THE MEDICAL OPINION The recollection of that stick plunged Mallalieu into another of his ague-like fits of shaking and trembling.

There was little sleep for him after that: he spent most of the night in thinking, anticipating, and scheming.

That stick would almost certainly be found, and it would be found near Stoner's body.

A casual passer-by would not recognize it, a moorland shepherd would not recognize it.

But the Highmarket police, to whom it would be handed, would know it at once to be the Mayor's: it was one which Mallalieu carried almost every day--a plain, very stout oak staff.