And--with equal certainty--nobody at all had come forward to claim him, to assert kinship with him, though there had been the widest publicity given to the circumstances of his murder.

In Gilverthwaite's instance, his sister had quickly turned up--to see what there was for her.

Phillips had been just as freely mentioned in the newspapers as Gilverthwaite; but no one had made inquiries after him, though there was a tidy sum of money of his in the Peebles bank for his next-of-kin to claim.

Who was he, then?
Mr.Lindsey was evidently deep in thought, or, I should perhaps say, in surmise.

And he seemed to arrive where I did--at a question; which was, of course, just that which Smeaton had suggested.
"I might answer that better if I knew what you could tell me about your father, Mr.Smeaton," he said.