d to know nothing of the
pocket-book when I questioned him, but I became suspicious of him, and
laid a trap which he fell into. Then he handed me the pocket-book, which
he had hidden on the moor, under a stone. In the pocket-book I found a
letter from Holymead asking your father to come to London at once as
there were to be two new appointments to the Court of Appeal, and that
Sir Horace had an excellent chance of obtaining one if he came to London
and used his influence with the Chancellor and the Chief Justice, who
were still in town. The writer indicated that he was doing all that was
possible in Sir Horace's interests, and that he would meet Sir Horace at
Riversbrook at 9.30 on Wednesday night and let him know the exact
position. There is nothing suspicious in such a letter, but my inquiries
concerning new appointments to the Court of Appeal suggest that the
statements in the letter are false.

"Now let us consider the conduct of Holymead and his wife since the night
of the murder. His course of action has not been that of a man anxious to
assist the police in the discovery of the murderer of his old friend. We
have first of all his secrecy regarding his visit to Riversbrook that
night; the fact of the visit being established by the stick, and the
glove he left behind. We have the estrangement of husband and wife. We
have Mrs. Holymead's visit to Riversbrook on the morning that the first
details of the crime appeared in the newspapers. Ostensibly she came to
see you and pay her condolences, but as she knew that you had been away
in the country she ought to have telephoned to learn if you had come up
to London. Instead of telephoning, she went to Riversbrook direct, and
when she found you were not there she was admitted to the presence of my
old friend, Inspector Chippenfield. He is an excellent police officer,
but I do not think he is a match for a clever woman. And Mrs. Holymead is
such a fine-looking woman that I feel sure Chippenfield was so impressed
by her appearance that he forgot he was a police officer and remembered
only that he was a man. She managed to get him out of the room long
enough to enable her to open the secret drawer in Sir Horace's desk and
remove the letters. No doubt Sir Horace had shown her where he kept them,
as their neat little hiding place was an indication of the value he
placed upon them. She was under the impression that no one knew about the
letters, and her object in removing them wa