_ CHAPTER XIII. THE PARTNERS UNBEND
The Earl took the empty casket from the detective's hand and looked at it, inside and outside, with doubt and wonder.
"Now what do you take this to mean?" he asked.
"That we've got three people to find, instead of two, my lord," answered Starmidge promptly. "We must be after the housekeeper."
"You found this in her room?" asked Polke. "So--you went up there?"
"As soon as you'd left me," replied the detective, with a shrewd smile. "Of course! I wanted to have a look round. I didn't forget the chimney. She'd put that behind the back of the grate--a favourite hiding-place. I say she--but, of course, some one else may have put it there. Still--we must find her. You telephoned to the police at Ecclesborough, superintendent?"
"Ay, and got small comfort!" answered Polke. "It's a stiff job looking for one woman amongst half a million people."
"She wouldn't stop in Ecclesborough," said Starmidge. "She'll be on her way further afield, now. You can get anywhere from Ecclesborough, of course."
"Of course!" assented Polke. "She would be in any one of half a dozen big towns within a couple of hours--in some of 'em within an hour--in London itself within three. This'll be another case of printing a description. I wish we'd thought of keeping an eye on her before!"
"We haven't got to the stage where we can think of everything," observed Starmidge. "We've got to take things as they come. Well--there's one thing can be done now," he went on, looking at the Earl, "if your lordship'll be kind enough to do it."
"I'll do anything that I can," replied Lord Ellersdeane. "What is it?"
"If your lordship would just make a call on the two Mr. Chestermarkes," suggested Starmidge. "To tell them, of course, of--that," he added, pointing to the empty casket. "Your lordship will get some attention--I suppose. They won't give any attention to Polke or myself. If your lordship would just tell them that your casket--emptied of its valuable contents--had been found hidden in Mrs. Carswell's room, perhaps they'll listen, and--what is much more important--give you their views on the matter. I," concluded Starmidge, drily, "should very much like to hear them!"
The Earl made a wry face.
"Oh, all right!" he answered. "If I must, I must. It's not a job that appeals to me, but--very well. I'll go now."
"And we," said Starmidge, turning to Polke, "had better join the others and see if the old antiquary gentleman has found any of these secret places he talked of."
Lord Ellersdeane found no difficulty in obtaining access to the partners: he was shown into their room with all due ceremony as soon as Shirley announced him. He found them evidently relaxing a little after their lunch, from which they had just returned. They were standing in characteristic attitudes; Gabriel, smoking a cigar, bolt upright on the hearth-rug beneath the portrait of his ancestor; Joseph, toying with a scented cigarette, leaning against the window which looked out on the garden. For once in a way both seemed more amenable and cordial.
The Earl held out the empty casket.
"This," he said, "is the casket in which I handed my wife's jewels to Mr. Horbury. It is, as you see, empty. It has just been found by the Scotland Yard man, Starmidge."
Gabriel glanced at the casket with some interest; Joseph, with none: neither spoke.
"In the housekeeper's room--hidden in her fire-place," continued the Earl, looking from one partner to the other. "That shows, gentlemen, that the jewels were, after all, in this house--on these premises."
"There has never been any question of that," said Gabriel quickly. "We, of course, never doubted what your lordship was good enough to tell us--naturally!"
"Not for a moment!" said Joseph. "We felt at once that you had given the jewels to Horbury."
The Earl set the casket down on Gabriel's desk and looked a little uncertain--and uncomfortable. Gabriel indicated the chair which he had politely moved forward on his visitor's entrance.
"Won't your lordship sit down?" he said.
The Earl accepted the invitation and looked from one man to the other. A sudden impression crossed his mind--never, he thought, were there two men from whom it was so difficult to get a word as these Chestermarkes--who had such a queer habit of staring in silence at one!
"The--the housekeeper appears to have run away," he said haltingly. "That's--somewhat queer, isn't it?"
"We understand Mrs. Carswell has left the house--and the town," replied Gabriel. "As to it's being queer--well, all this is queer!"
"And--all of a piece!" remarked Joseph.
The Earl was glad that the junior partner made that remark, and he turned to him.
"I understand you saw her--and spoke to her--just before she left, this morning?" he said hesitatingly. "Did she--er--give you the impression of being--shall we say, uneasy?"
"I certainly saw her--and spoke to her," asserted Joseph. "I went to scold her. I had given her orders that no one was to be allowed access to certain rooms in the house, and that we were not to be bothered by callers. She fetched me out to see Miss Fosdyke--I went to scold her for that. We had our reasons for not permitting access to those rooms. They have, of course, been frustrated."
"But at any rate some good's come of it," observed the Earl, pointing to his casket. "This has been found. And--in the housekeeper's bedroom. Hidden! And--she's gone. What do you think of it, gentlemen?"
Gabriel spread his hands and shook his head. But Joseph answered readily.
"I should think," he replied, "that's she's gone to meet Horbury."
The Earl started, glancing keenly from one partner to the other.
"Then--you still think that Horbury is guilty of--of dishonesty!" he exclaimed. "Really, I--dear me, such an absolutely upright, honourable man----"
"Surface!" said Joseph quietly. "Surface! On the surface, my lord."
The Earl's face flushed a little with palpable displeasure, and he turned from the junior to the senior partner.
"Very good of your lordship," said Gabriel, with the faintest suggestion of a smile. "But--a man's honesty is bounded by his necessity. We, of course, are better acquainted with our late manager's qualities--now."
