over the report.</p> + +<p>"'Scarnham—further adjournment. On the Coroner's inquiry being resumed +at four o'clock, Thomas Beavers, butler to Mr. Chestermarke at the +Warren, said that so far as he knew, Mr. Horbury did not call on his +master on Saturday evening last, nor did any gentleman call who answered +the description of Mr. Hollis. It was impossible for anybody to call at +the Warren, in the ordinary way, without his, the butler's, knowledge. +As a matter of fact, the witness continued, Mr. Chestermarke was not at +home during the greater part of that evening. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke +had dined at the Warren at seven o'clock, and at half-past eight he and +his uncle left the house together. Mr. Chestermarke did not return until +eleven. Asked by Mr. Polke, superintendent of police, if he knew in +which direction Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Joseph Chestermarke proceeded when +they went away, the witness said that a short time after they left the +house, he, in drawing the curtains of the dining-room window, saw them +walking in a side-path of the garden, apparently in close conversation. +He saw neither of them after that until Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke +returned home, alone, at the time he had mentioned.</p> + +<p>"'Later. The inquest was further adjourned at the close of this +afternoon's proceedings. Before adjourning, the Coroner informed the +jury that he understood there were rumours in the town to the effect +that Mr. Hollis had been strangled before being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> thrown into the old +lead-mine. He need hardly say that there were not the slightest grounds +for those rumours. But the medical men had some suspicion that the +unfortunate gentleman might have been poisoned, and he, the Coroner, +thought it well to tell them that a specialist was being sent down by +the Home Office, who, with the Scarnham doctors, would perform an +autopsy on his arrival. The result would be placed before the jury when +these proceedings were resumed.'"</p> + +<p>Starmidge dropped the paper and looked at Easleby with an expression of +astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Poison!" he exclaimed. "That's a new idea! Poisoned first!—and thrown +into that old mine after? That's—but, there, what's the good of +theorizing? Pick out the best of those cars, and let's get to Scarnham +as quick as possible. Something's got to be done tonight."</p> + +<p>Easleby made no immediate answer. But presently, when they were in a +fast motor and leaving the Ecclesborough streets behind them, he shook +his head, and spoke more gravely than was usual with him.</p> + +<p>"The big question, my lad," he said, "is—what to do? And there's +another—what's been done—and possibly, what's being done? It's my +impression something's being done now—still going on!"</p> + +<p>"I know one thing!" exclaimed Starmidge determinedly. "We'll confront +Gabriel Chestermarke tonight with what we know. That's positive!"</p> + +<p>"If we can find him," said Easleby. "You don't know! The coming down to +Ecclesborough may have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> been all a blind. You can reach a lot of places +from Ecclesborough—and you can leave a train at more than one place +between Ecclesborough and London."</p> + +<p>"I telephoned Polke to keep an eye on him, anyway, if he did arrive at +either Scarnham or the Warren," answered Starmidge, still grimly +determined. "And it's my impression that he has come down—to see that +nephew of his. Easleby!—they're both in at it. Both!"</p> + +<p>Again the elder detective made no answer. He was obviously much +impressed by the recent developments as related in the newspapers which +they had just read, and was deep in thought about them and the +possibilities which they suggested to him.</p> + +<p>"Well!" he said at last, as the high roofs of Scarnham came in view, +"we'll hear what Polke has to tell. Something may have happened since +those inquest proceedings this afternoon."</p> + +<p>But Polke, when they reached his office, had little to tell. Lord +Ellersdeane, Betty Fosdyke, and Stephen Hollis were with him, evidently +in consultation, and Starmidge at once saw that Betty looked distressed +and anxious in no ordinary degree. All turned eagerly on the two +detectives. But Starmidge addressed himself straight to Polke with one +direct inquiry.</p> + +<p>"Seen him?—heard of him?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Not a word!" answered Polke. "Nor a sign! If he came down by that train +you spoke of, he ought to have been in the town by four o'clock at the +outside. But he's never been to the bank, and he certainly hadn't +arrived at his house three-quarters of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> an hour ago. And since ten +o'clock this morning t'other's disappeared, too!"</p> + +<p>"What—Joseph?" exclaimed Starmidge.</p> + +<p>"Just so!" replied Polke, with the expression of a man who feels that +things are getting too much for individual effort, "He was at the bank +at eight o'clock this morning—one of my men saw him go in by the back +way—orchard way, you know. The clerks say he went out—that way +again—at ten, and he's never been seen since."</p> + +<p>"His house!" said Starmidge. "Have you tried that?"</p> + +<p>"Know nothing of him there—the old man and old woman said so, at any +rate," answered Polke. "He seems to have cleared out. And now here's +fresh bother, though I don't know if it's anything to do with this. Mr. +Neale's missing—never been seen since six yesterday evening. Miss +Fosdyke's anxious——"</p> + +<p>"He was to see me at nine last night," said Betty. "No one has seen him. +His landlady says he never returned home last night. Do you think +anything can have happened——"</p> + +<p>"If anything's happened to Mr. Neale," interrupted Starmidge, "it's all +of a piece with the rest of it. Now, superintendent!" he went on, +turning to Polke, "never mind what news I've brought—we've got to find +these two Chestermarkes at once! We must go, some of us, to the Warren, +some to the Cornmarket. See here!—Easleby and I will go on to the +Cornmarket now—you get some of your men and follow. If we hear nothing +there—then, the Warren. But—quick!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> + +<p>The two detectives hurried out of the police-station; Lord Ellersdeane +and Betty, after a word or two with Polke, followed. Outside, Starmidge +and Easleby paused a moment, consulting; the Earl stepped forward to +speak to them.</p> + +<p>"As regards Mr. Neale," he began, "Miss Fosdyke thinks you ought to know +that——"</p> + +<p>A sudden searching flash, as of lightning, glared across the open space +in front, lighting up the tower of the old church, the high roofs of the +ancient houses, and the drifting clouds above them. Then a crash as of +terrible thunder shook the little town from end to end, and as it died +away the street lamps went out, and the tinkle of falling glass sounded +on the pavements of the Market-Place. And in the second of dead silence +which followed, a woman's voice, shrill, terrified, shrieked loudly, +once, somewhere in the darkness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h2>THE OLD DOVE-COT</h2> + +<p>On the previous evening, Wallington Neale, who had spent most of the day +with Betty Fosdyke, endeavouring to gain some further light on the +disappearance of her uncle, had left her at eight o'clock in order to +keep a business appointment. He was honourary treasurer of the Scarnham +Cricket Club: the weekly meeting of the committee of which important +institution was due that night at the Hope and Anchor Inn, an old tavern +in the Cornmarket. Thither Neale repaired, promising to rejoin Betty at +nine o'clock. There was little business to be done at the meeting: by a +quarter to nine it was all over and Neale was going away. And as he +walked down the long sanded passage which led from the committee-room to +the front entrance of the inn, old Rob Walford, the landlord, came out +of the bow-windowed bar-parlour, beckoned him, with a mystery-suggesting +air, to follow, and led him into a private room, the door of which he +carefully closed.</p> + +<p>Walford, a shrewd-eyed, astute old fellow, well known in Scarnham for +his business abilities and his penetration, chiefly into other people's +affairs, looked at Neale with a mingled expression of meaning and +inquiry.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mr. Neale!" he whispered, glancing round at the panelling of the old +parlour in which they stood, as if he feared that its ancient boards +might conceal eavesdroppers, "I wanted a word with you—in private. +How's this here affair going? Is aught being done? Is aught being found +out? Is that detective chap any good?—him from London, I mean. Is there +aught new—since this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Not to my knowledge, Mr. Walford," answered Neale, who knew well that +the old innkeeper was hand-in-glove with the Scarnham police, and +invariably kept himself well primed with information about their doings. +"I should think you know nearly everything—just as much as I do—more, +perhaps."</p> + +<p>The landlord poked a stout forefinger into Neale's waistcoat.</p> + +<p>"Aye!" he said. "Aye, so I do!—as to what you might call surface +matter, Mr. Neale. But—about the main thing, which, in my opinion, is +the whereabouts of John Horbury? Does yon young lady at the Scarnham +Arms know aught more about her uncle? Do you? Does anybody? Is there +aught behind, like; aught that hasn't come out on the top?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know of anything," replied Neale. "I wish I did! Miss Fosdyke's +very anxious indeed about her uncle: she'd give anything or do anything +to get news of him. It's all rot, you know, to say he's run away—it's +my impression he's never gone out of Scarnham or the neighbourhood. But +where he is, and whether dead or alive, is beyond my comprehension," he +concluded, shaking his head. "If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> he's alive, why don't we hear +something, or find out something?"</p> + +<p>Walford gave his companion a quick glance out of his shrewd old eyes.</p> + +<p>"He might be under such circumstances as wouldn't admit of that there, +Mr. Neale," he said. "But come!—I've got something to tell +you—something that I found out not half an hour ago. I was going on to +tell Polke about it at once, but I remembered that you were in the house +at this cricket club meeting, so I thought you'd do instead—you can +tell Polke. I'm in a bit of a hurry myself—you know it's Wymington +Races tomorrow, and I'm off there tonight, at once, to meet a man that I +do a bit of business with in these matters—we make a book together, +d'ye see—so I can't stop. But come this way."</p> + +<p>He led Neale out into the long sanded passage, and down through the rear +of the old house into a big stable-yard, enclosed by variously shaped +buildings, more or less in an almost worn-out and dilapidated condition, +whose roofs and gables showed picturesquely against the sky, faintly +lighted by the waning moon. To one of these, a tower-like erection, +considerably higher than the rest, the old landlord pointed.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you know that these back premises of mine partly overlook +Joseph Chestermarke's garden?" he whispered. "They do, anyway—you can +see right over his garden and the back of his house—that is, in bits, +for he's a fine lot of tall trees round his lawns. But there's a very +fair view of that workshop he's built from the top storey of this old +dove-cot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> of mine—we use it as a store-house. Come up—and mind these +here broken steps—there's no rail, you see, and you could easy fall +over."</p> + +<p>He led his companion up a flight of much-worn stone stairs which were +built against the wall of the old dove-cot; through an open doorway +twenty feet above; across a rickety floor; and up another stairway of +wood, into a chamber in which was a latticed window, from which most of +the glass and the woodwork had disappeared.</p> + +<p>"Now, then," he said, taking Neale to this outlook, and pointing +downwards. "There you are!—you see what I mean?"</p> + +<p>Neale looked out. Joseph Chestermarke's big garden lay beneath him. As +Walford had said, much of it was obscured by trees, but there was a good +prospect of one side of the laboratory from where Neale was standing. +That side was furnished with a door—and on the level of that door at +the extreme end of the building was a window fitted with a +light-coloured blind. All the other windows, as in the case of the side +which Neale had seen previously from the tree on the river-bank, were +high up in the walls and fitted with red material. And from the +curiously shaped smoke stack in the flat roof, the same differently +tinted vapours which he had noticed on the same occasion were curling up +above the elms and beeches.</p> + +<p>"Now look here!" whispered the landlord. "D'ye see that one window with +the whitish blind and the light behind it? I came up here, maybe half an +hour ago, to see if we were out of something that's kept here, and I +chanced to look out on to Joseph Chestermarke's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> garden. Mr. +Neale!—there's a man in that room with the light-coloured blind—I saw +his shadow on the blind, pass and repass, you understand, twice, while I +looked. And—it's not Joseph Chestermarke!"</p> + +<p>"Could you tell?—had you any idea?—whose shadow it was?" demanded +Neale eagerly.</p> + +<p>"No!—he passed in a sort of slanting direction—back and forward—just +once," answered Walford. "But—his build was, I should say, about the +like of John Horbury's. Mr. Neale—Horbury might be locked up there! +He's a bad 'un, is Joe Chestermarke—oh, he's a rank bad 'un, my +lad!—though most folk don't know it. You don't know what mayn't be +happening, or what mayn't have happened in yon place! But look here—I +can't stop. Me and Sam Barraclough's going off to Wymington now, in his +motor—he'll be waiting at this minute. You do what I say—stop here and +watch a bit. And if you see aught, go to Polke and insist on the police +searching that place. That's my advice!"</p> + +<p>"I shall do that, in any case, after what you've said," muttered Neale, +who was staring at the lighted window. "But I'll watch here a bit. +You've said nothing of this to anybody else?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied the landlord. "As I said, I knew you were in the house. +Well, I'm off, then. Shan't be back till late tomorrow night—and I hope +you'll have some news by then, Mr. Neale."</p> + +<p>Walford went off across the creaking floor and down the stairs, and +Neale leaned out of the dismantled window and stared into the garden +beneath.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> Was it possible, he wondered, that there was anything in the +old fellow's suggestion?—possible that the missing bank manager was +really concealed in that mysterious laboratory, or workshop, or whatever +the place was, into which Joseph Chestermarke never allowed any person +to enter? And if he was there at all, was it with his consent, or +against his will, or—what? Was he being kept a prisoner—or was +he—hiding?</p> + +<p>In spite of his own knowledge of Horbury, and of Betty Fosdyke's +assertions of her uncle's absolute innocence, Neale had all along been +conscious of a vague, uneasy feeling that, after all, there might be +something of an unexplained nature in which the manager had been, or was +concerned. It might have something to do with the missing jewels; it +might be mixed up with Frederick Hollis's death; it might be that +Horbury and Joseph Chestermarke were jointly concerned in—but there he +was at a loss, not knowing or being able to speculate on what they could +be concerned in. Strange beyond belief it was, nevertheless, that old +Rob Walford should think the shadow he had seen to be the missing man's! +Supposing——</p> + +<p>The door of Joseph Chestermarke's laboratory suddenly opened, letting +out a glare of light across the lawn in front. And Joseph came out, +carrying a sort of sieve-like arrangement, full of glowing ashes. He +went away to some distant part of the garden with his burden; came back, +disappeared; re-appeared with more ashes; went again down the garden. +And each time he left the door wide open. A sudden notion—which he +neglected to think over—flashed into Neale's mind. He left the upper +chamber of the old dove-cot,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> made his way down the stairs to the yard +beneath, turned the corner of the buildings, and by the aid of some +loose timber which lay piled against it, climbed to the top of Joseph +Chestermarke's wall. A moment of hesitation, and then he quietly dropped +to the other side, noiselessly, on the soft mould of the border. From +behind a screen of laurel bushes he looked out on the laboratory, at +close quarters.</p> + +<p>Joseph was still coming and going with his sieve—now that Neale saw him +at a few yards distance he saw that the junior partner and amateur +experimenter was evidently cleaning out his furnace. The place into +which he threw the ashes was at the far end of the garden; at least +three minutes was occupied in each journey. And—yielding to a sudden +impulse—when Joseph made his next excursion and had his back fairly +turned, Neale crossed the lawn in half a dozen agile and stealthy +strides, and within a few seconds had slipped within the open door and +behind it.</p> + +<p>A moment later, and he knew he was trapped. Joseph came back—and did +not enter. Neale heard him fling the sieve on the gravel. Then the door +was pulled to with a metallic bang, from without, and the same action +which closed it also cut off the electric light.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h2>SOUND-PROOF</h2> + +<p>It needed no more than a moment's reflection to prove to Neale that he +had made a serious mistake in obeying that first impulse. Joseph +Chestermarke had gone away—probably for the night. And there had been +something in the metallic clang of that closing door, something in the +sure and certain fashion in which it had closed into its frame, +something in the utter silence which had followed the sudden extinction +of the light, which made the captive feel that he might beat upon door +or wall as hard and as long as he pleased without attracting any +attention. This place into which he had come of his own free will was no +ordinary place—already he felt that he was in a trap out of which it +was not going to be easy to escape.</p> + +<p>He stood for a moment, heart thumping and pulses throbbing, to listen +and to look. But he saw nothing—beyond the faint indication of the +waning moonlight outside the red-curtained, circular windows high above +him, and a fainter speck of glowing cinder, left behind in the recently +emptied furnace. He heard nothing, either, save a very faint crackling +of the expiring ashes in that furnace. Presently even that minute sound +died down, the one speck of light went out, and the silence and gloom +were intense.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p> + +<p>Neale now knew that unless Joseph Chestermarke came back to his workshop +he was doomed to spend the night in it—and possibly part of the next +day. He felt sure that it was impossible to obtain release otherwise +than by Joseph's coming. He could do nothing—in all probability—to +release himself. No one in the town would have the remotest idea that he +was fastened up within those walls. The only man to whom such an idea +could come on hearing that he, Neale, was missing, was old Rob +Walford—and Walford, by that time, would be well on his way to +Wymington, thirty miles off, and as he was to be there all night, and +all next day, he would hear nothing until his return to Scarnham, +twenty-four hours hence. No!—he was caught. Joseph Chestermarke had had +no idea of catching him—but he had caught him all the same.</p> + +<p>And now that he was safely caught, Neale began to wonder why he had +slipped into that place. He had an elementary idea, of course—he had +wanted to find out if anybody was concealed in that room which the +landlord had pointed out. Certainly he had felt no fear about meeting +Joseph Chestermarke. Yet—now that he was there—he did not know what he +should have done if Joseph had come in, as he expected he would, nor +what he should, or could do now that he was in complete possession. If +he had been able to face Joseph, he would have demanded information, +point-blank, about the shadow on the blind; he even had some misty +notion about enforcing it, if need be. But—he was now helpless. He +could do no good; he could not tell Polke or anybody else what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> Walford +had reported. And if he was to be left there all night—which seemed +likely—he had only got himself into a highly unpleasant situation.</p> + +<p>He moved at last, feeling about in the darkness. His hands encountered +smooth, blank walls, on each side of the door. He dared not step forward +lest he should run against machinery or meet with some cavity in the +flooring. And reflecting that the small, insignificant gleam which it +would make could scarcely be noticed from outside, he struck a match, +and carefully holding it within the flap of his outstretched jacket, +looked around him. A first quick glance gave him a general idea of his +surroundings. Immediately in front of him was the furnace; a little to +its side was a lathe; on one side of the place a long table stood, +covered with a multitude of tools, chemical apparatus, and the like; on +the other was a blank wall. And in that blank wall, to which Neale +chiefly directed his attention during the few seconds for which the +match burned, was a door.</p> + +<p>The match went out; he dropped it on the floor and moved forward in the +darkness to the door which he had just seen. That, of course, must open +into the inner room to the outer window of which Walford had drawn his +attention. He went on until his outstretched fingers touched the door. +Then he cautiously struck another match and looked the door up and down. +What he saw added to the mystery of the whole adventure. Neale had seen +doors of that sort before, more than once—but they were the doors of +very big safes or of strong rooms. Before the second match burned +through he knew that this particular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> door was of some metal—steel, +most likely—that it was set into a framework of similar metal, and that +the room to which it afforded entrance was probably sound-proof.</p> + +<p>He struck a third match and a fourth. By their light he saw there was +but one small keyhole to the door, and he judged from that that it was +fitted with some patent mechanical lock. There was no way by which he +could open it, of course, and though he stood for a long time listening +with straining ears against it he could not detect the slightest sound +from whatever chamber or recess lay behind it. If there really was a man +in there, thought Neale, he must surely feel himself to be in a living +tomb. And after a time, taking the risk of being heard from outside the +laboratory, he beat heavily upon the door with his fist. No response +came: the silence all around him was more oppressive, if possible, than +before.</p> + +<p>The expenditure of more matches enabled Neale to examine further into +the conditions of what seemed likely to be his own prison for some +hours. He was not sorry to see that in one corner stood an old settee, +furnished with rugs and cushions—if he was obliged to remain locked up +all night, he would, at any rate, be able to get some rest. But beyond +this, the furnace, a tall three-fold screen, evidently used to assist in +the manipulation of draughts, and the lathe, table, and apparatus which +he had already seen, there was nothing in the place. There was no way of +getting at the windows in the top of the high walls: even if he could +have got at them they were too small for a man to squeeze through. And +he was about to sit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> down on the settee and wait the probably slow and +tedious course of events, when he caught sight of an object at the end +of the table which startled him, and made him wonder more than anything +he had seen up to that moment.</p> + +<p>That object was a big loaf of bread. He struck yet another match and +looked at it more narrowly. It was one of those large loaves which +bakers make for the use of families. Close by it lay a knife: a nearer +inspection showed Neale that a slice had recently been cut from the +loaf: he knew that by the fact that the crumb was still soft and fresh +on the surface, in spite of the great heat of the place. It was scarcely +likely that Joseph Chestermarke would eat unbuttered bread during his +experiments and labours—why, then, was the loaf there? Could it be that +this bread was—that the slice which had just been cut was—the ration +given to somebody behind that door?</p> + +<p>This idea filled Neale with the first spice of fear which he had felt +since entering the laboratory. The idea of a man being fastened up in a +sound-proof chamber and fed on dry bread suggested possibilities which +he did not and could not contemplate without a certain horror. And if +there really was such a prisoner in that room, or cell, or whatever the +place was, who could it be but John Horbury? And if it was John Horbury, +how, under what circumstances, had he been brought there, why was he +being kept there?</p> + +<p>Neale sat down at last on the settee, and in the silence and darkness +gave himself up to thoughts of a nature which he had never known in his +life before.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> Here, at any rate, was adventure!—and of a decidedly +unpleasant sort. He was not afraid for himself. He had a revolver in his +hip-pocket, loaded—he had been carrying it since Tuesday, with some +strange notion that it might be wanted. Certainly he might have to go +without food for perhaps many hours—but he suddenly remembered that in +the pocket of his Norfolk jacket he had a biggish box of first-rate +chocolate, which he had bought on his way to the cricket club meeting, +with a view of presenting it to Betty, later on. He could get through a +day on that, he thought, if it were necessary—as for the loaf of bread, +something seemed to nauseate him at the mere thought of trying to +swallow a mouthful of it.</p> + +<p>The rest of the evening went: the silence was never broken. Not a sound +came from the mysterious chamber behind him. No step sounded on the +gravel without: no hand unlocked the door from the garden. Now and then +he heard the clock of the parish church strike the hours. At last he +slept—at first fitfully; later soundly—and when he woke it was +morning, and the sunlight was pouring in through the red-curtained +windows high in the walls of his prison.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h2>THE SPARROWS AND THE SPHERE</h2> + +<p>Neale was instantly awake and on the alert. He sprang to his feet, +shivering a little in spite of the rugs which he had wrapped about him +before settling down. A slight current of cold air struck him as he +rose—looking in the direction from which it seemed to come, he saw that +one of the circular windows in the high wall above him was open, and +that a fresh north-east wind was blowing the curtain aside. The +laboratory, hot and close enough when he had entered it the previous +evening, was now cool; the morning breeze freshened and sharpened his +wits. He pulled out his watch, which he had been careful to wind up +before lying down. Seven o'clock!—in spite of his imprisonment and his +unusual couch, he had slept to his accustomed hour of waking.</p> + +<p>Knowing that Joseph Chestermarke might walk in upon him at any moment, +Neale kept himself on the look out, in readiness to adopt a determined +attitude whenever he was discovered. By that time he had come to the +conclusion that whether force would be necessary or not in any meeting +with Joseph, it would be no unwise thing to let that worthy see at once +that he had to deal with an armed man. He accordingly saw to it that his +revolver, already loaded, was easily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> get-at-able, and the flap of his +hip-pocket unbuttoned: under the circumstances, he was not going to be +slow in producing that revolver in suggestive, if not precisely menacing +fashion. This done, he opened his box of chocolate, calculated its +resources, and ate a modest quantity. And while he ate, he looked about +him. In the morning light everything in his surroundings showed clearly +that his cursory inspection of the night before had been productive of +definite conclusions. There was no doubt whatever of the character of +the mysterious door set so solidly and closely in its framework in the +blank wall: the door of the strong room at Chestermarke's Bank was not +more suggestive of security.</p> + +<p>He went over to the outer door when he had eaten his chocolate, and +examined that at his leisure. That, in lesser degree, was set into the +wall as strongly as the inner one. He saw no means of opening it from +the inside: it was evidently secured by a patent mechanical lock of +which Joseph Chestermarke presumably carried the one key. He turned from +it to look more closely at a shelf of books and papers which projected +from the wall above the table. Papers and books were all of a scientific +nature, most of them relating to experimental chemistry, some to +mechanics. He noticed that there were several books on poisons; his +glance fell from those books to various bottles and phials on the table, +fashioned of dark-coloured glass and three-cornered in shape, which he +supposed to contain poisonous solutions. So Joseph dabbled in +toxicology, did he? thought Neale—in that case, perhaps, there was +something in the theory which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> had been gaining ground during the last +twenty-four hours—that Hollis had been poisoned first and thrown into +the old lead-mine later on. And—what of the somebody, Horbury or +whoever it was, that lay behind that grim-looking door? Neale had never +heard a sound during the time which had elapsed before he dropped +asleep, never a faintest rustle since he had been awake again. Was it +possible that a dead man lay there—murdered?</p> + +<p>A cheerful chirping and twittering in the space behind him caused him to +turn sharply away from the books and bottles. Then he saw that he was no +longer alone. Half a score sparrows, busy, bustling little bodies, had +come in by the open window, and were strutting about amongst the grey +ashes in front of the furnace.</p> + +<p>Neale's glance suddenly fell on the loaf of bread, close at hand on the +edge of the table, and on the knife which lay by it. Mechanically, +without any other idea than that of feeding the sparrows and diverting +himself by watching their antics, he picked up the knife, quietly cut +off a half-slice of the loaf, and, crumbling it in his fingers, threw +the crumbs on the floor. For a minute or two he watched his visitors +fighting over this generous dole; then he turned to the shelf again, to +take down a book, the title of which had attracted him. Neale was an +enthusiastic member of the Territorial Force, and had already gained his +sergeant's stripes in the local battalion; he was accordingly deeply +interested in all military matters—this book certainly related to those +matters, though in a way with which he was happily as yet unfamiliar.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +For its title was "On the Use of High Explosive in Modern Warfare," and +though Neale was no great reader, he was well enough versed in current +affairs to know the name of the author, a foreign scientist of +world-wide reputation.</p> + +<p>He opened the book as he stood there, and was soon absorbed in the +preface; so absorbed indeed, that it was some little time before he +became aware that the cheerful twittering behind him had ceased. It had +made a welcome diversion, that innocent chirping of the little brown +birds, and when it ceased, he missed it. He turned suddenly—and dropped +the book.</p> + +<p>Seven or eight of the sparrows were already lying on the floor +motionless. Some lay on their sides, some on their backs; all looked as +if they were already dead. Two were still on their feet; at any other +time Neale would have laughed to see the way in which they staggered +about, for all the world as if they were drunk. And as he watched one +collapsed; the other, after an ineffective effort to spread its wings, +rolled to one side and dropped helplessly. And Neale made another +turn—to stare at the loaf of bread and to wonder what devilry lay in +it. Poison? Of course it was poison! And—what of this man in that +jealously guarded room, behind that steel door? Had he also eaten of the +loaf?</p> + +<p>He turned to the sparrows again at last, stood staring at them as if +they fascinated him, and eventually went over to the foot of the furnace +and picked one up. Then he found, with something of a shock, that the +small thing was not dead. The little body was warm with life; he felt +the steady, regular beating of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> the tiny heart. He laid the bird down +gently, and picked up its companions, one by one, examining each. And +each was warm, and the heart of each was beating. The sparrows were not +dead—but they were drugged—and they were very fast asleep.</p> + +<p>Neale now began to develop theories. If a mere tiny crumb of that loaf +could put a sparrow, a remarkably vigorous and physically strong little +bird—to sleep within a minute or two, what effect would, say, a good +thick slice of it produce upon a human being? Anyway, the probability +was that the captive in that room was lying in a heavily drugged +condition, and that that was the reason of his silence. He would +wake—and surely some sound, however faint, would come. He himself would +wait—listening. The morning wore on—he waited, watched, listened. None +came—nothing had happened. He ate more of his chocolate. He read the +book on explosives. It interested him deeply—so deeply that in spite of +his anxiety, his hunger, his uncertainty as to what might happen, sooner +or later, he became absorbed in it. And once more he was called from its +pages by the sparrows.</p> + +<p>The sparrows were coming to life. After lying stupefied for some four or +five hours they were showing signs of animation. One by one they were +moving, staggering to their feet, beginning to chirp. And as he watched +them, first one and then the other got the use of its wings; and, +finally, with one consent, they flew off to the open window—to +disappear.</p> + +<p>Thereafter, Neale listened more keenly than ever for any sound from that +mysterious room. But no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> sound came. The afternoon passed wearily away; +the light began to fail, and at last he had to confess to himself that +the waiting, the being always on the alert, the enforced seclusion and +detention, the desire for proper food and drink—especially the +latter—was becoming too much for him, and that his nerves were +beginning to suffer. Was Joseph Chestermarke never coming? Had he gone +off somewhere?—possibly leaving a dead man behind, whose body was only +a few yards away. There was no spark of comfort visible save one. Old +Rob Walford would be home late that night from Wymington—sooner or +later he would hear of Neale's disappearance and he would sharpen his +naturally acute wits and come to the right conclusion. Yet—that might +be as far off as tomorrow.</p> + +<p>As the darkness came, Neale, now getting desperate for want of food, was +suddenly startled by two sounds which, coming abruptly at almost the +same time, made him literally jump. One—the first—was a queer thump, +thump, thump, which seemed to be both close at hand and yet a thousand +miles away. The second was Joseph Chestermarke's voice in the garden +outside—heard clearly through the open window. He was bidding somebody +to tell a cab-driver to wait for him at the foot of the bridge. The next +minute, Neale heard a key plunged into the outer door—before it turned, +he, following out a scheme which he had decided on during his long +watch, had leaped behind the screen that stood near the furnace. Ere the +door could open, he was safely hidden—and in that second he heard the +thumping repeated and knew that it came from the inner room.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p> + +<p>The electric light blazed up as Joseph Chestermarke strode in. He put +the door to behind him without quite closing it, and walked into the +middle of the laboratory, feeling in his waistcoat pocket for something +as he advanced. And Neale, peering at him through the high screen, felt +afraid of him for the first time in his life. For the junior partner had +shaved off his beard and moustache, and the face which was thus clearly +revealed, and on which the bright light shone vividly, was one of such +mean and malevolent cruelty that the watcher felt himself turn sick with +dread.</p> + +<p>Joseph went straight to the door in the far wall, unlocked it with a +twist of the key which he had brought from his pocket, and walked in. +The click of an electric light switch followed, and Neale stared hard +and nervously into the hitherto hidden room. But he saw nothing but +Joseph Chestermarke, standing, hands planted on his sides, staring at +something hidden by the door. Next instant Joseph spoke—menacingly, +sneeringly.</p> + +<p>"So you're round again after one of your long sleeps, are you?" he said. +"That's lucky! Now then, have you come to your senses?"</p> + +<p>Neale thought his heart would burst as he waited for the unseen man's +voice. But before he heard any voice he heard something which turned his +blood cold with horror—the clanking, plain, unmistakable, of a chain! +Whoever was in there was chained!—chained like a dog. And following on +that metallic sound came a weary moan.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Come on, now!" said Joseph. "None of that! Are you going to sign that +paper? Speak, now!"</p> + +<p>It seemed to Neale an age before an answer came. But it came at +last—and in Horbury's voice. But what a changed voice! Thin, weak, +weary—the voice of a man slowly being done to death.</p> + +<p>"How long are you going to keep me here?" it asked. "How long——"</p> + +<p>"Sign that paper on the table there, and you'll be out of this within +twenty-four hours," replied Joseph. "And—listen, you!—you'll have good +food—and wine—wine!—within ten minutes. Come on, now!"</p> + +<p>Further silence was followed by another moan, and at the sound of that, +Neale, whose teeth had been clenched firmly for the last minute or two, +slipped his hand round to the pocket in which the revolver lay.</p> + +<p>"Don't be a damned fool!" said Joseph. "Sign and have done with it! +There's the pen—sign! You could have signed any time the last week and +been free. Get it done—damn you, I tell you, get it done! It's your +last chance. I'm off tonight. If I leave you here, it's in your grave. +Nobody'll ever come near this place for weeks—you'll be dead—starved +to death, mind!—long before that. Do you hear me? Come on, now!—sign!"</p> + +<p>Neale half drew the revolver from his pocket. But, as he was about to +step from behind the screen, a sudden step sounded on the gravel outside +the outer door, and he shrank back, watching. The door opened—was +thrown back with some violence—and at the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> instant Joseph darted +from the inner room, livid with anger, to confront Gabriel Chestermarke.</p> + +<p>That the younger man had not expected to encounter the elder was +instantly evident to Neale. Joseph drew back, step by step, watching his +uncle, until his back was against the door through which he had just +rushed. His hand went out behind him and pulled the door to, heavily. +And as it closed he spoke—and Neale knew that there was fear in his +voice.</p> + +<p>"What—what—is it?" he got out. "When did you come in here? Why——" +Gabriel Chestermarke had come to a halt in the middle of the floor, and +he was standing very still. His face was paler than ever, and his eyes +burned in their deep-set sockets like live coals. And suddenly he lifted +a forefinger and pointed it straight at his nephew.</p> + +<p>"Thief!" he said, with a quietness which was startlingly impressive to +the excited spectator. "Thief! Thief and liar—and murderer, for aught I +know! But you are found out. Scoundrel!—you stole those securities! You +stole those jewels! Don't trifle—don't attempt to dispute! I know! You +got the jewels last Saturday night—you took those securities at the +same time. You may have murdered that man Hollis for anything I know to +the contrary—probably you did. But—no fencing with me! Now speak! +Where are the jewels? Where are those securities? And—where is Horbury! +Answer!—without lying. You devil!—I tell you I know—<i>know</i>! I have +seen Mrs. Carswell!"</p> + +<p>Gabriel had moved a little as he went on speaking—moved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> nearer to his +nephew, still pointing the incriminating and accusing finger at him. And +Joseph had moved, too—backward. He was watching his uncle with a queer +expression. Neale saw the tip of his tongue emerge from his lips, as if +the lips had become dry, and he wanted to moisten them. And suddenly his +face changed, and Neale, closely watching him, saw his hand go quickly +to his breast pocket, and caught the gleam of a revolver....</p> + +<p>Neale was a cricketer—of reputation and experience. On a felt-covered +stand close by him lay a couple of heavy spherical objects, fashioned of +some shining-surfaced metal and about the size of a cricket ball, which +he had previously noticed and handled in looking round. He snatched one +of them up now, and flung it hard and straight at Joseph Chestermarke, +intending to stun him. But for once in a way he missed his mark; the +missile crashed against the wall behind. And then came a great flash, +and the roar of all the world going to pieces, and a mighty lifting and +upheaving—and he saw and felt and knew no more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h2>WRECKAGE</h2> + +<p>The four people standing beneath the portico of the police-station +remained as if spell-bound for a full moment after the sudden flash and +the sudden roar. Betty Fosdyke unconsciously clutched at Lord +Ellersdeane's arm: Lord Ellersdeane spoke, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"Thunder?" he exclaimed. "Strange!"</p> + +<p>Easleby turned sharply from Starmidge, who, holding by one of the +pillars, was staring towards the quarter of the Market-Place, from +whence the scream of dire fear had come.</p> + +<p>"That's no thunder, my lord!" he said. "That's an explosion!—and a +terrible one, too! Are there any gasworks close at hand? It was +like——"</p> + +<p>Polke came rushing out of the lobby behind them, followed by some of his +men. And at the same instant people began running along the pavements, +calling to each other.</p> + +<p>"Did you hear that?" cried the superintendent excitedly. "An explosion! +Which direction?"</p> + +<p>Starmidge suddenly started, as if from a reverie. He put up his hand and +wiped something from his cheek, and held the hand out to a shaft of +light which came from the open door behind them. A smear of blood lay +across his open palm.</p> + +<p>"A splinter of falling glass," he said quietly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> "Come on, all of you! +That was an explosion—and I guess where! Get help, Polke—come on to +the Cornmarket! Get the firemen out."</p> + +<p>He set off running towards the end of the Market-Place, followed by +Easleby, and at a slower pace by Lord Ellersdeane and Betty. Crowds were +beginning to run in the same direction: very soon the two detectives +found it difficult to thread a way through them. But within a few +minutes they were in the Cornmarket, and Starmidge, seizing his +companion's arm, dragged him round the corner of Joseph Chestermarke's +house to the high garden wall which ran down the slope to the river +bank. And as they turned the corner, he pointed.</p> + +<p>"As I thought!" he muttered. "It's Joseph Chestermarke's workshop! +Something's happened. Look there!"</p> + +<p>The wall, a good ten feet high on that side, was blown to pieces, and +lay, a mass of fallen masonry, on the green sward by the roadside. +Through the gap thus made, Starmidge plunged into the garden—to be +brought up at once by the twisted and interlaced boughs of the trees +which had been lopped off as though by some giant ax, and then +instantaneously transformed into a cunningly interwoven fence. The air +was still thick with fine dust, and the atmosphere was charged with a +curious, acid odour, which made eyes and nostrils smart.</p> + +<p>"No ordinary burst up, this!" muttered Starmidge, as he and Easleby +forced their way through branches and obstacles to the open lawn. "My +God!—look at it! Blown to pieces!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + +<p>The two men stood for a moment staring at the scene before them, as it +was revealed in the faint light of a waning moon. Neither had ever seen +the effect of high explosives before, and they remained transfixed with +utter astonishment at what they saw. Never, until then, had either +believed it possible that such ruin could be wrought by such means.</p> + +<p>The laboratory was a mass of shapeless wreckage. It seemed as if the +roof had been blown into the sky—only to collapse again on the +shattered walls. The masonry and woodwork lay all over lawns and +gardens, and amidst the surrounding bushes and trees. In the middle of +it yawned a black, deep cavity, from the heart of which curled a wisp of +yellowish smoke. Between these ruins and the house a beech tree of +considerable size had been completely uprooted, and had crashed down on +the lower windows of the house, part of the wall and roof of which had +been wrecked. And on the opposite side of the garden a great gap had +been made in the smaller trees, and the shrubberies beneath them by the +falling in of Rob Walford's old dove-cot, the ancient walls and timber +roof of which had completely collapsed under the force of the explosion.</p> + +<p>Over the actual area of the wreckage everything was still as death, save +for a faint crackling where some loose wood was just catching fire. +Starmidge began to make his way towards it.</p> + +<p>"The thing is," he said mechanically, "the thing is, the thing is—yes, +is—was—there anybody here—anybody here! We must have lights."</p> + +<p>And just then as he came to where the burst of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> flame was growing +bigger, and Polke with a body of firemen and constables came hurrying +through a gap in the lower wall, he caught sight of a man's face, turned +up to the half-light. Easleby saw it at the same time—together they +went nearer. And Starmidge bent down and found himself looking at +Gabriel Chestermarke.</p> + +<p>"Him!" he whispered. "Then he came—here!"</p> + +<p>"He's gone, anyway," muttered Easleby. "Dead as can be!" He lifted +himself erect and called to Polke who was making his way towards them. +"Bring a lantern!" he said. "There's a dead man here!"</p> + +<p>"And keep the crowd out," called Starmidge. "Keep everybody out—while +we look round."</p> + +<p>But at that moment he caught sight of Betty Fosdyke, who, with Lord +Ellersdeane in close attendance, had made her way into the garden and +was clambering towards him. Starmidge stepped back to her.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better go back?" he urged. "There'll be unpleasant sights. +Do go back!—amongst the trees, anyway. We've found one dead man +already, and there'll probably be——"</p> + +<p>"No!" she said firmly. "I won't! Not until I know who's here. Because I +think—I'm afraid Mr. Neale may be here. I must—I will stop! I'm not +afraid. Whose body have you found?"</p> + +<p>"Gabriel Chestermarke's," replied Starmidge quietly. "Dead! +And—whoever's here, Miss Fosdyke, I don't see how he can possibly be +alive. Do go back and let us search."</p> + +<p>But Betty turned away and began to search, climbing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> from one mass of +wreckage to another. Presently an exclamation from her brought the +others hurriedly to her side. She pointed between two slabs of stone.</p> + +<p>"There!" she whispered. "A man's—face!"</p> + +<p>Starmidge turned to Lord Ellersdeane.</p> + +<p>"Get her away—aside—anywhere—for a minute!" he muttered. "Let's see +what condition he's in, anyway. The other—was blown to pieces."</p> + +<p>Lord Ellersdeane took a firm grip of Betty's arm and turned her round.</p> + +<p>"That was not—Mr. Neale?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No!" she said faintly. "No!"</p> + +<p>"Then leave them to deal with that, and let us look elsewhere," he said. +"Come—after all, you don't know that he would be here."</p> + +<p>"Where else should he be?" she answered. "I'm sure he's here, somewhere. +Help me!"</p> + +<p>She turned away with him in another direction, and the two detectives, +with some of the firemen helping them, got to work on the place which +she had pointed out. Presently Polke directed the light of a bulls'-eye +on the dead face beneath them. He broke into an exclamation of +amazement.</p> + +<p>"Who's this?" he demanded. "Look!"</p> + +<p>One of the firemen bent closer, and suddenly glanced up at the +superintendent.</p> + +<p>"It's young Chestermarke, sir," he said. "He must have shaved his beard +off. But—it's him!"</p> + +<p>They took out what was to be found of Joseph Chestermarke at that +particular spot, and went on to search for the rest of him, and for +anything else. And eventually they came across Neale—unconscious,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> but +alive. His partial protection by the projecting iron walls of the +furnace had saved him; he had evidently been carried back with them when +the explosion occurred and wedged between them and the outer wall of the +laboratory. He came round to find a doctor administering restoratives to +him on one side, and Betty Fosdyke kneeling at the other. And suddenly +he remembered, and made a great shift to speak.</p> + +<p>"All right!" he muttered at length. "Bit knocked out, that's all! +But—Horbury! Horbury's—somewhere! Get at him!"</p> + +<p>They got at the missing bank manager at last—he, too, had been saved by +the thick wall which stood between him and the explosion. He was alive +and conscious when they had dug down to him—and his rescuers stared +from him to each other when they saw that the broken links of a steel +chain were still securely manacled about his waist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + +<h2>THE PRISONER SPEAKS</h2> + +<p>It was not until a week later that Neale, with a bandaged head and one +arm in a sling, and Betty Fosdyke, inexpressibly thankful that the +recent terrible catastrophe had at any rate brought relief in its train, +were allowed to visit Horbury for their first interview of more than a +few minutes' duration. Neale had made a quick recovery; beyond the +fracture of a small bone in his arm, some cuts on his head, and a +general shock to his system, he was little the worse for his experience. +But the elder victim had suffered more severely; he had suffered, too, +from a week's ill-treatment and starvation. Nevertheless, he managed an +approving smile when the two young people were brought to his bedside, +and he looked at them afterwards in a narrow and scrutinizing fashion, +which made Betty redden and grow somewhat conscious.</p> + +<p>"Not more than three-quarters of an hour at most, the nurse said," she +remarked, as they sat down at the bedside. "So if you have anything to +say, Uncle John, you must get it said within that."</p> + +<p>"One can say a lot within three-quarters of an hour, my dear," answered +the invalid. "There is something I wanted to say," he went on, glancing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +at Neale. "I suppose there has been an inquest on the two +Chestermarkes?"</p> + +<p>"Adjourned—until you're all right," replied Neale. "You and I, of +course, are the two important witnesses. You—principally. You know +everything—I only came in at the end."</p> + +<p>"I suppose there are—and have been—all sorts of rumours?" said +Horbury. "I don't see how anybody but myself could know all that +happened in this horrible business. Hollis, for instance?—have they +come to any conclusion about his death?"</p> + +<p>"None!" replied Neale. "All that's known is that he was found at the +bottom of one of the old lead mines. We," he added, nodding at Betty, +"were there when he was taken out."</p> + +<p>Horbury's face clouded.</p> + +<p>"And I," he said, shaking his head, "was there when—but I'll tell you +two all about it. I should like to go over it all again—before the +inquest is resumed. Not that I've forgotten it," he went on, with a +shudder. "I will never do that! It's all like a bad dream. You remember +the Saturday night when all this began, Neale? If I had had any idea of +what was to happen during the next week——!</p> + +<p>"That night, between half-past five and six o'clock, I was rung up on +the telephone. Greatly to my surprise I found the caller to be Frederick +Hollis, an old schoolmate of mine, whom I had only seen once—I'll tell +you when later—since we were at school together. Hollis said he had +come down specially from London to see me; he was at the Station Hotel, +about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> to have some food, and would like to meet me later. He said he +had reasons for not coming to the Bank House; he wished to meet me in +some quiet place about the town. I told him to walk along the river-side +at half-past seven, and I would meet him. And after I had dined I went +out through my garden and orchard and met him coming along. I took him +over the foot-bridge into the woods.</p> + +<p>"Hollis told me an extraordinary story—yet one which did not surprise +me as much as you might think. I knew that he was a solicitor in London. +He said that only a few days before this interview a lady friend of his +had privately asked his advice. She was a Mrs. Lester, the widow of a +man—an old friend of Hollis's—who in his time made a very big fortune. +They had an only son, a lad who went into the Army, and into a crack +cavalry regiment. The father made his son a handsome, but not sufficient +allowance—the son, finding it impossible to get it increased, had +recourse, after he was of age, to a London money-lender, named Godwin +Markham, of Conduit Street, from whom, in course of time, he borrowed +some seven or eight thousand pounds. Old Lester died—instead of leaving +a handsome fortune to the son, he left every penny he had to his wife. +The lad was pressed for repayment—Markham claimed some fifteen or +sixteen thousand. Young Lester was obliged to tell his mother. She urged +him to make terms—for cash. Markham would not abate a penny of his +claim. So Mrs. Lester called in Frederick Hollis and asked his advice. +At his suggestion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> she gave him a cheque for ten thousand pounds: he was +to see Markham and endeavour to get a settlement for that sum.</p> + +<p>"The day before he came down to Scarnham—Friday—Hollis did two things. +He got young Lester to come up to town and tell him the exact +particulars of his financial dealings with Godwin Markham. Primed with +these, and knowing that the demand was extortionate, he went, alone, to +Markham's office in Conduit Street. Markham was away, but Hollis saw the +manager, a man named Stipp. He saw something more, too. On Stipp's +mantelpiece he saw a portrait which he recognized immediately as one of +Gabriel Chestermarke.</p> + +<p>"Now, you want to know how Hollis knew Gabriel Chestermarke. In this +way: I told you just now that Hollis and I had only met once since our +school-days. Some few years ago—I think the year before you came into +the bank, Neale—Hollis came up North on a holiday. He was a bit of an +archæologist; he was looking round the old towns, and he took Scarnham +in his itinerary. Knowing that an old schoolmate of his was manager at +Chestermarke's Bank in Scarnham, he called in to see me. He and I +lunched together at the Scarnham Arms. I showed him round the town a +bit, after bank hours. And as we were standing in the upper-room window +of the Arms, Gabriel Chestermarke came out of the bank and stood talking +to some person in the Market-Place for awhile. I drew Hollis's attention +to him, and asked, jocularly, if he had ever seen a more remarkable and +striking countenance? He answered that it was one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> which, once seen, +would not readily be forgotten. And he had not forgotten it once he saw +the portrait at Markham's office—he knew very well that it was +extremely unlikely that so noticeable a man as Gabriel Chestermarke +could have a double.</p> + +<p>"Now, Hollis was a sharp fellow. He immediately began to suspect things. +He talked awhile with Stipp, and contrived to find out that the portrait +over the mantelpiece was that of Godwin Markham. He also found out that +Mr. Godwin Markham was rarely to be found at his office—that there was +no such thing as daily, or even weekly attendance there by him. And +after mutual desires that the Lester affair should be satisfactorily +settled, but without telling Stipp anything about the ten thousand +pounds, he left the office with a promise to call a few days later.</p> + +<p>"Next day, certain of what he had discovered, Hollis came down to see +me, and told me all that I have just told you. It did not surprise me as +much as you would think. I knew that for a great many years Gabriel +Chestermarke had spent practically half his time in London—I had always +felt sure that he had a finger in some business there, and I naturally +concluded that he had some sort of a <i>pied-à-terre</i> in London as well. +One fact had always struck me as peculiar—he never allowed letters to +be sent on to him from Scarnham to London. Anything that required his +personal attention had to await his return. So that when I heard all +that Hollis had to tell, I was not so greatly astonished. In fact, the +one thing that immediately occupied my thoughts was—was Joseph +Chestermarke also concerned in the Godwin Markham<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> money-lending +business? He, too, was constantly away in London—or believed to be so. +He, too, never had letters sent on to him. Taking everything into +consideration, I came to the conclusion that Joseph was in all +probability his uncle's partner in the Conduit Street concern, just as +he was in the bank at home.</p> + +<p>"Hollis and I walked about the paths in the wood for some time, +discussing this affair. I asked at last what he proposed to do. He +inquired if I thought the Chestermarkes would be keen about preserving +their secret. I replied that in my opinion, seeing that they were highly +respectable country-town bankers, chiefly doing business with +ultra-respectable folk, they would be very sorry indeed to have it come +out that they were also money-lenders in London, and evidently very +extortionate ones. Hollis then said that that was his own opinion, and +it would influence the line he proposed to take. He said that he had a +cheque in his pocket, already made out for ten thousand pounds, and only +requiring filling up with the names of payee and drawer; he would like +to see Gabriel Chestermarke, tell him what he had discovered, offer him +the cheque in full satisfaction of young Lester's liabilities to the +Markham concern, and hint plainly that if his offer of it was not +accepted, he would take steps which would show that Gabriel Chestermarke +and Godwin Markham were one and the same person.</p> + +<p>"Now, I had no objection to this. I had not told you of it, Neale, but I +had already determined to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> resign my position as manager at +Chestermarke's. I had grown tired of it. I was going to resign as soon +as I returned from my holiday. So I assented to Hollis's proposal, and +offered to accompany him to the Warren—I don't mind admitting that I +was a little—perhaps a good deal—eager to see how Gabriel would behave +when he discovered that his double dealing was found out—and known to +me. We therefore set off across Ellersdeane Hollow. I have been told +while lying here that some of you found the pipe which you, Betty, gave +me last Christmas, lying near the old tower—quite right. I lost it +there that night, as I was showing Hollis the view, in the moonlight, +from the top of the crags. I meant to pick it up as we returned, but +what happened put it completely out of my mind.