They returned to camp. It was past two o'clock. Pratt sprang up from his chair before the tent, and held a small paraffin lamp towards them.
"Well?" he asked, guessing from their aspect that they brought news.
"They were working in the tower," said Warrender. "We heard the machine, and couldn't risk going up from the tunnel. But we came back and reconnoitred the outside, and Armstrong climbed up and peeped through a crack in the boarding of the top room. What did you see, Jack?"
"An old man reading by the light of a paraffin lamp."
"Another one of the gang!" exclaimed Pratt.
"I don't know. Perhaps. He looked haggard and anxious."
"No wonder. What was he like?"
"Tall and thin, with grey moustache and beard."
"A foreigner?"
"Couldn't tell. He might well have been English. A queer old johnny--hook-nosed, high bald head: might have been a 'varsity professor."