I hadn't had a
most particular search made. But--that's not all. The second item is
here--the railway folk at Cornhill are unanimous in declaring that by
that same train which brought Phillips there, two men, strangers, that
looked like tourist gentlemen, came as well, whose tickets were
from--where d'ye think, then, Mr. Lindsey?"

"Peebles, of course," answered Mr. Lindsey.

"And you've guessed right!" exclaimed Chisholm, triumphantly; "Peebles it
was--and now, how do you think this affair looks? There's so many
tourists on Tweedside this time of the year that nobody paid any great
attention that night to these men, nor where they went. But what could be
plainer, d'ye think?--of course, those two had tracked Phillips from the
bank, and they followed him till they had him in yon place where he was
found, and they murdered him--to rob him!"

CHAPTER XV

FIVE HUNDRED A YEAR

It was very evident that Chisholm was in a state of gleeful assurance
about his theory, and I don't think he was very well pleased when Mr.
Lindsey, instead of enthusiastically acclaiming it as a promising one,
began to ask him questions.

"You found a pretty considerable sum on Phillips as it was when you
searched his body, didn't you?" he asked.

"Aye--a good lot!" assented Chisholm. "But it was in a pocket-book in an
inner pocket of his coat, and in his purse."

"If it was robbery, why didn't they take everything?" inquired Mr.
Lindsey.

"Aye, I knew you'd ask that," replied Chisholm. "But the thing is that
they were interrupted. The bag they could carry off--but it's probable
that they heard Mr. Moneylaws here coming down the lane before they could
search the man's pockets."

"Umph!" said Mr. Lindsey. "And how do you account for two men getting
away from the neighbourhood without attracting attention?"

"Easy enough," declared Chisholm. "As I said just now, there's numbers of
strangers comes about Tweedside at this time of the year, and who'd
think anything of seeing them? What was easier than for these two to
separate, to keep close during the rest of the night, and to get away by
train from some wayside station or other next morning? They could manage
it easily--and we're making inquiries at all the stations in the district
on both sides the Tweed, with that idea."

"Well--you'll have a lot of people to follow up, then," remarked Mr.
Lindsey drily. "If you're going to follow every tourist that got on a
train next morning