"I have not only read about it in the newspapers," answered the visitor, "but I last night--very late--received a telegram from my brother's clerk--Mr. Simmons--who evidently found my address at my brother's rooms. So I left Birmingham--where I now live--at once, to see you. Now, have you heard anything of my brother?" Polke shook his head solemnly and warningly. "I'm sorry to say we have, sir," he replied. "You'd better prepare for the worst news, Mr. Hollis. We found the body this morning--not two hours ago. And--we don't know, as yet, how he came by his death. The doctors say it may have been pure accident. Let's hope it was! But there are strange circumstances, sir--very strange!" Hollis quietly rose from his chair. "I suppose I can see him?" he asked. Polke led him out of the room, and Starmidge turned to Neale. "We're gradually getting at something, Mr. Neale," he said. "All this leads somewhere, you know. Now, since we found that incomplete cheque, there's a question I wanted to ask you. You've left Chestermarke's Bank now, and under the circumstances we're working in you needn't have any delicacy about answering questions about them. Do you know of any recent transaction of theirs which involved ten thousand pounds?" "No!" replied Neale. "I certainly don't." "Nor any sum approaching it?" suggested Starmidge. "Or exceeding it?" "Nothing whatever!" reiterated Neale. "I know of all recent banking transactions at Chestermarke's, and I can't think--I've been thinking since we saw that cheque--of anything that the cheque had to do with." "Well--it's a queer thing," remarked the detective meditatively. "I'll lay anything Hollis brought that cheque down here for some specific purpose--and who on earth is there in this place that he could bring it to but Chestermarke's? However, we'll see if I don't trace something about it when I get up to town, and then----" Polke and the dead man's brother came back, talking earnestly. The superintendent carefully closed the door, and begging his visitor to be seated again, turned to Starmidge. "I've told Mr. Hollis all the main facts of the case," he said. "Of course, he identified his brother at once." "When did you see him last, sir!" asked Starmidge. "Some eight or nine months ago," replied Hollis. "He came to see me, in Birmingham. Previous to that, I hadn't seen him for several years. I ought to tell you," he went on, turning to Polke, "that for a great many years I have lived abroad--tea-planting in Ceylon. I came back to England about a year ago, and eventually settled down at Edgbaston. I suppose my brother's clerk found my address on an old letter or something last night, and wired to me in consequence." "When Simmons was here," observed Starmidge, "he said that your brother seemed to have no relations."