ck, as you say, was
looking for this plate!"

"And--so was somebody else," said I. "And it was that somebody else
who murdered Salter Quick."

"Aye!" he assented. "Now--who? That's the question. And what's the
next thing to do, Mr. Middlebrook?"

"It seems to me that the next thing to do is to find out all you can
about this plate," I replied. "If I were you, I should take two people
into your confidence--the head man, director, chairman, or whatever he
is, at the bank--and the present Lord Forestburne."

"I will!" he agreed. "I'll see 'em both, first thing tomorrow morning.
Do you go with me, Mr. Middlebrook? You'll explain these old papers
better than I should."

So Scarterfield and I spent that evening together in the little hotel,
and after dinner I explained the inventories more particularly. I came
to the conclusion that if the four thousand ounces of plate specified
in them were in the chests which the dishonest temporary bank-manager
had stolen, he had got a very fine haul: the value, of course, of the
plate, was not so much intrinsic as extrinsic: there were collectors,
English and American, who would cheerfully give vast sums for
pre-Reformation sacramental vessels. Transactions of this kind, I
fancied, must have been in the minds of the thieves. There were
features of the whole affair which puzzled me--not the least important
was my wonder that this plate, undeniably church property, should have
remained so long in the Forestburne family without being brought into
the light of day. I hoped that our inquiries next morning would bring
some information on that point.

But we got no information--at least, none of any consequence. All that
was known by the authorities at the bank was that the late Lord
Forestburne had deposited two chests of plate with them years before,
with instructions that they were to remain in the bank's custody until
his son succeeded him--even then they were not to be opened unless the
son had already come of age. The bank people had no knowledge of the
precise contents of the chests--all they knew was that they contained
plate. As for the present Lord Forestburne, a very young man, he knew
nothing, except that his father's mysterious deposit had been burgled
by a dishonest custodian. He expressed no opinion about anything,
therefore. But the chief authority at the bank, a crusty and
self-sufficient old gentleman, who seemed to consider Scarterfield and
myself as busybodies, poohpo