's
all, Mr. Polke?"

"All!" assented Polke.

"No!" said Neale. "Miss Fosdyke and I have brought you some news. Mr.
Horbury must have crossed Ellersdeane Hollow on Saturday night. Look at
this!--and I'll tell you all about it."

The superintendent and the detective listened silently to Neale's
account of the meeting with Creasy, and Betty, watching Starmidge's
face, saw that he was quietly taking in all the points of importance.

"Is this tin-man to be depended upon?" he asked, when Neale had
finished. "Is he known?"

"I know him," answered Polke. "He's come to this neighbourhood for many
years. Yes--an honest chap enough--bit given to poaching, no doubt, but
straight enough in all other ways--no complaint of him that I ever heard
of. I should believe all he says about this."

"Then, as that's undoubtedly Mr. Horbury's pipe, and as this gentleman
saw him smoking it at two o'clock on Saturday, and as Creasy picked it
up underneath Ellersdeane Tower on Sunday evening," said Starmidge,
"there seems no doubt that Mr. Horbury went that way, and dropped it
where it was found. But--I can't think he was carrying Lord
Ellersdeane's jewels home!"

"Why?" asked Neale.

"Is it likely?" suggested Starmidge. "One's got--always--to consider
probability. Is it probable that a bank manager would put a hundred
thousand pounds' worth of jewels in his pocket, and walk across a lonely
stretch of land at that time of night, just to hand them over to their
owner? I think not--especially as he hadn't been asked to do so. I think
that if Mr. Horbury had been in a hurry to deliver up these jewels, he'd
have driven out to Lord Ellersdeane's place."

"Good!" muttered Polke. "That's the more probable thing."

"Where are the jewels, then?" asked Neale.

Starmidge glanced at Polke with one expression, at Betty and Neale with
another.

"They haven't been searched for yet, have they?" he asked quietly. "They
may be--somewhere about, you know."

"You mean to search for them?" exclaimed Betty.

"I don't know what I intend to do," replied Starmidge, smiling. "I
haven't even thought. I shall have thought a lot by morning. But--the
country's being searched, isn't it, for news of Mr. Horbury?--perhaps
we'll hear something. It's a difficult thing for a well-known man to get
clear away from a little place like this. No!--what I'd like to
know--what I want to satisfy myself about is--did Mr. Horbury go away at
all? Is there really anything mis