The prisoner has declared this to be true; in fact, has
actually sworn upon oath, that he has seen this thing with his own eyes
the night that Dacre Wynne was killed. I confess that upon hearing this,
I had my strong suspicions of his veracity. Can you explain it any
clearer?"
Cleek smiled a trifle whimsically, then he nodded.
"I can. Shortly after I made my discovery of the secret passage that led
out upon the Fens--the entrance to it, by the way, was marked by a patch
of charred grass about the size of a small round table (you remember,
Dollops, I asked you if you noticed anything then?), that lifted up, if
one had keen enough eyes to discover it, and revealed the trap-door
beneath--Dollops and I set out on another tour of investigation. We were
determined to take a sporting chance on being winged by the watchful
guards and have a look round behind those flames for ourselves. We did
this. It happened that we slipped the guard unobserved, having knowledge,
you see, of at least part of the whole diabolical scheme, and getting
within range of the flames without discovery, or, for that matter, seeing
any one about, we got down on our hands and knees and dug into the earth
with our penknives.
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