“I quite understand,” said Mr. Ludgrove, without a smile. “I shall leave Waterloo at 1:30 tomorrow, and reach that station again just before ten on Monday. If Mrs. Cooper has finished before then, she will bring you back the key.”

His arrangements thus made, the herbalist closed his shop at noon on Saturday, and, equipped with a suitcase which he always took with him, took the Tube to Waterloo station. On arrival at Wokingham, he hired a car to drive him to the Cross Keys at Penderworth. It was after three o’clock when he arrived, and after securing a room, writing his name and address in the register, and arranging for some supper to be ready for him at half-past seven, he went out again immediately, a haversack slung over his shoulder, and an ordnance map in his hand.