“My lord,” he said serenely, “you have seen the man Bill Jones, and the impersonator of Sammie Robinson is there,” he pointed to Dollops.  “Well, this man Borkins—­or Piggott, as he calls himself when doing his ’private work’—­engaged Dollops and me, in place of two hands in the factory who had been given to too much tongue-wagging, and in consequence had met with prompt punishment, God alone knows what it was!  We worked there for something just under a fortnight.  Dollops, with his usual knack for making friends in the right direction, chummed up to one of the men—­whom I have already named—­Jim Dobbs.  He finally asked him to come and help with the loading up of the boats, and gave him the chance of making a little overtime by simply keeping his mouth shut as to what went on.  I managed to get on the job too, and we did it three times in that fortnight—­and a jolly difficult task we found it, I don’t mind saying.  But I felt that evidence was necessary, and while in the employ of ’the master’ we carried on many investigations.  And still in his service I made this rough map of the varied turnings of the secret passage, and the places to which they led.  You can get a better idea of the ground if you glance at it.”  He handed it up to the high desk, and paused a moment as the judge surveyed it through his spectacles.  “The passage at Merriton Towers, and also at Withersby Hall—­so conveniently placed near that particular part of the Fens, and therefore chosen by Brellier for his work—­are both of ancient origin, dating back, I should say, to the time of the civil war.

“Whose idea it was to connect the two passages up I could not say, or when Borkins got into the pay of Brellier and played false to a family that he had served for twenty years.  But the fact remains.  The two passages are linked up, and then continued at great labour in another direction to that field which lies off the Saltfleet Road and just at the back of the factory.  And thus was made a convenient little subway for the carrying on of nefarious transactions of the kind which we have discovered.”

“And how did you discover that Brellier was the ‘Master’ in question?” put in the judge at this juncture.

“He happened to come to the factory one day while we were at work upon our machines.  Someone said, ’Crickey!  ’Ere’s the Master!  Funny for ’im to be prowlin’ round at this hour of the day—­night’s more to ’is likin’.’  I could hardly contain myself when I saw who it was even though I had already discovered the passage to Withersby Hall.  I had not yet realized that ‘Jonathan Brent’ and Brellier were one and the same, though I discovered that the former had a perfectly legitimate office in London in Leadenhall Street.  But when I saw him I knew.  After that I wasted no time.  Since then we’ve been having a pretty scramble to get safely away without giving any clues to the other men, and to put Scotland Yard upon their track.  They’re down there now, and have got every man of ’em I dare swear (and I hope they are keeping my friend Black Whiskers for me to deal with).  That is the cause of my lateness at the hearing of the case.  You can fully understand how impossible it was to be here any earlier.”