He said a word to his men. They had had their instructions. They all went noiselessly up to the house, some to the back and sides, the Inspector, Mr Dare and two others to the front door. “Keep out of sight till I go in,” said the Inspector, as he rang, and in the distance inside they heard the thrill of the bell. But no one came. He rang again. “Good thing no one’s dying in a hurry,” he growled. It was not till after the third appeal that they heard steps inside and all braced up for the event. As the door opened Inspector Gretton quietly inserted his foot. “Is the Doctor in?” he asked. “He is oudt,” said a voice, which Mr Dare recognised as Old Jacob’s, the Doctor’s factotum. “Then I’ll come in and wait for him. I want him at once,” and the Inspector pushed his way in. As he did so Old Jacob dropped his hand against a spot in the wall, and far away upstairs a tiny bell tinkled briefly. “Quite so!” said Gretton, and as his men followed him in, with Mr Dare behind them in no small discomfort of mind,--“Secure the old boy, Swift,” and to his still greater discomfort Mr Dare heard the click of handcuffs. “Now quick,--upstairs!” and they followed him at speed. He seemed to go by instinct. Up two flights and they came on a door which evidently led to a higher storey still. A curious door--of stout oak, without a handle, and for keyhole only the polished disc and tiny slit of a Yale lock. The Inspector wasted not a moment. He was up to every trick of his profession. “Barnes,” he said quietly, and indicated the lock, and in a trice Barnes inserted a thin stick of something into the slit, and as the Inspector waved them all back there came an explosion and the stout oak about the lock was riven into splinters. Gretton swung open the door and ran up the narrow stairs. In the top passage they came on a short ladder leading to a skylight through which the night air blew chilly. The others climbed quickly up. Mr Dare stayed below. He regretted having come. He did not quite know why he had come. He had not of course known where he was going when he accepted Inspector Gretton’s invitation. Then the matter had developed too rapidly to permit of him backing out. Exclamations came down to him through the skylight--the sound of a brief struggle, and presently Gretton came down again obviously well-pleased with himself. “Got him,--red-handed!” he said. “Not Dr Rhenius?” “If that’s his proper name. The man you’ve known by that name anyway. And all his tackle. Two minutes more and his poles would have been out of sight. He lowers them down the chimneys.” He kicked open a door in the passage, but the room inside was empty and unfurnished. Two other rooms yielded the same result. Then the Inspector, searching about, discovered a trap-door, such as might lead to cisterns, high up in one corner of the passage, and shifting the ladder, he ran up, pushed the trap open, and said, “Right--o!”