Well, to cut a long story short,
both of them fell in love with Elizabeth."
"Brutes!" Tavernake interjected.
"I guess they found Miss Elizabeth a pretty tough nut to crack,"
the detective went on. "Anyhow, you know what her price was from
her name, which is hers right enough. Wenham, who was a year
younger than his brother, was the first to bid it. Three months
ago, Mr. and Mrs. Wenham Gardner, Miss Beatrice, and the devoted
father left New York in the Lusitania and came to London."
"Where is this Wenham Gardner, then?" Tavernake demanded.
Pritchard took his cigar case from his pocket and selected
another cigar.
"Say, that's where you strike the nail right on the head," he
remarked. "Where is this Wenham Gardner?
I don't mind telling you, Mr. Tavernake, that to discover his
whereabouts is exactly what I am over on this side for. I have a
commission from the family to find out, and a blank cheque to do
it with."
"Do you mean that he has disappeared, then?" asked Tavernake.
"Off the face of the earth, sir," Pritchard replied. "Something
like two months ago, the young married couple, with Miss
Beatrice, started for a holiday tour somewhere down in the west
of England. A few days after they started, Miss Beatrice comes
back to London alone. She goes to a boarding-house, is
practically penniless, but she has shaken her sister--has, I
believe, never spoken with her since. A little later, Elizabeth
alone turns up in London.
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