"I took up my bit o' rubber tyre, bent down, and crept noiselessly along. It seemed as if they were examining those three electric coils, and were perhaps a tryin' to find the box what--" "Happily, I took the precaution to bring it away yesterday afternoon, and have it here, in the next room," I interrupted. "Good. Excellent, sir! My idea is that they were after that there box. I'm dead certain of it," old Theed said. "Well, I bent well below the benches and nearly got up to 'em in order to flash my lamp, an' so take 'em by surprise, when, of a sudden, somebody clipped me hard over the 'ead, and I knew nothing more till I awoke at daylight, and found this!" he added, pointing to a spot on the back of his head upon which was a big lump and a large piece of black sticking-plaster. "Then there must have been a third person present--eh?" "There must! He'd evidently been a watchin' me, and struck me down, just as I was a comin' up to the pair with the torch." "You say you saw a woman. Did you also see the man's face?" "No, I didn't. And I only knew that there was a woman there by the black fur she wore around her throat. I was right at the opposite end of the shed, remember, and I only saw 'er just for a second--a biggish woman's white face and the black fur." "You didn't see the person who knocked you down?" "No, I didn't--the cursed blackguard," was old Theed's quick reply. "Had I seen him, I'd 'ave given 'im a taste of my bit o' rubber--I tell yer. He wouldn't 'ave been sensible yet--you bet!" "But how did they get in?" I asked, amazed at his story. "Get in? Why, they seem to 'ave 'ad a latch-key. At any rate they opened the door with a duplicate key that they'd got from somewhere. There's no sign of 'em having broken in." For a few moments I stood in silence, then Theed's son having called a taxi, I got in and took our faithful night-watchman down to Gunnersbury. There, on the spot, he explained to me exactly what had occurred in the night, giving a dramatic demonstration of how he had crept up to the intruders, and pointing out the spot where he had fallen, and where, indeed, there were some palpable blood-spots from the wound in his head. "While I lay 'ere, sir," he added, "the three of 'em, of course, just pried into everything they wanted to see, and then went out, closin' the door after them. It was just after eight this morning when I came to, and I tell you I felt quite dazed, and horrible bad!" "What time do you think all this happened?" I inquired. "In the middle of the night--between two and three o'clock--I should say." Careful investigation which I made of the whole apparatus disclosed that nothing whatever had been interfered with--except one thing. Two wires connecting the big induction coils had evidently been disconnected, for they had been wrongly connected up, thus showing that the strangers, whoever they had been, might have made certain experiments with our plant.