"They don't want bothering," whispered Neale, bending over the counter. "Shan't I do instead?"
"No, sir!" answered Polke. "Nothing but principals will do! Here, Starmidge, give Mr. Neale one of your official cards."
Neale took the card and disappeared into the parlour, where he laid it before Gabriel.
"Mr. Polke is with him, sir," he said. "They say they won't detain you."
Gabriel tossed the card over to his nephew with a look of inquiry: Joseph sneered at it, and threw it into a waste-paper basket.
"Tell them we don't wish to see them," he answered. "We-"
"Stop a bit!" interrupted Gabriel. "I think perhaps we'd better see them. We may as well see them, and have done with it. Bring them in, Neale."
Polke and Starmidge, presently entering, found themselves coldly greeted. Gabriel made the slightest inclination of his head, in response to Polke's salutation and the detective's bow: Joseph pointedly gave no heed to either.
"Well?" demanded the senior partner.
"We've just called, Mr. Chestermarke, to hear if you've anything to say to us about this matter of Mr. Horbury's," said Polke. "Of course, you know it's been put in our hands."
"Not by us!" snapped Gabriel.
"Quite so, sir, by Lord Ellersdeane, and by Mr. Horbury's niece, Miss Fosdyke," assented Polke. "The young lady, of course, is naturally anxious about her uncle's safety, and Lord Ellersdeane is anxious about the Countess's jewels. And we hear that securities of yours are missing."
"We haven't told you so," retorted Gabriel.
"We haven't even approached you," remarked Joseph.
"Just so!" agreed Polke. "But, under the circumstances-"
"We have nothing to say to you, superintendent," interrupted Gabriel. "We can't help anything that Lord Ellersdeane has done, nor anything that Miss Fosdyke likes to do. Lord Ellersdeane is not, and never has been, a customer of ours. Miss Fosdyke acts independently. If they call you in-as they seem to have done very thoroughly-it's their look out. We haven't! When we want your assistance, we'll let you know. At present-we don't."
He waved one of the white hands towards the door as he spoke, as if to command withdrawal. But Polke lingered.
"You don't propose to give the police any information, then, Mr. Chestermarke?" he asked quietly.
"At present we don't propose to give any information to anybody whom it doesn't concern," replied Gabriel. "As regards the mere surface facts of Mr. John Horbury's disappearance, you know as much as we do."
"You don't propose to join in any search for him or any attempt to discover his whereabouts, sir?" inquired Starmidge, speaking for the first time.
Gabriel looked up from his paper, and slowly eyed his questioner.
"What we propose to do is a matter for ourselves," he answered coldly. "For no one else."
Starmidge bowed and turned away, and Polke, after hesitating a moment, said good-morning and followed him from the room. The two men nodded to Neale and went out into the Market-Place.
"Well?" said Polke.
"Queer couple!" remarked Starmidge.
Polke jerked his thumb at the poster in the bank window.
"Of course!" he said, "so long as they can satisfy their customers that all's right so far as they're concerned, we can't get at what is missing that belongs to the Chestermarkes."
"There are ways of finding that out," replied Starmidge quietly.
"What ways, now?" asked Polke. "We can't make 'em tell us their private affairs. Supposing Horbury has robbed them, they aren't forced to tell us how much or how little he's robbed 'em of!"
"All in good time," remarked the detective. "We're only beginning. Let's go and talk to this Miss Fosdyke a bit. She doesn't mind what money she spends on this business, you say?"
"Not if it costs her her last penny!" answered Polke.
"All right," said Starmidge. "Fosdyke's Entire represents a lot of pennies. We'll just have a word or two with her."
Betty, looking out of her window on the Market-Place, had seen the two men leave Chestermarke's Bank, and was waiting eagerly for their coming. She listened intently to Polke's account of the interview with the partners, and her cheeks glowed indignantly as he brought it to an end.
"Shameful!" she exclaimed. "To make accusations against my uncle, and then to refuse to say what they are! But-can't you make them say?"
"We'll try, in good time," answered Starmidge. "Slow and steady's the game here. For, whatever it is, it's a deep game."
"Nothing has been heard since I saw you last night?" asked Betty anxiously. "No one has brought you any news?"
"No news of any sort, miss," replied Polke.
"What's to be done, then, next?" she inquired, looking from one to the other. "Do let us do something!"
"Oh, we'll do a lot, Miss Fosdyke, before the day's out," said Starmidge reassuringly. "I'm going to work just now. Now, the first thing is, publicity! We must have all this in the newspapers at once." He turned to the superintendent. "I suppose there's some journalist here in the town who sends news to the London press, isn't there?" he asked.
"Parkinson, editor of the 'Scarnham Advertiser,' he does," replied Polke, with promptitude. "He's a sort of reporter-editor, you understand, and jolly glad of a bit of extra stuff."
"That's the first thing," said Starmidge. "The next, we must have a reward bill printed immediately, and circulated broadcast. It must have a portrait on it-I'll take that photograph you showed me last night. And-we'll have to offer a specific reward in each. How much is it to be, Miss Fosdyke? For you'll have to pay it, you know."
"Anything you like!" said Betty eagerly. "A thousand pounds?-would that do, to begin with."
"We'll say half of it," answered Starmidge. "Very good. Now, Mr. Polke, if you'll tell me where this Mr. Parkinson's to be found, and where the best printing office in the place is, I'll go to work."
"Scammonds are the best printers-and they're quick," said Polke. "But I'll come with you."
"Is there anything I can do?" asked Betty. "If I could only be doing something!"
Starmidge nodded his comprehension and mused a while.
"Just so!" he said. "You don't want to sit and wait. Well, there is something you might do, Miss Fosdyke, as you're Mr. Horbury's niece. Mr. Polke's been telling me about Mr. Horbury's household arrangements. Now, as you are a relation, suppose you call on his housekeeper, who was the last person to see him, and get all the information you can out of her? Draw her on to talk-you never know what interesting point you mayn't get in that way. And-are you Mr. Horbury's nearest relation?"
"Yes-the very nearest-next-of-kin," answered Betty.
"Then ask to see his papers-his desk-his private belongings," said Starmidge. "Demand to see them! You've the legal right. And let us know-you'll always find me somewhere about Mr. Polke's-how you get on. Now, superintendent, we'll get to work."