The Chestermarke Instinct Part 26

"No!" replied Neale. "I certainly don't."

"Nor any sum approaching it?" suggested Starmidge. "Or exceeding it?"

"Nothing whatever!" reiterated Neale. "I know of all recent banking transactions at Chestermarke's, and I can't think--I've been thinking since we saw that cheque--of anything that the cheque had to do with."

"Well--it's a queer thing," remarked the detective meditatively. "I'll lay anything Hollis brought that cheque down here for some specific purpose--and who on earth is there in this place that he could bring it to but Chestermarke's? However, we'll see if I don't trace something about it when I get up to town, and then----"

Polke and the dead man's brother came back, talking earnestly. The superintendent carefully closed the door, and begging his visitor to be seated again, turned to Starmidge.

"I've told Mr. Hollis all the main facts of the case," he said. "Of course, he identified his brother at once."

"When did you see him last, sir!" asked Starmidge.

"Some eight or nine months ago," replied Hollis. "He came to see me, in Birmingham. Previous to that, I hadn't seen him for several years. I ought to tell you," he went on, turning to Polke, "that for a great many years I have lived abroad--tea-planting in Ceylon. I came back to England about a year ago, and eventually settled down at Edgbaston. I suppose my brother's clerk found my address on an old letter or something last night, and wired to me in consequence."

"When Simmons was here," observed Starmidge, "he said that your brother seemed to have no relations."

"I daresay Simmons would get that impression," remarked Hollis. "My brother was a very reserved man, who was not likely to talk much of his family. As a matter of fact, I am about the only relation he had--except some half-cousins, or something of that sort."

"Can you tell us anything about your brother's position?" asked Starmidge. "The clerk said he didn't practise very much, and had means of his own."

"Quite true," a.s.sented Hollis. "I believe he had a comfortable income, apart from his practice--perhaps five or six hundred a year. He mentioned to me that he only did business for old clients."

"Do you think he'd be likely to have a sum of ten thousand pounds lying at his bankers?" inquired Starmidge.

Hollis looked sharply at the detective and then shook his head.

"Not unless it was for some special purpose," he answered. "He might have such a sum if he'd been selling out securities for re-investment.

But my impression is--in fact, it's more than an impression--I'm sure that he bought himself an annuity of about the amount I mentioned just now, some years ago. You see, he'd no children, and he knew that I was a well-to-do man, so--he used his capital in that a way."

"Would you be surprised to see a cheque of his drawn for ten thousand pounds?" asked Starmidge suddenly.

"Frankly, I should!" replied Hollis, with a smile. "That is, if it was on his private account."

"Do you happen to know who kept his private account?" inquired Starmidge.

"Yes," answered Hollis. "He banked with an old private firm called Vanderkiste, Mullineau & Company, of Lombard Street."

Starmidge, after a whispered word with Polke, took up the envelope in which he had placed the dead man's letter-case, and produced the cheque.

"Look at that, sir," he said, laying it before the visitor. "Is that your brother's handwriting?"

"His handwriting--oh, yes!" exclaimed Hollis. "Most certainly!

But--there's no signature!"

"No--and there's no name of any payee," said Starmidge. "That's where the mystery comes in. But--this--and this letter-case and its contents--was found on him, and there's no doubt he came down to Scarnham intending to pay that cheque to somebody. You can't throw any light on that, sir?"

The visitor, who continued to regard the cheque with evident amazement, at last turned away from it and glanced at his three companions.

"Well," he said, "I don't know that I can. But one princ.i.p.al reason why I hurried here, after getting Simmons' telegram last night, is this: In the newspapers there is a good deal of mention of a Mr. John Horbury, manager of a bank in this town. He, too, you tell me, has disappeared.

Now, I happen to possess a remarkably good memory, and it was at once stirred by seeing that name. My brother Frederick and I were at school together at Selburgh--Selburgh Grammar School, you know--quite thirty-five or six years ago. One of our schoolmates was a John Horbury.

And--he came from this place--Scarnham."

The three listeners looked at each other. And Neale started, as if at some sudden reminiscence, and he spoke quickly.