</p> + +<p>"Hollis and I crossed the moor and the high road and went into the +little lane, or carriage-drive, which leads to the Warren. Half-way down +it we met Joseph Chestermarke. He was coming away from the Warren—from +the garden. He, of course, wanted to know if we were going to see his +uncle. I told him that my companion, Mr. Frederick Hollis, a London +solicitor, had come specially from town to see Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, +and that, being an old friend of mine, he had first come to see me. +Joseph therefore said that we were too late to find his uncle at home: +Gabriel, he went on, had been suffering terribly from insomnia, and, by +his doctor's advice, he was trying the effect of a long solitary walk +every night before going to bed, and he had just started<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> out over the +moor at the back of his house. Turning to Hollis, he asked if he could +do anything—was his visit about banking business?</p> + +<p>"Now I determined to settle at once the question as to Joseph's +participation in the affairs of the Conduit Street concern. Before +Hollis could reply, I spoke. I said, 'Mr. Hollis wishes to see your +uncle on the affairs of Lieutenant Lester and the Godwin Markham loans.' +I watched Joseph closely. The moonlight was full on his face. He +started—a little. And he gave me a swift, queer look which was gone as +quickly as it came—it meant 'So you know!' Then he answered in quite an +assured, off-hand manner, 'Oh, I know all about that, of course! I can +deal with it as well as my uncle could. Come back across the moor to my +house—we'll have a drink, and a cigar, and talk it over with Mr. +Hollis.'</p> + +<p>"I nudged Hollis's arm, and we turned back with Joseph towards Scarnham, +crossing the Hollow in another direction, by a track which leads +straight from a point exactly opposite the Warren to the foot of +Scarnham Bridge, near the wall of Joseph Chestermarke's house. It is not +a very long way—half an hour's sharp walk. We did not begin talking +business—as a matter of fact, Hollis began talking about the curious +nature of that patch of moorland and about the old lead-mines. And when +we were nearly half-way, the affair happened which, I suppose, led to +all that has happened since. It—gave Joseph Chestermarke an opening.</p> + +<p>"Having lost my pipe, and being now going in a different direction from +that necessary to recover it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> I had nothing to smoke. Joseph +Chestermarke offered me a cigar. He opened his case. I was taking a +cigar from it when Hollis stepped aside to one of the old shafts which +stood close by, and resting his hands on the parapet leaned over the +coping, either to look down or to drop something down. Before we had +grasped what he was doing, certainly before either of us could cry out +and warn him, the parapet completely collapsed before him and he +disappeared into the mine! He was gone in a second—with just one +scream. And after that—we heard nothing.</p> + +<p>"We hurried to the place and got as near as we dared. Joseph +Chestermarke dropped on his hands and knees, and peered over and +listened. There was not a sound—except the occasional dropping of +loosened pebbles. And we both knew that in that drop of seventy or +eighty feet, Hollis must certainly have met his death.</p> + +<p>"We hastened away to the town—to summon assistance. I don't think we +had any very clear ideas, except to tell the police, and to see if we +could get one of the fire brigade men to go down. I was in a dreadful +state about the affair. I felt as though some blame attached to me. By +the time we reached the bridge I felt like fainting. And Joseph +suggested we should go in through his garden door to his workshop—he +had some brandy there, he said—it would revive me. He took me in, up +the garden, and into the workshop: I dropped down on a couch he had +there, feeling very ill. He went to a side table, mixed something which +looked—and tasted—like brandy and soda, brought it to me, and bade me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +drink it right off. I did so—and within I should say a minute, I knew +nothing more.</p> + +<p>"The next I knew I awoke in pitch darkness, feeling very ill. It was +some little time before I could gather my wits together. Then I +remembered what had happened. I felt about—I was lying on what appeared +to be a couch or small bed, covered with rugs. But there was something +strange—apart from the darkness and the silence. Then I discovered that +I was chained!—chained round my waist, and that the chain had other +chains attached to it. I felt along one of them, then along the +other—they terminated in rings in a wall.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you what I felt until daylight came—I knew, however, that +I was at Joseph Chestermarke's—perhaps at Gabriel's—mercy. I had +discovered their secret—Hollis was out of the way—but what were they +going to do with me? Oddly enough, though I had always had a secret +dislike of Gabriel, and even some sort of fear of him, believing him to +be a cruel and implacable man, it was Joseph that I now feared. It was +he who had drugged and trapped me without a doubt. Why? Then I +remembered something else. I had told Joseph—but not Gabriel—about my +temporary custody of Lady Ellersdeane's jewels, and he knew where they +were safely deposited at the bank—in a certain small safe in the strong +room, of which he had a duplicate key.</p> + +<p>"I found myself—when the light came—in a small room, or cell, in which +was a bed, a table, a chair, a dressing-table, evidently a retreat for +Joseph when he was working in his laboratory at night. But I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> soon saw +that it was also a strong room. I could hear nothing—the silence was +terrible. And—eventually—so was my hunger. I could rise—I could even +pace about a little—but there was no food there—and no water.</p> + +<p>"I don't know how long it was, nor when it was, that Joseph Chestermarke +came. But when he came, he brought his true character with him. I could +not have believed that any human being could be so callous, so brutal, +so coldly indifferent to another's sufferings. I thought as I listened +to him of all I had heard about that ancestor of his who had killed a +man in cold blood in the old house at the bank—and I knew that Joseph +Chestermarke would kill me with no more compunction, and no less, than +he would show in crushing a beetle that crossed his path.</p> + +<p>"His cruelty came out in his frankness. He told me plainly that he had +me in his power. Nobody knew where I was—nobody could get to know. His +uncle knew nothing of the Hollis affair—no one knew. No one would be +told. His uncle, moreover, believed I had run away with convertible +securities and Lady Ellersdeane's jewels—he, Joseph, would take care +that he and everybody should continue to think so. And then he told me +cynically that he had helped himself to the missing securities and to +the jewels as well—the event of Saturday night, he said, had just given +him the chance he wanted, and in a few days he would be out of this +country and in another, where his great talent as a chemist and an +inventor would be valued and put to grand use. But he was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> going +empty-handed, not he!—he was going with as much as ever he could rake +together.</p> + +<p>"And it was on that first occasion that he told me what he wanted of me. +You know, Neale, that I am trustee for two or three families in this +town. Joseph knew that I held certain securities—deposited in a private +safe of mine at the bank—which could be converted into cash in, say, +London, at an hour's notice. He had already helped himself to them, and +had prepared a document which only needed my signature to enable him to +deal with them. That signature would have put nearly a quarter of a +million into his pocket.</p> + +<p>"He used every endeavour to make me sign the paper which he brought. He +said that if I would sign, he would leave an ample supply of the best +food and drink within my reach, and that I should be released within +thirty-six hours, by which time he would be out of England. When I +steadily refused he had recourse to cruelty. Twice he beat me severely +with a dog-whip; another time he assaulted me with hands and feet, like +a madman. And then, when he found physical violence was no good, he told +me he would slowly starve me to death. But he was doing that all along. +The first three days I had nothing but a little soup and dry bread—the +remaining part of the time, nothing but dry bread. And during the last +two days, I knew that there was something in that bread which sent me +off into long, continued periods of absolute unconsciousness. And—I was +glad!</p> + +<p>"That's all. You know the rest—better than I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> do. I don't know yet how +that explosion came about. He had been in to me only a few minutes +before it happened, badgering me again to sign that authority. And—I +felt myself weakening. Flesh and blood were alike at their end of +endurance. Then—it came! And as I say, that's all!—but there's one +thing I wanted to ask you. Have those jewels been found?"</p> + +<p>"Yes!" replied Neale. "They were found—all safe—in a suit-case in +Joseph's house, along with a lot of other valuables—money, securities, +and so on. He was evidently about to be off; in fact, the luggage was +all ready, and so was a cab which he'd ordered, and in which he was +presumably going to Ellersdeane."</p> + +<p>"And another thing," said Horbury, turning from one to the other, "I +heard this morning that you'd left the Bank, Neale. What are you going +to do? What has happened?"</p> + +<p>Betty looked at Neale warningly, stooped over the invalid, kissed him, +rose and took Neale's unwounded arm.</p> + +<p>"No more talk today, Uncle John!" she commanded. "Wait until tomorrow. +Then—if you're very good—we shall perhaps tell you what is going to +happen to—both of us!"</p> + +<h2>THE END</h2> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Chestermarke Instinct, by J. S. Fletcher + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHESTERMARKE INSTINCT *** + +***** This file should be named 27965-h.htm or 27965-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/9/6/27965/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Chestermarke Instinct + +Author: J. S. Fletcher + +Release Date: February 2, 2009 [EBook #27965] +[Last updated: December 10, 2012] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHESTERMARKE INSTINCT *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire + + + + + + + + +THE + +CHESTERMARKE + +INSTINCT + + + + +THE MYSTERY STORIES OF + +J. S. FLETCHER + +"_We always feel as though we were really spreading happiness when we +can announce a genuinely satisfactory mystery story, such as J. B. +Fletcher's new one._"--N. P. D. in the New York Globe. + + +THE MIDDLE TEMPLE MURDER [1918] + +"Unquestionably, the detective story of the season and, therefore, one +which no lover of detective fiction should miss."--_The Broadside._ + +THE TALLEYRAND MAXIM [1920] + +"A crackerjack mystery tale; the story of Linford Pratt, who earnestly +desired to get on in life, by hook or by crook--with no objection +whatever to crookedness, so long as it could be performed in safety and +secrecy."--_Knickerbocker Press._ + +THE PARADISE MYSTERY [1920] + +"As a weaver of detective tales Mr. Fletcher is entitled to a seat among +the elect. His numerous followers will find his latest book fully as +absorbing as anything from his pen that has previously appeared."--_New +York Times._ + +DEAD MEN'S MONEY [1920] + +"The story is one that holds the reader with more than the mere interest +of sensational events: Mr. Fletcher writes in a notable style, and he +has a knack for sketching character rapidly. Reminds one of +Stevenson--and Mr. Fletcher sustains the comparison well."--_Newark +Evening News._ + +THE ORANGE-YELLOW DIAMOND [1921] + +"... A rattling good yarn.... The excellence of The Orange yellow +Diamond does not depend, however, entirely upon its plot. It is an +uncommonly well written tale."--_New York Times._ + +_To be published July 1st, 1921:_ + +THE BOROUGH TREASURER + +Blackmail, murder and the secret of an ancient quarry go to make a very +exciting yarn. + +_$2.00 net each at all booksellers or from the Publisher_ + +ALFRED A. KNOPF, New York. + + + + +THE + +CHESTERMARKE + +INSTINCT + + +BY +J. S. FLETCHER + + +NEW YORK +ALFRED A KNOPF +MCMXXI + + +COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY +ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER + + I. The Missing Bank Manager, 9 + + II. The Ellersdeane Deposit, 19 + + III. Mr. Chestermarke Disclaims Liability, 29 + + IV. The Modern Young Woman, 39 + + V. The Search Begins, 49 + + VI. Ellersdeane Hollow, 59 + + VII. The Travelling Tinker, 69 + + VIII. The Saturday Night Stranger, 79 + + IX. No Further Information, 89 + + X. The Chestermarke Way, 99 + + XI. The Search-Warrant, 109 + + XII. The First Find, 119 + + XIII. The Partners Unbend, 129 + + XIV. The Midnight Summons, 139 + + XV. Mr. Frederick Hollis, 149 + + XVI. The Lead Mine, 159 + + XVII. Accident or Murder? 170 + + XVIII. The Incomplete Cheque, 179 + + XIX. The Dead Man's Brother, 189 + + XX. The Other Cheque, 200 + + XXI. About Cent per Cent, 209 + + XXII. Speculation--and Certainty, 221 + + XXIII. The Aggrieved Victim, 230 + + XXIV. Mrs. Carswell? 240 + + XXV. The Portrait, 248 + + XXVI. The Lightning Flash, 257 + + XXVII. The Old Dove-Cot, 266 + + XXVIII. Sound-Proof, 273 + + XXIX. The Sparrows and the Sphere, 279 + + XXX. Wreckage, 289 + + XXXI. The Prisoner Speaks, 295 + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE MISSING BANK MANAGER + + +Every Monday morning, when the clock of the old parish church in +Scarnham Market-Place struck eight, Wallington Neale asked himself why +on earth he had chosen to be a bank clerk. On all the other mornings of +the week this question never occurred to him: on Sunday he never allowed +a thought of the bank to cross his mind: from Sunday to Saturday he was +firmly settled in the usual rut, and never dreamed of tearing himself +out of it. But Sunday's break was unsettling: there was always an effort +in starting afresh on Monday. The striking of St. Alkmund's clock at +eight on Monday morning invariably found him sitting down to his +breakfast in his rooms, overlooking the quaint old Market-Place, once +more faced by the fact that a week of dull, uninteresting work lay +before him. He would go to the bank at nine, and at the bank he would +remain, more or less, until five. He would do that again on Tuesday, and +on Wednesday, and on Thursday and on Friday, and on Saturday. One +afternoon, strolling in the adjacent country, he had seen a horse +walking round and round and round in a small paddock, turning a crank +which worked some machine or other in an adjoining shed: that horse had +somehow suggested himself to himself. + +On this particular Monday morning, Neale, happening to catch sight of +his reflection in the mirror which stood on his parlour mantelpiece, +propounded the usual question with added force. There were reasons. It +was a beautiful morning. It was early spring. There was a blue sky, and +the rooks and jackdaws were circling in a clear air about the church +tower and over the old Market-Cross. He could hear thrushes singing in +the trees in the Vicarage garden, close by. Everything was young. And he +was young. It would have been affectation on his part to deny either his +youth or his good looks. He glanced at his mirrored self without pride, +but with due recognition of his good figure, his strong muscles, his +handsome, boyish face, with its cluster of chestnut hair and steady grey +eyes. All that, he knew, wanted life, animation, movement. At +twenty-three he was longing for something to take him out of the +treadmill round in which he had been fixed for five years. He had no +taste for handing out money in exchange for cheques, in posting up +ledgers, in writing dull, formal letters. He would have been much +happier with an old flannel shirt, open at the throat, a pick in his +hands, making a new road in a new country, or in driving a path through +some primeval wood. There would have been liberty in either occupation: +he could have flung down the pick at any moment and taken up the +hunter's gun: he could have turned right or left at his own will in the +unexplored forest. But there at the bank it was just doing the same +thing over and over again: what he had done last week he would do again +this week: what had happened last year would happen again this year. It +was all pure, unadulterated, dismal monotony. + +Like most things, it had come about without design: he had just drifted +into it. His father and mother had both died when he was a boy; he had +inherited a small property which brought in precisely one hundred and +fifty pounds a year: it was tied up to him in such a fashion that he +would have his three pounds a week as long as ever he lived. But as his +guardian, Mr. John Horbury, the manager of Chestermarke's Bank at +Scarnham, pointed out to him when he left school, he needed more than +three pounds a week if he wished to live comfortably and like a +gentleman. Still, a hundred and fifty a year of sure and settled income +was a fine thing, an uncommonly fine thing--all that was necessary was +to supplement it. Therefore--a nice, quiet, genteel profession--banking, +to wit. Light work, an honourable calling, an eminently respectable one. +In a few years he would have another hundred and fifty a year: a few +years more, and he would be a manager, with at least six hundred: he +might, well before he was a middle-aged man, be commanding a salary of a +thousand a year. Banking, by all means, counselled Mr. Horbury--and +offered him a vacancy which had just then arisen at Chestermarke's. And +Neale, willing to be guided by a man for whom he had much respect, took +the post, and settled down in the old bank in the quiet, sleepy +market-town, wherein one day was precisely like another day--and every +year his dislike for his work increased, and sometimes grew unbearably +keen, especially when spring skies and spring air set up a sudden +stirring in his blood. On this Monday morning that stirring amounted to +something very like a physical ache. + +"Hang the old bank!" he muttered. "I'd rather be a ploughman!" + +Nevertheless, the bank must be attended, and, at ten minutes to nine, +Neale lighted a cigarette, put on his hat, and strolled slowly across +the Market-Place. Although he knew every single one of its cobblestones, +every shop window, every landmark in it, that queer old square always +fascinated him. It was a bit of old England. The ancient church and +equally ancient Moot Hall spread along one side of it; the other three +sides were filled with gabled and half-timbered houses; the Market-Cross +which stood in the middle of the open space had been erected there in +Henry the Seventh's time. Amidst all the change and development of the +nineteenth century, Scarnham had been left untouched: even the bank +itself was a time-worn building, and the manager's house which flanked +it was still older. Underneath all these ancient structures were queer +nooks and corners, secret passages and stairs, hiding-places, cellarings +going far beneath the gardens at the backs of the houses: Neale, as a +boy, had made many an exploration in them, especially beneath the +bank-house, which was a veritable treasury of concealed stairways and +cunningly contrived doors in the black oak of the panellings. + +But on this occasion Neale did not stare admiringly at the old church, +nor at the pilastered Moot Hall, nor at the toppling gables: his eyes +were fixed on something else, something unusual. As soon as he walked +out of the door of the house in which he lodged he saw his two +fellow-clerks, Shirley and Patten, standing on the steps of the hall by +which entrance was joined to the bank and to the bank-house. They stood +there looking about them. Now they looked towards Finkleway--a narrow +street which led to the railway station at the far end of the town. Now +they looked towards Middlegate--a street which led into the open +country, in the direction of Ellersdeane, where Mr. Gabriel +Chestermarke, senior proprietor of the bank, resided. All that was +unusual. If Patten, a mere boy, had been lounging there, Neale would not +have noticed it. But it was Shirley's first duty, on arriving every +morning, to get the keys at the house door, and to let himself into the +bank by the adjoining private entrance. It was Patten's duty, on +arrival, to take the letter-bag to the post-office and bring the bank's +correspondence back in it. Never, in all his experience, had Neale seen +any of Chestermarke's clerks lounging on the steps at nine o'clock in +the morning, and he quickened his pace. Shirley, turning from a +prolonged stare towards Finkleway, caught sight of him. + +"Can't get in," he observed laconically, in answer to Neale's inquiring +look. "Mr. Horbury isn't there, and he's got the keys." + +"What do you mean--isn't there!" asked Neale, mounting the steps. "Not +in the house?" + +"Mean just what I say," replied Shirley. "Mrs. Carswell says she hasn't +seen him since Saturday. She thinks he's been week-ending. I've been +looking out for him coming along from the station. But if he came in by +the 8.30, he's a long time getting up here. And if he hasn't come by +that, there's no other train till the 10.45." + +Neale made no answer. He, too, glanced towards Finkleway, and then at +the church clock. It was just going to strike nine--and the station was +only eight minutes away at the most. He passed the two junior clerks, +went down the hall to the door of the bank-house, and entered. And just +within he came face to face with the housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell. + +Mrs. Carswell had kept house for Mr. John Horbury for some years--Neale +remembered her from boyhood. He had always been puzzled about her age. +Of late, since he knew more of grown-up folk, he had been still more +puzzled. Sometimes he thought she was forty; sometimes he was sure she +could not be more than thirty-two or three. Anyway, she was a fine, +handsome woman--tall, perfectly shaped, with glossy black hair and dark +eyes, and a firm, resolute mouth. It was rarely that Mrs. Carswell went +out; when she did, she was easily the best-looking woman in Scarnham. +Few Scarnham people, however, had the chance of cultivating her +acquaintance; Mrs. Carswell kept herself to herself and seemed content +to keep up her reputation as a model housekeeper. She ordered Mr. +Horbury's domestic affairs in perfect fashion, and it had come upon +Neale as a surprise to hear Shirley say that Mrs. Carswell did not know +where the manager was. + +"What's all this?" he demanded, as he met her within the hall. "Shirley +says Mr. Horbury isn't at home? Where is he, then?" + +"But I don't know, Mr. Neale," replied the housekeeper. "I know no more +than you do. I've been expecting him to come in by that 8.30 train, but +he can't have done that, or he'd have been up here by now." + +"Perhaps it's late," suggested Neale. + +"No--it's in," she said. "I saw it come in from my window, at the back. +It was on time. So--I don't know what's become of him." + +"But--what about Saturday?" asked Neale. "Shirley says you said Mr. +Horbury went off on Saturday. Didn't he leave any word--didn't he say +where he was going?" + +"Mr. Horbury went out on Saturday evening," answered Mrs. Carswell. "He +didn't say a word about where he was going. He went out just before +dusk, as if for a walk. I'd no idea that he wasn't at home until Sunday +morning. You see, the servants and I went to bed at our usual time on +Saturday night, and though he wasn't in then, I thought nothing of it, +because, of course, he'd his latch-key. He was often out late at night, +as you know, Mr. Neale. And when I found that he hadn't come back, as I +did find out before breakfast yesterday, I thought nothing of that +either--I thought he'd gone to see some friend or other, and had been +persuaded to stop the night. Then, when he didn't come home yesterday at +all, I thought he was staying the week-end somewhere. So I wasn't +anxious, nor surprised. But I am surprised he's not back here first +thing this morning." + +"So am I," agreed Neale. "And more than surprised." He stood for a +moment, running over the list of the manager's friends and acquaintances +in the neighbourhood, and he shook his head as he came to the end of his +mental reckoning of it. "It's very odd," he remarked. "Very surprising, +Mrs. Carswell." + +"It's all the more surprising," remarked the housekeeper, "because of +his going off for his holiday tomorrow. And Miss Fosdyke's coming down +from London today to go with him." + +Neale pricked his ears. Miss Fosdyke was the manager's niece--a young +lady whom Neale remembered as a mere slip of a girl that he had met +years before and never seen since. + +"I didn't know that," he remarked. + +"Neither did Mr. Horbury until Saturday afternoon--that is, for +certain," said Mrs. Carswell. "He'd asked her to go with him to Scotland +on this holiday, but it wasn't settled. However, he got a wire from her, +about tea-time on Saturday, to say she'd go, and would be down here +today. They're to start tomorrow morning." + +Neale turned to the door. He was distinctly puzzled and uneasy. He had +known John Horbury since his own childhood, and had always regarded him +as the personification of everything that was precise, systematic, and +regular. All things considered, it was most remarkable that he should +not be at the bank at opening hours. And already a vague suspicion that +something had happened began to steal into his mind. + +"Did you happen to notice which way he went, Mrs. Carswell?" he asked. +"Was it towards the station?" + +"He went out down the garden and through the orchard," replied the +housekeeper. "He could have got to the station that way, of course. But +I do know that he never said a word about going anywhere by train, and +he'd no bag or anything with him--he'd nothing but that old oak stick he +generally carried when he went out for his walks." + +Neale pushed open the house door and went into the outer hall to the +junior clerks. Little as he cared about banking as a calling, he was +punctilious about rules and observances, and it seemed to him somewhat +indecorous that the staff of a bank should hang about its front door, as +if they were workshop assistants awaiting the arrival of a belated +foreman. + +"Better come inside the house, Shirley," he said. "Patten, you go to the +post-office and get the letters." + +"No good without the bag," answered Patten, a calm youth of seventeen. +"Tried that once before. Don't you know!--they've one key--we've +another." + +"Well, come inside, then," commanded Neale. "It doesn't look well to +hang about those steps." + +"Might just as well go away," muttered Shirley, stepping into the hall. +"If Horbury's got to come back by train from wherever he's gone to, he +can't get here till the 10.45, and then he's got to walk up. Might as +well go home for an hour." + +"The partners'll be here before an hour's over," said Neale. "One of +them's always here by ten." + +Shirley, a somewhat grumpy-countenanced young man, made no answer. He +began to pace the hall with looks of eminent dissatisfaction. But he had +only taken a turn or two when a quietly appointed one-horse coupe +brougham came up to the open door, and a well-known face was seen at its +window. Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, senior proprietor, had come an hour +before his time. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE ELLERSDEANE DEPOSIT + + +Had the three young men waiting in that hall not been so familiar with +him by reason of daily and hourly acquaintance, the least observant +amongst them would surely have paused in whatever task he was busied +with, if Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke had crossed his path for the first +time. The senior partner of Chestermarke's Bank was a noticeable person. +Wallington Neale, who possessed some small gift of imagination, always +felt that his principal suggested something more than was accounted for +by his mere presence. He was a little, broadly built man, somewhat +inclined to stoutness, who carried himself in very upright fashion, and +habitually wore the look of a man engaged in operations of serious and +far-reaching importance, further heightened by an air of reserve and a +trick of sparingness in speech. But more noticeable than anything else +in Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke was his head, a member of his body which was +much out of proportion to the rest of it. It was a very big, well-shaped +head, on which, out of doors, invariably rested the latest-styled and +glossiest of silk hats--no man had ever seen Gabriel Chestermarke in any +other form of head-gear, unless it was in a railway carriage, there he +condescended to assume a checked cap. Underneath the brim of the silk +hat looked out a countenance as remarkable as the head of which it was +a part. A broad, smooth forehead, a pair of large, deep-set eyes, the +pupils of which were black as sloes, a prominent, slightly hooked nose, +a firm, thin-lipped mouth, a square, resolute jaw--these features were +thrown into prominence by the extraordinary pallor of Mr. Chestermarke's +face, and the dark shade of the hair which framed it. That black hair, +those black eyes, burning always with a strange, slumbering fire, the +colourless cheeks, the vigorous set of the lips, these made an effect on +all who came in contact with the banker which was of a not wholly +comfortable nature. It was as if you were talking to a statue rather +than to a fellow-creature. + +Mr. Chestermarke stepped quietly from his brougham and walked up the +steps. He was one of those men who are never taken aback and never show +surprise, and as his eyes ran over the three young men, there was no +sign from him that he saw anything out of the common. But he turned to +Neale, as senior clerk, with one word. + +"Well?" + +Neale glanced uncomfortably at the house door. "Mr. Horbury is not at +home," he answered. "He has the keys." + +Mr. Chestermarke made no reply. His hand went to his waistcoat pocket, +his feet moved lower down the hall to a side-door sacred to the +partners. He produced a key, opened the door, and motioned the clerks to +enter. Once within, he turned into the partners' room. Five minutes +passed before his voice was heard. + +"Neale!" + +Neale hurried in and found the banker standing on the hearth-rug, +beneath the portrait of a former Chestermarke, founder of the bank in a +bygone age. He was suddenly struck by the curious resemblance between +that dead Chestermarke and the living one, and he wondered that he had +never seen it before. But Mr. Chestermarke gave him no time for +speculation. + +"Where is Mr. Horbury?" he asked. + +Neale told all he knew: the banker listened in his usual fashion, +keeping his eyes steadily fixed on his informant. When Neale had +finished, Mr. Chestermarke shook his head. + +"If Horbury had meant to come into town by the 8.30 train and had missed +it," he remarked, "he would have wired or telephoned by this. +Telephoned, of course: there are telephones at every station on that +branch line. Very well, let things go on." + +Neale went out and set his fellow-clerks to the usual routine. Patten +went for the letters. Neale carried them into the partners' room. At ten +o'clock the street door was opened. A customer or two began to drop in. +The business of the day had begun. It went on just as it would have gone +on if Mr. Horbury had been away on holiday. And at half-past ten in +walked the junior partner, Mr. Joseph Chestermarke. + +Mr. Joseph was the exact opposite of his uncle. He was so much his +opposite that it was difficult to believe, seeing them together, that +they were related to each other. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke, a man of +apparently thirty years of age, was tall and loose of figure, easy of +demeanour, and a little untidy in his dress. He wore a not over +well-fitting tweed suit, a slouch hat, a flannel shirt. His brown beard +usually needed trimming; he affected loose, flowing neckties, more +suited to an artist than to a banker. His face was amiable in +expression, a little weak, a little speculative. All these +characteristics came out most strongly when he and his uncle were seen +in company: nothing could be more in contrast to the precise severity of +Gabriel than the somewhat slovenly carelessness of Joseph. Joseph, +indeed, was the last man in the world that any one would ever have +expected to see in charge and direction of a bank, and there were people +in Scarnham who said that he was no more than a lay-figure, and that +Gabriel Chestermarke did all the business. + +The junior partner passed through the outer room, nodding affably to the +clerks and went into the private parlour. Several minutes elapsed: then +a bell rang. Neale answered it, and Shirley and Patten glanced at each +other and shook their heads: already they scented an odour of suspicion +and uncertainty. + +"What's up?" whispered Patten, leaning forward over his desk to Shirley, +who stood between it and the counter. "Something wrong?" + +"Something that Gabriel doesn't like, anyhow," muttered Shirley. "Did +you see his eyes when Neale said that Horbury wasn't here? If Horbury +doesn't turn up by this next train--ah!" + +"Think he's sloped?" asked Patten, already seething with boyish desire +of excitement. "Done a bunk with the money?" + +But Shirley shook his head at the closed door through which Neale had +vanished. + +"They're carpeting Neale about it, anyhow," he answered. "Gabriel'll +want to know the whys and wherefores, you bet. But Neale won't tell us +anything--he's too thick with Horbury." + +Neale, entering the partners' room, found them in characteristic +attitudes. The senior partner sat at his desk, stern, upright, his eyes +burning a little more fiercely than usual: the junior, his slouch hat +still on his head, his hands thrust in his pockets, lounged against the +mantelpiece, staring at his uncle. + +"Now, Neale," said Gabriel Chestermarke. "What do you know about this? +Have you any idea where Mr. Horbury is?" + +"None," replied Neale. "None whatever!" + +"When did you see him last?" demanded Gabriel. "You often see him out of +bank hours, I know." + +"I last saw him here at two o'clock on Saturday," replied Neale. "I have +not seen him since." + +"And you never heard him mention that he was thinking of going away for +the week-end?" asked Gabriel. + +"No!" replied Neale. + +He made his answer tersely and definitely, having an idea that the +senior partner looked at him as if he thought that something was being +kept back. And Gabriel, after a moment's pause, shifted some of the +papers on his desk, with an impatient movement. + +"Ask Mr. Horbury's housekeeper to step in here for a few minutes," he +said. + +Neale went out by the private door, and presently returned with Mrs. +Carswell. + +By that time Joseph had lounged over to his own desk and seated himself, +and when the housekeeper came in he tilted his chair back and sat idly +swaying in it while he watched her and his uncle. But Gabriel, waving +Mrs. Carswell to a seat, remained upright as ever, and as he turned to +the housekeeper, he motioned Neale to stay in the room. + +"Just tell us all you know about Mr. Horbury's movements on Saturday +afternoon and evening, Mrs. Carswell," he said. "This is a most +extraordinary business altogether, and I want to account for it. You say +he went out just about dusk." + +Mrs. Carswell repeated the story which she had told to Neale. The two +partners listened; Gabriel keenly attentive; Joseph as if he were no +more than mildly interested. + +"Odd!" remarked Gabriel, when the story had come to an end. "Most +strange! Very well--thank you, Mrs. Carswell. Neale," he added, when the +housekeeper had gone away, "Mr. Horbury always carried the more +important keys on him, didn't he?" + +"Always," responded Neale. + +"Very good! Let things go on," said Gabriel. "But don't come bothering +me or Mr. Joseph Chestermarke unless you're obliged to. Of course, Mr. +Horbury may come in by the next train. That'll do, Neale." + +Neale went back to the outer room. Things went on, but the missing +manager did not come in by the 10.45, and nothing had been heard or seen +of him at noon, when Patten went to get his dinner. Nor had anything +been seen or heard at one o'clock, when Patten came back, and it became +Shirley and Neale's turn to go out. And thereupon arose a difficulty. In +the ordinary course the two elder clerks would have left for an hour and +the manager would have been on duty until they returned. But now the +manager was not there. + +"You go," said Neale to Shirley. "I'll wait. Perhaps Mr. Joseph will +come out." + +Shirley went--but neither of the partners emerged from the private room. +As a rule they both went across to the Scarnham Arms Hotel at half-past +one for lunch--a private room had been kept for them at that old-world +hostelry from time immemorial--but now they remained within their +parlour, apparently interned from their usual business world. And Neale +had a very good idea of what they were doing. The bank's strong room was +entered from that parlour--Gabriel and Joseph were examining and +checking its contents. The knowledge distressed Neale beyond measure, +and it was only by a resolute effort that he could give his mind to his +duties. + +Two o'clock had gone, and Shirley had come back, before the bell rang +again. Neale went into the private room and knew at once that something +had happened. Gabriel stood by his desk, which was loaded with papers +and documents; Joseph leaned against a sideboard, whereon was a decanter +of sherry and a box of biscuits; he had a glass of wine in one hand, and +a half-nibbled biscuit in the other. The smell of the sherry--fine old +brown stuff, which the clerks were permitted to taste now and then, on +such occasions as the partners' birthdays--filled the room. + +"Neale," said Gabriel, "have you been out to lunch? No? Take a glass of +wine and eat a biscuit--we shall all have to put off our lunches for an +hour or so." + +Neale obeyed--more because he was under order than because he was +hungry. He was too much bothered, too full of vague fears, to think of +his midday dinner. He took the glass which Joseph handed to him, and +picked a couple of biscuits out of the box. And at the first sip Gabriel +spoke again. + +"Neale!" he said. "You've been here five years, so one can speak +confidentially. There's something wrong--seriously wrong. Securities are +missing. Securities representing--a lot!" + +Neale's face flushed as if he himself had been charged with abstracting +those securities. His hand shook as he set down his glass, and he looked +helplessly from one partner to another. Joseph merely shook his head, +and poured out another glass of sherry for himself: Gabriel shook his +head, too, but with a different expression. + +"We don't know exactly how things are," he continued. "But there's the +fact--on a superficial examination. And--Horbury! Of all men in the +world, Horbury!" + +"I can't believe it, Mr. Chestermarke!" exclaimed Neale. "Surely, sir, +there's some mistake!" + +Joseph brushed crumbs of biscuit off his beard and wagged his head. + +"No mistake!" he said softly. "None! The thing is--what's best to do? +Because--he'd have laid his plans. It'll all have been thought +out--carefully." + +"I'm afraid so," assented Gabriel. "That's the worst of it. Everything +points to premeditation. And when a man has been so fully trusted----" + +A knock at the door prefaced the introduction of Shirley's head. He +glanced into the room with an obvious desire to see what was going on, +but somehow contrived to fix his eyes on the senior partner. + +"Lord Ellersdeane, sir," he announced. "Can he see you?" + +The two partners looked at each other in evident surprise; then Gabriel +moved to the door and bowed solemnly to some person outside. + +"Will your lordship come in?" he said politely. + +Lord Ellersdeane, a big, bustling, country-squire type of man, came into +the room, nodding cheerily to its occupants. + +"Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Chestermarke," he said. "I understand Horbury +isn't at home, but of course you'll do just as well. The Countess and I +only got back from abroad night before last. She wants her jewels, so +I'll take 'em with me, if you please." + +Gabriel Chestermarke, who was drawing forward a chair, took his hand off +it and stared at his visitor. + +"The Countess's--jewels!" he said. "Does your lordship mean----" + +"Deposited them with Horbury, you know, some weeks ago--when we went +abroad," replied Lord Ellersdeane. "Safe keeping, you know--said he'd +lock 'em up." + +Gabriel turned slowly to Joseph. But Joseph shook his head--and Neale, +glancing from one partner to the other, felt himself turning sick with +apprehension. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +MR. CHESTERMARKE DISCLAIMS LIABILITY + + +Gabriel Chestermarke, after that one look at his nephew, turned again to +the Earl, politely motioning him to the chair which he had already drawn +forward. And the Earl, whose eyes had been wandering over the pile of +documents on the senior partner's desk, glancing curiously at the open +door of the strong room, and generally taking in a sense of some unusual +occurrence, dropped into it and looked expectantly at the banker. + +"There's nothing wrong?" he asked suddenly. "You look--surprised." + +Gabriel stiffened his already upright figure. + +"Surprised--yes!" he answered. "And something more than surprised--I am +astonished! Your lordship left the Countess's jewels with our manager? +May I ask when--and under what circumstances?" + +"About six weeks ago," replied the Earl promptly. "As a rule the jewels +are kept at my bankers in London. The Countess wanted them to wear at +the Hunt Ball, so I fetched them from London myself. Then, as we were +going off to the Continent two days after the ball, and sailing direct +from Kingsport to Hamburg, I didn't want the bother of going up to town +with them, and I thought of Horbury. So I drove in here with them one +evening--the night before we sailed, as a matter of fact--and asked him +to lock them up until our return. And as I said just now, we only got +home the night before last, and we're going up to town tomorrow, and the +Countess wants them to take with her. Of course, you've got 'em all +right?" + +Gabriel Chestermarke spread out his hands. + +"I know nothing whatever about them!" he said. "I never heard of them +being here." + +"Nor I," affirmed Joseph. "Not a word!" + +Gabriel looked at Neale, and drew Lord Ellersdeane's attention to him. + +"Our senior clerk--Mr. Neale," he said. "Neale--have you heard of this +transaction?" + +"Never!" replied Neale. "Mr. Horbury never mentioned it to me." + +Gabriel waved his hand towards the open door of the strong room. + +"Any valuables of that sort would have been in there," he remarked. +"There is nothing of that sort there--beyond what I and my nephew know +of. I am sure your lordship's jewels are not there." + +"But--Horbury?" exclaimed the Earl. "Where is he? He would tell you!" + +"We don't know where Mr. Horbury is," answered Gabriel "The truth may as +well be told--he's missing. And so are some of our most valuable +securities." + +The Earl slowly looked from one partner to another. His face flushed, +almost as hotly as if he himself had been accused of theft. + +"Oh, come!" he said. "Horbury, now, of all men! Come--come!--you don't +mean to tell me that Horbury's been playing games of that sort? There +must be some mistake." + +"I shall be glad to be assured that I am making it," said Gabriel +coolly. "But it will be more to the purpose if your lordship will tell +us all about the deposit of these jewels. And--there's an important +matter which I must first mention. We have not the honour of reckoning +your lordship among our customers. Therefore, whatever you handed to +Horbury was handed to him privately--not to us." + +Joseph Chestermarke nodded his head at that, and the Earl stirred a +little uneasily in his chair. + +"Oh, well!" he said. "I--to tell you the truth, I didn't think about +that, Mr. Chestermarke. It's true I don't keep any account with +you--it's never seemed--er, necessary, you know. But, of course, I knew +Horbury so well--he's a member of our golf club and our archaeological +society--that----" + +"Precisely," interrupted Gabriel, with a bow. "You came to Mr. Horbury +privately. Not to the firm." + +"I came to him knowing that he was your manager, and a man to be +thoroughly trusted, and that he'd have safes and things in which he +could deposit valuables in perfect safety," answered the Earl. "I never +reflected for a moment on the niceties of the matter. I just explained +to him that I wanted those jewels taken care of, and handed them over. +That's all!" + +"And--their precise nature?" asked Gabriel. + +"And--their value?" added Joseph. + +"As to their nature," replied the Earl, "there was my wife's coronet, +her diamond necklace, and the Ellersdeane butterfly, of which I suppose +all the world's heard--heirloom, you know. It's a thing that can be worn +in a lady's hair or as a pendant--diamonds, of course. As to their +value--well, I had them valued some years ago. They're worth about a +hundred thousand pounds." + +Gabriel turned to his desk and began to arrange some papers on it, and +Neale, who was watching everything with close attention, saw that his +fingers trembled a little. He made no remark, and the silence was next +broken by Joseph Chestermarke's soft accents. + +"Did Horbury give your lordship any receipt, or acknowledgment that he +had received these jewels on deposit?" he asked. "I mean, of course, in +our name?" + +The Earl twisted sharply in his chair, and Neale fancied that he saw a +shade of annoyance pass over his good-natured face. + +"Certainly not!" he answered. "I should never have dreamt of asking for +a receipt from a man whom I knew as well as I knew--or thought I +knew--Horbury. The whole thing was just as if--well, as if I should ask +any friend to take care of something for me for a while." + +"Did Horbury know what you were giving him?" asked Joseph. + +"Of course!" replied the Earl. "As a matter of fact, he'd never seen +these things, and I took them out of their case and showed them to him." + +"And he said he would lock them up?--in our strong room?" suggested the +soft voice. + +"He said nothing about your strong room," answered the Earl. "Nor about +where he'd put them. That was understood. It was understood--a tacit +understanding--that he'd take care of them until our return." + +"Did your lordship give him the date of your return?" persisted Joseph, +with the thorough-going air of a cross-examiner. + +"Yes--I told him exactly when we should be back," replied the Earl. "The +twelfth of May--day before yesterday." + +Joseph moved away from the sideboard towards the hearth, and leaning +against the mantelpiece threw a glance at the strong room. + +"The jewels are not in our possession," he said, half indolently. "There +is nothing of that sort in there. There are two safes in the outer room +of the bank--I should say that Mr. Neale here knows everything that is +in them. Do you know anything of these jewels, Neale?" + +"Nothing!" said Neale. "I never heard of them." + +Gabriel looked up from his papers. + +"None of us have heard of them," he remarked. "Horbury could not have +put them in this strong room without my knowledge. They are certainly +not there. The safes my nephew mentioned just now are used only for +books and papers. Your lordship's casket is not in either." + +The Earl rose slowly from his chair. It was evident to Neale that he was +more surprised than angry: he looked around him as a man looks whose +understanding is suddenly brought up against something unexplainable. + +"All I know is that I handed that casket to Mr. Horbury in his own +dining-room one evening some weeks ago," he said. "That's certain! So I +naturally expect to find it--here." + +"And it is not here--that is equally certain," observed Gabriel. "What +is also certain is that our manager--trusted in more than he should have +been!--is missing, and many of our valuable securities with him. +Therefore----" + +He spread his hands again with an expressive gesture and once more bent +over his papers. Once more there was silence. Then the Earl started--as +if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. + +"I say!" he exclaimed, "don't you think Horbury may have put those +jewels away in his own house?" + +Joseph Chestermarke smiled a little derisively. + +"A hundred thousand pounds' worth!" he said softly. "Not very likely!" + +"But he may have a safe there," urged the Earl. "Most people have a safe +in their houses nowadays--they're so handy, you know, and so cheap. +Don't you think that may be it?" + +"I am not familiar with Horbury's domestic arrangements," said Gabriel. +"I have not been in his house for some years. But as we are desirous of +giving your lordship what assistance we can, we will go into the house +and see if there is anything of the sort. Just tell the housekeeper we +are coming in, Neale." + +The Earl nodded to Mrs. Carswell as she received him and the two +partners in the adjacent hall. + +"This lady will remember my calling on Mr. Horbury one evening a few +weeks ago," he said. "She saw me with him in that room." + +"Certainly!" assented Mrs. Carswell, readily enough. "I remember your +lordship calling on Mr. Horbury very well. One night after dinner--your +lordship was here an hour or so." + +Gabriel Chestermarke opened the door of the dining-room--an +old-fashioned apartment which looked out on a garden and orchard at the +rear of the house. + +"Mrs. Carswell," he said, as they all went in, "has Mr. Horbury a safe +in this room, or in any other room? You know what I mean." + +But the housekeeper shook her head. There was no safe in the house. +There was a plate-chest--there it was, standing in a recess by the +sideboard; she had the key of it. + +"Open that, at any rate," commanded Gabriel. "It's about as unlikely as +anything could be, but we'll leave nothing undone." + +There was nothing in the plate-chest but what Gabriel expected to find +there. He turned again to the housekeeper. + +"Is there anything in this house--cupboard, chest, trunk, anything--in +which Mr. Horbury kept valuables?" he asked. "Any place in which he was +in the habit of locking up papers, for instance?" + +Mrs. Carswell again shook her head. No, she knew of no such place or +receptacle. There was Mr. Horbury's desk, but she believed all its +drawers were open. Her belief proved to be correct: Gabriel himself +opened drawer after drawer, and revealed nothing of consequence. He +turned to the Earl with another expressive spreading out of his hands. + +"I don't see what more we can do to assist your lordship," he said. "I +don't know what more can be done." + +"The question is--so it seems to me--what is to be done," replied the +Earl, whose face had been gradually growing graver. "What, for instance, +are you going to do, Mr. Chestermarke? Let us be plain with each other. +You disclaim all liability in connection with my affair?" + +"Most certainly!" exclaimed Gabriel. "We know nothing of that +transaction. As I have already said, if Horbury took charge of your +lordship's property, he did so as a private individual, not on our +behalf, not in his capacity as our manager. If your lordship had been a +customer of ours----" + +"That would have been a very different matter," said Joseph. "But as we +have never had any dealings with your lordship----" + +"We have, of course, no liability to you," concluded Gabriel. "The true +position of the case is that your lordship handed your property to +Horbury as a friend, not as manager of Chestermarke's Bank." + +"Then let me ask you, what are you going to do?" said the Earl. "I mean, +not about my affair, but about finding your manager?" + +Gabriel looked at his nephew: Joseph shook his head. + +"So far," said Joseph, "we have not quite considered that. We are not +yet fully aware of how things stand. We have a pretty good idea, but it +will take another day." + +"You don't mean to tell me that you're going to let another day elapse +before doing something?" exclaimed the Earl. "Bless my soul!--I'd have +had the hue and cry out before noon today, if I'd been you!" + +"If you'd been Chestermarke's Bank, my lord," remarked Joseph, in his +softest manner, "that's precisely what you would not have done. We don't +want it noised all over the town and neighbourhood that our trusted +manager has suddenly run away with our money--and your jewels--in his +pocket." + +There was a curious note--half-sneering, half-sinister--in the junior +partner's quiet voice which made the Earl turn and look at him with a +sudden new interest. Before either could speak, Neale ventured to say +what he had been wanting to say for half an hour. + +"May I suggest something, sir?" he said, turning to Gabriel. + +"Speak--speak!" assented Gabriel hastily. "Anything you like!" + +"Mr. Horbury may have met with an accident," said Neale. "He was fond of +taking his walks in lonely places--there are plenty outside the town. He +may be lying somewhere even now--helpless." + +"Capital suggestion!--much obliged to you," exclaimed the Earl. "Gad! I +wonder we never thought of that before! Much the most likely thing. I +can't believe that Horbury----" + +Before he could say more, the door of the dining-room was thrown open, a +clear, strong voice was heard speaking to some one without, and in +walked a handsome young woman, who pulled herself up on the threshold to +stare out of a pair of frank grey eyes at the four startled men. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE MODERN YOUNG WOMAN + + +Mrs. Carswell, who had left the gentlemen to themselves after opening +the plate-chest, followed the new-comer into the room and looked +appealingly at the senior partner. + +"This is Miss Fosdyke, sir," she said, as if accounting for the +unceremonious entrance. "Mr. Horbury's----" + +But Miss Fosdyke, having looked round her, entered the arena of +discussion as abruptly as she had entered the room. + +"You're Mr. Chestermarke!" she said, turning to Gabriel. "I remember +you. What's all this, Mr. Chestermarke? I come down from London to meet +my uncle, and to go on with him to Scotland for a holiday, and I learn +that he's disappeared! What is it? What has happened? Why are you all +looking so mysterious? Is something wrong? Where is my uncle?" + +Gabriel, who had assumed his stereotyped expression of calm attention +under this tornado of questions, motioned Joseph to place a chair for +the young lady. But Miss Fosdyke shook her head and returned to the +attack. + +"Please don't keep anything back!" she said. "I am not of the +fainting-to-order type of young woman. Just say what is the matter, if +you please. Mrs. Carswell knows no more----" + +"Than we do," interrupted Joseph, with one of his peculiar smiles. +"Hadn't you better sit down?" + +"Not until I know what has happened," retorted the visitor. "Because if +anything has happened there will be something for me to do, and it's +foolish to sit down when one's got to get up again immediately. Mr. +Chestermarke, are you going to answer my questions?" + +Gabriel bowed stiffly. + +"I have the honour of addressing----" he began. + +"You have the honour--if you like to put it so--of addressing Miss Betty +Fosdyke, who is Mr. John Horbury's niece," replied the young lady +impatiently. "Mrs. Carswell has told you that already. Besides--you saw +me, more than once, when I was a little girl. And that's not so very +long ago. Now, Mr. Chestermarke, where is my uncle?" + +"I do not know where your uncle is," replied Gabriel suddenly, and +losing his starchiness. "I wish to Heaven I did!" + +"None of us know where Mr. John Horbury is," repeated Joseph, in his +suavest tones. "We all wish to Heaven we did!" + +The girl turned and gave the junior partner a look which took in every +inch of him. It was a look which began with a swift speculation and +ended in something very like distaste. But Joseph Chestermarke met it +with his usual quiet smile. + +"It would make such a lot of difference--if we knew!" he murmured. "As +it is--things are unpleasant." + +Miss Fosdyke finished her reflection and turned away. + +"I remember you now," she said calmly. "You're Joseph Chestermarke. Now +I will sit down. And I insist on being told--everything!" + +"My dear young lady!" exclaimed Gabriel, "there is next to nothing to +tell. If you will have the unpleasant truth, here it is. Your uncle, +whom we have trusted for more years than I care to mention, disappeared +on Saturday evening, and nobody knows where he is, nor whither he went. +All we know is that we find some of our property missing--valuable +securities. And this gentleman--Lord Ellersdeane--tells us that six +weeks ago he entrusted jewels worth a hundred thousand pounds to your +uncle's keeping--they, too, are missing. What can we think?" + +The girl's face had flushed, and her brows had drawn together in an +angry frown by the time Gabriel had finished, and Neale, silently +watching her from the background, saw her fingers clench themselves. She +gave a swift glance at the Earl, and then fixed her eyes steadily on +Gabriel. + +"Are you telling me that my uncle is a--thief?" she demanded. "Are you, +Mr. Chestermarke?" + +"I'm not, anyhow!" exclaimed the Earl. "I--I--so far as I'm concerned, I +say there's some mistake." + +"Thank you!" she answered quietly. "But--you, Mr. Chestermarke? +Come--I'm entitled to an answer." + +Gabriel showed signs of deep annoyance. He had the reputation of being a +confirmed woman-hater, and it was plain that he was ill at ease in +presence of this plain-spoken young person. + +"You appear to be a lady of much common sense!" he said. "Therefore----" + +"I have some common sense," interrupted Miss Fosdyke coolly. "And what +amount I possess tells me that I never heard anything more ridiculous in +my life than the suggestion that my uncle should steal anything from +anybody! Why, he was, and is, I hope, a fairly well-to-do man! And if he +wanted money, he'd only to come to me. It so happens that I'm one of the +wealthiest young women in England. If my uncle had wanted a few +thousands or tens of thousands to play ducks and drakes with, he'd only +to ring me up on the telephone, and he'd have had whatever he asked for +in a few hours. That's not boasting, Mr. Chestermarke--that's just plain +truth. My uncle a thief! Mr. Chestermarke!--there's only one word for +your suggestion. Don't think me rude if I tell you what it is. +It's--bosh!" + +Gabriel's colourless face twitched a little, and he drew himself up. + +"I have no acquaintance with modern young ladies," he remarked icily. "I +daresay they have their own way of looking at things--and of expressing +themselves. I, too, have mine. Also I have my own conclusions, and----" + +"I say, Mr. Chestermarke!" said the Earl, hastening to intervene in what +seemed likely to develop into a passage-at-arms. "We're forgetting the +suggestion made just before this lady--Miss Fosdyke, I think?--entered. +Don't let's forget it--it's a good one." + +Miss Fosdyke turned eagerly to the Earl. + +"What suggestion was it?" she asked. "Do tell me? I'm sure you agree +with me--I can see you do. Thank you, again!" + +"This gentleman," said the Earl, pointing to Neale, who had retreated +into a corner and was staring out of the window, "suggests that Horbury +may have met with an accident, you know, and be lying helpless +somewhere. I sincerely hope he isn't but----" + +Miss Fosdyke jumped from her chair. She turned an indignant look on +Gabriel and let it go on to Joseph. + +"You don't mean to tell me that you have not done anything to find my +uncle?" she exclaimed with fiery emphasis. "You've surely had some +search made?