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 pa.s.sage 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 G.o.dwin Markham, the Conduit Street money-lender--d.a.m.n 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 gla.s.ses, 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! G.o.dwin 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 G.o.dwin 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 G.o.dwin 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 b.u.t.ter 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 gla.s.s, 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 s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g 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 d.a.m.n 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.