d as they crouched in the shelter of a clump of
bushes in front of the house, they might have been interested to know
that it was from these same shrubs that that disconsolate sentimentalist
had lain dreaming of his lady love, and from which he had witnessed her
father's stealthy journey to the mill.

It was a good deal colder tonight than on that earlier occasion when
watch was kept on the lonely house. The two men shivered as they drew
their collars higher round their necks, and crouched down to get shelter
from the bitter wind. They had resigned themselves to a weary vigil,
during which they dared not even smoke.

But they had not to wait so long after all. About ten the light went out
in the window and not five minutes later they saw a man appear at the
side door and walk towards the mill. They could not see his features,
though Willis assumed he was Henri. Twenty minutes later they watched
him return, and then all once more was still.

"We had better give him an hour to get to bed," Willis whispered. "If
he were to look out it wouldn't do for him to see two detectives roaming
about his beloved clearing."

"We might go at eleven," Laroche proposed, and so they did.

Keeping as much as possible in the shelter of the bushes, they
approached the mill. Willis had got a sketch-plan of the building from
Merriman, and he moved round to the office door. His bent wire proved as
efficacious with French locks as with English, and in a few moments they
stood within, with the door shut behind them.

"Now," said Willis, carefully shading the beam of his electric torch,
"let's see those lorries first of all."

As has already been stated, the garage was next to the office, and
passing through the communicating door, the two men found five of the
ponderous vehicles therein. A moment's examination of the number plates
showed that on all the machines the figures were separate from the
remainder of the lettering, being carried on small brass plates which
dropped vertically into place through slots in the main castings. But
the joint at each side of the number was not conspicuous because similar
vertical lines were cut into the brass between each letter of the whole
legend.

"That's good," Laroche observed. "Make a thing unnoticeable by
multiplying it!"

Of the five lorries, two were loaded with firewood and three empty. The
men moved round examining them with their torches.

"Hallo," Laroche called suddenly in a low voice,