"Guilty conscience, Alan? What had Joe done?"
"Nothing, so far as I know," replied Thorold readily. "But I am convinced there is something in your father's past life, Sophy, which would account for the violation of the vault. Joe knows it, but for some reason he won't tell. I questioned him about the ridiculous sum he gave to Cicero, but I could get no satisfactory explanation out of him--nor could Blair."
"You don't think he was the short man with Dr. Warrender on that night, Alan?" asked the girl somewhat tremulously.
"No, I do not; I asked the boy who sleeps in the same room. He said that Joe went to bed as usual, and that he never heard him go out. Besides, Sophy, I am certain the accomplice of Warrender was Brown."
"The Quiet Gentleman?"
"Yes; he had the key of the vault. And also, by the evidence of the stamp, he had something to do with Jamaica. Perhaps he knew your father there."
"Perhaps he did. Joe would know."
"Joe will not speak, and, at all events, he has gone. We must wait until he comes back."
"Are you not going to make any more search for the body, Alan?"
"My dearest, I have not the slightest idea where to begin. The case has baffled the police, and it baffles me. I have made inquiries all round the country, and I can find no one who saw Brown with your father's dead body, or, indeed, anything else which might have aroused suspicion. There is only one hope that we may get it back."