it took little time for Brereton to acquaint
himself with these facts. What was not so clear was the whereabouts or
disposal of the money. From the evidence there appeared to be two
conflicting notions current in Wilchester at the time. Some people
apparently believed confidently that the two culprits had lost the money
in secret speculation and in gambling: other people were just as certain
that they had quietly put the money away in some safe quarter. The
prisoners themselves absolutely refused to give the least scrap of
information: ever since their arrest they had maintained a stolid
silence and a defiant demeanour. More than once during the progress of
the trial they had opportunities of making clean breasts of their
misdoings and refused to take them. Found guilty, they were put back
until next day for sentence--that, of course, was to give them another
chance of saying what they had done with the money. But they had kept up
their silence to the end, and they had been sentenced to two years'
imprisonment, with hard labour, and so had disappeared from public view,
with their secret--if there really was a secret--intact.

So much for the newspaper cutting from the _Wilchester Sentinel_. But
there was more to read. The cutting came to an end on the top half of a
page in the scrap-book; underneath it on the blank half of the page
Kitely had made an entry, dated three years after the trial.

"Wilchester: June 28, 1884. _Re_ above. Came down here on business today
and had a talk with police about M. & C. and the money. M. & C. never
been heard of since their release. Were released at same time, and seen
in the town an hour or two later, after which they disappeared--a man
who spoke to M. says that M. told him they were going to emigrate. They
are believed to have gone to Argentine. Both had relatives in
Wilchester, but either they don't know anything of M. & C.'s subsequent
doings, or they keep silence. No further trace of money, and opinion
still divided as to what they really did with it: many people in W.
firmly convinced that they had it safely planted, and have gone to it."

To Brereton the whole affair was now as plain as a pikestaff. The old
detective, accidentally settling down at Highmarket, had recognized
Mallalieu and Cotherstone, the prosperous tradesmen of that little,
out-of-the-way town, as the Mallows and Chidforth whom he had seen in
the dock at Wilchester, and he had revealed his knowledge to one or