"Are you sure Michael Hall is not guilty?" asked Zena.
"Were he guilty I should not have seen him," answered Quarles decidedly.
"Pray, dear, that we may carry sunlight to her again," said the professor solemnly.
I thought that our journey to Birmingham was for the purpose of interviewing Parrish's nephew, but it was not. Quarles got a list of the leading secondhand booksellers there.
"A bookworm, Wigan, remains a bookworm to the end of his days. Although nothing has been said about it, I warrant Mr. Parrish bought books and had them sent to Thornfield."
"He might have bought them in London," I said.
"I think it was Birmingham," said Quarles.
So far he was right. It was the third place we visited. Baines and Son was the firm, and we saw old Mr. Baines. He had constantly sold books to Mr. Parrish, of Thornfield, who had been to his shop several times, but their intercourse was chiefly by correspondence. Good books! Certainly. Mr. Parrish knew what he was doing, and never bought rubbish.
"His purchases might be expected to increase in value?" asked Quarles.
"Yes; but, forgive me, why these questions?"
"Ah! I supposed you would have heard. Mr. Parrish is dead."
"We are looking into his affairs," Quarles went on. "Is there any money owing to you?"
"Murdered!" exclaimed Baines, starting from his chair. "Do you mean for some treasured volume he possessed? Do you mean by some bibliomaniac?"
"You think he may have had such a treasure, then?"
"I know he had many rare and valuable books," Baines answered.
"You don't happen to know a bibliomaniac who might commit murder?" said Quarles.
"Such information would help us, because a young man has been condemned for the murder, a man named Hall--Michael Hall."
"I never heard of him," said Baines. "I wonder I did not see the case in the paper."
"It caused little sensation," said Quarles. "At present it seems one of those crimes committed for small gain."
"Mr. Parrish must have been a man of considerable means," said the bookseller; "considerable means, although he was eccentric about money. He always sent me cash, or some check he had received, with a request that I would return him the balance in cash. Indeed, I have constantly acted as his banker. He has sent me checks and asked me to send him notes for them."