asn't
looking well when you came in just now, it was because this inaction is
bad for me. I want to do something!--something to help. If I could only
be stirring--moving about. You understand?"

"Quite!" responded Brereton. "And there is something you can do. I saw
you on a bicycle the other day. Why not give up your teaching for a
while, and scour the country round about, trying to get hold of some
news about your father's movements that night? That he won't tell us
anything himself is no reason why we shouldn't find out something for
ourselves. He must have been somewhere--someone must have seen him! Why
not begin some investigation?--you know the district. How does that
strike you?"

"I should be only too thankful," she said. "And I'll do it. The
Northrops are very kind--they'll understand, and they'll let me off.
I'll begin at once--tomorrow. I'll hunt every village between the sea
and the hills!"

"Good!" said Brereton. "Some work of that sort, and this reward--ah, we
shall come out all right, you'll see."

"I don't know what we should have done if it hadn't been for you!" said
Avice. "But--we shan't forget. My father is a strange man, Mr. Brereton,
but he's not the sort of man he's believed to be by these Highmarket
people--and he's grateful to you--as you'll see."

"But I must do something to merit his gratitude first, you know,"
replied Brereton. "Come!--I've done next to nothing as yet. But we'll
make a fresh start with this reward--if your father's solicitor
approves."

The solicitor did approve--strongly. And he opened his eyes to their
widest extent when he read the anonymous letter and saw the bank-notes.

"Your father," he observed to Avice, "is the most mysterious man I ever
heard of! The Kitely mystery, in my opinion, is nothing to the
Harborough mystery. Do you really mean to tell me that you haven't an
idea of what all this means?"

"Not an idea!" replied Avice. "Not the ghost of one."

"Well--we'll get these posters and handbills out, anyway, Mr. Brereton,"
said the solicitor. "Five hundred pounds is a good figure. Lord bless
you!--some of these Highmarket folk would sell their mothers for half
that! The whole population will be turned into amateur detectives. Now
let's draft the exact wording, and then we'll see the printer."

Next day the bill-poster placarded Highmarket with the reward bills, and
distributed them broadcast in shops and offices, and one of the first
persons to lay hands