eing an
ex-convict?"

"That's so, Breton. I've no more doubt about it than I have that I see
you. Marbury was in reality one John Maitland, a bank manager, of
Market Milcaster, who got ten years' penal servitude in 1891 for
embezzlement."

"In 1891? Why--that's just about the time that Aylmore says he knew
him!"

"Exactly. And--it just strikes me," said Spargo, sitting down at his
desk and making a hurried note, "it just strikes me--didn't Aylmore say
he knew Marbury in London?"

"Certainly," replied Breton. "In London."

"Um!" mused Spargo. "That's queer, because Maitland had never been in
London up to the time of his going to Dartmoor, whatever he may have
done when he came out of Dartmoor, and, of course, Aylmore had gone to
South America long before that. Look here, Breton," he continued,
aloud, "have you access to Aylmore? Will you, can you, see him before
he's brought up at Bow Street tomorrow?"

"Yes," answered Breton. "I can see him with his solicitor."

"Then listen," said Spargo. "Tomorrow morning you'll find the whole
story of how I proved Marbury's identity with Maitland in the
_Watchman_. Read it as early as you can; get an interview with Aylmore
as early as you can; make him read it, every word, before he's brought
up. Beg him if he values his own safety and his daughters' peace of
mind to throw away all that foolish reserve, and to tell all he knows
about Maitland twenty years ago. He should have done that at first.
Why, I was asking his daughters some questions before you came in--they
know absolutely nothing of their father's history previous to the time
when they began to understand things! Don't you see that Aylmore's
career, previous to his return to England, is a blank past!"

"I know--I know!" said Breton. "Yes--although I've gone there a great
deal, I never heard Aylmore speak of anything earlier than his
Argentine experiences. And yet, he must have been getting on when he
went out there."

"Thirty-seven or eight, at least," remarked Spargo. "Well, Aylmore's
more or less of a public man, and no public man can keep his life
hidden nowadays. By the by, how did you get to know the Aylmores?"

"My guardian, Mr. Elphick, and I met them in Switzerland," answered
Breton. "We kept up the acquaintance after our return."

"Mr. Elphick still interesting himself in the Marbury case?" asked
Spargo.

"Very much so. And so is old Cardlestone, at the foot of whose stairs
the thing came off. I din