THE FIRST FIND
Polke took a step or two on the pavement outside the bank, meditating on
this latest development of a matter that was hourly growing in mystery.
Why had this woman suddenly disappeared? Had she merely gone to
Ecclesborough for the day?--or had she made it her first stage in a
further journey? Why had she taken a taxi-cab for an eighteen-miles'
ride, at considerable expense, when, at twelve o'clock, she could have
got a train which would have carried her to Ecclesborough for fifteen
pence? It seemed as if she had fled. And if she had fled, she had got,
as the constable said, two hours' good start. And in Ecclesborough,
too!--a place with a population of half a million, where there were
three big railway stations, from any one of which a fugitive could set
off east, west, north, south, at pleasure, and with no risk of
attracting attention. Two hours!--Polke knew from long experience what
can be done in two hours by a criminal escaping from justice.
He turned back to speak to his man--and as he turned, Joseph
Chestermarke came out of the bank. Joseph gave him an insolent stare,
and was about to pass him without recognition. But Polke stopped him.
"Mr. Chestermarke, you heard that the housekeeper here has disappeared?"
he asked sharply. "Can you tell anything about it?"
"What have I to do with Horbury's housekeeper?" retorted Joseph. "Do
your own work!"
He passed on, crossing the Market-Place to the Scarnham Arms, and Polke,
after gazing at him in silence for a moment, beckoned to his policeman.
"Come inside, Jones," he said. He led the way into the house and through
the hall to the kitchens at the back, where two women servants stood
whispering together. Polke held up a finger to the one who had answered
Joseph Chestermarke's summons to the parlour that morning. "Here!" he
said, "a word with you. Now, exactly when did Mrs. Carswell go out? You
needn't be afraid of speaking, my girl--it'll go no further, and you
know who I am."
"Not so very long after that young lady was here, Mr. Polke," answered
the girl, readily enough. "Within--oh, a quarter of an hour at the
most."
"Did she say where she was going--to either of you?" asked Polke.
"No, sir--not a word!"
"To neither of us," said the other--an older--woman, drawing nearer.
"She--just went, Mr. Polke."
"Had any message--telegram, or aught of that sort--come for her?" asked
Polke. "Had anybody been to see her?"
"There was no message that I know of," said the housemaid. "But Mr.
Joseph came to speak to her."
"When?" demanded Polke.
"Just after the young lady had gone. He called her out of the kitchen,
and they stood talking in the passage there a bit," answered the elder
woman. "Of course, Mr. Polke, we didn't hear naught--but we saw 'em."
"What happened after that?" asked Polke.
"Naught!--but that Mr. Joseph went away, and she came back in here for a
minute or two and then went upstairs. And next thing she came down
dressed up and went out. She said nothing to us," replied the woman.
"You saw her go out?" said Polke.
Both women pointed to the passage which communicated with the hall.
"When this door's open--as it was," said one, "you can see right
through. Yes--we saw her go through the hall door. Of course we thought
she'd just slipped out into the town for something."
Polke hesitated--and meditated. What use was it, at that juncture, to
ask for more particular details of this evident flight? Mrs. Carswell
was probably well away from Ecclesborough by that time. He turned back
to the hall--and then looked at the women again.
"I suppose neither of you ever saw or heard aught of Mr. Horbury on
Saturday night--after he'd gone out?" he inquired.
The two women glanced at each other in silence.
"Did you?" repeated Polke. "Come, now!"
"Well, Mr. Polke," said the elder woman, "we didn't. But, of course, we
know what's going on--couldn't very well not know, now could we, Mr.
Polke? And we can tell you something that may have to do with things."
"Out with it, then!" commanded Polke. "Keep nothing back."
"Well," said the woman, "there was somebody stirring about this house in
the middle of Saturday night--between, say, one and two o'clock in the
morning--Sunday morning, of course. Both me and Jane here heard
'em--quite plain. And we thought naught of it, then--leastways, what we
did think was that it was Mr. Horbury. He often came in very late. But
when we found out next morning that he'd never come home--why, then, we
did think it was queer that we'd heard noises."
"Did you mention that to Mrs. Carswell?" asked Polke.
