Eustace did not pass
through the kitchen. Each told the same story when interrogated. As soon
as the signal of Mrs. Burke's departure was heard, Mrs. Eustace went to
the door leading from the kitchen to the passage and stood waiting for
her husband to appear. When he did not do so, she went to the door of
the office, knocked, and asked Harding if Eustace were there. She
maintained that the door of the dining-room had not been opened after
Mrs. Burke flounced out. Harding, who was listening in the office, also
maintained it had not been opened.

The mystery of Eustace's disappearance was still agitating everyone when
Sub-Inspector Durham rode up to the bank. Listening, without comment, to
all Brennan had to report, he went through the premises with Harding and
Brennan, saying nothing till he came to the back door.

Situated as it was, with only the bush behind and beyond it, the bank
was thus free from being overlooked. A block of ground at the back was
surrounded by a three-rail fence, but the cultivation was limited, a
score of fowls occupying the far end and the remainder of the area
consisting of a grass patch and a few indigenous shrubs left when the
ground was fenced in from the bush.

Standing there, he waved his arm comprehensively towards the unoccupied
land at the side and back of the building.

"Once outside, who was to see him clamber over that fence and make for
the shelter of the bush?" he asked. "While you were loitering at the
front door, Brennan, your man was walking out at the back."

Brennan gnawed his moustache in chagrin.

"But--how did he get out of the dining-room?" Harding exclaimed.

Durham turned slowly and looked steadily into Harding's eyes.

"He walked out, Mr. Harding, walked out through the door."

"The door was shut."

"When you saw it. It was probably closed as noiselessly as it was
opened--his wife saw to that. Then, as soon as he had slipped out this
way, she came to your office and threw dust in your eyes by asking where
her husband was. Just the sort of thing a woman would do. What did he do
with his keys--the bank keys, I mean?"

"He had them with him."

"Oh, no, Mr. Harding. They would be no further use to him. He must have
left them behind him. We shall find them somewhere. Let me have a look
at the safes which were robbed."

"Shall I send off a description of the man to the police in the
neighbourhood, sir?" Brennan asked.

"Did you not do so at once?" Durham aske