--surely!" + +"We knew nothing of his disappearance until ten o'clock this morning," +replied Gabriel, half-angrily. + +"But--since then? Why, you've had five hours!" she said. "Has nothing +been done? Haven't you even told the police?" + +"Certainly not!" answered Gabriel. "It is not our policy." + +Miss Fosdyke made one step to the door and flung it open. + +"Then I shall!" she exclaimed. "Policy, indeed! High time I came down +here, I think! Thank you, Lord Ellersdeane--and the other gentleman--for +the suggestion. Now I'll go and act on it. And when I act, Mr. +Chestermarke, I do it thoroughly!" + +The next moment she had slammed the door, and Gabriel Chestermarke +glanced at his partner. + +"Annoying!" he said. "A most unpleasant young woman! I should have +preferred not to tell the police until--well, at any rate, tomorrow. We +really do not know to what extent we are--but then, what's the use of +talking of that now? We can't prevent her going to the police-station." + +"Why, really, Mr. Chestermarke," observed the Earl, "don't you think +it's the best thing to do? To tell you the truth, considering that I'm +concerned, I was going to do the very same thing myself." + +Gabriel bowed stiffly. + +"We could not have prevented your lordship either," he said, with +another wave of the white hands which seemed to go so well with the +habitual pallor of his face. "All that is within your lordship's +jurisdiction--not in ours. But--especially since this young lady seems +determined to do things in her way--I will tell your lordship why we are +slow to move. It is purely a business reason. It was, as I said, ten +o'clock when we heard that Horbury was missing. That in itself was such +a very strange and unusual thing that my partner and I at once began to +examine the contents of our strong room. We had been so occupied five +hours when your lordship called. Do you think we could examine +everything in five hours? No--nor in ten, nor in twenty! Our task is not +one quarter complete! And why we don't wish publicity at once in +here--we hold a vast number of securities and valuables belonging to +customers. Title-deeds, mortgages--all sorts of things. We have +valuables deposited with us. Up to now we don't know what is safe and +what isn't. We do know this--certain securities of our own, easily +convertible on the market, are gone! Now if we had allowed it to be +known before, say, noon today, that our manager had disappeared, and +these securities with him, what would have been the result? The bank +would have been besieged! Before we let the public know, we ourselves +want to know exactly where we are. We want to be in a position to say to +Smith, 'Your property is safe!'; to Jones, 'Your deeds are here!' Does +your lordship see that? But now, of course," concluded Gabriel, "as this +Miss Fosdyke can and will spread the news all over the town--why, we +must face things." + +The Earl, who had listened to all this with an evident desire to +comprehend and to sympathize, nodded his head. + +"I see--I see, Mr. Chestermarke," he said. "But I say!--I've got another +notion--I'm not a very quick thinker, and I daresay my idea came out of +Mr. Neale's suggestion. Anyway, it's this--for whatever it's worth. I +told you that we only got home night before last--early on Saturday +evening, as a matter of fact. Now, it was known in the town here that +we'd returned--we drove through the Market-Place. Mayn't it be that +Horbury saw us, or heard of our return, and that when he went out that +evening he had the casket in his pocket and was on his way to +Ellersdeane, to return it to me? And that--on his way--he met with some +mishap? Worth considering, you know." + +"I daresay a great many theories might--and will--be raised, my lord," +replied Gabriel. "But----" + +"Does your lordship also think--or suggest--that Horbury also carried +our missing securities in his pocket?" asked Joseph quietly. "Because +we, at any rate, know they're gone!" + +"Oh, well!" said the Earl, "I--I merely suggest it, you know. The +country between here and Ellersdeane is a bit rough and wild--there's +Ellersdeane Hollow, you know--a queer place on a dark night. And if a +man took a short cut--as many people do--through the Hollow, there are +places he could fall into. But, as I say, I merely suggest that as a +reasonable theory." + +"What does your lordship propose to do?" asked Gabriel. + +"I certainly think inquiry should be set going," answered the Earl. + +"Already done," remarked Joseph drily. "Miss Fosdyke has been with the +police five minutes." + +"I mean--it should be done by us," said the Earl. + +"Very well," said Gabriel suddenly, "it shall be done, then. No doubt +your lordship would like to give the police your own story. Mr. Neale, +will you go with Lord Ellersdeane to Superintendent Polke? Your duty +will be to give him the mere information that Mr. Horbury left his house +at a quarter to eight on Saturday evening and has not been heard of +since. No more, Neale. And now," he concluded, with a bow to the Earl, +"your lordship will excuse my partner and myself if we return to a +singularly unpleasant task." + +Lord Ellersdeane and Neale left the bank-house and walked towards the +police-station. They crossed the Market-Place in silence, but as they +turned the corner of the Moot Hall, the elder man spoke, touching his +companion's shoulder with a confidential gesture. + +"I don't believe a word of all that, Mr. Neale!" he said. "Not one +word!" + +Neale started and glanced at the Earl's moody face. + +"Your lordship doesn't believe--?" he began, and checked himself. + +"I don't believe that Horbury's done what those two accuse him of," +affirmed the Earl. "Not for one moment! I can't account for those +missing securities they talk about, but I'll stake my honour that +Horbury hasn't got 'em! Nor my wife's jewels either. You heard and saw +how astounded that girl was. By the by--who is she!" + +"Mr. Horbury's niece--Miss Fosdyke--from London," replied Neale. + +"She spoke of her wealth," remarked the Earl. + +"Yes," said Neale. "She must be wealthy, too. She's the sole proprietor +of Fosdyke's Brewery." + +"Ho-ho!" laughed the Earl. "That's it, eh? Fosdyke's Entire! Of +course--I've seen the name on no end of public-houses in London. Sole +proprietor? Dear me!--why, I have some recollection that Fosdyke, of +that brewery, was at one time a member of Parliament." + +"Yes," assented Neale. "He married Mr. Horbury's sister. Miss Fosdyke is +their only child. Mr. Fosdyke died a few years ago, and she came into +the property last year when she was twenty-one." + +"Lucky young woman!" muttered the Earl. "Fine thing to own a big +brewery. Um! A very modern and up-to-date young lady, too: I liked the +way she stood up to your principals. Of course, she'll have told Polke +all the story by this time. As for ourselves--what had we better do?" + +Neale had considered that question as he came along. + +"There's only one thing to do, my lord," he answered. "We want the +solution of a problem: what became of Mr. Horbury last Saturday night?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE SEARCH BEGINS + + +Polke, superintendent of the Scarnham police force, a little, round, +cheery-faced man, whose mutton-chop whiskers suggested much +business-like capacity and an equal amount of common sense, rose from +his desk and bowed as the Earl of Ellersdeane entered his office. + +"I know what your lordship's come for!" he said, with a twinkle of the +eye which betokened infinite comprehension. "The young lady's been +here." + +"And has no doubt told you everything?" remarked the Earl, as he dropped +into the chair which the superintendent drew forward. "Has she?" + +"Pretty well, my lord," replied Polke, with a chuckle. "She's not one to +let much grass grow under her feet, I think." + +"Given you the facts, I suppose?" asked the Earl. + +Polke motioned to Neale to seat himself, and resumed his own seat. He +put his fingers together over his desk and looked from one to the other +of his visitors. + +"I'll give the young lady this much credit," he said. "She can tell one +what she wants in about as few words as could possibly be used! Yes, my +lord--she told me the facts in a couple of sentences. Her uncle +disappeared--nobody knows where he is--suspected already of running away +with your lordship's jewels and Chestermarke's securities. A very nice +business indeed!" + +"What do you think of it?" asked the Earl. + +"As a policeman, nothing--so far," answered Polke, with another twinkle. +"As a man, that I don't believe it!" + +"Nor do I!" said the Earl. "That is, I don't believe that Horbury's +appropriated anything. There's some mistake--and some mystery." + +"We can't get away from the fact that Mr. Horbury has disappeared," +remarked Neale, looking at the superintendent. "That's all I'm sent here +to tell you, Mr. Polke." + +"That's an accepted fact," agreed Polke. "But he's not the first man +who's disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Some men, as your +lordship knows, disappear--and reappear with good reasons for their +absence. Some never reappear. Some men aren't wanted to reappear. When a +man disappears and he's wanted--why, the job is to find him." + +"What does Miss Fosdyke wish?" asked the Earl, nodding assent to these +philosophies. "She would say, of course." + +"Miss Fosdyke's way, my lord--so far as I could gather from ten minutes' +talk with her--is to tell people what to do," answered Polke drily. "She +doesn't ask--she commands! We're to find her uncle--quick. At once. No +pains to be spared. Money no object. A hundred pounds, spot cash, to the +first man, woman, child, who brings her the least fragment of news of +him. That's Miss Fosdyke's method. It's not a bad one--it's only rich +young ladies who can follow it. So I've already put things in train. +Handbills and posters, of course--and the town-crier. I suggested to her +that by tonight, or tomorrow morning, there might be news of Mr. Horbury +without doing all that. No good! Miss Fosdyke--she can tell you a lot +inside a minute--informed me that since she was seventeen she had only +had one motto in life. It's--do it now!" + +"Good!" laughed the Earl. "But--where are you going to begin?" + +"That's the difficulty," agreed Polke. "A gentleman walks out of his +back garden into the dusk--and he's never seen again. I don't know. We +must wait and see if anybody comes forward to say that he, she, or it +saw Mr. Horbury after he left his house on Saturday night. That's all." + +"Somebody must have seen him," said the Earl. + +"Well, you'd think so, my lord," replied Polke, "but he could get away +from the back of his orchard into the open country without being seen. +The geographical position of our town's a bit curious, so your lordship +knows. Here we are on a ridge. Horbury's garden and orchard run down to +the foot of that ridge. At that foot is the river. There's a foot-bridge +over the river, immediately opposite his orchard gate. He could cross +that foot-bridge, and be in the wood on the other side in two minutes +from leaving his house. That wood extends for a good mile into the +country. Oh, yes! he could get away without being seen, and once in that +country, why, he could make his way to one or other of half a dozen +small railway stations. We shall telephone to all of them. That's all in +the routine. But then, that's all supposing that he left the town. +Perhaps he didn't leave the town." + +The Earl started, and Neale looked quickly up from a brown study. + +"Eh?" said the Earl. "Didn't leave the town?" + +"Speaking as a policeman," answered Polke, with a knowing smile, "I +don't know that he even left his house. I only know that his housekeeper +says he did. That's a very different matter. For anything we +know--absolutely know!--Mr. Horbury may have been murdered in his own +house, and buried in his own cellar." + +"You're not joking?" said Neale. "Or--you are!" + +"Far from it, Mr. Neale," answered Polke. "That may seem a very, very +outrageous thing to say, but, I assure you, one never knows what may not +have happened in these cases. However, Mrs. Carswell says he did leave +the house, so we must take her word to begin with, and see if we can +find out where he went. And as your lordship is here, there's just a +question or two I should like to have answered. How many people know +that your lordship handed over these valuables to Mr. Horbury?" + +"So far as I know, no one but the Countess and myself," replied the +Earl. "I never mentioned the matter to any one, and I don't think my +wife would either. There was no need to mention it." + +"Well, I don't know," remarked Polke. "One's got to consider all sorts +of little things in these affairs, or else I wouldn't ask another +question. Does your lordship think it possible the Countess mentioned it +to her maid?" + +The Earl started in his chair. + +"Ah!" he said. "That may be! She may have done that, of course. I hadn't +thought of it." + +"Is the maid a trustworthy woman?" inquired Polke. + +"She's been in our service twelve or fourteen years," replied the Earl. +"We've always found her quite trustworthy. So much so that I've more +than once sent her to my bankers with those very jewels." + +"You took her with you to the Continent, of course, my lord?" asked +Polke. + +"No, we didn't," replied the Earl. "The fact is--we wanted to have, for +once in our lives, a thoroughly unconventional holiday. You know that +the Countess and I are both very fond of walking--well, we had always +had a great desire to have a walking tour, alone, in the Ardennes +district, in early spring. We decided some time ago to have it this +year. So when we set off, six weeks ago, we took no servants--and +precious little luggage--and we enjoyed it all the more. Therefore, of +course, my wife's maid was not with us. She remained at +Ellersdeane--with the rest of the servants." + +Polke seemed to ponder over this last statement. Then he rose from his +chair. + +"Um!" he said. "Well--I'm doing what I can. There's something your +lordship might do." + +"Yes?" asked the Earl. "What, now! It shall be done." + +"Let some of your men take a look round your neighbourhood," answered +the superintendent. "Gamekeepers, now--they're the fellows! Just now +we're having some grand moonlight nights. If your men would look about +the country between here and Ellersdeane, now? And tell the farmers, and +the cottagers, and so forth, and take a particular look round +Ellersdeane Hollow. It would be a help." + +"Excellent idea, Polke," said the Earl. "I'll ride home and set things +going at once. And you'll let me know if anything turns up here during +the evening or the night." + +He strode off to the door and Neale followed. But on the threshold Neale +was pulled up by the superintendent. + +"Mr. Neale!" said Polke. + +Neale turned to see his questioner looking at him with a rather +quizzical expression. + +"What precise message had you for me?" asked Polke. + +"Just what I said," replied Neale. "I was merely to tell you that Mr. +Horbury disappeared from his house on Saturday evening, and has not been +seen since." + +"No further message--from your principals?" suggested Polke. + +"Nothing," said Neale. + +Polke nodded, and with a bow to the Earl sat down again to his desk. He +took up a pen when the door had closed on his visitors, and for a while +busied himself in writing. He was thus occupied when the telephone bell +rang in the farthest corner of his room. He crossed over and laid hold +of the receiver. + +"Yes?" he said quietly. "Yes--this is Polke, superintendent, Scarnham--I +rang you up twenty minutes since. I want you to send me, at once, the +smartest man you have available. Case is disappearance, under mysterious +circumstances, of a bank manager. Securities to a large amount are +missing; valuables also. No expense will be spared here--money no +object. You understand--a first-class man? Tonight? Yes. Good train from +town five-twenty--gets here nine-fifteen. He will catch that? Good. Tell +him report here on arrival. All right. Good-bye." + +Polke rang off and went back to his desk. + +"What New Scotland Yard calls a first-class is very often what I should +call a third-class," he muttered as he picked up his pen. "However, +we'll live in hope that something out of the usual will arrive. Now what +are those two Chestermarkes after? Why didn't one of them come here? +What are they doing? And what's the mystery? James Polke, my boy, here's +a handful for you!" + +If Polke had been able to look into Chestermarke's Bank just then, he +would have failed to notice any particular evidences of mystery. It was +nearly the usual hour for closing when Wallington Neale went back, and +Gabriel Chestermarke immediately told him to follow out the ordinary +routine. The clerks were to finish their work and go their ways, as if +nothing had happened, and, as far as they could, they were to keep their +tongues quiet. As for the partners, food was being sent over for them +from the hotel: they would be obliged to remain at the bank for some +time yet. But there was no need for Neale to stay; he could go when the +day's balancing was done. + +"You heard what instructions this Miss Fosdyke had given the police, I +suppose?" asked Gabriel, as Neale was leaving the parlour. "Raising the +whole town, no doubt?" + +Neale briefly narrated all he knew; the partners listened with the +expression characteristic of each, and made no comment. And in half an +hour Neale handed over the keys to Joseph Chestermarke and went out into +the hall, his labours over. That had been the most exciting day he had +ever known in his life--was what was left of it going to yield anything +still more exciting? + +He stood in the outer hall trying to make up his mind about something. +He wanted to speak to Betty Fosdyke--to talk to her. She had evidently +not recognized him when she came so suddenly into the dining-room of the +bank-house. But why should she, he asked himself?--they had only met +once, when both were children, and she had no doubt forgotten his very +existence. Still-- + +He rang the house bell at last and asked for Mrs. Carswell. The +housekeeper came hurrying to him, a look of expectancy on her face. + +"Has anything been heard, Mr. Neale?" she asked. "Or found out? Have the +police been told yet?" + +"The police know," answered Neale. "And nothing has been heard. Where is +Miss Fosdyke, Mrs. Carswell? I should like to speak to her." + +"Gone to the Scarnham Arms, Mr. Neale," replied the housekeeper. "She +wouldn't stay here, though her room was all ready for her. Said she +wouldn't stop two seconds in a house that belonged to men who suspected +her uncle! So she's gone across there to take rooms. Do--do the partners +suspect Mr. Horbury of something, Mr. Neale?" + +Neale shook his head and turned away. + +"I can't tell you anything, Mrs. Carswell," he answered. "If either Mr. +Chestermarke or Mr. Joseph wish to give you any information, they'll +give it themselves. But I can say this on my own responsibility--if you +know of anything--anything, however small!--that would account for Mr. +Horbury's absence, out with it!" + +"But I don't--I know nothing but what I've told," said Mrs. Carswell. +"Literally nothing!" + +"Nobody knows anything," remarked Neale. "That's the worst of it. +Well--we shall see." + +He went away from the house and crossed the Market-Place to the Scarnham +Arms, an old-world inn which had suffered few alterations during the +last two centuries. And there inside its wide hall, superintending the +removal of various articles of luggage which had just arrived from the +station and in conversation with a much interested landlady, he found +Betty Fosdyke. + +"I may be here for weeks, and I shall certainly be here for days," that +young lady was saying. "Put all these things in the bedroom, and I'll +have what I want taken into the sitting-room later. Now, Mrs. Depledge, +about my dinner. I'll have it in my sitting-room, and I'll have it +early. I----" + +At this moment Miss Fosdyke became aware of Neale's presence, and that +this eminently good-looking young man was not only smiling at her, but +was holding out a hand which he evidently expected to be taken. + +"You've forgotten me!" said Neale. + +Miss Fosdyke's cheeks flushed a little and she held out her hand. + +"Is it--is it Wallie Neale?" she asked. "But--I saw you in the +bank-house--and you didn't speak to me!" + +"You didn't speak to me," retorted Neale, smiling. + +"Didn't know you," she answered. "Heavens!--how you've grown! But--come +upstairs. Mrs. Depledge--dinner for two, mind. Mr. Neale will dine with +me." + +Neale suffered his hostess to lead him upstairs to a private parlour. +And when they were once within it, Miss Fosdyke shut the door and turned +on him. + +"Now, Wallie Neale!" she said, "out with it! What is the meaning of all +this infernal mystery? And where's my uncle?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ELLERSDEANE HOLLOW + + +Neale dropped into a chair and lifted a despairing countenance to his +downright questioner. + +"I don't know!" he said. "I know--nothing!" + +"That is--beyond what I've already been told?" suggested the girl. + +"Beyond what you've been told--exactly," replied Neale. "I'm literally +bewildered. I've been going about all day as if--as if I were dreaming, +or having a nightmare, or--something. I don't understand it at all. I +saw Mr. Horbury, of course, on Saturday--he was all right when I left +him at the bank. He said nothing that suggested anything unusual. The +whole thing is--a real facer! To me--anyhow." + +Betty Fosdyke devoted a whole minute to taking a good look at her +companion: Neale, on his part, made a somewhat shyer examination of her. +He remembered her as a long-legged little girl who had no great promise +of good looks: he was not quite sure that she had grown into good looks +now. But she was an eminently bright and vivacious young woman, strong, +healthy, vigorous, with fine eyes and teeth and hair, and a colour that +betokened an intimate acquaintance with outdoor life. And already, in +the conversation at the bank, and in Polke's report of his interview +with him, he had learnt that she had developed certain characteristics +which he faintly remembered in her as a child, when she had insisted on +having her own way amongst other children. + +"You've grown into quite a handsome young man, Wallie!" she observed +suddenly, with a frank laugh. "I shouldn't have thought you would, +somehow. Am I changed?" + +"I should say--not in character," answered Neale shyly. "I remember you +always wanted to be top dog!" + +"It's my fate!" she said, with a sigh. "I've such a lot of people and +things to look after--one has to be top dog, whether one wants to or +not. But this affair--what's to be done?" + +"I understand from Polke that you've already done everything," replied +Neale. + +"I've given him orders to spare neither trouble nor expense," she +asserted. "He's to send for the very best detective they can give him +from headquarters in London, and search is to be made. Because--now, +Wallie, tell me truthfully--you don't believe for one moment that my +uncle has run away with things?" + +"Not for one second!" asserted Neale stoutly. "Never did!" + +"Then--there's foul play!" exclaimed Betty. "And I'll spend my last +penny to get at the bottom of it! Here I am, and here I stick, until +I've found my uncle, or discovered what's happened to him. And +listen--do you think those two men across there are to be trusted?" + +Neale shook his head as if in appeal to her. + +"I'm their clerk, you know," he replied. "I hate being there at all, but +I am there. I believe they're men of absolute probity as regards +business matters--personally, I'm not very fond of either." + +"Fond!" she exclaimed. "My dear boy!--Joseph is a slimy sneak, and +Gabriel is a bloodless sphinx--I hate both of them!" + +Neale laughed and gave her a look of comprehension. + +"You haven't changed, Betty," he said. "I'm to call you Betty, though +you are grown up?" + +"Since it's the only name I possess, I suppose you are," she answered. +"But now--what can we do--you and I? After all, we're the nearest people +my uncle has in this town. Do let's do something! I'm not the sort to +sit talking--I want action! Can't you suggest something we can do?" + +"There's one thing," replied Neale, after a moment's thought. "Lord +Ellersdeane suggested that possibly Mr. Horbury, hearing that the +Ellersdeanes had got home on Saturday, put the jewels in his pocket and +started out to Ellersdeane with them. I know the exact path he'd have +taken in that case, and I thought of following it this evening--one +might come across something, or hear something, you know." + +"Take me with you, as soon as we've had dinner," she said. "It'll be a +beginning. I mean to turn this neighbourhood upside down for +news--you'll see. Some person or persons must have seen my uncle on +Saturday night!--a man can't disappear like that. It's impossible!" + +"Um!--but men do disappear," remarked Neale. "What I'm hoping is that +there'll eventually--and quickly--be some explanation of this +disappearance, and that Mr. Horbury hasn't met with--shall I put it +plainly?" + +"You'd better put anything plainly to me," she answered. "I don't +understand other methods." + +"It's possible he may have been murdered, you know," said Neale quietly. + +Betty got up from her chair and went over to the window to look out on +the Market-Place. She stood there some time in silence. + +"It shall be a bad job for any man who murdered him if that is so," she +said at last. "I was very fond of my uncle." + +"So was I," said Neale. "But I say--no past tenses yet! Aren't we a bit +previous? He may be all right." + +"Ring the bell and let's hurry up that dinner," she commanded. "I didn't +make it clear that we want it as early as possible. I want to get out, +and to see where he went--I want to do something active!" + +But Miss Betty Fosdyke was obliged to adapt herself to the somewhat +leisurely procedure of highly respectable country-town hotels, whose +cooks will not be hurried, and it was already dusk, and the moonlight +was beginning to throw shadows of gable and spire over the old +Market-Place, when she and Neale set out on their walk. + +"All the better," said Neale. "This is just about the time that he went +out on Saturday night, and under very similar conditions. Now we'll take +the precise path that he'd have taken if he was on his way to +Ellersdeane." + +He led his companion to a corner of the Market-Place, and down a narrow +alley which terminated on an expanse of open ground at the side of the +river. There he made her pause and look round. + +"Now if we're going to do the thing properly," he said, "just attend, +and take notice of what I point out. The town, as you see, stands on +this ridge above us. Here we are at the foot of the gardens and orchards +which slope down from the backs of the houses on this side of the +Market-Place. There is the gate of the bank-house orchard. According to +Mrs. Carswell, Mr. Horbury came out of that gate on Saturday night. What +did he do then? He could have turned to the left, along this river bank, +or to the right, also along the river bank. But, if he meant to walk out +to Ellersdeane--which he would reach in well under an hour--he would +cross this foot-bridge and enter those woods. That's what we've got to +do." + +He led his companion across a narrow bridge, over a strip of sward at +the other side of the river, and into a grove of fir which presently +deepened and thickened as it spread up a gently shelving hillside. The +lights of the town behind them disappeared; the gloom increased; +presently they were alternately crossing patches of moonlight and +plunging into expanses of blackness. And Betty, after stumbling over one +or two of the half-exposed roots which lay across the rough path, +slipped a hand into Neale's arm. + +"You'll have to play guide, Wallie, unless you wish me to break my +neck," she laughed. "My town eyes aren't accustomed to these depths of +gloom and solitude. And now," she went on, as Neale led her confidently +forward through the wood, "let's talk some business. I want to know +about those two--the Chestermarkes. For I've an uneasy feeling that +there's more in this affair than's on the surface, and I want to know +all about the people I'm dealing with. Just remember--beyond the mere +fact of their existence and having seen them once or twice, years ago, I +don't know anything about them. What sort of men are they--as +individuals?" + +"Queer!" replied Neale. "They're both queer. I don't know much about +them. Nobody does. They're all right as business men, much respected and +all that, you know. But as private individuals they're decidedly odd. +They're both old bachelors, at least Gabriel's an old one, and Joseph is +a youngish one. They live sort of hermit lives, as far as one can make +out. Gabriel lives at the old house which I'll show you when we get out +of this wood--you'll see the roofs, anyhow, in this moonlight. Joseph +lives in another old house, but in the town, at the end of Cornmarket. +What they do with themselves at home, Heaven knows! They don't go into +such society as there is; they take no part in the town's affairs. +There's a very good club here for men of their class--they don't belong +to it. You can't get either of 'em to attend a meeting--they keep aloof +from everything. But they both go up to London a great deal--they're +always going. But they never go together--when Gabriel's away, Joseph's +at home; when Joseph's off, Gabriel's on show. There's always one Mr. +Chestermarke to be found at the bank. All the same, Mr. Horbury was the +man who did all the business with customers in the ordinary way. So far +as I know banking," concluded Neale, "I should say he was trusted and +confided in more than most bank managers are." + +"Did they seem very much astonished when they found he'd gone?" asked +Betty. "Did it seem a great shock, a real surprise?" + +"The cleverest man living couldn't tell what either Gabriel or Joseph +Chestermarke thinks about anything," answered Neale. "You know what +Gabriel's face is like--a stone image! And Joseph always looks as if he +was sneering at you, a sort of soft, smiling sneer. No, I couldn't say +they showed surprise, and I don't know what they've found out--they're +the closest, most reserved men about their own affairs that you could +imagine!" + +"But--they say some of their securities are missing," remarked Betty. +"They'll have to let the exact details be known, won't they?" + +"Depends--on them," replied Neale. "They'll only do what they like. And +they don't love you for coming on the scene, I assure you!" + +"But I'm here, nevertheless!" said Betty. "And here I stop! Wallie, +haven't you got even a bit of a theory about all this!" + +"Can't say that I have!" confessed Neale woefully. "I'm not a very +brilliant hand at thinking. The only thing I can think of is that Mr. +Horbury, knowing Lord Ellersdeane had got home on Saturday, thought +he'd hand back those jewels as soon as possible, and set off in the +evening with that intention--possibly to be robbed and murdered on the +way. Sounds horrible--but honestly I can't think of any other theory." + +Betty involuntarily shivered and glanced about her at the dark cavernous +spaces of the wood, which had now thickened into dense masses of oak and +beech. She took a firmer grip of Neale's arm. + +"And he'd come through here!" she exclaimed. "How dangerous!--with those +things in his pocket!" + +"Oh, but he'd think nothing of it!" answered Neale. "He was used to +walking at night--he knew every yard of this neighbourhood. Besides, +he'd know very well that nobody would know what he had on him. What I'd +like to know is--supposing my theory's right, and that he was taking +these jewels to Ellersdeane, how did anybody get to know that he had +them? For the Chestermarkes didn't know they'd been given to him, and I +didn't--nobody at the bank knew." + +A sudden turn in the path brought them to the edge of the wood, and they +emerged on a broad plateau of rough grass, from beneath which a wide +expanse of landscape stretched away, bathed just then in floods of +moonlight. Neale paused and waved his stick towards the shadowy +distances and over the low levels which lay between. + +"Ellersdeane Hollow!" he said. + +Betty paused too, looking silently around. She saw an undulating, broken +stretch of country, half-heath, half-covert, covering a square mile or +so of land, houseless, solitary. In its midst rose a curiously shaped +eminence or promontory, at the highest point of which some ruin or other +lifted gaunt, shapeless walls against the moonlit sky. Far down beneath +it, in a depression amongst the heath-clad undulations, a fire glowed +red in the gloom. And on the further side of this solitude, amidst +groves and plantations, the moonlight shone on the roofs and gables of +half-hidden houses. Over everything hung a deep silence. + +"A wild and lonely scene!" she said. + +Neale raised his stick again and began to point. + +"All this in front of us is called Ellersdeane Hollow," he remarked. +"It's not just one depression, you see--it's a tract of unenclosed land. +It's dangerous to cross, except by the paths--it's honeycombed all over +with disused lead-mines--some of the old shafts are a tremendous depth. +All the same, you see, there's some tinker chap, or some gipsies, camped +out down there and got a fire. That old ruin, up on the crag there, is +called Ellersdeane Tower--one of Lord Ellersdeane's ancestors built it +for an observatory--this path'll lead us right beneath it." + +"Is this the path he would have taken if he'd gone to Ellersdeane on +Saturday night?" asked Betty. + +"Precisely--straight ahead, past the Tower," answered Neale. "And there +is Ellersdeane itself, right away in the distance, amongst its trees. +There!--where the moonlight catches it. Now let your eye follow that far +line of wood, over the tops of the trees about Ellersdeane village--do +you see where the moonlight shines on another high roof? That's Gabriel +Chestermarke's place--the Warren." + +"So--he and Lord Ellersdeane are neighbours!" remarked Betty. + +"Neighbours at a distance of a mile--and who do no more than nod to each +other," answered Neale. "Lord Ellersdeane and Mr. Horbury were what you +might call friends, but I don't believe his lordship ever spoke ten +words with either of the Chestermarkes until this morning. I tell you +the Chestermarkes are regular hermits!--when they're at home or about +Scarnham, anyhow. Now let's go as far as the Tower--you can see all over +the country from that point." + +Betty followed her guide down a narrow path which led in and out through +the undulations of the Hollow until it reached the foot of the +promontory on which stood the old ruin that made such a prominent +landmark. Seen at close quarters Ellersdeane Tower was a place of much +greater size and proportion than it had appeared from the edge of the +wood, and the path to its base was steep and rocky. And here the +loneliness in which she and Neale had so far walked came to an end--on +the edge of the promontory, outlined against the moonlit sky, two men +stood, talking in low tones. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TRAVELLING TINKER + + +Neale's eye caught the gleam of silver braid on the clothing of one of +the two men, and he hastened his steps a little as he and Betty emerged +on the level ground at the top of the steep path. + +"That's a policeman," he said. "It'll be the constable from Ellersdeane. +The other man looks like a gamekeeper. Let's see if they've heard +anything." + +The two figures turned at the sound of footsteps, and came slowly in +Neale's direction. Both recognized him and touched their hats. + +"I suppose you're looking round in search of anything about Mr. +Horbury?" suggested Neale. "Heard any news or found any trace?" + +"Well, we're what you might call taking a preliminary observation, Mr. +Neale," answered the policeman. "His lordship's sent men out all over +the neighbourhood. No, we've heard nothing, nor seen anything, either. +But, then, there's not much chance of hearing anything hereabouts. The +others have gone round asking at houses, and such-like--to find out if +he was seen to pass anywhere. Of course, his lordship was figuring on +the chance that Mr. Horbury might have had a fit, or something of that +sort, and fallen somewhere along this path, between the town and +Ellersdeane House--it's not much followed, this path. But we've seen +nothing--up to now." + +Neale turned to the keeper. + +"Were none of your people about here on Saturday night?" he asked. +"You've a good many watchers on the estate, haven't you?" + +"Yes, sir--a dozen or more," answered the keeper. "But we don't come +this way--this isn't our land. Our beats lie the other way--t'other side +of the village. We never come on to this part at all." + +"This, you know, Mr. Neale," remarked the policeman, jerking his thumb +over the Hollow, "this, in a manner of speaking, belongs to nobody. Some +say it belongs to the Crown--I don't know. All I know is that nobody has +any rights over it--it's been what you might term common land ever since +anybody can remember. This here Mr. Horbury that's missing--your +governor, sir--I once met him out here, and had a bit of talk with him, +and he told me that it isn't even known who worked them old lead-mines +down there, nor who has any rights over all this waste. That, of +course," concluded the policeman, pointing to the glowing fire which +Neale and Betty had seen from the edge of the wood, "that's why chaps +like yonder man come and camp here just as they like--there's nobody to +stop 'em." + +"Who is the man?" asked Neale, glancing at the fire, whose flames made a +red spot amongst the bushes. + +"Most likely a travelling tinker chap, sir, that comes this way now and +again," answered the policeman. "Name of Creasy--Tinner Creasy, the +folks call him. He's come here for many a year, at odd times. Camps out +with his pony and cart, and goes round the villages and farmsteads, +seeing if there's aught to mend, and selling 'em pots and pans and +such-like. Stops a week or two--sometimes longer." + +"And poaches all he can lay hands on," added the gamekeeper. "Only he +takes good care never to go off this Hollow to do it." + +"Have you made any inquiry of him?" asked Neale. + +"We were just thinking of doing that, sir," replied the policeman. "He +roams up and down about here at nights, when he is here. But I don't +know how long he's been camping this time--it's very seldom I ever come +round this way myself--there's naught to come for." + +"Let's go across there and speak to him," said Neale. + +He and Betty followed the two men down the side of the promontory and +across the ups and downs of the Hollow, until they came to a deeper +depression fringed about by a natural palisading of hawthorn. And as +they drew near and could see into the dingle-like recess which the +tinker had selected for his camping-ground they became aware of a +savoury and appetizing odour, and the gamekeeper laughed. + +"Cooking his supper, is Tinner Creasy!" he remarked. "And good stuff he +has in his pot, too!" + +The tinker, now in full view, sat on a log near a tripod, beneath which +crackled a bright fire, burning under a black pot. The leaping flames +revealed a shrewd, weather-beaten face which turned sharply towards the +bushes as the visitors appeared; they also lighted up the tinker's cart +in the background, the browsing pony close by, the implements of the +tinner's trade strewn around on the grass. It was an alluring picture of +vagabond life, and Neale suddenly compared it with the dull existence of +folk who, like himself, were chained to a desk. He would have liked to +sit down by Tinner Creasy and ask him about his doings--but the +policeman had less poetical ideas. + +"Hullo, Tinner!" said he, with easy familiarity. "Here again, what? I +thought we should be seeing your fire some night this spring. Been here +long?" + +The tinker, who had remained seated on his log until he saw that a lady +was of the party, rose and touched the edge of his fur cap to Betty in a +way which indicated that his politeness was entirely for her. + +"Since yesterday," he answered laconically. + +"Only since yesterday!" exclaimed the policeman. "Ah! that's a pity, +now. You wasn't here Saturday night, then?" + +The tinker turned a quizzical eye on the four inquiring faces. + +"How would I be here Saturday night when I only came yesterday?" he +retorted. "You're the sort of chap that wants two answers to one +question! What about Saturday night?" + +The policeman took off his helmet and rubbed the top of his head as if +to encourage his faculties. + +"Nay!" he said. "There's a gentleman missing from Scarnham yonder, and +it's thought he came out this way after dark, Saturday night, and +something happened. But, of course, if you wasn't in these parts +then----" + +"I wasn't, nor within ten miles of 'em," said Creasy. "Who is the +gentleman?" + +"Mr. Horbury, the bank manager," answered the policeman. + +"I know Mr. Horbury," remarked Creasy, with a glance at Neale and Betty. +"I've talked to him a hundred-and-one times on this waste. So it's him, +is it? Well, there's one thing you can be certain about." + +"What?" asked Betty eagerly. + +"Mr. Horbury wouldn't happen aught by accident, hereabouts," answered +the tinker significantly. "He knew every inch of this Hollow. Some +folks, now, might take a header into one o' them old lead-mines. He +wouldn't. He could ha' gone blind-fold over this spot." + +"Well--he's disappeared," observed the policeman. "There's a search +being made, all round. You heard naught last night, I suppose?" + +Creasy gave Neale and Betty a look. + +"Heard plenty of owls, and night-jars, and such-like," he answered, "and +foxes, and weasels, and stoats, and beetles creeping in the grass. +Naught human!" + +The policeman resumed his helmet and sniffed audibly. He and the keeper +moved away and talked together. Then the policeman turned to Neale. + +"Well, we'll be getting back to the village, sir," he said. "If so be as +you see our super, Mr. Neale, you might mention that we're out and +about." + +He and his companion went off by a different path; at the top of a rise +in the ground the policeman turned again. + +"Tinner!" he called. + +"Hullo?" answered Creasy. + +"If you should hear or find aught," said the policeman, "come to me, you +know." + +"All right!" assented Creasy. He picked up some wood and replenished his +fire. And glancing at Neale and Betty, who still lingered, he let fall a +muttered whisper under his breath. "Bide a bit--till those chaps have +gone," he said. "I've a word or two." + +He walked away to his cart after this mysterious communication, dived +under its tilt, evidently felt for and found something, and came back, +glancing over his shoulder to see that keeper and policeman had gone +their ways. + +"I never tell chaps of that sort anything, mister," he said, giving +Neale a sly wink. "Them of my turn of life look on all gamekeepers and +policemen as their natural enemies. They'd both of 'em turn me out o' +this if they could!--only they know they can't. For some reason or other +Ellersdeane Hollow is No Man's Land--and therefore mine. And so--I +wasn't going to say anything to them--not me!" + +"Then there is something you can say?" said Neale. + +"You were here on Saturday!" exclaimed Betty. "You know something!" + +"No, miss, I wasn't here Saturday," answered the tinker, "and I don't +know anything--about what yon man asked, anyway--I told him the truth +about all that. But--you say Mr. Horbury's missing, and that he's +considered to have come this way on Saturday night. So--do either of you +know that?" + +He drew his right hand from behind him, and in the glare of the +firelight showed them, lying across its palm, a briar tobacco-pipe, +silver-mounted. + +"I found that, last night, gathering dry sticks," he said. "It's letters +engraved on the silver band--'J. H. from B. F.' 'J. H.' now?--does that +mean John Horbury?--you see, I know his Christian name." + +Betty uttered a sharp exclamation and took the pipe in her hand. She +turned to Neale with a look of sudden fear. + +"It's the pipe I gave my uncle last Christmas!" she said. "Of course I +know it! Where did you find it?" she went on, turning on Creasy. "Do +tell us--do show us!" + +"Foot of the crag there, miss--right beneath the old tower," answered +Creasy. "And it's just as I found it. I'll give it to you, sir, to take +to Superintendent Polke in Scarnham--he knows me. But just let me point +something out. I ain't a detective, but in my eight-and-forty years I've +had to keep my wits sharpened and my eyes open. Point out to Polke, and +notice yourself--that whenever that pipe was dropped it was being +smoked! The tobacco's caked at the surface--just as it would be if the +pipe had been laid down at the very time the tobacco was burning +well--if you're a smoker you'll know what I mean. That's one thing. The +other is--just observe that the silver band is quite bright and fresh, +and that there are no stains on the briar-wood. What's that indicate, +young lady and young gentleman? Why, that that pipe hadn't been lying so +very long when I found it! Not above a day, I'll warrant." + +"That's very clever of you, very observant!" exclaimed Betty. +"But--won't you show us the exact place where you picked it up?" + +Creasy cast a glance at his cooking pot, stepped to it, and slightly +tilted the lid. Then he signed to them to go back towards the tower by +the path by which they had come. + +"Don't want my supper to boil over, or to burn," he remarked. "It's the +only decent meal I get in the day, you see, miss. But it won't take a +minute to show you where I found the pipe. Now--what's the idea, sir," +he went on, turning to Neale, "about Mr. Horbury's disappearance? Is it +known that he came out here Saturday night?" + +"Not definitely," replied Neale. "But it's believed he did. He was seen +to set off in this direction, and there's a probability that he crossed +over here on his way to Ellersdeane. But he's never been seen since he +left Scarnham." + +"Well," observed Creasy, "as I said just now, he wouldn't happen +anything by accident in an ordinary way. Was there any reason why +anybody should set on him?" + +"There may have been," replied Neal. + +"He wouldn't be likely to have aught valuable on him, surely--that time +o' night?" said the tinker. + +"He may have had," admitted Neale. "I can't tell you more." + +Creasy asked no farther question. He led the way to the foot of the +promontory, at a point where a mass of rock rose sheer out of the hollow +to the plateau crowned by the ruinous tower. + +"Here's where I picked up the pipe," he said. "Lying amongst this +rubbish--stones and dry wood, you see--I just caught the gleam of the +silver band. Now what should Mr. Horbury be doing down here? The path, +you see, is a good thirty yards off. But--he may have fallen over--or +been thrown over--and it's a sixty-feet drop from top to bottom." + +Neale and Betty looked up the face of the rocks and said nothing. And +Creasy presently went on, speaking in a low voice:-- + +"If he met with foul play--if, for instance, he was thrown over here in +a struggle--or if, taking a look from the top there, he got too near the +edge and something gave way," he said, "there's about as good means of +getting rid of a dead man in this Ellersdeane Hollow as in any place in +England! That's a fact!" + +"You mean the lead-mines?" murmured Neale. + +"Right, sir! Do you know how many of these old workings there is?" +asked Creasy. "There's between fifty and sixty within a square mile of +this tower. Some's fenced in--most isn't. Some of their mouths are grown +over with bramble and bracken. And all of 'em are of tremendous depth. A +man could be thrown down one of those mines, sir, and it 'ud be a long +job finding his body! But all that's very frightening to the lady, and +we'll hope nothing of it happened. Still----" + +"It has to be faced," said Betty. "Listen--I am Mr. Horbury's niece, and +I'm offering a reward for news of him. Will you keep your eyes and ears +open while you're in this neighbourhood?" + +The tinker promised that he would do his best, and presently he went +back to his fire, while Neale and Betty turned away towards the town. +Neither spoke until they were half-way through the wood; then Betty +uttered her fears in a question. + +"Do you think the finding of that pipe shows he was--there?" she asked. + +"I'm sure of it," replied Neale. "I wish I wasn't. But--I saw him with +this pipe in his lips at two o'clock on Saturday! I recognized it at +once." + +"Let's hurry on and see the police," said Betty. "We know something now, +at any rate." + +Polke, they were told at the police-station, was in his private house +close by: a polite constable conducted them thither. And presently they +were shown into the superintendent's dining-room, where Polke, +hospitably intent, was mixing a drink for a stranger. The stranger, +evidently just in from a journey, rose and bowed, and Polke waved his +hand at him with a smile, as he looked at the two young people. + +"Here's your man, miss!" said Polke cheerily. "Allow +me--Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, of the Criminal Investigation +Department." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SATURDAY NIGHT STRANGER + + +Neale, who had never seen a real, live detective in the flesh, but who +cherished something of a passion for reading sensational fiction and the +reports of criminal cases in the weekly newspapers, looked at the man +from New Scotland Yard with a feeling of surprise. He knew +Detective-Sergeant Starmidge well enough by name and reputation. He was +the man who had unravelled the mysteries of the Primrose Hill murder--a +particularly exciting and underground affair. It was he who had been +intimately associated with the bringing to justice of the Camden Town +Gang--a group of daring and successful criminals which had baffled the +London police for two years. Neale had read all about Starmidge's +activities in both cases, and of the hairbreadth escape he had gone +through in connection with the second. And he had formed an idea of +him--which he now saw to be a totally erroneous one. For Starmidge did +not look at all like a detective--in Neale's opinion. Instead of being +elderly, and sinister, and close of eye and mouth, he was a somewhat +shy-looking, open-faced, fresh-coloured young man, still under thirty, +modest of demeanour, given to smiling, who might from his general +appearance have been, say, a professional cricketer, or a young +commercial traveller, or anything but an expert criminal catcher. + +"Only just got here, and a bit tired, miss," continued Polke, waving his +hand again at the detective. "So I'm just giving him a refresher to +liven his brains up. He'll want 'em--before we've done." + +Betty took the chair which Polke offered her, and looked at the stranger +with interest. She knew nothing about Starmidge, and she thought him +quite different to any preconceived notion which she had ever had of men +of his calling. + +"I hope you'll be able to help us," she said politely, as Starmidge, +murmuring something about his best respects to his host, took a +whisky-and-soda from Polke's hand. "Do you think you will--and has Mr. +Polke told you all about it?" + +"Given him a mere outline, miss," remarked Polke. "I'll prime him before +he goes to bed. Yes--he knows the main facts." + +"And what do you propose to do--first?" demanded Betty. + +Starmidge smiled and set down his glass. + +"Why, first," he answered, "first, I think I should like to see a +photograph of Mr. Horbury." + +Polke moved to a bureau in the corner of his dining-room. + +"I can fit you up," he said. "I've a portrait here that Mr. Horbury gave +me not so long ago. There you are!" + +He produced a cabinet photograph and handed it to Starmidge, who looked +at it and laid it down on the table without comment. + +"I suppose that conveys nothing to you?" asked Betty. + +"Well," replied Starmidge, with another smile, "if a man's missing, one +naturally wants to know what he's like. And if there's any advertising +of him to be done--by poster, I mean--it ought to have a recent portrait +of him." + +"To be sure," agreed Polke. + +"So far as I understand matters," continued Starmidge, "this gentleman +left his house on Saturday evening, hasn't been seen since, and there's +an idea that he probably walked across country to a place called +Ellersdeane. But up to now there's no proof that he did. I think that's +all, Mr. Polke?" + +"All!" assented Polke. + +"No!" said Neale. "Miss Fosdyke and I have brought you some news. Mr. +Horbury must have crossed Ellersdeane Hollow on Saturday night. Look at +this!--and I'll tell you all about it." + +The superintendent and the detective listened silently to Neale's +account of the meeting with Creasy, and Betty, watching Starmidge's +face, saw that he was quietly taking in all the points of importance. + +"Is this tin-man to be depended upon?" he asked, when Neale had +finished. "Is he known?" + +"I know him," answered Polke. "He's come to this neighbourhood for many +years. Yes--an honest chap enough--bit given to poaching, no doubt, but +straight enough in all other ways--no complaint of him that I ever heard +of. I should believe all he says about this." + +"Then, as that's undoubtedly Mr. Horbury's pipe, and as this gentleman +saw him smoking it at two o'clock on Saturday, and as Creasy picked it +up underneath Ellersdeane Tower on Sunday evening," said Starmidge, +"there seems no doubt that Mr. Horbury went that way, and dropped it +where it was found. But--I can't think he was carrying Lord +Ellersdeane's jewels home!" + +"Why?" asked Neale. + +"Is it likely?" suggested Starmidge. "One's got--always--to consider +probability. Is it probable that a bank manager would put a hundred +thousand pounds' worth of jewels in his pocket, and walk across a lonely +stretch of land at that time of night, just to hand them over to their +owner? I think not--especially as he hadn't been asked to do so. I think +that if Mr. Horbury had been in a hurry to deliver up these jewels, he'd +have driven out to Lord Ellersdeane's place." + +"Good!" muttered Polke. "That's the more probable thing." + +"Where are the jewels, then?" asked Neale. + +Starmidge glanced at Polke with one expression, at Betty and Neale with +another. + +"They haven't been searched for yet, have they?" he asked quietly. "They +may be--somewhere about, you know." + +"You mean to search for them?" exclaimed Betty. + +"I don't know what I intend to do," replied Starmidge, smiling. "I +haven't even thought. I shall have thought a lot by morning. But--the +country's being searched, isn't it, for news of Mr. Horbury?--perhaps +we'll hear something. It's a difficult thing for a well-known man to get +clear away from a little place like this. No!--what I'd like to +know--what I want to satisfy myself about is--did Mr. Horbury go away at +all? Is there really anything missing from the bank? Are those jewels +really missing? You see," concluded Starmidge, looking round his circle +of listeners, "there's an awful lot to take into account." + +At that moment Polke's domestic servant tapped at the door and put her +head inside the room. + +"If you please, Mr. Polke, there's Mrs. Pratt, from the Station Hotel, +would like a word with you," she said. + +The superintendent hurried from the room--to return at once with a +stout, middle-aged woman, who, as she entered, raised her veil and +glanced half-suspiciously at Polke's other visitors. + +"All friends here, Mrs. Pratt," said the superintendent reassuringly. +"You know young Mr. Neale well enough. This lady is Mr. Horbury's +niece--anxious to find him. That gentleman's a friend of mine--you can +say aught you like before him. Well, ma'am!--you think you can tell me +something about this affair? What might it be, now?" + +Mrs. Pratt, taking the chair which Starmidge placed for her at the end +of the table, nodded a general greeting to the company, and lifting her +veil and untying her bonnet-strings, revealed a good-natured +countenance. + +"Well, Mr. Polke," she said, turning to the superintendent, "taking your +word for it that we're all friends--me being pretty sure, all the same, +that this gentleman's one of your own profession, which I don't object +to--I'll tell you what it is I've come up for, special, as it were, and +me not waiting until after closing-time to do it. But that town-crier's +been down our way, and hearing him making his call between our house and +the station, and learning what it was all about, thinks I to myself, +'I'd best go up and see the super and tell him what I know.' And," +concluded Mrs. Pratt, beaming around her, "here I am!" + +"Ay--and what do you know, ma'am?" asked Polke. "Something, of course." + +"Or I shouldn't be here," agreed Mrs. Pratt, smoothing out a fold of her +gown. "Well--Saturday afternoon, the time being not so many minutes +after the 5.30 got in, and therefore you might say at the outside twenty +minutes to six, a strange gentleman walked across from the station to +our hotel, which is, as you're all well aware, exactly opposite. I +happened to be in the bar-parlour window at the time, and I saw him +crossing--saw, likewise, from the way he looked about him, and up at the +town above us, that he'd never been in Scarnham before. And happen I'd +best tell you what like he was, while the recollection's fresh in my +mind--a little gentleman he was, very well dressed in what you might +call the professional style; dark clothes and so forth, and a silk +top-hat; I should say about fifty years of age, with a fresh complexion +and a biggish grey moustache and a nicely rolled umbrella--quite the +little swell he was. He made for our door, and I went to the bar-window +to attend to him. He wanted to know if he could get some food, and I +said of course he could--we'd some uncommon nice chops in the house. So +he ordered three chops and setterers--and then he asked if we'd a +telephone in the house, and could he use it. And, of course, I told him +we had, and showed him where it was--after which he wanted a local +directory, and I gave him Scammond's Guide. He turned that over a bit, +and then, when he'd found what he wanted, he went to our telephone +box--which, as you're well aware, Mr. Polke, is in our front hall. And +into it he popped." + +Mrs. Pratt paused a moment, and gave her listeners a knowing look, as if +she was now about to narrate the most important part of her story. + +"But what you mayn't be aware of, Mr. Polke," she continued, "is that +our telephone box, which has glass panels in its upper parts, has at +this present time one of these panels broken--our pot-man did it, +carrying a plank through the hall. So that any one passing to and fro, +as it were, when anybody's using the telephone, can't help hearing a +word or two of what's being said inside. Now, of course, I was passing +in and out, giving orders for this gentleman's chops, when he was in the +box. And I heard a bit of what he said, though I didn't, naturally, hear +aught of what was said to him, nor who by. But it's in consequence of +what I did hear, and of what Tolson, the town-crier, has been shouting +down our way tonight, that I come up here to see you." + +"Much obliged to you, Mrs. Pratt," said Polke. "Very glad to hear +anything that may have to do with Mr. Horbury's disappearance. Now, +what did you hear?" + +"What I heard," replied the landlady, "was this here--disjointed, as you +would term it. First of all I hear the gentleman ask for 'Town 23.' Now, +of course, you know whose number that there is, Mr. Polke." + +"Chestermarke's Bank," said Neale, turning to Betty. + +"Chestermarke's Bank it is, sir," assented Mrs. Pratt. "Which you know +very well, as also do I, having oft called it up. Very well--I didn't +hear no more just then, me going into the dining-room to see that our +maid laid the table proper. But when I was going back to the bar, I +heard more. 'Along the river-side?' says the gentleman, 'Straight on +from where I am--all right.' Then after a minute, 'At seven-thirty, +then?' he says. 'All right--I'll meet you.' And after that he rings +off--and he went into the dining-room, and in due course he had his +chops, and some tart and cheese, and a pint of our bitter ale, and took +his time, and perhaps about a quarter past seven he came to the bar and +paid, and he took a drop of Scotch whisky. After which he says, 'It's +very possible, landlady, that I may have to stop in the town all +night--have you a nice room that you can let me?' 'Certainly, sir,' says +I. 'We've very good rooms, and bathrooms, and every convenience--shall I +show you one?' 'No,' says he, 'this seems a good house, and I'll take +your word for it--keep your best room for me, then.' And after that he +lighted a cigar and went out, saying he'd be back later, and he crossed +the road and went down on the river-bank, and walked slowly along +towards the bottom of the town. And Mr. Polke and company," concluded +Mrs. Pratt, solemnly turning from one listener to another, "that was the +last I saw of him. For--he never came back!" + +"Never came back!" echoed Polke. + +"Not even the ghost of him!" said Mrs. Pratt. "I waited up myself till +twelve, and then I decided that he'd changed his mind and was stopping +with somebody he knew, which person, Mr. Polke, I took to be Mr. +Horbury. Why? 