They went, and before the big, heavy doors which were locked so securely they saw, by the faint light the man showed, marks of where the lorry had backed right into the building.
“Then it must have a concrete floor!” remarked Ronnie as he examined the tracks intently. “Several lorries have been here, without a doubt. But might they not have been carting grain away?”
“No. Because no threshing has been done here for over two years.”
“Dare we go near the house?” Beryl asked.
“No, miss; it wouldn’t be wise. We’d have to pass through the yard, and the dogs would give tongue at once.”
“Oh, we mustn’t alarm them!” Ronnie said. “If we are to be successful we must do everything in secret and spring a real surprise. Only,” he added, “we must make quite certain that they are guilty.”
“Of course,” Beryl agreed. “But how?”
“Ah, that’s the point!” said Ronnie, taking out his own torch, and again examining the tracks of the lorry in the soft ground. With the aid of a folding foot-rule he drew forth from his pocket, he took measurements at several points in the road, then said:
“It is not always the same lorry that comes here. One is heavier than the other. The one which came most recently is the larger of the two, and from the depth of the rut it must have been loaded to its capacity. See there, where it sank into a soft place!”—and he indicated a spot where one wheel had sunk in very deeply.