Eaton, and myself into a side-room and shut the door on us. "We can
leave the police to do their own work," he remarked, motioning us to be
seated at a convenient table. "My impression is that they'll find little
out from the servants. And while that's afoot, I'd like to have that
promised story of yours, Mr. Elphinstone--I only got an idea of it, you
know, when you and Murray came to my house. And these two would like to
hear it--one of them, at any rate, is more interested in this affair
than you'd think or than he knew of himself until recently." Now that we
were in a properly lighted room, I took a more careful look at the
former steward of Hathercleugh. He was a well-preserved, shrewd-looking
man of between sixty and seventy: quiet and observant, the sort of man
that you could see would think a lot without saying much. He smiled a
little as he put his hands together on the table and glanced at our
expectant faces--it was just the smile of a man who knows what he is
talking about. "Aye, well, Mr. Lindsey," he responded, "maybe there's
not so much mystery in this affair as there seems to be once you've got
at an idea. I'll tell you how I got at mine and what's come of it. Of
course, you'll not know, for I think you didn't come to Berwick yourself
until after I'd left the neighbourhood--but I was connected with the
Hathercleugh estate from the time I was a lad until fifteen years ago,
when I gave up the steward's job and went to live on a bit of property
of my own, near Alnwick. Of course, I knew the two sons--Michael and
Gilbert; and I remember well enough when, owing to perpetual quarrelling
with their father, he gave them both a good lot of money and they went
their several ways. And after that, neither ever came back that I heard
of, nor did I ever come across either, except on one occasion--to which
I'll refer in due course. In time, as I've just said, I retired; in
time, too, Sir Alexander died, and I heard that, Mr. Michael being dead
in the West Indies, Sir Gilbert had come into the title and estates. I
did think, once or twice,