'Cause he'd rung up Chestermarke's Bank--and who should he +want at Chestermarke's Bank at six o'clock of a Saturday evening but Mr. +Horbury? There wouldn't be nobody else there--as Mr. Neale'll agree." + +"You never heard of this gentleman being in the town on Sunday or +today?" asked Polke. + +"Not a word!" replied Mrs. Pratt. "And never saw him go to the station, +neither, to leave the town. Now, as you know, Mr. Polke, we've only two +trains go away from here on Sundays, and there's only four on any +week-day, us being naught but a branch line, and as our bar-parlour +window is exactly opposite the station, I see everybody that goes and +comes--I always was one for looking out of window! And I'm sure that +little gentleman didn't go away neither yesterday nor today. And that's +all I know," concluded Mrs. Pratt, rising, "and if it's any use to you, +you're welcome, and hopeful I am that your poor uncle'll be found, Miss, +for a nicer gentleman I could never wish to meet!" + +Mrs. Pratt departed amidst expressions of gratitude and police +admonitions to keep her news to herself for awhile, and Betty and Neale +turned eagerly to the famous detective. But Starmidge appeared to have +entered upon a period of silence, and made no further observation than +that he would wait upon Miss Fosdyke in the morning, and presently the +two young people followed Mrs. Pratt into the street and turned into the +Market-Place. The last of the evening revellers were just coming out of +the closing taverns, and to a group of them, Tolson, the town-crier, was +dismally calling forth his announcement that one hundred pounds reward +would be paid to any person who first gave news of having seen Mr. John +Horbury on the previous Saturday evening or since. The clanging of his +bell, and the strident notes of his cracked voice, sounded in the +distance as Betty said good-night to Neale and turned sadly into the +Scarnham Arms. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +NO FURTHER INFORMATION + + +Chestermarke's clerks found no difficulty in obtaining access to the +bank when they presented themselves at its doors at nine o'clock next +morning. Both partners were already there, and appeared to have been +there for some time. And Joseph at once called Neale into the private +parlour, and drew his attention to a large poster which lay on a +side-table, its ink still wet from the printing press. + +"Let Patten put that up in one of the front windows, Neale," he said. +"It's just come in--I gave the copy for it last night. Read it over--I +think it's satisfactory, eh?" + +Neale bent over the big, bold letters, and silently read the +announcement:-- + + "Messrs. Chestermarke, in view of certain unauthorized rumours, now + circulating in the town and neighbourhood, respecting the + disappearance of their late manager, Mr. John Horbury, take the + earliest opportunity of announcing that all Customers' Securities + and Deposits in their hands are safe, and that business will be + conducted in the usual way." + +"That make things clear?" asked Joseph, closely watching his clerk. "To +our clients, I mean?" + +"Quite clear, I should say," replied Neale. + +"Then get it up at once, before opening hours, and save all the bother +of questions," commanded Joseph. "And if people do come asking +questions--as some of them will!--tell them not to bother +themselves--nor us. We don't want to waste our time interviewing fools +all the morning." + +Neale took the poster and went out, with no further remark. And +presently the junior clerk, with the aid of a few wafers, fixed the +announcement in the window which looked out on the Market-Place, and +people began to gather round and to read it, and, after the usual +fashion of country-born folk, then went away to talk about it. In half +an hour it was known in every shop and tavern parlour in Scarnham +Market-Place that despite the town-crier's announcement, and the wild +rumours of the night before, Chestermarke's Bank was all right, and +Chestermarkes were already speaking of Horbury in the past tense--he was +(wherever he might be) no longer the manager of that ancient concern; he +was the late manager. + +At ten o'clock Superintendent Polke, bluff and cheery as usual, and +Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, eyeing his new surroundings with +appreciative curiosity, strolled round the corner from the +police-station and approached the bank. Half a dozen loungers were +gathered before the window, reading the poster; the two police officials +joined them and also read--in silence. Then, with a look at each other, +they turned into the door which Patten had just opened. Neale hurried to +the counter to meet them. + +"Well, Mr. Neale," said Polke, as if he had called on the most ordinary +business, "we'll just have a word with your principals, if they please. +A mere interchange of views, you know: we shan't keep 'em." + +"They don't want bothering," whispered Neale, bending over the counter. +"Shan't I do instead?" + +"No, sir!" answered Polke. "Nothing but principals will do! Here, +Starmidge, give Mr. Neale one of your official cards." + +Neale took the card and disappeared into the parlour, where he laid it +before Gabriel. + +"Mr. Polke is with him, sir," he said. "They say they won't detain you." + +Gabriel tossed the card over to his nephew with a look of inquiry: +Joseph sneered at it, and threw it into a waste-paper basket. + +"Tell them we don't wish to see them," he answered. "We----" + +"Stop a bit!" interrupted Gabriel. "I think perhaps we'd better see +them. We may as well see them, and have done with it. Bring them in, +Neale." + +Polke and Starmidge, presently entering, found themselves coldly +greeted. Gabriel made the slightest inclination of his head, in response +to Polke's salutation and the detective's bow: Joseph pointedly gave no +heed to either. + +"Well?" demanded the senior partner. + +"We've just called, Mr. Chestermarke, to hear if you've anything to say +to us about this matter of Mr. Horbury's," said Polke. "Of course, you +know it's been put in our hands." + +"Not by us!" snapped Gabriel. + +"Quite so, sir, by Lord Ellersdeane, and by Mr. Horbury's niece, Miss +Fosdyke," assented Polke. "The young lady, of course, is naturally +anxious about her uncle's safety, and Lord Ellersdeane is anxious about +the Countess's jewels. And we hear that securities of yours are +missing." + +"We haven't told you so," retorted Gabriel. + +"We haven't even approached you," remarked Joseph. + +"Just so!" agreed Polke. "But, under the circumstances----" + +"We have nothing to say to you, superintendent," interrupted Gabriel. +"We can't help anything that Lord Ellersdeane has done, nor anything +that Miss Fosdyke likes to do. Lord Ellersdeane is not, and never has +been, a customer of ours. Miss Fosdyke acts independently. If they call +you in--as they seem to have done very thoroughly--it's their look out. +We haven't! When we want your assistance, we'll let you know. At +present--we don't." + +He waved one of the white hands towards the door as he spoke, as if to +command withdrawal. But Polke lingered. + +"You don't propose to give the police any information, then, Mr. +Chestermarke?" he asked quietly. + +"At present we don't propose to give any information to anybody whom it +doesn't concern," replied Gabriel. "As regards the mere surface facts of +Mr. John Horbury's disappearance, you know as much as we do." + +"You don't propose to join in any search for him or any attempt to +discover his whereabouts, sir?" inquired Starmidge, speaking for the +first time. + +Gabriel looked up from his paper, and slowly eyed his questioner. + +"What we propose to do is a matter for ourselves," he answered coldly. +"For no one else." + +Starmidge bowed and turned away, and Polke, after hesitating a moment, +said good-morning and followed him from the room. The two men nodded to +Neale and went out into the Market-Place. + +"Well?" said Polke. + +"Queer couple!" remarked Starmidge. + +Polke jerked his thumb at the poster in the bank window. + +"Of course!" he said, "so long as they can satisfy their customers that +all's right so far as they're concerned, we can't get at what is missing +that belongs to the Chestermarkes." + +"There are ways of finding that out," replied Starmidge quietly. + +"What ways, now?" asked Polke. "We can't make 'em tell us their private +affairs. Supposing Horbury has robbed them, they aren't forced to tell +us how much or how little he's robbed 'em of!" + +"All in good time," remarked the detective. "We're only beginning. Let's +go and talk to this Miss Fosdyke a bit. She doesn't mind what money she +spends on this business, you say?" + +"Not if it costs her her last penny!" answered Polke. + +"All right," said Starmidge. "Fosdyke's Entire represents a lot of +pennies. We'll just have a word or two with her." + +Betty, looking out of her window on the Market-Place, had seen the two +men leave Chestermarke's Bank, and was waiting eagerly for their coming. +She listened intently to Polke's account of the interview with the +partners, and her cheeks glowed indignantly as he brought it to an end. + +"Shameful!" she exclaimed. "To make accusations against my uncle, and +then to refuse to say what they are! But--can't you make them say?" + +"We'll try, in good time," answered Starmidge. "Slow and steady's the +game here. For, whatever it is, it's a deep game." + +"Nothing has been heard since I saw you last night?" asked Betty +anxiously. "No one has brought you any news?" + +"No news of any sort, miss," replied Polke. + +"What's to be done, then, next?" she inquired, looking from one to the +other. "Do let us do something!" + +"Oh, we'll do a lot, Miss Fosdyke, before the day's out," said Starmidge +reassuringly. "I'm going to work just now. Now, the first thing is, +publicity! We must have all this in the newspapers at once." He turned +to the superintendent. "I suppose there's some journalist here in the +town who sends news to the London press, isn't there?" he asked. + +"Parkinson, editor of the 'Scarnham Advertiser,' he does," replied +Polke, with promptitude. "He's a sort of reporter-editor, you +understand, and jolly glad of a bit of extra stuff." + +"That's the first thing," said Starmidge. "The next, we must have a +reward bill printed immediately, and circulated broadcast. It must have +a portrait on it--I'll take that photograph you showed me last night. +And--we'll have to offer a specific reward in each. How much is it to +be, Miss Fosdyke? For you'll have to pay it, you know." + +"Anything you like!" said Betty eagerly. "A thousand pounds?--would that +do, to begin with." + +"We'll say half of it," answered Starmidge. "Very good. Now, Mr. Polke, +if you'll tell me where this Mr. Parkinson's to be found, and where the +best printing office in the place is, I'll go to work." + +"Scammonds are the best printers--and they're quick," said Polke. "But +I'll come with you." + +"Is there anything I can do?" asked Betty. "If I could only be doing +something!" + +Starmidge nodded his comprehension and mused a while. + +"Just so!" he said. "You don't want to sit and wait. Well, there is +something you might do, Miss Fosdyke, as you're Mr. Horbury's niece. Mr. +Polke's been telling me about Mr. Horbury's household arrangements. Now, +as you are a relation, suppose you call on his housekeeper, who was the +last person to see him, and get all the information you can out of her? +Draw her on to talk--you never know what interesting point you mayn't +get in that way. And--are you Mr. Horbury's nearest relation?" + +"Yes--the very nearest--next-of-kin," answered Betty. + +"Then ask to see his papers--his desk--his private belongings," said +Starmidge. "Demand to see them! You've the legal right. And let us +know--you'll always find me somewhere about Mr. Polke's--how you get +on. Now, superintendent, we'll get to work." + +Outside the Scarnham Arms, Starmidge looked at his companion with a sly +smile. + +"Are you anything of a betting man?" he asked. + +"Naught much--odd half-crown now and then," replied Polke. "Why?" + +"Lay you a fiver to a shilling Miss Fosdyke won't see anything of +Horbury's--nor get any information!" answered Starmidge, more slyly than +ever. "She won't be allowed!" + +Polke gave the detective a shrewd look. + +"I dare say!" he said. "Whew!--it's a queer game, this, Starmidge. First +moves of it, anyway." + +"Let's get on to the next," counselled Starmidge. "Where's this +journalist?" + +Mr. Parkinson, a high-browed, shock-headed young man, who combined the +duties of editor and reporter with those of advertisement canvasser and +business manager of the one four-page sheet which Scarnham boasted, +received the two police officials in a small office in which there was +just room for himself and his visitors to squeeze themselves. + +"I was about coming round to you, Mr. Polke," he said. "Can you let me +have the facts of this Horbury affair?" + +"We've come to save you the trouble," answered Polke. "This +gentleman--Detective-Sergeant Starmidge, of the C.I.D., Mr. +Parkinson--wants to have a bit of a transaction with you." + +Parkinson eyed the famous detective with as much wonder as Neale had +felt on the previous evening. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed. "Pleased to meet you, sir--I've heard of you. What +can I do for you, Mr. Starmidge?" + +"Can you wire--at our expense--a full account of all that I shall tell +you, to a London Press agency that'll distribute it amongst all the +London papers at once?" asked Starmidge. "You know what I mean?" + +"I can," answered Parkinson. "And principal provincials, too. It'll be +in all the evening papers this very night, sir." + +"Then come on," said Starmidge, dropping into a chair by the editorial +desk. "I'll tell you all about it." + +Polke listened admiringly while the detective carefully narrated the +facts of what was henceforth to be known as the Scarnham Mystery. +Nothing appeared to have escaped Starmidge's observation and attention. +And he was surprised to find that the detective's presentation of the +case was not that which he himself would have made. Starmidge did no +more than refer to the fact that Lady Ellersdeane's jewels were missing: +he said nothing whatever about the rumours that some of Chestermarke's +securities were said to have disappeared. But on one point he laid great +stress--the visit of the little gentleman with the large grey moustache +to the Station Hotel at Scarnham on the evening whereon John Horbury +disappeared, and to the fragments of conversation overheard by Mrs. +Pratt. He described the stranger as Mrs. Pratt had described him, and +appealed to him, if he read this news, to come forward at once. Finally, +he supplemented his account with a full description of John Horbury, +carefully furnished by the united efforts of Polke and Parkinson, and +wound up by announcing the five hundred pounds reward. + +"All over England, tonight, and tomorrow morning, sir," said Parkinson, +gathering up his copy. "Now I'm off to wire this at once. Great engine +the Press, Mr. Starmidge!--I dare say you find it very useful in your +walk of life." + +Starmidge followed Polke into the Market-Place again. + +"Now for that reward bill," he said. "I don't set so much store by it, +but it's got to be done. It all helps. There's Miss Fosdyke--going to +have a try at her bit." + +He pointed down the broad pavement with an amused smile. Miss Betty +Fosdyke, attired in her smartest, was just entering the portals of +Chestermarke's Bank. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE CHESTERMARKE WAY + + +Mrs. Carswell herself opened the door of the bank-house in response to +Miss Fosdyke's ring. She started a little at sight of the visitor, and +her eyes glanced involuntarily and, as it seemed to Betty, with +something of uneasiness, at the side-door which led into the +Chestermarkes' private parlour. And Betty immediately interpreted the +meaning of that glance. + +"No, Mrs. Carswell," she said, before the housekeeper could speak, "I +haven't come to call on either Mr. Gabriel or Mr. Joseph Chestermarke--I +came to see you. Mayn't I come in?" + +Mrs. Carswell stepped back into the hall, and Betty followed. For a +moment the two looked at each other. And in the elder woman's eyes there +was still the same expression, and it was with obvious uncertainty, if +not with positive suspicion, that she waited. + +"You have not heard anything of Mr. Horbury?" asked Betty, who was not +slow to notice the housekeeper's demeanour. + +"Nothing!" replied Mrs. Carswell, with a shake of the head. "Nothing at +all! No one has told me anything." + +Betty turned to the door of the dining-room. + +"Very well," she said. "I dare say you know, Mrs. Carswell, that I am +my uncle's nearest relation. Now I want to go through his papers and +things. I want to see his desk--his last letters--anything--and +everything there is." + +She laid a hand on the door--and Mrs. Carswell suddenly found her +tongue. + +"Oh, miss!" she said, in a low, frightened voice, "you can't! That +room's locked up. So is the study--where all Mr. Horbury's papers are. +So is his bedroom. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke locked them all up last +night--he has the keys. Nobody's to go into them--nor into any other +room--without his permission." + +Betty's cheeks began to glow, and an obstinate look to settle about her +lips. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed. "But I think I shall have something to say to that, +Mrs. Carswell. Ask Mr. Joseph Chestermarke to come here a minute." + +The housekeeper shrunk back. + +"I daren't, Miss Fosdyke!" she answered. "It would be as much as my +place was worth!" + +"I thought you were my uncle's housekeeper," suggested Betty. "Aren't +you? Or are you employed by Mr. Joseph Chestermarke? Come, now?" + +Mrs. Carswell hesitated. It was very evident that she was afraid. But of +what? + +"So far as I know," continued Betty, "this is my uncle's house, and +you're his servant. Am I right or wrong, Mrs. Carswell?" + +"Right as regards my being engaged by Mr. Horbury," replied the +housekeeper. "But the house belongs to--them! Mr. Horbury--so I +understand--had the use of it--it was reckoned as part of his salary. +It's their house, miss." + +"But, anyway, my uncle's effects are his--and I mean to see them," +insisted Betty. "If you won't call Mr. Joseph--or Mr. Gabriel--out, I +shall walk into the bank at the front door, and demand to see them. +You'd better let one of them know I'm here, Mrs. Carswell--I'm not going +to stand any nonsense." + +Mrs. Carswell hesitated a little, but in the end she knocked timidly at +the private door. And presently Joseph Chestermarke opened it, looked +out, saw Betty, and came into the hall. He offered his visitor no polite +greeting, and for once he forgot his accustomed sneering smile. Instead, +he gave the housekeeper a swift look which sent her away in haste, and +he turned to Betty with an air of annoyance. + +"Yes?" he asked abruptly. "What do you want?" + +"I want to go into my uncle's house--into his rooms," said Betty. "I am +his next-of-kin--I wish to examine his papers." + +"You can't!" answered Joseph. "We haven't examined them ourselves yet." + +"What right have you to examine them?" demanded Betty. + +"Every right!" retorted Joseph. + +"Not his private belongings!" she said firmly. + +"This is our house--you're not going into it," declared Joseph. +"Nobody's going into it--without our permission." + +"We'll see about that, Mr. Joseph Chestermarke!" replied Betty. +"If--supposing--my uncle is dead, I've the right to examine anything +he's left. I insist upon it! I insist on seeing his papers, looking +through his desk. And at once!" + +"No!" said Joseph. "Nothing of the sort. We don't know that you've any +right. We don't know that you're his next-of-kin. We're +not--legally--aware that you're his niece. You say you are--but we don't +know it--as a matter of real fact. You'd better go away." + +Betty's cheeks flamed hotly and her eyes flashed. + +"So that's your attitude--to me!" she exclaimed. "Very well! But you +shall soon see whether I am what I say I am. What are you and your uncle +implying, suggesting, hinting at?" she went on, suddenly letting her +naturally hot temper get the better of her. "Do you realize what an +utterly unworthy part you are playing? You accuse my uncle of being a +thief--and you dare not make any specified accusation against him! You +charge him with stealing your securities--and you daren't tell the +police what securities! I don't believe you've a security missing! +Nobody believes it! The police don't believe it. Lord Ellersdeane +doesn't believe it. Why, your own clerk, Mr. Neale, who ought to know, +if anybody does, doesn't believe it! You're telling lies, Mr. Joseph +Chestermarke--there! Lies! I'll denounce you to the whole town--I'll +expose you! I believe my uncle has met with some foul play--and as sure +as I am his niece I'll probe the whole thing to the bottom. Are you +going to admit me to those rooms?" + +The door of the private room, which Joseph had left slightly ajar +behind him, was pushed open a little, and Gabriel's colourless face +looked out. + +"Tell the young woman to go and see a solicitor," he said, and vanished +again. + +Joseph glanced at Betty, who was still staring indignantly at him. + +"You hear?" he said quietly. "Now you'd better go away. You are not +going in there." + +Betty suddenly turned and walked out. She was across the Market-Place +and at the door of the Scarnham Arms before her self-possession had come +back to her. And she was aware then that a gentleman, who had just +alighted from a horse which a groom was leading away to the stable yard, +was looking and smiling at her. + +"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Is it you, Lord Ellersdeane?--I beg your pardon--I +was preoccupied." + +"So I saw," said the Earl. "I'd watched you come across from the Bank. +Is there any news this morning?" + +"Come up to my sitting-room and let us talk," said Betty. She led the +way upstairs and closed her door on herself and her visitor. "No news of +my uncle," she continued, turning to the Earl. "Have you any?" + +The Earl shook his head disappointedly. + +"No!" he replied. "I wish I had! I myself and a lot of my men have been +searching all round Ellersdeane--practically all night. We've made +inquiries at each of the neighbouring villages--without result. Have the +police heard anything?--I've only just come into town." + +"You haven't seen Polke, then?" said Betty. "Oh, well, he heard +something last night." She went on to tell the Earl of the meeting with +the tinker, and of Mrs. Pratt's account of the mysterious stranger, and +of what Starmidge was now doing. "It all seems such slow work," she +concluded, "but I suppose the police can't move any faster." + +"You heard nothing at the bank itself--from the Chestermarkes?" asked +the Earl. + +"I heard sufficient to make me as--as absent-minded as I was when you +met me just now! I went there, as my uncle's nearest relation, with a +simple request to see his papers and things--a very natural desire, +surely. The Chestermarkes have locked up his rooms--and they ordered me +out--showed me the door!" + +"How very extraordinary!" exclaimed the Earl. "Really!--in so many +words?" + +"I think Joseph had the grace to say I had better go away," said Betty. +"And Gabriel--who called me a young woman--told me to go and see a +solicitor, which, of course," she added reflectively, "is precisely what +I shall do--as they will very soon find!" + +The Earl stepped over to one of the windows, and stood for a moment or +two silently looking out on the Market-Place. + +"I don't understand this at all," he said at last. "What is the meaning +of all this reserve on the Chestermarkes' part? Why didn't they tell the +police what securities are missing? Why don't they let you, his niece, +examine Horbury's effects? What right have they to fasten up his +house?" + +"Their house--so Mrs. Carswell says," remarked Betty. + +"Oh, well--it may be their house, strictly speaking," agreed the Earl, +"but Horbury was its tenant, anyway, and the furniture and things in it +are his--I'm sure of that, for he and I shared a similar taste in +collecting old oak, and I know where he bought most of his possessions. +I can't make the behaviour of these people out at all--and I'm getting +more and more uneasy about the whole thing, Miss Fosdyke--as I'm sure +you are. I wonder if the police will find the man who came to the +Station Hotel on Saturday? Now, if they could lay hands on him, and get +to know who he was, and what he wanted, and if he really met your +uncle----" + +The Earl suddenly paused and turned from the window with a glance at +Betty. + +"There's young Mr. Neale coming across from the bank," he observed. "I +think he's coming here. By the by, isn't he a relation of Horbury's?" + +"No," said Betty. "But my uncle was his guardian. Is he coming here, +Lord Ellersdeane?" + +"Straight here," replied the Earl. "Perhaps he's got some news." + +Betty had the door open before Neale could knock at it. He came in with +a smile, and glanced half-whimsically, half as if he had queer news to +give, at the two people who looked so inquiringly at him. + +"Well?" demanded Betty. "What is it, Wallie? Have these two precious +principals sent you with news?" + +"They're not my principals any longer," answered Neale. He laid down +some books and an old jacket on the table. "That's my old working coat," +he went on, with a laugh. "I've worn it for the last time--at +Chestermarke's. They've dismissed me." + +Lord Ellersdeane turned sharply from the window, and Betty indulged in a +cry of indignation. + +"Dismissed--you?" she exclaimed. "Dismissed!" + +"With a quarter's salary in lieu of notice," laughed Neale, slapping his +pocket. "I've got it here--in gold." + +"But--why?" asked Betty. + +Neale shook his head at her. + +"Because you told Joseph that I didn't believe them when they said that +some of their securities were missing," he answered. "You did it! As +soon as you'd gone, they had me in, told me that it was contrary to +their principles to retain servants who took sides with other people +against them, handed me a cheque, and told me to cash it forthwith and +depart. And--here I am!" + +"You don't seem to mind this very much, Mr. Neale," observed the Earl, +looking keenly at this victim of summary treatment. "Do you?" + +"If your lordship really wants to know," answered Neale, "I don't! I'm +truly thankful. It's only what would have happened--in another way. I +meant to leave Chestermarke's. If it hadn't been for Mr. Horbury, I +should have left ages ago. I hate banking! I hated the life. And--I +dislike Chestermarke's! Immensely! Now, I'll go and have a free life +somewhere in Canada or some equally spacious clime--where I can +breathe." + +"Not at all!" said Betty decidedly. "You shall come and be my manager in +London. The brewery wants one, badly. You shall have a handsome salary, +Wallie--much more than you had at that beastly bank!" + +"Very kind of you, I'm sure," laughed Neale. "But I think I'm inclined +to put breweries in the same line with banks. Don't you be too rash, +Betty--I'm not exactly cut out for commercialism. Not," he added +reflectively, "not that I haven't been a very good servant to +Chestermarke's. I have! But Chestermarkes are--what they are!" + +The Earl, who had been watching the two young people with something of +amused interest, suddenly came forward from the window. + +"Mr. Neale!" he said. + +"My lord!" responded Neale. + +"What's your honest opinion about your late principals?" asked the Earl. + +Neale shook his head slowly and significantly. + +"I don't know," he answered. + +"Do you know that they've--just now--refused Miss Fosdyke permission to +examine her uncle's belongings?" continued the Earl. "That they wouldn't +even let her enter the house?" + +"No, I didn't know," replied Neale. "But I'm not surprised. Nothing that +those two could do would ever surprise me." + +"Feeling that, what do you advise in this case?" asked the Earl. +"Come!--you're no longer in their employ--you can speak freely now. What +do you think?" + +"Well," said Neale, after a pause, and speaking with unusual gravity, "I +think the police ought to make a thorough examination of the +bank-house--I'm surprised it hasn't been thought of before." + +The Earl picked up his hat. + +"I've been thinking of it all the morning!" he said. "Come--let us all +go round to Polke." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE SEARCH-WARRANT + + +As they turned out of the Market-Place into the street leading to the +police-station, Lord Ellersdeane and his companions became aware of a +curious figure which was slowly preceding them--that of a very old man +whose massive head and long white hair, falling in thick shocks about +his neck, was innocent of covering, whose tall, erect form was closely +wrapped about in a great, many-caped horseman's cloak which looked as if +it had descended to him from some early Georgian ancestor. In one hand +he carried a long staff; the other clutched an ancient folio; altogether +he was something very much out of the common, and Neale, catching sight +of him, nudged Betty Fosdyke's elbow and pointed ahead. + +"One of the sights of Scarnham!" he whispered. "Old Batterley, the +antiquary. Never seen with a hat, and never without that cloak, his +staff, and a book under his arm. You needn't be astonished if he +suddenly stops and begins reading his book in the open street--it's a +habit of his." + +But the antiquary apparently had other business. He turned into the +police-station, and when the three visitors followed him a moment later, +he was already in Polke's private office, and Polke and Starmidge were +gazing speculatively at him. Polke turned to the newcomers, as the old +man, having fitted on a pair of large spectacles, recognized the Earl +and executed a deep bow. + +"Mr. Batterley's just called with a suggestion, my lord," observed +Polke, good-humouredly. "He's heard of Mr. Horbury's disappearance, and +of the loss of your lordship's jewels, and he says that an explanation +of the whole thing may be got if we search the bank-house." + +"Thoroughly!" said Batterley, with a warning shake of his big head. +"Thoroughly--thoroughly, Mr. Polke! No use just walking through the +rooms, and seeing what any housemaid would see--the thing must be done +properly. Your lordship," he continued, turning to the Earl, "knows that +many houses in our Market-Place possess secret passages, +double-staircases, and the like--Horbury's house is certainly one of +those that do. It has, of course, been modernized. My memory is not +quite as good as it was, but I have a recollection that when I was a +boy, well over seventy years ago--I am, as your lordship is aware, +nearer ninety than eighty--there were hiding-places discovered in the +bank-house at the time Matthew Chestermarke, grandfather of the present +Gabriel, had it altered: in fact, I am quite sure I was taken by my +father to see them. Now, of course, many of these places were bricked +up, and so on, but I think--it is my impression--that a double staircase +was left untouched, and some recesses in the panelling of the +garden-room. That garden-room, Mr. Polke--if you know what I mean?" + +"Mr. Batterley," remarked the Earl, "means the panelled room which looks +out on the garden. Mr. Horbury has used it as a study." + +"The garden-room," continued the old antiquary, "should be particularly +examined. It is into that room that the double staircase opens--by a +door concealed in the recess at the side of the fire-place. There were, +I am sure, recesses behind the panelling in that room. Now, Horbury may +have known of them--he had tastes of an antiquarian disposition--in an +amateur way, you know. At any rate, Mr. Polke, you should examine the +house--and especially that room, for Horbury may have hidden Lord +Ellersdeane's property there. A deeply interesting room that!" added the +old man musingly. "I haven't been in it for some sixty years or so, but +I remember it quite well. It was in that room that Jasper Chestermarke +murdered Sir Gervase Rudd." + +Starmidge, who, like the rest of them, had been listening eagerly to +Batterley's talk, turned sharply to him. + +"Did you say murdered, sir?" he said. + +"A well-known story!" answered the old man half-impatiently, as he rose +from his chair. "An ancestor of these Chestermarkes--he killed a man in +that very room. Well--that's what I suggest, Mr. Polke. And--for another +reason. As Lord Ellersdeane there knows--being, as his lordship is, a +member of our society--the bank-house is so old that underneath it there +may be such matters as old wells, old drains. Now, supposing Horbury had +discovered some way under the present house, some secret passage or +something, and that he went down into it on Sunday--eh? He may have +fallen into one of these places--and be lying there dead or helpless. +It's possible, Mr. Polke, it's quite possible. I make the suggestion to +you for what it's worth, you know." + +The old man bowed himself out and went away, and Polke turned to Lord +Ellersdeane and Betty. + +"I'm glad your lordship's come in," he said. "Quite apart from what Mr. +Batterley suggests, we'll have to examine that bank-house. It's all +nonsense--allowing the Chestermarkes to have their own way about +everything! It's time we examined Horbury's effects." + +Starmidge turned to Betty. + +"Did you succeed in getting in there, Miss Fosdyke?" he asked. + +"No!" replied Betty. "Mr. Joseph Chestermarke absolutely refused me +admittance, and his uncle told me to go to a solicitor." + +"Good advice, certainly," remarked Polke drily. "You'd better take it, +miss. But what's Mr. Neale doing here?" + +"Mr. Neale," said the Earl, "has just been summarily dismissed for--to +put it plainly--taking sides with Miss Fosdyke and myself." + +"Ho, ho!" exclaimed Polke. "Ah! Well, my lord, there's only one thing to +be done, and as your lordship's in town, let us do it at once." + +"What?" asked the Earl. + +"You must come with me before the borough magistrates--they're sitting +now," said Polke, "and make application for a search-warrant. Your +lordship will have to swear that you have lost your jewels, and that +you have good cause to believe that they may be on the premises occupied +lately by Mr. Horbury, to whose care you entrusted them. It's a mere +matter of form--we shall get the warrant at once. Then Starmidge and I +will go and execute it. Miss Fosdyke--just do what I suggest, if you +please. Mr. Neale will take you to Mr. Pellworthy, the solicitor--he was +your uncle's solicitor, and a friend of his. Tell him all about your +visit to the bank this morning. Say that you insist, as next-of-kin, on +having access to your uncle's belongings. Get Mr. Pellworthy to go with +you to the bank. Meet Detective-Sergeant Starmidge and me outside there, +in, say, half an hour. Then--we'll see what happens. Now, my lord, if +you'll come with me, we'll apply for that search-warrant." + +As the Scarnham clocks were striking twelve that morning, Gabriel and +Joseph Chestermarke looked up from their desks to see Shirley's eyes, +large with excitement, gazing at them from the threshold of their +private parlour. + +"Well?" demanded the senior partner. + +The clerk moved nearer to his principal's desk. + +"Mr. Polke's outside, sir, with the gentleman who came in with him +before," announced Shirley. "He says he must see you at once. +And--there's Mr. Pellworthy, sir, with Miss Fosdyke. Mr. Pellworthy +says, sir, that he must see you at once, too." + +Gabriel glanced at his nephew. And Joseph spoke without looking up from +his writing-pad, and as if he knew that his partner was regarding him. + +"Bring them all in," he said. + +He himself criticized his writing as the four callers were ushered in; +he did not even look round at them. Gabriel, more sphinx-like than ever, +regarded each in order with an air of distinct disapproval. And he took +care to speak first. + +"Now, Mr. Pellworthy?" he said sharply. "What do you want?" + +Pellworthy, an elderly man, looked at Gabriel with as much disapproval +as Gabriel had bestowed on him. + +"Mr. Chestermarke," he said quietly, "Miss Fosdyke, as next-of-kin to +Mr. John Horbury--my client--desires to see and examine her uncle's +effects. As you know very well, she is quite within her rights. I must +ask you to give her access to Mr. Horbury's belongings." + +"And what do you want, Mr. Polke?" demanded Gabriel. + +Polke produced a formal-looking document and held it before the banker's +eyes. + +"Merely to show you that, Mr. Chestermarke," he answered. "That's a +search-warrant, sir! It empowers me and Mr. Starmidge here to +search--but I needn't read it to you, Mr. Chestermarke, I think. I +suppose we can go into the house now?" + +Faint spots of colour showed themselves on Gabriel's cheeks. And again +he turned to his nephew. Joseph, however, did not speak. Instead, he +turned to the wall at his side and pressed a bell. A moment later a +maid-servant opened the private door which communicated with the house, +and looked inquiringly and a little nervously inside. Joseph frowned at +her. + +"I rang twice!" he said. "That meant Mrs. Carswell. Send her here." + +The girl hesitated. + +"If you please, sir," she said at last, "Mrs. Carswell isn't in, sir, +she's out." + +Joseph turned sharply--up to this he had remained staring at the papers +on his desk; now he twisted completely round in his chair. + +"Where is she?" he demanded. "Fetch her!" + +"If you please, sir, Mrs. Carswell hasn't been in for quite an hour, +sir," said the girl. "She put on her things and went out, sir, +just--just after that young lady called this morning. She--she's never +come back, sir." + +Polke, who was standing close to Starmidge, quietly nudged the +detective's elbow. Both men watched the junior partner. And both saw the +first signs of something that was very like doubt and anxiety show in +his face. + +"That'll do!" he said to the servant. He rose slowly from his desk, put +a hand in his pocket, and drew out some keys. Without a word, he +slightly motioned the visitors to follow him. + +Out in the hall stood two men, who in spite of their plain clothes, were +obviously policemen. Joseph started and turned to Polke. + +"Damn you!" he snarled under his breath. "Are you going to pester us +with your whole crew? Send those fellows off at once!" + +"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Chestermarke!" replied Polke, in a similar +whisper, "I shall bring as many of my men here as I please. It's your +own fault--you should have been reasonable this morning. Now, sir, +you'll open any door in this house that's locked." + +Joseph suddenly paused and handed over the keys he was dangling. + +"Open them yourself!" he said. + +He turned on his heel, and without another word or look went back into +the private parlour. And Polke, opening the door of the dining-room, +ushered his party inside, and then stepped back to the two men who were +waiting in the hall. + +"Smithson," he said to one of them, "you'll stop at the house-door +here--inside, mind, so as not to attract attention from any customers +coming up this hall to the bank. Jones--come out here with me a minute," +he continued, taking the second man outside. "Look here--I've a quiet +job for you. You know the housekeeper here--Mrs. Carswell? She's +disappeared. May be all right--and it mayn't. Now, you go out and take a +look round for her. And go to the cab-stand at the corner of the Moot +Hall, and just find out if she's taken a taxi from them, and if so, +where she wanted to be driven to. And then come back and tell me--and +when you come back, stay inside the house with Smithson." + +The policeman nodded his comprehension of these instructions and went +out, and Polke turned back to the dining-room and closed the door. He +looked at Starmidge. + +"Now I'm in your hands," he said quietly. "You take charge of this. What +do you wish to do?" + +"One thing particularly at first," answered Starmidge. "And we can all +work at it. Never mind these secret passages and dark corners and holes +in the panels!--at present: we may have a look at these later on. What I +do want to find out is--if there's any letter amongst Mr. Horbury's +papers making an appointment with him last Saturday evening. To put +matters briefly--I want some light on that man who came to the Station +Hotel on Saturday, and who presumably came to meet Mr. Horbury." + +"I see," said Polke. "Good! Then--first?" + +"Here's his desk--and its drawers," suggested Starmidge. "Now, let us +all four take a drawer each and see if we can find any such letter. I'm +going on the presumption that this stranger came down to see Mr. +Horbury, and that on his arrival he telephoned up to let him know he'd +got here. If that presumption is correct, then, in all probability, +there'd been previous correspondence between them as to the man's +visit." + +"If that man came to see Mr. Horbury," remarked the solicitor, "why +didn't he come straight here to the bank-house?" + +"That's just where the mystery lies, sir," replied Starmidge. "All the +mystery of the affair lies in that man's coming at all! Let me find out +who that man was, and what he came for, and if he and Mr. Horbury met, +and where they went when they did meet--and I'll soon tell you--what +would probably make your hair stand on end!" he muttered to himself, as +he pulled a drawer out of the desk and placed it on a centre table +before Betty. "Now, Miss Fosdyke, you get to work on that." + +For over an hour the four curiously assorted searchers examined the +contents of the missing man's desk, of another desk in the study, of +certain letter-racks which hung above the mantelpieces in both rooms, of +drawers in these rooms, of drawers and small cabinets in his bedroom. +Starmidge turned out the pockets of all the clothing he could find: +opened suit-cases, trunks, dressing-cases. They found nothing of the +nature desired. And just as half-past one came, and Polke was wondering +what Starmidge would do next, Jones came back and called him into the +inner hall. + +"I've got some news of her," he whispered. "She's off--from Scarnham, +anyway, sir! I couldn't get any word of her in the town, nor at the +cab-places: in fact, it's only within this last five minutes that I've +got it." + +"Well?" demanded Polke eagerly. "And what is it?" + +"Young Mitchell, who has a taxi-cab of his own, you know," said Jones. +"He told me--heard I was inquiring. He says that at half-past ten, just +as he was coming out of his shed in River Street, Mrs. Carswell came up +and asked him to drive her into Ecclesborough. He did--they got there at +half-past eleven: he set her down at the Exchange Station. Then he came +back--alone. So--she's got two hours' good start, sir--if she really is +off!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FIRST FIND + + +Polke took a step or two on the pavement outside the bank, meditating on +this latest development of a matter that was hourly growing in mystery. +Why had this woman suddenly disappeared? Had she merely gone to +Ecclesborough for the day?--or had she made it her first stage in a +further journey? Why had she taken a taxi-cab for an eighteen-miles' +ride, at considerable expense, when, at twelve o'clock, she could have +got a train which would have carried her to Ecclesborough for fifteen +pence? It seemed as if she had fled. And if she had fled, she had got, +as the constable said, two hours' good start. And in Ecclesborough, +too!--a place with a population of half a million, where there were +three big railway stations, from any one of which a fugitive could set +off east, west, north, south, at pleasure, and with no risk of +attracting attention. Two hours!--Polke knew from long experience what +can be done in two hours by a criminal escaping from justice. + +He turned back to speak to his man--and as he turned, Joseph +Chestermarke came out of the bank. Joseph gave him an insolent stare, +and was about to pass him without recognition. But Polke stopped him. + +"Mr. Chestermarke, you heard that the housekeeper here has disappeared?" +he asked sharply. "Can you tell anything about it?" + +"What have I to do with Horbury's housekeeper?" retorted Joseph. "Do +your own work!" + +He passed on, crossing the Market-Place to the Scarnham Arms, and Polke, +after gazing at him in silence for a moment, beckoned to his policeman. + +"Come inside, Jones," he said. He led the way into the house and through +the hall to the kitchens at the back, where two women servants stood +whispering together. Polke held up a finger to the one who had answered +Joseph Chestermarke's summons to the parlour that morning. "Here!" he +said, "a word with you. Now, exactly when did Mrs. Carswell go out? You +needn't be afraid of speaking, my girl--it'll go no further, and you +know who I am." + +"Not so very long after that young lady was here, Mr. Polke," answered +the girl, readily enough. "Within--oh, a quarter of an hour at the +most." + +"Did she say where she was going--to either of you?" asked Polke. + +"No, sir--not a word!" + +"To neither of us," said the other--an older--woman, drawing nearer. +"She--just went, Mr. Polke." + +"Had any message--telegram, or aught of that sort--come for her?" asked +Polke. "Had anybody been to see her?" + +"There was no message that I know of," said the housemaid. "But Mr. +Joseph came to speak to her." + +"When?" demanded Polke. + +"Just after the young lady had gone. He called her out of the kitchen, +and they stood talking in the passage there a bit," answered the elder +woman. "Of course, Mr. Polke, we didn't hear naught--but we saw 'em." + +"What happened after that?" asked Polke. + +"Naught!--but that Mr. Joseph went away, and she came back in here for a +minute or two and then went upstairs. And next thing she came down +dressed up and went out. She said nothing to us," replied the woman. + +"You saw her go out?" said Polke. + +Both women pointed to the passage which communicated with the hall. + +"When this door's open--as it was," said one, "you can see right +through. Yes--we saw her go through the hall door. Of course we thought +she'd just slipped out into the town for something." + +Polke hesitated--and meditated. What use was it, at that juncture, to +ask for more particular details of this evident flight? Mrs. Carswell +was probably well away from Ecclesborough by that time. He turned back +to the hall--and then looked at the women again. + +"I suppose neither of you ever saw or heard aught of Mr. Horbury on +Saturday night--after he'd gone out?" he inquired. + +The two women glanced at each other in silence. + +"Did you?" repeated Polke. "Come, now!" + +"Well, Mr. Polke," said the elder woman, "we didn't. But, of course, we +know what's going on--couldn't very well not know, now could we, Mr. +Polke? And we can tell you something that may have to do with things." + +"Out with it, then!" commanded Polke. "Keep nothing back." + +"Well," said the woman, "there was somebody stirring about this house in +the middle of Saturday night--between, say, one and two o'clock in the +morning--Sunday morning, of course. Both me and Jane here heard +'em--quite plain. And we thought naught of it, then--leastways, what we +did think was that it was Mr. Horbury. He often came in very late. But +when we found out next morning that he'd never come home--why, then, we +did think it was queer that we'd heard noises." + +"Did you mention that to Mrs. Carswell?" asked Polke. + +"Of course!--but she said she'd heard nothing, and it must have been +rats," replied the elder woman. + +"But I've been here three years and I've never seen a rat in the place." + +"Nor me!" agreed the housemaid. "And it wasn't rats. I heard a door +shut--twice. Plain as I'm speaking to you, Mr. Polke." + +Polke reflected a minute and then turned away. + +"All right, my lasses!" he said. "Well, keep all this to yourselves. +Here--I'll tell you what you can do. Send Miss Fosdyke a nice cup of tea +into the study--send us all one!--we can't leave what we're doing just +yet. And a mouthful of bread and butter with it. Come along, Jones," he +continued, leading the constable away. "Here, you step round to old Mr. +Batterley's--you know where he lives--near the Castle. Mr. Polke's +compliments, and would he be so good as to come to the bank-house and +help us a bit?--he'll know what I mean. Bring him back with you." + +The constable went away, and Polke, after rubbing one of his mutton-chop +whiskers for awhile with an air of great abstraction, returned to the +study. There Mr. Pellworthy and Betty Fosdyke were talking earnestly in +one of the window recesses; Starmidge, at the furthest end of the room, +was examining the old oak panelling. + +"I've sent for Mr. Batterley to give us a hand," said Polke. "I suppose +we'd best examine this room in the way he suggested?" + +Starmidge betrayed no enthusiasm. + +"If he can do any good," he answered. "But I don't attach much +importance to that. However--if there are any secret places around----" + +"There's a nice cup of tea coming in for you and Mr. Pellworthy in a +minute, Miss Fosdyke," said Polke. "We'll all have to put our dinner off +a bit, I reckon." He motioned to the detective to follow him out of the +room. "Here's a nice go!" he whispered. "The housekeeper's off! +Bolted--without a doubt! And--she's got a clear start, too." + +Starmidge turned sharply on the superintendent. + +"Got any clue to where she's gone?" he demanded. + +"She's gone amongst five hundred thousand other men and women," replied +Polke ruefully. "I've found out that much. Drove off in a taxi-cab to +Ecclesborough, as soon as Miss Fosdyke had been here this morning. +And--mark you!--after a few minutes' conversation with Joseph +Chestermarke. Ecclesborough, indeed! Might as well look for a drop of +water in the ocean as for one woman in Ecclesborough! She was set down +at the Exchange Station--why, she may be half-way to London or +Liverpool, or Hull, by now!" + +Starmidge was listening intently. And passing over the superintendent's +opinions and regrets, he fastened on his facts. + +"After a few minutes' conversation with Joseph Chestermarke, you say?" +he observed. "How do you know that?" + +"The servants told me, just now," replied Polke. + +Starmidge glanced at the door of the private parlour. + +"He's gone out," said Polke. + +Just then the door opened and Gabriel emerged, closing and locking it +after him. He paid no attention to the two men, and was passing on +towards the outer hall when Polke hailed him. + +"Mr. Chestermarke," he said, "sorry to trouble you--do you know that the +housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell, has disappeared? You heard what that girl +said this morning? Well, she hasn't come back, and----" + +"No concern of mine, Mr. Police-Superintendent!" interrupted Gabriel. +"Nothing of this is any concern of mine. I shall be obliged to you if +you'll confine your very unnecessary operations to the interior of the +house, and not stand about this outer hall, or keep this door open +between outer and inner halls--I don't want my customers interfered +with as they come and go." + +With that the senior partner passed on, and Starmidge smiled at his +companion. + +"I'm glad he interrupted you, all the same, Mr. Polke," he said. "I was +afraid you were going to say that you knew this woman had gone, in a +hurry, to Ecclesborough." + +"No, I wasn't," replied Polke. "I told him what I did--because I wanted +to know what he'd say." + +"Well--you heard!" said Starmidge. "And what's to be done, now? That +woman's conduct is very suspicious. I think, if I were you, Mr. Polke, I +should get in touch with the Ecclesborough police. Why not? No harm +done. Why not call them up, give them a description of her, and ask them +to keep their eyes open. She mayn't have left Ecclesborough--mayn't +intend leaving. For--look here--!" he drew Polke further away from the +two doors between which they were standing, and lowered his voice to a +whisper--"Supposing," he went on, "supposing there is any secret +understanding between this Mrs. Carswell and Joseph Chestermarke (and it +looks like it, if she went off immediately after a conversation with +him), she may have gone to Ecclesborough simply so that they could meet +there, safely, later on. Eh?" + +"Good notion!" agreed Polke. "Well--we can watch him." + +"I'm beginning to think we must watch him--thought so for the last two +hours," said Starmidge. "But in the meantime, why not put the +Ecclesborough police on to keeping their eyes open for her? Can you +give them a good description?" + +"Know her as well as I know my own wife--by sight," answered Polke. "And +her style of dressing, too. All right--I'll go and do it, now. Well, +there'll be Mr. Batterley coming along in a few minutes--Jones has gone +for him. If he can show you any of their secret places he talked +about----" + +"He's here," said Starmidge, as the old antiquary and the constable +entered the hall. "All right--I'll attend to him." + +But when Polke had gone, and Batterley had been conducted into the +study, or garden-room as he insisted on calling it, Starmidge left the +old man with Mr. Pellworthy and Betty and made an excuse to go out of +the room after the housemaid, who had just brought in the tea for which +Polke had asked. He caught her at the foot of the staircase, and treated +her to one of his most ingratiating smiles. + +"I say!" he said, "Mr. Polke's just been telling me about what you and +the cook told him about Mrs. Carswell--you know. Now, I say--you needn't +say anything--except to cook--but I just want to take a look round Mrs. +Carswell's room. Which is it?" + +The cook, who kept the kitchen door open so as not to lose anything of +these delightful proceedings, came forward. Both accompanied Starmidge +upstairs to show him the room he wanted. And Starmidge thanked them +profusely and in his best manner--after which he turned them politely +out and locked the door. + +Meanwhile Polke went to the police-station and rang up the +Ecclesborough police on the telephone. He gave them a full, accurate, +and precise description of Mrs. Carswell, and a detailed account of her +doings that morning, and begged them to make inquiry at the three great +stations in their town. The man with whom he held conversation calmly +remarked that as each station at Ecclesborough dealt with a few +thousands of separate individuals every day, it was not very likely that +booking-clerks or platform officials would remember any particular +persons, and Polke sorrowfully agreed with him. Nevertheless, he begged +him to do his best--the far-off partner in this interchange of remarks +answered that they would do a lot better if Mr. Polke would tell them +something rather more definite. Polke gave it up at that, and went off +into the Market-Place again, to return to the bank. But before he +reached the bank he ran across Lord Ellersdeane, who, hanging about the +town to hear some result of the search, had been lunching at the +Scarnham Club, and now came out of its door. + +"Any news so far?" asked the Earl. + +Polke glanced round to see that nobody was within hearing. He and Lord +Ellersdeane stepped within the doorway of the club-house. Polke narrated +the story of the various happenings since the granting of the +search-warrant, and the Earl's face grew graver and graver. + +"Mr. Polke," he said at last, "I do not like what I am hearing about all +this. It's a most suspicious thing that the housekeeper should disappear +immediately after Miss Fosdyke's first call this morning, and that she +should have had some conversation with Mr. Joseph Chestermarke before +she went. Really, one dislikes to have to say it of one's neighbours, +and of persons of the standing of the Chestermarkes, but their behaviour +is--is----" + +"Suspicious, my lord, suspicious!" said Polke. "There's no denying it. +And yet, they're what you might call so defiant, so brazen-faced and +insolent, that----" + +"Here's your London man," interrupted the Earl. "What is he after now?" + +Starmidge came out of the door of the bank-house alone. He caught sight +of Polke and Lord Ellersdeane, smiled, and hurried towards them. He +carried something loosely wrapped in brown paper in his hand; as he +stepped into the doorway of the club-house, he took the wrapping off, +and showed a small morocco-covered box on which was a coronet in gold. + +"Does your lordship recognize that?" he asked. + +"My wife's jewel-casket, of course!" exclaimed the Earl. "Of course it +is! Bless me!