“Why that particularly?” asked Eldrick.
“Because,” answered Byner solemnly, “I want Pratt to know that the search for Parrawhite is going to be a thorough one!”
Eldrick went off on his second mission, promising to return in due course. Within a few minutes he was in Pratt’s office, talking over some unimportant matter of business which he had invented as he went along. It was not until he was on the point of departure that he referred to the real reason of his visit.
“Did you notice that Parrawhite is being advertised for?” he asked, suddenly turning on his old clerk.
Pratt was ready for this—had been ready ever since Eldrick walked in. He affected a fine surprise.
“Parrawhite!” he exclaimed. “Why—who’s advertising for him?”
“Don’t you see the newspapers?” asked Eldrick, pointing to some which lay about the room. “It’s in there—there’s an advertisement of mine, and one of Halstead & Byner’s, of London.”
Pratt picked up a Barford paper and looked at the advertisements with a clever affectation of having never seen them before.
“I haven’t had much time for newspaper reading this last day or two,” he remarked. “Advertisements for him—from two quarters!”
“Acting together—acting together, you know!” replied Eldrick. “It’s those people who really want him—Halstead & Byner, inquiry agents, working for a firm of City solicitors. I’m only local agent—as it were.”
“Had any response, Mr. Eldrick?” asked Pratt, throwing aside the paper. “Anyone come forward?”
“Yes,” answered Eldrick, watching Pratt narrowly without seeming to do so. “This morning, a man named Murgatroyd, in Peel Row, who does a bit of shipping agency, wired to Halstead & Byner to say that he booked Parrawhite to New York last November. Of course, they at once communicated with me, and I’ve just been to see Murgatroyd. He’s that man—watchmaker—we had some proceedings against last year.”
“Oh, that man!” said Pratt. “Thought the name was familiar. I remember him. And what does he say?”
“Just about as much as—and little more than—he said in his wire to London,” replied Eldrick. “Booked Parrawhite to America November 24th last, and believes he left for Liverpool there and then.”
“Ah!” remarked Pratt, “That explains it, then?”
“Explains—what?” asked Eldrick.
Pratt gave his old employer a look—confidential and significant.
“Explains why he took that money out of your desk,” he said. “You remember—forty odd pounds. He’d use some of that for his passage-money. America eh? Now—I suppose he’s vanished for good, then—it’s not very likely he’ll ever be heard of from across there.”
Eldrick laughed—meaningly, of set purpose.
“We don’t know that he’s gone there,” he observed. “He mightn’t get beyond Liverpool, you know. Anyhow, we’re going to make a very good search for him here in Barford, first. We’ve nothing but Murgatroyd’s word for his having set out for Liverpool.”
“What’s he wanted for?” asked Pratt as unconcernedly as possible. “Been up to something?”
“No,” answered Eldrick, as he turned on his heel. “A relation has left him twenty thousand pounds. That’s what he’s wanted for—and why he must be found—or his death proved.”
He gave Pratt another quick glance and went off—to return to the hotel and Byner, to whom he at once gave a faithful account of what had just taken place.
“And he didn’t turn a hair,” he remarked. “Cool as a cucumber, all through! If your theory is correct, Pratt’s a cleverer hand than I ever took him for—and I’ve always said he was clever.”
“Didn’t show anything when you mentioned Murgatroyd?” asked Byner.
“Not a shred of a thing!” replied Eldrick.
“Nor when you spoke of the twenty thousand pounds?”
“No more than what you might call polite and interested surprise!”
Byner laughed, threw away the end of a cigar, and rose out of his lounging posture.
“Now, Mr. Eldrick,” he said, leaning close to the solicitor, “between ourselves, do you know what I’m going to do—next—which means at once?”
“No,” replied Eldrick.
“The police!” whispered Byner. “That’s my next move. Just now! Within a few minutes. So—will you give me a couple of notes—one to the principal man here—chief constable, or police superintendent, or whatever he is; and another to the best detective there is here—in your opinion. They’ll save me a lot of trouble.”
“Of course—if you wish it,” answered Eldrick. “But you don’t mean to say you’re going to have Pratt arrested—on what you know up to now?”
“Not at all!” replied Byner. “Much too soon! All I want is—detective help of the strictly professional kind. No—we’ll give Mr. Pratt a little more rope yet—for another four-and-twenty-hours, say. But—it’ll come! Now, who is the best local detective—a quiet, steady fellow who knows how to do his work unobtrusively?”
“Prydale’s the man!” said Eldrick. “Detective-Sergeant Prydale—I’ve had reason to employ him, more than once. I’ll give you a note to him, and one to Superintendent Waterson.”
He went over to a writing-table and scribbled a few lines on half-sheets of notepaper which he enclosed in envelopes and handed to Byner.
“I don’t know what line you’re taking,” he said, “nor where it’s going to end—exactly. But I do know this—Pratt never turned a hair when I let out all that to him.”
But if Eldrick went away from his old clerk’s fine new offices thinking that Pratt was quite unperturbed and unmoved by the news he had just acquired, he was utterly mistaken. Pratt was very much perturbed, deeply moved, not a little frightened. He had so schooled himself to keep a straight and ever blank expression of countenance in any sudden change of events that he had shown nothing to Eldrick—but he was none the less upset by the solicitor’s last announcement. Twenty thousand pounds was lying to be picked up by Parrawhite—or by Parrawhite’s next-of-kin! What an unhappy turn of fortune! For the next-of-kin would never rest until either Parrawhite came to light, or
