The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 19, 1905, Page 2

THE SAN FRANCISCO SUNDAY CALL. : j BT ———————————rpe———————— e e ——————————— e e implored me to come to bed. 1 toid r frankly that I wished to see who it who played such absurd tricks us. She answered that it was seless practical joke and that d not take any notice of it. you, Hilton, we you and I, and so be driven cut of our own 2 practical joker? said I. e should have the whole coun- g at us.’ come to bed,' said she, ‘and s it in the morning.’ as she spoke, 1 saw her grow whiter yet in the and her ' hand tightened shoulder. Something was the shadow of the tc w a dark, creeping figure ed round the corner and of the door izing but she ¢ the crea- L ft a trace of r, for there on the same arr y d g n which he groynd is that‘he must , for when ex again. in thé d- some smore T line “which be. entirely panel of the ing held me caught the said ve might h She t she knew who hat he meant by But there is a Mr, Hol ves which forbi e that it was in- was in her le case, and advice as to what I W Ve My own inclination is to put f a dozen of my farm lads in the shr v, and when this fellow mes to give such a hiding eave us in peace for the deep a case for such 3 said Holme “How g in London?" & to-day. I would not € ) ne at night for any- t She is very nervous and begged r me back ¥ vou are right. But if e stopped, I might pos- er ble to return with 0. Meanwhile you apers, and I think kely that I shall be you a visit shortly and to ht upon your case.” s preserved his calm r until our wisitor ugh it was easy for m so well, to see that vy excited. The mo- Cubitt’s broad back through the door my the table, laid out all er containing dancing nd threw himself and elaborate calcu- o hours I watched him vered sheet after sheet of th figures and letters, so com- b that he y presence. progress his work; s was puzzled and would sit ng spells with a furrowed vacant eye. Finally he g fr s chair with a cry of walked up and down his hands together. ong telegram upon answer to this will have a very to your collection, “I expect that we down to Norfolk to take our friend some ws as to the secret of I was filled with cu- but 1 was aware that Holmes - disclosures at his s own way, so I should suit him to take nfidence s delay in that an- and two days of im- owed, during which ked up his ears at every On the evening of the ere came a letter from Hilton All was quiet with him, save inscription had appeared thet morning upon the pedestal of the sund He inclosed a copy of it, which is here reproduced: XAST XL XY XAIXXYXTILYIY Holmes bent over this grotesque some minutes, and then sud- denly sprang to his feet with an ex- clamation 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 Waisham 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,” s3id Holme “Our presence is most urgently needed. Ah! here is our ex- pected cablegram. One moment, Mrs. Hudson, there may be an answer. No, that is quite as I expected. This mes- sage makes it even more essential that we shculd 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, 1 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 fs and I must follow to their dark cri the strange chain of events which for some days made Riding 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-mas- ter hurried toward us. “I suppose that you are the detectives from London?” said he, A look of anmoyance passed over Holmes' face, “What makes you thing ™" “Becnuse think such a 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' brow was dark with anxiety. “We are going to Riding Thorpe Manor,” said he, “but we have heard nothing of what has passed there.” “It's a terrible business,” said the station-master. ““They are shot, both Mr. Hilton Cubitt and his wife. She shot him and then herself—so the .ser- vants say. He's dead and her life is despaired of. Dear, dear, one of the oidest families in the County of Nor- folk, and one of the most honored.” ‘Without a word Holmes hurried to a carriage and during the long seven miles’ drive he never opened his mouth. Seldom have I seen him so utterly ae- spondent. He had been uneasy during all our journey from town and I had observed that he had turned over the morning papers with anxious attep- tion, but now this sudden realization of his worst fe left him in a blank eculation. Yet there was much around to interest us, ror ~we were pas€ing through a% singular a cotintry- side as any in England, where .a few scattered cuttages represented the pop- ulation of to-day, while on every hand enermous - Square-towered churches bristled up from the flat, green land- scape and told of the glory and pros- of old East Anglia. At last the rim \of the German Ocean ap- peared ovér the green:edge of the Nor- folk coast, and the driver pointed”with his whip to two old-brick and timber gables which projected from a “‘grove “That's Riding: Thorpe Man- he. e"drove/up to the porticoed front: As door, ‘1-observed in tront of it, beside the tennis ‘lawn, the black tool-house and the pedestaled sundial with which we had such strange: associations.” A dapper little man, with a guick, alert manner and a waxed mustache had st ' descended . from a- high ' dog-cart. trcduced himself as Inspeetor of the Norfolk - Constabulary, was