“Maybe! But it isn’t likely that he’d murder him for the sake of those bank notes!” retorted the Chief Constable. “Von Eckhardstein’s name is known to me—he’s a man who’s dealt in millions in his time, and been in at some of the biggest flotations of late years. My opinion is that he walked some distance up that path with Guy Markenmore, left him, returned to the Dower House, and knew nothing of Markenmore’s murder until he heard of it later. Markenmore met the actual murderer after he parted with von Eckhardstein, and I should say that the murderer is a man who was thoroughly conversant with Markenmore’s movements and doings, knew that he was to take that path to Mitbourne Station, and lay in wait for him at Markenmore Hollow. That’s how I work it out.” Blick made no reply to this for a few minutes. The Chief Constable’s dogcart had covered another half-mile of road before he spoke. “There’s no doubt that the briar-wood pipe of which we’ve heard a good deal was von Eckhardstein’s,” he said, at last. “Nor that he left it at the Sceptre, nor that Grimsdale produced it at the inquest, nor that von Eckhardstein picked it up from the solicitor’s table as he went out. Now, if he’s an absolutely innocent man, why didn’t he get up at that inquest, explain his presence at the Sceptre, admit that he did leave his pipe there, and behave candidly and openly, instead of keeping everything back and purloining that pipe as cleverly as any pickpocket? Come!” “Can’t say,” answered the Chief Constable. “I should imagine that he’d reasons of his own for keeping silence—especially after he’d heard Grimsdale say that he couldn’t identify the third man of the party.” “Well, there’s another queer thing,” remarked Blick. “Von Eckhardstein must have known that, eventually, this man Lansbury would come forward! He’d known that Lansbury would let the truth out—as he has. We’ve got at that, anyhow!” “Have we got at the truth of anything?” asked the Chief Constable a little cynically. “If we’re going in for mere theorizing, I can suggest a dozen theories. Here’s one to cogitate over, Blick—supposing there’s some big financial operation at the bottom of all this, and that the removal of Guy Markenmore was a necessity to those chiefly responsible? I’ve known of men getting a bullet through their brains simply because they were in the way! And as to truth—well, give me proof! Truth’s not so easy to come at in these matters—and I doubt if we shall get any substantial contribution to it here,” he added significantly, as they drove up to the Dower House. “Haven’t the least idea what we shall get!” responded Blick, equally cynical. “But we may find something.”