ad finished going through the letters, "that we
shall never see the governor again."

Arnold was startled.

"Have you heard anything?" he asked.

Mr. Jarvis admitted gloomily that he had heard nothing.

"It's my belief that nothing more will be heard," he added, "until
his body's found."

"Rubbish!" Arnold declared. "Mr. Weatherley wasn't the sort of man
to commit suicide."

Mr. Jarvis looked around the office as though he almost feared that
the ghost of his late employer might be listening.

"It is my belief," he said impressively, "that we none of us knew
the sort of man Mr. Weatherley was, or rather the sort of man he has
become since his marriage."

"I don't see what marriage with Mrs. Weatherley could have had to do
with his disappearance," Arnold remarked.

Mr. Jarvis looked foolishly wise from behind his gold-rimmed
spectacles.

"You haven't had the opportunity of watching the governor as I have
since his marriage," he declared. "Take my advice, Chetwode. You are
not married, I presume?"

"I am not," Arnold assured him.

"Nor thinking of it?"

"Nor thinking of it," Arnold repeated.

"When the time comes," Mr. Jarvis said, "don't you go poking about
in any foreign islands or places. If only the governor had left
those smelly European cheeses to take care of themselves, he'd be
sitting here in his chair at this moment, smoking a cigar and
handing me out the orders. You and I are, so to speak, in a
confidential position now, Chetwode, and I am able to say things to
you about which I might have hesitated before. Do you know how much
the governor has spent during the last year?"

"No idea," Arnold replied. "Does it matter?"

"He has spent," Mr. Jarvis announced, solemnly, "close upon ten
thousand pounds."

"It sounds like a good deal," Arnold admitted, "but I expect he had
saved it."

"Of course he had saved it," Mr. Jarvis admitted; "but what has that
to do with it? One doesn't save money for the pleasure of spending
it. Never since my connection with the firm has Mr. Weatherley
attempted to spend anything like one half of his income."

"Then I should think it was quite time he began," Arnold declared.
"You are not going to suggest, I suppose, that financial
embarrassments had anything to do with Mr. Weatherley's
disappearance?"

Mr. Jarvis started. To him the suggestion sounded sacrilegious.

"My dear Chetwode," he said, "you must indeed be ignorant of the
resources of the firm when yo