The Chestermarke Instinct Part 30

He took the cheque away with him."

"Between then--that day when he was here and you gave him the cheque,"

asked Starmidge, "and last Sat.u.r.day, when we know Mr. Hollis went to Scarnham, did you hear of or from Mr. Hollis at all?"

"Only in this way," replied Mrs. Lester. "When he left me, he said that before approaching Markham, as intermediary, he should like to see Guy, and hear what his account of the transactions was, and that he would ask my son to come up to town from Maychester and meet him. I heard from Guy at the end of last week--last Sat.u.r.day morning, as a matter of fact--that he had been to town, that he had lunched with Mr. Hollis at Mr. Hollis's club, and that after discussing the whole affair, Mr.

Hollis said that he would make a determined effort to settle the matter at once. And after that," concluded Mrs. Lester, "I heard no more or anything until I read of this Scarnham affair in the newspapers."

"And now that you have read it, ma'am, and have heard what I have to tell," said Starmidge, "do you connect it in any way with Mr. Guy Lester's affair?"

Mrs. Lester looked puzzled. She considered the detective's proposition in silence for a time.

"No!" she answered at last. "Really, I don't!"

Starmidge got up, and Easleby followed his lead.

"Well, ma'am," said Starmidge, "there is a connection, without doubt, and I think that within a very short time we shall have discovered what it is. What you have told us has been of great a.s.sistance--the very greatest a.s.sistance. And you can make your mind easy for the present--I don't see any reason for any unpleasant publicity just now--in fact, I think you'll find there won't be any. The unpleasant publicity, ma'am,"

concluded Starmidge, with an almost imperceptible wink at Easleby, "will be for--some other people."

The two detectives bowed themselves out, re-entered their car, and were driven on to Chesham. Neither had touched food since breakfast-time and each was hungry. They discovered an old-fashioned hotel in the main street of the little town, and were presently confronting a round of cold beef, a cold ham, and two foaming tankards, in the snug parlour which they had to themselves.

"One result of our profession, young Starmidge," observed the middle-aged Easleby, bending towards his companion over a well-filled plate, "is that it makes a man indulge in a tremendous lot of what you might call intellectual speculation!"

"What are you speculating about?" asked Starmidge.

"This--on information received," replied Easleby, as he lifted his tankard. "There are the names of three Scarnham gentlemen before me--Gabriel Chestermarke, Joseph Chestermarke, John Horbury. Now, then--which of the three sports the other name of G.o.dwin Markham?"

CHAPTER XXII

SPECULATION--AND CERTAINTY

Starmidge ate and drank in silence for awhile, evidently pondering his companion's question.

"Yes," he said at last, "there's all that in it. It may be any one of the three. You never know! Yet, according to all I've been told, Horbury's a thoroughly straight man of business."

"According to all I've been told," remarked Easleby, "and all I've been told about anything has been told by yourself, the two Chestermarkes have the reputation of being thoroughly straight men of business--outwardly. But one thing is certain, my lad, after what we've just learned--Hollis went down to Scarnham to offer that cheque to one of these three men. And whichever it was, that man's G.o.dwin Markham!

It's a double-life business, Jack--the man's G.o.dwin Markham here in London, and he's somebody else in--somewhere else. Dead certainty, my lad!"

"It's not Horbury," said Starmidge, after some reflection. "I'll stake my reputation, such as it is, on that!"

"You don't know," replied Easleby. "Remember, Mrs. Lester said this son of hers always did business with a manager. That's a usual thing with these big money-lending offices--the real man doesn't show. For aught you know, Horbury may have been running a money-lender's office in town, unknown to anybody, under the name of G.o.dwin Markham. And--he may have wanted new funds for it, and he may have collared those securities which the Chestermarkes say are missing, and he may have appropriated Lord Ellersdeane's jewels--d'ye see? You never can tell--in any of these cases. You see, my lad, you've been going, all along, on the basis, the supposition, that Horbury's an innocent man, and the victim of foul play. But--he may be a guilty man! Lord bless you!--I don't attach any importance to reputation and character, not I! It isn't ten years since Jim Chambers and myself had a case in point--a bank manager who was churchwarden, Sunday-School teacher, this, that, and t'other in the way of piety and respectability--all a cloak to cover as clever a bit of thievery and fraud as ever I heard of!--he got ten years, that chap, and he ought to have been hanged. As I say, you never can make certain.

Hollis may have found out that G.o.dwin Markham of Conduit Street was in reality John Horbury of Scarnham, and then----"

"I'll tell you what!" interrupted Starmidge, who had been thinking as well as listening. "There's a very sure and certain way of finding out who G.o.dwin Markham is! Do you remember?--Mrs. Lester said her son had only seen him once. Well, once is enough!--he'd remember him. We must go to Maychester right away and see this young Lester, and get him to describe the man he saw."

"Good notion, of course," a.s.sented Easleby. "Where is Maychester, now?"

"Ess.e.x," replied Starmidge.

