nly.

"I've no reason to do otherwise. Elphick is the man who ought to have
married your mother. When things turned out as they did, Elphick took
you and brought you up as he has done, so that you should never know of
your father's disgrace. Elphick never knew until last night that
Cardlestone is Chamberlayne. Even the biggest scoundrels have
friends--Elphick's very fond of Cardlestone. He----"

Spargo turned sharply on Myerst.

"You say Elphick didn't know until last night!" he exclaimed. "Why,
then, this running away? What were they running from?"

"I have no more notion than you have, Spargo," replied Myerst. "I tell
you one or other of them knows something that I don't. Elphick, I
gather, took fright from you, and went to Cardlestone--then they both
vanished. It may be that Cardlestone did kill Maitland--I don't know.
But I'll tell you what I know about the actual murder--for I do know a
good deal about it, though, as I say, I don't know who killed Maitland.
Now, first, you know all that about Maitland's having papers and
valuables and gold on him? Very well--I've got all that. The whole lot
is locked up--safely--and I'm willing to hand it over to you, Breton,
when we go back to town, and the necessary proof is given--as it will
be--that you're Maitland's son."

Myerst paused to see the effect of this announcement, and laughed when
he saw the blank astonishment which stole over his hearers' faces.

"And still more," he continued, "I've got all the contents of that
leather box which Maitland deposited with me--that's safely locked up,
too, and at your disposal. I took possession of that the day after the
murder. Then, for purposes of my own, I went to Scotland Yard, as
Spargo there is aware. You see, I was playing a game--and it required
some ingenuity."

"A game!" exclaimed Breton. "Good heavens--what game?"

"I never knew until I had possession of all these things that Marbury
was Maitland of Market Milcaster," answered Myerst. "When I did know
then I began to put things together and to pursue my own line,
independent of everybody. I tell you I had all Maitland's papers and
possessions, by that time--except one thing. That packet of Australian
stamps. And--I found out that those stamps were in the hands
of--Cardlestone!"

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

THE FINAL TELEGRAM

Myerst paused, to take a pull at his glass, and to look at the two
amazed listeners with a smile of conscious triumph.

"In the hand