"We'll see," said the inspector, sternly. "Go on." But Tom was neither to be coaxed nor threatened. Whether he had any part in the escape of Larry and Billy Bungey, Labar found it hard to decide. His mask of a face showed as little beneath the surface as his soft, carefully chosen words. With an air of complete frankness he told of his excursion to the mouth of the tunnel, with his chief and Billy Bungey, and how he had been ordered to return while the two explored the immediate neighbourhood. He had, as Labar knew, gone back with one man but Larry had disappeared. Once more he had gone back to the tunnel. There he had found the man wounded by Labar, who had just recovered consciousness, and had given him rough first-aid. Meantime his other companion had been sent on to close the interior door of the tunnel. Then it was that the three had determined to make a bolt for it. Tom admitted indirectly that Labar's coup and Larry's absence had inclined them to panic. They had determined to get away from the place at all costs. Thus it was that they had encountered one of the patrols of police who had by then reached the neighbourhood of the exit, and had strove to regain their refuge in the tunnel. All of this was exactly as might have been surmised by the detective. There was nothing that carried them any farther in the search for Larry Hughes. The other two men each examined separately told the same story, and Labar was forced to conclude that they knew no more than he did of the whereabouts of the master rogue. The prisoners were sent back to "Mope's Bottom" and a hurried council of war was held. CHAPTER XXVIII The immediate question to be solved was whether Larry Hughes was still hiding on the marsh, or whether he had eluded the network of police and got safely away. So far as the detectives could tell every one of the gang who had been at "Mope's Bottom," except Larry and Billy Bungey, was safely in custody. Messengers were hurriedly despatched in various directions, and a fresh and combined sweep of the marshes begun. Meantime motor cars were sent for from various points by which the prisoners already gathered in might be escorted to Lydd, where they were to remain for the time guarded by a strong force of police. Labar had enough respect for Larry to think that, for the time, he had again eluded them. He did not believe that Larry would be found on the marsh, and the events of the next couple of hours proved that he was right. The master crook had somehow got through the cordon or had hidden himself and his companion with supreme cunning. But the odds were now with justice. It could only be a matter of time. Even if he managed to get out of the country--a matter of considerable doubt--it would be an unprecedented thing if he held himself secure from the police machine of the world.