Tea  has long been credited with an almost preternatural ability to calm even the most savage breast. According to certain scholars of the ancient world, tea has played a major role in many crucial moments of history. A fine example is Atilla the Huns invasion of Aquileia in 442. It is reported that on the eve of the battle, Atilla met with Hispali the mayor of the Italian town. Hispali was keen to persuade Attila to leave Aquileia unscathed, and to this effect had ordered some of the finest tea leaves to be brought to Italy  as a gift  for the warrior warlord.

Hipoli’s plan seemed to be working; Attila was most grateful for the gift and several cups of tea were supped in Hipoli’s villa. All was going well, and  Attila was preparing to tell his men to sheath their weapons and march on to the next town, when a hapless manservant tripped over a rug and emptied a scalding pot of tea into Attila’s lap. Enraged the warlord leapt up and clutching his crotch hobbled to his horse bellowing the order for his men to attack. As history shows, Attila’s sacking of Aquileia was one of the most ferocious of his career; the Italian town was completely razed to ground, with no two bricks left joined together. Such is the power of the simple tea leaf.

                                       d

Odham MacGuinness was known to a maker of exceptional tea, and it didn’t long for the enraged Climpson to calm down. Once he was in a more agreeable disposition, O.M convinced Climpson  that they should turn their attentions to locating Butler Smith. Climpson was sure that Butler Smith would have gone to ground in the woods surrounding Forest Hill, he was also positive that if they were to search the Chalet they would uncover a clue as to their friends whereabouts. O.M agreed and the two returned to Butler Smith’s room to begin their search.

Butler Smith was not known for keeping a tidy room and looking for some sort of clue was akin to finding the proverbial needle.

After almost an hour of searching, it was O.M who found what they had been looking for: a map showing the High and Low level railway lines built in  Crystal Palace to serve the Great Exhibition. On the map O.M and Climpson now scrutinised, the two underground tunnels that ran through College Road and Sydenham Wells were clearly marked but so too was something rather unusual. Butler Smith’s map clearly showed  a much smaller third tunnel not connected to the to either of the rail services. This was beyond doubt where their friend was hiding; not only was the tunnel less than a mile from the Hornimans Museum,   but beside it in it in thick pencil Butler Smith had scrawled the words ‘ Schuster: #5: Bolt Hole??’

Pausing only to throw a few of Butler Smith’s clothes into a bag, O.M and Climpson grabbed their coats and headed to Crystal palace.