We had not far to go. Mrs. Todhetley's fears went ranging abroad to London, or Liverpool, or the Coral Islands beyond the sea, of which Arne had talked to Hugh: but Arne was found at Timberdale. In an obscure lodging in the further outskirts of the place, the landlord of which, a man named Cookum, was a bad character, and very shy of the police, Arne was found. We might have searched for him to the month's end, but for Luke Mackintosh. When Luke arrived at Timberdale in the middle of the night, ordered there by Tod to make inquiries at the police-station, he saw a tipsy man slink into Cookum's house, and recognized him for the one who had recently been exciting speculation at home. Luke happened to mention this to Tod, not connecting Hugh with it at all, simply as a bit of gossip: of course it was not known who Arne was, or his name, or what he had been waiting for. We had a fight to get in. Cookum came leaping down the crazy stairs, and put himself in our way in the passage, swearing we should not go on. Tod lifted his strong arm. "I mean to go on, Cookum," he said, in a slow, quiet voice that had determination in every tone of it. "I have come to see a man named Arne. I don't want to do him any ill, or you either; but, see him, I will. If you do not move out of my way I'll knock you down." Cookum stood his ground. He was short, slight, and sickly, with a puffy face and red hair; a very reed beside Tod. "There ain't no man here of that name. There ain't no man here at all." "Very well. Then you can't object to letting me see that there is not." "I swear that you shan't see, master. There!" Tod flung him aside. Cookum, something like an eel, slipped under Tod's arm, and was in front of him again. "I don't care to damage you, Cookum, as you must see I could do, and force my way in over your disabled body; you look too weak for it. But I'll either go in _so_, or the police shall clear an entrance for me." The mention of the police scared the man; I saw it in his face. Tod kept pushing on and the man backing, just a little. "I won't have no police here. What is it you want?" "I have told you once. A man named Arne." "I swear then that I never knowed a man o' that name; let alone having him in my place." And he spoke with such passionate fervour that it struck me Arne did not go by his own name: which was more than probable. They were past the stairs now, and Cookum did not seem to care to guard them. The nasty passage, long and narrow, had a door at the end. Tod thought that must be the fortress. "You are a great fool, Cookum. I've told you that I mean no harm to you or to any one in the place; so to make this fuss is needless. You may have a band of felons concealed here, or a cart-load of stolen goods; they are all safe for me. But if you force me to bring in the police it might be a different matter." Perhaps the argument told on the man; perhaps the tone of reason it was spoken in; but he certainly seemed to hesitate.