exclaimed.

"There was no business being done with anybody at Scarnham?" asked
Starmidge.

"Not in our office!" asserted Simmons. "I'm sure of that. I know all the
business that we have in hand. To tell you the truth, gentlemen, though
you may think me very ignorant, I never even heard of Scarnham myself
until I read the paper this evening."

"Quite excusable," said Starmidge. "I never heard of it myself until
Monday. Well--this is all very queer, Mr. Simmons. What does Mr. Polke
think? And what's Mr. Polke got to suggest!"

Polke, who had been listening silently, turned to the clerk.

"Did you chance to look at Mr. Hollis's letters--recent letters, I
mean--" he asked, "to see if you would find anything inviting him down
here?"

"I did," replied Simmons promptly. "I looked through all the letters on
his desk and in his drawers yesterday afternoon. I didn't find anything
that explained his absence. And when I was at his rooms this evening I
looked at some letters on his mantelpiece--nothing there. I tell you, I
haven't the least notion as to what could bring him to Scarnham."

"And I suppose none of your fellow-clerks have, either?" asked Polke.

Simmons smiled and glanced at Starmidge.

"We've only myself and another--a junior clerk--and a boy," he said.
"It's not a big practice--only a bit of good conveyancing now and then,
and some family business. Mr. Hollis isn't dependent on it--he's private
means of his own."

"Aye, just so!" observed Polke. "And I should say, Starmidge, that it
was private business brought him down here--if he's the man, as he
certainly seems to be. But--whose?"

Starmidge turned again to the clerk.

"You've a good memory, I can see," he said. "Now, did you ever hear Mr.
Hollis mention the name of Horbury?"

"Never!" replied Simmons.

"Did you ever hear him speak of Chestermarke's Bank?" asked Starmidge.

"No--never! Never heard either name in my life until I saw them in the
papers," asserted Simmons.

"Who looks after the banking account at Hollis's?" asked the detective.
"I mean, the business account--you know. Not his private one."

"I do," said Simmons. "Always have done since I went there."

"You never saw any cheques paid to those names--or any cheques from
them?" inquired Starmidge. "Think, now!"

"No--I'm absolutely sure of it," said the clerk. "Horbury, perhaps, I
might not remember, but I should have remembered Chestermarke--it's an
uncommon name, that--to me, an