considerably astonished heard the name of my com- panmn. Why, Mr. Holmes, the crime was comimitted at 8 this morning. How could you hear of it in Lcadon and get to the spot as soon'as I7" ‘1 anticipated I came in the hope of preventing it.” : “Then you must have important’evi- dence, of which we are ignorant,' for were said ‘to be a most united the evidence of the said Holmes. *“I will in the matter to you later. Mean- , since it is too late to prevent this tragedy, I am very anxious that I ould use the knowledge which I pos- sess in _order to insure that justice be done. - Will you associate me in your investigation or will you prefer that 1 should act independently?” “I'should be proud to feel that we acting together, Mr. Holmes,” the inspector. earnestly. In that case I should be glad to hear the evidence and to examine the s without an instant of unnec- delay.” Inspector Martin had the good sense to allow my friend to do things in his own fashion, and contented himself with carefully noting the results. The local surgeon, an old, white-haired man, had just come down from Mrs. Hilton Cubitt’s room, and he reported that her injuries were serious but not necessarily fatal The bullet had passed through the front of her brain, and it would probably be some time before she could regain consciousness. On the question of whether she had been shot or had shot herself he would not venture to express any decided opinion. Certainly the bullet had been discharged at very close quarters. There was only the one pistol found in the room, two barrels of which had been emptied. Mr. Hilton Cubitt had been shot through the heart. It was equally conceivable that he had shot her and then himself, or that she had been the criminal, for the revolver lay upon the floor midway between them. “Has he been moved?” asked Holmes, “We have moved nothing’except the lady, We could not leave her wounded upon the floor.” “How long have you been here, doc- tor?” lying ince 4 o’clock.” ny one else?” es, the Constable here.” d you touched nothing?” thing.” “You have acted with tion. Who sent for you?” “The housemaid, Saunders.” “Was it she who gave the alarm?” “She and Mrs. King. the cook.” “Where are they now? “In the kitchen, I believe. “Then I think we ‘had better hear their story at once.” The old hall, oak paneled and high windowed, had been turned into a court of investigation. Holmes sat in , old fashioned chair, his in- exorable eyes gleaming out of his haggard face. I could read in them a set purpose to devote his life to this great discre- quest until the client whom he had failed to save should at least be avenged. The trim Inspector Martin, the old, gray-headed country doctor. myself and a stolid village policeman made up the rest of that strange com- pany. The two women told their story clearly enough. They had been aroused from their sleep by the sound of an explosion, which had been fol- lowed a minute later by a second one. They slept in adjoining rooms and Mrs. King had rushed in to Saunders. Together they had descended ‘the stairs. The door of the study was open and a candle was burning upon the table. Thelr master lay upon.his face in the center of the room. He was quite dead. Near the window his wife was crouching, her head. leaning against the wall. She was horribly wounded and the side of her face was red with blood. She breathed heav- ily, but was incapable of saying any- thing. The passage, as well as the room, was full of smoke and the smell of powder. The window was certainly shut and fastened upon the inside., Both women were positive upon the point. They had at once sent for the doctor and for the con- stable. Then, with the aid of the groom and the stable boy, they had conveyed their injured mistress to her room. Both she and her husband had occupied the bed. She was clad in her dress—he in his dressing gown, over his night clothes. Nothing had been moved in the study. So far as they knew there had never been any quarrel between husband and “wife. They had always looked upon them as a very united couple. These were the main points of the servants’ evidence. In answer. to In- spector Martin they were clear that every door was fastened upon the in- side and that no one could have es- caped from the house. In answer to Holmes they both remembered that they were conscious of the smell of powder. from the moment that they ran put of their rooms upon the top floor. “I’commend that fact ' very carefully ' to your attention,” - said Holmes to his professional colleague. “And now I think that we are in a_po-. sition to undertake a thorough exam- ination of the room.” The study proved to be a small chamber, lined on three sides with books and with a writing table facing an ordinary window, which looked out upon the garden. Our first attention was given to the body of the unfor- tunate squire, whose huge frame lay stretched across the room. His dis- ordered dress showed that he had been hastily aroused from sleep. The buillet hed been fired at him from the front and had remained in his body after penetrating the heart. His death .to shut and fasten the had certainly been instantaneous and painless. There was no powder mark- ing either upon his dressing gown or on his‘hands. According to the coun- try surgeon the lady had stains upon her face, but none upon her hand. ‘‘The absence of the latter means nothing, though its’ presence may mean everything,” said Holmes. “‘Un- less the powder from a badly fitting cartridge happens to spurt backward one may fire many shots without leav- ing a sign.” I would suggest that Mr. Cubitt’s body may now be removed. 