“No,” declared his friend. “Farrer is a real good fellow, most generous to his friends, and one of the most upright men I’ve ever met.”
Geoffrey, reflecting upon what his friend Franks had told him, became more mystified.
Where was Jack Halliday?
Next day Geoffrey, being in London, called at the address in Bayswater, which Jack had given him.
The landlady said it was true that he had rooms there, but she had not seen him since he left for Egypt. About three weeks ago, however, she received a telegram from him, and this she produced. It had been dispatched from Alexandria three weeks before, and asked Mrs. Gibbons to send through Pickford’s by grande vitesse his big black trunk addressed to Cook’s baggage department at Marseilles, adding that he was unable to return to London at present, as he was sailing for Cuba.
“And you have sent the trunk?” asked Geoffrey of the pleasant, round-faced woman.
“It went on the day after I received the message. Pickford’s collected it,” replied the landlady.
“What did the trunk contain?”
“Oh! of that I have no idea, except that I think Mr. Halliday kept most of his business papers in it,” she said. “Once it was open in his bedroom, and I saw in it a lot of papers tied up with pink tape, like lawyers use.”
Falconer paused. Why had it been sent to Marseilles when his friend had these rooms as his pied-à-terre in London?