Part 3 (1/2)

But Eustace was too unnerved to render any a.s.sistance, and it was Harding who, single-handed, drafted and coded a brief message reporting what had been discovered. Not until this message was handed to him did Eustace move.

”That's my death warrant,” he said gloomily as he signed it.

Harding took the message and left the office. The towns.h.i.+p boasted only one street, the bank being at one end, the post office at the other.

Midway between the two was the police-station, where the one constable responsible for the maintenance of law and order within the district resided.

”Get over to the bank, will you, Brennan?” Harding said as he entered the station. ”You'll have your hands full this time. There's been a robbery during the night, and all the cash cleared out.”

”What's that, Mr. Harding? The bank robbed? You don't mean it!”

”Go and ask Eustace; he'll give you all the details. It's floored him.

Hurry over, there's a good chap. I'm on my way to the post office to wire to the head office; I can't stay now.”

Ten minutes later the news was known from one end of the towns.h.i.+p to the other, and was travelling in every direction through the bush to the outlying stations and selections.

The farther it travelled the more astounding it became, and yet the form in which Brennan telegraphed it to his Inspector showed it to be sufficiently startling and mysterious.

When the reports had been wired away, Eustace recalled an incident he had forgotten in the excitement of the initial discovery.

During the evening, soon after sunset, a stranger called at the bank. He came to the private entrance where he was seen by Eustace, who described him as a well-built man of medium height, with sandy hair and beard and, by appearance, an ordinary bushman. He said he had come in from a distant station with a cheque he wanted to cash, but as the bank was closed for the day, Eustace told him he would have to come again in the morning. He had gone, mounting his horse and riding away in the direction of the hotel where stockmen usually congregated.

Brennan went to the hotel in search of him, but no one knew anything about him there, nor had anyone else seen him either in or out of the towns.h.i.+p.

”But he must have been seen,” Eustace exclaimed impatiently, when Brennan returned to the bank with the news. ”He must have been seen. He could not have vanished.”

”Did anyone else see him besides you when he called?” Brennan asked.

”No, I was pa.s.sing the front door at the moment he came. No one else saw him, so far as I know. But he must have been seen in the towns.h.i.+p. He must have gone to the hotel.”

They were standing in the bank office, Brennan on one side of the counter, Harding and Eustace on the other.

”You didn't see him?” Brennan asked, looking at Harding.

”No, I didn't see him,” Harding answered.

”But you heard me speak to someone--I came into the dining-room and told you it was a man who wanted a cheque cashed,” Eustace exclaimed.

”That's right,” Harding said quietly, ”I was going to say so when you interrupted me.”

There was a hum of voices outside and half a dozen men came into the office--Allnut, the largest storekeeper in the town; Soden, the hotelkeeper; Gale, the local auctioneer; Johnson, the postmaster, and two men who were strangers.

”Here, Soden,” Eustace cried, as soon as he caught sight of the hotelkeeper. ”Do you mean to say that the man I told Brennan about never came to your house last night?”

Soden, a slow-witted, heavy-built man, shook his head.

”Not a sign of him, Mr. Eustace,” he answered. ”But these two men came in just now. They've got something to say,” he added, turning to Brennan.

One of the two men stepped forward.