Synopsis: After Coke escaped, he hid in a field all day. Then, when it got dark, he went into a small house in the country. There was an old deaf lady in the house. She gave him food. The young detective who arrested Coke four years ago, Baxter, left London by train. Scotland Yard's orders were: "Find Coke immediately!"
It was a cold and miserable night. Only a few miles from the house Coke was in, two policemen in a small village station could hear the wind outside. One of them was a sergeant. The other was much younger.
"I wonder how Mrs Bentley is?" the sergeant asked.
"Mrs Bentley? Oh, you mean that old lady whose husband died a few years ago?"
"That's right. She's deaf, you know, so she never listens to the radio or watches television. In fact, she doesn't even read the papers."
"Oh?" the young policeman said. He wondered why the sergeant wanted to tell him all this. Then he found out.
"Why don't you go out to her place and see if she's all right?"
"Who? Me? On a night like this?"
"It's not far. Besides, you've got your bike, haven't you?"
Baxter got off the train at a small station. There was a detective waiting for him on the platform. He shook Baxter's hand. "My name's Halls, Tom Halls. Scotland Yard phoned us and told us to meet you here. There's a car waiting."