"It was on a different panel of the door."
"Excellent! This is far the most important of all for our purpose. Itfills me with hopes. Now, Mr. Hilton Cubitt, please continue your mostinteresting statement."
"I have nothing more to say, Mr. Holmes, except that I was angry withmy wife that night for having held me back when I might have caught theskulking rascal. She said that she feared that I might come to harm. Foran instant it had crossed my mind that perhaps what she really fearedwas that HE might come to harm, for I could not doubt that she knew whothis man was and what he meant by these strange signals. But there is atone in my wife's voice, Mr. Holmes, and a look in her eyes which forbiddoubt, and I am sure that it was indeed my own safety that was in hermind. There's the whole case, and now I want your advice as to what Iought
to do. My own inclination is to put half-a-dozen of my farm ladsin the shrubbery, and when this fellow comes again to give him such ahiding 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 foranything. She is very nervous and begged me to come back."
"I dare say you are right. But if you could have stopped I mightpossibly have been able to return with you in a day or two. Meanwhileyou will leave me these papers, and I think that it is very likely thatI shall be able to pay you a visit shortly and to throw some light uponyour case."
Sherlock Holmes preserved his calm professional manner until our visitorhad left us, although it was easy for me, who knew him so well, to seethat he was profoundly excited. The moment that Hilton Cubitt's broadback 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. Fortwo hours I watched him as he covered sheet after sheet of paper withfigures and letters, so completely absorbed in his task that he hadevidently forgotten my presence. Sometimes he was making progress andwhistled and sang at his work; sometimes he was puzzled, and would sitfor long spells with a furrowed brow and a vacant eye. Finally he sprangfrom his chair with a cry of satisfaction, and walked up and down theroom rubbing his hands together. Then he wrote a long telegram upon acable form. "If my answer to this is as I hope, you will have a verypretty case to add to your collection, Watson," said he. "I expect thatwe shall be able to go down to Norfolk to-morrow, and to take our friendsome very definite news as to the secret of his annoyance."
I confess that I was filled with curiosity, but I was aware that Holmesliked to make his disclosures at his own time and in his own way; so Iwaited until it should suit him to take me into his confidence.
But there was a delay in that answering telegram, and two days ofimpatience followed, during which Holmes pricked up his ears at everyring of the bell. On the evening of the second there came a letter fromHilton Cubitt. All was quiet with him, save that a long inscription hadappeared that morning upon the pedestal of the sun-dial. He inclosed acopy of it, which is here reproduced:--
GRAPHIC
Holmes bent over this grotesque frieze for some minutes, and thensuddenly 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 toNorth 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 ourexpected cablegram. One moment, Mrs. Hudson; there may be an answer. No,that is quite as I expected. This message makes it even more essentialthat we should not lose an hour in letting Hilton Cubitt know howmatters stand, for it is a singular and a dangerous web in which oursimple Norfolk squire is entangled."
So, indeed, it proved, and as I come to the dark conclusion of a storywhich had seemed to me to be only childish and bizarre I experience onceagain the dismay and horror with which I was filled. Would that I hadsome brighter ending to communicate to my readers, but these are thechronicles of fact, and I must follow to their dark crisis the strangechain of events which for some days made Ridling Thorpe Manor ahousehold word through the length and breadth of England.
We had hardly alighted at North Walsham, and mentioned the name of ourdestination, when the station-master hurried towards us. "I suppose thatyou 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. Butmaybe 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.
"We are going to Ridling Thorpe Manor," said he, "but we have heardnothing 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--sothe servants say. He's dead and her life is despaired of. Dear, dear,one of the oldest families in the County of Norfolk, and one of the mosthonoured."
Without a word Holmes hurried to a carriage, and during the long sevenmiles' drive he never opened his mouth. Seldom have I seen him soutterly despondent. He had been uneasy during all our journey fromtown, and I had observed that he had turned over the morning papers withanxious attention; but now this sudden realization of his worst fearsleft him in a blank melancholy. He leaned back in his seat, lost ingloomy speculation. Yet there was much around to interest us, for wewere passing through as singular a country-side as any in England, wherea few scattered cottages represented the population of to-day, while onevery hand enormous square-towered churches bristled up from the flat,green landscape and told of the glory and prosperity of old East Anglia.At last the violet rim of the German Ocean appeared over the green edgeof the Norfolk coast, and the driver pointed with his whip to two oldbrick and timber gables which projected from a grove of trees. "That'sRidling Thorpe Manor," said he.
As we drove up to the porticoed front door I observed in front ofit, beside the tennis lawn, the black tool-house and the pedestalledsun-dial with which we had such strange associations. A dapper littleman, with a quick, alert manner and a waxed moustache, had justdescended from a high dog-cart. He introduced himself as InspectorMartin, of the Norfolk Constabulary, and he was considerably astonishedwhen he heard the name of my companion.
"Why, Mr. Holmes, the crime was only committed at three this morning.How could you hear of it in London and get to the spot as soon as I?"
"I anticipated it. I came in the hope of preventing it."
"Then you must have important evidence of which we are ignorant, forthey were said to be a most united couple."
"I have only the evidence of the dancing men," said Holmes. "I willexplain the matter to you later. Meanwhile, since it is too late toprevent this tragedy, I am very anxious that I should use the knowledgewhich I possess in order to ensure that justice be done. Will youassociate me in your investigation, or will you prefer that I should actindependently?"
"I should be proud to feel that we were acting together, Mr. Holmes,"said the inspector, earnestly.