One man now turned his full attention to the paneling. He took a long, slim-bladed knife from the roll and probed the paneling from end to end with his hands, the blade, and the thin stream of flashlight. He hesitated, then slipped the knife into a section of the woodwork and moved it along the join between two sections of paneling, until it hit something hard. He withdrew the blade a fraction until he bypassed the obstruction, then he pushed it in again and continued moving the blade along the line join, until it met another obstruction.

In near blackness he had to whistle softly to his companion, who was at some distance away; then he focused his attention on the panel above that he’d just been working on. He repeated the process. This time the blade found an obstruction in the join, but instead of bypassing it he pressed hard against the knife. The knife suddenly moved in the space, and a loud crash followed. The lower panels fell clear from the wall at his feet. He instantly killed the light and froze. The man nearer the window simultaneously dropped to the floor, and they paused to see if the noise had attracted any interest either from the bedroom in the pub above them or from the street. They breathed nervously; a car approached and slowed. The noise of someone speaking was followed by the beam of headlights from another car that swung around in the road. The men tensed, waited, heard more voices; then a car door slammed and the vehicle pulled away up the hill. After waiting unmoving for five minutes, the man by the panels bent again and shone the fine prism of light behind the opening left by the missing section. The uneven line of an old brick wall became visible, and he inhaled audibly. Undeterred, however, he reached his tool kit and selected the rubber mallet and a bolster chisel along with a small sheet of plastic, which he spread carefully on the floor. As silently as possible, he set about removing a section of the brickwork. He paused now and then to check that he was not overheard. His partner raised a thumb to communicate assurances that everything seemed in order.