"That would certainly be a solver," said Easleby. "But there's something else we could do, following up your special line of thought. Now, honour bright, which of these men do you take G.o.dwin Markham to be?"

"Gabriel Chestermarke!" answered Starmidge promptly. "It's established that he's constantly in London--as much in London as in Scarnham.

Gabriel Chestermarke certainly--with, no doubt, Joseph in collusion. The probability is that they run that money-lending office in Conduit Street under the name of G.o.dwin Markham. They're within the law."

"What about the Moneylenders' Act?" asked Easleby. "Compulsory registration, you know."

"It's this way," explained Starmidge. "The object of that Act was to enable a borrower to know for certain who it was that was lending him the money he borrowed. So registration was made compulsory. But, as in the case of many another Act of Parliament, Easleby, evasion is not only possible, but easy. A money-lender can register in a name which isn't his own if it's one which he generally uses in his business. So--there you are! I've seen that name G.o.dwin Markham advertised ever since I was a youngster--it's an old established business, well known. There's nothing to prevent Abraham Moses from styling himself Fitzwilliam Simpkins, if he's always done business as Fitzwilliam Simpkins--see?

And--it's highly probable that, as he's so much in town, Gabriel Chestermarke lives in town under the name of G.o.dwin Markham--double-life business, as you suggest. But you were going to suggest something else.

What?"

"This," said Easleby. "You know that Gabriel Chestermarke went to the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre the other night. Go there--officially--and find out if he called there as Gabriel Chestermarke. That'll solve a lot."

"We'll both go!" a.s.sented Starmidge. "It's a good notion--I hadn't thought of it. Whom shall we try to see?"

"Top man of all," counselled Easleby. "Lessee, manager, whatever he is.

Our cards'll manage it."

"I'm obliged to you, old man!" exclaimed Starmidge. "It's a bright idea!

Of course, somebody there'll know who the man was that called last night--know his name, of course. And in that case----"

"Aye, but don't you antic.i.p.ate too much, my lad!" interrupted Easleby.

"There's no doubt that Gandam traced your Gabriel Chestermarke to the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre--and lost him there. But, you know, for anything you know, Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke, banker, of Scarnham, may have had legitimate and proper business at that theatre. For aught you know, Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke may be owner of that theatre--ground-landlord--part-proprietor--financier. He may have a mortgage on it. All sorts of reasons occur to me as to why Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke may have called. He might be a personal friend of the manager's, or the princ.i.p.al actor's--called to take 'em out to supper, d'ye see, on his arrival in town. So--whoever we see there, you want to go guardedly, eh?"

"I'll tell you what," said Starmidge, "I'll leave it to you. I'll go with you, of course, but you manage it."

"Right, my lad!" a.s.sented Easleby. "All I shall want'll be a copy of this morning's newspaper--to lead up from."

One of the London morning journals had been making a great feature of the Scarnham affair from the moment Parkinson, on Starmidge's inspiration, had supplied the Press with its details, and it had that day printed an exhaustive resume of the entire history of the case, brought up to the discovery of Frederick Hollis's body. Easleby bought a copy of this issue as soon as he and Starmidge returned to town, and carefully blue-pencilled the cross-headed columns and the staring capitals above them. With the folded paper in his hand, and Starmidge at his heel, he repaired to the stage-door of the Adalbert Theatre at a quarter to eight, when the actors and actresses were beginning to pa.s.s in for their evening's work and thrust his head into the gla.s.s-fronted cage in which the stage door-keeper sat.

"A word with you, mister," whimpered Easleby. "A quiet word, you understand. Me and my friend here are from the Yard--New Scotland Yard, you know, and we've an inquiry to make. Our cards, d'ye see?--I shall ask you to take 'em inside in a minute. But first, a word with you. Do you remember a gentleman coming here last night, late, who nodded to you and walked straight in? Little, stiffly built gentleman, very pale face, holds himself well up--what?"

"I know him," answered the door-keeper, much impressed by the official cards which Easleby held before his nose. "Seen him here many a time, but I don't know his name. He's a friend of Mr. Castlemayne's, and he's the entry, d'ye see--walks in as he likes."

"Ah, just so--and who may Mr. Castlemayne be, now?" asked Easleby confidentially.

"Mr. Castlemayne?" repeated the door-keeper. "Why, he's the lessee, of course!--the boss!"

"Ah, the boss, is he?" said Easleby. "Much obliged to you, sir. Well, now, then, just take these two cards to Mr. Castlemayne, will you, and ask him if he'll be good enough to see their owners for a few minutes on very important private business?"

The door-keeper departed up a dark pa.s.sage, and Easleby pointed Starmidge to a playbill which hung, framed on the wall, behind them.

"There you are!" he said, indicating a line near the big capitals at the top. "'Lessee and Manager--Mr. Leopold Castlemayne.' That's our man.

Fancy name, of course--real name Tom Smith, or Jim Johnson, you know.

But, Lord bless you, what's in a name? Haven't we got a case in point?"

"There's a good deal in what's in a name in our case, old man!" retorted Starmidge. "You're off it there!"