They met Starmidge in the Market-Place-talking to Parkinson. Neale told the news to both. The journalist dashed into his office for his hat, and made off to Ellersdeane Hollow: Starmidge turned to the police-station with his information.
"No one else knows, I suppose?" he remarked, as they went along.
"Gabriel Chestermarke knows," answered Neale. "We met him as we were coming off the moor and I told him."
"Show any surprise?" asked the detective.
"Neither surprise nor anything else," said Neale. "Absolutely unaffected!"
Polke, hearing the news, immediately bustled into activity, sending for a cab in which to drive along the road to a point near Ellersdeane Tower, from which they could reach the lead mine. But he shook his head when he saw that Betty meant to return.
"Don't, miss!" he urged. "Stay here in town-you'd far better. It's not a nice job for ladies, aught of that sort. Wait at the hotel-do, now!"
"Doing nothing!" exclaimed Betty. "That would be far worse. Let me go-I'm not afraid of anything. And to hang about, waiting and wondering-"
Neale, who had been about to enter the cab with the police, drew back.
"You go on," he said to Polke. "Get things through-Miss Fosdyke and I will walk slowly back there. We won't come close up till you can tell us something definite. Don't you see she's anxious about her uncle?-we can't keep her waiting."
He rejoined Betty as Polke and his men drove off: together they turned again in the direction of the bridge. Once across it and on the moor, Neale made the girl sit down on a ledge of rock at some distance from the lead mine, but within sight of it: he himself, while he talked to her, stood watching the figures grouped about the shaft. Creasy had evidently succeeded in getting help at once: Neale saw men fixing a windlass over the mouth of the old mine; saw a man at last disappear into its depths. And after a long pause he saw from the movements of the other men that the body had been drawn to the surface and that they were bending over it. A moment later, Starmidge separated himself from the rest, and came in Neale's direction. He nodded his head energetically at Betty as he drew within speaking distance.
"All right, Miss Fosdyke!" he said. "It's not your uncle. But-it's the other man, Mr. Neale!-no doubt of it!"
"Hollis!" exclaimed Neale.
"It's the man described by Mrs. Pratt and Simmons-that's certain," answered the detective. "So there's one mystery settled-though it makes all the rest stranger than ever. Now, Miss Fosdyke, that'll be some relief to you-so don't come any nearer. But just spare Mr. Neale a few minutes-I want to speak to him."
Betty obediently turned back to the ledge of rock, and Neale walked with Starmidge towards the group around the shaft.
"Can you tell anything?" he asked. "Are there any signs of violence?-I mean, does it look as if he'd been-"
"Thrown in there?" said the detective calmly. "Ah!-it's a bit early to decide that. The only thing I'm thinking of now is the fact that this is Hollis! That's certain, Mr. Neale. Now what could he be doing on this lonely bit of ground? Where does this track lead?"
"It's a short cut from Scarnham Bridge corner to the middle of Ellersdeane village," answered Neale, pointing one way and then the other.
"And Gabriel Chestermarke lives in Ellersdeane, doesn't he?" asked Starmidge. "Or close by?"
Neale indicated certain chimneys rising amongst the trees on the far side of the Hollow. "He lives there-The Warren," he replied.
"Um!" mused Starmidge. "I wonder if this poor fellow was making his way there-to see him?"
"How should he-a stranger-know of this short cut?" demurred Neale. "I don't think that's very likely."
"That's true-unless he'd had it pointed out to him," rejoined Starmidge. "It's odd, anyway, that his body should be found half-way, as it were, between Gabriel Chestermarke's place and Joseph Chestermarke's house-isn't it now? But, Lord bless you!-we're only on the fringe of this business as yet. Well-just take a look at him."
Neale walked within the group of bystanders, feeling an intense dislike and loathing of the whole thing. In obedience to Starmidge's wish, he looked steadily at the dead man and turned away.
"You don't know him?-never saw him during the five years you were at the bank?" whispered the detective. "Think!-make certain, now."
