I think Badgwick is the name.'
'Badgwick! Not Sir Alfred Venner's woods?'
'Sir Alfred Venner it was, sir. That was the name he mentioned. Stokes
appears to have been in the habit of visiting that gentleman's property
pretty frequently. He had a regular hiding place, a sort of store where
he used to keep all the game he killed. He described the place to me.
It is a big tree on the bank of the stream nearest the high road. The
tree is hollow. One has to climb to find the opening to it. Inside are
the cups, and, I should say, a good deal of mixed poultry. That is what
he told me, sir. I should advise you, if I may say so, to write a note
to Sir Alfred Venner, explaining the case, and ask him to search the
tree, and send the cups on here.'
This idea did not appeal to the Head at all. Why, he thought bitterly,
was this wretched M.P. always mixed up with his affairs? Left to
himself, he could have existed in perfect comfort without either
seeing, writing to, or hearing from the great man again for the rest of
his life. 'I will think it over,' he said, 'though it seems the only
thing to be done.
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