"I know that, else I would have had you in custody by this time. But you are screening another person. Anne Colmer, for instance."
"She knows nothing."
"I shall judge of that for myself," retorted Fanks, and left the room.
In Acacia Road the detective hailed a cab and drove to the nearest telegraph office. It had occurred to him that Hersham might attempt to communicate with Anne; and he was resolved to checkmate such a move. To this end he sent a wire to the head of the rural police at Taxton-on-Thames, instructing him to delay if possible all letters and telegrams which might come to Miss Colmer. Thereby he hoped to prevent Hersham warning the girl.
Arriving at New Scotland Yard, he detailed a man to watch Hersham, and sent him up to Acacia Road. A glance at "Bradshaw" assured him that to reach Taxton-on-Thames, Hersham would have to start from Waterloo. Thither he sent another detective, to keep an eye on the trains. Therefore, by letter, by telegram, and by railway, he had stopped Hersham from communicating with Anne Colmer. After taking these precautions he saw Crate.
"I am going to Taxton-on-Thames at three o'clock," he said.
"Are you going to look for the woman who directed the envelope, Mr. Fanks?"
Fanks stretched out his legs, and began fiddling with his ring. "That is just what is puzzling me, Crate," observed he. "I have told you of my conversation with Mr. Hersham. Well, unless he is deceiving me, Mrs. Conner, is a paralytic. She could not have directed that envelope; yet, going by the writing, I'll swear that an elderly woman penned the address. If not Mrs. Colmer--an obvious impossibility--who wrote it?"
"Anne Colmer," said Crate, promptly.
"No. For disguise, she would rather have adopted a masculine hand."