d simply satisfied his own curiosity upon one or two
points concerning a dead man who had been little more than a name to him
hitherto. His one discovery of the least potential value was that
Minchin had evidently died in difficulties. He now consulted some notes
jotted down on an envelope upon his way to the City.

"Mr. Minchin, as you are aware," resumed Langholm, "was, like his wife,
an Australian by birth. Had he many Australian friends here in London?"

"None at all," replied Mr. Crofts, "that I am aware of."

"Nor anywhere else in the country, think you?"

"Not that I remember."

"Not in the north of England, for example?"

Thus led, Mr. Crofts frowned at his desk until an enlightened look broke
over his florid face.

"By Jove, yes!" said he. "Now you speak of it, there _was_ somebody up
north--a rich man, too--but he only heard of him by chance a day or so
before his death."

"A rich man, you say, and an Australian?"

"I don't know about that, but it was out there they had known each
other, and Minchin had no idea he was in England till he saw it in the
paper a day or two before his death."

"Do you remember the name?"

"No, I don't, for he never told it to me; fact is, we were not on the
best of terms just at the last," explained Mr. Crofts. "Money
matters--money matters--they divide the best of friends--and to tell you
the truth he owed me more than I could afford to lose. But the day
before the last day of his life he came in and said it was all right,
he'd square up before the week was out, and if that wasn't good enough
for me I could go to the devil. Of course I asked him where the money
was coming from, and he said from a man he'd not heard of for years
until that morning, but he didn't say how he'd heard of him then, only
that he must be a millionaire. So then I asked why a man he hadn't seen
for so long should pay his debts, but Minchin only laughed and swore
that he'd make him. And that was the last I ever heard of it; he sat
down at that desk over yonder and wrote to his millionaire there and
then, and took it out himself to post. It was the last time I saw him
alive, for he said he wasn't coming back till he got his answer, and it
was the last letter he ever wrote in the place."

"On that desk, eh?" Langholm glanced at the spare piece of office
furniture in the corner. "Didn't he keep any papers here?" he added.

"He did, but you fellows impounded them."

"Of course we did," said Lang