He swung upon his heel and linked his arm with Mr. Narkom’s, then, taking his cap from a peg on the hall stand, clapped it on his head and went down and out to the task that awaited him, and a discovery which was, to say the least of it, startling in the extreme.

They walked for some time in comparative silence, puffing at their cigarettes.  Then of a sudden, Cleek spoke.

“I say, old man, you’ll want to keep a close look-out upon your own personal safety,” he said, abruptly, wheeling round and meeting his friend full in the eyes.

“What d’you mean, C—­Headland?”

“What I say.  Someone’s got wind of our real purpose here.  I have a grave suspicion that that Borkins was listening at my door last evening when I was talking to Dollops.  Later—­well, somebody or other tried to get me in bed.  But I was one too many for him—­”

“My dear Cleek!”

“Mr. Lake, I beg of you—­not so loud!” ejaculated Cleek.  “There are ears everywhere, which you as a policeman ought to know.  Do remember my name and don’t go losing any sleep over me.  I can take care of myself, all right.  But I had to do it pretty energetically last night.  A thoughtful visitor stabbed the pillow I’d placed in bed instead of my humble self, and cut an incision three inches deep.  Hit the mattress, too!”

“Headland, my God—!”

“Now, don’t take on so.  I tell you I can take care of myself, but you do the same.  No one in the house knows a word about it, and I don’t intend that they shall.  The less said the better, in a case like this.  Only those Frozen Flames are trying to eat up something that is either very serious or very money-making.  One thing or the other....  Hello, here we are!  Mornin’ Petrie; mornin’ Hammond.  All ready for the search I see.”

The two constables, clad in plain clothes and accompanied by Dollops, were holding in their hands long pitchforks which looked more as if they were ready for haymaking than for the gruesome task ahead of them all.  Petrie carried upon his arm a roll of rope.  They swung into step behind the detectives, across the uneven, marshy ground.

It was a chilly morning, and inclined to rain.  Across the flat horizon the mist hung in wraithlike forms of cloudy gray, and the deep grass into which they plunged their feet was beaded with dew.  For a time they walked on quietly until they had gone perhaps a quarter of a mile.  Then Cleek halted.

“Better separate here,” he said, waving his arm out across the sweep of flat country.  “Dollops, you take the right with Petrie.  Hammond, you’d better try the left.  Mr. Narkom and I will go straight ahead together.  Any discovery made, just give the usual signal.”

They separated at once, their feet upon the thick marshy ground leaving numberless footprints in the moist rank grass, which crushed under them like wet hay.  Their heads were bent, their eyes fixed upon the ground, their faces bearing a look of utter concentration.  Cleek watched them moving slowly across the wide, flat reaches of the Fens, stopping now and then to poke among the rank marsh-grass, and prod into the earth, and then turned to Mr. Narkom.