1 suopose, doctor, you have not re- covered the bullet which wounded the lady?” ‘A serious operation will be neces- sary before that can be done. there are still four cartridges in the revolver. Two have been fired and two wounds infilicted, so that each bullet can be accounted for.” S0, it would seem,” said Holmes. ‘“Perhaps you can account also for the bullet which “hag ‘so gbviously struck the ‘edge.of the ¥rindow?"” He had turned suddenly, and his long, thin“finger was pointing to a hole which had téen drilled through the lower window -sash,’ about an inch above the bottom. “By George!’™ cried the inspector. “How ever did you seé that?” “Because I looked for it” “Wonderful!” said .the country doc- tor.: 'You are certainly right, - sir. Then a third shot has been fired, and therefore’ a third person must have been present. But who could that have been, and how could he have got away?” “That js the problem which we are now about to solve,” .said Sherlock Holmes. “You remember, Inspector Martin, when the servants said that on leaving their room they were at once conscious of-a smell: of ‘powder, I re- marked that:the point was an ex- tremely important one?” “Yes, sir; but I confess I did not quite follow you.” *° “It suggested that-at the time of the firing the window as well as the door of the room had been ‘open. Otherwise the fumes of powder could nat have been blown so. rapi : through the house. A ‘draught in the room was necessary for that. Both'door and win- doy were only open’ for.a very short time, however.” ‘“How do you prove that?” ‘‘Because the candle was not gut- tered.” - 1 u;‘l?gpl&l!“ cried the inspector. “Cap- “Feeling sure that the window had ‘been open at the time of the tragedy, I conceived' that there might have been a third person in the affair, who stood outside this opening and fired through it. Any shot directed at this person might hit the sash, I looked and there, sure enough, was.the bullet mark!"” “But how cal the window to be shut and fastened?” g “The woman's first instinct would be ‘ indow. But ‘halloa! what is. this?” It was.a lddy's handbag which stood upon_ the’ study’ table—a trim little handbag of’crocodile skin and silver. ‘Holmes openéd it and turned the co! terits out. There werp twenty -fifty: pound nometmmxotgnmd. held together by an indiarubber band handed the with its contents to the inspector. “It is now necessary that we should try to throw some light upon this third bullet, which has clearly, from the splintering of the wood, been fired from inside the room. I should like to see Mrs. King, the cook, again. You said, Mrs. King, that you were awakened by a loud explosion. When you said that, did you mean that it -ee::ned to you louder than the second one?” ““Well, sir, it wakened me from my sleep, and so it is hard to judge. But it did seem very lond.” % “You don't think that it might have been two shots fired almost at the same instant?” “I am sure I couldn’t say, sir.” “I belleve that it was undoubtedly s0. I rather think Inspector Martin, that we have now exhausted all that this room can teach us. If you will kindly step round. with me we shall see what fresh evidence the garden has to offer.” A flower bed extended up the study window, and we all broke into an exclamation as we approached it. The flowers were trampled down, and the soft soil was imprinted all over with footmarks. Large, mascuiine feet they were, with peculiarly long, sharp toes. Holmes hunted about among the grass and leaves like a retriever after a wounded bird., Then, with a cry of satisfaction, he bent forward and picked up a little brazen cylinder. “I thought so,” said he; “the revolver had an ejector and here is the third cartridge. I really think, Inspector Martin, that our case is almost com- plete.” - The country inspector’s face had shown' his intense amazement at:the rapid and masterful = progress of Holmes' investigation. ‘ At first he had shown some disposition to assert his own position, but now he was over- come with admiration and ready to to follow without Holmes led. “Whom do you suspect?” he asked. “I'll go into that later. There are several points in this problem which I have not been able to explain to you yet. 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.” 