"Sent first thing this morning," said Vernon passing the wire to the Colonel. "Poor woman! she doesn't know that her brother has been found out."
The wire was shown to Inspector Drench when he duly arrived, and he was exhaustively informed of all that had taken place. He was naturally both astonished and interested, but nevertheless expressed himself annoyed that civilians should have proceeded so far without invoking the police. Drench gave both the Colonel and Vernon to understand that if he had been on the spot Hest and his accomplice would not have escaped so easily, a view with which they privately differed, although they did not think it wise to say so. But Towton _did_ intimate to the Inspector that he was a military man and not a civilian, whatever Vernon might be. Drench declined to take any notice of this remark.
The Inspector also questioned Gail closely, but could learn nothing from him of any moment, since the old actor knew nothing and was greatly agitated over the whole affair. Finally, bidding all three hold their tongues, Drench sallied forth to search for the missing pair. He saw the Scotland Yard authorities and wired to all the ports and railway stations in the kingdom. As yet, and because he desired to keep the affair out of the newspapers, Drench did not advertise in the journals, or by handbills. Otherwise, in every way he strove to find the fugitives.
He might as well have attempted to find a shell at the bottom of the Atlantic. Day after day went by and no news was heard of Hest or Maunders, and from the moment they had been swallowed up by the fog at Isleworth nothing had been seen of them. They had not, so far as could be ascertained, passed out of the kingdom, and certainly they were not to be found in the kingdom itself. Like Macbeth's witches, they had made themselves thin air: like the children of Korah and Dathan, they apparently had been swallowed up by the earth. But, thanks to Drench, the discovery of the identity of The Spider and his subsequent escape had not yet been made public, and the Press knew nothing of what was taking place. But the time had now come when publicity was absolutely necessary.
"There's nothing else for it," said Drench, and Vernon in spite of his wish to keep things quiet, agreed with him.