--where did you find it?" + +"In the chimney, in Mrs. Carswell's bedroom," answered Starmidge, with a +grimace at Polke. "It's empty!" + + + + +Chapter XIII + +THE PARTNERS UNBEND + + +The Earl took the empty casket from the detective's hand and looked at +it, inside and outside, with doubt and wonder. + +"Now what do you take this to mean?" he asked. + +"That we've got three people to find, instead of two, my lord," answered +Starmidge promptly. "We must be after the housekeeper." + +"You found this in her room?" asked Polke. "So--you went up there?" + +"As soon as you'd left me," replied the detective, with a shrewd smile. +"Of course! I wanted to have a look round. I didn't forget the chimney. +She'd put that behind the back of the grate--a favourite hiding-place. I +say she--but, of course, some one else may have put it there. Still--we +must find her. You telephoned to the police at Ecclesborough, +superintendent?" + +"Ay, and got small comfort!" answered Polke. "It's a stiff job looking +for one woman amongst half a million people." + +"She wouldn't stop in Ecclesborough," said Starmidge. "She'll be on her +way further afield, now. You can get anywhere from Ecclesborough, of +course." + +"Of course!" assented Polke. "She would be in any one of half a dozen +big towns within a couple of hours--in some of 'em within an hour--in +London itself within three. This'll be another case of printing a +description. I wish we'd thought of keeping an eye on her before!" + +"We haven't got to the stage where we can think of everything," observed +Starmidge. "We've got to take things as they come. Well--there's one +thing can be done now," he went on, looking at the Earl, "if your +lordship'll be kind enough to do it." + +"I'll do anything that I can," replied Lord Ellersdeane. "What is it?" + +"If your lordship would just make a call on the two Mr. Chestermarkes," +suggested Starmidge. "To tell them, of course, of--that," he added, +pointing to the empty casket. "Your lordship will get some attention--I +suppose. They won't give any attention to Polke or myself. If your +lordship would just tell them that your casket--emptied of its valuable +contents--had been found hidden in Mrs. Carswell's room, perhaps they'll +listen, and--what is much more important--give you their views on the +matter. I," concluded Starmidge, drily, "should very much like to hear +them!" + +The Earl made a wry face. + +"Oh, all right!" he answered. "If I must, I must. It's not a job that +appeals to me, but--very well. I'll go now." + +"And we," said Starmidge, turning to Polke, "had better join the others +and see if the old antiquary gentleman has found any of these secret +places he talked of." + +Lord Ellersdeane found no difficulty in obtaining access to the +partners: he was shown into their room with all due ceremony as soon as +Shirley announced him. He found them evidently relaxing a little after +their lunch, from which they had just returned. They were standing in +characteristic attitudes; Gabriel, smoking a cigar, bolt upright on the +hearth-rug beneath the portrait of his ancestor; Joseph, toying with a +scented cigarette, leaning against the window which looked out on the +garden. For once in a way both seemed more amenable and cordial. + +The Earl held out the empty casket. + +"This," he said, "is the casket in which I handed my wife's jewels to +Mr. Horbury. It is, as you see, empty. It has just been found by the +Scotland Yard man, Starmidge." + +Gabriel glanced at the casket with some interest; Joseph, with none: +neither spoke. + +"In the housekeeper's room--hidden in her fire-place," continued the +Earl, looking from one partner to the other. "That shows, gentlemen, +that the jewels were, after all, in this house--on these premises." + +"There has never been any question of that," said Gabriel quickly. "We, +of course, never doubted what your lordship was good enough to tell +us--naturally!" + +"Not for a moment!" said Joseph. "We felt at once that you had given the +jewels to Horbury." + +The Earl set the casket down on Gabriel's desk and looked a little +uncertain--and uncomfortable. Gabriel indicated the chair which he had +politely moved forward on his visitor's entrance. + +"Won't your lordship sit down?" he said. + +The Earl accepted the invitation and looked from one man to the other. A +sudden impression crossed his mind--never, he thought, were there two +men from whom it was so difficult to get a word as these +Chestermarkes--who had such a queer habit of staring in silence at one! + +"The--the housekeeper appears to have run away," he said haltingly. +"That's--somewhat queer, isn't it?" + +"We understand Mrs. Carswell has left the house--and the town," replied +Gabriel. "As to it's being queer--well, all this is queer!" + +"And--all of a piece!" remarked Joseph. + +The Earl was glad that the junior partner made that remark, and he +turned to him. + +"I understand you saw her--and spoke to her--just before she left, this +morning?" he said hesitatingly. "Did she--er--give you the impression of +being--shall we say, uneasy?" + +"I certainly saw her--and spoke to her," asserted Joseph. "I went to +scold her. I had given her orders that no one was to be allowed access +to certain rooms in the house, and that we were not to be bothered by +callers. She fetched me out to see Miss Fosdyke--I went to scold her for +that. We had our reasons for not permitting access to those rooms. They +have, of course, been frustrated." + +"But at any rate some good's come of it," observed the Earl, pointing +to his casket. "This has been found. And--in the housekeeper's bedroom. +Hidden! And--she's gone. What do you think of it, gentlemen?" + +Gabriel spread his hands and shook his head. But Joseph answered +readily. + +"I should think," he replied, "that's she's gone to meet Horbury." + +The Earl started, glancing keenly from one partner to the other. + +"Then--you still think that Horbury is guilty of--of dishonesty!" he +exclaimed. "Really, I--dear me, such an absolutely upright, honourable +man----" + +"Surface!" said Joseph quietly. "Surface! On the surface, my lord." + +The Earl's face flushed a little with palpable displeasure, and he +turned from the junior to the senior partner. + +"Very good of your lordship," said Gabriel, with the faintest suggestion +of a smile. "But--a man's honesty is bounded by his necessity. We, of +course, are better acquainted with our late manager's qualities--now." + +"You have discovered--something?" asked the Earl anxiously. + +"Up to now," replied Gabriel, "we have kept things to ourselves. But we +don't mind giving your lordship a little--just a little--information. +There is no doubt that Horbury had, for some time past, engaged in +speculation in stocks and shares--none whatever!" + +"To a considerable extent," added Joseph. + +"And--unsuccessfully?" inquired the Earl. + +"We are not yet quite sure of the details," answered Gabriel. "The mere +fact is enough. Of course, no man in his position has any right to +speculate. Had we known that he speculated----" + +"He would have been discharged from our service," said Joseph. "No +banker can retain the services of a manager who--gambles." + +The Earl began to feel almost as uncomfortable as if these two men were +charging him with improper transactions. He was a man of simple mind and +ideas, and he supposed the Chestermarkes knew what they were talking +about. + +"Then you think that this sudden disappearance----" he said. + +"In the history of banking--unwritten, possibly," remarked Joseph, +"there are many similar instances. No end of them, most likely. Bank +managers enjoy vast opportunities of stealing, my lord! And the man who +is best trusted has more opportunities than the man who's watched. We +never suspected--and so we never watched." + +"You have heard of the stranger who came to the town on Saturday night, +and is believed to have telephoned from the Station Hotel to Horbury?" +asked the Earl. "What of him?" + +"We have heard," answered Gabriel. "We don't know any more. We don't +know any such person--from the description. But we have no doubt he did +meet Horbury--and that his visit had something--probably everything--to +do with Horbury's disappearance." + +"But how could he disappear?" asked the Earl. "I mean to say--how could +such a well-known man disappear so completely, without anybody knowing +of it? It seems impossible!" + +"If your lordship will think for a moment," said Joseph, "you will see +that it is not merely not impossible, but very easy. Horbury was a great +pedestrian--he used to boast of his thirty and forty mile walks. Now we +are well within twenty miles of Ecclesborough. Ecclesborough is a very +big town. What was there to prevent Horbury, during Saturday night, from +walking across country to Ecclesborough? Nothing! If, after interviewing +that strange man, he decided to clear out at once, he'd nothing to do +but set off--over a very lonely stretch of country, every inch of which +he knew--to Ecclesborough: he would be in Ecclesborough by an early hour +in the morning. Now in Ecclesborough there are three stations--big +stations. He could get away from any one of them--what booking-clerk or +railway official would pay any particular attention to him? The thing +is--ridiculously easy!" + +"What of the other man?" asked the Earl. "If there were two +men--together--at an early hour--eh?" + +"They need not have caught a train at a very early hour," replied +Joseph. "They need not have been together when they caught any train. I +don't say they went together--I don't say they went to Ecclesborough--I +don't say they caught a train: I only say what, it must be obvious, they +easily could do without attracting attention." + +"The fact of Horbury's disappearance is--unchallengeable," remarked +Gabriel quietly. "We--know why he disappeared." + +"I should think," said Joseph, still more quietly, "that Lord +Ellersdeane also knows--by now." + +"No, I don't!" exclaimed the Earl, a little sharply. "I wish I did!" + +Joseph pointed to the casket. + +"Why have the police been officially--and officiously--searching the +house, then?" he asked. + +"To see if they could get any clue to his disappearance," replied the +Earl. + +"And they found--that!" retorted Joseph. + +"In the housekeeper's room," said the Earl. "She may have appropriated +the jewels." + +"I think your lordship must see that that is very unlikely--without +collusion between Horbury and herself," remarked Gabriel. + +"Mrs. Carswell," said Joseph, "has always been more or less of a +mysterious person. We know nothing about her. I don't even know where +Horbury got her from. But--the probability is that they were in +collusion, and that when he went, she stayed behind, to ascertain how +things turned out on his disappearance; and that she fled when it began +to appear that searching inquiries were to be made into which she might +be drawn." + +The Earl made no reply. He recognized that the Chestermarke observations +and suggestions were rather more than plausible, and much as he fought +against the idea of the missing manager's dishonesty, he could not deny +that the circumstances as set forth by the bankers were suspicious. + +"Your lordship will, of course, follow up this woman?" said Gabriel, +after a brief silence. + +"I suppose the police will," replied the Earl. "But--aren't you going to +do anything yourselves, Mr. Chestermarke? You told me, you know, that +certain securities of yours were missing." + +Gabriel glanced at his nephew--and Joseph nodded. + +"Oh, well!" answered Gabriel. "We don't mind telling your lordship--and +if your lordship pleases, you may tell the police--we are doing +something. We have, in fact, been doing something from an early hour. We +have a very clever man at work just now--he has been at work since he +heard from us twenty-four hours ago. But--our ideas are not those of +Polke. Polke begins his inquiries here. Our inquiries--based on our +knowledge--begin ... elsewhere." + +"You think Horbury will be heard of--elsewhere?" suggested the Earl. + +"Much more likely to be heard of elsewhere than here, my lord!" asserted +Gabriel. + +"But, of course, what we do need not interfere with anything that your +lordship does, or that Miss Fosdyke does, or that the police do." + +"All that any of us want, I suppose, is to find Horbury," said the Earl, +as he rose. "If he's found, then, I conclude, some explanation will +result. You don't believe in searching about here, then?" + +"Let Polke and his men have their way, my lord," replied Gabriel, with a +wave of his hand. "My impression of police methods is that those who +follow them can only follow that particular path. We are not looking +for Horbury--here. He's--elsewhere." + +"So, by this time, are your lordship's jewels," added Joseph +significantly. "They, one may be sure, are not going to be found in or +about Scarnham." + +The Earl said good-day and went out, troubled and wondering. In the hall +he met the search-party. Mr. Batterley had failed to find anything in +the way of secret stairs or passages or openings beyond those already +known to the occupants, and though he was still confident that they +existed, the police had wound up their present investigations to turn to +more palpable things. Polke and the detective listened to the Earl's +account of his interview, and the superintendent sniffed at the mention +of the inquiries instituted by the partners. + +"Ah!" he said incredulously. "Just so! Private inquiry agent, no doubt. +All right--let 'em do what they like. But we're going to do what we +like, my lord, and what we do will be on very different lines. First +thing now--we want that woman!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE MIDNIGHT SUMMONS + + +The search-party separated outside the bank, not too well satisfied with +the result of its labours. The old antiquary walked away obviously +nettled that he was not allowed to pursue his investigations further; +Betty Fosdyke and the solicitor went across to the hotel in deep +conference; the Earl accompanied Starmidge and Polke to the +police-station. And there the detective laid down a firm outline of the +next immediate procedure. It was of no use to half-do things, he +said--they must rouse wholesale attention. Once more the press must be +made use of--the sudden disappearance of Mrs. Carswell must be noised +abroad in the next morning's papers. A police notice describing her must +be got out and sent all over the kingdom. And--last, but certainly not +least--Lord Ellersdeane must offer a substantial reward for the recovery +of, or news of, his missing property. Let the Chestermarkes adopt their +own method--if they had any--of finding the alleged absconding manager; +he, Starmidge, preferred to solve these mysteries by ways of his own. + +It was growing near to dusk when all their necessary arrangements had +been made, and Starmidge was free to seek his long-delayed dinner. He +had put himself up, of his own choice, at a quiet and old-fashioned inn +near the police-station, where he had engaged a couple of rooms and +found a landlady to his liking. He repaired to this retreat now, and ate +and drank in quiet, and smoked a peaceful pipe afterwards, and was glad +of a period of rest. But as he took his ease, he thought and pondered, +and by the time that evening had fairly settled over the little town, he +went out into the streets and sought the ancient corner of Scarnham +which was called Cornmarket. + +Starmidge wanted to take a look at the house in which Joseph +Chestermarke spent his bachelor existence. Since his own arrival in the +town, he had been learning all he could about the two Chestermarkes, and +he was puzzled about them. For a man who was still young, Starmidge had +seen a good deal of the queer side of life, and had known a good many +strange people, but so far he had never come across two such apparently +curious characters as the uncle and nephew who ran the old-fashioned +bank. Their evident indifference to public opinion puzzled him. He could +not understand their ice-cold defiance of what he himself called law. He +never remembered being treated as they had treated him. For Starmidge, +when on duty, considered himself as much the representative of Justice +as any ermined and coifed judge could be, and he had been accustomed--so +far--to attentive and respectful consideration. But neither Gabriel nor +Joseph Chestermarke appeared to have any proper appreciation of the +dignity of a detective-sergeant of the Criminal Investigation +Department, and their eyes had regarded him as if he were something +very inferior indeed. Starmidge, though by no means a vain man, felt +nettled by such treatment, and he accordingly formed something very like +a prejudice against the two partners. That prejudice was quickly +followed by suspicion--especially in the case of Joseph Chestermarke. +According to Starmidge's ideas, the bankers, if they really believed +Horbury to have absconded, if certain securities of theirs really were +missing, if they really thought that Horbury had carried them off, and +the Countess of Ellersdeane's jewels with him, ought to have placed +every information in their power at the disposal of the police: it was +suspicious, and strange, and not at all proper, that they didn't. And it +was suspicious, too, that the housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell, should take +herself off after a brief exchange of words with Joseph. It looked very +much as if the junior partner had either warned her to go, or had told +her to go. Why had she gone _then_?--when she might have gone before. +And why in such haste? Clearly, considering everything, there were +grounds for believing that there was some secret between Mrs. Carswell +and Joseph Chestermarke. + +Anyway, rightly or wrongly, Starmidge was suspicious of the junior +partner in Chestermarke's Bank, and he wanted to know everything that he +could find out about him. He had already learnt that Joseph, like his +uncle, was a confirmed bachelor, and lived in an old house at the corner +of Cornmarket, somewhat--so far as the town-folk could judge--after the +fashion of a hermit. Starmidge would have given a good deal for a really +good excuse to call on Joseph Chestermarke at that house, so that he +might see the inside of it: indeed, if he had only met with a better +reception at the bank, he would have invented such an excuse. But if +Gabriel was icily stand-offish, Joseph was openly sneering and +contemptuous, and the detective knew that no excuse would give him +admittance. Still, there was the outside: he would take a look at that. +Starmidge was a young man of ideas as well as of ability, and without +exactly shaping his thought in so many words, he felt--vaguely perhaps, +but none the less strongly--that just as you can size up some men by the +clothes they wear, so you can get an idea of others by the outer look of +the houses which shelter them. + +Cornmarket in Scarnham lay at the further end of the street called +Finkleway. It was a queer, open space which sloped downhill from the +centre of the ridge on which the middle of the town was built to the +valley through which the little river meandered. Save where the streets, +and the road leading out to the open country and Ellersdeane cut into +it, it was completely enclosed by old houses of the sort which Starmidge +had already admired in the Market-Place: many of them half-timbered, all +of them very ancient. One or two of them were inns; some were evidently +workmen's cottages; others were better-class dwelling-houses. From the +description already furnished to him by Polke, Starmidge at once +recognized Joseph Chestermarke's abode. It was a corner house, abutting +on the road which ran out at the lower angle of this irregular space and +led down to the river and Scarnham Bridge. It was by far the biggest +house thereabouts--a tall, slender, stone-built house of many stories, +towering high above any of the surrounding gables. And save for a very +faint, dull glow which shone through the transom window of the front +door, there was not a vestige of light in a single window of the seven +stories. Cornmarket was a gloomy commonplace, thought Starmidge, but the +little oil lamps in the cottages were riotously cheery in comparison +with the darkness of the tall, gaunt Chestermarke mansion. It looked +like the abode of dead men. + +Starmidge longed to knock at that door--if only to get a peep inside the +hall. But he curbed his desires and went quietly round the corner of the +house. There was a high black wall there which led down to the grassy +bank of the river. From its corner another wall ran along the +river-side, separated from the stream by a path. There was a door set in +this wall, and Starmidge, after carefully looking round in the gloom, +quietly tried it and found it securely locked. + +An intense desire to see the inside of Joseph Chestermarke's garden +seized the detective. Near the door, partly overhanging the garden wall, +partly overshadowing the path and the river-bank, was a tree: Starmidge, +after listening carefully and deciding that no one was coming along the +path, made shift to climb that tree, just then bursting into full leaf. +In another minute he was amongst its middle branches, and peering +inquisitively into the garden which lay between him and the gaunt +outline of the gloom-stricken house. + +The moon was just then rising above the roofs and gables of the town, +and by its rapidly increasing light Starmidge saw that the garden was of +considerable size, running back quite sixty yards from the rear of the +house, and having a corresponding breadth. Like all the gardens which +stretched from the backs of the Market-Place houses to the river-bank, +it was rich in trees--high elms and beeches rose from its lawns, and +made deep shadows across them. But Starmidge was not so much interested +in those trees, fine as they were, as in a building; obviously modern, +which was set in their midst, completely isolated. That it was a +comparatively new building he could see; the moonbeams falling full on +it showed that the stone of which it was built was fresh and unstained +by time or smoke. But what was it? Of what nature, for what purpose? It +was neither stable, nor coach-house, nor summer-house, nor a grouping of +domestic offices. No drive or path led to it: it was built in the middle +of a grass-plot: round it ran a stone-lined trench. Its architecture was +plain but handsome; it possessed two distinctive features which the +detective was quick to notice. One, was that--at any rate on the two +sides which he could see--its windows were set at a height of quite +twelve feet from the ground: the other, that from its flat parapeted +roof rose a conical structure something like the rounded stacks of glass +foundries and potteries. This was obviously a chimney, and from its +mouth at that moment was emerging a slight column of smoke which threw +back curiously coloured reflections, blue, and yellow, and red, to the +moonlight which fell on its thickening spirals. + +Starmidge felt just as much desire to get inside this queer structure as +into the house behind it, and if he could have seen any prospect of +taking a peep through its windows he would have risked detection and +dropped from his perch into the garden. But he judged that if the +windows were twelve feet from the ground on the two sides of the +building which he could see, they would be the same height on the sides +which he couldn't see; moreover, he observed that they were obscured by +either dull red glass or red curtains. Clearly no outsider was intended +to get a peep into this temple of mystery. What was it? What went on +within it? He was about to climb down from the tree when he got some +sort of an answer to these questions. From within the building, muffled +by the evidently thick walls, came the faintest sound of metal beating +on metal--a mere rippling, tinkling sound, light and musical, such as +might have been made by fairy blacksmiths beating on a fairy anvil. But +far away as it sounded, it was clear and unmistakable. + +Starmidge regained the path between the wall and the river and went +slowly forward. The place, he decided, was evidently some sort of a +workshop, in which was a forge: probably Joseph Chestermarke amused +himself with a little amateur work in metals. He thought no more of the +matter just then; he wanted to explore the river-bank along which he now +walked. For according to the story of the landlady of the Station Hotel, +it was on that river-bank that the mysterious stranger was to meet +whoever it was that he spoke to over the telephone, and so far +Starmidge had not had an opportunity of examining its geography. + +There was not much to examine. The river, a mere ditch, eight or ten +yards in breadth, wandered through a level mead at the base of the +valley, separated from the gardens by a wide path. Between Scarnham +Bridge, at the foot of Cornmarket and the corner of Joseph +Chestermarke's big garden, and the end of Cordmaker's Alley, a narrow +street which ran down from the further end of the Market-Place to the +river-side, there were no features of any note or interest. On the other +side of the river lay the deep woods through which Neale and Betty +Fosdyke had passed on their way to Ellersdeane Hollow: Starmidge had +heard all about that expedition, and he glanced curiously at the black +depths of the trees, wondering if John Horbury and the mysterious +stranger, supposing they had met, had turned into these woods to hold +their conference. He presently came to the foot-bridge by which access +to the woods and the other bank of the river was gained, and by it he +lingered for a moment or two, looking at it in its bearings to the +bank-house garden and orchard on his left hand, and to the Station +Hotel, the lights of which he could plainly see down the valley. +Certainly, if John Horbury and the stranger desired to meet in secret, +here was the place. The stranger had nothing to do but stroll along the +river-bank from the hotel; Horbury had only to step out of his orchard +and meet him. Once together, they had only to cross that foot-bridge +into the woods to be immediately in surroundings of great privacy. + +Starmidge turned up Cordmaker's Alley, regained the Market-Place, and +strolled on to Polke's private house. The superintendent was taking his +ease after his day's labours and reading the Ecclesborough evening +newspapers: he tossed one of them over to his visitor. + +"All there!" he said, pointing to some big headlines. "Got it all in, +just as you told it to Parkinson. Full justice to the descriptions of +both Horbury and the Station Hotel stranger. Smart work, eh?" + +"Power of the Press--as Parkinson said," answered Starmidge, with a +laugh. "It's very useful, the Press: I don't know how they managed +without it in the old days of criminal catching, Mr. Polke. Press and +telegraph, eh?--they're valuable adjuncts." + +"You think all that would be in the London papers this evening?" asked +Polke. + +"Sure to be," replied Starmidge. "I'm hoping we'll hear something from +London tomorrow. I say--I've been taking a bit of a look round one or +two places tonight, quietly, you know. What's that curious building in +Joseph Chestermarke's garden?" + +Polke put down his paper and looked unusually interested. + +"I don't know!" he answered. "How did you see it? I've never seen inside +his garden." + +"Climbed a tree on the river-bank and looked over the wall," replied +Starmidge. + +"Well," said Polke, "I did hear, some few years ago, that he was +building something in that garden, but the work was done by +Ecclesborough contractors, and nobody ever knew much about it here. I +believe Joseph's a bit of an amateur experimenter--but I don't know what +he experiments in. Nobody ever goes inside his house--he's a hermit." + +"He's got some sort of a forge there, anyhow," said Starmidge. "Or a +furnace, or something of that sort." + +Then they talked of other things until half-past ten, when the detective +retired to his inn and went to bed. He was sleeping soundly when a +steady knocking at his door roused him, to hear the voice of his +landlady outside. And at the same time he heard the big clock of the +parish church striking midnight. + +"Mr. Starmidge!" said the voice, "there's a policeman wanting you. Will +you go round at once to Mr. Polke's? There's a man come from London +about that piece in the newspapers." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MR. FREDERICK HOLLIS + + +Starmidge hastily pulled some garments about him, and flinging a +travelling-coat over his shoulders, hurried downstairs, to find a +sleepy-looking policeman in the hall. + +"How did this man get here--at this time of night?" he asked, as they +set off towards the police-station. + +"Came in a taxi-cab from Ecclesborough," answered the policeman. "I +haven't heard any particulars, Mr. Starmidge, except that he'd read the +news in the London paper this evening and set off here in consequence. +He's in Mr. Polke's house, sir." + +Starmidge walked into the superintendent's parlour, to find him in +company with a young man, whom the detective at once sized up as a +typical London clerk--a second glance assured him that his clerkship was +of the legal variety. + +"Here's Detective-Sergeant Starmidge," said Polke. "Starmidge, this +gentleman's Mr. Simmons, from London. Mr. Simmons says he's clerk to a +Mr. Hollis, a London solicitor. And, having read that description in the +papers this last evening, he's certain that the man who came to the +Station Hotel here on Saturday is his governor." + +Starmidge sat down and looked again at the visitor--a tall, +sandy-haired, freckled young man, who was obviously a good deal puzzled. + +"Is Mr. Hollis missing, then?" asked Starmidge. + +Simmons looked as if he found it somewhat difficult to explain matters. + +"Well," he answered. "It's this way. I've never seen him since Saturday. +And he hasn't been at his rooms--his private rooms--since Saturday. In +the ordinary course he ought to have been at business first thing +yesterday--we'd some very important business on yesterday morning, which +wasn't done because of his absence. He never turned up yesterday at +all--nor today either--we never heard from or of him. And so, when I +read that description in the papers this evening, I caught the first +express I could get down here--at least to Ecclesborough--I had to motor +from there." + +"That description describes Mr. Hollis, then?" asked Starmidge. + +"Exactly! I'm sure it's Mr. Hollis--it's him to a T!" answered the +clerk. "I recognized it at once." + +"Let's get everything in order," said Starmidge, with a glance at Polke. +"To begin with, who is Mr. Hollis?" + +"Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, 59B South Square, Gray's Inn," replied +Simmons promptly. "Andwell & Hollis is the name of the firm--but there +isn't any Andwell--hasn't been for many a year--he's dead, long since, +is Andwell. Mr. Hollis is the only proprietor." + +"Don't know him at all," remarked Starmidge. "What's his particular line +of practice?" + +"Conveyancing," said Simmons. + +"Then, naturally, I shouldn't," observed Starmidge. "My acquaintance is +chiefly with police-court solicitors. And you say he'd private rooms +some where? Where, now?" + +"Paper Buildings, Temple," replied the clerk. "He'd a suite of rooms +there--he's had 'em for years." + +"Bachelor, then?" inquired the detective. + +"Yes--he's a bachelor," agreed Simmons. + +"You know he hasn't been at his rooms since Saturday--you've ascertained +that?" continued Starmidge. + +"He's never been at his rooms since he left them after breakfast on +Saturday morning," replied Simmons. "I went there at eleven o'clock +Monday--that was yesterday--again at four: twice on Tuesday. I was +coming away from the Temple when I got the paper and read about this +affair." + +"When did you see him last?" asked Starmidge. + +"Half-past-twelve Saturday. He went out--dressed just as it says in your +description. And," concluded the clerk, with a shake of his head which +suggested his own inability to understand matters, "he never said a word +to me about coming down here." + +"Did he say anything to anybody at his rooms about going away?--for the +week-end, for instance?" asked the detective. "There'd be somebody +there, of course." + +"Only a woman who tidied up for him and got his breakfast ready of a +morning," said Simmons. "He took all his other meals out. No--he said +nothing to her. But he wasn't a week-ender: he very rarely left his +rooms except for the office." + +"Any of his relations been after him?" inquired Starmidge. + +"I don't know anything about his relations--nor friends, either," +answered the clerk. "Don't even know the address of one of them, or I'd +have gone to seek him on Monday--everything's at a standstill. He was a +lonely sort of man--I never heard of his relations or friends." + +"How long have you been with him, then?" asked the detective. "Some +time?" + +"Six years," replied Simmons. + +"And you've no doubt, from the description in the papers, that the +gentleman who came here on Saturday last is Mr. Hollis?" asked +Starmidge. + +The clerk shook his head with an air of conviction. + +"None!" he answered. "None whatever!" + +Starmidge helped himself to a cigar out of an open box which lay on +Polke's table. He lighted it carefully, and smoked for a minute or two +in silence. Then he looked at Polke. + +"Well, there's a very obvious question to put to Mr. Simmons after all +that," he remarked. "Have you any idea," he continued, turning to the +clerk, "of any reason that would bring Mr. Hollis to Scarnham?" + +Simmons shook his head more vigorously than before. + +"Not the ghost of an idea!" he exclaimed. + +"There was no business being done with anybody at Scarnham?" asked +Starmidge. + +"Not in our office!" asserted Simmons. "I'm sure of that. I know all the +business that we have in hand. To tell you the truth, gentlemen, though +you may think me very ignorant, I never even heard of Scarnham myself +until I read the paper this evening." + +"Quite excusable," said Starmidge. "I never heard of it myself until +Monday. Well--this is all very queer, Mr. Simmons. What does Mr. Polke +think? And what's Mr. Polke got to suggest!" + +Polke, who had been listening silently, turned to the clerk. + +"Did you chance to look at Mr. Hollis's letters--recent letters, I +mean--" he asked, "to see if you would find anything inviting him down +here?" + +"I did," replied Simmons promptly. "I looked through all the letters on +his desk and in his drawers yesterday afternoon. I didn't find anything +that explained his absence. And when I was at his rooms this evening I +looked at some letters on his mantelpiece--nothing there. I tell you, I +haven't the least notion as to what could bring him to Scarnham." + +"And I suppose none of your fellow-clerks have, either?" asked Polke. + +Simmons smiled and glanced at Starmidge. + +"We've only myself and another--a junior clerk--and a boy," he said. +"It's not a big practice--only a bit of good conveyancing now and then, +and some family business. Mr. Hollis isn't dependent on it--he's private +means of his own." + +"Aye, just so!" observed Polke. "And I should say, Starmidge, that it +was private business brought him down here--if he's the man, as he +certainly seems to be. But--whose?" + +Starmidge turned again to the clerk. + +"You've a good memory, I can see," he said. "Now, did you ever hear Mr. +Hollis mention the name of Horbury?" + +"Never!" replied Simmons. + +"Did you ever hear him speak of Chestermarke's Bank?" asked Starmidge. + +"No--never! Never heard either name in my life until I saw them in the +papers," asserted Simmons. + +"Who looks after the banking account at Hollis's?" asked the detective. +"I mean, the business account--you know. Not his private one." + +"I do," said Simmons. "Always have done since I went there." + +"You never saw any cheques paid to those names--or any cheques from +them?" inquired Starmidge. "Think, now!" + +"No--I'm absolutely sure of it," said the clerk. "Horbury, perhaps, I +might not remember, but I should have remembered Chestermarke--it's an +uncommon name, that--to me, anyway." + +"Well," said Starmidge, after a pause, during which all three looked at +each other as men look who have come to a dead stop in the progress of +things, "there's one thing very certain, Mr. Simmons. If that was your +governor who came down to the Station Hotel here on Saturday evening +last, he certainly telephoned from there to Chestermarke's Bank as soon +as he arrived. And he got a reply from there, and he evidently went out +to meet whoever sent it--that sender seeming to be Mr. Horbury, the +manager. And so," he concluded, turning to Polke, "what we've got to +find out is--what did Hollis come here at all for?" + +"We shan't find that out tonight," said Polke, with a yawn. + +"Quite so--so we'll adjourn till morning, when Mr. Simmons shall see Mrs. +Pratt--just to establish things," remarked Starmidge. "In the meantime +he'd better come round with me to my place, and I'll get him a bed." + +Neither the police-superintendent nor the detective had the slightest +doubt after hearing Simmons' story that the man who presented himself at +the Station Hotel at Scarnham on the evening of John Horbury's +disappearance was Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, of Gray's Inn. If +they had still retained any doubt it would have disappeared next morning +when they took the clerk down to see Mrs. Pratt. The landlady described +her customer even more fully than before: Simmons had no doubt whatever +that she described his employer: he wouldn't have been more certain, he +said, that Mrs. Pratt was talking about Mr. Hollis, if she'd shown him a +photograph of that gentleman. + +"So we can take that for settled," remarked Polke, as the three left the +hotel and went back to the town. "The man who came here last Saturday +night was Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, of South Square, Gray's Inn, +London. That's established, I take it, Starmidge?" + +"Seems so," agreed the detective. + +"Then the next question is--Where's he got to?" said Polke. + +"I think the next question is--Has anybody ever heard of him in +connection with Mr. Horbury, or the Chestermarkes?" observed Starmidge. +"There's no doubt he came down here to see one or other of +them--Horbury, most likely." + +"And who's to tell us anything?" asked Polke. + +"Miss Fosdyke's a relation of Horbury's," replied Starmidge. "She may +know Hollis by name. Mr. Neale's always been in touch with Horbury--he +may have heard of Hollis. And--so may the bankers." + +"The difficulty is to make them say anything," said Polke. "They'll only +tell what they please." + +"Let's try the other two, anyway," counselled Starmidge. "They may be +able to tell something. For as sure as I am what I am, the whole secret +of this business lies in Hollis's coming down here to see Horbury, and +in what followed on their meeting. If we could only get to know what +Hollis came here for--ah!" + +But they got no further information from either Betty Fosdyke or +Wallington Neale. Neither had ever heard of Mr. Frederick Hollis, of +Gray's Inn. Betty was certain, beyond doubt, that he was no relation of +the missing bank-manager: she had the whole family-tree of the Horburys +at her finger-ends, she declared: no Hollis was connected with even its +outlying twigs. Neale had never heard the name of Hollis mentioned by +Horbury. And he added that he was absolutely sure that during the last +five years no person of that name had ever had dealings with +Chestermarke's Bank--open dealings, at any rate. Secret dealings with +the partners, severally or collectively, or with Horbury, for that +matter, Mr. Hollis might have had, but Neale was certain he had had no +ordinary business with any of them. + +Polke took heart of grace and led Simmons across to the bank. To his +astonishment, the partners now received him readily and politely; they +even listened with apparent interest to the clerk's story, and asked him +some questions arising out of it. But each declared that he knew nothing +about Mr. Frederick Hollis, and was utterly unaware of any reason that +could bring him to Scarnham: it was certainly on no business of theirs, +as a firm, or as private individuals, that he came. + +"He came, of course, to see Horbury," said Joseph at last. "That's dead +certain. No doubt they met. And after that--well, they seem to have +vanished together." + +Gabriel followed Polke into the hall and drew him aside. + +"Did this clerk tell you whether his master was a man of standing?" he +asked. + +"Man of private means, Mr. Chestermarke, with a small, highly +respectable practice--a conveyancing solicitor," answered Polke. + +"Oh!" replied Gabriel. "Just so. Well--we know nothing about him." + +Polke and his companion returned to the Scarnham Arms, where Starmidge +was in consultation with Betty and Neale. + +"They know nothing at all over there," he reported. "Never heard of +Hollis. What's to be done now!" + +"Mr. Simmons must do the next thing," answered the detective. "Get back +to town, Mr. Simmons, and put yourself in communication with every +single one of Mr. Hollis's clients--you know them all, of course. Find +out if any of them gave Mr. Hollis any business that would send him to +Scarnham. Don't leave a stone unturned in that way! And the moment you +have any information, however slight, wire to me, here--on the +instant." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE LEAD MINE + + +Starmidge and Polke presently left--to walk down to the railway station +with the bewildered clerk; when they had gone, Betty turned to Neale, +who was hanging about her sitting-room with no obvious intention of +leaving it. + +"While these people are doing what they can in their way, is there +nothing we can do in ours?" she asked. "I hate sitting here doing +nothing at all! You're a free man now, Wallie--can't you suggest +something?" + +Neale was thoroughly enjoying his first taste of liberty. He felt as if +he had just been released from a long term of imprisonment. To be +absolutely free to do what he liked with himself, during the whole of a +spring day, was a sensation so novel that he was holding closely to it, +half-fearful that it might all be a dream from which it would be a +terrible thing to awake--to see one of Chestermarke's ledgers under his +nose. And this being a wonderfully fine morning, he had formed certain +sly designs of luring Betty away into the country, and having the whole +day with her. A furtive glance at her, however, showed him that Miss +Fosdyke's thoughts and ideas just then were entirely business-like, but +a happy inspiration suggested to him that business and pleasure might be +combined. + +"We ought to go and see if that tinker chap's found out or heard +anything," he said. "You remember he promised to keep his eyes and ears +open. And we might do a little looking round the country for ourselves: +I haven't much faith in those local policemen and gamekeepers. Why not +make a day of it, going round? I know a place--nice old inn, the other +side of Ellersdeane--where we can get some lunch. Much better making +inquiries for ourselves," he concluded insinuatingly, "than sitting +about waiting for news." + +"Didn't I say so?" exclaimed Betty. "Come on, then!--I'm ready. Where +first?" + +"Let's see the tinker first," said Neale. "He's a sharp man--he may have +something else to tell by now." + +He led his companion out of the town by way of Scarnham Bridge, pointing +out Joseph Chestermarke's gloomy house to her as they passed it. + +"I'd give a lot," he remarked, as they turned on to the open moor which +led towards Ellersdeane Hollow, "to know if either of the Chestermarkes +really did know anything about that chap Hollis coming to the town on +Saturday. I shouldn't be a bit surprised if they did. Those detective +fellows like Starmidge are very clever in their way, but they always +seem to me to stop thinking a bit too soon. Now both Starmidge and Polke +seem to take it for certain that this Hollis went to meet Horbury when +he left the Station Hotel. There's no proof that he went to meet +Horbury--none!" + +"Whom might he have gone to meet, then?" demanded Betty. + +"You listen to me a bit," said Neale. "I've been thinking it over. +Hollis comes to the Station Hotel and uses their telephone. Mrs. Pratt +overhears him call up Chestermarke's Bank--that's certain. Then she goes +away, about her business. An interval elapses. Then she hears some +appointment made, with somebody, along the river bank, for that evening. +But--that interval during which Mrs. Pratt didn't overhear? How do we +know that the person with whom Hollis began his conversation was the +same person with whom he finished it? Come, now!" + +"Wallie, that's awfully clever of you!" exclaimed Betty. "How did you +come to think of such an ingenious notion?" + +"Worked it out," answered Neale. "This way! Hollis comes down to +Scarnham to see Chestermarke's Bank--which means one of the partners. He +rings up the bank. He speaks to somebody there. How do we know that +somebody was Horbury? We don't! It may have been Mrs. Carswell. Now +supposing the real person Hollis wanted to see was either Gabriel or +Joseph Chestermarke? Very well--this person who answered from the bank +would put Hollis on to either of them at once. Gabriel has a telephone +at the Warren: Joseph has a telephone at his home yonder behind us. It +may have been with either Gabriel or Joseph that Hollis finished his +conversation. And--if it was finished with one of them, it was, in my +opinion, whatever that's worth, with Master Joseph!" + +"What makes you think that?" asked Betty, startled by the suggestion. + +Neale laid a hand on the girl's arm and turned her round to face the +town. He lifted his stick and pointed at Joseph Chestermarke's high +roof, towering above the houses around it; then he swept the stick +towards the river and its course, plainly to be followed, in the +direction of the station. + +"You see Joseph's house there," he said. "You see the river--the path +along its bank--going right down to the meadow opposite the Station +Hotel? Very well--now, supposing it was Joseph with whom Hollis wound up +that telephone talk, suppose it was Joseph whom Hollis was to see. What +would happen? Joseph knew that Hollis was at the Station Hotel. The +straightest and easiest way from the Station Hotel to Joseph's house +is--straight along the river bank. Now then, call on your memory! What +did Mrs. Pratt tell us? 'When I was going back to the bar,' says Mrs. +Pratt, 'I heard more. "Along the river-side," says the gentleman. +"Straight on from where I am--all right." Then, after a minute, "At +seven-thirty, then?" he says. "All right--I'll meet you." And after +that,' concludes Mrs. Pratt, 'he rings off.' Now, why shouldn't it be +Joseph Chestermarke that he was going to meet?--remember, again, the +river-side path leads straight to Joseph's house. Come!--Mrs. Pratt's +story doesn't point conclusively to Horbury at all. It's as I say--the +telephone conversation may have begun with Horbury, but it may have +ended with--somebody else. And what I say is--who was the precise +person whom Hollis went to meet?" + +"Are you going to tell all that to Starmidge?" asked Betty admiringly. +"Because I'm sure it's never entered his head--so far." + +"Depends," replied Neale. "Let's see if the tinker has anything to tell. +He's at home, anyway. There's his fire." + +A spiral of blue smoke, curling high above the green and gold of the +gorse bushes, revealed Creasy's whereabouts. He had shifted his camp +since their first meeting with him: his tilted cart, his tethered pony, +and his fire, were now in a hollow considerably nearer the town. Neale +and Betty looked down into his retreat to find him busily mending a +collection of pots and pans, evidently gathered up during his round of +the previous day. He greeted his visitors with a smile, and fetched a +three-legged stool from his cart for Betty's better accommodation. + +"Heard anything?" asked Neale, seating himself on a log of wood. + +The tinker pointed to several newspapers which lay near at hand, kept +from blowing away by a stone placed on the uppermost. + +"Only what's in these," he answered. "I've read all that--so I'm pretty +well posted up, mister. I've just read this morning's--bought it in the +town when I went to fetch some bread. Queer affair altogether, I call +it!" + +"Have you looked round about at all?" asked Betty. + +"I've been a good bit over the Hollow, miss," answered Creasy. "But +it's a stiff job seeking anything here. There's nobody knows what a +wilderness this Hollow is until they begin exploring it. +Holes--corners--nooks--crannies--bracken and bushes--it is a wilderness, +and that's a fact! I'd engage to hide myself safely in this square mile +for many a week, against a hundred seekers. It wouldn't a bit surprise +me, you know, if it comes out in the end that Mr. Horbury, after all, +did fall down one of these old shafts. I couldn't believe it possible at +first, knowing that he knew every in and out of the place, but I'm +beginning to think he may have done. There's only one thing against that +theory." + +"What?" asked Betty. + +"Where's the other gentleman?" answered the tinker. "If they came +together on to this waste, one couldn't fall down a shaft without the +other knowing it, eh? And it's scarcely likely they'd both fall down." + +Neale glanced at Betty and shook his head. + +"There you are, you see!" he muttered. "They all hang to the notion that +Hollis did meet Horbury! Mr. Horbury may have been alone, after all, you +know," he went on, turning to Creasy. "There's no proof that the other +gentleman was with him." + +"Aye, well--I'm going on what these paper accounts say," answered +Creasy. "They all take it for granted that those two were together. +Well, about these old shaftings, mister--I did notice something very +early this morning that I thought might be looked into." + +"What is it?" asked Neale. "Don't let's lose any chance of finding +anything out, however small it may be." + +The tinker finished mending a kettle and set it aside amongst other +renovated articles. He lifted the pan of solder off the fire, set it +aside, too, and got up. + +"Come this way, then," he said. "I was going in to Scarnham this noon to +tell Mr Polke about it, but as long as you're here----" + +He led the way through the thick gorse and heather until he came to a +narrow track which wound across the moor in the direction of the town. +There he paused, pointing towards Ellersdeane on the one hand, towards +Scarnham on the other. + +"You see this track, mister?" he said. "You'll notice that it goes to +Ellersdeane village that way, and to Scarnham this. Of course, you can't +see it all the way in either direction, but you can take my word for +it--it does. It comes out at Ellersdeane by the duck-pond, at Scarnham +by the bridge at the foot of Cornmarket. People who know it would follow +it if they wanted a short cut across the moor from the town to the +village--or the opposite, as you might say. Now then, look here--a bit +this way." + +He preceded them along the narrow track until, on an open space in the +moorland, they came to one of the old lead-mine shafts, the mouth of +which had been fenced in by a roughly built wall of stone gathered from +its immediate surroundings. In this wall, extending from its parapet to +the ground, was a wide gap: the stones which had been displaced to make +it had disappeared into the cavernous opening. + +"Now then!" said the tinker, turning on his companions with the +inquiring look of a man who advances a theory which may or may not be +accepted as reasonable, "you see that? What I'd like to know is--is that +a recently made gap? It's difficult to tell. If this bit of a stone +fence had been built with mortar, one could have told. But it's never +had mortar or lime in it!--it's just rough masonry, as you see--stones +picked up off the moor, like all these fences round the old shafts. +But--there's the gap right enough! Do you know what I'm thinking?" + +"No!" murmured Betty, with a glance of fear and doubt at the black vista +which she saw through the gap. "But--don't be afraid to speak." + +"I'm thinking this," continued the tinker: "Supposing a man was +following this track from Ellersdeane to Scarnham, or t'other way about, +as it might be--supposing he was curious to look down one of these old +shafts--supposing he looked down this one, which stands, as you see, not +two yards off the very track he was following--supposing he leaned his +weight on this rotten bit of fencing--supposing it gave way? What?" + +Neale, who had been listening intently, made a movement as if to lay his +hand on the grey stones. Betty seized him impulsively. + +"Don't, Wallie!" she exclaimed. "That frightens me!" + +Creasy lifted his foot and pressed it against the stones at one edge of +the gap. Before even that slight pressure three or four blocks gave way +and dropped inward--the sound of their fall came dully from the depths +beneath. + +"You see," said the tinker, "it's possible. It might be. And--as you can +tell from the time it takes a stone to drop--it's a long way down there. +They're very deep, these old mines." + +Neale turned from the broken wall and looked narrowly at the ground +about it. + +"I don't see any signs of anybody being about here recently," he +remarked. "There are no footmarks." + +"There couldn't be, mister," said Creasy. "You could march a regiment of +soldiers over this moorland grass for many an hour, and there'd be no +footprints on it when they'd gone--it's that wiry and strong. No!--if +half a dozen men had been standing about here when one fell in--or if +two or three men had come here to throw another man in," he added +significantly, "there'd be no footmarks. Try it--you can't grind an +iron-shod heel like mine into this turf." + +"It's all very horrible!" said Betty, still staring at the black gap +with its suggestions of subterranean horror. "If one only knew----" + +The tinker turned and looked at the two young people as if he were +estimating their strength. + +"What are you wondering about?" asked Neale. + +Creasy smiled as he glanced again at Betty. + +"Well," he replied, "you're a pretty strong young fellow, mister, I take +it, and the young lady looks as if she'd got a bit of good muscle about +her. If you two could manage one end of a rope, I'd go down into that +shaft at the other end--a bit of the way, at any rate. And then--I'd let +down a lantern and see if there's aught to be seen." + +Betty turned anxiously to Neale, and Neale looked the tinker over with +appraising eyes. + +"I could pull you up myself," he answered. "You're no great weight. And +haven't those shafts got props and stays down the side?" + +"Aye, but they'll be thoroughly rotten by this," said Creasy. "Well, +we'll try it. Come to my cart--I've plenty of stuff there." + +"You're sure there's no danger?" asked Betty. "Don't imperil yourself!" + +"No danger, so long as you two'll stick to this end of the rope," said +Creasy. "I shan't go too far down." + +The tilted cart proved to contain all sorts of useful things: they +presently returned to the shaft with two coils of stout rope, a crowbar, +a lantern attached to a length of strong cord, and a great +sledge-hammer, with which the tinker drove the crowbar firmly into the +ground some ten or twelve feet from the edge of the gap. He made one end +of the first rope fast to this; the other end he securely knotted about +his waist; one end of the second rope he looped under his armpits, and +handed the other to Neale; then, lighting his lantern, he prepared to +descend, having first explained the management of the ropes to his +assistants. + +"All you've got to do," he said reassuringly to Betty, "is to hold on to +this second rope and let me down, gradual-like. When I say 'Pull,' draw +up--I'll help, hand over hand, up this first rope. Simple enough!--and I +shan't go too far." + +Nevertheless, he exhausted the full length of both ropes, and it seemed +a long time before they heard anything of him. Betty, frightened of what +she might hear, fearful lest Neale should go too near the edge of the +shaft, began to get nervous at the delay, and it was with a great sense +of relief that she at last heard the signal. + +The tinker came hand over hand up the stationary rope, helped by the +second one: his face, appearing over the edge of the gap, was grave and +at first inscrutable. He shook himself when he stepped above ground, as +if he wanted to shake off an impression: then he turned and spoke in a +whisper. + +"It's as I thought it might be!" he said. "There's a dead man down +there!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ACCIDENT OR MURDER? + + +Betty checked the cry of horror which instinctively started to her lips, +and turned to Neale with a look which he was quick to interpret. He +moved nearer to the tinker, who was unwinding the rope from his waist. + +"You couldn't tell--what man?" he asked, in low tones. + +Creasy shook his head with a look of dislike for what he had seen by the +light of his lantern. + +"No!" he answered. "'Twasn't possible, mister. But--a man there is! And +dead, naturally. And--a long way it is, too, down to the bottom of that +place!" + +"What's to be done?" asked Neale. + +The tinker slowly coiled up his ropes, and laid them in order by the +crowbar. + +"There's only one thing to be done," he answered, after a reflective +pause. "We shall have to get him up. That'll be a job! Do you and the +young lady go back to Scarnham, and tell Polke what we've found, and let +him come out here with a man or two. I'll go into Ellersdeane yonder and +get some help--and a windlass--can't do without that. There's a man +that sinks wells in Ellersdeane--I'll get him and his men to come back +with me. Then we can set to work." + +Creasy moved away as he finished speaking, untethered his pony, threw an +old saddle across its back, and without further remark rode off in the +direction of the village, while Neale and Betty turned back to Scarnham. +For a while neither broke the silence which had followed the tinker's +practical suggestions; when Betty at last spoke it was in a hushed +voice. + +"Wallie!" she said, "do you think that can possibly be--Uncle John?" + +"No!" answered Neale sharply, "I don't! I don't believe it possible that +he would be so foolish as to lean over a rotten bit of walling like +that--he'd know the danger of it." + +"Then it must be--the other man--Hollis!" said Betty. + +"Maybe," agreed Neale. "If it is----" + +He paused, and Betty looked at his set face as if she were wondering +what he was thinking of. + +"What?" she asked timidly. "You're uneasy about something." + +"It's a marvel to me--if it is Hollis--however he comes to be there," +answered Neale at last. "According to all we know, he certainly went to +meet somebody on Saturday night. I can't think how anybody who knew the +district would have let a stranger do such a risky thing as to lean over +one of those shafts. Besides, if anybody was with him, and there was an +accident, why hasn't the accident been reported? Betty!--it's more like +murder!" + +"You think he may have been thrown down there?" she asked fearfully. + +"Thrown down or forced down--it's all the same," said Neale. "There may +have been a struggle--a fight. But there, what's the use of speculating? +We don't even know whose body it is yet. Let's get on and tell those +police chaps." + +Turning off the open moor on to the highway at the corner of Scarnham +Bridge, they suddenly came face to face with Gabriel Chestermarke, who, +for once in a way, was walking instead of driving into the town. The two +young people, emerging from the shelter of a high hedgerow which +bordered the moorland at that point, started at sight of the banker's +colourless face, cold and set as usual. But Gabriel betrayed no +surprise, and was in no way taken aback. He lifted his hat in silence, +and was marching on when Neale impulsively hailed him. + +"Mr. Chestermarke!" he exclaimed. + +Gabriel halted and turned, looking at his late clerk with absolute +impassiveness. He made no remark, and stood like a statue, waiting for +Neale to speak. + +"You may like to know," said Neale, coming up to him, "we have just +found the body of a man on the moor--Ellersdeane Hollow." + +Gabriel showed no surprise. No light came into his eyes, no colour to +his cheek. It seemed a long time before his firmly set lips relaxed. + +"A man?" he said quietly. "What man?" + +"We don't know," answered Neale. "All we know is, there's a man's body +lying at the bottom of one of the old shafts up there--near Ellersdeane +Tower. The tinker who camps out there has just seen it--he's been partly +down the shaft." + +"And--did not recognize it?" asked Gabriel. + +"No--it was too far beneath him," replied Neale. "He's gone into the +village to get help." + +Gabriel lingered a moment, and then, lifting his hat again, began to +move forward towards the town. + +"I should advise you to acquaint the police, Mr. Neale," he said. +"Good-morning!" + +He marched away, stiffly upright, across the bridge and up the +Cornmarket, and Neale and Betty followed. + +"Why did you tell--him?" asked Betty. + +Neale threw a glance of something very like scorn after the retreating +figure. + +"Wanted to see how he'd take it!" he answered. "Bah!--Gabriel +Chestermarke's no better than a wax figure! You might as well tell a +marble image any news of this sort as tell him! You'd have thought he'd +have had sufficient human feeling in him to say that he hoped it wasn't +your uncle, anyhow!" + +"No, I shouldn't," said Betty. "I sized Gabriel up--and Joseph, +too--when I walked into their parlour the other afternoon. They haven't +any feelings--you might as well expect to get feeling out of a fish." + +They met Starmidge in the Market-Place--talking to Parkinson. Neale told +the news to both. The journalist dashed into his office for his hat, and +made off to Ellersdeane Hollow: Starmidge turned to the police-station +with his information. + +"No one else knows, I suppose?" he remarked, as they went along. + +"Gabriel Chestermarke knows," answered Neale. "We met him as we were +coming off the moor and I told him." + +"Show any surprise?" asked the detective. + +"Neither surprise nor anything else," said Neale. "Absolutely +unaffected!" + +Polke, hearing the news, immediately bustled into activity, sending for +a cab in which to drive along the road to a point near Ellersdeane +Tower, from which they could reach the lead mine. But he shook his head +when he saw that Betty meant to return. + +"Don't, miss!" he urged. "Stay here in town--you'd far better. It's not +a nice job for ladies, aught of that sort. Wait at the hotel--do, now!" + +"Doing nothing!" exclaimed Betty. "That would be far worse. Let me +go--I'm not afraid of anything. And to hang about, waiting and +wondering--" + +Neale, who had been about to enter the cab with the police, drew back. + +"You go on," he said to Polke. "Get things through--Miss Fosdyke and I +will walk slowly back there. We won't come close up till you can tell us +something definite. Don't you see she's anxious about her uncle?--we +can't keep her waiting." + +He rejoined Betty as Polke and his men drove off: together they turned +again in the direction of the bridge. Once across it and on the moor, +Neale made the girl sit down on a ledge of rock at some distance from +the lead mine, but within sight of it: he himself, while he talked to +her, stood watching the figures grouped about the shaft. Creasy had +evidently succeeded in getting help at once: Neale saw men fixing a +windlass over the mouth of the old mine; saw a man at last disappear +into its depths. And after a long pause he saw from the movements of the +other men that the body had been drawn to the surface and that they were +bending over it. A moment later, Starmidge separated himself from the +rest, and came in Neale's direction. He nodded his head energetically at +Betty as he drew within speaking distance. + +"All right, Miss Fosdyke!" he said. "It's not your uncle. But--it's the +other man, Mr. Neale!--no doubt of it!" + +"Hollis!" exclaimed Neale. + +"It's the man described by Mrs. Pratt and Simmons--that's certain," +answered the detective. "So there's one mystery settled--though it makes +all the rest stranger than ever. Now, Miss Fosdyke, that'll be some +relief to you--so don't come any nearer. But just spare Mr. Neale a few +minutes--I want to speak to him." + +Betty obediently turned back to the ledge of rock, and Neale walked with +Starmidge towards the group around the shaft. + +"Can you tell anything?" he asked. "Are there any signs of violence?--I +mean, does it look as if he'd been----" + +"Thrown in there?" said the detective calmly. "Ah!--it's a bit early to +decide that. The only thing I'm thinking of now is the fact that this is +Hollis! That's certain, Mr. Neale. Now what could he be doing on this +lonely bit of ground? Where does this track lead?" + +"It's a short cut from Scarnham Bridge corner to the middle of +Ellersdeane village," answered Neale, pointing one way and then the +other. + +"And Gabriel Chestermarke lives in Ellersdeane, doesn't he?" asked +Starmidge. "Or close by?" + +Neale indicated certain chimneys rising amongst the trees on the far +side of the Hollow. "He lives there--The Warren," he replied. + +"Um!" mused Starmidge. "I wonder if this poor fellow was making his way +there--to see him?" + +"How should he--a stranger--know of this short cut?" demurred Neale. "I +don't think that's very likely." + +"That's true--unless he'd had it pointed out to him," rejoined +Starmidge. "It's odd, anyway, that his body should be found half-way, as +it were, between Gabriel Chestermarke's place and Joseph Chestermarke's +house--isn't it now? But, Lord bless you!