“_Your father’s debt is still unpaid. It will remain unpaid if you persuade your friends Derrick Yale and Parr to cease their activity._” Underneath was written in smaller characters, and evidently added as an afterthought: “_We shall make no further demands upon private individuals._” “So he was bill-posting,” said Parr thoughtfully. “I wondered why he came and left so early.” “Did you see him?” asked Jack in surprise. “I just glimpsed him. In fact, I knew he would call, though I expected a more startling consequence,” said the detective. He sat through breakfast without saying a word, except to answer the questions that Jack put to him, and then only in the briefest fashion, and it was not until they were walking across the meadows that Parr asked: “I wonder if he knows you’re fond of Thalia Drummond?” Jack went red. “Why do you ask that?” he said a little anxiously. “You don’t think they will take their vengeance on Thalia, do you?” “If it would serve his purpose, he would wipe out Thalia Drummond like that.” The detective snapped his fingers. He put an end to further conversation by stopping and turning about in his tracks. “This will do,” he said. “I thought you wanted to go to the station gate--the way Marl came to the house that morning?” Parr shook his head. “No, I wished to be sure how he approached the house. Can you point out the spot where he suddenly became so agitated?” “Why, of course,” said Jack readily, but wondering what it was all about. “It was much nearer the house; in fact, I can give you the exact spot, because I particularly remember his stepping aside from the path and ruining a young rose tree on which he put his foot. There is the tree--or one the gardener has put in its place.” He pointed, and Parr nodded his large head several times. “This is very important,” he said. He walked to where the ruined tree had been. “I knew he was lying,” he said half to himself. “You cannot see the terrace from here at all. Marl told me that he saw your father standing on the terrace at the very moment he had his seizure, and my first impression was that it was the sight of your father which was responsible for his scare.” He gave Jack details of the conversation he had had with Felix Marl before his death. “I could have corrected that,” said Jack. “My father was in the library all the morning, and he did not come out of the house until we were ascending the steps of the terrace.” Parr, note-book in hand, was making a rough sketch. On his left front was the solid block of Sedgwood House, immediately before him were the gardens, enclosed by light iron railings to prevent the cattle straying on to the flower beds, and broken by the gate through which Marl must have passed. On the right was a patch of bushes, in the midst of which showed the gay top of a garden umbrella.