ooled--carefully, systematically, and at every point. While
he had been congratulating himself on the completeness with which the
conspirators had been walking into his net, he had in reality been
caught in theirs. He had been like a child in their hands. They had
evidently been watching and countering his every step.

He saw now that his tapping of the secret telephone must have been
discovered, and that his enemies had used their discovery to mislead
him. They must have recognized that Madeleine's letter was inspired by
himself, and read his motives in making her send it. They had then used
the telephone to make him believe they were falling into his trap, while
their real plans were settled in Archer's study.

What those plans were he believed he now understood. There would be no
meetings in London on the following day. The meetings were designed to
bring him, Willis, to the Metropolis and keep him there. By tomorrow
the gang, convinced that discovery was imminent, would be aboard the
Girondin and on the high seas. They were, as he expressed it to himself,
"doing a bunk."

Therefore of necessity the Girondin would load barrelled oil to drive
her to some country where Scotland Yard detectives did not flourish,
and where extradition laws were of no account. Therefore she must return
light, or, he suspected, empty, as there would be no time to unload.
Moreover, a reason for this "lightness" must be given him, lest he
should notice the ship sitting high out of the water, and suspect. And
he now knew that it was really Benson that he had seen returning to
Ferriby via Goole, and that Archer was doing the same via Selby.

He looked up the trains from Selby to Ferriby. There was only one.
It left Selby at 9.19, fifty-eight minutes after the Doncaster train
arrived there, and reached Ferriby at 10.7. It was now getting on
towards eight. He had nearly two and a half hours to make his plans.

Though Willis was a little slow in thought he was prompt in action.
Feeling sure that Archer would indeed travel by the 7.56 to Selby, he
relaxed his watch and went to the telephone call office. There he rang
up the police station at Selby, asking for a plain-clothes man and two
constables to meet him at the train to make an arrest. Also he asked
for a fast car to be engaged to take him immediately to Ferriby. He
then called up the police in Hull, and had a long talk with the
superintendent. Finally it was arranged that a sergeant and