Copplestone had already seen him in conversation with the village doctor, the village police, Chatfield, and Marston Greyle's solicitor, and he began to see the force of Spurge's shrewd remarks.

What, of course, was most desired was secrecy and privacy--the Scarhaven powers had no wish that the attention of all the world should be drawn to this quiet place.

But outsiders were there in plenty.

Stafford and several members of Bassett Oliver's company had motored over from Norcaster and had succeeded in getting good places: there were half-a-dozen reporters from Norcaster and Northborough, and plain-clothes police from both towns.

And there, too, were all the principal folk of the neighbourhood, and Mrs.Greyle and her daughter, and, a little distance from Audrey, alert and keenly interested, was Addie Chatfield.
It needed very little insight or observation on the part of an intelligent spectator to see how things were going.