“Miss Maynard!” echoed the young man. “How could she have got it? She left the house with me and did not come back. In fact, she was very much opposed to coming back when I suggested that we should do so in order to get it.”
“If she had it in her possession at the house her opposition to your proposal to go back for it is quite reasonable. I think you said that after you found the dead body upstairs she rushed downstairs and waited outside for you. She had ample time to go into the room and take the cryptogram from the table where you placed it. Doubtless her main thought was that its presence might implicate Brett in some way.”
“Then it is Brett who has taken this money and is carrying it down the cliff to the boat?” said Marsland excitedly.
“Yes. Probably Miss Maynard is down at the boat keeping guard over the bags as he brings them.”
“And you think he will come back here for the rest?” asked Marsland.
Crewe noticed the eagerness in the young man’s voice: it seemed as if Marsland was excited by the thought of meeting Brett.
“He is not likely to leave £4,000 behind unless he knows the place is being watched.”
“Let us go towards the cliffs and meet him,” declared Marsland impatiently. “To think that I am to meet him face to face, and here of all places.”
“We might miss him in the dark, and he might get clean away.”
“Where shall we hide?” asked the young man, again sinking his voice to a whisper. “He may reach here any moment now.”