"Worked it out," answered Neale. "This way! Hollis comes down to Scarnham to see Chestermarke's Bank--which means one of the partners. He rings up the bank. He speaks to somebody there. How do we know that somebody was Horbury? We don't! It may have been Mrs. Carswell. Now supposing the real person Hollis wanted to see was either Gabriel or Joseph Chestermarke? Very well--this person who answered from the bank would put Hollis on to either of them at once. Gabriel has a telephone at the Warren: Joseph has a telephone at his home yonder behind us. It may have been with either Gabriel or Joseph that Hollis finished his conversation. And--if it was finished with one of them, it was, in my opinion, whatever that's worth, with Master Joseph!" "What makes you think that?" asked Betty, startled by the suggestion. Neale laid a hand on the girl's arm and turned her round to face the town. He lifted his stick and pointed at Joseph Chestermarke's high roof, towering above the houses around it; then he swept the stick towards the river and its course, plainly to be followed, in the direction of the station. "You see Joseph's house there," he said. "You see the river--the path along its bank--going right down to the meadow opposite the Station Hotel? Very well--now, supposing it was Joseph with whom Hollis wound up that telephone talk, suppose it was Joseph whom Hollis was to see. What would happen? Joseph knew that Hollis was at the Station Hotel. The straightest and easiest way from the Station Hotel to Joseph's house is--straight along the river bank. Now then, call on your memory! What did Mrs. Pratt tell us? 'When I was going back to the bar,' says Mrs. Pratt, 'I heard more. "Along the river-side," says the gentleman. "Straight on from where I am--all right." Then, after a minute, "At seven-thirty, then?" he says. "All right--I'll meet you." And after that,' concludes Mrs. Pratt, 'he rings off.' Now, why shouldn't it be Joseph Chestermarke that he was going to meet?--remember, again, the river-side path leads straight to Joseph's house. Come!--Mrs. Pratt's story doesn't point conclusively to Horbury at all. It's as I say--the telephone conversation may have begun with Horbury, but it may have ended with--somebody else. And what I say is--who was the precise person whom Hollis went to meet?" "Are you going to tell all that to Starmidge?" asked Betty admiringly. "Because I'm sure it's never entered his head--so far." "Depends," replied Neale. "Let's see if the tinker has anything to tell. He's at home, anyway. There's his fire."