e kept for these occasions, and my revolver hidden but handy. The
distance to the camp at Aldgate was about eighteen miles, taking short
cuts with which I had already become acquainted.

I pulled up at several public houses on the road in the hopes of picking
up some clue. I failed till I reached a well-known hotel, the
Eagle-on-the-Hill, roughly half-way to Aldgate. The landlord, whom I had
to wake up, and whom I knew, told me that he had served with drinks,
amongst others, two foreigners, who had ridden up on one horse, and who
said they were on the way to the camp. They had evidently had a good deal
of drink; he had given them some more, and they had managed to climb on
to the horse again and had ridden away. He could not, however, tell me
what nationality they were. This had taken place about 11 o'clock, P.M.
It was now about 1 o'clock, A.M. The two men would be at the camp about
this time. I could reach it comfortably about 3 A.M. I got no further
information until I arrived at the camp. I had hoped to make my entry
quietly at that time of the morning, but I was disappointed. I had hardly
got near the tents on the left of the road when a whole troop of mongrels
commenced to bark furiously. I could not get into the camp without being
seen, as I had hoped. However, I found my way, after inquiries, to where
the man in charge lived.

When I had satisfied him as to who I was and on what business I was bent,
he put his services at my disposal at once. I told him I wanted if
possible to get hold of two men who had ridden up on one horse, that they
were foreigners, and I suspected Italians. To my joy he told me that he
had several men he could depend on who kept an eye on the camp generally
for him, both by day and night, and one of them might have noticed their
arrival, as the dogs were almost certain to have greeted them in the same
way as they had greeted me, especially if the horse they were riding had
come up to the tents.

He asked me to go with him while he made his inquiries. The first man he
roused up did not know anything about the matter. The second, however,
did. He had been late himself getting home, and curiously enough the two
men on the horse had passed him on the road about a couple of miles
before reaching the camp. It was a moonlight night, and he had noticed
they were pretty drunk, hardly being able to hold on to the horse. As
they passed him they called out to him, and he recognized them as two
Itali