for White Mason. It won't be long now before he is here to help
us. But I expect we'll have to look to London before we are
through. Anyhow, I'm not ashamed to say that it is a deal too
thick for the likes of me."




Chapter 4 - Darkness



At three in the morning the chief Sussex detective, obeying the
urgent call from Sergeant Wilson of Birlstone, arrived from
headquarters in a light dog-cart behind a breathless trotter. By
the five-forty train in the morning he had sent his message to
Scotland Yard, and he was at the Birlstone station at twelve
o'clock to welcome us. White Mason was a quiet,
comfortable-looking person in a loose tweed suit, with a
clean-shaved, ruddy face, a stoutish body, and powerful bandy
legs adorned with gaiters, looking like a small farmer, a retired
gamekeeper, or anything upon earth except a very favourable
specimen of the provincial criminal officer.

"A real downright snorter, Mr. MacDonald!" he kept repeating.
"We'll have the pressmen down like flies when they understand it.
I'm hoping we will get our work done before they get poking their
noses into it and messing up all the trails. There has been
nothing like this that I can remember. There are some bits that
will come home to you, Mr. Holmes, or I am mistaken. And you