Cleek, Hamilton (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Detective and mystery stories; Police -- Great Britain -- Fiction
"Yessir. Brent it is, Jonathan Brent, or so one of the men tells me. Says
he's never seed 'im, though; nobody 'ardly ever does, from all accounts
'e give me. Ole Black Whiskers and our silent-footed friend Borkins is
the main ones wot does 'is work for 'im."
"H'm. Well, that's something gleaned, anyway. Of course we may be able to
find out who he really is, but the chances are small. Men like this chap
don't go giving away anything more than they can help. They lie low and
let their paid underlings stand the racket if it happens to come along.
I know the type. I've come cross it before. Well, here we are. Now for
it--but this time I happen to have brought along a revolver."
He crept through the hedge and crouching behind it ran to the spot where
they had found the open trap-door upon that memorable occasion three
nights before. There was nothing to be seen. The ground presented an
absolutely unbroken appearance, so far as they could make out in the
moon's rays.
"Clever devils!" snapped out Cleek, in angry tribute. "We'll have to use
artificial light after all; but keep your torch light on the ground. It
won't do for any one to spot us just now."
For perhaps a moment or two they explored the ground inch by inch,
crawling round in the long grass upon their hands and knees, until a
little tuft of brown earth sticking up through a piece of turf, like the
upturned corner of a rug, showed them what they were looking for. With
infinite care Cleek lifted up the square of turf and set it upon one
side. The sight of the flat dark surface of the trap-door rewarded them.
He ran his fingers along the two sides of it, and discovered a bolt, shot
this, and then catching the iron ring once more in his hands, swung the
top upward and laid it back upon the grass.
A minute more found them once more in the cavernous, breathless depths.
Cleek handed the torch to Dollops.
"You hold that while I do a bit of sketching," he said, fidgeting in his
coat-pocket for his fountain-pen. He then snapped open the flap of the
note-book and began to sketch rapidly as they moved forward. Cleek was an
adept in drawing to scale. The thing took shape as they continued their
progress, keeping this time to the left instead of to the right. Cleek
paced off the distance and stopped every now and then to check up
results.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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