At any rate--and this is the important fact--he was not in the house, and no one had seen him leave it.
"After a hasty meal Mr.Hurst returned to town and called at the office of Mr.Bellingham's solicitor and confidential agent, a Mr.Jellicoe, and mentioned the matter to him.

Mr.Jellicoe knew nothing of his client's return from Paris, and the two men at once took the train down to Woodford, where the missing man's brother, Mr.Godfrey Bellingham, lives.

The servant who admitted them said that Mr.Godfrey was not at home, but that his daughter was in the library, which is a detached building situated in a shrubbery beyond the garden at the back of the house.

Here the two men found, not only Miss Bellingham, but also her father, who had come in by the back gate.
"Mr.Godfrey and his daughter listened to Mr.Hurst's story with the greatest surprise, and assured him that they had neither seen nor heard anything of John Bellingham.
"Presently the party left the library to walk up to the house; but only a few feet from the library door Mr.Jellicoe noticed an object lying in the grass and pointed it out to Mr.Godfrey.
"The latter picked it up, and they all recognised it as a scarab which Mr.John Bellingham had been accustomed to wear suspended from his watch-chain.

There was no mistaking it.