"Yes," answered Eldrick, watching Pratt narrowly without seeming to do so. "This morning, a man named Murgatroyd, in Peel Row, who does a bit of shipping agency, wired to Halstead & Byner to say that he booked Parrawhite to New York last November. Of course, they at once communicated with me, and I've just been to see Murgatroyd. He's that man--watchmaker--we had some proceedings against last year." "Oh, that man!" said Pratt. "Thought the name was familiar. I remember him. And what does he say?" "Just about as much as--and little more than--he said in his wire to London," replied Eldrick. "Booked Parrawhite to America November 24th last, and believes he left for Liverpool there and then." "Ah!" remarked Pratt, "That explains it, then?" "Explains--what?" asked Eldrick. Pratt gave his old employer a look--confidential and significant. "Explains why he took that money out of your desk," he said. "You remember--forty odd pounds. He'd use some of that for his passage-money. America eh? Now--I suppose he's vanished for good, then--it's not very likely he'll ever be heard of from across there." Eldrick laughed--meaningly, of set purpose. "We don't know that he's gone there," he observed. "He mightn't get beyond Liverpool, you know. Anyhow, we're going to make a very good search for him here in Barford, first. We've nothing but Murgatroyd's word for his having set out for Liverpool." "What's he wanted for?" asked Pratt as unconcernedly as possible. "Been up to something?" "No," answered Eldrick, as he turned on his heel. "A relation has left him twenty thousand pounds. That's what he's wanted for--and why he must be found--or his death proved." He gave Pratt another quick glance and went off--to return to the hotel and Byner, to whom he at once gave a faithful account of what had just taken place. "And he didn't turn a hair," he remarked. "Cool as a cucumber, all through! If your theory is correct, Pratt's a cleverer hand than I ever took him for--and I've always said he was clever." "Didn't show anything when you mentioned Murgatroyd?" asked Byner. "Not a shred of a thing!" replied Eldrick. "Nor when you spoke of the twenty thousand pounds?" "No more than what you might call polite and interested surprise!" Byner laughed, threw away the end of a cigar, and rose out of his lounging posture. "Now, Mr. Eldrick," he said, leaning close to the solicitor, "between ourselves, do you know what I'm going to do--next--which means at once?" "No," replied Eldrick. "The police!" whispered Byner. "That's my next move. Just now! Within a few minutes. So--will you give me a couple of notes--one to the principal man here--chief constable, or police superintendent, or whatever he is; and another to the best detective there is here--in your opinion. They'll save me a lot of trouble." "Of course--if you wish it," answered Eldrick. "But you don't mean to say you're going to have Pratt arrested--on what you know up to now?"