For a moment is seemed to me that there must be some radicalmistake in my calculations. The setting sun shone full upon thepassage floor, and I could see that the old, foot-worn gray stoneswith which it was paved were firmly cemented together, and hadcertainly not been moved for many a long year. Brunton had notbeen at work here. I tapped upon the floor, but it sounded thesame all over, and there was no sign of any crack or crevice. But,fortunately, Musgrave, who had begun to appreciate the meaningof my proceedings, and who was now as excited as myself, tookout his manuscript to check my calculation.
“ ‘And under,’ he cried. ‘You have omitted the “and under.” ’
“I had thought that it meant that we were to dig, but now, ofcourse, I saw at once that I was wrong. ’there is a cellar under thisthen?’ I cried.
“ ‘Yes, and as old as the house. Down here, through this door.’
“We went down a winding stone stair, and my companion,striking a match, lit a large lantern which stood on a barrel in thecorner. In an instant it was obvious that we had at last come uponthe true place, and that we had not been the only people to visitthe spot recently.
“It had been used for the storage of wood, but the billets, whichhad evidently been littered over the floor, were now piled at thesides, so as to leave a clear space in the middle. In this space lay alarge and heavy flagstone with a rusted iron ring in the centre towhich a thick shepherd’s-check muffler was attached.
“ ‘By Jove!’ cried my client. ‘That’s Brunton’s muffler. I have seenit on him, and could swear to it. What has the villain been doinghere?’
“At my suggestion a couple of the county police were summonedto be present, and I then endeavored to raise the stone by pullingon the cravat. I could only move it slightly, and it was with the aidof one of the constables that I succeeded at last in carrying it toone side. A black hole yawned beneath into which we all peered,while Musgrave, kneeling at the side, pushed down the lantern.
“A small chamber about seven feet deep and four feet square layopen to us. At one side of this was a squat, brass-bound woodenbox, the lid of which was hinged upwards, with this curious oldfashionedkey projecting from the lock. It was furred outside bya thick layer of dust, and damp and worms had eaten throughthe wood, so that a crop of livid fungi was growing on the insideof it. Several discs of metal, old coins apparently, such as I holdhere, were scattered over the bottom of the box, but it containednothing else.
“At the moment, however, we had no thought for the old chest,for our eyes were riveted upon that which crouched beside it. Itwas the figure of a man, clad in a suit of black, who squatted downupon his hams with his forehead sunk upon the edge of the boxand his two arms thrown out on each side of it. The attitude haddrawn all the stagnant blood to the face, and no man could haverecognized that distorted liver-colored countenance; but his height,his dress, and his hair were all sufficient to show my client, whenwe had drawn the body up, that it was indeed his missing butler.
He had been dead some days, but there was no wound or bruiseupon his person to show how he had met his dreadful end. Whenhis body had been carried from the cellar we found ourselves stillconfronted with a problem which was almost as formidable as thatwith which we had started.
“I confess that so far, Watson, I had been disappointed in myinvestigation. I had reckoned upon solving the matter when onceI had found the place referred to in the Ritual; but now I wasthere, and was apparently as far as ever from knowing what it waswhich the family had concealed with such elaborate precautions.
It is true that I had thrown a light upon the fate of Brunton, butnow I had to ascertain how that fate had come upon him, andwhat part had been played in the matter by the woman who haddisappeared. I sat down upon a keg in the corner and thought thewhole matter carefully over.
“You know my methods in such cases, Watson. I put myselfin the man’s place and, having first gauged his intelligence, I tryto imagine how I should myself have proceeded under the samecircumstances. In this case the matter was simplified by Brunton’sintelligence being quite first-rate, so that it was unnecessary tomake any allowance for the personal equation, as the astronomershave dubbed it. He knew that something valuable was concealed.
He had spotted the place. He found that the stone which coveredit was just too heavy for a man to move unaided. What would hedo next? He could not get help from outside, even if he had someone whom he could trust, without the unbarring of doors andconsiderable risk of detection. It was better, if he could, to havehis helpmate inside the house. But whom could he ask? This girlhad been devoted to him. A man always finds it hard to realizethat he may have finally lost a woman’s love, however badly hemay have treated her. He would try by a few attentions to makehis peace with the girl Howells, and then would engage her as hisaccomplice. Together they would come at night to the cellar, andtheir united force would suffice to raise the stone. So far I couldfollow their actions as if I had actually seen them.
“But for two of them, and one a woman, it must have beenheavy work the raising of that stone. A burly Sussex policeman andI had found it no light job. What would they do to assist them?
