ess until he had lighted one of
Mr. Raven's cigars and pledged Mr. Raven in a whisky and soda. Then,
equipped and at his ease, he turned a friendly, all-embracing smile on
the rest of us.

"Which," he asked, looking from one to the other, "which of these
gentlemen is Mr. Middlebrook?"

The general turning of several pairs of eyes in my direction gave him
the information he wanted--we exchanged nods.

"It was you who found Salter Quick?" he suggested. "And who met him,
the previous day, on the cliffs hereabouts, and went with him into the
Mariner's Joy?"

"Quite correct," said I. "All that!"

"I have read up everything that appeared in print in connection with
the Salter Quick affair," he remarked. "It has, of course, a bearing
on the Noah Quick business. Whatever is of interest in the one is of
interest in the other."

"You think the two affairs one really--eh?" inquired Mr. Raven.

"One!" declared Scarterfield. "The object of the man who murdered Noah
was the same object as that of the man who murdered Salter. The two
murderers are, without doubt, members of a gang. But what gang, and
what object--ah! that's just what I don't know yet!"

What we were all curious about, of course, was--what did he know that
we did not already know? And I think he saw in what direction our
thoughts were turning, for he presently leaned forward on the table
and looked around the expectant faces as if to command our attention.

"I had better tell you how far my investigations have gone," he said
quietly. "Then we shall know precisely where we are, and from what
point we can, perhaps, make a new departure, now that I have come
here. I was put in charge of this case--at least of the Saltash
murder--from the first. There's no need for me to go into the details
of that now, because I take it that you have all read them, or quite
sufficient of them. Now, when the news about Salter Quick came
through, it seemed to me that the first thing to do was to find out a
very pertinent thing--who were the brothers Quick? What were their
antecedents? What was in their past, the immediate or distant past,
likely to lead up to these crimes? A pretty stiff proposition, as you
may readily guess! For, you must remember, each was a man of mystery.
No one in our quarter knew anything more of Noah Quick than that he
had come to Devonport some little time previous, taken over the
license of the Admiral Parker, conducted his house very well, and had
the