nspector's
head. Instantly Willis fired, and with a scream the Frenchman staggered
back.

It was the work of a few seconds for the remaining constables to dash in
under the inspector's pistol and handcuff the two men in the cabin,
and Willis then turned to see how the contests on deck were faring. But
these also were over. Both Beamish and Bulla, borne down by the weight
of numbers, had been secured.

The inspector next turned to examine Raymond. His shot had been well
aimed. The bullet had entered the base of the man's right thumb, and
passed out through his wrist. His life was not in danger, but it would
be many a long day before he would again fire a revolver.

Four blasts on the Girondin's horn recalled Willis's car, and when, some
three hours later, the last batch of prisoners was safely lodged in the
Hull police station, Willis began to feel that the end of his labors was
at last coming in sight.

The arrests supplied the inspector with fresh material on which to
work. As a result of his careful investigation of the movements of the
prisoners during the previous three years, the entire history of the
Pit-Prop Syndicate was unravelled, as well as the details of Coburn's
murder.

It seemed that the original idea of the fraud was Raymond's. He looked
round for a likely English partner, selected Archer, broached the
subject to him, and found him willing to go in. Soon, from his
dominating personality, Archer became the leader. Details were worked
out, and the necessary confederates carefully chosen. Beamish and
Bulla went in as partners, the four being bound together by their joint
liability. The other three members were tools over whom the quartet had
obtained some hold. In Coburn's case, Archer learned of the defalcations
in time to make the erring cashier his victim. He met the deficit in
return for a signed confession of guilt and an I 0 U for a sum that
would have enabled the distiller to sell the other up, and ruin his home
and his future.

An incompletely erased address in a pocket diary belonging to Beamish
led Willis to a small shop on the south side of London, where he
discovered an assistant who had sold a square of black serge to two
men, about the time of Coburn's murder. The salesman remembered the
transaction because his customers had been unable to describe what they
wanted otherwise than by the word "cloth," which was not the technical
name foy any of his commodities. The fabric found in the c