med Mr. Portlethorpe.

"And, in my opinion, that's not far off the truth," said Mr. Lindsey.
"You've hit it!"

"But--Michael Carstairs was never married!" declared Mr. Portlethorpe.

Mr. Lindsey picked up Gilverthwaite's will and the Smeaton letter, and
carefully locked them away in his drawer.

"I'm not so sure about that," he remarked, drily. "Michael Carstairs was
very evidently a queer man who did a lot of things in a peculiar fashion
of his own, and--"

"The solicitor who sent us formal proof of his death, from Havana,
previous to Sir Alexander's death, said distinctly that Michael had never
been married," interrupted Mr. Portlethorpe. "And surely he would know!"

"And I say just as surely that from all I've heard of Michael Carstairs
there'd be a lot of things that no solicitor would know, even if he sat
at Michael's dying bed!" retorted Mr. Lindsey. "But we'll see. And
talking of beds, it's time I was showing you to yours, and that we were
all between the sheets, for it's one o'clock in the morning, and we'll
have to be stirring again at six sharp. And I'll tell you what we'll do,
Portlethorpe, to save time--we'll just take a mere cup of coffee and a
mouthful of bread here, and we'll breakfast in Edinburgh--we'll be there
by eight-thirty. So now come to your beds."

He marshalled us upstairs--he and Mr. Portlethorpe had already taken
their night-caps while they talked,--and when he had bestowed the senior
visitor in his room, he came to me in mine, carrying an alarm clock which
he set down at my bed-head.

"Hugh, my man!" he said, "you'll have to stir yourself an hour before
Mr. Portlethorpe and me. I've set that implement for five o'clock. Get
yourself up when it rings, and make yourself ready and go round to
Murray at the police-station--rouse him out of his bed. Tell him what we
heard from that man Hollins tonight, and bid him communicate with the
Glasgow police to look out for Sir Gilbert Carstairs. Tell him, too,
that we're going on to Edinburgh, and why, and that, if need be, I'll
ring him up from the Station Hotel during the morning with any news we
have, and I'll ask for his at the same time. Insist on his getting in
touch with Glasgow--it's there, without doubt, that Lady Carstairs went
off, and where Sir Gilbert would meet her; let him start inquiries
about the shipping offices and the like. And that's all--and get your
bit of sleep."

I had Murray out of his bed before half-past five that mor