Sinopsis

The weather-beaten buildings that comprised the plant of the Varr and Bolt
tannery occupied a scant five acres of ground a short half-mile from the
eastern edge of the village of Hambleton. They were of old-type brick
construction, dingy without and gloomy within, and no one unacquainted
with the facts could have guessed from their dilapidated and defected
exteriors that they represented a sound and thriving business. It was
typical of Simon Varr, that outward air of shabbiness and neglect; it was
said of him that he knew how to exact the last ounce of efficiency from men
and material without the expenditure of a single superfluous penny.
An eight-foot board fence surrounded the ...