t he was able to
think calmly and collectedly over the failure of his plans.

As he reconsidered in detail the nature of the watch he had kept,
he felt more than ever certain that his cordons had not been broken
through. No one, he felt satisfied, could have passed unobserved between
the depot and the distillery.

And in spite of this the stuff had been delivered. Archer and Benson
were not bluffing to put him off the scent. They had no idea they were
overheard, and therefore had no reason to say anything except the truth.

How then was the communication being made? Surely, he thought, if these
people could devise a scheme, he should be able to guess it. He was not
willing to admit his brain inferior to any man's.

He lit his pipe and drew at it slowly as he turned the question over
in his mind. And then a possible solution occurred to him. What about a
subterranean connection? Had these men driven a tunnel?

Here undoubtedly was a possibility. To drive three hundred yards of
a heading large enough for a stooping man to pass through, would be a
simple matter to men who had shown the skill of these conspirators. The
soil was light and sandy, and they could use without suspicion as much
timber as they required to shore up their work. It was true they
would have to pass under the railway, but that again was a matter of
timbering.

Their greatest difficulty, he imagined, would be in the disposal of the
surplus earth. He began to figure out what it would mean. The passageway
could hardly be less than four feet by five, to allow for lining, and
this would amount to about two yards of material to the yard run, or
say six hundred or seven hundred cubic yards altogether. Could this have
been absorbed in the filling of the wharf? He thought so. The wharf was
a large structure, thirty yards by thirty at least and eight or nine
feet high; more than two thousand cubic yards of filling would have
been required for it. The disposal of the earth, therefore, would have
presented no difficulty. All that came out of the tunnel could have gone
into the wharf three times over.

A tunnel seemingly being a practical proposition, he turned his
attention to his second problem. How could he find out whether or not it
had been made?

Obviously only from examination at one or other end. If it existed it
must connect with cellars at the depot and the distillery. And of these
there could be no question of which he ought to, search. The depo