“I thought so,” said he, “the revolver had an ejector, and here isthe third cartridge. I really think, Inspector Martin, that our caseis almost complete.”
The country inspector’s face had shown his intense amazementat the rapid and masterful progress of Holmes’s investigation. Atfirst he had shown some disposition to assert his own position,but now he was overcome with admiration, and ready to followwithout question wherever Holmes led.
“Whom do you suspect?” he asked.
“I’ll go into that later. There are several points in this problemwhich I have not been able to explain to you yet. Now that I havegot so far, I had best proceed on my own lines, and then clear thewhole 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 themoment of action to enter into long and complex explanations.
I have the threads of this affair all in my hand. Even if this ladyshould never recover consciousness, we can still reconstruct theevents of last night and insure that justice be done. First of all,I wish to know whether there is any inn in this neighbourhoodknown as ‘Elrige’s’ ?”
The servants were cross-questioned, but none of them hadheard of such a place. The stable-boy threw a light upon thematter by remembering that a farmer of that name lived somemiles 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 hereduring the night?”
“Maybe not, sir.”
Holmes thought for a little, and then a curious smile played overhis face.
“Saddle a horse, my lad,” said he. “I shall wish you to take a noteto 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 studytable.
Finally he handed a note to the boy, with directions to putit into the hands of the person to whom it was addressed, andespecially to answer no questions of any sort which might be putto 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, Elriges Farm, East Ruston,Norfolk.
“I think, Inspector,” Holmes remarked, “that you would dowell to telegraph for an escort, as, if my calculations prove to becorrect, you may have a particularly dangerous prisoner to conveyto the county jail. The boy who takes this note could no doubtforward your telegram. If there is an afternoon train to town,Watson, I think we should do well to take it, as I have a chemicalanalysis of some interest to finish, and this investigation drawsrapidly to a close.”
When the youth had been dispatched with the note, SherlockHolmes gave his instructions to the servants. If any visitor wereto call asking for Mrs. Hilton Cubitt, no information should begiven as to her condition, but he was to be shown at once into thedrawing-room. He impressed these points upon them with theutmost 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 wecould see what was in store for us. The doctor had departed to hispatients, and only the inspector and myself remained.
“I think that I can help you to pass an hour in an interestingand profitable manner,” said Holmes, drawing his chair up to thetable, and spreading out in front of him the various papers uponwhich were recorded the antics of the dancing men. “As to you,friend Watson, I owe you every atonement for having allowed yournatural 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 connectedwith the previous consultations which Mr. Hilton Cubitt has hadwith me in Baker Street.” He then shortly recapitulated the factswhich have already been recorded. “I have here in front of methese singular productions, at which one might smile, had they notproved themselves to be the forerunners of so terrible a tragedy. Iam fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and am myselfthe author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in whichI analyze one hundred and sixty separate ciphers, but I confessthat this is entirely new to me. The object of those who inventedthe system has apparently been to conceal that these charactersconvey a message, and to give the idea that they are the mererandom sketches of children.
“Having once recognized, however, that the symbols stood forletters, and having applied the rules which guide us in all forms ofsecret writings, the solution was easy enough. The first messagesubmitted to me was so short that it was impossible for me todo more than to say, with some confidence, that the symbolstood for E. As you are aware, E is the most common letter in theEnglish alphabet, and it predominates to so marked an extent thateven 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 somecases the figure was bearing a flag, and in some cases not, but it wasprobable, from the way in which the flags were distributed, thatthey were used to break the sentence up into words. I accepted thisas a hypothesis, and noted that E was represented by .
