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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.
"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.
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.
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?
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.
"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?
"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 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.
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."
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.
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