ck--Salter, who
turns up at Devonport as the guest of Noah, and who, like his brother, is
evidently in possession of a plenitude of this world's goods. He has money
in the bank, is a gentleman of leisure, and, like Noah, a person of
reserved speech."

Lorrimore was now fairly into his stride, and becoming absorbed in his
summing-up. He pushed aside his glass and other table impediments, and
leaning forward spoke more earnestly, emphasising his words with
equally emphatic gestures.

"A person of reserved speech!" he continued. "But--on one occasion, at
any rate, so eager to get hold of information, that he casts his
habitual reserve aside. On a certain day in March of this year, Salter
Quick, with a handsome amount of ready money in his pocket, leaves
Devonport, saying that he is going away for a few days. We next hear
of him at an hotel in Alnwick, where he is asking for information
about certain churchyards on this Northumbrian coast wherein he will
find the graves of people of the name of Netherfield--the name of a
man, be it remembered, who was with him and his brother Noah Quick,
on board the _Elizabeth Robinson_. Next morning he meets with Mr.
Middlebrook on the headlands between Alnmouth and Ravensdene Court and
taking him for an inhabitant of these parts, he puts the same question
to him. He accompanies Mr. Middlebrook to an inn on the cliffs; he
asks the same question there--and there, evidently to his great
discomfiture, he hears that another man, whose identity did not then
appear, but who, we now know, was only a casual traveller who was
merely repeating Salter Quick's own questions of the previous evening
which he had overheard at Alnwick, had been asking similar questions.
Why had Salter Quick travelled all the way from Devonport to
Northumberland to find the graves of some people named Netherfield? We
don't know--but we do know that on the very night of the day on which
he had asked his questions of Mr. Middlebrook and of Claigue, the
landlord, Salter Quick was murdered. And on that same night, at
Devonport, four hundred miles away, his brother, Noah Quick, met a
similar fate."

Mr. Cazalette came back into the room. He was carrying a couple of fat
quarto books under one arm, and a large folio under the other, and he
looked as if he had many important things to communicate. But Miss
Raven smilingly motioned him to be seated and silent, and Lorrimore,
with a glance at him which a judge might have bestow