He descended the stairs at a surprising speed for a man of his languid appearance, and a few seconds later he was barking at the first man he met.
"Get me a fast Flying Squad car," he said, "and a couple of men with it. And they'd better be armed!"
The car and the men were outside the Yard within five minutes, and Teal climbed in.
He gave the name of an obscure village in Surrey, and fumed at the delay while the driver consulted a map.
"It's near Guildford, anyway," snapped Teal. "Make for Guildford, and I'll look out the rest while we're going along."
He knew the place was near Guildford, because that was where the telegram which he had intercepted had been handed in; and the prosaic words on the tape pasted across the Inland Telegraph form seemed to stand out in the blackness in letters of fire when he closed his eyes, although they merely conveyed information which should not have been in the least disturbing to a man of Teal's experience.
Have taken Trelawney and Templar. Come down at once.
The message had been signed with the name of the chief commissioner, and it had been sent from Guildford at nine o'clock. An address was given at the end of the message.
It had taken Teal a whole ninety minutes to read between the lines of that simple statement, and, even so, when he thought it over afterwards at his leisure, he was not disposed to consider himself slow on the uptake.