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Updated: June 19, 2025
"Anyway, he's now being proved to be even deeper than I'd ever considered him. Well other folk than Pratt are possessed of pretty good wits." Before he left the office that evening Eldrick was handed a telegram from Messrs. Halstead & Byner, of St. Martin's Chambers, informing him that their Mr.
"When I've a job of this sort," replied Byner, "I don't let anybody know my name except people like you. When I register at one of your hotels presently, I shall be Mr. Black of London. But if this Pratt wanted to give any information about Parrawhite, he'd give it to you, surely, now that you've advertised." "No, he wouldn't!" asserted Eldrick. "Why?
"You know, of course," continued Byner, "that it doesn't take long for a Bank of England note, once issued, to get back to the Bank? You know, too, that it's never issued again. Now if those notes haven't been presented at the Bank where are they? And if no use has been made of your stolen cheques where are they?" "Good!" agreed Eldrick.
"Goodish thirty feet o' water in that there!" surmised Pickard. "It's none safe for childer to play about theer's nowt to protect 'em. Next time I see Mestur Shepherd I shall mak' it my business to tell him so; he owt either to drain that watter off or put a fence around it." "Is Mr. Shepherd the property-owner?" asked Byner. "Aye! it's all his, this land," answered Pickard.
"I do just know that he's a man who carries on a small watch and clock business in a poorish part of the town, and that he has some sort of a shipping agency," answered Eldrick. "But do you mean to imply that whatever message it is that he's sent to your partner in London this morning has not been sent in good faith?" "I don't imply anything," answered Byner.
They might be tummlin' in and drownin' theirsens! I mun tell my missis to keep 'em away!" Byner turned to find the landlord pointing at the old shaft which had gradually become filled with water. In the morning sunlight its surface glittered like a plane of burnished metal, but when the two men went nearer and gazed at it from its edge, the water was black and unfathomable to the eye.
He pointed to a low-roofed house set amidst elms and chestnuts, some distance off across the moor. "Lives theer, does Mestur Shepherd varry well-to-do man, he is." "How could that water be drained off?" asked Byner with assumed carelessness. "Easy enough!" replied Pickard. "Cut through yon ledge, and let it run into t' far quarry there. A couple o' men 'ud do that job in a day."
Eldrick and Collingwood had arranged to lunch together that day, and they presently went off, asking the detective to keep them informed of events. But up to half-past three o 'clock they heard no more then, as they were returning along the street Byner came running up to them. "Prydale's just had a telephone message from the butler at Normandale!" he exclaimed.
What do you suggest?" he continued, turning to Byner. "You have some idea, of course?" "First of all," answered Byner, "we mustn't arouse any suspicion on Pratt's part. Let us work behind the screen. But I have an idea as to how he disposed of Parrawhite, and I'm going to follow it up this very day my first duty, you know, is towards the people who want Parrawhite, or proof of his death.
"He might in the same connection," admitted Eldrick. Byner smoked in silence for a while. "Do you know what I think, Mr. Eldrick?" he said at last. "I think Pratt put up Murgatroyd to sending that telegram to us in London this morning." "You do!" exclaimed Eldrick. "Surely! And now," continued the inquiry agent, "if you will, you can do more much more without appearing to do anything.
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