facturing Company in Sheffield, where Coburn had been employed.
From him he had learned that Madeleine's surmise was correct, and that
there had been "friction" before her father left. In point of fact a
surprise audit had revealed discrepancies in the accounts. Some money
was missing, and what was suspiciously like an attempt to falsify the
books had taken place. But the thing could not be proved. Mr. Coburn had
paid up, but though his plea that he had made a genuine clerical error
had been accepted, his place had been filled. The manager expressed
the private opinion that there was no doubt of his subordinate's guilt,
saying also that it was well known that during the previous months
Coburn had been losing money heavily through gambling. Where he had
obtained the money to meet the deficit the manager did not know, but he
believed someone must have come forward to assist him.

This information interested Willis keenly, supporting, as it seemed to
do, his idea that Coburn was in the power of the syndicate or one of its
members. If, for example, one of these men, on the lookout for helpers
in his conspiracy, had learned of the cashier's predicaments it was
conceivable that he might have obtained his hold by advancing the money
needed to square the matter in return for a signed confession of guilt.
This was of course the merest guesswork, but it at least indicated to
Willis a fresh line of inquiry in case his present investigation failed.

And with the latter he was becoming exceedingly disappointed. With the
exception of the facts just mentioned, he had learned absolutely nothing
to help him. Mr. Coburn might as well have vanished into thin air when
he left the Peveril Hotel, for all the trace he had left. Willis could
learn neither where he went nor whom he met on any one of the four days
he had spent in London. He congratulated himself, therefore, that on the
following day the Girondin would be back at Ferriby, and he would then
be able to start work on the finger-print clue.

That evening he settled himself with his pipe to think over once more
the facts he had already learned. As time passed he found himself
approaching more and more to the conclusion reached by Hilliard and
Merriman several weeks before--that the secret of the syndicate was the
essential feature of the case. What were these people doing? That was
the question which at all costs he must answer.

His mind reverted to the two theories already in the