Ronnie had resolved to leave the investigation until the following day, therefore all three crept back to the car and, after carefully noting the exact spot and the silhouette of the trees, they at last started off and presently finding a high road, ran down into Wrotham, and on into the long town of Tonbridge.
At the hotel their advent at such an early hour was looked upon askance, but a well-concocted story of a night journey and unfortunate tyre trouble allayed any suspicions, and by seven o’clock the three were seated at an ample breakfast with home-cured ham and farmyard eggs. Afterwards, for several hours, Beryl rested while the airman and the detective wandered about the little Kentish town discussing their plans.
When, at eleven o’clock, Ronnie met Beryl again downstairs, the trio went into one of the sitting-rooms where they held secret council.
“Now,” exclaimed Ronnie, “my plan is this. I’ll run back alone to the farm and stroll around the place to reconnoitre and ascertain who lives there. Without a doubt they are agents of Germany, whoever they are, because it is a depôt for those mysterious trunks from ‘Number Three.’”
“I wonder what they contain, dear?” Beryl said, her face full of keenest interest.
“We shall ascertain, never fear. But we must remain patient, and work in strictest secrecy.”
“Well, Mr. Pryor, you can play the police game as well as any of us,” declared Cranch, with a light laugh.
Therefore, a quarter of an hour later, Pryor took the car and returning to a spot near the farm—which he afterwards found was called Chandler’s Farm—and running the car into a meadow, left it while he went forward to reconnoitre.
As he approached, he noticed two men working in a field close by, therefore he had to exercise great care not to be detected. By a circuitous route he at last approached the place, finding it, in daylight, to be a very modern up-to-date establishment—evidently the dairy farm of some estate, for the outbuildings and barns were all new, and of red brick, with corrugated iron roofs.
The farmhouse itself was a big, pleasant place situated on a hill, surrounded by a large, well-kept flower-garden, and commanding a wide view across Kent towards the Thames Estuary and the coast.