reputation of being a quiet, close, reserved sort of man who was
making money. As to Salter, nobody knew anything except that he had
been visiting Noah for some time. Family ties, the two men evidently
have none!--not a soul has come forward to claim relationship.
And--there has been wide publicity."

"Do you think Quick was the real name?" asked Mr. Cazalette, who from
the first had been listening with rapt attention. "Mayn't it have been
an assumed name?"

"Well, sir," replied Scarterfield, "I thought of that. But you must
remember that full descriptions of the two brothers appeared in the
press, and that portraits of both were printed alongside. Nobody came
forward, recognizing them. And there has been a powerful, a most
powerful, inducement for their relations to appear, never mind whether
they were Quick, or Brown, or Smith, or Robinson,--the most powerful
inducement we could think of!"

"Aye!" said Mr. Cazalette. "And that was----"

"Money!" answered the detective. "Money! If these men left any
relations--sisters, brothers, nephews, nieces--it's in the interest of
these relations to come into the light, for there's money awaiting
them. That's well known--I had it noised abroad in the papers, and let
it be freely talked of in town. But, as I say, nobody's come along. I
firmly believe, now, that these two hadn't a blood relation in the
world--a queer thing, but it seems to be so."

"And--this money?" I asked. "Is it much?"

"That was one of the first things I went for," answered Scarterfield.
"Naturally, when a man comes to the end which Noah Quick met with,
inquiries are made of his solicitors and his bankers. Noah had both in
our parts. The solicitors knew nothing about him except that he had
employed them now and then in trifling matters, and that of late he
had made a will in which, in brief fashion, he left everything of
which he died possessed to his brother Salter, whose address he gave
as being the same as his own; about the same time they had made a will
for Salter, in which he bequeathed everything he had to Noah. But as
to the antecedents of Noah and Salter--nothing! Then I approached the
bankers. There I got more information. When Noah Quick first went to
Devonport he deposited a considerable sum of money with one of the
leading banks at Plymouth, and at the time of his death he had several
thousand pounds lying there to his credit: his bankers also had charge
of valuable securities of his. On Sal