etective they can give him
from headquarters in London, and search is to be made. Because--now,
Wallie, tell me truthfully--you don't believe for one moment that my
uncle has run away with things?"

"Not for one second!" asserted Neale stoutly. "Never did!"

"Then--there's foul play!" exclaimed Betty. "And I'll spend my last
penny to get at the bottom of it! Here I am, and here I stick, until
I've found my uncle, or discovered what's happened to him. And
listen--do you think those two men across there are to be trusted?"

Neale shook his head as if in appeal to her.

"I'm their clerk, you know," he replied. "I hate being there at all, but
I am there. I believe they're men of absolute probity as regards
business matters--personally, I'm not very fond of either."

"Fond!" she exclaimed. "My dear boy!--Joseph is a slimy sneak, and
Gabriel is a bloodless sphinx--I hate both of them!"

Neale laughed and gave her a look of comprehension.

"You haven't changed, Betty," he said. "I'm to call you Betty, though
you are grown up?"

"Since it's the only name I possess, I suppose you are," she answered.
"But now--what can we do--you and I? After all, we're the nearest people
my uncle has in this town. Do let's do something! I'm not the sort to
sit talking--I want action! Can't you suggest something we can do?"

"There's one thing," replied Neale, after a moment's thought. "Lord
Ellersdeane suggested that possibly Mr. Horbury, hearing that the
Ellersdeanes had got home on Saturday, put the jewels in his pocket and
started out to Ellersdeane with them. I know the exact path he'd have
taken in that case, and I thought of following it this evening--one
might come across something, or hear something, you know."

"Take me with you, as soon as we've had dinner," she said. "It'll be a
beginning. I mean to turn this neighbourhood upside down for
news--you'll see. Some person or persons must have seen my uncle on
Saturday night!--a man can't disappear like that. It's impossible!"

"Um!--but men do disappear," remarked Neale. "What I'm hoping is that
there'll eventually--and quickly--be some explanation of this
disappearance, and that Mr. Horbury hasn't met with--shall I put it
plainly?"

"You'd better put anything plainly to me," she answered. "I don't
understand other methods."

"It's possible he may have been murdered, you know," said Neale quietly.

Betty got up from her chair and went over to the window to look out on
the