out of that newspaper report. I want
to know something about the man referred to so much--the stockbroker,
Chamberlayne."

"Just so," observed Mr. Quarterpage, smiling. "I thought that would
touch your sense of the inquisitive. But Maitland first. Now, when
Maitland went to prison, he left behind him a child, a boy, just then
about two years old. The child's mother was dead. Her sister, a Miss
Baylis, appeared on the scene--Maitland had married his wife from a
distance--and took possession of the child and of Maitland's personal
effects. He had been made bankrupt while he was awaiting his trial, and
all his household goods were sold. But this Miss Baylis took some small
personal things, and I always believed that she took the silver ticket.
And she may have done, for anything I know to the contrary. Anyway, she
took the child away, and there was an end of the Maitland family in
Market Milcaster. Maitland, of course, was in due procedure of things
removed to Dartmoor, and there he served his term. There were people
who were very anxious to get hold of him when he came out--the bank
people, for they believed that he knew more about the disposition of
that money than he'd ever told, and they wanted to induce him to tell
what they hoped he knew--between ourselves, Mr. Spargo, they were going
to make it worth his while to tell."

Spargo tapped the newspaper, which he had retained while the old
gentleman talked.

"Then they didn't believe what his counsel said--that Chamberlayne got
all the money?" he asked.

Mr. Quarterpage laughed.

"No--nor anybody else!" he answered. "There was a strong idea in the
town--you'll see why afterwards--that it was all a put-up job, and
that Maitland cheerfully underwent his punishment knowing that there
was a nice fortune waiting for him when he came out. And as I say, the
bank people meant to get hold of him. But though they sent a special
agent to meet him on his release, they never did get hold of him. Some
mistake arose--when Maitland was released, he got clear away. Nobody's
ever heard a word of him from that day to this. Unless Miss Baylis
has."

"Where does this Miss Baylis live?" asked Spargo.

"Well, I don't know," replied Mr. Quarterpage. "She did live in
Brighton when she took the child away, and her address was known, and I
have it somewhere. But when the bank people sought her out after
Maitland's release, she, too, had clean disappeared, and all efforts to
trace her fa