“My rings were put on his finger; but when it came to the wedding ring,” he held out his muscular hand, “you can see for yourselves that I had struck the limit.  I have not moved it since the day I was married, and it would have taken a file to get it off.  I don’t know, anyhow, that I should have cared to part with it; but if I had wanted to I couldn’t.  So we just had to leave that detail to take care of itself.  On the other hand, I brought a bit of plaster down and put it where I am wearing one myself at this instant.  You slipped up there, Mr. Holmes, clever as you are; for if you had chanced to take off that plaster you would have found no cut underneath it.

“Well, that was the situation.  If I could lie low for a while and then get away where I could be joined by my ‘widow’ we should have a chance at last of living in peace for the rest of our lives.  These devils would give me no rest so long as I was above ground; but if they saw in the papers that Baldwin had got his man, there would be an end of all my troubles.  I hadn’t much time to make it all clear to Barker and to my wife; but they understood enough to be able to help me.  I knew all about this hiding place, so did Ames; but it never entered his head to connect it with the matter.  I retired into it, and it was up to Barker to do the rest.

“I guess you can fill in for yourselves what he did.  He opened the window and made the mark on the sill to give an idea of how the murderer escaped.  It was a tall order, that; but as the bridge was up there was no other way.  Then, when everything was fixed, he rang the bell for all he was worth.  What happened afterward you know.  And so, gentlemen, you can do what you please; but I’ve told you the truth and the whole truth, so help me God!  What I ask you now is how do I stand by the English law?”

There was a silence which was broken by Sherlock Holmes.

“The English law is in the main a just law.  You will get no worse than your deserts from that, Mr. Douglas.  But I would ask you how did this man know that you lived here, or how to get into your house, or where to hide to get you?”

“I know nothing of this.”

Holmes’s face was very white and grave.  “The story is not over yet, I fear,” said he.  “You may find worse dangers than the English law, or even than your enemies from America.  I see trouble before you, Mr. Douglas.  You’ll take my advice and still be on your guard.”

And now, my long-suffering readers, I will ask you to come away with me for a time, far from the Sussex Manor House of Birlstone, and far also from the year of grace in which we made our eventful journey which ended with the strange story of the man who had been known as John Douglas.  I wish you to journey back some twenty years in time, and westward some thousands of miles in space, that I may lay before you a singular and terrible narrative—­so singular and so terrible that you may find it hard to believe that even as I tell it, even so did it occur.