"I've heard Mr. Horbury speak of his school-days at Selburgh!" he said.

"And--now I come to think of it--he had some books with the school coat-of-arms on the sides--prizes."

"Just so!" remarked Hollis. "I remember Jack Horbury very well indeed, though I never saw him after I left school, nor heard of him either, until I saw all this news about him in the papers. Of course, your missing bank manager is the John Horbury my brother and I were at school with! And I take it that the reason my brother came down to Scarnham last Sat.u.r.day was--to see John Horbury."

Starmidge had been listening to all this with close attention. He was now more than ever convinced that he was at last on some track--but so far he could not see many steps ahead. Nevertheless, his next step was clearly enough discernible.

"You say you saw your brother some eight or nine months ago, sir?" he remarked. "Did he mention Mr. Horbury to you at that time?"

"No, he didn't," replied Hollis.

"Did he ever--recently, I mean--ever mention his name to you in a letter?" asked Starmidge.

"No--never! I don't know," said Hollis, "that he or I ever spoke to each other of John Horbury from the time we left school. John Horbury was not, as it were, a very particular chum of ours. We knew him--as we knew a hundred other boys. As I have already told you, the two names, Horbury, Scarnham, in the newspapers yesterday, immediately recalled John Horbury, our schoolmate, to me. Up to then, I don't suppose I'd ever thought of him for--years! And I don't suppose he'd ever thought of me, or of my brother. Yet--I feel sure my brother came here to see him.

For business reasons, I suppose?"

"The odd thing about that, Mr. Hollis," remarked Polke, "is that we can't find the slightest reason, either from anybody here, or from your brother's clerk in London, why your brother should come to see Horbury, whether for business, or for any other purpose. And as to his remembering Mr. Frederick Hollis, well, here's Mr. Neale--Mr. Horbury was his guardian--and Mr. Neale, of course, has known him all his life.

Now, Mr. Neale never heard him mention Mr. Frederick Hollis by name at any time. And there's now staying in the town Mr. Horbury's niece, Miss Fosd.y.k.e; she, too, never heard her uncle speak of any Mr. Hollis. Then, as to business--the partners at Chestermarke's Bank declare that they know nothing whatever of your brother--Mr. Gabriel, the senior partner, has seen the poor gentleman, and didn't recognize him. So--we at any rate, are as wise as ever. We don't know what your brother came here for!"

Hollis bowed his head in full acceptance of the superintendent's remarks. But he looked up at Starmidge and smiled.

"Exactly!" he said. "I quite understand you, Mr. Polke. But--I am convinced that my brother came here to see John Horbury. Why he came, I know no more than you do--but I hope to know!"

"You'll stay in the town a bit, sir?" suggested Polke. "You'll want to make arrangements for your poor brother's funeral, of course. Aught that we can do, sir, to help, shall be done."

"I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Polke," replied Hollis. "Yes, I shall certainly stay in Scarnham. In fact," he went on, rising and looking quietly from one man to the other, "I shall stay in Scarnham until I, or you, or somebody have satisfactorily explained how my brother came to his death! I shall spare neither effort nor money to get at the truth--that's my determination!"

"There's somebody else in like case with you, Mr. Hollis," observed Polke. "Miss Fosd.y.k.e's just as concerned about her uncle as you are about your brother. She declares she'll spend a fortune on finding him--or finding out what's happened to him. It was Miss Fosd.y.k.e insisted on having Detective-Sergeant Starmidge down at once."

Hollis quietly scrutinized the detective.

"Well?" he asked. "And what do you make of it?"

But Starmidge was not in the mood for saying anything more just then, and he put his questioner off, asking him, at the same time, to keep the matter of the cheque to himself. Presently Hollis went away with Neale, to whom he wished to talk, and Starmidge, after a period of what seemed to be profound thought, turned to Polke.

"Superintendent!" he said earnestly. "With your leave, I'd like to try an experiment."

"What experiment?" demanded Polke.

Starmidge pointed to the ten thousand pound cheque, which was still lying on the table.

"I'd like to take that cheque across to Chestermarke's Bank, and show it to the partners," he answered.