“I went to Scotland and made inquiries at Craigleith Hall, where Sir Horace had been shooting.  My object was to endeavour to obtain a clue to the reason for his sudden journey to London.  The local police had made inquiries on this point on behalf of Scotland Yard, and had been unable to obtain any clue.  No telegram had been received by Sir Horace, and he had sent none.  Of course he had received some letters.  He had told none of the other members of the shooting party the object of his departure for London, but he had declared his intention of being back with them in less than a week.  It had occurred to me when the crime was discovered that his missing pocket-book might not have been stolen by his murderer, but might have been lost in Scotland.  I made inquiries in that direction and eventually found that the man who had attended to Sir Horace on the moors had the pocket-book.  His story was that Sir Horace had lost it the day before his departure for London.  He had taken off his coat owing to the heat on the moor, and the pocket-book had dropped out.  He ascertained his loss before he left for London, and told this man Sanders where he thought the pocket-book had dropped out.  Sanders was to look for it, and if he found it was to keep it until Sir Horace came back.  He did find it, and after learning of your father’s death was tempted to keep it, as it contained four five-pound notes.  Sanders is an ignorant man, and can scarcely read.  He professed to know nothing of the pocket-book when I questioned him, but I became suspicious of him, and laid a trap which he fell into.  Then he handed me the pocket-book, which he had hidden on the moor, under a stone.  In the pocket-book I found a letter from Holymead asking your father to come to London at once as there were to be two new appointments to the Court of Appeal, and that Sir Horace had an excellent chance of obtaining one if he came to London and used his influence with the Chancellor and the Chief Justice, who were still in town.  The writer indicated that he was doing all that was possible in Sir Horace’s interests, and that he would meet Sir Horace at Riversbrook at 9.30 on Wednesday night and let him know the exact position.  There is nothing suspicious in such a letter, but my inquiries concerning new appointments to the Court of Appeal suggest that the statements in the letter are false.

“Now let us consider the conduct of Holymead and his wife since the night of the murder.  His course of action has not been that of a man anxious to assist the police in the discovery of the murderer of his old friend.  We have first of all his secrecy regarding his visit to Riversbrook that night; the fact of the visit being established by the stick, and the glove he left behind.  We have the estrangement of husband and wife.  We have Mrs. Holymead’s visit to Riversbrook on the morning that the first details of the crime appeared in the newspapers.  Ostensibly she came to see you and pay her condolences,