"Certainly, Mr. Jacox," she said. "Jack is intensely anxious. He's very puzzled as to what they intend doing."

"Yes," I replied, "it's quite a mystery. But we shall discover something ere long, never fear."

Vera laughed as she sipped the glass of milk I had ordered.

Then I briefly explained all that I had discovered, telling her how the two men had evidently taken the factory on a lease, and how they were there every day, apparently making plans for future business.

"But what business do they intend starting?" she asked.

"Ah!" I said; "that's what we have to find out. And we shall do so before very long, if we are careful and vigilant."

"Trust me," she said; "I am entirely at your orders."

"Then I shall wait and hear your report," I said. "When you return to the hotel send a line to my room."

And with that arrangement we parted.

That day I spent idling in the vicinity of the hotel. It was mid-August, and the atmosphere was stifling. That district of Hull is not a very pleasant one, for it is one of mean provincial streets and of the noise of railway lorries rumbling over the granite setts.