confidentially to the
manager in his official capacity, asked to see the man whose business
it was to inspect the lights of the distillery. From him he had no
difficulty in obtaining a rough plan of the place.

It appeared that the offices were on the first floor, fronting along
the line, Archer's private office occupying the end of the suite and the
corner of the building nearest to the syndicate's wharf, and therefore
to Ferriby. The supervisor believed that it had two windows looking to
the front and side respectively, but was not sure.

That afternoon Inspector Willis returned to the distillery, and
secreting himself in the same hiding place as before, watched until the
staff had left the building. Then strolling casually along the lane, he
observed that the two telephone wires which approached across the fields
led to the third window from the Ferriby end of the first floor row.

"That'll be the main office," he said to himself, "but there will
probably be an extension to Archer's own room. Now I wonder--"

He looked about him. The hedge bounding the river side of the lane
ran up to the corner of the building. After another hasty glance round
Willis squeezed through and from immediately below scrutinized the side
window of the managing director's room. And then he saw something which
made him chuckle with pleasure.

Within a few inches of the architrave of the window there was a
down-spout, and from the top of the window to the spout he saw
stretching what looked like a double cord. It was painted the same color
as the walls, and had he not been looking out specially he would not
have seen it. A moment's glance at the foot of the spout showed him his
surmise was correct. Pushed in behind it and normally concealed by it
were two insulated wires, which ran down the wall from the window and
disappeared into the ground with the spout.

"Got it first shot," thought the inspector delightedly, as he moved away
so as not to attract the attention of any chance onlooker.

Another idea suddenly occurred to him and, after estimating the height
and position of the window, he turned and ran his eye once more over
his surroundings. About fifty yards from the distillery, and behind the
hedge fronting the lane, stood the cottage which Hilliard and Merriman
had noticed. It was in a bad state of repair, having evidently been
unoccupied for a long time. In the gable directly opposite the managing
director's office was a broken