Then he became unconscious and died." Jennings listened to this statement calmly.

He saw again the hand of the coiners.

The person who controlled the members evidently thought that the man would blab, and accordingly took precautionary measures to silence him.

Without doubt, the man had been poisoned, and the boy had been sent to do it.

"What is the boy like ?" he asked.
"Billy Tyke, sir ?" said the constable, replying on a nod from his chief, to whom he looked for instructions, "a thin boy, fair and with red rims round his eyes--looks half starved, sir, and has a scarred mouth, as though he had been cut on the upper lip with a knife." Jennings started, but suppressed his emotion under the keen eyes of the observant Twining.