EOOKS AND PIGEONS. 159 



men, quitting their places, had pulled their 

 chairs round a little table drawn up before the 

 huge fireplace, and decorated with decanters 

 containing a Madeira the like of which was not 

 to be bought for money, young Swaynton 

 explained the mystery, for the story, without the 

 explanation, was already known. 



" I'll tell you how it came about. It was 

 you, Charlie," he said to Summers, ''who put 

 me on the track, though I was put off it again 

 when the men said that no pigeons could be 

 trained at Capper's farm without its being known 

 to the village. That's true enough ; but pigeons 

 were at the bottom of the secret all the same. 

 It happens, though you mayn't know it, that the 

 Three Oaks on the London Boad, close to 

 Capper's farm, are on the direct road from Good- 

 wood and Birdingley to Spirebury ; and as soon 

 as a big race was run at either of these meetings 

 a pigeon was flown, with the name of the winner 

 tied round its leg, to an agency kept at Spirebury 

 by Hunter, whom some of us know. I happened 

 to hear some time ago — a couple of years, I 

 suppose it must be — that very often Hunter's 

 birds, after travelling well enough for several 

 years, had grown uncertain. Very often they 

 did not arrive at all, and of late he has always 

 had a couple sent. As a rule, after big races 



