oung lady and young gentleman? Why, that that pipe hadn't been lying so
very long when I found it! Not above a day, I'll warrant."

"That's very clever of you, very observant!" exclaimed Betty.
"But--won't you show us the exact place where you picked it up?"

Creasy cast a glance at his cooking pot, stepped to it, and slightly
tilted the lid. Then he signed to them to go back towards the tower by
the path by which they had come.

"Don't want my supper to boil over, or to burn," he remarked. "It's the
only decent meal I get in the day, you see, miss. But it won't take a
minute to show you where I found the pipe. Now--what's the idea, sir,"
he went on, turning to Neale, "about Mr. Horbury's disappearance? Is it
known that he came out here Saturday night?"

"Not definitely," replied Neale. "But it's believed he did. He was seen
to set off in this direction, and there's a probability that he crossed
over here on his way to Ellersdeane. But he's never been seen since he
left Scarnham."

"Well," observed Creasy, "as I said just now, he wouldn't happen
anything by accident in an ordinary way. Was there any reason why
anybody should set on him?"

"There may have been," replied Neal.

"He wouldn't be likely to have aught valuable on him, surely--that time
o' night?" said the tinker.

"He may have had," admitted Neale. "I can't tell you more."

Creasy asked no farther question. He led the way to the foot of the
promontory, at a point where a mass of rock rose sheer out of the hollow
to the plateau crowned by the ruinous tower.

"Here's where I picked up the pipe," he said. "Lying amongst this
rubbish--stones and dry wood, you see--I just caught the gleam of the
silver band. Now what should Mr. Horbury be doing down here? The path,
you see, is a good thirty yards off. But--he may have fallen over--or
been thrown over--and it's a sixty-feet drop from top to bottom."

Neale and Betty looked up the face of the rocks and said nothing. And
Creasy presently went on, speaking in a low voice:--

"If he met with foul play--if, for instance, he was thrown over here in
a struggle--or if, taking a look from the top there, he got too near the
edge and something gave way," he said, "there's about as good means of
getting rid of a dead man in this Ellersdeane Hollow as in any place in
England! That's a fact!"

"You mean the lead-mines?" murmured Neale.

"Right, sir! Do you know how many of these old workings there is?"
asked Cre