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I wanted to drop in at Crone's before I went again to the office: what had just happened, had made me resolved that Crone and I should speak out; and if he wouldn't, then I would. And presently I was hurrying away to his place, and as I turned into the back lane that led to it I ran up against Sergeant Chisholm. "Here's another fine to-do, Mr. Moneylaws!" said he.
Nothing has been heard of, or from, Sir Gilbert at Hathercleugh up to nine o'clock this evening, and the only ray of hope lies in the fact that Mr. Moneylaws' mother left the town hurriedly this afternoon possibly having received some news of her son. It is believed here, however, that the light vessel was capsized in a sudden squall, and that both occupants have lost their lives.
I obeyed him mechanically, and he pulled the table a little towards him, sat down on the other stool, and, resting his elbow on the table ledge, poked the revolver within a few inches of my nose. "Now, we'll talk for a few minutes, Moneylaws," he said quietly, "Storm or no storm, I'm bound to be away on my business, and I'd have been off now if it hadn't been for your cursed peeping and prying.
"Searching about Glasgow for Sir Gilbert and Lady Carstairs you put us on to that, Mr. Hollins." "I had to," he answered. "Aye, I put Lindsey on to it, to be sure and he took it all in like it was gospel, and so did all of you! It gained time, do you see, Moneylaws it had to be done." "Then they aren't in Glasgow?" I asked.
"There's a door behind you in yon corner," he said. "And you'll find a lantern at its foot you've matches on you, no doubt. And beyond the door there's another stair that leads up to the turret, and you'll find her there and safe and so go your ways, now, Moneylaws, and I'll go mine!"
She said Sir Gilbert was not likely to come to harm he'd been sailing yachts, big and little, for many a year, and he'd no doubt gone further on this occasion than he'd first intended. I pointed out that he'd Mr. Moneylaws with him, and that he'd been due at his business early that morning. She laughed again at that, and said she'd no doubt Sir Gilbert and Mr.
I think that must be it: there were some men tourists about, who haven't been found yet." He hesitated a moment, and then glanced at our office door. "Lindsey in?" he asked. "No, Sir Gilbert," I replied. "He's gone out of town and given us a holiday." "Oh!" he said, looking at me with a sudden smile. "You've got a holiday, have you, Moneylaws?
"You didn't let him know that you and I had talked last night?" he asked at once. "No," said I. "That's right and I didn't either," he went on. "I don't want him to know I spoke to you before speaking to him it would look as if I were trying to get his clerk away from him. Well, it's settled, then, Moneylaws? You'll take the post?"
"It's a queer business, Moneylaws," he said at last. "Look at it anyway you like, it's a queer business! Here's one man, yon lodger of your mother's, comes into the town and goes round the neighbourhood reading the old parish registers and asking questions at the parson's aye, and he was at it both sides of the Tweed I've found that much out for myself! For what purpose?
"That's Sir Gilbert's brand-new car that's all ready for me down the stairs; and as I say, whether it's storm or no storm, I must be away. And there's just two things I can do, Moneylaws I can lay you out on the floor here, with your brains running over your face, or I can trust to your honour!"
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