UNRAVELING THE THREADSAs soon as he had handed over the unfortunate Mr. Sparker to the care of the station-master, and telephoned for assistance to the local police, Agnew set out in further pursuit of the criminal. The latter, however, had gained too good a start, so his quest was fruitless. Elthorne, in fact, had commandeered a second motor-car by the same simple method by which he had obtained the Austin, and was miles away in an unknown direction before his pursuers had begun their search. Two days passed before the car was found, half-sunk in a cattle pond on a derelict farm in Norfolkshire. Of Elthorne himself not a trace could be discovered.
A week later the whole country was shocked by a particularly brutal crime committed in a Lincolnshire village. The post office was broken into
