be something."

"What is it?" asked Viner.

"Well," answered Mr. Pawle pausing a few yards away from the porch of the
hotel, and speaking in a confidential voice, "it's this: In turning up
the records of the Cave-Gray family, as far as they are shown in their
parish registers, I found that Stephen John Cave-Gray, sixth Earl of
Ellingham, married one Georgina Wickham. Now, is that another
coincidence? There you get the two names in combination--Avice Wickham.
That particular Countess of Ellingham would, of course, be the
grandmother of the Lord Marketstoke who disappeared. Did he think of her
maiden name, Wickham, when he wanted a new one for himself? Possibly! And
when he married, and had a daughter, did he think of the Christian name
so popular with his own womenfolk of previous generations, and call his
daughter Avice? And are Marketstoke and Wickham and Ashton all one and
the same man?"

"Upon my word, it's a strange muddle!" exclaimed Viner.

"Nothing as yet to what it will be," remarked Mr. Pawle sententiously.
"Come on--I'm famishing. Let's lunch--and then we'll go back to town."

Another surprise awaited them when they walked into Mr. Pawle's office in
Bedford Row at four o'clock that afternoon. A card lay on the old
lawyer's blotting-pad, and after glancing at it, he passed it to Viner.

"See that?" he said. "Now, who on earth is Mr. Armitstead Ashton
Armitstead, of Rouendale House, Rawtenstall? Who left this?" he went on,
as a clerk entered the room with some letters.