And just then as he came to where the burst of flame was growing bigger, and Polke with a body of firemen and constables came hurrying through a gap in the lower wall, he caught sight of a man's face, turned up to the half-light. Easleby saw it at the same time--together they went nearer. And Starmidge bent down and found himself looking at Gabriel Chestermarke.

"Him!" he whispered. "Then he came--here!"

"He's gone, anyway," muttered Easleby. "Dead as can be!" He lifted himself erect and called to Polke who was making his way towards them.

"Bring a lantern!" he said. "There's a dead man here!"

"And keep the crowd out," called Starmidge. "Keep everybody out--while we look round."

But at that moment he caught sight of Betty Fosd.y.k.e, who, with Lord Ellersdeane in close attendance, had made her way into the garden and was clambering towards him. Starmidge stepped back to her.

"Hadn't you better go back?" he urged. "There'll be unpleasant sights.

Do go back!--amongst the trees, anyway. We've found one dead man already, and there'll probably be----"

"No!" she said firmly. "I won't! Not until I know who's here. Because I think--I'm afraid Mr. Neale may be here. I must--I will stop! I'm not afraid. Whose body have you found?"

"Gabriel Chestermarke's," replied Starmidge quietly. "Dead!

And--whoever's here, Miss Fosd.y.k.e, I don't see how he can possibly be alive. Do go back and let us search."

But Betty turned away and began to search, climbing from one ma.s.s of wreckage to another. Presently an exclamation from her brought the others hurriedly to her side. She pointed between two slabs of stone.

"There!" she whispered. "A man's--face!"

Starmidge turned to Lord Ellersdeane.

"Get her away--aside--anywhere--for a minute!" he muttered. "Let's see what condition he's in, anyway. The other--was blown to pieces."

Lord Ellersdeane took a firm grip of Betty's arm and turned her round.

"That was not--Mr. Neale?" he asked.

"No!" she said faintly. "No!"

"Then leave them to deal with that, and let us look elsewhere," he said.

"Come--after all, you don't know that he would be here."

"Where else should he be?" she answered. "I'm sure he's here, somewhere.

Help me!"

She turned away with him in another direction, and the two detectives, with some of the firemen helping them, got to work on the place which she had pointed out. Presently Polke directed the light of a bulls'-eye on the dead face beneath them. He broke into an exclamation of amazement.

"Who's this?" he demanded. "Look!"

One of the firemen bent closer, and suddenly glanced up at the superintendent.

"It's young Chestermarke, sir," he said. "He must have shaved his beard off. But--it's him!"

They took out what was to be found of Joseph Chestermarke at that particular spot, and went on to search for the rest of him, and for anything else. And eventually they came across Neale--unconscious, but alive. His partial protection by the projecting iron walls of the furnace had saved him; he had evidently been carried back with them when the explosion occurred and wedged between them and the outer wall of the laboratory. He came round to find a doctor administering restoratives to him on one side, and Betty Fosd.y.k.e kneeling at the other. And suddenly he remembered, and made a great shift to speak.

"All right!" he muttered at length. "Bit knocked out, that's all!

But--Horbury! Horbury's--somewhere! Get at him!"

They got at the missing bank manager at last--he, too, had been saved by the thick wall which stood between him and the explosion. He was alive and conscious when they had dug down to him--and his rescuers stared from him to each other when they saw that the broken links of a steel chain were still securely manacled about his waist.

CHAPTER x.x.xI

THE PRISONER SPEAKS

It was not until a week later that Neale, with a bandaged head and one arm in a sling, and Betty Fosd.y.k.e, inexpressibly thankful that the recent terrible catastrophe had at any rate brought relief in its train, were allowed to visit Horbury for their first interview of more than a few minutes' duration. Neale had made a quick recovery; beyond the fracture of a small bone in his arm, some cuts on his head, and a general shock to his system, he was little the worse for his experience.

But the elder victim had suffered more severely; he had suffered, too, from a week's ill-treatment and starvation. Nevertheless, he managed an approving smile when the two young people were brought to his bedside, and he looked at them afterwards in a narrow and scrutinizing fashion, which made Betty redden and grow somewhat conscious.

"Not more than three-quarters of an hour at most, the nurse said," she remarked, as they sat down at the bedside. "So if you have anything to say, Uncle John, you must get it said within that."

"One can say a lot within three-quarters of an hour, my dear," answered the invalid. "There is something I wanted to say," he went on, glancing at Neale. "I suppose there has been an inquest on the two Chestermarkes?"

"Adjourned--until you're all right," replied Neale. "You and I, of course, are the two important witnesses. You--princ.i.p.ally. You know everything--I only came in at the end."