--we're only on the fringe of +this business as yet. Well--just take a look at him." + +Neale walked within the group of bystanders, feeling an intense dislike +and loathing of the whole thing. In obedience to Starmidge's wish, he +looked steadily at the dead man and turned away. + +"You don't know him?--never saw him during the five years you were at +the bank?" whispered the detective. "Think!--make certain, now." + +"Never saw him in my life!" declared Neale, stepping back. "I neither +know him nor anything about him." + +"I wanted you to make sure," said Starmidge. "I thought you +might--possibly--recollect him as somebody who'd called at the bank +during your time." + +"No!" said Neale. "Certainly not! I've never set eyes on him until now. +Of course, he's Hollis, I suppose?" + +"Oh, without doubt!" answered Polke, who caught Neale's question as he +came up. "He's Hollis, right enough. Mr. Neale--here's a difficulty. +It's a queer thing, but there isn't one of us here who knows if this +spot is in Scarnham or in Ellersdeane. Do you? Is it within our borough +boundary, or is it in Ellersdeane parish? The Ellersdeane policeman +there doesn't know, and I'm sure I don't! It's a point of importance, +because the inquest'll have to be held in the parish in which the body +was found." + +The Ellersdeane constable who had followed Polke suddenly raised a +finger and pointed across the heather. + +"Here's a gentleman coming as might know, Mr. Polke," he said. "Mr. +Chestermarke!" + +Neale and Starmidge turned sharply--to see the banker advancing quickly +from the adjacent road. A cab, drawn up a little distance off, showed +that he had driven out to hear the latest news. + +Polke stepped forward to meet the new-comer: Gabriel greeted him in his +usual impassive fashion. + +"This body been recovered?" he asked quietly. + +"A few minutes ago, Mr. Chestermarke," answered Polke. "Will you look at +it?" + +Gabriel moved aside the group of men without further word, and the +others followed him. He looked steadily at the dead man's face and +withdrew. + +"Not known to me," he said, in answer to an inquiring glance from Polke. +"Hollis, I suppose, of course." + +He went off again as suddenly as he had come--and Starmidge drew Neale +aside. + +"Mr. Neale!" he whispered, with a nearer approach to excitement than +Neale had yet seen in him. "Did you see Gabriel Chestermarke's eyes? +He's a liar! As sure as my name's Starmidge, he's a liar! Mr. Neale!--he +knows that dead man!" + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE INCOMPLETE CHEQUE + + +Neale, startled and amazed by this sudden outburst on the part of a man +whom up to that time he had taken to be unusually cool-headed and +phlegmatic, did not immediately answer. He was watching the Ellersdeane +constable, who was running after Gabriel Chestermarke's rapidly +retreating figure. He saw Gabriel stop, listen to an evident question, +and then lift his hand and point to various features of the Hollow. The +policeman touched his helmet, and came back to Polke. + +"Mr. Chestermarke, sir, says the moorland is in three parishes," he +reported pantingly. "From Scarnham Bridge corner to Ellersdeane Tower +yonder is in Scarnham parish: this side the Hollow is in Ellersdeane; +everything beyond the Tower is in Middlethorpe." + +"Then we're in Scarnham," said Polke. "He'll have to be taken down to +the town mortuary. We'd better see to it at once. What are you going to +do, Starmidge?" he asked, as the detective turned away with Neale. + +"I'll take this short cut back," said Starmidge. "I want to get to the +post-office. Yes, sir!" he went on, as he and Neale slowly walked +towards Betty. "I say--he knew him! knew him, Mr. Neale, knew him!--as +soon as ever he clapped his eyes on him!" + +"You're very certain about it," said Neale. + +"Dead certain!" exclaimed the detective. "I was watching him--purposely. +I've taught myself to watch men. The slightest quiver of a lip--the +least bit of light in an eye--the merest twitch of a little finger--ah! +don't I know 'em all, and know what they mean! And, when Gabriel +Chestermarke stepped up to look at that body, I was watching that face +of his as I've never watched mortal man before!" + +"And you saw--what?" asked Neale. + +"I saw--Recognition!" said Starmidge. "Recognition, sir! I'll stake my +reputation as a detective officer that Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke has seen +that dead man before. He mayn't know him personally. He may never have +spoken to him. But--he knew him! He'd seen him!" + +"Will your conviction of that help at all?" inquired Neale. + +"It'll help me," replied the detective quickly. "I'm gradually getting +some ideas. But I shan't tell Polke--nor anybody else--of it. You can +tell Miss Fosdyke if you like--she'll understand: women have more +intuition than men. Now I'm off--I want to get a wire away to London. +Look here--drop in at the police-station when you get back. We shall +examine Hollis's clothing, you know--there may be some clue to Horbury." + +He hurried off towards the town, and Neale rejoined Betty. And as they +slowly followed the detective, he told her what Starmidge had just said +with such evident belief--and Betty understood, as Starmidge had +prophesied, and she grew more thoughtful than ever. + +"When are we going to find a way out of all this miserable business!" +she suddenly exclaimed. "Are we any nearer a solution because of what's +just happened? Does that help us to finding out what's become of my +uncle?" + +"I suppose one thing's sure to lead to another," said Neale. "That seems +to be the detective's notion, anyhow. If Starmidge is so certain that +Gabriel Chestermarke knew Hollis, he'll work that for all it's worth. +It's my opinion--whatever that's worth!--that Hollis came down here to +see the Chestermarkes. Did he see them? There's the problem. If one +could only find out--that!" + +"I wish you and I could do something--apart from the police," suggested +Betty. "Isn't there anything we could do?" + +Neale pointed ahead to the high roof of Joseph Chestermarke's house +across the river. + +"There's one thing I'd like to do--if I could," he answered. "I'd just +like to know all the secrets of that place! That there are some I'm as +certain as that we're crossing this moor. You see that queer-shaped +structure--sort of conical chimney--sticking up amongst the trees in +Joseph Chestermarke's garden? That's a workshop, or a laboratory, or +something, in which Joseph spends his leisure moments. I'd like to know +what he does there. But nobody knows! Nobody is ever allowed in that +house, nor in the garden. I don't know a single soul in all Scarnham +that's ever been inside either. I'm perfectly certain Mr. Horbury was +never asked there. Once Joseph's across his thresholds, back or front, +there's an end of him--till he comes out again!" + +"But--he doesn't live entirely alone, does he?" asked Betty. + +"As near as can be," replied Neale. "His entire staff consists of an old +man and an old woman--man and wife--who've been with him--oh, ever since +he was born, I believe! You may have seen the old man about the +town--old Palfreman. Everybody knows him--queer, old-fashioned chap: he +goes out to buy in whatever's wanted: the old woman never shows. That's +the trio that live in there--a queer lot, aren't they?" + +"It's all queer!" sighed Betty. "But now that this unfortunate man's +body has been found--Wallie! do you think it possible he was thrown down +that mine? That would mean murder!" + +"If he was thrown down there, already dead," answered Neale grimly, "it +would not only mean murder but that more than one person was concerned +in it. We shall know more when they've examined the body and searched +the clothing. I'm going round to the police-station when I've seen you +back to the hotel--I'm hoping they'll find something that'll settle the +one point that's so worrying." + +"Which point?" asked Betty. + +"The real critical point--in my opinion," answered Neale. "Who it was +that Hollis came to see on Saturday? There may be letters, papers, on +him that'll settle that. And if we once know that--ah! that will make a +difference! Because then--then----" + +"What then?" demanded Betty. + +"Then the police can ask that person if Hollis did meet him!" exclaimed +Neale. "And they can ask, too, what that person did with Hollis. Solve +that, and we'll see daylight!" + +But Betty shook her head with clear indications of doubt as to the +validity of this theory. + +"No!" she said. "It won't come off, Wallie. If there's been foul play, +the guilty people will have had too much cleverness to leave any +evidences on their victim. I don't believe they'll find anything on +Hollis that'll clear things up. Daylight isn't coming from that +quarter!" + +"Where are we to look for it, then?" asked Neale dismally. + +"It's somewhere far back," declared Betty. "I've felt that all along. +The secret of all this affair isn't in anything that's been done here +and lately--it's in something deep down. And how to get at it, and to +find out about my uncle, I don't know." + +Neale felt it worse than idle to offer more theories--speculation was +becoming useless. He left Betty at the Scarnham Arms, and went round to +the police-station to meet Starmidge: together they went over to the +mortuary. And before noon they knew all that medical examination and +careful searching could tell them about the dead man. + +Hollis, said the police-surgeon and another medical man who had been +called in to assist him, bore no marks of violence other than those +which were inevitable in the case of a man who had fallen seventy feet. +His neck was broken; he must have died instantaneously. There was +nothing to show that there had been any struggle previous to his fall. +Had such a struggle taken place, the doctors would have expected to find +certain signs and traces of it on the body: there were none. Everything +seemed to point to the theory that he had leaned over the insecure +fencing of the old shaft to look into its depths; probably to drop +stones into them; that the loose, unmortared parapet had given way with +his weight, and that he had plunged headlong to the bottom. He might +have been pushed in--from behind--of course, but that was conjecture. +Under ordinary circumstances, agreed both doctors, everything would have +seemed to point to accident. And one of them suggested that it was very +probable that what really had happened was this--Hollis, on his way to +call on some person in the neighbourhood, or on his return from such a +call, had crossed the moor, been attracted by inquisitiveness to the old +mine, had leaned over its parapet, and fallen in. Accident!--it all +looked like sheer accident. + +In one of the rooms at the police-station, Neale anxiously watched Polke +and Starmidge examine the dead man's clothing and personal effects. The +detective rapidly laid aside certain articles of the sort which he +evidently expected to find--a purse, a cigar-case; the usual small +things found in a well-to-do man's pockets; a watch and chain; a ring or +two. He gave no particular attention to any of these beyond ascertaining +that there was a good deal of loose money in the purse--some twelve or +fifteen pounds in gold--and pointing out that the watch had stopped at +ten minutes to eight. + +"That shows the time of the accident," he remarked. + +"Are you sure?" suggested Polke doubtfully. "It may merely mean that the +watch ran itself out then." + +Starmidge picked up the watch--a stem winder--and examined it. + +"No," he said, "it's broken--by the fall. See there!--the spring's +snapped. Ten minutes to eight, Saturday night, Mr. Polke--that's when +this affair happened. Now then, this is what I want!" + +From an inner pocket of the dead man's smart morning-coat, he drew a +morocco-leather letter-case, and carefully extracted the papers from it. +With Neale looking on at one side, and Polke at the other, Starmidge +examined every separate paper. Nothing that he found bore any reference +to Scarnham. There were one or two bills--from booksellers--made out to +Frederick Hollis, Esquire. There was a folded playbill which showed that +Mr. Hollis had recently been to a theatre, and--because of some +pencilled notes on its margins--had taken an unusual interest in what he +saw there. There were two or three letters from correspondents who +evidently shared with Mr. Hollis a taste for collecting old books and +engravings. There were some cuttings from newspapers: they, too, related +to collecting. And Neale suddenly got an idea. + +"I say!" he exclaimed. "Mr. Horbury was a bit of a collector of that +sort of thing, as you probably saw from his house. This man may have +run down to see him about some affair of that sort." + +But at that moment Starmidge unfolded a slip of paper which he had drawn +from an inner pocket of the letter-case. He gave one glance at it, and +laid it flat on the table before his companions. + +"No!" he said. "That's probably what brought Hollis down to Scarnham! A +cheque for ten thousand pounds! And--incomplete!" + +The three men bent wonderingly over the bit of pink paper. Neale's quick +eyes took in its contents at a glance. + + LONDON: _May 12th, 1912_. + VANDERKISTE, MULLINEAU & COMPANY, + 563 LOMBARD STREET, E.C. + + Pay .............................. or Order + the sum of Ten Thousand Pounds + L10,000.00. + ................... + +"That's extraordinary!" exclaimed Neale. "Date and amount filled in--and +the names of payee and drawer omitted! What does it mean?" + +"Ah!" said Starmidge, "when we know that, Mr. Neale, we shall know a +lot! But I'm pretty sure of one thing. Mr. Hollis came down here +intending to pay somebody ten thousand pounds. And--he wasn't exactly +certain who that somebody was!" + +"Good!" muttered Polke. "Good! That looks like it." + +"So," said Starmidge, "he didn't fill in either the name of the payee or +his own name until he was--sure! See, Mr. Neale!" + +"Why did he fill in the amount?" remarked Neale, sceptically. + +Starmidge winked at Polke. + +"Very likely to dangle before somebody's eyes," he answered slyly. +"Can't you reconstruct the scene, Mr. Neale? 'Here you are!' says +Hollis, showing this cheque. 'Ten thousand of the very best, lying to be +picked up at my bankers. Say the word, and I'll fill in your name and +mine!' Lay you a pound to a penny that's been it, gentlemen!" + +"Good!" repeated Polke. "Good, sergeant! I believe you're right. Now, +what'll you do about it?" + +The detective carefully folded up the cheque and replaced it in the slit +from which he had taken it. He also replaced all the other papers, put +the letter-case in a stout envelope and handed it to the superintendent. + +"Seal it up and put it away in your safe till the inquest tomorrow," he +said. "What shall I do? Oh, well--you needn't mention it, either of you, +except to Miss Fosdyke, of course--but as soon as the inquest is +adjourned--as it'll have to be--I shall slip back to town and see those +bankers. I don't know, but I don't think it's likely that Mr. Hollis +would have ten thousand pounds always lying at his bank. I should say +this ten thousand has been lodged there for a special purpose. And what +I shall want to find out from them, in that case, is--what special +purpose? And--what had it to do with Scarnham, or anybody at Scarnham? +See? And I'll tell you what, Mr. Polke--I don't know whether we'll +produce that cheque at the inquest on Hollis--at first, anyhow. The +coroner's bound to adjourn--all he'll want tomorrow will be formal +identification of the body--all other evidence can be left till later. +I've wired for Simmons--he'll be able to identify. No--we'll keep this +cheque business back till I've been to London. I shall find out +something from Vanderkistes--they're highly respectable private bankers, +and they'll tell me----" + +At that moment a policeman entered the room and presented Polke with a +card. + +"Gentleman's just come in, sir," he said. "Wants to see you particular." + +Polke glanced at the card, and read the name aloud, with a start of +surprise: "Mr. Leonard Hollis!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE DEAD MAN'S BROTHER + + +Polke hastily followed the policeman from the room--to return +immediately with a quiet-looking elderly gentleman in whom Neale and +Starmidge saw a distinct likeness to the dead man. + +"His brother!" whispered Polke, as he handed a chair to the visitor. "So +you've seen about this in the newspapers, sir?" he went on, turning to +Mr. Leonard Hollis. "And you thought you'd better come over, I suppose?" + +"I have not only read about it in the newspapers," answered the visitor, +"but I last night--very late--received a telegram from my brother's +clerk--Mr. Simmons--who evidently found my address at my brother's +rooms. So I left Birmingham--where I now live--at once, to see you. Now, +have you heard anything of my brother?" + +Polke shook his head solemnly and warningly. + +"I'm sorry to say we have, sir," he replied. "You'd better prepare for +the worst news, Mr. Hollis. We found the body this morning--not two +hours ago. And--we don't know, as yet, how he came by his death. The +doctors say it may have been pure accident. Let's hope it was! But there +are strange circumstances, sir--very strange!" + +Hollis quietly rose from his chair. + +"I suppose I can see him?" he asked. + +Polke led him out of the room, and Starmidge turned to Neale. + +"We're gradually getting at something, Mr. Neale," he said. "All this +leads somewhere, you know. Now, since we found that incomplete cheque, +there's a question I wanted to ask you. You've left Chestermarke's Bank +now, and under the circumstances we're working in you needn't have any +delicacy about answering questions about them. Do you know of any recent +transaction of theirs which involved ten thousand pounds?" + +"No!" replied Neale. "I certainly don't." + +"Nor any sum approaching it?" suggested Starmidge. "Or exceeding it?" + +"Nothing whatever!" reiterated Neale. "I know of all recent banking +transactions at Chestermarke's, and I can't think--I've been thinking +since we saw that cheque--of anything that the cheque had to do with." + +"Well--it's a queer thing," remarked the detective meditatively. "I'll +lay anything Hollis brought that cheque down here for some specific +purpose--and who on earth is there in this place that he could bring it +to but Chestermarke's? However, we'll see if I don't trace something +about it when I get up to town, and then----" + +Polke and the dead man's brother came back, talking earnestly. The +superintendent carefully closed the door, and begging his visitor to be +seated again, turned to Starmidge. + +"I've told Mr. Hollis all the main facts of the case," he said. "Of +course, he identified his brother at once." + +"When did you see him last, sir!" asked Starmidge. + +"Some eight or nine months ago," replied Hollis. "He came to see me, in +Birmingham. Previous to that, I hadn't seen him for several years. I +ought to tell you," he went on, turning to Polke, "that for a great many +years I have lived abroad--tea-planting in Ceylon. I came back to +England about a year ago, and eventually settled down at Edgbaston. I +suppose my brother's clerk found my address on an old letter or +something last night, and wired to me in consequence." + +"When Simmons was here," observed Starmidge, "he said that your brother +seemed to have no relations." + +"I daresay Simmons would get that impression," remarked Hollis. "My +brother was a very reserved man, who was not likely to talk much of his +family. As a matter of fact, I am about the only relation he had--except +some half-cousins, or something of that sort." + +"Can you tell us anything about your brother's position?" asked +Starmidge. "The clerk said he didn't practise very much, and had means +of his own." + +"Quite true," assented Hollis. "I believe he had a comfortable income, +apart from his practice--perhaps five or six hundred a year. He +mentioned to me that he only did business for old clients." + +"Do you think he'd be likely to have a sum of ten thousand pounds lying +at his bankers?" inquired Starmidge. + +Hollis looked sharply at the detective and then shook his head. + +"Not unless it was for some special purpose," he answered. "He might +have such a sum if he'd been selling out securities for re-investment. +But my impression is--in fact, it's more than an impression--I'm sure +that he bought himself an annuity of about the amount I mentioned just +now, some years ago. You see, he'd no children, and he knew that I was a +well-to-do man, so--he used his capital in that a way." + +"Would you be surprised to see a cheque of his drawn for ten thousand +pounds?" asked Starmidge suddenly. + +"Frankly, I should!" replied Hollis, with a smile. "That is, if it was +on his private account." + +"Do you happen to know who kept his private account?" inquired +Starmidge. + +"Yes," answered Hollis. "He banked with an old private firm called +Vanderkiste, Mullineau & Company, of Lombard Street." + +Starmidge, after a whispered word with Polke, took up the envelope in +which he had placed the dead man's letter-case, and produced the cheque. + +"Look at that, sir," he said, laying it before the visitor. "Is that +your brother's handwriting?" + +"His handwriting--oh, yes!" exclaimed Hollis. "Most certainly! +But--there's no signature!" + +"No--and there's no name of any payee," said Starmidge. "That's where +the mystery comes in. But--this--and this letter-case and its +contents--was found on him, and there's no doubt he came down to +Scarnham intending to pay that cheque to somebody. You can't throw any +light on that, sir?" + +The visitor, who continued to regard the cheque with evident amazement, +at last turned away from it and glanced at his three companions. + +"Well," he said, "I don't know that I can. But one principal reason why +I hurried here, after getting Simmons' telegram last night, is this: In +the newspapers there is a good deal of mention of a Mr. John Horbury, +manager of a bank in this town. He, too, you tell me, has disappeared. +Now, I happen to possess a remarkably good memory, and it was at once +stirred by seeing that name. My brother Frederick and I were at school +together at Selburgh--Selburgh Grammar School, you know--quite +thirty-five or six years ago. One of our schoolmates was a John Horbury. +And--he came from this place--Scarnham." + +The three listeners looked at each other. And Neale started, as if at +some sudden reminiscence, and he spoke quickly. + +"I've heard Mr. Horbury speak of his school-days at Selburgh!" he said. +"And--now I come to think of it--he had some books with the school +coat-of-arms on the sides--prizes." + +"Just so!" remarked Hollis. "I remember Jack Horbury very well indeed, +though I never saw him after I left school, nor heard of him either, +until I saw all this news about him in the papers. Of course, your +missing bank manager is the John Horbury my brother and I were at school +with! And I take it that the reason my brother came down to Scarnham +last Saturday was--to see John Horbury." + +Starmidge had been listening to all this with close attention. He was +now more than ever convinced that he was at last on some track--but so +far he could not see many steps ahead. Nevertheless, his next step was +clearly enough discernible. + +"You say you saw your brother some eight or nine months ago, sir?" he +remarked. "Did he mention Mr. Horbury to you at that time?" + +"No, he didn't," replied Hollis. + +"Did he ever--recently, I mean--ever mention his name to you in a +letter?" asked Starmidge. + +"No--never! I don't know," said Hollis, "that he or I ever spoke to each +other of John Horbury from the time we left school. John Horbury was +not, as it were, a very particular chum of ours. We knew him--as we knew +a hundred other boys. As I have already told you, the two names, +Horbury, Scarnham, in the newspapers yesterday, immediately recalled +John Horbury, our schoolmate, to me. Up to then, I don't suppose I'd +ever thought of him for--years! And I don't suppose he'd ever thought of +me, or of my brother. Yet--I feel sure my brother came here to see him. +For business reasons, I suppose?" + +"The odd thing about that, Mr. Hollis," remarked Polke, "is that we +can't find the slightest reason, either from anybody here, or from your +brother's clerk in London, why your brother should come to see Horbury, +whether for business, or for any other purpose. And as to his +remembering Mr. Frederick Hollis, well, here's Mr. Neale--Mr. Horbury +was his guardian--and Mr. Neale, of course, has known him all his life. +Now, Mr. Neale never heard him mention Mr. Frederick Hollis by name at +any time. And there's now staying in the town Mr. Horbury's niece, Miss +Fosdyke; she, too, never heard her uncle speak of any Mr. Hollis. Then, +as to business--the partners at Chestermarke's Bank declare that they +know nothing whatever of your brother--Mr. Gabriel, the senior partner, +has seen the poor gentleman, and didn't recognize him. So--we at any +rate, are as wise as ever. We don't know what your brother came here +for!" + +Hollis bowed his head in full acceptance of the superintendent's +remarks. But he looked up at Starmidge and smiled. + +"Exactly!" he said. "I quite understand you, Mr. Polke. But--I am +convinced that my brother came here to see John Horbury. Why he came, I +know no more than you do--but I hope to know!" + +"You'll stay in the town a bit, sir?" suggested Polke. "You'll want to +make arrangements for your poor brother's funeral, of course. Aught that +we can do, sir, to help, shall be done." + +"I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Polke," replied Hollis. "Yes, I shall +certainly stay in Scarnham. In fact," he went on, rising and looking +quietly from one man to the other, "I shall stay in Scarnham until I, +or you, or somebody have satisfactorily explained how my brother came to +his death! I shall spare neither effort nor money to get at the +truth--that's my determination!" + +"There's somebody else in like case with you, Mr. Hollis," observed +Polke. "Miss Fosdyke's just as concerned about her uncle as you are +about your brother. She declares she'll spend a fortune on finding +him--or finding out what's happened to him. It was Miss Fosdyke insisted +on having Detective-Sergeant Starmidge down at once." + +Hollis quietly scrutinized the detective. + +"Well?" he asked. "And what do you make of it?" + +But Starmidge was not in the mood for saying anything more just then, +and he put his questioner off, asking him, at the same time, to keep the +matter of the cheque to himself. Presently Hollis went away with Neale, +to whom he wished to talk, and Starmidge, after a period of what seemed +to be profound thought, turned to Polke. + +"Superintendent!" he said earnestly. "With your leave, I'd like to try +an experiment." + +"What experiment?" demanded Polke. + +Starmidge pointed to the ten thousand pound cheque, which was still +lying on the table. + +"I'd like to take that cheque across to Chestermarke's Bank, and show it +to the partners," he answered. + +"Good heavens!--why?" exclaimed Polke. "I thought you didn't want +anybody to know about it." + +"Never mind--I've an idea," said the detective. "I'd just like them to +see it, anyway, and," he added, with a wink, "I'd like to see them when +they do see it!" + +"You know best," said Polke. "If you think it well, do it." + +Starmidge put the cheque in an envelope and walked over to the bank. He +was shown into the partners' room almost immediately, and the two men +glanced at him with evident curiosity. + +"Sorry to trouble you, gentlemen," said Starmidge, in his politest +manner. "There's a little matter you might help us in. We've been +searching this unfortunate gentleman's clothing, you know, for papers +and so on. And in his letter-case we found--this!" + +He had the cheque ready behind his back, and he suddenly brought it +forward, and laid it immediately before the partners, on Gabriel's desk, +at the same time stepping back so that he could observe both men. + +"Queer, isn't it, gentlemen?" he remarked quietly. "Incomplete!" + +Gabriel Chestermarke, in spite of his habitual control, started: Joseph, +bending nearer to the desk, made a curious sound of surprise. A second +later they both looked at Starmidge--each as calm as ever. "Well?" said +Gabriel. + +"You don't know anything about that, gentlemen?" asked Starmidge, +affecting great innocence. + +"Nothing!" answered Gabriel. + +"Of course not!" murmured Joseph, a little derisively. + +"I thought you might recognize that handwriting," suggested Starmidge, +using one of his previously invented excuses. + +"No!" replied Gabriel. "Don't know it!" + +"From Adam's writing," added Joseph. + +"You know the name of the bankers, I suppose, gentlemen?" asked the +detective. + +"Vanderkiste? Oh, yes!" assented Gabriel. "Well-known city firm. But I +don't think we've ever done business with them," he added, turning to +his nephew. + +"Never!" replied Joseph. "In my time, at any rate." + +Starmidge picked up the cheque and carefully replaced it in its +envelope. + +"Much obliged to you, gentlemen," he said, retreating towards the door. +"Oh!--you'll be interested in hearing, no doubt, that the dead man's +brother, Mr. Leonard Hollis, of Birmingham, has come. He's identified +the body." + +"And what does he think, or suggest?" asked Joseph, glancing out of the +corners of his eyes at Starmidge. "Has he any suggestions--or ideas?" + +"He thinks his brother came here to meet Mr. Horbury," answered +Starmidge. + +"That's so evident that it's no news," remarked Joseph. "Perhaps he can +suggest where Horbury's to be found." + +Starmidge bowed and went out and straight back to Polke. He handed him +the cheque and the letter-case. + +"Lock 'em up!" he said. "Now then, listen! You can do all that's +necessary about that inquest. I'm off to town. Sit down, and I'll tell +you why. And what I tell you, keep to yourself." + +That evening, Starmidge, who had driven quietly across the country from +Scarnham to Ecclesborough, joined a London express at the Midland +Station in the big town. The carriages were unusually full, and he had +some difficulty in finding the corner seat that he particularly desired. +But he got one, at last, at the very end of the train, and he had only +just settled himself in it when he saw Gabriel Chestermarke hurry past. +Starmidge put his head out of the window and watched--Gabriel entered a +first-class compartment in the next coach. + +"First stop Nottingham!" mused the detective. And he pulled a sheaf of +telegram forms out of his pocket, and leisurely began to write a message +which before he signed his name to it had run into many words. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE OTHER CHEQUE + + +Starmidge sent off his telegram when the train stopped at Nottingham, +and thereafter went to sleep, secure in the knowledge that it would be +promptly acted upon by its recipients. And when, soon after eleven +o'clock, the express ran into St. Pancras, he paid no particular +attention to Gabriel Chestermarke. He had no desire, indeed, that the +banker should see him, and he hung back when the crowded carriages +cleared, and the platform became a scene of bustle and animation. But he +had no difficulty in distinguishing Gabriel's stiffly erect figure as it +made its way towards the hall of the station, and his sharp eyes were +quick to notice a quietly dressed, unobtrusive sort of man who sauntered +along, caught sight of the banker, and swung round to follow him. +Starmidge watched both pass along towards the waiting lines of +vehicles--then he turned on his heel and went to the refreshment room +and straight to a man who evidently expected him. + +"You got the wire in good time, then?" said Starmidge. + +"Plenty!" answered the other man laconically. "I've put a good man on to +him. See anything of them?" + +"Yes--but I didn't know our man," remarked Starmidge. "Who is he? Will +he do what I want?" + +"He's all right--fellow who's just been promoted, and, of course, he's +naturally keen," replied Starmidge's companion. "Name of Gandam. That +was a pretty good and full description of the man you want followed, +Starmidge," he went on, with a smile. "You don't leave much out!" + +"I didn't want him to be overlooked, and I didn't want to show up +myself," said Starmidge. "I noticed that our man spotted him quick. Now, +look here--I'll be at headquarters first thing tomorrow morning--I want +this chap Gandam's report. Nine-thirty sharp! Now we'll have a drink, +and I'll get home." + +"Good case, this?" asked the other man, as they pledged each other. +"Getting on with it?" + +"Tell you more tomorrow," answered Starmidge. "When--and if--I know +more. Nine-thirty, mind!" + +But when Starmidge met his companion of the night before at nine-thirty +next morning, it was to find him in conversation with the other man, and +to see dissatisfaction on the countenances of both. And Starmidge, a +naturally keen observer, knew what had happened. He frowned as he looked +at Gandam. + +"You don't mean to say he slipped you!" he exclaimed. + +"I don't know about slipped," muttered Gandam. "I lost him, anyway, Mr. +Starmidge, and I don't see how I can be blamed, either. Perhaps you +might have done differently, but----" + +"Tell about it!" interrupted Starmidge. "What happened?" + +"I spotted him, of course, from your description, as soon as he got out +of the train," replied Gandam. "No mistaking him, naturally--he's an +extra good one to watch. He'd no luggage--not even a handbag. I followed +him to the taxi-cabs. I was close by when he stepped into one, and I +heard what he said. 'Stage door--Adalbert Theatre.' Off he went--I +followed in another taxi. I stopped mine and got out, just in time to +see him walk up the entry to the stage-door. He went in. It was then +half-past eleven; they were beginning to close. I waited and waited +until at last they closed the stage-door. I'll take my oath he'd never +come out!--never!" + +Starmidge made a face of intense disgust. + +"No, of course he hadn't!" he exclaimed. "He'd gone out at the front. I +suppose that never struck you? I know that stage-door of the +Adalbert--it's up a passage. If you'd stood at the end of that passage, +man, you could have kept an eye on the front and stage-door at the same +time. But, of course, it never struck you that a man could go in at the +back of a place and come out at the front, did it? Well--that's off for +the present. And so am I." + +Vexed and disappointed that Gabriel Chestermarke had not been tracked to +wherever he was staying in London, Starmidge went out, hailed a +taxi-cab, and was driven down to the city. He did not particularly +concern himself about Gabriel's visit to the stage-door of the Adalbert +Theatre; it was something, after all, to know he had gone there: if need +arose, he might be traced from that theatre, in which, very possibly, he +had some financial interest. What Starmidge had desired to ascertain +was the banker's London address: he had already learned in Scarnham that +Gabriel Chestermarke was constantly in London for days at a time--he +must have some permanent address at which he could be found. And +Starmidge foresaw that he might wish to find him--perhaps in a hurry. + +But just then his chief concern was with another banking +firm--Vanderkiste's. He walked slowly along Lombard Street until he came +to the house--a quiet, sober, eminently respectable-looking old business +place, quite unlike the palatial affairs in which the great banking +corporations of modern origin carry on their transactions. There was no +display of marble and plaster and plate glass and mahogany and heavy +plethoric fittings--a modest brass plate affixed to the door was the +only sign and announcement that banking business was carried on within. +Equally old-fashioned and modest was the interior--and Starmidge was +quick to notice that the clerks were all elderly or middle-aged men, +solemn and grave as undertakers. + +The presentation of the detective's official card procured him speedy +entrance to a parlour in which sat two old gentlemen, who were evidently +greatly surprised to see him. They were so much surprised indeed, as to +be almost childishly interested, and Starmidge had never had such +attentive listeners in his life as these two elderly city men, to whom +crime and detention were as unfamiliar as higher finance was to their +visitor. They followed Starmidge's story point by point, nodding every +now and then as he drew their attention to particular passages, and the +detective saw that they comprehended all he said. He made an end at +last--and Mr. Vanderkiste, a white-bearded, benevolent-looking +gentleman, looked at Mr. Mullineau, a little, rosy-faced man, and shook +his head. + +"It would be an unusual thing, certainly," he observed, "for Mr. +Frederick Hollis to have ten thousand pounds lying here to his credit. +Mr. Hollis was an old customer--we knew him very well--but he didn't +keep a lot of money here. We--er--know his circumstances. He bought +himself a very nice annuity some years ago--it was paid into his account +here twice a year. But--ten thousand pounds!" + +Mr. Mullineau leaned forward. + +"We don't know if Frederick Hollis paid any large amount in lately, you +know," he observed. "Hadn't you better summon Linthwaite?" + +"Our manager," remarked Mr. Vanderkiste, as he touched a bell. "Ah, yes, +of course--he'll know. Mr. Linthwaite," he continued, as another elderly +man entered the room, "can you tell us what Mr. Frederick Hollis's +balance in our hands is?" + +"I have just been looking it up, sir," replied the manager, "in +consequence of this sad news in the papers. Ten thousand, eight hundred, +seventy-nine, five, four, Mr. Vanderkiste." + +"Ten thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine pounds, five shillings and +fourpence," repeated Mr. Vanderkiste. "Ah! An unusually large amount, I +think, Mr. Linthwaite?" + +"Just so, sir," agreed the manager. "The reason is that rather more +than a week ago Mr. Hollis called here himself with a cheque for ten +thousand pounds which he paid into his account, explaining to me that it +had been handed to him for a special purpose, and that he should draw a +cheque for his own against it, for the same amount, very shortly." + +"Ah!" remarked Mr. Vanderkiste. "Has the cheque which he paid in been +cleared?" + +"We cleared it at once," replied the manager. "Oh, yes! But the cheque +which Mr. Hollis spoke of drawing against it has not come in--and now, +of course----" + +"Just so," said Mr. Vanderkiste. "Now that he's dead, of course, his +cheque is no good. Um! That will do, thank you, Mr. Linthwaite." + +He turned and looked at Starmidge when the manager had withdrawn. + +"That explains matters," he said. "The ten thousand pounds had been paid +to Mr. Frederick Hollis for a special purpose." + +"But--by whom?" asked Starmidge. "That's precisely what I want to know! +The knowledge will help me--ah!--I don't know how much it mayn't help +me! For there's no doubt about it, gentlemen, Hollis went down to +Scarnham to pay ten thousand pounds to somebody on somebody else's +account! He was, I am sure, as it were, ambassador for somebody. Who +was--who is--that somebody? Almost certainly, the person who gave Hollis +the cheque your manager has just mentioned--and whose ten thousand +pounds is, as a matter of fact, still lying in your hands! Who is that +person? What bank was the cheque drawn on? Let me have an answer to +both these questions, and----" + +The two old gentlemen exchanged looks, and Mr. Mullineau quietly rose +and left the room. In his absence Mr. Vanderkiste shook his head at the +detective. + +"A very, very queer case, officer!" he remarked. + +"An extraordinary case, sir," agreed Starmidge. "Before we get to the +end of it there'll be some strange revelations, Mr. Vanderkiste." + +"So I should imagine--so I should imagine!" assented the old gentleman. +"Very remarkable proceedings altogether! We shall be deeply interested +in hearing how matters progress. Of course, this affair of the ten +thousand pounds is very curious. We----" + +Mr. Mullineau came back--with a slip of paper, which he handed to the +detective. + +"That gives you the information you want," he said. + +Starmidge read aloud what the manager had written down on his +principal's instructions. + +"Drawer--Helen Lester," he read. "Bank--London & Universal: Pall Mall +Branch." He looked up at the two partners. "I suppose you gentlemen +don't know who this Mrs. or Miss Helen Lester is?" he inquired. + +"No--not at all," answered Mr. Mullineau. "Nor does Linthwaite. I +thought Mr. Hollis might have told him something about that special +purpose. But--he told him nothing." + +"You'll have to go to the London & Universal people," observed Mr. +Vanderkiste. "They, of course, will know all about this customer." + +Mullineau looked inquiringly at his partner. + +"Don't you think that--as there are almost certain to be some +complications about this matter--Linthwaite had better go with Detective +Starmidge?" he suggested. "The situation, as regards the ten thousand +pounds, is a somewhat curious one. This Miss or Mrs. Lester will want to +recover it. Now, according to what Mr. Starmidge tells us, no body, so +far as he's aware, is in possession of any facts, papers, letters, +anything, relating to it. I think there should be some consultation +between ourselves and this other bank which is concerned." + +"Excellent suggestion!" agreed Mr. Vanderkiste. "Let him go--by all +means." + +Half an hour later, Starmidge found himself closeted with another lot of +bankers. But these were younger men, who were quicker to grasp +situations and comprehend points, and they quickly understood what the +detective was after: moreover, they were already well posted up in those +details of the Scarnham mystery which had already appeared in the +newspapers. + +"What you want," said one of them, a young and energetic man, addressing +Starmidge at the end of their preliminary conversation, "is to find out +for what purpose Mrs. Lester gave Mr. Frederick Hollis ten thousand +pounds?" + +"Precisely," replied Starmidge. "It will go far towards clearing up a +good many things." + +"I have no doubt Mrs. Lester will tell you readily enough," said the +banker. "In fact, as things are, I should say she'll only be too glad to +give you any information you want. That ten thousand pounds being in +Messrs. Vanderkiste's hands, in Hollis's name, and Hollis being dead, +there will be bother--not serious, of course, but still formal +bother--about recovering it. Very well--Mrs. Lester, who, I may tell +you, is a wealthy customer of ours, lives in the country as a rule, and +I happen to know she's there now. I'll write down her address. Tell her, +by all means, that you have been to see us on the matter." + +Starmidge left Mr. Linthwaite talking with the London & Universal +people; he himself, now that he had got the desired information, had no +more to say. Outside the bank he opened the slip of paper which had just +been handed to him, and saw that another journey lay before him. Mrs. +Lester lived at Lowdale Court, near Chesham. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ABOUT CENT PER CENT. + + +Starmidge, lingering a moment on the steps of the bank to consider +whether he would go straight to Chesham or repair to headquarters for a +consultation with his superior, was suddenly joined by the manager who +had just given him his information. + +"You are going down to Lowdale Court?" asked the manager. + +"During the morning--yes," answered Starmidge. + +"If it will be any help to you," said the manager, "I'll ring up Mrs. +Lester on the telephone, and let her know you're coming. She's rather a +nervous woman and it will pave the way for you if I give you a sort of +introduction. Besides--" here he paused, and looked at the detective +with an inquiring air--"don't you think Mrs. Lester had better be +warned--at once--not to speak of this matter until she's seen you?" + +"You think she may be approached?" asked Starmidge. + +The manager wagged his head and smiled knowingly. + +"I think there's something so very queer about this affair that Mrs. +Lester ought to be seen at once," he said. + +"She shall be!" answered Starmidge. "Tell her I'll be down there within +two hours--I'll motor there. Thank you for your suggestion. Now I'll +just run to headquarters and then be straight off." + +He hailed a passing taxi-cab and drove to New Scotland Yard, where he +was presently closeted with a high personage in deep and serious +consultation, the result of which was that by twelve o'clock, Starmidge +and a fellow-officer, one Easleby, in whom he had great confidence, were +spinning away towards the beech-clad hills of Buckinghamshire, and +discussing the features and probabilities of the queer business which +took them there. Before two, they were in the pleasant valley which lies +between Chenies and Chesham and pulling up at the door of a fine old +Jacobean house, which, set in the midst of delightful lawns and gardens, +looked down on the windings of the river Chess. And practical as both +men were, and well experienced in their profession, it struck both as +strange that they should come to such a quiet and innocent-looking place +to seek some explanation of a mystery which had surely some connection +with crime. + +The two detectives were immediately shown into a morning room in which +sat a little, middle-aged lady in a widow's cap and weeds, who looked at +her visitors half-timidly, half-welcomingly. She sat by a small table on +which lay a heap of newspapers, and Starmidge's sharp eyes saw at once +that she had been reading the published details of the Scarnham affair. + +"You have no doubt been informed by your bankers that we were coming, +ma'am?" began Starmidge, when he and Easleby had seated themselves near +Mrs. Lester. "The manager there was good enough to say he'd telephone +you." + +Mrs. Lester, who had been curiously inspecting her callers and appeared +somewhat relieved to find that they were quite ordinary-looking beings, +entirely unlike her own preconceived notions of detectives, bowed her +head. + +"Yes," she answered, "my bankers telephoned that an officer from +Scotland Yard would call on me this morning, and that I was to speak +freely to him, and in confidence, but--I really don't quite know what it +is that I'm to talk to you about, though I suppose I can guess." + +"This, ma'am," answered Starmidge, bending towards the pile of +newspapers and tapping a staring head-line with his finger. "I see +you've been reading it up. I have been in charge of this affair since +Monday last, and I came up to town last night about it--specially. You +will have read in this morning's paper that the body of Mr. Frederick +Hollis was found at Scarnham yesterday?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Lester, with a sigh. "I have read of that. Of course, I +knew Mr. Hollis--he was an old friend of my husband. I saw him last +week. But--what took Mr. Hollis down to Scarnham? I have been in the +habit of seeing Mr. Hollis constantly--regularly--and I never even heard +him mention Scarnham, nor any person living at Scarnham. There are many +persons mentioned in these newspaper accounts," continued Mrs. Lester, +"in connection with this affair whose names I never heard before--yet +they are mentioned as if Mr. Hollis had something to do with them. Why +did he go there?" + +"That, ma'am, is precisely what we want to find out from you!" replied +Starmidge, with a side glance at his fellow-detective. "It's just what +we've come for!" + +He was watching Mrs. Lester very closely as he spoke, and he saw that up +to that moment she had certainly no explanation in her own mind as to +the reason of this police visit. + +"But what can I tell you?" she exclaimed. "As I have said, I don't know +why Frederick Hollis went to Scarnham! He never mentioned Scarnham to me +when he was here last week." + +"Let me tell you something that is not in the papers--yet--ma'am," said +Starmidge. "I think it will explain matters to you. When we examined Mr. +Hollis's effects at Scarnham, yesterday morning, after the finding of +his body, we found in his letter-case a cheque for ten thousand +pounds----" + +Starmidge stopped suddenly. Mrs. Lester had started, and her pale face +had grown paler. Her eyes dilated as she looked at the two men. + +"A cheque!" she exclaimed. "For--ten thousand pounds. On--him? +And--whose cheque?" + +"It was a curious cheque, ma'am," replied Starmidge. "It was drawn on +Mr. Hollis's bankers, Vanderkiste, Mullineau & Company, of Lombard +Street. It was dated. It was filled in for ten thousand pounds--in words +and in figures. But it was not signed--and it was not made out to any +body. No name of payee, you understand, ma'am, no name of payer. But--it +is very evident Mr. Hollis made out that cheque intending to pay it +to--somebody. What we want to know is--who is--or was, that somebody? I +came up to town to try to find that out! I went to Mr. Hollis's bankers +this morning. They told me that last week Mr. Hollis paid into his +account there a cheque for ten thousand pounds, drawn by Helen Lester, +and told their manager that he should be drawing a cheque for his own +against it in a day or two. I then went to your bank, ma'am, saw your +bankers, and got your address. Now, Mrs. Lester, there's no doubt +whatever that the cheque which we found on Mr. Hollis is the cheque he +spoke of to Vanderkiste's manager. And we want you, if you please, to +tell us two things: For what purpose did you give Mr. Hollis ten +thousand pounds?--To whom was he to pay it? Tell us, ma'am--and we shall +have gone a long way to clearing this affair! And--it's more serious +than you'd think." + +Mrs. Lester, who had listened to Starmidge with absorbed and almost +frightened attention, looked anxiously at both men before she replied to +the detective's direct inquiry. + +"You will respect my confidence, of course?" she asked at last. +"Whatever I say to you will be in strict confidence?" + +"Whatever you tell us, Mrs. Lester," answered Starmidge, "we shall have +to report to our superiors at the Criminal Investigation Department. You +may rely on their discretion--fully. But if there is any secret in +this, ma'am, it will all have to come out, now that it's an affair of +police investigation. Far better tell us here and now!" + +"There'll be no publication of anything without Mrs. Lester's knowledge +and consent," remarked Easleby, who guessed at the reason of the lady's +diffidence. "This is a private matter, so far. All that she can tell us +will be for police information--only." + +"I shall have to mention the affairs of--some other person," said Mrs. +Lester. "But--I suppose it's absolutely necessary? Now that you know +what you do, for instance, I suppose I could be made to give evidence, +eh!" + +"I'm afraid you're quite right, ma'am," admitted Starmidge. "The mystery +of Mr. Hollis's death will certainly have to be cleared up. Now that +this cheque affair is out, you could be called as a witness at the +inquest. Better tell us, ma'am--and leave things to us." + +Mrs. Lester, after a moment's reflection, looked steadily at her +visitors. "Very well!" she answered, "I suppose I had better. Indeed, I +have been feeling, ever since my bankers rang me up this morning, that I +should have to tell you--though I still can't see how anything that I +can tell you has to do--that is, precisely--with Mr. Hollis's visit to +Scarnham. Yet--it may--perhaps must have. The fact is, I recently called +in Mr. Hollis, as an old friend, to give me some advice. I must tell you +that my husband died last year--now about eight months ago. We have an +only son--who is an officer in the Army." + +"You had better give us his name--and regiment, ma'am," suggested +Starmidge. + +Mrs. Lester hesitated a little. + +"Very well," she said at last. "He is Lieutenant Guy Lester, of the 55th +Lancers. Stationed where? At present at Maychester. Now I have got to +tell you what is both painful and unpleasant for me to tell. My husband, +though a very kind father, was a very strict one. When our son went +into the Army, his father made him a certain yearly allowance which he +himself considered a very handsome one. But my husband," continued Mrs. +Lester, with a faint smile, "had been engaged in commercial pursuits all +his life, until a year or two before his death, and he did not know that +the expenses, and the--well, the style of living in a crack cavalry +regiment are--what they are. More than once Guy asked his father to +increase his allowance--considerably. His father always refused--he was +a strict and, in some ways, a very hard man about money. And so--my son +had recourse to a money-lender." + +Starmidge, who was sitting close by his fellow-detective, pressed his +elbow against Easleby's sleeve--at last they were getting at something. + +"Just so, ma'am," he said encouragingly. "Nothing remarkable in all this +so far--quite an everyday matter, I assure you! Nothing for you to +distress yourself about, either--all that can be kept quiet." + +"Well," continued Mrs. Lester, "my son borrowed money from a +money-lender in London, expecting, of course, to pay it back on his +father's death. I must tell you that my husband married very late in +life--he was quite thirty years my senior. No doubt this money-lender +acquainted himself with Mr. Lester's age--and state of health." + +"He would, ma'am, he would!" agreed Starmidge. + +"He'd take particular good care of that, ma'am," added Easleby. "They +always do--in such cases." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Lester, "but, you see, when my husband died, he did not +leave Guy anything at all! He left everything to me. So Guy had nothing +to pay the money-lender with. Then, of course, the money-lender began to +press him, and in the end Guy was obliged to come and tell me all about +it. That was only a few weeks ago. And it was very bad news, because the +man claimed much--very much--more money than he had ever advanced. His +demands were outrageous!" + +Starmidge gave Mrs. Lester a keen glance, and realized an idea of her +innocence in financial matters. + +"Ah!" he observed, "they are very grasping, ma'am, some of these +money-lenders! How much was this particular one asking of your son, +now?" + +"He demanded between fourteen and fifteen thousand pounds," replied Mrs. +Lester. "An abominable demand!--for my son assured me that at the very +outside he had not had more than seven or eight thousand." + +"And--what happened, ma'am?" inquired Starmidge sympathetically. "The +man pestered you, of course!" + +"Guy made him one or two offers," answered Mrs. Lester. "Of course I +would have made them good--to get rid of the affair. It was no use--he +had papers and things signed by Guy--who had borrowed all the money +since he came of age--and he refused to abate a penny. The last time +that Guy called on him, he told him flatly that he would have his +fifteen thousand to the last shilling. It was, of course, extortion!" + +Starmidge and Easleby exchanged looks. Both felt that they were on the +very edge of a discovery. + +"To be sure, ma'am," asserted Starmidge. "Absolute extortion! And--what +is the name of the money-lending gentleman?" + +"His name," replied Mrs. Lester, "is Godwin Markham." + +"Did you ever see him, ma'am?" asked Starmidge. + +Mrs. Lester looked her astonishment. + +"I?" she exclaimed. "No--never!" + +"Did your son ever describe him to you?--his personal appearance, I +mean," inquired Starmidge. + +Mrs. Lester shook her head. + +"No!" she replied. "Indeed, I have heard my son say that he never saw +Markham himself but once. He did his--business, I suppose you would call +it--with the manager--who always said--when this recent pressing +began--that he was powerless--he could only do what Mr. Markham bade him +do." + +"Precisely!" said Starmidge. "There generally is a manager whose chief +business is to say that sort of thing, ma'am. Dear me!--and where, +ma'am, is this Mr. Godwin Markham's office? You know that, no doubt?" + +"Oh, yes--it is in Conduit Street--off New Bond Street," replied Mrs. +Lester. + +"Of course you never went there?" asked Starmidge. "No, of course not. +All was done through your son, until you called in Mr. Hollis. Now, when +did you call in Mr. Hollis, Mrs. Lester?--the date's important." + +"About a fortnight ago," replied Mrs. Lester--"I sent for him--I told +him all about it--I asked his advice. At his suggestion I gave him a +cheque for ten thousand pounds. He said he would make an endeavour to +settle the whole thing for that amount, and have everything cleared up. +He took the cheque away with him." + +"Between then--that day when he was here and you gave him the cheque," +asked Starmidge, "and last Saturday, when we know Mr. Hollis went to +Scarnham, did you hear of or from Mr. Hollis at all?" + +"Only in this way," replied Mrs. Lester. "When he left me, he said that +before approaching Markham, as intermediary, he should like to see Guy, +and hear what his account of the transactions was, and that he would ask +my son to come up to town from Maychester and meet him. I heard from Guy +at the end of last week--last Saturday morning, as a matter of +fact--that he had been to town, that he had lunched with Mr. Hollis at +Mr. Hollis's club, and that after discussing the whole affair, Mr. +Hollis said that he would make a determined effort to settle the matter +at once. And after that," concluded Mrs. Lester, "I heard no more or +anything until I read of this Scarnham affair in the newspapers." + +"And now that you have read it, ma'am, and have heard what I have to +tell," said Starmidge, "do you connect it in any way with Mr. Guy +Lester's affair?" + +Mrs. Lester looked puzzled. She considered the detective's proposition +in silence for a time. + +"No!" she answered at last. "Really, I don't!" + +Starmidge got up, and Easleby followed his lead. + +"Well, ma'am," said Starmidge, "there is a connection, without doubt, +and I think that within a very short time we shall have discovered what +it is. What you have told us has been of great assistance--the very +greatest assistance. And you can make your mind easy for the present--I +don't see any reason for any unpleasant publicity just now--in fact, I +think you'll find there won't be any. The unpleasant publicity, ma'am," +concluded Starmidge, with an almost imperceptible wink at Easleby, "will +be for--some other people." + +The two detectives bowed themselves out, re-entered their car, and were +driven on to Chesham. Neither had touched food since breakfast-time and +each was hungry. They discovered an old-fashioned hotel in the main +street of the little town, and were presently confronting a round of +cold beef, a cold ham, and two foaming tankards, in the snug parlour +which they had to themselves. + +"One result of our profession, young Starmidge," observed the +middle-aged Easleby, bending towards his companion over a well-filled +plate, "is that it makes a man indulge in a tremendous lot of what you +might call intellectual speculation!" + +"What are you speculating about?" asked Starmidge. + +"This--on information received," replied Easleby, as he lifted his +tankard. "There are the names of three Scarnham gentlemen before +me--Gabriel Chestermarke, Joseph Chestermarke, John Horbury. Now, +then--which of the three sports the other name of Godwin Markham?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +SPECULATION--AND CERTAINTY + + +Starmidge ate and drank in silence for awhile, evidently pondering his +companion's question. + +"Yes," he said at last, "there's all that in it. It may be any one of +the three. You never know! Yet, according to all I've been told, +Horbury's a thoroughly straight man of business." + +"According to all I've been told," remarked Easleby, "and all I've been +told about anything has been told by yourself, the two Chestermarkes +have the reputation of being thoroughly straight men of +business--outwardly. But one thing is certain, my lad, after what we've +just learned--Hollis went down to Scarnham to offer that cheque to one +of these three men. And whichever it was, that man's Godwin Markham! +It's a double-life business, Jack--the man's Godwin Markham here in +London, and he's somebody else in--somewhere else. Dead certainty, my +lad!" + +"It's not Horbury," said Starmidge, after some reflection. "I'll stake +my reputation, such as it is, on that!" + +"You don't know," replied Easleby. "Remember, Mrs. Lester said this son +of hers always did business with a manager. That's a usual thing with +these big money-lending offices--the real man doesn't show. For aught +you know, Horbury may have been running a money-lender's office in town, +unknown to anybody, under the name of Godwin Markham. And--he may have +wanted new funds for it, and he may have collared those securities which +the Chestermarkes say are missing, and he may have appropriated Lord +Ellersdeane's jewels--d'ye see? You never can tell--in any of these +cases. You see, my lad, you've been going, all along, on the basis, the +supposition, that Horbury's an innocent man, and the victim of foul +play. But--he may be a guilty man! Lord bless you!