lier's victims--supposed, of
course, to be burnt up by the Frozen Flames--grew fairly lengthy in the
four years that he has been using them as a screen for his underhanded
work. A guard--and I've seen one of the men myself during a little
midnight encounter that I had with him--went wandering over that part of
the district armed with a revolver. The first sight of a stranger caused
him to use his weapon. Meanwhile, behind the screen of the lights the
bank robbers were bringing in their gold by motor and hiding the sacks
down in a network of underground passageways that I also discovered--and
traversed. They ran, by devious ways, both to a field in Saltfleet
conveniently near the factory, and by another route up to the back
kitchen of Merriton Towers.

"You'll admit that, when I discovered this to be the case, I felt pretty
uneasy about Sir Nigel's innocence. But a still further search brought to
light another passage, which ran straight into the study of Withersby
Hall, occupied by the Brelliers, and was hidden under the square rug in
front of the fireplace. A nice convenient little spot for our friend here
to carry on his good work. Just a few words to say that he didn't want to
be disturbed in his study, a locked door, a rug moved, and--there you
are! He was free from all prying eyes to investigate the way things were
going, and to personally supervise the hiding of the gold. While outside
upon the Fens men were being killed like rats, because one or two of them
chose to use their intelligence, and wanted to find out what the flames
really were. They found out all right, poor devils, and their widows
waited for them in vain.

"And what does he do with all this gold, you ask? Why, ship it, by using
an electrical factory where he makes tubings and fittings--and a good
deal of mischief, to boot. The sovereigns are hidden as you have seen,
and are shipped out at night in fishing boats, loaded below the water
mark--I've helped with the loading myself, so I know--_en route_ for
Belgium, where his equally creditable brother, Adolph, receives the
tubes and invariably ships them back as being of the wrong gauge. Look
here--" He stopped speaking for a moment and, stepping forward, lifted up
another tubing from the table, and unfastened it at one of the joints.
Then he held it up for all to see.

"See that stuff in there? That's tungsten. Perhaps you don't all know
what tungsten is. Well, it's a valuable commodity that is mine