"Tell me," said Holmes -- and I could see by his eyes that he was much excited -- "was this a mere addition to the first, or did it appear to be entirely separate?""It was on a different panel of the door.""Excellent! This is far the most important of all for our purpose.It fills me with hopes.Now, Mr.Hilton Cubitt, please continue your most interesting statement.""I have nothing more to say, Mr.Holmes, except that I was angry with my wife that night for having held me back when I might have caught the skulking rascal.She said that she feared that I might come to harm.For an instant it had crossed my mind that perhaps what she really feared was that HE might come to harm, for I could not doubt that she knew who this man was and what he meant by these strange signals.But there is a tone in my wife's voice, Mr.Holmes, and a look in her eyes which forbid doubt, and I am sure that it was indeed my own safety that was in her mind.There's the whole case, and now I want your advice as to what I ought to do.My own inclination is to put half-a-dozen of my farm lads in the shrubbery, and when this fellow comes again to give him such a hiding that he will leave us in peace for the future.""I fear it is too deep a case for such simple remedies,"said Holmes."How long can you stay in London?""I must go back to-day.I would not leave my wife alone all night for anything.She is very nervous and begged me to come back.""I dare say you are right.But if you could have stopped Imight possibly have been able to return with you in a day or two.Meanwhile you will leave me these papers, and I think that it is very likely that I shall be able to pay you a visit shortly and to throw some light upon your case."Sherlock Holmes preserved his calm professional manner until our visitor had left us, although it was easy for me, who knew him so well, to see that he was profoundly excited.The moment that Hilton Cubitt's broad back had disappeared through the door my comrade rushed to the table, laid out all the slips of paper containing dancing men in front of him, and threw himself into an intricate and elaborate calculation.For two hours I watched him as he covered sheet after sheet of paper with figures and letters, so completely absorbed in his task that he had evidently forgotten my presence.Sometimes he was making progress and whistled and sang at his work; sometimes he was puzzled, and would sit for long spells with a furrowed brow and a vacant eye.Finally he sprang from his chair with a cry of satisfaction, and walked up and down the room rubbing his hands together.Then he wrote a long telegram upon a cable form."If my answer to this is as I hope, you will have a very pretty case to add to your collection, Watson," said he."I expect that we shall be able to go down to Norfolk to-morrow, and to take our friend some very definite news as to the secret of his annoyance."I confess that I was filled with curiosity, but I was aware that Holmes liked to make his disclosures at his own time and in his own way; so I waited until it should suit him to take me into his confidence.
But there was a delay in that answering telegram, and two days of impatience followed, during which Holmes pricked up his ears at every ring of the bell.On the evening of the second there came a letter from Hilton Cubitt.All was quiet with him, save that a long inscription had appeared that morning upon the pedestal of the sun-dial.He inclosed a copy of it, which is here reproduced:--GRAPHIC
Holmes bent over this grotesque frieze for some minutes, and then suddenly sprang to his feet with an exclamation of surprise and dismay.His face was haggard with anxiety.
"We have let this affair go far enough," said he.
"Is there a train to North Walsham to-night?"I turned up the time-table.The last had just gone.
"Then we shall breakfast early and take the very first in the morning," said Holmes."Our presence is most urgently needed.
Ah! here is our expected cablegram.One moment, Mrs.Hudson;there may be an answer.No, that is quite as I expected.
This message makes it even more essential that we should not lose an hour in letting Hilton Cubitt know how matters stand, for it is a singular and a dangerous web in which our simple Norfolk squire is entangled."So, indeed, it proved, and as I come to the dark conclusion of a story which had seemed to me to be only childish and bizarre I experience once again the dismay and horror with which I was filled.Would that I had some brighter ending to communicate to my readers, but these are the chronicles of fact, and I must follow to their dark crisis the strange chain of events which for some days made Ridling Thorpe Manor a household word through the length and breadth of England.
We had hardly alighted at North Walsham, and mentioned the name of our destination, when the station-master hurried towards us.
"I suppose that you are the detectives from London?" said he.
A look of annoyance passed over Holmes's face.
"What makes you think such a thing?"
"Because Inspector Martin from Norwich has just passed through.
But maybe you are the surgeons.She's not dead -- or wasn't by last accounts.You may be in time to save her yet -- though it be for the gallows."Holmes's brow was dark with anxiety.