--I don't attach any +importance to reputation and character, not I! It isn't ten years since +Jim Chambers and myself had a case in point--a bank manager who was +churchwarden, Sunday-School teacher, this, that, and t'other in the way +of piety and respectability--all a cloak to cover as clever a bit of +thievery and fraud as ever I heard of!--he got ten years, that chap, and +he ought to have been hanged. As I say, you never can make certain. +Hollis may have found out that Godwin Markham of Conduit Street was in +reality John Horbury of Scarnham, and then----" + +"I'll tell you what!" interrupted Starmidge, who had been thinking as +well as listening. "There's a very sure and certain way of finding out +who Godwin Markham is! Do you remember?--Mrs. Lester said her son had +only seen him once. Well, once is enough!--he'd remember him. We must go +to Maychester right away and see this young Lester, and get him to +describe the man he saw." + +"Good notion, of course," assented Easleby. "Where is Maychester, now?" + +"Essex," replied Starmidge. + +"That would certainly be a solver," said Easleby. "But there's something +else we could do, following up your special line of thought. Now, honour +bright, which of these men do you take Godwin Markham to be?" + +"Gabriel Chestermarke!" answered Starmidge promptly. "It's established +that he's constantly in London--as much in London as in Scarnham. +Gabriel Chestermarke certainly--with, no doubt, Joseph in collusion. The +probability is that they run that money-lending office in Conduit Street +under the name of Godwin Markham. They're within the law." + +"What about the Moneylenders' Act?" asked Easleby. "Compulsory +registration, you know." + +"It's this way," explained Starmidge. "The object of that Act was to +enable a borrower to know for certain who it was that was lending him +the money he borrowed. So registration was made compulsory. But, as in +the case of many another Act of Parliament, Easleby, evasion is not only +possible, but easy. A money-lender can register in a name which isn't +his own if it's one which he generally uses in his business. So--there +you are! I've seen that name Godwin Markham advertised ever since I was +a youngster--it's an old established business, well known. There's +nothing to prevent Abraham Moses from styling himself Fitzwilliam +Simpkins, if he's always done business as Fitzwilliam Simpkins--see? +And--it's highly probable that, as he's so much in town, Gabriel +Chestermarke lives in town under the name of Godwin Markham--double-life +business, as you suggest. But you were going to suggest something else. +What?" + +"This," said Easleby. "You know that Gabriel Chestermarke went to +the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre the other night. Go +there--officially--and find out if he called there as Gabriel +Chestermarke. That'll solve a lot." + +"We'll both go!" assented Starmidge. "It's a good notion--I hadn't +thought of it. Whom shall we try to see?" + +"Top man of all," counselled Easleby. "Lessee, manager, whatever he is. +Our cards'll manage it." + +"I'm obliged to you, old man!" exclaimed Starmidge. "It's a bright idea! +Of course, somebody there'll know who the man was that called last +night--know his name, of course. And in that case----" + +"Aye, but don't you anticipate too much, my lad!" interrupted Easleby. +"There's no doubt that Gandam traced your Gabriel Chestermarke to the +stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre--and lost him there. But, you know, +for anything you know, Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of Scarnham, +may have had legitimate and proper business at that theatre. For aught +you know, Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke may be owner of that +theatre--ground-landlord--part-proprietor--financier. He may have a +mortgage on it. All sorts of reasons occur to me as to why Mr. Gabriel +Chestermarke may have called. He might be a personal friend of the +manager's, or the principal actor's--called to take 'em out to supper, +d'ye see, on his arrival in town. So--whoever we see there, you want to +go guardedly, eh?" + +"I'll tell you what," said Starmidge, "I'll leave it to you. I'll go +with you, of course, but you manage it." + +"Right, my lad!" assented Easleby. "All I shall want'll be a copy of +this morning's newspaper--to lead up from." + +One of the London morning journals had been making a great feature of +the Scarnham affair from the moment Parkinson, on Starmidge's +inspiration, had supplied the Press with its details, and it had that +day printed an exhaustive resume of the entire history of the case, +brought up to the discovery of Frederick Hollis's body. Easleby bought a +copy of this issue as soon as he and Starmidge returned to town, and +carefully blue-pencilled the cross-headed columns and the staring +capitals above them. With the folded paper in his hand, and Starmidge at +his heel, he repaired to the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre at a +quarter to eight, when the actors and actresses were beginning to pass +in for their evening's work and thrust his head into the glass-fronted +cage in which the stage door-keeper sat. + +"A word with you, mister," whimpered Easleby. "A quiet word, you +understand. Me and my friend here are from the Yard--New Scotland Yard, +you know, and we've an inquiry to make. Our cards, d'ye see?--I shall +ask you to take 'em inside in a minute. But first, a word with you. Do +you remember a gentleman coming here last night, late, who nodded to +you and walked straight in? Little, stiffly built gentleman, very pale +face, holds himself well up--what?" + +"I know him," answered the door-keeper, much impressed by the official +cards which Easleby held before his nose. "Seen him here many a time, +but I don't know his name. He's a friend of Mr. Castlemayne's, and he's +the entry, d'ye see--walks in as he likes." + +"Ah, just so--and who may Mr. Castlemayne be, now?" asked Easleby +confidentially. + +"Mr. Castlemayne?" repeated the door-keeper. "Why, he's the lessee, of +course!--the boss!" + +"Ah, the boss, is he?" said Easleby. "Much obliged to you, sir. Well, +now, then, just take these two cards to Mr. Castlemayne, will you, and +ask him if he'll be good enough to see their owners for a few minutes on +very important private business?" + +The door-keeper departed up a dark passage, and Easleby pointed +Starmidge to a playbill which hung, framed on the wall, behind them. + +"There you are!" he said, indicating a line near the big capitals at the +top. "'Lessee and Manager--Mr. Leopold Castlemayne.' That's our man. +Fancy name, of course--real name Tom Smith, or Jim Johnson, you know. +But, Lord bless you, what's in a name? Haven't we got a case in point?" + +"There's a good deal in what's in a name in our case, old man!" retorted +Starmidge. "You're off it there!" + +Easleby was about to combat this reply when a boy appeared, and +intimated that Mr. Castlemayne would see the gentlemen at once. And the +two detectives followed up one passage and down another, and round +corners and across saloons and foyers, until they were shown into a snug +room, half office, half parlour, very comfortably furnished and +ornamented, wherein, at a desk, and alone, sat a gentleman in evening +dress, whose countenance, well-fed though it was, seemed to be just then +clouded with suspicion and something that looked very like anxiety. He +glanced up from the cards which lay before him to the two men who had +sent them in, and silently pointed them to chairs near his own. + +"Good-evening, sir," said Easleby, with a polite bow. "Sorry to +interrupt you, Mr. Castlemayne, but you see our business from our cards, +and we've called, sir, to ask if you can give us a bit of much-wanted +information. I don't know, sir," continued Easleby, laying the +blue-pencilled newspaper on the lessee's desk, "if you've read in the +papers any account of the affair which is here called the Scarnham +Mystery!" + +Mr. Leopold Castlemayne glanced at the columns to which Easleby pointed, +rubbed his chin, and nodded. + +"Yes--yes!" he said. "I have just seen the papers. Case of a strange +disappearance--bank manager--isn't it?" + +"It's more than that, sir," replied Easleby. "It's a case of--all sorts +of things. Now you're wondering, Mr. Castlemayne, why we come to you? +I'll explain. You'll see there, sir, the name--blue-pencilled--Gabriel +Chestermarke. Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke is a banker at Scarnham. You +don't happen to know him, Mr. Castlemayne?" + +The two detectives watched the lessee narrowly as that question was put. +And each knew instantly that the prompt reply was a truthful one. + +"Never heard of him in my life," said Mr. Castlemayne. + +"Thank you, sir," said Easleby. "Just so! Well, sir, my friend +here--Detective-Sergeant Starmidge--has been down at Scarnham in charge +of this case from the first, and he's formed some ideas about this Mr. +Gabriel Chestermarke. Last night Gabriel Chestermarke travelled up to +town from Ecclesborough--Mr. Starmidge arranged for him to be shadowed +when he arrived at St. Pancras. A man of ours--not quite as experienced +as he might be, you understand, sir--did shadow him--and lost him. He +lost him here at your theatre, Mr. Castlemayne." + +"Ah!" said the lessee, half indifferently. "Got amongst the audience, I +suppose?" + +"No, sir," replied Easleby. "Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, sir, entered your +stage-door at about eleven-thirty--walked straight in. But he never came +out of that door--so he must have left by another exit." + +Mr. Leopold Castlemayne suddenly sat up very erect and rigid. His face +flushed a little, his lips parted; he looked from one man to the other. + +"Mr.--Gabriel--Chestermarke!" he said. "Entered my +stage-door--eleven-thirty--last night? Here!--describe him!" + +Easleby glanced at Starmidge. And Starmidge, as if he were describing a +picture, gave a full and accurate account of Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke's +appearance from head to foot. + +The lessee suddenly jumped from his chair, walked over to a door, opened +it, and looked into an inner room. Evidently satisfied, he closed the +door again, came back, seated himself, thrust his hands in his pockets, +and looked at the detectives. + +"All in confidence--strict confidence?" he said. "All right, then!--I +understand. I tell you, I don't know any Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, +of Scarnham! The man you've described--the man who came here last +night--is Godwin Markham, the Conduit Street money-lender--damn him!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE AGGRIEVED VICTIM + + +If Mr. Leopold Castlemayne's last word was expressive, his next actions +were suggestive and significant. Returning to the door of the inner +room, he turned the key in it; crossing to the door by which the +detectives had been shown in, he locked that also; proceeding to a +cupboard in an adjacent recess, he performed an unlocking process--after +which he produced a decanter, a syphon, three glasses, and a box of +cigars. He silently placed these luxuries on a desk before his visitors, +and hospitably invited their attention. + +"Yes!" he said presently, proceeding to help the two men to refreshment, +and pressing the cigars upon them, "I've good reason to say that, +gentlemen! Godwin Markham, indeed! I ought to know him! If I don't look +out, that devil of a bloodsucker is going to ruin me--he is, so!" + +Easleby gave Starmidge an almost imperceptible wink as he lighted a +cigar. It was evident that Mr. Leopold Castlemayne was not only willing +to talk, but was uncommonly glad to have somebody to talk to. Indeed, +his moody countenance began to clear as his tongue became unloosed; he +was obviously at that stage when a man is thankful to give confidences +to any fellow-creature. + +"I've done business with gentlemen of your profession before," he went +on, nodding to his visitors over the rim of his tumbler, "and I know +you're to be trusted--naturally, you hear a good many queer things and +queer secrets in your line of life. And as you come to me in confidence, +I'll tell you a thing or two in confidence. It may help you--if you're +certain that the man you're wanting is the man who came here last night. +Do you want him?" + +"We--may do," replied Easleby. "We don't know yet. Mr. Starmidge here is +much disposed to think that we shall. But let's be clear, sir. We're all +three agreed that we're talking about the same man? Starmidge has +accurately described a certain man who without doubt entered your +stage-door about eleven-thirty last night----" + +"And left, with me, by the box-office door, in the front street, a few +minutes later," murmured the lessee. "That's how it was." + +"Just so," agreed Easleby. "Now, Starmidge up to now has only known that +man as Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, senior partner in Chestermarke's Bank, +at Scarnham, while you, up to now----" + +"Have only known him as Godwin Markham, money-lender, financial agent, +and so on, of Conduit Street," interrupted Castlemayne. "And known him a +lot too much for my peace, I can tell you! Of course, we're talking of +the same man! I can quite believe he runs a double show. I know that +he's a great deal away from town. It's very rarely that he's to be +found at Conduit Street--very, very rarely indeed--he's a clever manager +there, who sees everybody and does everything. And I know that he's +quite two-thirds of his time away from his own house--so, of course, +he's got to put it in somewhere else." + +"His own house!" said Starmidge, catching at an idea which presented +itself. "You know where he lives in London, then, Mr. Castlemayne?" + +"Do I know where my own mother lives!" exclaimed the lessee. "I should +think I do! He's a neighbour of mine--lives close by me, up Primrose +Hill way. Nice little bachelor establishment he has--Oakfield Villa. +Spent many an evening there with him--Sunday evenings, of course. Oh, +yes--I know all about him--as Godwin Markham. Bless me!--so he's a +country banker, is he? And mixed up in this affair, eh? Gosh!--I hope +you'll find out that he murdered his manager, and that you'll be able to +hang him--I'd treat the town to a free show if you could hang him in +public on my stage, I would, indeed!" + +"You were going to tell us something, sir?" suggested Easleby. +"Something that you thought might help us." + +"I hope it will help you--and me, too!" responded Castlemayne, who was +obviously incensed and truculent. "'Pon my honour, when I got your +cards, I wondered if I'd been sleep-walking last night, and had gone and +done for this man--I really did! It was all I could do to keep from +punching his nose last night in the open street, and I left him feeling +very bad indeed! It's this way--I dare say you know that men like me, +in this business, want a bit of financing when we start. All right!--we +do, like most other people. Now, when I thought of taking up the lease +of this spot, a few years ago, I wanted money. I knew this man Markham +as a neighbour, and I mentioned the matter to him, not knowing then he +was the Markham of Conduit Street. He let me know who he was, then, and +he offered to do things privately--no need to go to his office, do you +see? And--he found me in necessary capital. And I dare say I signed +papers without thoroughly understanding 'em. And, of course, when you +get into the hands of a fellow like that, it's like putting your foot on +a piece of butter in the street--you're down before you know what's +happened! But I ain't down yet, my boys!" concluded Mr. Castlemayne, +drinking off the contents of his glass, and replenishing it. "And damme +if I'm going to be, without a bit of a fight for it, that I ain't!" + +"Putting some pressure on you, I suppose, sir?" suggested Easleby, who +knew that their host would tell anything and everything if left to +himself. "Wants his pound of flesh, no doubt?" + +This Shakespearean allusion appeared to be lost on the lessee, but he +evidently understood what pressure meant. + +"Pressure!" he exclaimed. "Yah!--there's nothing would suit that fellow +better than to have one of his victims under one of those steam-hammers +that they have nowadays, and to bring it down on him till he'd crushed +the last drop of blood out of his toes! Pressure!--I'll tell you! This +place didn't do well at first--everybody in town, in our line, anyway, +knows that--but even in these days I paid him his interest regular--down +on the nail, mind, as prompt as the date came round. But now--things are +different. I'm doing well--in a bit I could pay my gentleman off--though +not just yet. But there's big money ahead--this house has caught on, got +a reputation, become popular. And now what d'ye think my lord +wants--what he's screwing me for? Turns out that in one of those +confounded papers I signed there's a clause, that if I didn't repay him +by a certain date I should surrender my lease to him! I no doubt signed +it, not quite understanding--but damme if he didn't keep it dark till +the date was expired! And now, when I've worked things up, not only as +lessee, mind you, but as manager--to success and big prospects, hanged +if he doesn't want to collar my lease with all its fine possibilities, +and put me into work for him at a blooming salary!" + +"Dear me, sir!" exclaimed Easleby. "Now--what might that exactly mean? +We're not up in these matters, you know." + +"Mean?" vociferated the lessee. "It 'ud mean this. I've paid that man as +much in interest as the original loan was. He now wants my lease, all my +interest, all my chances of reward--this lease is worth many a thousand +a year now! If I surrender my lease peaceably--without fuss, you +understand--he'll wipe off my original debt to him and give me a +blooming salary of twenty-five quid a week--me! Gosh!--he ought to be +burnt alive!" + +"And if you don't?" asked Starmidge, deeply interested by this +sidelight on financial dealings. "What then?" + +"Then he relies on his damn paper and my signature to it, and turns me +out!" replied the aggrieved one. "Thievery!--that's what I call it. +That's his blooming ultimatum--came in last night to tell me. I hope +you'll catch him and hang him!" + +The two detectives had long since realized that Mr. Leopold +Castlemayne's interest in the banker-money-lender was a purely personal +one, based on his own unlucky dealings with him. But they wished for +something outside that interest, and Starmidge, after a word or two of +condolence, and another of advice to go to a shrewd and smart solicitor, +asked a plain question. + +"You say you've been on terms of--shall we call it neighbourly +intimacy?--with this man," he remarked. "Have you ever met his nephew?" + +The lessee made a face expressive of deep scorn. + +"Nephew!" he exclaimed. "Yah!--d'ye think a fellow like that 'ud have a +nephew? I don't believe he's any relations that's flesh and blood! I +don't believe he ever had a mother! I believe he's one of these ghouls +you read about in the story-books--what's he look like? A +bloodsucker!--that's what he is!" + +Starmidge gave his host an accurate description of Joseph Chestermarke. + +"Did you ever see a man like that at this Markham's house?" he asked. + +"Never!" answered the lessee. + +"Or at his office?" persisted Starmidge. + +"No--don't know such a man! I've only been to the offices in Conduit +Street a few times," said Castlemayne. "The chap you see there is a +fellow called Stipp--Mr. James Stipp. A nice, smooth-tongued, +mealy-mouthed chap--you know. I say--d'ye think you'll be able to fasten +anything on to Markham, or Chestermarke, or whatever his name is?" + +Easleby responded jocularly that they certainly wouldn't if they sat +there, and after solemnly assuring Mr. Leopold Castlemayne that his +confidence would be severely respected, he and Starmidge went away. Once +outside they walked for awhile in silence, each reflecting on what he +had just heard. + +"Well," remarked Starmidge at last, "we're certain on one point now, +anyway. Godwin Markham, money-lender, of Conduit Street, is the same +person as Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of Scarnham. That's flat! And +now that we've got to know that much, how much nearer am I to finding +out the real thing that I'm after?" + +"Which is--exactly what?" asked Easleby. + +"I was called in," answered Starmidge, "to find out the secret of John +Horbury's disappearance. It isn't my business to interfere with Gabriel +Chestermarke or Godwin Markham in his money-lending affairs--nor to +trace Lord Ellersdeane's missing jewels. My job is--to find John +Horbury, or to get to know what happened to him." + +"And all this helps," answered Easleby. "Haven't you got anything?" + +"Don't know that I have," admitted Starmidge. "Just now, anyway. I've +had a dozen ideas--but they're a bit mixed at present. Have you--after +what we've found out?" + +"What sort of banking business is it the Chestermarkes carry on down +there at Scarnham?" asked Easleby. "I suppose you'd get a general idea." + +"Usual thing in a small country town," replied Starmidge. "Highly +respectable, county family business, I should say, from what I saw and +heard." + +"All the squires, and the parsons, and the farmers, and better sort of +tradesmen go to 'em, I suppose?" suggested Easleby. "And all the nice +old ladies and that sort--an extra-respectable connection, eh?" + +"Just as I say--regular country-town business," said Starmidge, half +impatiently. + +"Um!" remarked Easleby. "Now, if you were a highly respectable +country-town banker, with a connection of that sort amongst very proper +people, and if it so happened that you were living a double life, and +running a money-lending business in London, do you think you'd want your +banking customers to know what you were after when you weren't banking!" + +"What do you think he'd do?" asked Starmidge. + +"I'm not quite sure," replied Easleby, with candour. "But I think I +shall get there, all the same. Now, didn't you say that from all the +accounts supplied to you, this Mr. John Horbury was an eminently proper +sort of person? Very well--supposing it suddenly came to his knowledge +that his employer--or employers, for I expect both Chestermarkes are in +at it--were notorious money-lenders in London, and that they carried on +this secret business in the greedy and grasping fashion--what do you +suppose he'd do?--especially if he was, as you say Horbury was, a man of +considerable means?" + +"What do you think he'd do?" asked Starmidge. + +"I think it's quite on the cards that he'd chuck his job there and +then," said Easleby, "and not only that, but that he'd probably threaten +exposure. Men of a very severe type of commercial religion would, my +lad!--I know 'em!" + +"You're suggesting--what?" inquired the younger detective. + +"I'm suggesting that on that night of Hollis's visit to Scarnham, +Horbury, through Hollis, became acquainted with the Chestermarke +secret," replied Easleby, "and that he let the Chestermarkes know it. +And in that case--what would happen?" + +Starmidge walked slowly on at his companion's side, thinking. He was +trying to fit together a great many things; he felt as a child feels who +is presented with a puzzle in many pieces and told to put them together. + +"I know what you're after," he said suddenly. "You think the +Chestermarkes murdered Horbury?" + +"If you want it plain and straight," replied Easleby, "I do!" + +"There's the other man--Hollis," suggested Starmidge. + +"I should say they finished him as well," said Easleby. "Easy enough +job, that, on the evidence. Supposing one of 'em took Hollis off, alone, +across that moor you've told me about, and induced him to look into that +old lead-mine? What easier than to push him into it? Meanwhile, the +other could settle Horbury. Murder, my lad!--that's what all this comes +to. I've known men murdered for less than that." + +Again Starmidge reflected in silence. + +"There's only one thing puzzles me on that point," he said eventually. +"It's not a puzzle, either--it's a doubt. Do you think the +Chestermarkes--or, we'll say Gabriel, as we're certain about him--do you +think Gabriel would be so keen about keeping his secret as to go to that +length? Do you think he's cultivated it as a secret--that it's been a +really important secret?" + +"We can soon solve that," answered Easleby. "At least--tomorrow +morning." + +"How?" demanded Starmidge. + +"By calling," said Easleby, "on Mr. Godwin Markham, in Conduit Street." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +MRS. CARSWELL? + + +Starmidge looked at his companion as if in doubt about Easleby's exact +meaning. + +"According to what the theatre chap said just now," he remarked, +"Markham is very rarely to be found in Conduit Street." + +"Exactly," agreed Easleby. "That's why I want to go there." + +Starmidge shook his head. + +"Don't follow!" he said. "Make it clear." + +Easleby tapped his fellow-detective's arm. + +"You said just now--would Gabriel Chestermarke be so keen about keeping +his secret as to go to any length in keeping it," he answered "Now I say +we can solve that by calling at his office. His manager, as Castlemayne +told us, is one Stipp--Mr. Stipp. I propose to see Mr. Stipp. You and I +must be fools if, inside ten minutes, we can't find out if Stipp knows +that Godwin Markham is Gabriel Chestermarke! We will find out! And if we +find out that Stipp doesn't know that, if we find that Stipp is utterly +unaware that there is such a person as Gabriel Chestermarke, or, at any +rate, that he doesn't connect Gabriel Chestermarke with Godwin +Markham--why, then----" + +He ended with a dry laugh, and waved his hand as if the matter were +settled. But Starmidge had a love of precision, and liked matters to be +put in plain words. + +"Well--and what then?" he demanded. + +"What, then?" exclaimed Easleby. "Why, then we shall know, for a +certainty, that Gabriel Chestermarke is keen about his secret! If he +keeps it from the man who does his business for him here in London, he'd +go to any length to keep it safe if it was threatened by his manager at +Scarnham. Is that clear, my lad?" + +The two men in the course of their slow strolling away from the Adalbert +Theatre had come to the end of Shaftesbury Avenue, and had drawn aside +from the crowds during the last minute or two to exchange their +confidences in private. + +Starmidge looked meditatively at the thronging multitudes of Piccadilly +Circus, and watched them awhile before he answered his companion's last +observation. + +"I don't want to precipitate matters," he said at last. "I don't want an +anti-climax. Suppose we found Markham--or Chestermarke--there? Or +supposing he came in?" + +"Excellent!--in either case," replied Easleby. "Serve our purpose equally +well. If he's there, you betray the greatest surprise at seeing him--you +can act up to that. If he should come in, you're equally surprised--see! +We haven't gone there about any Chestermarke, you know--we aren't going +to let it out there that we know what we do know--not likely!" + +"What have we gone there for then?" asked Starmidge. + +"We've gone to say that Mrs. Helen Lester, of Lowdale Court, near +Chesham, has informed us, the police, that she placed a certain sum of +money in the hands of her friend, Mr. Frederick Hollis, for the purpose +of clearing off a debt contracted by her son, Lieutenant Lester, with +Mr. Godwin Markham; that Mr. Hollis had been found dead under strange +circumstances at Scarnham, and that we should be vastly obliged to Mr. +Markham if he can give us any information or light on the matter, or +hints about it," replied Easleby. "That, of course, is what we shall +say--and all that we shall say--to Mr. James Stipp. If, however, we find +Gabriel Chestermarke there--well, then, we shall say nothing--at first. +We shall leave him to do the saying--it'll be his job to begin." + +"All right," assented Starmidge, after a moment's reflection. "We'll try +it! Meet you tomorrow morning, then--corner of Conduit Street and New +Bond Street--say at ten-thirty. Now I'm going home." + +Starmidge, being a bachelor, tenanted a small flat in Westminster, +within easy reach of headquarters. He repaired to it immediately on +leaving Easleby, intent on spending a couple of hours in ease and +comfort before retiring to bed. But he had scarcely put on his slippers, +lighted his pipe, mixed a whisky-and-soda, and picked up a book, when a +knock at his outer door sent him to open it and to find Gandam standing +in the lobby. Gandam glanced at him with a smile which was half +apologetic and half triumphant. + +"I've been to the office after you, Mr. Starmidge," he said. "They gave +me your address, so I came on here." + +Starmidge saw that the man was full of news, and he motioned him to +enter and led him to his sitting-room. + +"You've heard something, then?" he asked. + +"Seen something, Mr. Starmidge," answered Gandam, taking the chair which +Starmidge pointed to. "I'm afraid I didn't hear anything--I wish I had!" + +Starmidge gave his visitor a drink and dropped into his own easy-chair +again. + +"Chestermarke, of course!" he suggested. "Well--what!" + +"I happened to catch sight of him this evening," replied Gandam. "Sheer +accident it was--but there's no mistaking him. Half-past six I was +coming along Piccadilly, and I saw him leaving the Camellia Club. +He----" + +"What sort of a club's that, now?" asked Starmidge. + +"Social club--men about town, sporting men, actors, journalists, so on," +replied Gandam. "I know a bit about it--had a case relating to it not so +long ago. Well--he went along Piccadilly, and, of course, I followed +him--I wasn't going to lose sight of him after that set-back of last +night, Mr. Starmidge! He crossed the Circus, and went into the Cafe +Monico. I followed him in there. Do you know that downstairs saloon +there?" + +"I know it," assented Starmidge. + +"He went straight down to it," continued Gandam. "And as I knew that he +didn't know me, I presently followed. When I'd got down he'd taken a +seat at a table in a quiet corner, and the waiter was bringing him a +glass of sherry. There was a bit of talk between 'em--Chestermarke +seemed to be telling the waiter that he was expecting somebody, and he'd +wait a bit before giving an order. So I sat down--in another corner--and +as I judged it was going to be a longish job, I ordered a bit of dinner. +Of course I kept an eye on him--quietly. He read a newspaper, smoked a +cigarette, and sipped his sherry. And at last--perhaps ten minutes after +he'd got in--a woman came down the stairs, looked round, and went +straight over to where he was sitting." + +"Describe her," said Starmidge. + +"Tallish, very good figure, very good-looking, well-dressed, but +quietly," replied Gandam. "Had a veil on when she came in, but lifted it +when she sat down by Chestermarke. What I should call a handsome woman, +Mr. Starmidge--and, I should say, about thirty-five to forty. Dark hair, +dark eyes--taking expression." + +"Mrs. Carswell, for a fiver!" thought Starmidge. "Well?" he said aloud. +"You say she went straight over to him?" + +"Straight to him--and began talking at once," answered Gandam. "It +seemed to me that it was what you might call an adjourned meeting--they +began talking as if they were sort of taking up a conversation. But she +did most of the talking. He ordered some dinner for both of 'em as soon +as she came--she talked while they ate. Of course, being right across +the room from them, I couldn't catch a word that was said, but she +seemed to be explaining something to him the whole time, and I could see +he was surprised--more than once." + +"It must have been something uncommonly surprising to make him show +signs of surprise!" muttered Starmidge, who had a vivid recollection of +Gabriel Chestermarke's granite countenance. "Yes?--go on." + +"They were there about three-quarters of an hour," continued Gandam. "Of +course, I ate my dinner while they ate theirs, and I took good care not +to let them see that I was watching them. As soon as I saw signs of a +move on their part--when she began putting on her gloves--I paid my +waiter and slipped out upstairs to the front entrance. I got a taxi-cab +driver to pull up by the kerb and wait for me, and told him who I was +and what I was after, and that if those two got into a cab he was to +follow wherever they went--cautiously. Gave him a description of the +man, you know. Then I hung round till they came out. They parted at +once--she went off up Regent Street----" + +"I wish you'd had another man with you!" exclaimed Starmidge. "I'd give +a lot to get hold of that woman. She's probably the housekeeper who +disappeared from the bank, you know." + +"So I guessed, Mr. Starmidge, but what could I do?" said Gandam. "I +couldn't follow both, and it was the man you'd put me on to. I decided, +of course, for him. Well--he tried to get my cab; when he found it was +engaged, he walked on a bit to the corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and got +one there. And, of course, we followed. A longish follow, too!--right +away up to the back of Regent's Park. You know those detached +houses--foot of Primrose Hill? It's one of those--he was a cute chap, my +driver, and he contrived to slow down and keep well behind, and yet to +see where Chestermarke got out. The name of the house is Oakfield +Villa--it's on the gateposts. Of course, I made sure. I sent my man +off--and then I hung round some time, passing and re-passing once or +twice. And I saw Chestermarke in a front room--the blinds were not +drawn--and he was in a smoking-cap and jacket, so I reckoned he was safe +for the night. But I can watch the house all night if you think it's +necessary, you know, Mr. Starmidge." + +"No!" answered Starmidge. "Not at all. But I'll tell you what--you be +about there first thing tomorrow morning. Can you hang about without +attracting attention?" + +"Easily!" replied Gandam. "Easiest thing in the world. Do you know where +a little lodge stands, as you go into Primrose Hill, the St. John's Wood +side? Well, his house is close by that. On the other side of the road +there's a little path leading over a bridge into the Park--close by the +corner of the Zoo--I can watch from that path. You can rely on me, Mr. +Starmidge. I'll not lose sight of him this time." + +Starmidge saw that the man was deeply anxious to atone for his mistake +of the previous night, and he nodded assent. + +"All right," he said, "but--take another man with you. Two are better +than one in a job like that--and Chestermarke might be meeting that +woman again. Watch the house carefully tomorrow morning from first +thing--follow him wherever he goes. If he should meet the woman, and +they part after meeting, one of you follow her. And listen--I shall be +at headquarters at twelve o'clock tomorrow. Contrive to telephone me +there as to what you're doing. But--don't lose him--or her, if you see +her again." + +"One thing more," said Gandam, as he rose to go. "Supposing he goes off +by train? Do I follow?" + +"No," answered Starmidge after a moment's reflection, "but manage to +find out where he goes." + +He sat and thought a long time after his visitor had left, and his +thoughts all centred on one fact: the undoubted fact that Gabriel +Chestermarke and Mrs. Carswell had met. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE PORTRAIT + + +The offices of Mr. Godwin Markham, at which the two detectives presented +themselves soon after half-past ten next morning, were by no means +extensive in size or palatial in appearance. They were situated in the +second floor of a building in Conduit Street, and apparently consisted +of no more than two rooms, which, if not exactly shabby, were somewhat +well-worn as to furniture and fittings. It was evident, too, that Mr. +Godwin Markham's clerical staff was not extensive. There was a young man +clerk, and a young woman clerk in the outer office: the first was +turning over a pile of circulars at the counter; the second, seated at a +typewriter, was taking down a letter which was being dictated to her by +a man who, still hatted and overcoated, had evidently just arrived, and +was leaning against the mantelpiece with his hands in his pockets. He +was a very ordinary, plain-countenanced, sandy-haired, quite +commercial-looking man, this, who might have been anything from a Stock +Exchange clerk to a suburban house-agent. But there was a sudden +alertness in his eye as he turned it on the visitors, which showed them +that he was well equipped in mental acuteness, and probably as alert as +his features were commonplace. + +The circular-sorting young man looked up with indifference as Easleby +approached the counter, and when the detective asked if Mr. Godwin +Markham could be seen, turned silently and interrogatively to the man +who leaned against the mantelpiece. He, interrupting his dictation, came +forward again, narrowly but continually eyeing the two men. + +"Mr. Markham is not in town, gentlemen," he said, in a quick, +business-like fashion, which convinced Starmidge that the speaker was +not uttering any mere excuse. "He was here yesterday for an hour or two, +but he will be away for some days now. Can I do anything for you?--his +manager." + +Easleby handed over the two professional cards which he had in +readiness, and leaned across the counter. + +"A word or two in private," he whispered confidentially. "Business +matter." + +Starmidge, watching Mr. James Stipp's face closely as he looked at the +cards, saw that he was not the sort of man to be taken unawares. There +was not the faintest flicker of an eyelid, not a motion of the lips, not +the tiniest start of surprise, no show of unusual interest on the +manager's part: he nodded, opened a door in the counter, and waved the +two detectives towards the inner room. + +"Be seated, gentlemen," he said, following them inside. "You'll excuse +me a minute--important letter to get off--I won't keep you long." + +He closed the door upon them and Starmidge and Easleby glanced round +before taking the chairs to which Mr. Stipp had pointed. There was +little to see. A big, roomy desk, middle-Victorian in style, some heavy +middle-Victorian chairs, a well-worn carpet and rug, a book-case filled +with peerages, baronetages, county directories, Army lists, Navy lists, +and other similar volumes of reference to high life, a map or two on the +walls, a heavy safe in a corner--these things were all there was to look +at. Except one thing--which Starmidge was quick to see. Over the +mantelpiece, with an almanac on one side of it, and an interest-table on +the other, hung a somewhat faded photograph of Gabriel Chestermarke. + +The younger detective tapped his companion's arm and silently indicated +this grim counterfeit of the man in whose doings they were so keenly +interested just then. + +"That's--the man!" he whispered. "Chestermarke! Gabriel!" + +Easleby opened mouth and eyes and stared with eager interest. + +"Egad!" he muttered. "That's lucky! Makes it all the easier. I'll lay +you anything you like, my lad, this manager doesn't know anything--not a +thing!--about the double identity business. We shall soon find +out--leave it to me--at first, anyway. A few plain questions----" + +Mr. Stipp came bustling in, closing the door behind him. He took off +overcoat and hat, ran his fingers through his light hair, and, seating +himself, glanced smilingly at his visitors. + +"Well, gentlemen!" he demanded. "What can I do for you now? Want to make +some inquiries?" + +"Just a few small inquiries, sir," replied Easleby. "I haven't the +pleasure of knowing your name--Mr.----?" + +"Stipp's my name, sir," answered the manager promptly. "Stipp--James +Stipp." + +"Thank you, sir," said Easleby, with great politeness. "Well, Mr. Stipp, +you see from our cards who we are. We've called on you--as representing +Mr. Godwin Markham--on behalf--informally, Mr. Stipp--of Mrs. Lester, of +Lowdale Court, Chesham." + +Mr. Stipp's face showed a little surprise at this announcement, and he +glanced from one man to the other as if he were puzzled. + +"Oh!" he said. "Dear me! Why--what has Mrs. Lester called you in for?" + +Easleby, who had brought another marked newspaper with him, laid it on +the manager's desk. + +"You've no doubt read of this Scarnham affair, Mr. Stipp?" he asked, +pointing to his own blue pencillings. "Most people have, I think. Or +perhaps it's escaped your notice." + +"Hardly could!" answered Mr. Stipp, with a friendly smile. "Yes--I've +read it. Most extraordinary! One of the most puzzling cases I ever did +read. Are you in at it? But this call hasn't anything to do with that, +surely? If it has--what?" + +"This much," answered Easleby. "Mrs. Lester has told us, of course, that +her son, the young officer, is in debt to your governor. Well, last +week, Mrs. Lester handed a certain sum of money to the Mr. Frederick +Hollis who's been found dead at Scarnham, to be applied to the +settlement of her son's liability in that respect." + +Mr. Stipp showed undoubted surprise at this announcement. + +"She did!" he exclaimed. "Gave Mr. Hollis money--for that? Why!--Mr. +Hollis never told me of it!" + +In the course of a long professional experience Easleby had learned to +control his facial expression; Starmidge was gradually progressing +towards perfection in that art. But each man was hard put to it to check +an expression of astonishment. And Easleby showed some slight sign of +perplexity when he replied. + +"Mr. Hollis has--called on you, then?" he said. + +"Hollis was here last Friday afternoon," answered Mr. Stipp. "Called on +me at five o'clock--just before I was leaving for the day. He never +offered me any money! Glad if he had--it's time young Lester paid up." + +"What did Hollis come for, then, if that's a fair question?" asked +Easleby. + +"He came, I should say, to take a look at us, and find out who he'd got +to deal with," replied the manager, smiling. "In plain language, to make +an inquiry or two. He told me he'd been empowered by Mrs. Lester to deal +with us, and he wanted the particulars of what we'd advanced to her son, +and he got them--from me. But he never made me any offer. He just found +out what he wanted to know--and went away." + +"And, evidently, next day travelled to Scarnham," observed Easleby. +"Now, Mr. Stipp, have you any idea whether his visit to Scarnham was in +connection with the money affair of yours and young Lester's?" + +Again the look of undoubted surprise; again the appearance of genuine +perplexity. + +"I?" exclaimed Mr. Stipp. "Not the least! Not the ghost of an idea! What +could his visit to Scarnham have to do with us? Nothing!--that I know +of, anyway." + +"You don't think it rather remarkable that Mr. Hollis should go down +there the very day after he called on you?" asked Starmidge, putting in +a question for the first time. + +"Why should I?" asked Mr. Stipp. "What do I know about him and his +arrangements? He never mentioned Scarnham to me." + +Easleby laid a finger on the marked newspaper. + +"You see some names of Scarnham people there, Mr. Stipp?" he observed. +"Those names--Horbury--Chestermarke. You don't happen to know 'em?" + +"I don't know them," replied the manager, with obvious sincerity. +"Banking people, all of them, aren't they? I might have heard their +names, in a business way, some time--but I don't recall them at all." + +"You said that Mr. Markham was here yesterday," suggested Starmidge. +"Did you tell him--you'll excuse my asking, but it's important--did you +tell him that Hollis had called last Friday on behalf of Mrs. Lester?" + +"I just mentioned it," replied Mr. Stipp. "He took no particular +notice--except to say that what we claim from young Lester will have to +be--paid." + +"You don't know if he knew Hollis?" inquired Starmidge. + +The manager shook his head in a fashion which seemed to indicate that +Hollis's case was no particular business of either his or his +principal's. + +"I don't think he did," he answered. "Never said so, anyhow. But, I say! +you'll excuse me, now--what is it you're trying to get at? Do you think +Hollis went to Scarnham on this business of young Lester's? And if you +do, why?" + +Easleby rose, and Starmidge followed his example. + +"We don't know yet--exactly--why Hollis went to Scarnham," said the +elder detective. "We hoped you could help us. But, as you can't--well, +we're much obliged, Mr. Stipp. That your governor over the chimney-piece +there?" + +"Taken a few years ago," replied Mr. Stipp carelessly. "I say--you don't +know what Hollis was empowered to offer us, do you?" + +The two detectives looked at each other; a quiet nod from Starmidge +indicated that he left it to Easleby to answer this question. And after +a moment's reflection, Easleby spoke. + +"Mr. Hollis was empowered to offer ten thousand pounds in full +satisfaction, Mr. Stipp," he said. "And what's more--a cheque for that +amount was found on his dead body when it was discovered. Now, sir, +you'll understand why we want to know who it was that he went to see at +Scarnham!" + +Both men were watching the money-lender's manager with redoubled +attention. But it needed no very keen eye to see that the surprise which +Mr. Stipp had already shown at various stages of the interview was +nothing to that which he now felt. And in the midst of his astonishment +the two detectives bade him good-day and left him, disregarding an +entreaty to stop and tell him more. + +"My lad!" said Easleby, when he and Starmidge were out in the street +again, "that chap has no more conception that his master is Gabriel +Chestermarke than we had--twenty-four hours since--that Gabriel +Chestermarke and Godwin Markham are one and the same man. He's a clever +chap, this Gabriel--and now you can see how important it's been for him +to keep his secret. What's next to be done? We ought to keep in touch +with him from now." + +"I'm expecting word from Gandam at noon at headquarters," answered +Starmidge, who had already told Easleby of the visit of the previous +night. "Let's ride down there and hear if any message has come in." + +But as their taxi-cab turned out of Whitehall into New Scotland Yard +they overtook Gandam, hurrying along. Starmidge stopped the cab and +jumped out. + +"Any news?" he asked sharply. + +"He's off, Mr. Starmidge!" replied Gandam. "I've just come straight from +watching him away. He left his house about nine-twenty, walked to the +St. John's Wood Station, went down to Baker Street, and on to King's +Cross Metropolitan. We followed him, of course. He walked across to St. +Pancras, and left by the ten-thirty express." + +"Did you manage to find out where he booked for!" demanded Starmidge. + +"Ecclesborough," answered Gandam. "Heard him! I was close behind." + +"He was alone, I suppose?" asked Starmidge. + +"Alone all the time, Mr. Starmidge," assented Gandam. "Never saw a sign +of the other party." + +Starmidge rejoined Easleby. For the last twenty-four hours he had let +his companion supervise matters, but now, having decided on a certain +policy, he took affairs into his own hands. + +"Now, then," he said, "he's off--back to Scarnham. A word or two at the +office, Easleby, and I'm after him. And you'll come with me." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE LIGHTNING FLASH + + +At half-past seven that evening Starmidge and Easleby stepped out of a +London express at Ecclesborough, and walked out to the front of the +station to get a taxi-cab for Scarnham. The newsboys were rushing across +the station square with the latest editions of the evening papers, and +Starmidge's quick ear caught the meaning of their unfamiliar +North-country shoutings. + +"Latest about the Scarnham mystery," he said, stopping a lad and taking +a couple of papers from him. "Something about the adjourned inquest--of +course that would be today. Now then--what's this?" + +He drew aside to a quiet corner of the station portico, and with his +companion looking over his shoulder, read aloud a passage from the +latest of the two papers. + +"'An important witness gave evidence this afternoon at the adjourned +inquest held at Scarnham on the body of Mr. Frederick Hollis, solicitor, +of London, who was recently found lying dead at the bottom of one of the +old lead-mines in Ellersdeane Hollow. It will be remembered that the +circumstances of this discovery--already familiar to our +readers--allied with the mysterious disappearance of Mr. John Horbury, +and the presumed theft of the Countess of Ellersdeane's jewels, seem to +indicate an extraordinary crime, and opinion varies considerably in the +Scarnham district as to whether Mr. Hollis--the reason of whose visit to +Scarnham is still unexplained--fell into the old mine by accident, or +whether he was thrown in. + +"'At the beginning of the proceedings this afternoon, a shepherd named +James Livesey, of Ellersdeane, employed by Mr. Marchant, farmer, of the +same place, was immediately called. He stated in answer to questions put +by the Coroner, that on Monday morning last he had gone with his +employer to an out-of-the-way part of Northumberland to buy new stock, +and in consequence of his absence from home had not heard of the +Scarnham affair until his return this morning, when, on Mr. Marchant's +advice, he had at once called on the Coroner's office to volunteer +information. + +"'Livesey's evidence, in brief, was as follows: At nine o'clock last +Saturday evening, he was walking home from Scarnham to Ellersdeane by a +track which crosses the Hollow, and cuts into the high road between the +town and the village at a point near the Warren, an isolated house which +is the private residence of Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of +Scarnham. As he reached this point, he saw Mr. John Horbury, whom he +knew very well by sight, accompanied by a stranger, come out of the +Hollow by another path, cross the high road, and walk down the lane +which leads to the Warren. They were talking very earnestly, but Mr. +Horbury saw him and said good-night in answer to his own greeting. There +was a strong moonlight at the time, and he saw the stranger's face +clearly. He was quite sure that the stranger was the dead man whose body +had just been shown to him at the mortuary. + +"'Questioned further, Livesey positively adhered to all his statements. +He was certain of the time; certain of the identity of the two +gentlemen. He knew Mr. Horbury very well indeed; had known him for many +years; Mr. Horbury had often talked to him when they met in the fields +and lanes of the neighbourhood. He had no doubt at all that the dead man +he had seen in the mortuary was the gentleman who was with Mr. Horbury +on Saturday night. He had noticed him particularly as the two gentlemen +passed him, and had wondered who he was. The moon was very bright that +night: he saw Mr. Hollis quite plainly: he would have known him again at +any time. He was positive that the two gentlemen entered the lane which +led to Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke's house. They were evidently making a +direct line for it when he first saw them, and they crossed the high +road straight to its entrance. That lane led nowhere else than to the +Warren--it was locally called the lane, but it was really a sort of +carriage-drive to Mr. Chestermarke's front door, and there was a gate at +the high-road entrance to it. He saw Mr. Horbury and his companion enter +that gate; he heard it clash behind them. + +"'Questioned by Mr. Polke, superintendent of police at Scarnham, Livesey +said that when he first saw the two gentlemen they were coming from the +direction of Ellersdeane Tower. There was a path right across the +Hollow, from a point in front of the Warren, to the Tower, and thence to +the woods on the Scarnham side. That was the path the two gentlemen were +on. He was absolutely certain about the time, for two reasons. Just +before he saw Mr. Horbury and his companion, he heard the clock at +Scarnham Parish Church strike nine, and after they had passed him he had +gone on to the Green Archer public-house, and had noticed that it was +ten minutes past nine when he entered. Further questioned, he said he +saw no one else on the Hollow but the two gentlemen. + +"'At the conclusion of Livesey's evidence, the Coroner announced to the +jury that, having had the gist of the witness's testimony communicated +to him earlier in the day, he had sent his officer to request Mr. +Gabriel Chestermarke's attendance. The officer, however, had returned to +say that Mr. Chestermarke was away on business, and that it was not +known when he would be back at the bank. As it was highly important that +the jury should know at once if Mr. Horbury and Mr. Hollis called at the +Warren on Saturday evening last, he, the Coroner, had sent for Mr. +Chestermarke's butler, who would doubtless be able to give information +on that point. They would adjourn for an hour until the witness +attended.'" + +"That's the end of it--in that paper," remarked Starmidge. "Let's see if +the other has any later news. Ah!--here we are!--there is more in the +stop press space of this one. Now then----" + +He held the second newspaper half in front of himself, half in front of +Easleby, and again rapidly read over the report. + +"'Scarnham--further adjournment. On the Coroner's inquiry being resumed +at four o'clock, Thomas Beavers, butler to Mr. Chestermarke at the +Warren, said that so far as he knew, Mr. Horbury did not call on his +master on Saturday evening last, nor did any gentleman call who answered +the description of Mr. Hollis. It was impossible for anybody to call at +the Warren, in the ordinary way, without his, the butler's, knowledge. +As a matter of fact, the witness continued, Mr. Chestermarke was not at +home during the greater part of that evening. Mr. Joseph Chestermarke +had dined at the Warren at seven o'clock, and at half-past eight he and +his uncle left the house together. Mr. Chestermarke did not return until +eleven. Asked by Mr. Polke, superintendent of police, if he knew in +which direction Mr. Gabriel and Mr. Joseph Chestermarke proceeded when +they went away, the witness said that a short time after they left the +house, he, in drawing the curtains of the dining-room window, saw them +walking in a side-path of the garden, apparently in close conversation. +He saw neither of them after that until Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke +returned home, alone, at the time he had mentioned. + +"'Later. The inquest was further adjourned at the close of this +afternoon's proceedings. Before adjourning, the Coroner informed the +jury that he understood there were rumours in the town to the effect +that Mr. Hollis had been strangled before being thrown into the old +lead-mine. He need hardly say that there were not the slightest grounds +for those rumours. But the medical men had some suspicion that the +unfortunate gentleman might have been poisoned, and he, the Coroner, +thought it well to tell them that a specialist was being sent down by +the Home Office, who, with the Scarnham doctors, would perform an +autopsy on his arrival. The result would be placed before the jury when +these proceedings were resumed.'" + +Starmidge dropped the paper and looked at Easleby with an expression of +astonishment. + +"Poison!" he exclaimed. "That's a new idea! Poisoned first!--and thrown +into that old mine after? That's--but, there, what's the good of +theorizing? Pick out the best of those cars, and let's get to Scarnham +as quick as possible. Something's got to be done tonight." + +Easleby made no immediate answer. But presently, when they were in a +fast motor and leaving the Ecclesborough streets behind them, he shook +his head, and spoke more gravely than was usual with him. + +"The big question, my lad," he said, "is--what to do? And there's +another--what's been done--and possibly, what's being done? It's my +impression something's being done now--still going on!" + +"I know one thing!" exclaimed Starmidge determinedly. "We'll confront +Gabriel Chestermarke tonight with what we know. That's positive!" + +"If we can find him," said Easleby. "You don't know! The coming down to +Ecclesborough may have been all a blind. You can reach a lot of places +from Ecclesborough--and you can leave a train at more than one place +between Ecclesborough and London." + +"I telephoned Polke to keep an eye on him, anyway, if he did arrive at +either Scarnham or the Warren," answered Starmidge, still grimly +determined. "And it's my impression that he has come down--to see that +nephew of his. Easleby!--they're both in at it. Both!" + +Again the elder detective made no answer. He was obviously much +impressed by the recent developments as related in the newspapers which +they had just read, and was deep in thought about them and the +possibilities which they suggested to him. + +"Well!" he said at last, as the high roofs of Scarnham came in view, +"we'll hear what Polke has to tell. Something may have happened since +those inquest proceedings this afternoon." + +But Polke, when they reached his office, had little to tell. Lord +Ellersdeane, Betty Fosdyke, and Stephen Hollis were with him, evidently +in consultation, and Starmidge at once saw that Betty looked distressed +and anxious in no ordinary degree. All turned eagerly on the two +detectives. But Starmidge addressed himself straight to Polke with one +direct inquiry. + +"Seen him?--heard of him?" he asked. + +"Not a word!" answered Polke. "Nor a sign! If he came down by that train +you spoke of, he ought to have been in the town by four o'clock at the +outside. But he's never been to the bank, and he certainly hadn't +arrived at his house three-quarters of an hour ago. And since ten +o'clock this morning t'other's disappeared, too!" + +"What--Joseph?" exclaimed Starmidge. + +"Just so!" replied Polke, with the expression of a man who feels that +things are getting too much for individual effort, "He was at the bank +at eight o'clock this morning--one of my men saw him go in by the back +way--orchard way, you know. The clerks say he went out--that way +again--at ten, and he's never been seen since." + +"His house!" said Starmidge. "Have you tried that?" + +"Know nothing of him there--the old man and old woman said so, at any +rate," answered Polke. "He seems to have cleared out. And now here's +fresh bother, though I don't know if it's anything to do with this. Mr. +Neale's missing--never been seen since six yesterday evening. Miss +Fosdyke's anxious----" + +"He was to see me at nine last night," said Betty. "No one has seen him. +His landlady says he never returned home last night. Do you think +anything can have happened----" + +"If anything's happened to Mr. Neale," interrupted Starmidge, "it's all +of a piece with the rest of it. Now, superintendent!" he went on, +turning to Polke, "never mind what news I've brought--we've got to find +these two Chestermarkes at once! We must go, some of us, to the Warren, +some to the Cornmarket. See here!--Easleby and I will go on to the +Cornmarket now--you get some of your men and follow. If we hear nothing +there--then, the Warren. But--quick!" + +The two detectives hurried out of the police-station; Lord Ellersdeane +and Betty, after a word or two with Polke, followed. Outside, Starmidge +and Easleby paused a moment, consulting; the Earl stepped forward to +speak to them. + +"As regards Mr. Neale," he began, "Miss Fosdyke thinks you ought to know +that----" + +A sudden searching flash, as of lightning, glared across the open space +in front, lighting up the tower of the old church, the high roofs of the +ancient houses, and the drifting clouds above them. Then a crash as of +terrible thunder shook the little town from end to end, and as it died +away the street lamps went out, and the tinkle of falling glass sounded +on the pavements of the Market-Place. And in the second of dead silence +which followed, a woman's voice, shrill, terrified, shrieked loudly, +once, somewhere in the darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE OLD DOVE-COT + + +On the previous evening, Wallington Neale, who had spent most of the day +with Betty Fosdyke, endeavouring to gain some further light on the +disappearance of her uncle, had left her at eight o'clock in order to +keep a business appointment. He was honourary treasurer of the Scarnham +Cricket Club: the weekly meeting of the committee of which important +institution was due that night at the Hope and Anchor Inn, an old tavern +in the Cornmarket. Thither Neale repaired, promising to rejoin Betty at +nine o'clock. There was little business to be done at the meeting: by a +quarter to nine it was all over and Neale was going away. And as he +walked down the long sanded passage which led from the committee-room to +the front entrance of the inn, old Rob Walford, the landlord, came out +of the bow-windowed bar-parlour, beckoned him, with a mystery-suggesting +air, to follow, and led him into a private room, the door of which he +carefully closed. + +Walford, a shrewd-eyed, astute old fellow, well known in Scarnham for +his business abilities and his penetration, chiefly into other people's +affairs, looked at Neale with a mingled expression of meaning and +inquiry. + +"Mr. Neale!" he whispered, glancing round at the panelling of the old +parlour in which they stood, as if he feared that its ancient boards +might conceal eavesdroppers, "I wanted a word with you--in private. +How's this here affair going? Is aught being done? Is aught being found +out? Is that detective chap any good?