"Of course!--but she said she'd heard nothing, and it must have been
rats," replied the elder woman.
"But I've been here three years and I've never seen a rat in the place."
"Nor me!" agreed the housemaid. "And it wasn't rats. I heard a door
shut--twice. Plain as I'm speaking to you, Mr. Polke."
Polke reflected a minute and then turned away.
"All right, my lasses!" he said. "Well, keep all this to yourselves.
Here--I'll tell you what you can do. Send Miss Fosdyke a nice cup of tea
into the study--send us all one!--we can't leave what we're doing just
yet. And a mouthful of bread and butter with it. Come along, Jones," he
continued, leading the constable away. "Here, you step round to old Mr.
Batterley's--you know where he lives--near the Castle. Mr. Polke's
compliments, and would he be so good as to come to the bank-house and
help us a bit?--he'll know what I mean. Bring him back with you."
The constable went away, and Polke, after rubbing one of his mutton-chop
whiskers for awhile with an air of great abstraction, returned to the
study. There Mr. Pellworthy and Betty Fosdyke were talking earnestly in
one of the window recesses; Starmidge, at the furthest end of the room,
was examining the old oak panelling.
"I've sent for Mr. Batterley to give us a hand," said Polke. "I suppose
we'd best examine this room in the way he suggested?"
Starmidge betrayed no enthusiasm.
"If he can do any good," he answered. "But I don't attach much
importance to that. However--if there are any secret places around----"
"There's a nice cup of tea coming in for you and Mr. Pellworthy in a
minute, Miss Fosdyke," said Polke. "We'll all have to put our dinner off
a bit, I reckon." He motioned to the detective to follow him out of the
room. "Here's a nice go!" he whispered. "The housekeeper's off!
Bolted--without a doubt! And--she's got a clear start, too."
Starmidge turned sharply on the superintendent.
"Got any clue to where she's gone?" he demanded.
"She's gone amongst five hundred thousand other men and women," replied
Polke ruefully. "I've found out that much. Drove off in a taxi-cab to
Ecclesborough, as soon as Miss Fosdyke had been here this morning.
And--mark you!--after a few minutes' conversation with Joseph
Chestermarke. Ecclesborough, indeed! Might as well look for a drop of
water in the ocean as for one woman in Ecclesborough! She was set down
at the Exchange Station--why, she may be half-way to London or
Liverpool, or Hull, by now!"
Starmidge was listening intently. And passing over the superintendent's
opinions and regrets, he fastened on his facts.
"After a few minutes' conversation with Joseph Chestermarke, you say?"
he observed. "How do you know that?"
"The servants told me, just now," replied Polke.
Starmidge glanced at the door of the private parlour.
"He's gone out," said Polke.
Just then the door opened and Gabriel emerged, closing and locking it
after him. He paid no attention to the two men, and was passing on
towards the outer hall when Polke hailed him.
"Mr. Chestermarke," he said, "sorry to trouble you--do you know that the
housekeeper, Mrs. Carswell, has disappeared? You heard what that girl
said this morning? Well, she hasn't come back, and----"
"No concern of mine, Mr. Police-Superintendent!" interrupted Gabriel.
"Nothing of this is any concern of mine. I shall be obliged to you if
you'll confine your very unnecessary operations to the interior of the
house, and not stand about this outer hall, or keep this door open
between outer and inner halls--I don't want my customers interfered
with as they come and go."
With that the senior partner passed on, and Starmidge smiled at his
companion.
"I'm glad he interrupted you, all the same, Mr. Polke," he said. "I was
afraid you were going to say that you knew this woman had gone, in a
hurry, to Ecclesborough."
"No, I wasn't," replied Polke. "I told him what I did--because I wanted
to know what he'd say."
"Well--you heard!" said Starmidge. "And what's to be done, now? That
woman's conduct is very suspicious. I think, if I were you, Mr. Polke, I
should get in touch with the Ecclesborough police. Why not? No harm
done. Why not call them up, give them a description of her, and ask them
to keep their eyes open. She mayn't have left Ecclesborough--mayn't
intend leaving. For--look here--!" he drew Polke further away from the
two doors between which they were standing, and lowered his voice to a
whisper--"Supposing," he went on, "supposing there is any secret
understanding between this Mrs. Carswell and Joseph Chestermarke (and it
looks like it, if she went off immediately after a conversation with
him), she may have gone to Ecclesborough simply so that they could meet
there, safely, later on. Eh?"
