Hestermill

Hurstmere is a seemingly abandoned house at the end of Langly Road in Dover, but its overgrown grounds conceal a guarded interior and a captive. Anthony Cade’s approach and entry transform the lonely property into a site of attempted rescue—and an ambush that brings his investigation to an abrupt halt.

Setting and Approach

After reaching Dover, Anthony asks for directions to Hurstmere, Langly Road. The house stands at the road’s end, set back within its own grounds; its neglected appearance suggests it has been empty for years. A rusty iron gate and a partly obliterated name on the gatepost mark the entrance to the property.

The grounds appear deserted, and the road is quiet, but the house is not unguarded. Moving through the drive and shrubbery, Anthony spots a short, thickset foreign-looking man circling the house. He identifies the man as a sentry, recognizing that Hurstmere’s neglected exterior masks deliberate surveillance.

Discovery Inside

Anthony enters by climbing a Virginia creeper to a window and forcing its catch with a tool. In the dim room, he finds a foreign-looking man lying on a bed, pale and emaciated, with his head wrapped in bandages. The man is bound hand and foot and stares up at Anthony in a dazed state.

The discovery makes clear that Hurstmere is not merely a concealed meeting place: someone is being held there. Anthony has only just reached the captive when a voice behind him orders him to raise his hands. The interruption reveals that another pursuer has followed him from Victoria Station and caught up with him inside the house.

Narrative Significance

Hurstmere’s apparent abandonment works as a cover for guarded confinement. The contrast between the rusting gate and the sentry’s circuit around the house turns its neglected grounds into part of the concealment, while Anthony’s quiet entry leads not to an unobstructed rescue but to his own capture. The location therefore concentrates the novel’s pattern of mistaken expectations: the seemingly empty house is occupied, and the would-be intruder becomes the person placed under command.