Caldew's story, and did everything possible
to retrieve the situation once he was convinced that Nepcote had fled.
Any lingering doubts he may have had were scattered on learning, after
confidential inquiry at Whitehall, that Captain Nepcote had not put in
an appearance at the War Office that day, and had neither requested nor
been granted leave of absence from his duties.

On receipt of this information Merrington turned to his office
telephone, and, receiver in hand, bellowed forth peremptory instructions
which set in motion the far-reaching organization of Scotland Yard for
the capture of a fugitive from justice. Nepcote's description was
circulated to police stations, detectives were told off to keep an eye
on outgoing trains and the docks, and the entrances to the tubes and
underground railways were watched. After enclosing London, Merrington
made a wider cast, and long before nightfall he had flung around England
a net of fine meshes through which no man could wriggle.

But it is difficult even for Scotland Yard to lay quick hands on a
fugitive in the vast city of London, as Merrington well knew. While
waiting for the net to close over his destined captive, he decided in
the new strange turn of the case to investigate the whole of the
circumstances afresh. Inquiries set afoot in London, with the object of
discovering all that could be learnt of Nepcote's career and Violet
Heredith's single life, occupied an important share in Scotland Yard's
renewed investigations into the Heredith murder.

Caldew was sent to Heredith to look for new facts. He returned after a
day's absence with information which might have been obtained before if
chance had not directed suspicion to Hazel Rath: with a story of an
unknown young man who had left the London train to Heredith at Weydene
Junction on the night of the murder. The story, as extracted from an
unintelligent ticket collector, threw no light on the identity of the
stranger beyond a statement that he had worn a long light trench-coat,
beneath which the collector had caught a glimpse of khaki uniform as the
gentleman felt for his ticket at the barrier.

On that slight information Caldew had pursued inquiries across a long
two miles of country between Weydene and the moat-house, and had deemed
himself fortunate in finding a farm labourer who, on his homeward walk
that night, had been passed by a young man in a long coat making rapidly
across the fields in the direction of H