He sat musing for some time after he was left alone again, and when he at last rose, it was with a shake of the head.
"I wonder if Pratt told me the truth that morning?" he said to himself. "Anyway, he's now being proved to be even deeper than I'd ever considered him. Well—other folk than Pratt are possessed of pretty good wits."
Before he left the office that evening Eldrick was handed a telegram from Messrs. Halstead & Byner, of St. Martin's Chambers, informing him that their Mr. Byner would travel to Barford by the first express next morning, and would call upon him at eleven o'clock.
"Then they have some important news for Parrawhite," mused Eldrick, as he put the message in his pocket and went off to his club. "Inquiry agents don't set off on long journeys at a moment's notice for a matter of a trifling agency. But—where is Parrawhite?"
He awaited the arrival of Mr. Byner next morning with considerable curiosity. And soon after eleven there was shown in to him, a smart, well-dressed, alert-looking young man, who, having introduced himself as Mr. Gerald Byner, immediately plunged into business.
"You can tell me something of James Parrawhite, Mr. Eldrick?" he began.
"We shall be glad—we've been endeavouring to trace him for some months.
It's odd that you didn't see our advertisement before."
"I don't look at that sort of advertisement," replied Eldrick. "I believe it was by mere accident that my partner saw yours yesterday afternoon. But now, a question or two first. What are you—inquiry agents?"
"Just so, sir—inquiry agents—with a touch of private detective business," answered Mr. Gerald Byner with a smile. "We undertake to find people, to watch people, to recover lost property, and so on. In this case we're acting for Messrs. Vickers, Marshall & Hebbleton, Solicitors, of Cannon Street. They want James Parrawhite badly."
"Why?" asked Eldrick.
"Because," replied Byner with a dry laugh, "there's about twenty thousand pounds waiting for him, in their hands."