Now that I have got so far I had best proceed on my own lines, and then clear the whole matter up once and for all.""Just as you wish, Mr.Holmes, so long as we get our man.""I have no desire to make mysteries, but it is impossible at the moment of action to enter into long and complex explanations.
I have the threads of this affair all in my hand.Even if this lady should never recover consciousness we can still reconstruct the events of last night and ensure that justice be done.
First of all I wish to know whether there is any inn in this neighbourhood known as `Elrige's'?"The servants were cross-questioned, but none of them had heard of such a place.The stable-boy threw a light upon the matter by remembering that a farmer of that name lived some miles off in the direction of East Ruston.
"Is it a lonely farm?"
"Very lonely, sir."
"Perhaps they have not heard yet of all that happened here during the night?""Maybe not, sir."
Holmes thought for a little and then a curious smile played over his face.
"Saddle a horse, my lad," said he."I shall wish you to take a note to Elrige's Farm."He took from his pocket the various slips of the dancing men.
With these in front of him he worked for some time at the study-table.Finally he handed a note to the boy, with directions to put it into the hands of the person to whom it was addressed, and especially to answer no questions of any sort which might be put to him.I saw the outside of the note, addressed in straggling, irregular characters, very unlike Holmes's usual precise hand.It was consigned to Mr.Abe Slaney, Elrige's Farm, East Ruston, Norfolk.
"I think, inspector," Holmes remarked, "that you would do well to telegraph for an escort, as, if my calculations prove to be correct, you may have a particularly dangerous prisoner to convey to the county gaol.The boy who takes this note could no doubt forward your telegram.If there is an afternoon train to town, Watson, I think we should do well to take it, as I have a chemical analysis of some interest to finish, and this investigation draws rapidly to a close."When the youth had been dispatched with the note, Sherlock Holmes gave his instructions to the servants.If any visitor were to call asking for Mrs.Hilton Cubitt no information should be given as to her condition, but he was to be shown at once into the drawing-room.He impressed these points upon them with the utmost earnestness.Finally he led the way into the drawing-room with the remark that the business was now out of our hands, and that we must while away the time as best we might until we could see what was in store for us.The doctor had departed to his patients, and only the inspector and myself remained.
"I think that I can help you to pass an hour in an interesting and profitable manner," said Holmes, drawing his chair up to the table and spreading out in front of him the various papers upon which were recorded the antics of the dancing men."As to you, friend Watson, I owe you every atonement for having allowed your natural curiosity to remain so long unsatisfied.To you, inspector, the whole incident may appeal as a remarkable professional study.I must tell you first of all the interesting circumstances connected with the previous consultations which Mr.Hilton Cubitt has had with me in Baker Street." He then shortly recapitulated the facts which have already been recorded."I have here in front of me these singular productions, at which one might smile had they not proved themselves to be the fore-runners of so terrible a tragedy.I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyze one hundred and sixty separate ciphers; but I confess that this is entirely new to me.
The object of those who invented the system has apparently been to conceal that these characters convey a message, and to give the idea that they are the mere random sketches of children.
"Having once recognised, however, that the symbols stood for letters, and having applied the rules which guide us in all forms of secret writings, the solution was easy enough.
The first message submitted to me was so short that it was impossible for me to do more than to say with some confidence that the symbol XXX stood for E.As you are aware, E is the most common letter in the English alphabet, and it predominates to so marked an extent that even in a short sentence one would expect to find it most often.Out of fifteen symbols in the first message four were the same, so it was reasonable to set this down as E.It is true that in some cases the figure was bearing a flag and in some cases not, but it was probable from the way in which the flags were distributed that they were used to break the sentence up into words.I accepted this as a hypothesis, and noted that E was represented by XXX.
"But now came the real difficulty of the inquiry.The order of the English letters after E is by no means well marked, and any preponderance which may be shown in an average of a printed sheet may be reversed in a single short sentence.Speaking roughly, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, and L are the numerical order in which letters occur; but T, A, O, and I are very nearly abreast of each other, and it would be an endless task to try each combination until a meaning was arrived at.I, therefore, waited for fresh material.In my second interview with Mr.
Hilton Cubitt he was able to give me two other short sentences and one message, which appeared -- since there was no flag --to be a single word.Here are the symbols.Now, in the single word I have already got the two E's coming second and fourth in a word of five letters.It might be `sever,' or `lever,' or `never.' There can be no question that the latter as a reply to an appeal is far the most probable, and the circumstances pointed to its being a reply written by the lady.Accepting it as correct, we are now able to say that the symbols XXX stand respectively for N, V, and R.
