I thought I should drop. The strain
of that rush through the night, expecting every moment that something
would give way, had been tremendous, and the moment the tension was
relaxed I shook like an aspen leaf. When I tried to get in at my own
door I found I could not fit the latch-key, and was obliged to hand it
to the detective. He saw what was the matter with me, and the moment we
were inside, he led the way to my study, thrust me down into a chair and
mixed me a whisky-and-soda. I was never more grateful for a drink in my
life. It pulled me together, and in less time than I had conceived
possible, I felt as if I could have managed another seventy-five miles
without a halt.

The moment he saw my nerves were steady again, Forrest proposed that we
should get something to eat. I declared that I did not want anything.

"When you haven't time for sleep, the next best thing is to feed well if
you want to keep fit," he remarked. "Besides, I am as hungry as a hunter
has a right to be."

"That settles it," I laughed. "We shall have to forage for ourselves.
The servants are all asleep."

We found our way to the larder and made a hearty meal on a cold pie we
found there; and directly we had finished, we set out forthwith in the
direction of Mannering's home. As soon as we arrived opposite the house,
Forrest paused and gave a low whistle. It was answered immediately by a
man dressed as a labourer, who made his appearance from behind the hedge
opposite the house.

"Any one been here to-night, Laver?" asked Forrest.

"No one," the man answered. "The servants turned in about ten after
locking up. No signs of any one about the place since."

"That's all right," grunted Forrest. "We shall be ready for him when he
does come. Have you got the tools?"

The man was proceeding to scramble through the hedge when Forrest
checked him.

"Better stay where you are," he advised. "Keep out of sight, and if I
whistle, come at once."

"All right, sir," replied the man, as he handed through a gap in the
hedge a small chamois leather bag.

I had no idea as to what steps Forrest proposed to adopt in order to
effect the arrest, so I asked him, and he explained briefly his plan of
campaign.

"One can see," he remarked, "that Mannering feels so confident of the
completeness of his disguise that he will have no hesitation about
returning. I am reckoning, too, upon there being an element of truth in
the story he has told you about the const