"Good notion!" agreed Polke. "Well--we can watch him."
"I'm beginning to think we must watch him--thought so for the last two
hours," said Starmidge. "But in the meantime, why not put the
Ecclesborough police on to keeping their eyes open for her? Can you
give them a good description?"
"Know her as well as I know my own wife--by sight," answered Polke. "And
her style of dressing, too. All right--I'll go and do it, now. Well,
there'll be Mr. Batterley coming along in a few minutes--Jones has gone
for him. If he can show you any of their secret places he talked
about----"
"He's here," said Starmidge, as the old antiquary and the constable
entered the hall. "All right--I'll attend to him."
But when Polke had gone, and Batterley had been conducted into the
study, or garden-room as he insisted on calling it, Starmidge left the
old man with Mr. Pellworthy and Betty and made an excuse to go out of
the room after the housemaid, who had just brought in the tea for which
Polke had asked. He caught her at the foot of the staircase, and treated
her to one of his most ingratiating smiles.
"I say!" he said, "Mr. Polke's just been telling me about what you and
the cook told him about Mrs. Carswell--you know. Now, I say--you needn't
say anything--except to cook--but I just want to take a look round Mrs.
Carswell's room. Which is it?"
The cook, who kept the kitchen door open so as not to lose anything of
these delightful proceedings, came forward. Both accompanied Starmidge
upstairs to show him the room he wanted. And Starmidge thanked them
profusely and in his best manner--after which he turned them politely
out and locked the door.
Meanwhile Polke went to the police-station and rang up the
Ecclesborough police on the telephone. He gave them a full, accurate,
and precise description of Mrs. Carswell, and a detailed account of her
doings that morning, and begged them to make inquiry at the three great
stations in their town. The man with whom he held conversation calmly
remarked that as each station at Ecclesborough dealt with a few
thousands of separate individuals every day, it was not very likely that
booking-clerks or platform officials would remember any particular
persons, and Polke sorrowfully agreed with him. Nevertheless, he begged
him to do his best--the far-off partner in this interchange of remarks
answered that they would do a lot better if Mr. Polke would tell them
something rather more definite. Polke gave it up at that, and went off
into the Market-Place again, to return to the bank. But before he
reached the bank he ran across Lord Ellersdeane, who, hanging about the
town to hear some result of the search, had been lunching at the
Scarnham Club, and now came out of its door.
"Any news so far?" asked the Earl.
Polke glanced round to see that nobody was within hearing. He and Lord
Ellersdeane stepped within the doorway of the club-house. Polke narrated
the story of the various happenings since the granting of the
search-warrant, and the Earl's face grew graver and graver.
"Mr. Polke," he said at last, "I do not like what I am hearing about all
this. It's a most suspicious thing that the housekeeper should disappear
immediately after Miss Fosdyke's first call this morning, and that she
should have had some conversation with Mr. Joseph Chestermarke before
she went. Really, one dislikes to have to say it of one's neighbours,
and of persons of the standing of the Chestermarkes, but their behaviour
is--is----"
"Suspicious, my lord, suspicious!" said Polke. "There's no denying it.
And yet, they're what you might call so defiant, so brazen-faced and
insolent, that----"
"Here's your London man," interrupted the Earl. "What is he after now?"
Starmidge came out of the door of the bank-house alone. He caught sight
of Polke and Lord Ellersdeane, smiled, and hurried towards them. He
carried something loosely wrapped in brown paper in his hand; as he
stepped into the doorway of the club-house, he took the wrapping off,
and showed a small morocco-covered box on which was a coronet in gold.
"Does your lordship recognize that?" he asked.
"My wife's jewel-casket, of course!" exclaimed the Earl. "Of course it
is! Bless me!--where did you find it?"
"In the chimney, in Mrs. Carswell's bedroom," answered Starmidge, with a
grimace at Polke. "It's empty!"