"No--don't know such a man! I've only been to the offices in Conduit Street a few times," said Castlemayne. "The chap you see there is a fellow called Stipp--Mr. James Stipp. A nice, smooth-tongued, mealy-mouthed chap--you know. I say--d'ye think you'll be able to fasten anything on to Markham, or Chestermarke, or whatever his name is?"

Easleby responded jocularly that they certainly wouldn't if they sat there, and after solemnly a.s.suring Mr. Leopold Castlemayne that his confidence would be severely respected, he and Starmidge went away. Once outside they walked for awhile in silence, each reflecting on what he had just heard.

"Well," remarked Starmidge at last, "we're certain on one point now, anyway. G.o.dwin Markham, money-lender, of Conduit Street, is the same person as Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of Scarnham. That's flat! And now that we've got to know that much, how much nearer am I to finding out the real thing that I'm after?"

"Which is--exactly what?" asked Easleby.

"I was called in," answered Starmidge, "to find out the secret of John Horbury's disappearance. It isn't my business to interfere with Gabriel Chestermarke or G.o.dwin Markham in his money-lending affairs--nor to trace Lord Ellersdeane's missing jewels. My job is--to find John Horbury, or to get to know what happened to him."

"And all this helps," answered Easleby. "Haven't you got anything?"

"Don't know that I have," admitted Starmidge. "Just now, anyway. I've had a dozen ideas--but they're a bit mixed at present. Have you--after what we've found out?"

"What sort of banking business is it the Chestermarkes carry on down there at Scarnham?" asked Easleby. "I suppose you'd get a general idea."

"Usual thing in a small country town," replied Starmidge. "Highly respectable, county family business, I should say, from what I saw and heard."

"All the squires, and the parsons, and the farmers, and better sort of tradesmen go to 'em, I suppose?" suggested Easleby. "And all the nice old ladies and that sort--an extra-respectable connection, eh?"

"Just as I say--regular country-town business," said Starmidge, half impatiently.

"Um!" remarked Easleby. "Now, if you were a highly respectable country-town banker, with a connection of that sort amongst very proper people, and if it so happened that you were living a double life, and running a money-lending business in London, do you think you'd want your banking customers to know what you were after when you weren't banking!"

"What do you think he'd do?" asked Starmidge.

"I'm not quite sure," replied Easleby, with candour. "But I think I shall get there, all the same. Now, didn't you say that from all the accounts supplied to you, this Mr. John Horbury was an eminently proper sort of person? Very well--supposing it suddenly came to his knowledge that his employer--or employers, for I expect both Chestermarkes are in at it--were notorious money-lenders in London, and that they carried on this secret business in the greedy and grasping fashion--what do you suppose he'd do?--especially if he was, as you say Horbury was, a man of considerable means?"

"What do you think he'd do?" asked Starmidge.

"I think it's quite on the cards that he'd chuck his job there and then," said Easleby, "and not only that, but that he'd probably threaten exposure. Men of a very severe type of commercial religion would, my lad!--I know 'em!"

"You're suggesting--what?" inquired the younger detective.

"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 was trying to fit together a great many things; he felt as a child feels who is presented with a puzzle in many pieces and told to put them together.

"I know what you're after," he said suddenly. "You think the Chestermarkes murdered Horbury?"

"If you want it plain and straight," replied Easleby, "I do!"

"There's the other man--Hollis," suggested Starmidge.

"I should say they finished him as well," said Easleby. "Easy enough job, that, on the evidence. Supposing one of 'em took Hollis off, alone, across that moor you've told me about, and induced him to look into that old lead-mine? What easier than to push him into it? Meanwhile, the other could settle Horbury. Murder, my lad!--that's what all this comes to. I've known men murdered for less than that."

Again Starmidge reflected in silence.

"There's only one thing puzzles me on that point," he said eventually.

"It's not a puzzle, either--it's a doubt. Do you think the Chestermarkes--or, we'll say Gabriel, as we're certain about him--do you think Gabriel would be so keen about keeping his secret as to go to that length? Do you think he's cultivated it as a secret--that it's been a really important secret?"

"We can soon solve that," answered Easleby. "At least--tomorrow morning."

"How?" demanded Starmidge.

"By calling," said Easleby, "on Mr. G.o.dwin Markham, in Conduit Street."

CHAPTER XXIV

MRS. CARSWELL?

Starmidge looked at his companion as if in doubt about Easleby's exact meaning.

"According to what the theatre chap said just now," he remarked, "Markham is very rarely to be found in Conduit Street."

"Exactly," agreed Easleby. "That's why I want to go there."

Starmidge shook his head.

"Don't follow!" he said. "Make it clear."

Easleby tapped his fellow-detective's arm.

"You said just now--would Gabriel Chestermarke be so keen about keeping his secret as to go to any length in keeping it," he answered "Now I say we can solve that by calling at his office. His manager, as Castlemayne told us, is one Stipp--Mr. Stipp. I propose to see Mr. Stipp. You and I must be fools if, inside ten minutes, we can't find out if Stipp knows that G.o.dwin Markham is Gabriel Chestermarke! We will find out! And if we find out that Stipp doesn't know that, if we find that Stipp is utterly unaware that there is such a person as Gabriel Chestermarke, or, at any rate, that he doesn't connect Gabriel Chestermarke with G.o.dwin Markham--why, then----"

He ended with a dry laugh, and waved his hand as if the matter were settled. But Starmidge had a love of precision, and liked matters to be put in plain words.

"Well--and what then?" he demanded.

"What, then?" exclaimed Easleby. "Why, then we shall know, for a certainty, that Gabriel Chestermarke is keen about his secret! If he keeps it from the man who does his business for him here in London, he'd go to any length to keep it safe if it was threatened by his manager at Scarnham. Is that clear, my lad?"

The two men in the course of their slow strolling away from the Adalbert Theatre had come to the end of Shaftesbury Avenue, and had drawn aside from the crowds during the last minute or two to exchange their confidences in private.

Starmidge looked meditatively at the thronging mult.i.tudes of Piccadilly Circus, and watched them awhile before he answered his companion's last observation.

"I don't want to precipitate matters," he said at last. "I don't want an anti-climax. Suppose we found Markham--or Chestermarke--there? Or supposing he came in?"

"Excellent!--in either case," replied Easleby. "Serve our purpose equally well. If he's there, you betray the greatest surprise at seeing him--you can act up to that. If he should come in, you're equally surprised--see!

We haven't gone there about any Chestermarke, you know--we aren't going to let it out there that we know what we do know--not likely!"

"What have we gone there for then?" asked Starmidge.

"We've gone to say that Mrs. Helen Lester, of Lowdale Court, near Chesham, has informed us, the police, that she placed a certain sum of money in the hands of her friend, Mr. Frederick Hollis, for the purpose of clearing off a debt contracted by her son, Lieutenant Lester, with Mr. G.o.dwin Markham; that Mr. Hollis had been found dead under strange circ.u.mstances at Scarnham, and that we should be vastly obliged to Mr.

Markham if he can give us any information or light on the matter, or hints about it," replied Easleby. "That, of course, is what we shall say--and all that we shall say--to Mr. James Stipp. If, however, we find Gabriel Chestermarke there--well, then, we shall say nothing--at first.