The Chestermarke Instinct

lifted a despairing countenan

" he said. "I

I've already been tol

dreaming, or having a nightmare, or-something. I don't understand it at all. I saw Mr. Horbury, of course, on Saturday-he was all

at she had grown into good looks now. But she was an eminently bright and vivacious young woman, strong, healthy, vigorous, with fine eyes and teeth and hair, and a colour that betokened an intimate acquaintance with outdoor life. And already, in the

!" she observed suddenly, with a frank laugh. "I shou

answered Neale shyly. "I remember

people and things to look after-one has to be top dog, whet

that you've already done

y best detective they can give him from headquarters in London, and search is to be made. Because-now

!" asserted Neale s

ottom of it! Here I am, and here I stick, until I've found my uncle, or discovered what'

s head as if i

ll, but I am there. I believe they're men of absolute probity as

seph is a slimy sneak, and Gabriel is a

gave her a look

he said. "I'm to call you Be

do-you and I? After all, we're the nearest people my uncle has in this town. Do let's do som

Ellersdeanes had got home on Saturday, put the jewels in his pocket and started out to Ellersdeane with them. I know the exact path

to turn this neighbourhood upside down for news-you'll see. Some person or persons must

there'll eventually-and quickly-be some explanation of this disappe

inly to me," she answered. "I

ve been murdered, you kn

to the window to look out on the Market-Pl

murdered him if that is so," she said

-no past tenses yet! Aren't we a b

didn't make it clear that we want it as early as possible. I want

e country-town hotels, whose cooks will not be hurried, and it was already dusk, and the moonlight was begin

ut on Saturday night, and under very similar conditions. Now we'll take t

a narrow alley which terminated on an expanse of open ground at

backs of the houses on this side of the Market-Place. There is the gate of the bank-house orchard. According to Mrs. Carswell, Mr. Horbury came out of that gate on Saturday night. What did he do then? He could have turned to the left, a

read up a gently shelving hillside. The lights of the town behind them disappeared; the gloom increased; presently they were alternately crossing patches of moonlight and

forward through the wood, "let's talk some business. I want to know about those two-the Chestermarkes. For I've an uneasy feeling that there's more in this affair than's on the surface, and I want to know all a

d-you'll see the roofs, anyhow, in this moonlight. Joseph lives in another old house, but in the town, at the end of Cornmarket. What they do with themselves at home, Heaven knows! They don't go into such society as there is; they take no part in the town's affairs. There's a very good club here for men of their class-they don't belong to it. You can't get either of 'em to attend a meeting-they keep aloof from everything. But they both

they found he'd gone?" asked Betty. "Di

el's face is like-a stone image! And Joseph always looks as if he was sneering at you, a sort of soft, smiling sneer. No, I couldn't say they s

missing," remarked Betty. "They'll have to

only do what they like. And they don't love

"And here I stop! Wallie, haven't you go

Horbury, knowing Lord Ellersdeane had got home on Saturday, thought he'd hand back those jewels as soon as possible, and set off in the e

cavernous spaces of the wood, which had now thickened into dens

he exclaimed. "How dangerous!-w

y well that nobody would know what he had on him. What I'd like to know is-supposing my theory's right, and that he was taking these jewels to Ellers

grass, from beneath which a wide expanse of landscape stretched away, bathed just then in floods of moonlig

ne Hollow!

shaped eminence or promontory, at the highest point of which some ruin or other lifted gaunt, shapeless walls against the moonlit sky. Far down beneath it, in a depression amongst the heath-clad undulations,

lonely scene

stick again and

-it's honeycombed all over with disused lead-mines-some of the old shafts are a tremendous depth. All the same, you see, there's some tinker chap, or some gipsies, camped out down there

taken if he'd gone to Ellersdean

its trees. There!-where the moonlight catches it. Now let your eye follow that far line of wood, over the tops of the trees abou

rsdeane are neighbou

call friends, but I don't believe his lordship ever spoke ten words with either of the Chestermarkes until this morning. I tell you the Chestermarkes

prominent landmark. Seen at close quarters Ellersdeane Tower was a place of much greater size and proportion than it had appeared from the edge of the wood, and the path to its base was steep