"You see, sir," he said, "it's this way. He evidently had some claim or other upon Mr. Cundall, or else it isn't likely that every time he wrote for money he would have got it, and that in good sums too. Then we've only seen the notes made by Mr. Cundall on the letters, saying that he sent this and that sum; but who's to know, when he sent them, if he didn't also send some friendly letter or other, acknowledging the justice of this man's demands? He evidently--I mean this _Corot_--did have some claim upon him; and supposing that he was--if we could find him--to prove that claim and show us the letters Mr. Cundall wrote him in return, where should we be then? The very fact of his being able to draw on him whenever he wanted money, would go a long way towards showing that he wouldn't be very likely to kill him." "He threatens him in the last letter we have seen. Supposing that Mr. Cundall stopped the supplies after that, would not that probably excite his revengeful passions? These Spanish Americans do not stick at taking life when they fancy themselves injured." "He evidently didn't stop them when he answered that letter, because he sent five hundred dollars. And it was written so soon before they both must have started--almost close together--from Honduras, that it wouldn't be likely any fresh demands would have been made," Dobson answered. "They might have met in London, and quarrelled," Stuart replied; "and after the quarrel this _Corot_ might have tracked him till he found a fitting opportunity, and then have killed him." "Yes, he might," Dobson said, meditatively. "Anything _might_ have happened." "Only you don't think it likely?" the other asked. "Well, frankly, Mr. Stuart, I don't. He had always got money out of him, and it wasn't likely the supplies would be stopped off altogether, so that to kill him would be killing the goose with the golden eggs." "Who on earth could have killed him, then? Who would have had any reason to do so? You know everything connected with the case now, and with Mr. Cundall's life and strange, unknown, real position--do you suspect any one?" "No," the detective said after a pause; "I can't say I do. Of course, at first, when I heard everything, the idea did strike me that Lord Penlyn, as the most interested person, might have done it." "So it did me," Stuart said; "but after the interview Mr. Fordyce and I had with him the idea left my mind." "Where does he say he was on the night of the murder--the night he was staying at that hotel?" "He says he stayed at his club until twelve, and that then he walked about the streets till nearly two, thinking over the story his brother had told him, and then let himself into the hotel and went to bed."