River Nidd

The River Nidd is the setting for a failed pursuit that exposes the vulnerability of Langdon St. Ives’s manor. Its banks offer a route away from the house, while the water conceals the direction taken by the intruder; following the trail, St. Ives and Hasbro must weigh catching him against the danger of leaving the manor insufficiently guarded.

The river beside the manor

The Nidd enters the story as a landmark near the manor and as a practical boundary in the search for a prowler. After Hasbro fires at a fleeing figure near the willows, St. Ives learns that the intruder had been in the study, where papers were scattered and drawers emptied. St. Ives checks that Sebastian Owlesby’s manuscript remains hidden in the library, then identifies the intruder as Willis Pule from Hasbro’s description. The river provides the apparent line of flight: Pule’s footprints lead northwest along its bank.

A trail lost in the water

St. Ives and Hasbro follow the prints carrying rifles loaded with birdshot. About a mile downstream, the tracks disappear into the Nidd, suggesting that Pule has taken to the water. A local man named Binger ferries the pursuers across in a rowboat and agrees, for a half-crown reward, to return to the manor and keep Mrs. Langley company before collecting them from the opposite shore.

There are no footprints on the far bank. With dusk settling, the evidence offers several possible routes but no firm direction: Pule may have waded in the shallows, doubled back upriver, or boarded one of the boats along the river. St. Ives also considers that the fugitive might have accomplices, including Ignacio Narbondo. The Nidd frustrates the chase not through a confirmed escape route, but by making the trail impossible to read.

The choice to turn back

St. Ives recognizes that he has left the manor cook exposed while he and Hasbro pursue a man whose purpose remains unknown. Since the intruder has apparently taken nothing, guarding the household matters more than continuing the search. He and Hasbro turn back along the riverbank, with St. Ives increasingly concerned that Mrs. Langley might face Narbondo or his allies alone.

As they cover the last quarter-mile beside the Nidd, the sky beyond the willows abruptly brightens and an explosion shakes the meadows. The account places this sudden disturbance on their return from the pursuit, but does not establish its cause. The river episode thus ends without the capture of Pule: the missing trail and the blast leave the immediate danger unresolved.