at he had already given to Mr. Francis
Parkman. He added that at the end of their interview he had asked the
Doctor for the return of the mortgage, to which the latter had replied,
"I haven't it with me, but I will see it is properly cancelled." Mr.
Blake asked Webster if he could recollect in what form of money it
was that he had paid Dr. Parkman. Webster answered that he could only
recollect a bill of L20 on the New Zealand Bank: pressed on this point,
he seemed to rather avoid any further inquiries. Mr. Blake left him,
dissatisfied with the result of his visit.

One particular in Webster's statement was unquestionably strange, if
not incredible. He had, he said, paid Parkman a sum of L90, which he
had given him personally, and represented the Doctor as having at their
interview promised to cancel the mortgage on the collection of minerals
which Webster had given as security for the loan of L490 that had been
subscribed by Parkman and four of his friends. Now L120 of this loan
was still owing. If Webster's statement were true, Parkman had a perfect
right to cancel Webster's personal debt to himself; but he had no right
to cancel entirely the mortgage on the minerals, so long as money due to
others on that mortgage was yet unpaid. Was it conceivable that one so
strict and scrupulous in all monetary transactions as Parkman would have
settled his own personal claim, and then sacrificed in so discreditable
a manner the claims of others, for the satisfaction of which he had made
himself responsible?

There was yet another singular circumstance. On Saturday, the 24th, the
day after his settlement with Parkman, Webster paid into his own account
at the Charles River Bank the cheque for L18, lecture fees, handed
over to him by the agent Pettee just before Dr. Parkman's visit on the
Friday. This sum had not apparently gone towards the making up of the
L90, which Webster said that he had paid to Parkman that day. The
means by which Webster had been enabled to settle this debt became more
mysterious than ever.

On Tuesday, November 27, the Professor received three other visitors in
his lecture-room. These were police officers who, in the course of
their search for the missing man, felt it their duty to examine, however
perfunctorily, the Medical College. With apologies to the Professor,
they passed through his lecture room to the laboratory at the back,
and from thence, down the private stairs, past a privy, into the lower
lab