Character guide

Merriman

major

Also known as Seymour Merriman, Mr. Merriman, Edwards

A stranded English cyclist whose chance glimpse of a repainted lorry number turns an idle roadside stop into a private war on a secretive French sawmill.

Inspector Willis

major

Also known as Willis, George Willis

A Scotland Yard inspector who inherits a tangle of amateur sleuthing and a fresh corpse, and must decide how much of Merriman's wild story to believe.

Claud Hilliard

major

Also known as Hilliard, brother Hilliard

A Customs Department man whose official instincts sharpen his friend's vague suspicions into a working theory of smuggling, fraud, and a pit-prop trade that is anything but innocent.

Madeleine Coburn

supporting

Also known as Miss Coburn, Madeleine

The sawmill manager's daughter, caught between a suitor she cannot accept and a father whose business she cannot quite defend.

Mr. Coburn

supporting

Also known as Francis Coburn

The Bordeaux sawmill manager whose quiet competence masks a man looking forward to a cottage retirement he may never reach.

Archibald Charles Archer

supporting

Also known as Charlie, Mr. Archer

A syndicate insider whose suggestion of a Swansea depot and appetite for a comfortable profit mark him as one of the sharper, more calculating conspirators.

Stopford Hunt

supporting

Also known as Hunt

Hunt drives the dirty-green lorry marked 'The Landes Pit-Prop Syndicate, No. 4,' the vehicle Merriman chases into the forest when his own petrol runs dry. His incongruous poise — a gentleman's posture under a workman's clothes — makes him the first human clue that the syndicate is not what it pretends to be. He matters because he turns a stranded cyclist's bad luck into the reader's first glimpse of something deliberately hidden among the pines.

Captain Beamish

supporting

Also known as Beamish, Walter Beamish

Beamish commands the syndicate's ship and, by Inspector Willis's reckoning, matches the physical profile of the suspected killer — tall, round-shouldered, thin-lipped, with a jaw like a closing door. He is the case's most tangible suspect, yet suspicion alone is not proof, and Willis knows that pressing too soon could warn the whole syndicate. His looming presence gives the investigation its first real edge of danger, turning Merriman's story from oddity into threat.

Benson

minor

A man connected to the syndicate, possibly a spy or informant.

Mr. Bulla

minor

Also known as Bulla

A manager at the Ferriby depot of the syndicate.

M. Jules Laroche

minor

Also known as M. Laroche, Laroche

A French police official who cooperates with Inspector Willis.

Henri

minor

A French employee at the syndicate's sawmill.

M. Pierre Raymond

minor

Also known as Raymond, M. Raymond

A French businessman connected to the syndicate.

Ferriby Manager

minor

Also known as Ferriby

The manager of the syndicate's depot at Ferriby.

Charles Leatham

minor

Also known as Leatham

A friend of Merriman who assists in the investigation.

Charles Fox

minor

Also known as Fox

A man involved in the syndicate's smuggling operations.

Morton

minor

A mysterious man who spies on the protagonists.

Maxwell

minor

Also known as M. Max, Max

A French associate of the syndicate in Bordeaux.

Angus Menzies

minor

Also known as Menzies

A Scottish engineer who works for the syndicate.

Jelfs

minor

A man who works at the Ferriby depot.

Holt

minor

A man mentioned in connection with the syndicate.

Matthews

minor

A police constable assisting Inspector Willis.

Drake

minor

A man involved in the syndicate's activities.

Messrs. Ackroyd

minor

A business firm mentioned in connection with the syndicate.