"You're a man of experience!" he answered. "Now come!--hasn't it struck you that something went before the death of old Daniel Multenius--whether that death arose from premeditated murder, or from sudden assault? Eh?--hasn't it?" "What, then?" asked the detective dubiously. "For I can't say that it has--definitely. What do you conjecture did go before that?" Mr. Killick thumped his stout stick on the floor. "Robbery!" he exclaimed, triumphantly. "Robbery! The old man was robbed of something! Probably--and there's nothing in these cases like considering possibilities--he caught the thief in the act of robbing him, and lost his life in defending his property. Now, supposing Levendale and Purvis were interested--financially--in that property, and set their wits to work to recover it, and in their efforts got into the hands of--shall we suppose a gang?--and got trapped? Or," concluded Mr. Killick with great emphasis and meaning, "for anything we know--murdered? What about that theory?" "Possible!" muttered Ayscough. "Quite possible!" "Consider this," continued the old solicitor. "Levendale is a well-known man--a Member of Parliament--a familiar figure in the City, where he's director of more than one company--the sort of man whom, in ordinary circumstances, you'd be able to trace in a few hours. Now, you tell me that half-a-dozen of your best men have been trying to track Levendale for two days and nights, and can't get a trace of him! What's the inference? A well-known man can't disappear in that way unless for some very grave reason! For anything we know, Levendale--and Purvis with him--may be safely trapped within half-a-mile of Praed Street--or, as I say, they may have been quietly murdered. Of one thing I'm dead certain, anyway--if you want to get at the bottom of this affair, you've got to find those two men!" "It would make a big difference if we had any idea of what it was that Daniel Multenius had in that packet which he fetched from his bank on the day of the murder," remarked Ayscough. "If there's been robbery, that may have been the thief's object." "That pre-supposes that the thief knew what was in the packet," said Purdie. "Who is there that could know? We may take it that Levendale and Purvis knew--but who else would?" "Aye!--and how are we to find that out?" asked the New Scotland Yard man. "If I only knew that much--" But even at that moment--and not from any coincidence, but from the law of probability to which Mr. Killick had appealed--information on that very point was close at hand. A constable tapped at the door, and entering, whispered a few words to the chief official, who having whispered back, turned to the rest as the man went out of the room. "Here's something likely!" he said. "There's a Mr. John Purvis, from Devonshire, outside. Says he's the brother of the Stephen Purvis who's name's been in the papers as having mysteriously disappeared, and wants to tell the police something. He's coming in."