got a letter from one John Phillips, written from a place
called Colon, in Panama--that's Central America, as you'll be
aware--enclosing a draft for three thousand pounds on the International
Banking Corporation of New York. The letter instructed the Peebles agent
to collect this sum and to place it in his bank to the writer's credit.
Furthermore, it stated that the money was to be there until Phillips came
home to Scotland, in a few months' time from the date of writing. This,
of course, was all done in due course--there was the three thousand
pounds in Phillips's name. There was a bit of correspondence between him
at Colon and the bank at Peebles--then, at last, he wrote that he was
leaving Panama for Scotland, and would call on the bank soon after his
arrival. And on the morning of the day on which he was murdered, Phillips
did call at the bank and established his identity, and so on, and he then
drew out five hundred pounds of his money--two hundred pounds in gold,
and the rest in small notes; and, Mr. Lindsey, he carried that sum away
with him in a little handbag that he had with him."

Mr. Lindsey, who had been listening with great attention, nodded.

"Aye!" he said. "Carried five hundred pounds away with him. Go on, then."

"Now," continued Chisholm, evidently very well satisfied with himself for
the way he was marshalling his facts, "we--that is, to put it plainly, I
myself--have been making more searching inquiries about Cornhill and
Coldstream. There's two of the men at Cornhill station will swear that
when Phillips got out of the train there, that evening of the murder, he
was carrying a little handbag such as the bank cashier remembers--a
small, new, brown leather bag. They're certain of it--the
ticket-collector remembers him putting it under his arm while he searched
his pocket for his ticket. And what's more, the landlord of the inn
across the bridge there at Coldstream he remembers the bag, clearly
enough, and that Phillips never had his hand off it while he was in his
house. And of course, Mr. Lindsey, the probability is that in that bag
was the money--just as he had drawn it out of the bank."

"You've more to tell," remarked Mr. Lindsey.

"Just so," replied Chisholm. "And there's two items. First of all--we've
found that bag! Empty, you may be sure. In the woods near that old ruin
on Till side. Thrown away under a lot of stuff--dead stuff, you'll
understand, where it might have lain till Doomsday if