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Updated: June 18, 2025
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.
"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.
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!"
"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.
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.
"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!"
"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."
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."
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!
"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.
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