"What I want to know," said he, "is how the boy is supporting himself all this time. You say he had no money, or very little, when he went away. How is he managing to live, if your theory is correct—that he is staying away of his own accord? It costs a lot of money to live as he likes to live."
Captain Stewart nodded.
"Oh, that," said he, "that is a question I have often proposed to myself. Frankly it's beyond me. I can only surmise that poor Arthur, who had scattered a small fortune about in foolish loans, managed, before he actually disappeared (mind you, we didn't begin to look for him until a week had gone by), managed to collect some of this money, and so went away with something in pocket. That, of course, is only a guess."
"It is possible," said Ste. Marie doubtfully, "but—I don't know. It is not very easy to raise money from the sort of people I imagine your nephew to have lent it to. They borrow but they don't repay."
He glanced up with a half-laughing half-defiant air.
"I can't," said he, "rid myself of a belief that the boy is here in Paris and he is not free to come or go. It's only a feeling, but it is very strong in me. Of course I shall follow out these clues you've been so kind as to give me. I shall go to Dinard and Deauville, and Hartley, I imagine, will go with me; but I haven't great confidence in them."
Captain Stewart regarded him reflectively for a time, and in the end he smiled.
"If you will pardon my saying it," he said, "your attitude is just a little womanlike. You put away reason for something vaguely intuitive. I always distrust intuition myself." Ste. Marie frowned a little and looked uncomfortable. He did not relish being called womanlike—few men do—but he was bound to admit that the elder man's criticism was more or less just.
"Moreover," pursued Captain Stewart, "you altogether ignore the point of motive—as I may have suggested to you before. There could be no possible motive, so far as I am aware, for kidnapping or detaining or in any way harming my nephew except the desire for money; but, as you know, he had no large sum of money with him, and no demand has been made upon us since his disappearance. I'm afraid you can't get round that."
"No," said Ste. Marie, "I'm afraid I can't. Indeed, leaving that aside (and it can't be left aside), I still have almost nothing with which to prop up my theory. I told you it was only a feeling."