"I'm their clerk, you know," he replied. "I hate being there at all, but I am there. I believe they're men of absolute probity as regards business matters--personally, I'm not very fond of either." "Fond!" she exclaimed. "My dear boy!--Joseph is a slimy sneak, and Gabriel is a bloodless sphinx--I hate both of them!" Neale laughed and gave her a look of comprehension. "You haven't changed, Betty," he said. "I'm to call you Betty, though you are grown up?" "Since it's the only name I possess, I suppose you are," she answered. "But now--what can we do--you and I? After all, we're the nearest people my uncle has in this town. Do let's do something! I'm not the sort to sit talking--I want action! Can't you suggest something we can do?" "There's one thing," replied Neale, after a moment's thought. "Lord Ellersdeane suggested that possibly Mr. Horbury, hearing that the Ellersdeanes had got home on Saturday, put the jewels in his pocket and started out to Ellersdeane with them. I know the exact path he'd have taken in that case, and I thought of following it this evening--one might come across something, or hear something, you know." "Take me with you, as soon as we've had dinner," she said. "It'll be a beginning. I mean to turn this neighbourhood upside down for news--you'll see. Some person or persons must have seen my uncle on Saturday night!--a man can't disappear like that. It's impossible!" "Um!--but men do disappear," remarked Neale. "What I'm hoping is that there'll eventually--and quickly--be some explanation of this disappearance, and that Mr. Horbury hasn't met with--shall I put it plainly?" "You'd better put anything plainly to me," she answered. "I don't understand other methods." "It's possible he may have been murdered, you know," said Neale quietly. Betty got up from her chair and went over to the window to look out on the Market-Place. She stood there some time in silence. "It shall be a bad job for any man who murdered him if that is so," she said at last. "I was very fond of my uncle." "So was I," said Neale. "But I say--no past tenses yet! Aren't we a bit previous? He may be all right." "Ring the bell and let's hurry up that dinner," she commanded. "I didn't make it clear that we want it as early as possible. I want to get out, and to see where he went--I want to do something active!" But Miss Betty Fosdyke was obliged to adapt herself to the somewhat leisurely procedure of highly respectable country-town hotels, whose cooks will not be hurried, and it was already dusk, and the moonlight was beginning to throw shadows of gable and spire over the old Market-Place, when she and Neale set out on their walk. "All the better," said Neale. "This is just about the time that he went out on Saturday night, and under very similar conditions. Now we'll take the precise path that he'd have taken if he was on his way to Ellersdeane."