come round to the big front window, and I found it open before me, so as to let me into the dining-room.  Again I heard from her own lips things that made my blood boil, and again I cursed this brute who mishandled the woman I loved.  Well, gentlemen, I was standing with her just inside the window, in all innocence, as God is my judge, when he rushed like a madman into the room, called her the vilest name that a man could use to a woman, and welted her across the face with the stick he had in his hand.  I had sprung for the poker, and it was a fair fight between us.  See here, on my arm, where his first blow fell.  Then it was my turn, and I went through him as if he had been a rotten pumpkin.  Do you think I was sorry?  Not I!  It was his life or mine, but far more than that, it was his life or hers, for how could I leave her in the power of this madman?  That was how I killed him.  Was I wrong? well, then, what would either of you gentlemen have done, if you had been in my position?

’She had screamed when he struck her, and that brought old Theresa down from the room above.  There was a bottle of wine on the sideboard, and I opened it and poured a little between Mary’s lips, for she was half dead with shock.  Then I took a drop myself.  Theresa was as cool as ice, and it was her plot as much as mine.  We must make it appear that burglars had done the thing.  Theresa kept on repeating our story to her mistress, while I swarmed up and cut the rope of the bell.  Then I lashed her in her chair, and frayed out the end of the rope to make it look natural, else they would wonder how in the world a burglar could have got up there to cut it.  Then I gathered up a few plates and pots of silver, to carry out the idea of the robbery, and there I left them, with orders to give the alarm when I had a quarter of an hour’s start.  I dropped the silver into the pond, and made off for Sydenham, feeling that for once in my life I had done a real good night’s work.  And that’s the truth and the whole truth, Mr. Holmes, if it costs me my neck.’

Holmes smoked for some time in silence.  Then he crossed the room, and shook our visitor by the hand.

‘That’s what I think,’ said he.  ’I know that every word is true, for you have hardly said a word which I did not know.  No one but an acrobat or a sailor could have got up to that bell-rope from the bracket, and no one but a sailor could have made the knots with which the cord was fastened to the chair.  Only once had this lady been brought into contact with sailors, and that was on her voyage, and it was someone of her own class of life, since she was trying hard to shield him, and so showing that she loved him.  You see how easy it was for me to lay my hands upon you when once I started upon the right trail.’

‘I thought the police never could have seen through our dodge.’

’And the police haven’t, nor will they, to the best of my belief.  Now, look here, Captain Crocker, this is a very serious matter, though I am willing to admit that you acted under the most extreme provocation to which any man could be subjected.  I am not sure that in defence of your own life your action will not be pronounced legitimate.  However, that is for a British jury to decide.  Meanwhile I have so much sympathy for you that, if you choose to disappear in the next twenty-four hours, I will promise you that no one will hinder you.’