has got to do
with the 'Frozen Flame' business I must confess somewhat puzzles me to
discover. But that it _has_ something to do with it is proved by that
fishy character Borkins, and the amiable attempt of his friend to murder
so humble a person as myself. Now it's up to me to find the missing link
in the chain.... Hello! here's a gap in the hedge here. Looks like it had
been made on purpose. Let's go and investigate."

He whipped his little torch round and the circle of light flashing over
the ground, revealed to their searching eyes something vastly unexpected
in such a place and yet which, after all, seemed to fit into a place
where so much mystery and secretiveness was in the air. They themselves,
disguised as such rough characters, fitted into the strange picture,
which struck Cleek, even in spite of his many peculiar cases, as very
much out of the ordinary.

A gap in the hedge there was, right enough. And through the gap--someone
must have been working here a very short time before--a square of turf,
cut carefully out and laid upon one side, revealed to their astonished
eyes a wooden trap-door, exactly suggestive of the pirates' den of a
child's imagination, and with a huge iron ring fastened to the centre of
it.

Cleek whistled inaudibly, and turning round upon Dollops a happy light in
his eyes and a smile, almost of amusement on his lips.

"Gad!" he exclaimed softly. "Game to try this, Dollops. I am going to
have a shot at it myself."

"But you ain't got no firearms on yer, sir, in case o' h'accidents,"
returned the literal minded Dollops, "and no man in 'is senses would
attempt to go down that thing without 'em."

"Well, I've been called a lunatic before this, lad. And going down it I
am, this minute. And if you've the least qualms at following me, you can
just watch up here and warn me with the old signal if you hear any one
coming. But I'm going down, to find out where this thing leads to, and a
dollar to a ducat it'll lead to a good deal that means the unravelling of
a riddle. The fellow who tangled the threads in the first place has a
head any one might admire. But what I want to know is what he's taking
all this trouble for. Coming, Dollops?"

Dollops sent a reproachful look into Cleek's face and sniffed audibly.

"Of course I'm comin', guv'nor," he made answer. "D'yer think I'd be such
a dirty blighter as ter let you go dahn there--p'raps ter your very
death--alone? Not me, sir. Dollops is a-fo