about this matter of Mr. Horbury's," said Polke. "Of course, you
know it's been put in our hands."

"Not by us!" snapped Gabriel.

"Quite so, sir, by Lord Ellersdeane, and by Mr. Horbury's niece, Miss
Fosdyke," assented Polke. "The young lady, of course, is naturally
anxious about her uncle's safety, and Lord Ellersdeane is anxious about
the Countess's jewels. And we hear that securities of yours are
missing."

"We haven't told you so," retorted Gabriel.

"We haven't even approached you," remarked Joseph.

"Just so!" agreed Polke. "But, under the circumstances----"

"We have nothing to say to you, superintendent," interrupted Gabriel.
"We can't help anything that Lord Ellersdeane has done, nor anything
that Miss Fosdyke likes to do. Lord Ellersdeane is not, and never has
been, a customer of ours. Miss Fosdyke acts independently. If they call
you in--as they seem to have done very thoroughly--it's their look out.
We haven't! When we want your assistance, we'll let you know. At
present--we don't."

He waved one of the white hands towards the door as he spoke, as if to
command withdrawal. But Polke lingered.

"You don't propose to give the police any information, then, Mr.
Chestermarke?" he asked quietly.

"At present we don't propose to give any information to anybody whom it
doesn't concern," replied Gabriel. "As regards the mere surface facts of
Mr. John Horbury's disappearance, you know as much as we do."

"You don't propose to join in any search for him or any attempt to
discover his whereabouts, sir?" inquired Starmidge, speaking for the
first time.

Gabriel looked up from his paper, and slowly eyed his questioner.

"What we propose to do is a matter for ourselves," he answered coldly.
"For no one else."

Starmidge bowed and turned away, and Polke, after hesitating a moment,
said good-morning and followed him from the room. The two men nodded to
Neale and went out into the Market-Place.

"Well?" said Polke.

"Queer couple!" remarked Starmidge.

Polke jerked his thumb at the poster in the bank window.

"Of course!" he said, "so long as they can satisfy their customers that
all's right so far as they're concerned, we can't get at what is missing
that belongs to the Chestermarkes."

"There are ways of finding that out," replied Starmidge quietly.

"What ways, now?" asked Polke. "We can't make 'em tell us their private
affairs. Supposing Horbury has robbed them, they aren't forced to tell
us how