n clothes, were
obviously policemen. Joseph started and turned to Polke.

"Damn you!" he snarled under his breath. "Are you going to pester us
with your whole crew? Send those fellows off at once!"

"Nothing of the sort, Mr. Chestermarke!" replied Polke, in a similar
whisper, "I shall bring as many of my men here as I please. It's your
own fault--you should have been reasonable this morning. Now, sir,
you'll open any door in this house that's locked."

Joseph suddenly paused and handed over the keys he was dangling.

"Open them yourself!" he said.

He turned on his heel, and without another word or look went back into
the private parlour. And Polke, opening the door of the dining-room,
ushered his party inside, and then stepped back to the two men who were
waiting in the hall.

"Smithson," he said to one of them, "you'll stop at the house-door
here--inside, mind, so as not to attract attention from any customers
coming up this hall to the bank. Jones--come out here with me a minute,"
he continued, taking the second man outside. "Look here--I've a quiet
job for you. You know the housekeeper here--Mrs. Carswell? She's
disappeared. May be all right--and it mayn't. Now, you go out and take a
look round for her. And go to the cab-stand at the corner of the Moot
Hall, and just find out if she's taken a taxi from them, and if so,
where she wanted to be driven to. And then come back and tell me--and
when you come back, stay inside the house with Smithson."

The policeman nodded his comprehension of these instructions and went
out, and Polke turned back to the dining-room and closed the door. He
looked at Starmidge.

"Now I'm in your hands," he said quietly. "You take charge of this. What
do you wish to do?"

"One thing particularly at first," answered Starmidge. "And we can all
work at it. Never mind these secret passages and dark corners and holes
in the panels!--at present: we may have a look at these later on. What I
do want to find out is--if there's any letter amongst Mr. Horbury's
papers making an appointment with him last Saturday evening. To put
matters briefly--I want some light on that man who came to the Station
Hotel on Saturday, and who presumably came to meet Mr. Horbury."

"I see," said Polke. "Good! Then--first?"

"Here's his desk--and its drawers," suggested Starmidge. "Now, let us
all four take a drawer each and see if we can find any such letter. I'm
going on the presumption that this stranger ca