"I suppose there are--and have been--all sorts of rumours?" said Horbury. "I don't see how anybody but myself could know all that happened in this horrible business. Hollis, for instance?--have they come to any conclusion about his death?"

"None!" replied Neale. "All that's known is that he was found at the bottom of one of the old lead mines. We," he added, nodding at Betty, "were there when he was taken out."

Horbury's face clouded.

"And I," he said, shaking his head, "was there when--but I'll tell you two all about it. I should like to go over it all again--before the inquest is resumed. Not that I've forgotten it," he went on, with a shudder. "I will never do that! It's all like a bad dream. You remember the Sat.u.r.day night when all this began, Neale? If I had had any idea of what was to happen during the next week----!

"That night, between half-past five and six o'clock, I was rung up on the telephone. Greatly to my surprise I found the caller to be Frederick Hollis, an old schoolmate of mine, whom I had only seen once--I'll tell you when later--since we were at school together. Hollis said he had come down specially from London to see me; he was at the Station Hotel, about to have some food, and would like to meet me later. He said he had reasons for not coming to the Bank House; he wished to meet me in some quiet place about the town. I told him to walk along the river-side at half-past seven, and I would meet him. And after I had dined I went out through my garden and orchard and met him coming along. I took him over the foot-bridge into the woods.

"Hollis told me an extraordinary story--yet one which did not surprise me as much as you might think. I knew that he was a solicitor in London.

He said that only a few days before this interview a lady friend of his had privately asked his advice. She was a Mrs. Lester, the widow of a man--an old friend of Hollis's--who in his time made a very big fortune.

They had an only son, a lad who went into the Army, and into a crack cavalry regiment. The father made his son a handsome, but not sufficient allowance--the son, finding it impossible to get it increased, had recourse, after he was of age, to a London money-lender, named G.o.dwin Markham, of Conduit Street, from whom, in course of time, he borrowed some seven or eight thousand pounds. Old Lester died--instead of leaving a handsome fortune to the son, he left every penny he had to his wife.

The lad was pressed for repayment--Markham claimed some fifteen or sixteen thousand. Young Lester was obliged to tell his mother. She urged him to make terms--for cash. Markham would not abate a penny of his claim. So Mrs. Lester called in Frederick Hollis and asked his advice.

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 G.o.dwin Markham. Primed with these, and knowing that the demand was extortionate, he went, alone, to Markham's office in Conduit Street. Markham was away, but Hollis saw the manager, a man named Stipp. He saw something more, too. On Stipp's mantelpiece he saw a portrait which he recognized immediately as one of Gabriel Chestermarke.

"Now, you want to know how Hollis knew Gabriel Chestermarke. 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 archaeologist; he was looking round the old towns, and he took Scarnham in his itinerary. Knowing that an old schoolmate of his was manager at Chestermarke's Bank in Scarnham, he called in to see me. He and I lunched together at the Scarnham Arms. I showed him round the town a bit, after bank hours. And as we were standing in the upper-room window of the Arms, Gabriel Chestermarke came out of the bank and stood talking to some person in the Market-Place for awhile. I drew Hollis's attention to him, and asked, jocularly, if he had ever seen a more remarkable and striking countenance? He answered that it was one which, once seen, would not readily be forgotten. And he had not forgotten it once he saw the portrait at Markham's office--he knew very well that it was extremely unlikely that so noticeable a man as Gabriel Chestermarke could have a double.

"Now, Hollis was a sharp fellow. He immediately began to suspect things.

He talked awhile with Stipp, and contrived to find out that the portrait over the mantelpiece was that of G.o.dwin Markham. He also found out that Mr. G.o.dwin Markham was rarely to be found at his office--that there was no such thing as daily, or even weekly attendance there by him. And after mutual desires that the Lester affair should be satisfactorily settled, but without telling Stipp anything about the ten thousand pounds, he left the office with a promise to call a few days later.

"Next day, certain of what he had discovered, Hollis came down to see me, and told me all that I have just told you. It did not surprise me as much as you would think. I knew that for a great many years Gabriel Chestermarke had spent practically half his time in London--I had always felt sure that he had a finger in some business there, and I naturally concluded that he had some sort of a _pied-a-terre_ in London as well.

One fact had always struck me as peculiar--he never allowed letters to be sent on to him from Scarnham to London. Anything that required his personal attention had to await his return. So that when I heard all that Hollis had to tell, I was not so greatly astonished. In fact, the one thing that immediately occupied my thoughts was--was Joseph Chestermarke also concerned in the G.o.dwin Markham money-lending business? He, too, was constantly away in London--or believed to be so.

He, too, never had letters sent on to him. Taking everything into consideration, I came to the conclusion that Joseph was in all probability his uncle's partner in the Conduit Street concern, just as he was in the bank at home.