He stopped short.

They had gone then along the three sides of Brett Place, and were near the end of Brett Street again.
"How did you first come to hear of it ?" he asked in a tone he tried to render appropriate to the character of the revelations which had been made to him by the woman at his side.
She shook violently for a while before she answered in a listless voice.
"From the police.

A chief inspector came, Chief Inspector Heat he said he was.

He showed me--" Mrs Verloc choked.

"Oh, Tom, they had to gather him up with a shovel." Her breast heaved with dry sobs.