4 “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 conscious- ness we can still reconstruct the events of last night and insure that justice be done. First of all I wish to know Whether there is any inn in this neigh- borhood 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 t a farmer of that name lived some ;nneg oft in the direction of East Rus- on. “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 1ad,” sald ‘he. “I shall wish you to a mnote 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 direc- tions to put it into the hands of the person to whom it was addressed, and especially ‘to answer no questions ' of question wherever any sort which might be put to him. I saw the outside of the note, ad- dressed in straggling, irregular charac- ters, very unlike Holmes' usual pre- cise hand. It was consigned to Mr. Abe Slaney, Elrige's farm, East Rus- ton, Norfolk. “I think, Inspector,”. Holmes re- marked, “that you would do well to telegraph for an escort, as, if my cal- culations prove to be correct, you, may have a particularly dangerous prisoner to convey to the county jail. The boy who takes this note could no doubt for- ward your telegram. If there is an afternoon train,to town, Watson, 1 think we should do well to take it, as I have a chemical analysis of some in- terest 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 givep as to her condition, but he was 1o be shown at once into the drawing- room. He impressed -these points upon them with the utmost ear- nestness. 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 . pa- tients, and only the inspector and my- self remained. “I think that I can help vou to pass an hour in an interesting and ‘profit-- able manner,” said Holmes, drawing his chair up to the table and soread- ing out in front of him the varlous pa- - pers upon which were recorded the an- tics of the dancing men. “As to you, friend Watson, I owe you every atone- ment for having allowed your natural curiosity to remain so long unsatisfied. To you, inspector, the whole incident may appeal as a remarkable vprofes- sional study. I must tell you. first of all, the interesting circumstances con- nected with the previous consultations which Hilton Cubitt has had with me in Baker street.’ He then shortly recapitulated the facts which have al- ready 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 sub- ject, In which I analyze 160 separate ciphers, but I confess that this is en- tirely new to me. ' The object of those who Invented the system has appar- ently been to conceal that these char- acters convey a message, and to give the idea that they are the mere ran- dom sketches of children. : “Having once recognized, however, that the symbols stood for letters, and having applied the rules which guide us in all forms of secret writings the sol 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 confl . dence, that the symbol — - X figure was bearing a flag, and in some cases not, but it was probable, from the way in which the flags were dis- tributed, that they were used to break the sentence up into words. T accepted this as a hypothesis and noted that E ‘was represented by —— X “But now came the real difficulty of the inquiry. The order of the Eng- lish 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 ccembination until a meaning was ar- rived at. I therefore waited for fresh material. In my second interview with Hilton Cubitt he was able to give me two other short sentences and one mes- sage, which appeared—since there was no flag—to be.a single word. Here are the symbols. ‘Now in the single word 1 have already got the two E’'s coming sécond and fourth in a word of five Jetters. - It might be ‘sever,’ or -lever, or ‘mever.’ There can be no question -that the latter as a reply to an appeal is far the most probable and the cir- cumstances pointed to its béing a reply . writtén by the lady. Accepting it as correct we'are now able to say-that the symbols — $4F .'stand respectively for N, V and R. “Even now. I was. in considerable dif- ficulty, but & happy tnougnt put me in possession * of .several other letters. It occurred ‘to me- that if.these appeals came, as I expected, from some one who had been intimate with the lady in her early life, a combination which contained two E's with three letters between might very well stand for the name ‘BLSIE’ On examination I found that such a combination formed the termination of the message which was three times repeated. It was cer- tainly some appeal to ‘Elsie.” In this way I had got my L, 5 and 1. But what appeal could it be? There were only four letters in the word which preceded ‘Elsie,” and it ended in “E. Surely. the word miust be '‘COME.” I tried "all other four letters ending in E, but could find none vo 1t the case. So ‘nmow: I was; in possession of C, O and M, and I was In a position to at- tack the first' message once more, dividing it into words and putting dots for each symbol which was still un- known. So treated, it worked out in this fashion: .M .ERE ..E SL.NE. “Now the first letter can only be A, which\is a most useful aiscovery, since it occurs no fewer than three times in this short sentence, and the H is also apparent in the second word. Now it becomes: AM HERE A.E SLANE. Or, filling in the obvious vacancies in the name: AM HERE ABE SLANEY. I had so many letters now that I could proceed with congiderable confidence to the second message, which worked out in this fashion: . A. ELRI.ES. Here I could only make sense by put- ting T and G for the missing letters, and supposing that the name was that of someé house or inn at which the writer was staying.” Inspector Martin and I had listened with the utmost interest to the full and clear account of how my friend had produced results which had led to so compl-‘e a command over our difficuities. “What did you do then, sir?” asked the inspector. “I had every reason to suppose that this Abe Slaney was an American, since Abe is an American contraction, and since a letter from ‘America had been the starting point of all the trou- ble.” I had alsor everv cause to think that there -was some criminal secret in the matter. The lady’s allusions to her past; and her refusal to.take her husband “into her confidence, both pointed in that direction. ‘I therefore cdbled to my friend, Wilson Hargreave, of the New York Police Bureau, who has more than once made use of my knowledge of London crime. I asked him wHether the name of Abe Slaney was known to him. Here is his reply: ,The most dangerous crook in Chicago.’ On the very evening n which I had his answer, Hilton Cubitt sent me the last ‘'message from Slaney. Working with known letters,’ it took this form: ELSIE .RE.ARE TO MEET THY GO. The addition of a P and a D completed a message which showed me that the rascal was proceeding from persuasion to threats, and my knowledge of the crooks of Chicago prepared me to find that he might very rapidly put . his words into action. - I at orice came to Norfolk with my. friend and colleague, Dr. Watson, but, unhappily, only in time to find that the worst had already occurred.” “It is a privilege to be associated with you in the handling of a case,” said the inspector warmly. “You will excuse me, however, if I speak frank- Iy to you. You are only answerable to yourself, but I have to answer to my superiors. If this Abe Slaney, living at Elrige’s, is {ndeed the murderer, and if he has made his escape while T am seated here, I should certainly get into serious trouble.” “You need not be uneasy., He will not try to escape.” “How do you know?*” “To fly would be a confession of guilt.” “Then let us go and arrest him.” “I expect him here every instant.” “But why should he come?" “‘Because I have written and asked him.™ “‘But this is incredible, Mr. Holmes! ‘Why should he come becausé you have asked him? Would not such a request rather rouse his suspicions and cause him to fly?” - “I think I have known how to frame the letter,” said Sherlock Holmes. “In fact, if I am not very much mistaken, here is the gentleman himself coming up the drive.” A man was striding up the path which led to the door. He was a. tall, handsome, swarthy fellow, clad in a suit of gray flanpel. a Panama hat, a bristling black beard, and a great, aggressive hooked nose, and flourish- ing a cane as he walked. He swag- gered up the path as if the place be- longed to him.and we heard his loud, confident peal at the bell. “I think, gentlemen,” said Holmes quietly, “that. we had best take up our position behind the door. Every precaution is necessary when dealing with: such a fellow. You will need your handcuffs, inspector. You can leaye the talking to me.” ‘We waited in silence for a minute— one of those minutes which one can never forget. Then the door opemed and the man stepped:in. In an instant Holmes clapped 2 pistol to his head and Martin slipped the handcuffs over his wrists. It.was all done so swiftly and deftly that the fellow was helpless before he knew that he was attacked. He glared from one to the other of us with a pair of blazing .black eyes. Then he burst into a bitter laugh. ‘“Well, gentlamen, you have the drop on me this time. I seem to have knock- ed up against. something hard. But I came_here in.answer to a letter from Mrs. Hilton Cubitt. Don’t tell me that she:is in this? Don’t tell me that she helj to set a tran for me?” Ly Hilton Cubitt was seriously in- jured and is at death’s door,” The man gave a hoarse cry of grief, which rang through the house. “You're crazy!” he cried flercely. It was he that was hurt, not she. ‘Who would have hurt little Elsie? I may have threatened her—God for- & 81¥e me!—but I would not have tough- €d a hair of her pretty head. Take it bask—you! Say ,that she is not hurt! “She was found, badly wounded, by the side of her dead husband. He sank with a deep groan on the settee and buried his face in. his face in his manacled hands. For five minutes he was silent. Then he raised Lis face once more and spoke with the cold composure of despair. “I have nothing to hide from you, gentlemen,” said he. “If I shot the man he had shot at me, and. there's no murder in that, But if you think I could have hurt that woman, then you don't know either me or her. I tell you, there was never a .man in this world who loved a wWoman more than I loved her. I had a right to her. She was pledged to me years ago. Who was this Eng- lishman that he should come between us? I tell you that I had the first right to her and that I am only claim- ing my own.” “She broke away from your influ- ence when she found the man that you are,” said Holmes sternly. “She fled from America to avoid you, and she married an honorable gentleman in England. You degged her and fol- lowed ‘her and made her life a misery to her, in order to induce her to aban- don the husband whom she loved and Tespeeted in order to fly with you, Wwhom she feared and hated. You have ended by bringing about the death of a noble man and drivine his wife to suicide. This is your record in this business, Mr. Abe Slaney, and you will.answer for it to the law.” “If Elsie dies, I care nothing what becomes of me,” said the American. He opened one of his hands and looked at a note crumpled up in his palm. “See here, mister,” he cried, with