"You have discovered--something?" asked the Earl anxiously.
"Up to now," replied Gabriel, "we have kept things to ourselves. But we don't mind giving your lordship a little--just a little--information. There is no doubt that Horbury had, for some time past, engaged in speculation in stocks and shares--none whatever!"
"To a considerable extent," added Joseph.
"And--unsuccessfully?" inquired the Earl.
"We are not yet quite sure of the details," answered Gabriel. "The mere fact is enough. Of course, no man in his position has any right to speculate. Had we known that he speculated----"
"He would have been discharged from our service," said Joseph. "No banker can retain the services of a manager who--gambles."
The Earl began to feel almost as uncomfortable as if these two men were charging him with improper transactions. He was a man of simple mind and ideas, and he supposed the Chestermarkes knew what they were talking about.
"Then you think that this sudden disappearance----" he said.
"In the history of banking--unwritten, possibly," remarked Joseph, "there are many similar instances. No end of them, most likely. Bank managers enjoy vast opportunities of stealing, my lord! And the man who is best trusted has more opportunities than the man who's watched. We never suspected--and so we never watched."
"You have heard of the stranger who came to the town on Saturday night, and is believed to have telephoned from the Station Hotel to Horbury?" asked the Earl. "What of him?"
"We have heard," answered Gabriel. "We don't know any more. 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!"
"If your lordship will think for a moment," said Joseph, "you will see that it is not merely not impossible, but very easy. Horbury was a great pedestrian--he used to boast of his thirty and forty mile walks. Now we are well within twenty miles of Ecclesborough. Ecclesborough is a very big town. What was there to prevent Horbury, during Saturday night, from walking across country to Ecclesborough? Nothing! If, after interviewing that strange man, he decided to clear out at once, he'd nothing to do but set off--over a very lonely stretch of country, every inch of which he knew--to Ecclesborough: he would be in Ecclesborough by an early hour in the morning. Now in Ecclesborough there are three stations--big stations. He could get away from any one of them--what booking-clerk or railway official would pay any particular attention to him? The thing is--ridiculously easy!"
"What of the other man?" asked the Earl. "If there were two men--together--at an early hour--eh?"
"They need not have caught a train at a very early hour," replied Joseph. "They need not have been together when they caught any train. I don't say they went together--I don't say they went to Ecclesborough--I don't say they caught a train: I only say what, it must be obvious, they easily could do without attracting attention."
"The fact of Horbury's disappearance is--unchallengeable," remarked Gabriel quietly. "We--know why he disappeared."
"I should think," said Joseph, still more quietly, "that Lord Ellersdeane also knows--by now."
"No, I don't!" exclaimed the Earl, a little sharply. "I wish I did!"
Joseph pointed to the casket.
"Why have the police been officially--and officiously--searching the house, then?" he asked.
"To see if they could get any clue to his disappearance," replied the Earl.
"And they found--that!" retorted Joseph.
"In the housekeeper's room," said the Earl. "She may have appropriated the jewels."
"I think your lordship must see that that is very unlikely--without collusion between Horbury and herself," remarked Gabriel.
"Mrs. Carswell," said Joseph, "has always been more or less of a mysterious person. We know nothing about her. I don't even know where Horbury got her from. But--the probability is that they were in collusion, and that when he went, she stayed behind, to ascertain how things turned out on his disappearance; and that she fled when it began to appear that searching inquiries were to be made into which she might be drawn."
The Earl made no reply. He recognized that the Chestermarke observations and suggestions were rather more than plausible, and much as he fought against the idea of the missing manager's dishonesty, he could not deny that the circumstances as set forth by the bankers were suspicious.
"Your lordship will, of course, follow up this woman?" said Gabriel, after a brief silence.
"I suppose the police will," replied the Earl. "But--aren't you going to do anything yourselves, Mr. Chestermarke? You told me, you know, that certain securities of yours were missing."
Gabriel glanced at his nephew--and Joseph nodded.
"Oh, well!" answered Gabriel. "We don't mind telling your lordship--and if your lordship pleases, you may tell the police--we are doing something. We have, in fact, been doing something from an early hour. We have a very clever man at work just now--he has been at work since he heard from us twenty-four hours ago. But--our ideas are not those of Polke. Polke begins his inquiries here. Our inquiries--based on our knowledge--begin ... elsewhere."
"You think Horbury will be heard of--elsewhere?" suggested the Earl.
"Much more likely to be heard of elsewhere than here, my lord!" asserted Gabriel.
"But, of course, what we do need not interfere with anything that your lordship does, or that Miss Fosdyke does, or that the police do."
"All that any of us want, I suppose, is to find Horbury," said the Earl, as he rose. "If he's found, then, I conclude, some explanation will result. You don't believe in searching about here, then?"
"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."
The Earl said good-day and went out, troubled and wondering. In the hall he met the search-party. Mr. Batterley had failed to find anything in the way of secret stairs or passages or openings beyond those already known to the occupants, and though he was still confident that they existed, the police had wound up their present investigations to turn to more palpable things. Polke and the detective listened to the Earl's account of his interview, and the superintendent sniffed at the mention of the inquiries instituted by the partners.
"Ah!" he said incredulously. "Just so! Private inquiry agent, no doubt. All right--let 'em do what they like. But we're going to do what we like, my lord, and what we do will be on very different lines. First thing now--we want that woman!" _