until I came to your bridge over that river - the Lesque I find it
is. I told the chap to come back for me at six, and I walked down
the river and did a bit of prospecting. The works were shut, and by
keeping the mill building between me and the manager's house, I got
close up and had a good look round unobserved - at least, I think I
was unobserved. Well, I must say the whole business looked genuine.
There's no question those tree cuttings are pit-props, and I couldn't
see a single thing in the slightest degree suspicious."

"I told you there could be nothing really wrong," Merriman
interjected.

"I know you did, but wait a minute. I got back to the forest again
in the shelter of the mill building, and I walked around through
the trees and chose a place for what I wanted to do next morning.
I had decided to spend the day watching the lorries going to and
from the works, and I naturally wished to remain unobserved myself.
The wood, as you know, is very open. The trees are thick, but there
is very little undergrowth, and it's nearly impossible to get decent
cover. But at last I found a little hollow with a mound between it
and the lane and road - just a mere irregularity in the surface
like what a Tommy would make when he began to dig himself in. I
thought I could lie there unobserved, and see what went on with my
glass. I have a very good prism monocular - twenty-five diameter
magnification, with a splendid definition. From my hollow I could
just see through the trees vehicles passing along the main road,
but I had a fairly good view of the lane for at least half its
length. The view, of course, was broken by the stems, but still
I should be able to tell if any games were tried on. I made some
innocent looking markings so as to find the place again, and then