Page:The Valley of Fear.pdf/131



EXT morning, after breakfast, we found Inspector MacDonald and White Mason seated in close consultation in the small parlor of the local police Sergeant. On the table in front of them were piled a number of letters and telegrams, which they were carefully sorting and docketing. Three had been placed on one side.

“Still on the track of the elusive bicyclist?” Holmes asked cheerfully. “What is the latest news of the ruffian?”

MacDonald pointed ruefully to his heap of correspondence.

“He is at present reported from Leicester, Nottingham, Southampton, Derby, East Ham, Richmond, and fourteen other places. In three of them—East Ham, Leicester, and Liverpool—there is a clear case against him, and he has [129]