made sure that I was securely bound.  Finally they withdrew, closing the window after them.  It was quite a quarter of an hour before I got my mouth free.  When I did so, my screams brought the maid to my assistance.  The other servants were soon alarmed, and we sent for the local police, who instantly communicated with London.  That is really all that I can tell you, gentlemen, and I trust that it will not be necessary for me to go over so painful a story again.’

‘Any questions, Mr. Holmes?’ asked Hopkins.

’I will not impose any further tax upon Lady Brackenstall’s patience and time,’ said Holmes.  ’Before I go into the dining-room, I should like to hear your experience.’  He looked at the maid.

‘I saw the men before ever they came into the house,’ said she.  ’As I sat by my bedroom window I saw three men in the moonlight down by the lodge gate yonder, but I thought nothing of it at the time.  It was more than an hour after that I heard my mistress scream, and down I ran, to find her, poor lamb, just as she says, and him on the floor, with his blood and brains over the room.  It was enough to drive a woman out of her wits, tied there, and her very dress spotted with him, but she never wanted courage, did Miss Mary Fraser of Adelaide and Lady Brackenstall of Abbey Grange hasn’t learned new ways.  You’ve questioned her long enough, you gentlemen, and now she is coming to her own room, just with her old Theresa, to get the rest that she badly needs.’

With a motherly tenderness the gaunt woman put her arm round her mistress and led her from the room.

‘She had been with her all her life,’ said Hopkins.  ’Nursed her as a baby, and came with her to England when they first left Australia, eighteen months ago.  Theresa Wright is her name, and the kind of maid you don’t pick up nowadays.  This way, Mr. Holmes, if you please!’

The keen interest had passed out of Holmes’s expressive face, and I knew that with the mystery all the charm of the case had departed.  There still remained an arrest to be effected, but what were these commonplace rogues that he should soil his hands with them?  An abstruse and learned specialist who finds that he has been called in for a case of measles would experience something of the annoyance which I read in my friend’s eyes.  Yet the scene in the dining-room of the Abbey Grange was sufficiently strange to arrest his attention and to recall his waning interest.

It was a very large and high chamber, with carved oak ceiling, oaken panelling, and a fine array of deer’s heads and ancient weapons around the walls.  At the further end from the door was the high French window of which we had heard.  Three smaller windows on the right-hand side filled the apartment with cold winter sunshine.  On the left was a large, deep fireplace, with a massive, overhanging oak mantelpiece.  Beside the fireplace was a heavy oaken chair with arms and crossbars at the bottom.  In and out through the open woodwork was woven a crimson cord, which was secured at each side to the crosspiece below.  In releasing the lady, the cord had been slipped off her, but the knots with which it had been secured still remained.  These details only struck our attention afterwards, for our thoughts were entirely absorbed by the terrible object which lay upon the tiger-skin heathrug in front of the fire.