night at Brent foiled this attempt. Seeing
that I was returning to Liverpool, the men now thought that they would
use me for their own devices, and made up their minds to decoy me into
Murdock's bedroom in order that I might see the wax figure, their
object, of course, being that I should be forced to prove an alibi in
case Murdock was suspected of the crime. The telegram which reached me
at Prince's Hotel on my return from London was sent by one of the
ruffians, who was lying in ambush at Brent. When I left Murdock's house,
the wife informed Wickham that she thought from my manner I suspected
something. He had already taken steps to induce the cab-driver to take
me in a wrong direction, in order that I should miss my train, and it
was not until he visited the stables outside the Prince's Hotel that he
found that I intended to go by road. He then played his last card, when
he telegraphed to the inn at Carlton to stop the horses. By Murdock's
means Wickham and his confederate had the run of the rooms at the Hall
ever since the arrival of Wickham from Australia, and they had rigged up
the top of the old bedstead in the way I have described. There was,
needless to say, a secret passage at the back of the tapestry, which was
so cunningly hidden in the panelling as to baffle all ordinary means of
discovery.

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