He had turned the car around and we made our way back to the main road, and then southward again, taking up in earnest the long return trip to the city and covering the distance in Warrington’s racer in a much shorter time, now that we had not to follow another car and keep under cover.  It was late in the afternoon, however, when we arrived and Garrick went directly to police headquarters where he held a hasty conference with Dillon.

Dillon was even more excited than we were when he learned how far we had gone in tracing out the scant clews that we had uncovered.  As Garrick unfolded his plan, the commissioner immediately began to make arrangements to accompany us out into the country that night.

I did not hear all that was said, as Garrick and Dillon laid out their plans, but I could see that they were in perfect accord.

“Very well,” I overheard Garrick, as we parted.  “I shall go out in the car again.  You will be up on the train?”

“Yes—­on the seven-fifty,” returned Dillon.  “You needn’t worry about my end of it.  I’ll be there with the goods—­just the thing that you want.  I have it.”

“Fine,” exclaimed Garrick, “I have to make a call at the office.  I’ll start as soon as I can, and try to beat you out.”

They parted in good humour, for Dillon’s passion for adventure was now thoroughly aroused and I doubt if we could have driven him off with a club, figuratively speaking.

At the office Garrick tarried only long enough to load the car with some paraphernalia which he had there, much of which, I knew, he had brought back with him after his study of police methods abroad.  There were three coats of a peculiar texture, which he took from a wardrobe, a huge arrangement which looked like a reflector, a little thing that looked merely like the mouthpiece of a telephone transmitter, and a large heavy package which might have been anything from a field gun to a battering ram.

It was twilight when we arrived at the nearest railroad station to the little cottage in the valley, after another run up into the country in the car.  Dillon who had come up by train to meet us, according to the arrangement with Garrick, was already waiting, and with him was one of the most trustworthy and experienced of the police department chauffeurs.  Garrick looked about at the few loungers curiously, but there did not seem to be any of them who took any suspicious interest in new arrivals.

We four managed to crowd into a car built only for two, and Garrick started off.  A few minutes later we arrived at the top of the hill from which we had already viewed the mysterious house earlier in the day.  It was now quite dark.  We had met no one since turning off into the crossroad, and could hear no sound except the continuous music of the night insects.

Just before crossing the brow of the last hill, we halted and Garrick turned out all the lights on the car.  He was risking nothing that might lead to discovery yet.  With the engine muffled down, we coasted slowly down the other side of the hill into the shadowy valley.  There was no moon yet and we had to move cautiously, for there was only the faint light of the sky and stars to guide us.