"There was trouble of that sort some years ago, but I haven't heard of it lately.

Certainly, it would be a good thing to start the idea in Murray's mind; he might follow it up and find something out." "That other business--the Phillips murder--might have sprung out of the same cause," suggested Sir Gilbert.

"If those chaps caught a stranger in a lonely place--" "The police have a theory already about Phillips," remarked Mr.Lindsey.
"They think he was followed from Peebles, and murdered for the sake of money that he was carrying in a bag he had with him.

And my experience," he added with a laugh, "is that if the police once get a theory of their own, it's no use suggesting any other to them--they'll ride theirs, either till it drops or they get home with it." Sir Gilbert nodded his head, as if he agreed with that, and he suddenly gave Mr.Lindsey an inquiring look.
"What's your own opinion ?" he asked.
But Mr.Lindsey was not to be drawn.

He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, as if to indicate that the affair was none of his.
"I wouldn't say that I have an opinion, Sir Gilbert," he answered.
"It's much too soon to form one, and I haven't the details, and I'm not a detective.