ghty--there were hiding-places discovered in the
bank-house at the time Matthew Chestermarke, grandfather of the present
Gabriel, had it altered: in fact, I am quite sure I was taken by my
father to see them. Now, of course, many of these places were bricked
up, and so on, but I think--it is my impression--that a double staircase
was left untouched, and some recesses in the panelling of the
garden-room. That garden-room, Mr. Polke--if you know what I mean?"

"Mr. Batterley," remarked the Earl, "means the panelled room which looks
out on the garden. Mr. Horbury has used it as a study."

"The garden-room," continued the old antiquary, "should be particularly
examined. It is into that room that the double staircase opens--by a
door concealed in the recess at the side of the fire-place. There were,
I am sure, recesses behind the panelling in that room. Now, Horbury may
have known of them--he had tastes of an antiquarian disposition--in an
amateur way, you know. At any rate, Mr. Polke, you should examine the
house--and especially that room, for Horbury may have hidden Lord
Ellersdeane's property there. A deeply interesting room that!" added the
old man musingly. "I haven't been in it for some sixty years or so, but
I remember it quite well. It was in that room that Jasper Chestermarke
murdered Sir Gervase Rudd."

Starmidge, who, like the rest of them, had been listening eagerly to
Batterley's talk, turned sharply to him.

"Did you say murdered, sir?" he said.

"A well-known story!" answered the old man half-impatiently, as he rose
from his chair. "An ancestor of these Chestermarkes--he killed a man in
that very room. Well--that's what I suggest, Mr. Polke. And--for another
reason. As Lord Ellersdeane there knows--being, as his lordship is, a
member of our society--the bank-house is so old that underneath it there
may be such matters as old wells, old drains. Now, supposing Horbury had
discovered some way under the present house, some secret passage or
something, and that he went down into it on Sunday--eh? He may have
fallen into one of these places--and be lying there dead or helpless.
It's possible, Mr. Polke, it's quite possible. I make the suggestion to
you for what it's worth, you know."

The old man bowed himself out and went away, and Polke turned to Lord
Ellersdeane and Betty.

"I'm glad your lordship's come in," he said. "Quite apart from what Mr.
Batterley suggests, we'll have to examine that bank-house. It'