48410 But there were ample signs that I had not come upon a false scent.
48411 This was certainly where the man lived.
48412 Some blankets rolled in a waterproof lay upon that very stone slab upon which neolithic man had once slumbered.
48413 The ashes of a fire were heaped in a rude grate.
48414 Beside it lay some cooking utensils and a bucket half-full of water.
48415 A litter of empty tins showed that the place had been occupied for some time, and I saw, as my eyes became accustomed to the chequered light, a pannikin and a half-full bottle of spirits standing in the corner.
48416 In the middle of the hut a flat stone served the purpose of a table, and upon this stood a small cloth bundle - the same, no doubt, which I had seen through the telescope upon the shoulder of the boy.
48417 It contained a loaf of bread, a tinned tongue, and two tins of preserved peaches.
48418 As I set it down again, after having examined it, my heart leaped to see that beneath it there lay a sheet of paper with writing upon it.
48419 I raised it, and this was what I read, roughly scrawled in pencil:
48420 'Dr Watson has gone to Coombe Tracey.'
48421 For a minute I stood there with the paper in my hands thinking out the meaning of this curt message.
48422 It was I, then, and not Sir Henry, who was being dogged by this secret man.
48423 He had not followed me himself, but he had set an agent - the boy, perhaps - upon my track, and this was his report.