"Did you manage to find out where he booked for!" demanded Starmidge.
"Ecclesborough," answered Gandam. "Heard him! I was close behind."
"He was alone, I suppose?" asked Starmidge.
"Alone all the time, Mr. Starmidge," assented Gandam. "Never saw a sign of the other party."
Starmidge rejoined Easleby. For the last twenty-four hours he had let his companion supervise matters, but now, having decided on a certain policy, he took affairs into his own hands.
"Now, then," he said, "he's off—back to Scarnham. A word or two at the office, Easleby, and I'm after him. And you'll come with me."
CHAPTER XXVI
THE LIGHTNING FLASH
At half-past seven that evening Starmidge and Easleby stepped out of a London express at Ecclesborough, and walked out to the front of the station to get a taxi-cab for Scarnham. The newsboys were rushing across the station square with the latest editions of the evening papers, and Starmidge's quick ear caught the meaning of their unfamiliar North-country shoutings.