"I told you he guessed; I told you I should be followed!" she said in a shaking voice. "He is coming--that man: along the road there! look through the window and you will see. Oh, come to my assistance, Mr. Headland! Find some way to do it, for God's sake! Good-bye!" Then the door opened and shut and she was gone, darting out from the rear of the inn into the shelter of the scattered clumps of furze bushes and the thick growth of bracken which covered the downs, and running like a hare pursued. "Well, what do you make of it, old chap?" asked Narkom anxiously, turning to Cleek after ascertaining past all doubt that the Honourable Felix Carruthers was riding up the road toward the French Horn. "Oh, a crime beyond doubt," he replied. "But whose I am in no position to determine at present. A hundred things might produce that stabbing sensation in the neck, from the prick of a pin-point dipped in curare to a smear of the 'Pope's balm,' that hellish ointment of the Borgias. Hum-m-m! And so that's the Honourable Felix Carruthers, is it? Keep back from the window, my friend. When you are out gunning for birds, it never does to raise an alarm. And we should be hard put to it to explain our presence here at this particular time if he were to see you." "My dear chap, you don't surely mean that you think _he_ is really at the bottom of it?" began Narkom, in surprise; but before he could say a word further, _that_ surprise was completely overwhelmed by another and a greater one. For the Honourable Felix had reined in and dismounted at the French Horn's door, and, with a clear-voiced, "No, don't put him up; I shan't be long, Betty. Just want a word or two with some friends I'm expecting," walked straightway into the bar parlour and advanced toward the superintendent with hand outstretched. "Thank God, you got my letter in time, Mr. Narkom," he said, with a breath of intense relief. "Although I sent it by express messenger, it was after three o'clock and I was afraid you wouldn't. What a friend you are to come to my relief like this! I shall owe you a debt no money can repay. This then is the great and amazing Cleek, is it? I thank you, Mr. Cleek, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for accepting the case. Now we _shall_ get to the bottom of the mystery, I am sure." It was upon the tip of Narkom's tongue to inquire what he meant by all this; but Cleek, rightly suspecting that the letter to which he alluded had been delivered at the Yard after the superintendent's departure, jumped into the breach and saved the situation. "Very good of you indeed to place such great reliance in me, Mr. Carruthers," he said. "We had to scramble for it, Mr. Narkom and I--the letter was so late in arriving--but, thank fortune, we managed to get here, as you see. And now, please, may I have the details of the case?"