"Never saw him in my life!" declared Neale, stepping back. "I neither know him nor anything about him."
"I wanted you to make sure," said Starmidge. "I thought you might-possibly-recollect him as somebody who'd called at the bank during your time."
"No!" said Neale. "Certainly not! I've never set eyes on him until now. Of course, he's Hollis, I suppose?"
"Oh, without doubt!" answered Polke, who caught Neale's question as he came up. "He's Hollis, right enough. Mr. Neale-here's a difficulty. It's a queer thing, but there isn't one of us here who knows if this spot is in Scarnham or in Ellersdeane. Do you? Is it within our borough boundary, or is it in Ellersdeane parish? The Ellersdeane policeman there doesn't know, and I'm sure I don't! It's a point of importance, because the inquest'll have to be held in the parish in which the body was found."
The Ellersdeane constable who had followed Polke suddenly raised a finger and pointed across the heather.
"Here's a gentleman coming as might know, Mr. Polke," he said. "Mr. Chestermarke!"
Neale and Starmidge turned sharply-to see the banker advancing quickly from the adjacent road. A cab, drawn up a little distance off, showed that he had driven out to hear the latest news.
Polke stepped forward to meet the new-comer: Gabriel greeted him in his usual impassive fashion.
"This body been recovered?" he asked quietly.
"A few minutes ago, Mr. Chestermarke," answered Polke. "Will you look at it?"
Gabriel moved aside the group of men without further word, and the others followed him. He looked steadily at the dead man's face and withdrew.
"Not known to me," he said, in answer to an inquiring glance from Polke. "Hollis, I suppose, of course."
He went off again as suddenly as he had come-and Starmidge drew Neale aside.
"Mr. Neale!" he whispered, with a nearer approach to excitement than Neale had yet seen in him. "Did you see Gabriel Chestermarke's eyes? He's a liar! As sure as my name's Starmidge, he's a liar! Mr. Neale!-he knows that dead man!" CHAPTER XVIII
THE INCOMPLETE CHEQUE
Neale, startled and amazed by this sudden outburst on the part of a man whom up to that time he had taken to be unusually cool-headed and phlegmatic, did not immediately answer. He was watching the Ellersdeane constable, who was running after Gabriel Chestermarke's rapidly retreating figure. He saw Gabriel stop, listen to an evident question, and then lift his hand and point to various features of the Hollow. The policeman touched his helmet, and came back to Polke.
"Mr. Chestermarke, sir, says the moorland is in three parishes," he reported pantingly. "From Scarnham Bridge corner to Ellersdeane Tower yonder is in Scarnham parish: this side the Hollow is in Ellersdeane; everything beyond the Tower is in Middlethorpe."
"Then we're in Scarnham," said Polke. "He'll have to be taken down to the town mortuary. We'd better see to it at once. What are you going to do, Starmidge?" he asked, as the detective turned away with Neale.
"I'll take this short cut back," said Starmidge. "I want to get to the post-office. Yes, sir!" he went on, as he and Neale slowly walked towards Betty. "I say-he knew him! knew him, Mr. Neale, knew him!-as soon as ever he clapped his eyes on him!"
"You're very certain about it," said Neale.
"Dead certain!" exclaimed the detective. "I was watching him-purposely. I've taught myself to watch men. The slightest quiver of a lip-the least bit of light in an eye-the merest twitch of a little finger-ah! don't I know 'em all, and know what they mean! And, when Gabriel Chestermarke stepped up to look at that body, I was watching that face of his as I've never watched mortal man before!"
"And you saw-what?" asked Neale.
"I saw-Recognition!" said Starmidge. "Recognition, sir! I'll stake my reputation as a detective officer that Mr. Gabriel Chestermarke has seen that dead man before. He mayn't know him personally. He may never have spoken to him. But-he knew him! He'd seen him!"
"Will your conviction of that help at all?" inquired Neale.