e
settled. But Starmidge had a love of precision, and liked matters to be
put in plain words.

"Well--and what then?" he demanded.

"What, then?" exclaimed Easleby. "Why, then we shall know, for a
certainty, that Gabriel Chestermarke is keen about his secret! If he
keeps it from the man who does his business for him here in London, he'd
go to any length to keep it safe if it was threatened by his manager at
Scarnham. Is that clear, my lad?"

The two men in the course of their slow strolling away from the Adalbert
Theatre had come to the end of Shaftesbury Avenue, and had drawn aside
from the crowds during the last minute or two to exchange their
confidences in private.

Starmidge looked meditatively at the thronging multitudes of Piccadilly
Circus, and watched them awhile before he answered his companion's last
observation.

"I don't want to precipitate matters," he said at last. "I don't want an
anti-climax. Suppose we found Markham--or Chestermarke--there? Or
supposing he came in?"

"Excellent!--in either case," replied Easleby. "Serve our purpose equally
well. If he's there, you betray the greatest surprise at seeing him--you
can act up to that. If he should come in, you're equally surprised--see!
We haven't gone there about any Chestermarke, you know--we aren't going
to let it out there that we know what we do know--not likely!"

"What have we gone there for then?" asked Starmidge.

"We've gone to say that Mrs. Helen Lester, of Lowdale Court, near
Chesham, has informed us, the police, that she placed a certain sum of
money in the hands of her friend, Mr. Frederick Hollis, for the purpose
of clearing off a debt contracted by her son, Lieutenant Lester, with
Mr. Godwin Markham; that Mr. Hollis had been found dead under strange
circumstances at Scarnham, and that we should be vastly obliged to Mr.
Markham if he can give us any information or light on the matter, or
hints about it," replied Easleby. "That, of course, is what we shall
say--and all that we shall say--to Mr. James Stipp. If, however, we find
Gabriel Chestermarke there--well, then, we shall say nothing--at first.
We shall leave him to do the saying--it'll be his job to begin."

"All right," assented Starmidge, after a moment's reflection. "We'll try
it! Meet you tomorrow morning, then--corner of Conduit Street and New
Bond Street--say at ten-thirty. Now I'm going home."

Starmidge, being a bachelor, tenanted a small flat in Westminster,
within