a gleam of suspicion in his eyes, ‘“you're not trying to scare me over this, are you? If the lady is hurt as bad as you say, who was it that wrote this note?” He tossed it forward on to the table. “I wrote it to bring you here.” ‘“You wyrote it? There was no one on earth outside the Joint who kpew the secret of the dancing men. How came you to write it?" “What one man can invent another can discover,” said Holmes. ‘“There is a cab coming to convey you to Nor- wich, Mr. Slaney. But, meanwhile, You have time to make some small reparation for the injury you have wrought. Are you aware that Mrs. Hilton Cubitt has herself lain under grave suspicion of the murder of her husband and that it was only my pres- ence here and the knowledge which I happened to possess which saved her from the accusation? The least that you owe her is to make it clear to the waorld that she was in no way, directly or indirectly, responsible for his tragic end.” “I ask nothing better,” said the American. “I guess the very best case I can make for myself is the ab- solute truth.” “It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you,” cried the inspector, with the magnificent fair- play of the British criminal law. Slaney shrugged his shoulders. “Tll chance that,” said he. “First of all, I want you gentlemen to under- stand that I have known this lady since she was a child. There were seven of us in a gang in Chicago and Eisie’'s father was the boss of the Joint. He was a clever man, was old Patrick. It was he who invented that writing, which would pass as a child’s scrawl unless you just happened to have the key to it. Well, Elsle learned some of our ways, but she couldn't stand the business, and she had a bit of honest money of her own, so she gave us the slip and got away to Lon- don. She had been engaged to me and she would have married me, 1 believe, if I had taken over another profession, but she would have noth- ing to do with anyvthing on the cross. It.was only after her marriage to this Englishman that I was able to find out where she was. I wrote to Mer, but got no answer. After that I came over, and as letters were of no use [ put my messages where she could read them. “Well, I have been here a month now. I lived in that farm, where I had a room down below, and could get in and out every night, and no one the wiser. I tried all I could to 'cpax Elsle away. I knew that she read the mes- sages, for once she wrote an answer under one of them. Then my temper got. the better of me and I began to threaten her. She sent me a letter then, imploring me to go away and saying that it would break her heart if any scandal should come upon her husband. She said that she would come down when her husband was asleep at 3 in the morning and speak with me through the end window if I would go away afterward and leave, her in peace. She came down and brought money with her, trying to bribe me to go. This made me mad and I caught her arm and tried to pull her through the window. At that moment in rushed her husband with , his revolver in his hand. Elsie had sunk down upon the floor and we were face to face. I was heeled also, and I held up my gun to scare him off and let me get away. He fired and missed me. I pulled off almost at the same instant and down he dropped. I made away across the garden and as I went I heard the window shut behind me. That's God’s truth, gen- tlemen, every word of it; and I heard no more about it until that lad came riding up with a note which made me walk in here, like a jay, and give my- self into your hands.” A cab had driven up while the American had been talking. Two uni- formed policemen sat inside. In- spector Martin rose and touched his- prisoner on the shoulder. “It Is time for us to go.” “Can I see her first?” ’ “No, she is not conscious. Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I only hope that, if ever again I have an important case, 1 shall have the good fortune to have you by my side.” We stood at the window and watched the cab drive away. As I turned back my eye caught the pellet of paper which the prisoner had tossed upon the table. It was the note -with which Holmes had decoyed him. “See if you can read it, Watson,™ said he, with a smile. It contained no word, but this little line of dancing meén: EE29499099CEEM “If you use the code which I have explained,” said Holmes, ‘“vou will find that it simply means ‘Come here at once.” I was convinced that it was an invitation which he would not re- fuse, since he could never imagine that it could come from any ome but the lady. And so, my dear Watson. we have ended by turning the dancing: men to good when they have so often been the agents of evil, and I think that T have fulfiiled my promise of giving you something unusual for your notebook: Three-forty is ‘our in and I fanecy we should be back: E-B‘m street for dinner.” a Only one word of epilogue. The' American, Abe Slaney, Wwas - con- demned to death at the winter assizes at Norwicp, but his penalty ~ was changed to pail::l :mmd. in com::s: of mitigating ¢ % :;‘dfl::a certainty that Hilton ' Cubitt ‘had fired the first shot. Of Mrs. Hils" ton Cubitt I only know that I hav heard she recovered entirely that™ gl o, e 2, Sy her whole life to the care ] and to the administration of band’s estate. .