That at least is the object the police have in view.

But you need not disturb yourself on that score.

Roger Ingleton, major, if we find him, may be a villain, but he won't be the murderer of Miss Oliphant's father." They returned presently, baffled, to Maxfield.

No one at the depots, or recruiting head-quarters, or pension offices could tell them a word of a soldier or a sailor named Callot who might have enlisted or gone to sea about twelve years ago.

How could they expect it?
Nor did the most careful search among the old Squire's papers lead to the discovery of any record of the supposed report of the lad's death.
As a matter of fact, if the billiard-marker at "L'Hotel Soult" was the man, they had already traced him down to a date long subsequent to that of his rumoured death.
Together they ransacked the memories of Dr Brandram, the Vicar, old Hodder, and one or two other inhabitants who might be supposed to know something of the matter.