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!"