--him from London, I mean. Is there +aught new--since this morning?" + +"Not to my knowledge, Mr. Walford," answered Neale, who knew well that +the old innkeeper was hand-in-glove with the Scarnham police, and +invariably kept himself well primed with information about their doings. +"I should think you know nearly everything--just as much as I do--more, +perhaps." + +The landlord poked a stout forefinger into Neale's waistcoat. + +"Aye!" he said. "Aye, so I do!--as to what you might call surface +matter, Mr. Neale. But--about the main thing, which, in my opinion, is +the whereabouts of John Horbury? Does yon young lady at the Scarnham +Arms know aught more about her uncle? Do you? Does anybody? Is there +aught behind, like; aught that hasn't come out on the top?" + +"I don't know of anything," replied Neale. "I wish I did! Miss Fosdyke's +very anxious indeed about her uncle: she'd give anything or do anything +to get news of him. It's all rot, you know, to say he's run away--it's +my impression he's never gone out of Scarnham or the neighbourhood. But +where he is, and whether dead or alive, is beyond my comprehension," he +concluded, shaking his head. "If he's alive, why don't we hear +something, or find out something?" + +Walford gave his companion a quick glance out of his shrewd old eyes. + +"He might be under such circumstances as wouldn't admit of that there, +Mr. Neale," he said. "But come!--I've got something to tell +you--something that I found out not half an hour ago. I was going on to +tell Polke about it at once, but I remembered that you were in the house +at this cricket club meeting, so I thought you'd do instead--you can +tell Polke. I'm in a bit of a hurry myself--you know it's Wymington +Races tomorrow, and I'm off there tonight, at once, to meet a man that I +do a bit of business with in these matters--we make a book together, +d'ye see--so I can't stop. But come this way." + +He led Neale out into the long sanded passage, and down through the rear +of the old house into a big stable-yard, enclosed by variously shaped +buildings, more or less in an almost worn-out and dilapidated condition, +whose roofs and gables showed picturesquely against the sky, faintly +lighted by the waning moon. To one of these, a tower-like erection, +considerably higher than the rest, the old landlord pointed. + +"I suppose you know that these back premises of mine partly overlook +Joseph Chestermarke's garden?" he whispered. "They do, anyway--you can +see right over his garden and the back of his house--that is, in bits, +for he's a fine lot of tall trees round his lawns. But there's a very +fair view of that workshop he's built from the top storey of this old +dove-cot of mine--we use it as a store-house. Come up--and mind these +here broken steps--there's no rail, you see, and you could easy fall +over." + +He led his companion up a flight of much-worn stone stairs which were +built against the wall of the old dove-cot; through an open doorway +twenty feet above; across a rickety floor; and up another stairway of +wood, into a chamber in which was a latticed window, from which most of +the glass and the woodwork had disappeared. + +"Now, then," he said, taking Neale to this outlook, and pointing +downwards. "There you are!--you see what I mean?" + +Neale looked out. Joseph Chestermarke's big garden lay beneath him. As +Walford had said, much of it was obscured by trees, but there was a good +prospect of one side of the laboratory from where Neale was standing. +That side was furnished with a door--and on the level of that door at +the extreme end of the building was a window fitted with a +light-coloured blind. All the other windows, as in the case of the side +which Neale had seen previously from the tree on the river-bank, were +high up in the walls and fitted with red material. And from the +curiously shaped smoke stack in the flat roof, the same differently +tinted vapours which he had noticed on the same occasion were curling up +above the elms and beeches. + +"Now look here!" whispered the landlord. "D'ye see that one window with +the whitish blind and the light behind it? I came up here, maybe half an +hour ago, to see if we were out of something that's kept here, and I +chanced to look out on to Joseph Chestermarke's garden. Mr. +Neale!--there's a man in that room with the light-coloured blind--I saw +his shadow on the blind, pass and repass, you understand, twice, while I +looked. And--it's not Joseph Chestermarke!" + +"Could you tell?--had you any idea?--whose shadow it was?" demanded +Neale eagerly. + +"No!--he passed in a sort of slanting direction--back and forward--just +once," answered Walford. "But--his build was, I should say, about the +like of John Horbury's. Mr. Neale--Horbury might be locked up there! +He's a bad 'un, is Joe Chestermarke--oh, he's a rank bad 'un, my +lad!--though most folk don't know it. You don't know what mayn't be +happening, or what mayn't have happened in yon place! But look here--I +can't stop. Me and Sam Barraclough's going off to Wymington now, in his +motor--he'll be waiting at this minute. You do what I say--stop here and +watch a bit. And if you see aught, go to Polke and insist on the police +searching that place. That's my advice!" + +"I shall do that, in any case, after what you've said," muttered Neale, +who was staring at the lighted window. "But I'll watch here a bit. +You've said nothing of this to anybody else?" + +"No," replied the landlord. "As I said, I knew you were in the house. +Well, I'm off, then. Shan't be back till late tomorrow night--and I hope +you'll have some news by then, Mr. Neale." + +Walford went off across the creaking floor and down the stairs, and +Neale leaned out of the dismantled window and stared into the garden +beneath. Was it possible, he wondered, that there was anything in the +old fellow's suggestion?--possible that the missing bank manager was +really concealed in that mysterious laboratory, or workshop, or whatever +the place was, into which Joseph Chestermarke never allowed any person +to enter? And if he was there at all, was it with his consent, or +against his will, or--what? Was he being kept a prisoner--or was +he--hiding? + +In spite of his own knowledge of Horbury, and of Betty Fosdyke's +assertions of her uncle's absolute innocence, Neale had all along been +conscious of a vague, uneasy feeling that, after all, there might be +something of an unexplained nature in which the manager had been, or was +concerned. It might have something to do with the missing jewels; it +might be mixed up with Frederick Hollis's death; it might be that +Horbury and Joseph Chestermarke were jointly concerned in--but there he +was at a loss, not knowing or being able to speculate on what they could +be concerned in. Strange beyond belief it was, nevertheless, that old +Rob Walford should think the shadow he had seen to be the missing man's! +Supposing---- + +The door of Joseph Chestermarke's laboratory suddenly opened, letting +out a glare of light across the lawn in front. And Joseph came out, +carrying a sort of sieve-like arrangement, full of glowing ashes. He +went away to some distant part of the garden with his burden; came back, +disappeared; re-appeared with more ashes; went again down the garden. +And each time he left the door wide open. A sudden notion--which he +neglected to think over--flashed into Neale's mind. He left the upper +chamber of the old dove-cot, made his way down the stairs to the yard +beneath, turned the corner of the buildings, and by the aid of some +loose timber which lay piled against it, climbed to the top of Joseph +Chestermarke's wall. A moment of hesitation, and then he quietly dropped +to the other side, noiselessly, on the soft mould of the border. From +behind a screen of laurel bushes he looked out on the laboratory, at +close quarters. + +Joseph was still coming and going with his sieve--now that Neale saw him +at a few yards distance he saw that the junior partner and amateur +experimenter was evidently cleaning out his furnace. The place into +which he threw the ashes was at the far end of the garden; at least +three minutes was occupied in each journey. And--yielding to a sudden +impulse--when Joseph made his next excursion and had his back fairly +turned, Neale crossed the lawn in half a dozen agile and stealthy +strides, and within a few seconds had slipped within the open door and +behind it. + +A moment later, and he knew he was trapped. Joseph came back--and did +not enter. Neale heard him fling the sieve on the gravel. Then the door +was pulled to with a metallic bang, from without, and the same action +which closed it also cut off the electric light. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +SOUND-PROOF + + +It needed no more than a moment's reflection to prove to Neale that he +had made a serious mistake in obeying that first impulse. Joseph +Chestermarke had gone away--probably for the night. And there had been +something in the metallic clang of that closing door, something in the +sure and certain fashion in which it had closed into its frame, +something in the utter silence which had followed the sudden extinction +of the light, which made the captive feel that he might beat upon door +or wall as hard and as long as he pleased without attracting any +attention. This place into which he had come of his own free will was no +ordinary place--already he felt that he was in a trap out of which it +was not going to be easy to escape. + +He stood for a moment, heart thumping and pulses throbbing, to listen +and to look. But he saw nothing--beyond the faint indication of the +waning moonlight outside the red-curtained, circular windows high above +him, and a fainter speck of glowing cinder, left behind in the recently +emptied furnace. He heard nothing, either, save a very faint crackling +of the expiring ashes in that furnace. Presently even that minute sound +died down, the one speck of light went out, and the silence and gloom +were intense. + +Neale now knew that unless Joseph Chestermarke came back to his workshop +he was doomed to spend the night in it--and possibly part of the next +day. He felt sure that it was impossible to obtain release otherwise +than by Joseph's coming. He could do nothing--in all probability--to +release himself. No one in the town would have the remotest idea that he +was fastened up within those walls. The only man to whom such an idea +could come on hearing that he, Neale, was missing, was old Rob +Walford--and Walford, by that time, would be well on his way to +Wymington, thirty miles off, and as he was to be there all night, and +all next day, he would hear nothing until his return to Scarnham, +twenty-four hours hence. No!--he was caught. Joseph Chestermarke had had +no idea of catching him--but he had caught him all the same. + +And now that he was safely caught, Neale began to wonder why he had +slipped into that place. He had an elementary idea, of course--he had +wanted to find out if anybody was concealed in that room which the +landlord had pointed out. Certainly he had felt no fear about meeting +Joseph Chestermarke. Yet--now that he was there--he did not know what he +should have done if Joseph had come in, as he expected he would, nor +what he should, or could do now that he was in complete possession. If +he had been able to face Joseph, he would have demanded information, +point-blank, about the shadow on the blind; he even had some misty +notion about enforcing it, if need be. But--he was now helpless. He +could do no good; he could not tell Polke or anybody else what Walford +had reported. And if he was to be left there all night--which seemed +likely--he had only got himself into a highly unpleasant situation. + +He moved at last, feeling about in the darkness. His hands encountered +smooth, blank walls, on each side of the door. He dared not step forward +lest he should run against machinery or meet with some cavity in the +flooring. And reflecting that the small, insignificant gleam which it +would make could scarcely be noticed from outside, he struck a match, +and carefully holding it within the flap of his outstretched jacket, +looked around him. A first quick glance gave him a general idea of his +surroundings. Immediately in front of him was the furnace; a little to +its side was a lathe; on one side of the place a long table stood, +covered with a multitude of tools, chemical apparatus, and the like; on +the other was a blank wall. And in that blank wall, to which Neale +chiefly directed his attention during the few seconds for which the +match burned, was a door. + +The match went out; he dropped it on the floor and moved forward in the +darkness to the door which he had just seen. That, of course, must open +into the inner room to the outer window of which Walford had drawn his +attention. He went on until his outstretched fingers touched the door. +Then he cautiously struck another match and looked the door up and down. +What he saw added to the mystery of the whole adventure. Neale had seen +doors of that sort before, more than once--but they were the doors of +very big safes or of strong rooms. Before the second match burned +through he knew that this particular door was of some metal--steel, +most likely--that it was set into a framework of similar metal, and that +the room to which it afforded entrance was probably sound-proof. + +He struck a third match and a fourth. By their light he saw there was +but one small keyhole to the door, and he judged from that that it was +fitted with some patent mechanical lock. There was no way by which he +could open it, of course, and though he stood for a long time listening +with straining ears against it he could not detect the slightest sound +from whatever chamber or recess lay behind it. If there really was a man +in there, thought Neale, he must surely feel himself to be in a living +tomb. And after a time, taking the risk of being heard from outside the +laboratory, he beat heavily upon the door with his fist. No response +came: the silence all around him was more oppressive, if possible, than +before. + +The expenditure of more matches enabled Neale to examine further into +the conditions of what seemed likely to be his own prison for some +hours. He was not sorry to see that in one corner stood an old settee, +furnished with rugs and cushions--if he was obliged to remain locked up +all night, he would, at any rate, be able to get some rest. But beyond +this, the furnace, a tall three-fold screen, evidently used to assist in +the manipulation of draughts, and the lathe, table, and apparatus which +he had already seen, there was nothing in the place. There was no way of +getting at the windows in the top of the high walls: even if he could +have got at them they were too small for a man to squeeze through. And +he was about to sit down on the settee and wait the probably slow and +tedious course of events, when he caught sight of an object at the end +of the table which startled him, and made him wonder more than anything +he had seen up to that moment. + +That object was a big loaf of bread. He struck yet another match and +looked at it more narrowly. It was one of those large loaves which +bakers make for the use of families. Close by it lay a knife: a nearer +inspection showed Neale that a slice had recently been cut from the +loaf: he knew that by the fact that the crumb was still soft and fresh +on the surface, in spite of the great heat of the place. It was scarcely +likely that Joseph Chestermarke would eat unbuttered bread during his +experiments and labours--why, then, was the loaf there? Could it be that +this bread was--that the slice which had just been cut was--the ration +given to somebody behind that door? + +This idea filled Neale with the first spice of fear which he had felt +since entering the laboratory. The idea of a man being fastened up in a +sound-proof chamber and fed on dry bread suggested possibilities which +he did not and could not contemplate without a certain horror. And if +there really was such a prisoner in that room, or cell, or whatever the +place was, who could it be but John Horbury? And if it was John Horbury, +how, under what circumstances, had he been brought there, why was he +being kept there? + +Neale sat down at last on the settee, and in the silence and darkness +gave himself up to thoughts of a nature which he had never known in his +life before. Here, at any rate, was adventure!--and of a decidedly +unpleasant sort. He was not afraid for himself. He had a revolver in his +hip-pocket, loaded--he had been carrying it since Tuesday, with some +strange notion that it might be wanted. Certainly he might have to go +without food for perhaps many hours--but he suddenly remembered that in +the pocket of his Norfolk jacket he had a biggish box of first-rate +chocolate, which he had bought on his way to the cricket club meeting, +with a view of presenting it to Betty, later on. He could get through a +day on that, he thought, if it were necessary--as for the loaf of bread, +something seemed to nauseate him at the mere thought of trying to +swallow a mouthful of it. + +The rest of the evening went: the silence was never broken. Not a sound +came from the mysterious chamber behind him. No step sounded on the +gravel without: no hand unlocked the door from the garden. Now and then +he heard the clock of the parish church strike the hours. At last he +slept--at first fitfully; later soundly--and when he woke it was +morning, and the sunlight was pouring in through the red-curtained +windows high in the walls of his prison. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +THE SPARROWS AND THE SPHERE + + +Neale was instantly awake and on the alert. He sprang to his feet, +shivering a little in spite of the rugs which he had wrapped about him +before settling down. A slight current of cold air struck him as he +rose--looking in the direction from which it seemed to come, he saw that +one of the circular windows in the high wall above him was open, and +that a fresh north-east wind was blowing the curtain aside. The +laboratory, hot and close enough when he had entered it the previous +evening, was now cool; the morning breeze freshened and sharpened his +wits. He pulled out his watch, which he had been careful to wind up +before lying down. Seven o'clock!--in spite of his imprisonment and his +unusual couch, he had slept to his accustomed hour of waking. + +Knowing that Joseph Chestermarke might walk in upon him at any moment, +Neale kept himself on the look out, in readiness to adopt a determined +attitude whenever he was discovered. By that time he had come to the +conclusion that whether force would be necessary or not in any meeting +with Joseph, it would be no unwise thing to let that worthy see at once +that he had to deal with an armed man. He accordingly saw to it that his +revolver, already loaded, was easily get-at-able, and the flap of his +hip-pocket unbuttoned: under the circumstances, he was not going to be +slow in producing that revolver in suggestive, if not precisely menacing +fashion. This done, he opened his box of chocolate, calculated its +resources, and ate a modest quantity. And while he ate, he looked about +him. In the morning light everything in his surroundings showed clearly +that his cursory inspection of the night before had been productive of +definite conclusions. There was no doubt whatever of the character of +the mysterious door set so solidly and closely in its framework in the +blank wall: the door of the strong room at Chestermarke's Bank was not +more suggestive of security. + +He went over to the outer door when he had eaten his chocolate, and +examined that at his leisure. That, in lesser degree, was set into the +wall as strongly as the inner one. He saw no means of opening it from +the inside: it was evidently secured by a patent mechanical lock of +which Joseph Chestermarke presumably carried the one key. He turned from +it to look more closely at a shelf of books and papers which projected +from the wall above the table. Papers and books were all of a scientific +nature, most of them relating to experimental chemistry, some to +mechanics. He noticed that there were several books on poisons; his +glance fell from those books to various bottles and phials on the table, +fashioned of dark-coloured glass and three-cornered in shape, which he +supposed to contain poisonous solutions. So Joseph dabbled in +toxicology, did he? thought Neale--in that case, perhaps, there was +something in the theory which had been gaining ground during the last +twenty-four hours--that Hollis had been poisoned first and thrown into +the old lead-mine later on. And--what of the somebody, Horbury or +whoever it was, that lay behind that grim-looking door? Neale had never +heard a sound during the time which had elapsed before he dropped +asleep, never a faintest rustle since he had been awake again. Was it +possible that a dead man lay there--murdered? + +A cheerful chirping and twittering in the space behind him caused him to +turn sharply away from the books and bottles. Then he saw that he was no +longer alone. Half a score sparrows, busy, bustling little bodies, had +come in by the open window, and were strutting about amongst the grey +ashes in front of the furnace. + +Neale's glance suddenly fell on the loaf of bread, close at hand on the +edge of the table, and on the knife which lay by it. Mechanically, +without any other idea than that of feeding the sparrows and diverting +himself by watching their antics, he picked up the knife, quietly cut +off a half-slice of the loaf, and, crumbling it in his fingers, threw +the crumbs on the floor. For a minute or two he watched his visitors +fighting over this generous dole; then he turned to the shelf again, to +take down a book, the title of which had attracted him. Neale was an +enthusiastic member of the Territorial Force, and had already gained his +sergeant's stripes in the local battalion; he was accordingly deeply +interested in all military matters--this book certainly related to those +matters, though in a way with which he was happily as yet unfamiliar. +For its title was "On the Use of High Explosive in Modern Warfare," and +though Neale was no great reader, he was well enough versed in current +affairs to know the name of the author, a foreign scientist of +world-wide reputation. + +He opened the book as he stood there, and was soon absorbed in the +preface; so absorbed indeed, that it was some little time before he +became aware that the cheerful twittering behind him had ceased. It had +made a welcome diversion, that innocent chirping of the little brown +birds, and when it ceased, he missed it. He turned suddenly--and dropped +the book. + +Seven or eight of the sparrows were already lying on the floor +motionless. Some lay on their sides, some on their backs; all looked as +if they were already dead. Two were still on their feet; at any other +time Neale would have laughed to see the way in which they staggered +about, for all the world as if they were drunk. And as he watched one +collapsed; the other, after an ineffective effort to spread its wings, +rolled to one side and dropped helplessly. And Neale made another +turn--to stare at the loaf of bread and to wonder what devilry lay in +it. Poison? Of course it was poison! And--what of this man in that +jealously guarded room, behind that steel door? Had he also eaten of the +loaf? + +He turned to the sparrows again at last, stood staring at them as if +they fascinated him, and eventually went over to the foot of the furnace +and picked one up. Then he found, with something of a shock, that the +small thing was not dead. The little body was warm with life; he felt +the steady, regular beating of the tiny heart. He laid the bird down +gently, and picked up its companions, one by one, examining each. And +each was warm, and the heart of each was beating. The sparrows were not +dead--but they were drugged--and they were very fast asleep. + +Neale now began to develop theories. If a mere tiny crumb of that loaf +could put a sparrow, a remarkably vigorous and physically strong little +bird--to sleep within a minute or two, what effect would, say, a good +thick slice of it produce upon a human being? Anyway, the probability +was that the captive in that room was lying in a heavily drugged +condition, and that that was the reason of his silence. He would +wake--and surely some sound, however faint, would come. He himself would +wait--listening. The morning wore on--he waited, watched, listened. None +came--nothing had happened. He ate more of his chocolate. He read the +book on explosives. It interested him deeply--so deeply that in spite of +his anxiety, his hunger, his uncertainty as to what might happen, sooner +or later, he became absorbed in it. And once more he was called from its +pages by the sparrows. + +The sparrows were coming to life. After lying stupefied for some four or +five hours they were showing signs of animation. One by one they were +moving, staggering to their feet, beginning to chirp. And as he watched +them, first one and then the other got the use of its wings; and, +finally, with one consent, they flew off to the open window--to +disappear. + +Thereafter, Neale listened more keenly than ever for any sound from that +mysterious room. But no sound came. The afternoon passed wearily away; +the light began to fail, and at last he had to confess to himself that +the waiting, the being always on the alert, the enforced seclusion and +detention, the desire for proper food and drink--especially the +latter--was becoming too much for him, and that his nerves were +beginning to suffer. Was Joseph Chestermarke never coming? Had he gone +off somewhere?--possibly leaving a dead man behind, whose body was only +a few yards away. There was no spark of comfort visible save one. Old +Rob Walford would be home late that night from Wymington--sooner or +later he would hear of Neale's disappearance and he would sharpen his +naturally acute wits and come to the right conclusion. Yet--that might +be as far off as tomorrow. + +As the darkness came, Neale, now getting desperate for want of food, was +suddenly startled by two sounds which, coming abruptly at almost the +same time, made him literally jump. One--the first--was a queer thump, +thump, thump, which seemed to be both close at hand and yet a thousand +miles away. The second was Joseph Chestermarke's voice in the garden +outside--heard clearly through the open window. He was bidding somebody +to tell a cab-driver to wait for him at the foot of the bridge. The next +minute, Neale heard a key plunged into the outer door--before it turned, +he, following out a scheme which he had decided on during his long +watch, had leaped behind the screen that stood near the furnace. Ere the +door could open, he was safely hidden--and in that second he heard the +thumping repeated and knew that it came from the inner room. + +The electric light blazed up as Joseph Chestermarke strode in. He put +the door to behind him without quite closing it, and walked into the +middle of the laboratory, feeling in his waistcoat pocket for something +as he advanced. And Neale, peering at him through the high screen, felt +afraid of him for the first time in his life. For the junior partner had +shaved off his beard and moustache, and the face which was thus clearly +revealed, and on which the bright light shone vividly, was one of such +mean and malevolent cruelty that the watcher felt himself turn sick with +dread. + +Joseph went straight to the door in the far wall, unlocked it with a +twist of the key which he had brought from his pocket, and walked in. +The click of an electric light switch followed, and Neale stared hard +and nervously into the hitherto hidden room. But he saw nothing but +Joseph Chestermarke, standing, hands planted on his sides, staring at +something hidden by the door. Next instant Joseph spoke--menacingly, +sneeringly. + +"So you're round again after one of your long sleeps, are you?" he said. +"That's lucky! Now then, have you come to your senses?" + +Neale thought his heart would burst as he waited for the unseen man's +voice. But before he heard any voice he heard something which turned his +blood cold with horror--the clanking, plain, unmistakable, of a chain! +Whoever was in there was chained!--chained like a dog. And following on +that metallic sound came a weary moan. + +"Come on, now!" said Joseph. "None of that! Are you going to sign that +paper? Speak, now!" + +It seemed to Neale an age before an answer came. But it came at +last--and in Horbury's voice. But what a changed voice! Thin, weak, +weary--the voice of a man slowly being done to death. + +"How long are you going to keep me here?" it asked. "How long----" + +"Sign that paper on the table there, and you'll be out of this within +twenty-four hours," replied Joseph. "And--listen, you!--you'll have good +food--and wine--wine!--within ten minutes. Come on, now!" + +Further silence was followed by another moan, and at the sound of that, +Neale, whose teeth had been clenched firmly for the last minute or two, +slipped his hand round to the pocket in which the revolver lay. + +"Don't be a damned fool!" said Joseph. "Sign and have done with it! +There's the pen--sign! You could have signed any time the last week and +been free. Get it done--damn you, I tell you, get it done! It's your +last chance. I'm off tonight. If I leave you here, it's in your grave. +Nobody'll ever come near this place for weeks--you'll be dead--starved +to death, mind!--long before that. Do you hear me? Come on, now!--sign!" + +Neale half drew the revolver from his pocket. But, as he was about to +step from behind the screen, a sudden step sounded on the gravel outside +the outer door, and he shrank back, watching. The door opened--was +thrown back with some violence--and at the same instant Joseph darted +from the inner room, livid with anger, to confront Gabriel Chestermarke. + +That the younger man had not expected to encounter the elder was +instantly evident to Neale. Joseph drew back, step by step, watching his +uncle, until his back was against the door through which he had just +rushed. His hand went out behind him and pulled the door to, heavily. +And as it closed he spoke--and Neale knew that there was fear in his +voice. + +"What--what--is it?" he got out. "When did you come in here? Why----" +Gabriel Chestermarke had come to a halt in the middle of the floor, and +he was standing very still. His face was paler than ever, and his eyes +burned in their deep-set sockets like live coals. And suddenly he lifted +a forefinger and pointed it straight at his nephew. + +"Thief!" he said, with a quietness which was startlingly impressive to +the excited spectator. "Thief! Thief and liar--and murderer, for aught I +know! But you are found out. Scoundrel!--you stole those securities! You +stole those jewels! Don't trifle--don't attempt to dispute! I know! You +got the jewels last Saturday night--you took those securities at the +same time. You may have murdered that man Hollis for anything I know to +the contrary--probably you did. But--no fencing with me! Now speak! +Where are the jewels? Where are those securities? And--where is Horbury! +Answer!--without lying. You devil!--I tell you I know--_know_! I have +seen Mrs. Carswell!" + +Gabriel had moved a little as he went on speaking--moved nearer to his +nephew, still pointing the incriminating and accusing finger at him. And +Joseph had moved, too--backward. He was watching his uncle with a queer +expression. Neale saw the tip of his tongue emerge from his lips, as if +the lips had become dry, and he wanted to moisten them. And suddenly his +face changed, and Neale, closely watching him, saw his hand go quickly +to his breast pocket, and caught the gleam of a revolver.... + +Neale was a cricketer--of reputation and experience. On a felt-covered +stand close by him lay a couple of heavy spherical objects, fashioned of +some shining-surfaced metal and about the size of a cricket ball, which +he had previously noticed and handled in looking round. He snatched one +of them up now, and flung it hard and straight at Joseph Chestermarke, +intending to stun him. But for once in a way he missed his mark; the +missile crashed against the wall behind. And then came a great flash, +and the roar of all the world going to pieces, and a mighty lifting and +upheaving--and he saw and felt and knew no more. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +WRECKAGE + + +The four people standing beneath the portico of the police-station +remained as if spell-bound for a full moment after the sudden flash and +the sudden roar. Betty Fosdyke unconsciously clutched at Lord +Ellersdeane's arm: Lord Ellersdeane spoke, wonderingly. + +"Thunder?" he exclaimed. "Strange!" + +Easleby turned sharply from Starmidge, who, holding by one of the +pillars, was staring towards the quarter of the Market-Place, from +whence the scream of dire fear had come. + +"That's no thunder, my lord!" he said. "That's an explosion!--and a +terrible one, too! Are there any gasworks close at hand? It was +like----" + +Polke came rushing out of the lobby behind them, followed by some of his +men. And at the same instant people began running along the pavements, +calling to each other. + +"Did you hear that?" cried the superintendent excitedly. "An explosion! +Which direction?" + +Starmidge suddenly started, as if from a reverie. He put up his hand and +wiped something from his cheek, and held the hand out to a shaft of +light which came from the open door behind them. A smear of blood lay +across his open palm. + +"A splinter of falling glass," he said quietly. "Come on, all of you! +That was an explosion--and I guess where! Get help, Polke--come on to +the Cornmarket! Get the firemen out." + +He set off running towards the end of the Market-Place, followed by +Easleby, and at a slower pace by Lord Ellersdeane and Betty. Crowds were +beginning to run in the same direction: very soon the two detectives +found it difficult to thread a way through them. But within a few +minutes they were in the Cornmarket, and Starmidge, seizing his +companion's arm, dragged him round the corner of Joseph Chestermarke's +house to the high garden wall which ran down the slope to the river +bank. And as they turned the corner, he pointed. + +"As I thought!" he muttered. "It's Joseph Chestermarke's workshop! +Something's happened. Look there!" + +The wall, a good ten feet high on that side, was blown to pieces, and +lay, a mass of fallen masonry, on the green sward by the roadside. +Through the gap thus made, Starmidge plunged into the garden--to be +brought up at once by the twisted and interlaced boughs of the trees +which had been lopped off as though by some giant ax, and then +instantaneously transformed into a cunningly interwoven fence. The air +was still thick with fine dust, and the atmosphere was charged with a +curious, acid odour, which made eyes and nostrils smart. + +"No ordinary burst up, this!" muttered Starmidge, as he and Easleby +forced their way through branches and obstacles to the open lawn. "My +God!--look at it! Blown to pieces!" + +The two men stood for a moment staring at the scene before them, as it +was revealed in the faint light of a waning moon. Neither had ever seen +the effect of high explosives before, and they remained transfixed with +utter astonishment at what they saw. Never, until then, had either +believed it possible that such ruin could be wrought by such means. + +The laboratory was a mass of shapeless wreckage. It seemed as if the +roof had been blown into the sky--only to collapse again on the +shattered walls. The masonry and woodwork lay all over lawns and +gardens, and amidst the surrounding bushes and trees. In the middle of +it yawned a black, deep cavity, from the heart of which curled a wisp of +yellowish smoke. Between these ruins and the house a beech tree of +considerable size had been completely uprooted, and had crashed down on +the lower windows of the house, part of the wall and roof of which had +been wrecked. And on the opposite side of the garden a great gap had +been made in the smaller trees, and the shrubberies beneath them by the +falling in of Rob Walford's old dove-cot, the ancient walls and timber +roof of which had completely collapsed under the force of the explosion. + +Over the actual area of the wreckage everything was still as death, save +for a faint crackling where some loose wood was just catching fire. +Starmidge began to make his way towards it. + +"The thing is," he said mechanically, "the thing is, the thing is--yes, +is--was--there anybody here--anybody here! We must have lights." + +And just then as he came to where the burst of flame was growing +bigger, and Polke with a body of firemen and constables came hurrying +through a gap in the lower wall, he caught sight of a man's face, turned +up to the half-light. Easleby saw it at the same time--together they +went nearer. And Starmidge bent down and found himself looking at +Gabriel Chestermarke. + +"Him!" he whispered. "Then he came--here!" + +"He's gone, anyway," muttered Easleby. "Dead as can be!" He lifted +himself erect and called to Polke who was making his way towards them. +"Bring a lantern!" he said. "There's a dead man here!" + +"And keep the crowd out," called Starmidge. "Keep everybody out--while +we look round." + +But at that moment he caught sight of Betty Fosdyke, who, with Lord +Ellersdeane in close attendance, had made her way into the garden and +was clambering towards him. Starmidge stepped back to her. + +"Hadn't you better go back?" he urged. "There'll be unpleasant sights. +Do go back!--amongst the trees, anyway. We've found one dead man +already, and there'll probably be----" + +"No!" she said firmly. "I won't! Not until I know who's here. Because I +think--I'm afraid Mr. Neale may be here. I must--I will stop! I'm not +afraid. Whose body have you found?" + +"Gabriel Chestermarke's," replied Starmidge quietly. "Dead! +And--whoever's here, Miss Fosdyke, I don't see how he can possibly be +alive. Do go back and let us search." + +But Betty turned away and began to search, climbing from one mass of +wreckage to another. Presently an exclamation from her brought the +others hurriedly to her side. She pointed between two slabs of stone. + +"There!" she whispered. "A man's--face!" + +Starmidge turned to Lord Ellersdeane. + +"Get her away--aside--anywhere--for a minute!" he muttered. "Let's see +what condition he's in, anyway. The other--was blown to pieces." + +Lord Ellersdeane took a firm grip of Betty's arm and turned her round. + +"That was not--Mr. Neale?" he asked. + +"No!" she said faintly. "No!" + +"Then leave them to deal with that, and let us look elsewhere," he said. +"Come--after all, you don't know that he would be here." + +"Where else should he be?" she answered. "I'm sure he's here, somewhere. +Help me!" + +She turned away with him in another direction, and the two detectives, +with some of the firemen helping them, got to work on the place which +she had pointed out. Presently Polke directed the light of a bulls'-eye +on the dead face beneath them. He broke into an exclamation of +amazement. + +"Who's this?" he demanded. "Look!" + +One of the firemen bent closer, and suddenly glanced up at the +superintendent. + +"It's young Chestermarke, sir," he said. "He must have shaved his beard +off. But--it's him!" + +They took out what was to be found of Joseph Chestermarke at that +particular spot, and went on to search for the rest of him, and for +anything else. And eventually they came across Neale--unconscious, but +alive. His partial protection by the projecting iron walls of the +furnace had saved him; he had evidently been carried back with them when +the explosion occurred and wedged between them and the outer wall of the +laboratory. He came round to find a doctor administering restoratives to +him on one side, and Betty Fosdyke kneeling at the other. And suddenly +he remembered, and made a great shift to speak. + +"All right!" he muttered at length. "Bit knocked out, that's all! +But--Horbury! Horbury's--somewhere! Get at him!" + +They got at the missing bank manager at last--he, too, had been saved by +the thick wall which stood between him and the explosion. He was alive +and conscious when they had dug down to him--and his rescuers stared +from him to each other when they saw that the broken links of a steel +chain were still securely manacled about his waist. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE PRISONER SPEAKS + + +It was not until a week later that Neale, with a bandaged head and one +arm in a sling, and Betty Fosdyke, inexpressibly thankful that the +recent terrible catastrophe had at any rate brought relief in its train, +were allowed to visit Horbury for their first interview of more than a +few minutes' duration. Neale had made a quick recovery; beyond the +fracture of a small bone in his arm, some cuts on his head, and a +general shock to his system, he was little the worse for his experience. +But the elder victim had suffered more severely; he had suffered, too, +from a week's ill-treatment and starvation. Nevertheless, he managed an +approving smile when the two young people were brought to his bedside, +and he looked at them afterwards in a narrow and scrutinizing fashion, +which made Betty redden and grow somewhat conscious. + +"Not more than three-quarters of an hour at most, the nurse said," she +remarked, as they sat down at the bedside. "So if you have anything to +say, Uncle John, you must get it said within that." + +"One can say a lot within three-quarters of an hour, my dear," answered +the invalid. "There is something I wanted to say," he went on, glancing +at Neale. "I suppose there has been an inquest on the two +Chestermarkes?" + +"Adjourned--until you're all right," replied Neale. "You and I, of +course, are the two important witnesses. You--principally. You know +everything--I only came in at the end." + +"I suppose there are--and have been--all sorts of rumours?" said +Horbury. "I don't see how anybody but myself could know all that +happened in this horrible business. Hollis, for instance?--have they +come to any conclusion about his death?" + +"None!" replied Neale. "All that's known is that he was found at the +bottom of one of the old lead mines. We," he added, nodding at Betty, +"were there when he was taken out." + +Horbury's face clouded. + +"And I," he said, shaking his head, "was there when--but I'll tell you +two all about it. I should like to go over it all again--before the +inquest is resumed. Not that I've forgotten it," he went on, with a +shudder. "I will never do that! It's all like a bad dream. You remember +the Saturday night when all this began, Neale? If I had had any idea of +what was to happen during the next week----! + +"That night, between half-past five and six o'clock, I was rung up on +the telephone. Greatly to my surprise I found the caller to be Frederick +Hollis, an old schoolmate of mine, whom I had only seen once--I'll tell +you when later--since we were at school together. Hollis said he had +come down specially from London to see me; he was at the Station Hotel, +about to have some food, and would like to meet me later. He said he +had reasons for not coming to the Bank House; he wished to meet me in +some quiet place about the town. I told him to walk along the river-side +at half-past seven, and I would meet him. And after I had dined I went +out through my garden and orchard and met him coming along. I took him +over the foot-bridge into the woods. + +"Hollis told me an extraordinary story--yet one which did not surprise +me as much as you might think. I knew that he was a solicitor in London. +He said that only a few days before this interview a lady friend of his +had privately asked his advice. She was a Mrs. Lester, the widow of a +man--an old friend of Hollis's--who in his time made a very big fortune. +They had an only son, a lad who went into the Army, and into a crack +cavalry regiment. The father made his son a handsome, but not sufficient +allowance--the son, finding it impossible to get it increased, had +recourse, after he was of age, to a London money-lender, named Godwin +Markham, of Conduit Street, from whom, in course of time, he borrowed +some seven or eight thousand pounds. Old Lester died--instead of leaving +a handsome fortune to the son, he left every penny he had to his wife. +The lad was pressed for repayment--Markham claimed some fifteen or +sixteen thousand. Young Lester was obliged to tell his mother. She urged +him to make terms--for cash. Markham would not abate a penny of his +claim. So Mrs. Lester called in Frederick Hollis and asked his advice. +At his suggestion she gave him a cheque for ten thousand pounds: he was +to see Markham and endeavour to get a settlement for that sum. + +"The day before he came down to Scarnham--Friday--Hollis did two things. +He got young Lester to come up to town and tell him the exact +particulars of his financial dealings with Godwin Markham. Primed with +these, and knowing that the demand was extortionate, he went, alone, to +Markham's office in Conduit Street. Markham was away, but Hollis saw the +manager, a man named Stipp. He saw something more, too. On Stipp's +mantelpiece he saw a portrait which he recognized immediately as one of +Gabriel Chestermarke. + +"Now, you want to know how Hollis knew Gabriel Chestermarke. In this +way: I told you just now that Hollis and I had only met once since our +school-days. Some few years ago--I think the year before you came into +the bank, Neale--Hollis came up North on a holiday. He was a bit of an +archaeologist; he was looking round the old towns, and he took Scarnham +in his itinerary. Knowing that an old schoolmate of his was manager at +Chestermarke's Bank in Scarnham, he called in to see me. He and I +lunched together at the Scarnham Arms. I showed him round the town a +bit, after bank hours. And as we were standing in the upper-room window +of the Arms, Gabriel Chestermarke came out of the bank and stood talking +to some person in the Market-Place for awhile. I drew Hollis's attention +to him, and asked, jocularly, if he had ever seen a more remarkable and +striking countenance? He answered that it was one which, once seen, +would not readily be forgotten. And he had not forgotten it once he saw +the portrait at Markham's office--he knew very well that it was +extremely unlikely that so noticeable a man as Gabriel Chestermarke +could have a double. + +"Now, Hollis was a sharp fellow. He immediately began to suspect things. +He talked awhile with Stipp, and contrived to find out that the portrait +over the mantelpiece was that of Godwin Markham. He also found out that +Mr. Godwin Markham was rarely to be found at his office--that there was +no such thing as daily, or even weekly attendance there by him. And +after mutual desires that the Lester affair should be satisfactorily +settled, but without telling Stipp anything about the ten thousand +pounds, he left the office with a promise to call a few days later. + +"Next day, certain of what he had discovered, Hollis came down to see +me, and told me all that I have just told you. It did not surprise me as +much as you would think. I knew that for a great many years Gabriel +Chestermarke had spent practically half his time in London--I had always +felt sure that he had a finger in some business there, and I naturally +concluded that he had some sort of a _pied-a-terre_ in London as well. +One fact had always struck me as peculiar--he never allowed letters to +be sent on to him from Scarnham to London. Anything that required his +personal attention had to await his return. So that when I heard all +that Hollis had to tell, I was not so greatly astonished. In fact, the +one thing that immediately occupied my thoughts was--was Joseph +Chestermarke also concerned in the Godwin Markham money-lending +business? He, too, was constantly away in London--or believed to be so. +He, too, never had letters sent on to him. Taking everything into +consideration, I came to the conclusion that Joseph was in all +probability his uncle's partner in the Conduit Street concern, just as +he was in the bank at home. + +"Hollis and I walked about the paths in the wood for some time, +discussing this affair. I asked at last what he proposed to do. He +inquired if I thought the Chestermarkes would be keen about preserving +their secret. I replied that in my opinion, seeing that they were highly +respectable country-town bankers, chiefly doing business with +ultra-respectable folk, they would be very sorry indeed to have it come +out that they were also money-lenders in London, and evidently very +extortionate ones. Hollis then said that that was his own opinion, and +it would influence the line he proposed to take. He said that he had a +cheque in his pocket, already made out for ten thousand pounds, and only +requiring filling up with the names of payee and drawer; he would like +to see Gabriel Chestermarke, tell him what he had discovered, offer him +the cheque in full satisfaction of young Lester's liabilities to the +Markham concern, and hint plainly that if his offer of it was not +accepted, he would take steps which would show that Gabriel Chestermarke +and Godwin Markham were one and the same person. + +"Now, I had no objection to this. I had not told you of it, Neale, but I +had already determined to resign my position as manager at +Chestermarke's. I had grown tired of it. I was going to resign as soon +as I returned from my holiday. So I assented to Hollis's proposal, and +offered to accompany him to the Warren--I don't mind admitting that I +was a little--perhaps a good deal--eager to see how Gabriel would behave +when he discovered that his double dealing was found out--and known to +me. We therefore set off across Ellersdeane Hollow. I have been told +while lying here that some of you found the pipe which you, Betty, gave +me last Christmas, lying near the old tower--quite right. I lost it +there that night, as I was showing Hollis the view, in the moonlight, +from the top of the crags. I meant to pick it up as we returned, but +what happened put it completely out of my mind. + +"Hollis and I crossed the moor and the high road and went into the +little lane, or carriage-drive, which leads to the Warren. Half-way down +it we met Joseph Chestermarke. He was coming away from the Warren--from +the garden. He, of course, wanted to know if we were going to see his +uncle. I told him that my companion, Mr. Frederick Hollis, a London +solicitor, had come specially from town to see Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, +and that, being an old friend of mine, he had first come to see me. +Joseph therefore said that we were too late to find his uncle at home: +Gabriel, he went on, had been suffering terribly from insomnia, and, by +his doctor's advice, he was trying the effect of a long solitary walk +every night before going to bed, and he had just started out over the +moor at the back of his house. Turning to Hollis, he asked if he could +do anything--was his visit about banking business? + +"Now I determined to settle at once the question as to Joseph's +participation in the affairs of the Conduit Street concern. Before +Hollis could reply, I spoke. I said, 'Mr. Hollis wishes to see your +uncle on the affairs of Lieutenant Lester and the Godwin Markham loans.' +I watched Joseph closely. The moonlight was full on his face. He +started--a little. And he gave me a swift, queer look which was gone as +quickly as it came--it meant 'So you know!' Then he answered in quite an +assured, off-hand manner, 'Oh, I know all about that, of course! I can +deal with it as well as my uncle could. Come back across the moor to my +house--we'll have a drink, and a cigar, and talk it over with Mr. +Hollis.' + +"I nudged Hollis's arm, and we turned back with Joseph towards Scarnham, +crossing the Hollow in another direction, by a track which leads +straight from a point exactly opposite the Warren to the foot of +Scarnham Bridge, near the wall of Joseph Chestermarke's house. It is not +a very long way--half an hour's sharp walk. We did not begin talking +business--as a matter of fact, Hollis began talking about the curious +nature of that patch of moorland and about the old lead-mines. And when +we were nearly half-way, the affair happened which, I suppose, led to +all that has happened since. It--gave Joseph Chestermarke an opening. + +"Having lost my pipe, and being now going in a different direction from +that necessary to recover it, I had nothing to smoke. Joseph +Chestermarke offered me a cigar. He opened his case. I was taking a +cigar from it when Hollis stepped aside to one of the old shafts which +stood close by, and resting his hands on the parapet leaned over the +coping, either to look down or to drop something down. Before we had +grasped what he was doing, certainly before either of us could cry out +and warn him, the parapet completely collapsed before him and he +disappeared into the mine! He was gone in a second--with just one +scream. And after that--we heard nothing. + +"We hurried to the place and got as near as we dared. Joseph +Chestermarke dropped on his hands and knees, and peered over and +listened. There was not a sound--except the occasional dropping of +loosened pebbles. And we both knew that in that drop of seventy or +eighty feet, Hollis must certainly have met his death. + +"We hastened away to the town--to summon assistance. I don't think we +had any very clear ideas, except to tell the police, and to see if we +could get one of the fire brigade men to go down. I was in a dreadful +state about the affair. I felt as though some blame attached to me. By +the time we reached the bridge I felt like fainting. And Joseph +suggested we should go in through his garden door to his workshop--he +had some brandy there, he said--it would revive me. He took me in, up +the garden, and into the workshop: I dropped down on a couch he had +there, feeling very ill. He went to a side table, mixed something which +looked--and tasted--like brandy and soda, brought it to me, and bade me +drink it right off. I did so--and within I should say a minute, I knew +nothing more. + +"The next I knew I awoke in pitch darkness, feeling very ill. It was +some little time before I could gather my wits together. Then I +remembered what had happened. I felt about--I was lying on what appeared +to be a couch or small bed, covered with rugs. But there was something +strange--apart from the darkness and the silence. Then I discovered that +I was chained!--chained round my waist, and that the chain had other +chains attached to it. I felt along one of them, then along the +other--they terminated in rings in a wall. + +"I can't tell you what I felt until daylight came--I knew, however, that +I was at Joseph Chestermarke's--perhaps at Gabriel's--mercy. I had +discovered their secret--Hollis was out of the way--but what were they +going to do with me? Oddly enough, though I had always had a secret +dislike of Gabriel, and even some sort of fear of him, believing him to +be a cruel and implacable man, it was Joseph that I now feared. It was +he who had drugged and trapped me without a doubt. Why? Then I +remembered something else. I had told Joseph--but not Gabriel--about my +temporary custody of Lady Ellersdeane's jewels, and he knew where they +were safely deposited at the bank--in a certain small safe in the strong +room, of which he had a duplicate key. + +"I found myself--when the light came--in a small room, or cell, in which +was a bed, a table, a chair, a dressing-table, evidently a retreat for +Joseph when he was working in his laboratory at night. But I soon saw +that it was also a strong room. I could hear nothing--the silence was +terrible. And--eventually--so was my hunger. I could rise--I could even +pace about a little--but there was no food there--and no water. + +"I don't know how long it was, nor when it was, that Joseph Chestermarke +came. But when he came, he brought his true character with him. I could +not have believed that any human being could be so callous, so brutal, +so coldly indifferent to another's sufferings. I thought as I listened +to him of all I had heard about that ancestor of his who had killed a +man in cold blood in the old house at the bank--and I knew that Joseph +Chestermarke would kill me with no more compunction, and no less, than +he would show in crushing a beetle that crossed his path. + +"His cruelty came out in his frankness. He told me plainly that he had +me in his power. Nobody knew where I was--nobody could get to know. His +uncle knew nothing of the Hollis affair--no one knew. No one would be +told. His uncle, moreover, believed I had run away with convertible +securities and Lady Ellersdeane's jewels--he, Joseph, would take care +that he and everybody should continue to think so. And then he told me +cynically that he had helped himself to the missing securities and to +the jewels as well--the event of Saturday night, he said, had just given +him the chance he wanted, and in a few days he would be out of this +country and in another, where his great talent as a chemist and an +inventor would be valued and put to grand use. But he was not going +empty-handed, not he!--he was going with as much as ever he could rake +together. + +"And it was on that first occasion that he told me what he wanted of me. +You know, Neale, that I am trustee for two or three families in this +town. Joseph knew that I held certain securities--deposited in a private +safe of mine at the bank--which could be converted into cash in, say, +London, at an hour's notice. He had already helped himself to them, and +had prepared a document which only needed my signature to enable him to +deal with them. That signature would have put nearly a quarter of a +million into his pocket. + +"He used every endeavour to make me sign the paper which he brought. He +said that if I would sign, he would leave an ample supply of the best +food and drink within my reach, and that I should be released within +thirty-six hours, by which time he would be out of England. When I +steadily refused he had recourse to cruelty. Twice he beat me severely +with a dog-whip; another time he assaulted me with hands and feet, like +a madman. And then, when he found physical violence was no good, he told +me he would slowly starve me to death. But he was doing that all along. +The first three days I had nothing but a little soup and dry bread--the +remaining part of the time, nothing but dry bread. And during the last +two days, I knew that there was something in that bread which sent me +off into long, continued periods of absolute unconsciousness. And--I was +glad! + +"That's all. You know the rest--better than I do. I don't know yet how +that explosion came about. He had been in to me only a few minutes +before it happened, badgering me again to sign that authority. And--I +felt myself weakening. Flesh and blood were alike at their end of +endurance. Then--it came! And as I say, that's all!--but there's one +thing I wanted to ask you. Have those jewels been found?" + +"Yes!" replied Neale. "They were found--all safe--in a suit-case in +Joseph's house, along with a lot of other valuables--money, securities, +and so on. He was evidently about to be off; in fact, the luggage was +all ready, and so was a cab which he'd ordered, and in which he was +presumably going to Ellersdeane." + +"And another thing," said Horbury, turning from one to the other, "I +heard this morning that you'd left the Bank, Neale. What are you going +to do? What has happened?" + +Betty looked at Neale warningly, stooped over the invalid, kissed him, +rose and took Neale's unwounded arm. + +"No more talk today, Uncle John!" she commanded. "Wait until tomorrow. +Then--if you're very good--we shall perhaps tell you what is going to +happen to--both of us!" + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Chestermarke Instinct, by J. S. 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