"Anything happened?" John asked.
"Yes," answered Watson; "three men came to the house after dark, stayed a little while, and went away again, sir."
As a matter of fact, half an hour earlier Doctor Voules and two tall young men had stealthily mounted the wall and entered the house by the back way. Corporal Watson had been concealed in the garden and witnessed this visit, and Voules's and his friends' departure in the same stealthy manner.
"They are evidently trying to give the impression that the house is uninhabited, sir," the corporal amplified.
John, who had climbed into the garden and was standing by him, gave a few further instructions as to Voules's abode, presently mounted his bicycle and rode away. Three quarters of an hour later, in a small clump of trees on the heather-clad cliff-top near Freshwater, he spoke to another soldier. This man, with three others, had been detailed to watch Cherriton's cottage.
"The captain's been in his cottage all the evening, sir," said the man to John, "and the big, fat man's been with him."
Having satisfied himself as to the whereabouts of Cherriton and Manners, John cycled on and entered the Freshwater Hotel. Here he put through a trunk-call to Newport. When he had been connected with a particular number he inquired into the telephone:
"Is that you, Gibb?"
"Yes, sir," came the answer.
"Do you know who is speaking?"