"My boy—my Dicky went home with that man?"
"A boy was introduced to me as David Prentiss."
Dalton's hands clutched his forehead for a moment and the grinding of his teeth was audible.
"You were saying—what were you saying about a trunk?"
"I said that the remains of the boy had been brought here by Fry's personal servant, sir. I saw them taken into the side gate not ten minutes ago and——"
"Come!" said Theodore Dalton.
He reached out and, gripping Hitchin's arm, decided that gentleman's course for him. As Theodore Dalton strode to the back of the house and to the back stairs, as he went straight down and into and through the kitchen, Hobart Hitchin merely went along, partly in stumbles, partly in little jumps; and so they came to the laundry and, nerving himself until the veins stood out on his temples, Dalton faced his butler and spoke thickly:
"The—the trunk!"
"Beg pardon, sir?" said Bates humbly.
"The trunk which was brought here! Where is it?"