“Every conjecture became a certainty.  Steggles was the lover of whom Crockett was jealous, and he had employed the girl to bring Sammy out.  I watched Steggles home, and gave you a hint to keep him there.

“But the thing that remained was to find Steggles’ employer in this business.  I was glad to be in when Danby called.  He came, of course, to hear if you would blurt out anything, and to learn, if possible, what steps you were taking.  He failed.  By way of making assurance doubly sure I took a short walk this morning in the character of a deaf gentleman, and got Miss Webb to write me a direction that comprised three of the words on these scraps of paper—­’left,’ ‘right,’ and ‘lane’; see, they correspond, the peculiar ‘f’s,’ ‘t’s,’ and all.

“Now, I felt perfectly sure that Steggles would go for his pay to-day.  In the first place, I knew that people mixed up with shady transactions in professional pedestrianism are not apt to trust one another far—­they know better.  Therefore Steggles wouldn’t have had his bribe first.  But he would take care to get it before the Saturday heats were run, because once they were over the thing was done, and the principal conspirator might have refused to pay up, and Steggles couldn’t have helped himself.  Again I hinted he should not go out till I could follow him, and this afternoon, when he went, follow him I did.  I saw him go into Danby’s house by the side way and come away again.  Danby it was, then, who had arranged the business; and nobody was more likely, considering his large pecuniary stake against Crockett’s winning this race.

“But now how to find Crockett?  I made up my mind he wouldn’t be in Danby’s own house.  That would be a deal too risky, with servants about and so on.  I saw that Danby was a builder, and had three shops to let—­it was on a paper before his house.  What more likely prison than an empty house?  I knocked at Danby’s door and asked for the keys of those shops.  I couldn’t have them.  The servant told me Danby was out (a manifest lie, for I had just seen him), and that nobody could see the shops till Monday.  But I got out of her the address of the shops, and that was all I wanted at the time.

“Now, why was nobody to see those shops till Monday?  The interval was suspicious—­just enough to enable Crockett to be sent away again and cast loose after the Saturday racing, supposing him to be kept in one of the empty buildings.  I went off at once and looked at the shops, forming my conclusions as to which would be the most likely for Danby’s purpose.  Here I had another confirmation of my ideas.  A poor, half-bankrupt baker in one of the shops had, by the bills, the custody of a set of keys; but he, too, told me I couldn’t have them; Danby had taken them away—­and on Thursday, the very day—­with some trivial excuse, and hadn’t brought them back.  That was all I wanted or could expect in the way of guidance.  The whole thing was plain.  The rest you know all about.”