Well, that was felony, and the police must be brought in.
Probably if all were known the three watchers had criminal records, pages long, filed at Scotland Yard.

The man to deal with that side of the business was Loudon the factor, and to him he was bound in the first place.

He had made a clear picture in his head of this Loudon--a derelict old country writer, formal, pedantic, lazy, anxious only to get an unprofitable business off his hands with the least possible trouble, never going near the place himself, and ably supported in his lethargy by conceited Edinburgh Writers to the Signet.

"Sich notions of business!" he murmured.

"I wonder that there's a single county family in Scotland no' in the bankruptcy court!" It was his mission to wake up Mr.James Loudon.
Arrived at Auchenlochan he went first to the Salutation Hotel, a pretentious place sacred to golfers.