can say nothing. Mind you, she is a truthful woman, Mr.
Holmes, and whatever trouble there may have been in her
past life it has been no fault of hers. I am only a simple
Norfolk squire, but there is not a man in England who ranks
his family honour more highly than I do. She knows it
well, and she knew it well before she married me. She
would never bring any stain upon it -- of that I am sure.
"Well, now I come to the queer part of my story. About a
week ago -- it was the Tuesday of last week -- I found on
one of the window-sills a number of absurd little dancing
figures, like these upon the paper. They were scrawled
with chalk. I thought that it was the stable-boy who had
drawn them, but the lad swore he knew nothing about it.
Anyhow, they had come there during the night. I had them
washed out, and I only mentioned the matter to my wife
afterwards. To my surprise she took it very seriously, and
begged me if any more came to let her see them. None did
come for a week, and then yesterday morning I found this
paper lying on the sun-dial in the garden. I showed it to
Elsie, and down she dropped in a dead faint. Since then
she has looked like a woman in a dream, half dazed, and
with terror always lurking in her eyes. It was then that I
wrote and sent the paper to you, Mr. Holmes. It was not a
thing that I could take to the police, for they would have
laughed at me, but you will tell me what to do. I am not a
rich man; but if there is any danger threatening my little
woman I would spend my last copper to shield her."
He was a fine creature, this man of the old English soil,
simple, straight, and gentle, with his great, earnest blue
eyes and broad, comely face. His love for his wife and his
trust in her shone in his features. Holmes had listened to
his story with the utmost attention, and now he sat for
some time in silent thought.
"Don't you think, Mr. Cubitt," said he, at last, "that your
best plan would be to make a direct appeal to your wife,
and to ask her to share her secret with you?"
Hilton Cubitt shook his massive head.
"A promise is a promise, Mr. Holmes. If Elsie wished to
tell me she would. If not, it is not for me to force her
confidence. But I am justified in taking my own line --
and I will."
"Then I will help you with all my heart. In the first
place, have you heard of any strangers being seen in your
neighbourhood?"
"No."
"I presume that it is a very quiet place. Any fresh face
would cause comment?"
"In the immediate neighbourhood, yes. But we have several
small watering-places not very far away. And the farmers
take in lodgers."
"These hieroglyphics have evidently a meaning. If it is a
purely arbitrary one it may be impossible for us to solve
it. If, on the other hand, it is systematic, I have no
doubt that we shall get to the bottom of it. But this
particular sample is so short that I can do nothing, and
the facts which you have brought me are so indefinite that
we have no basis for an investigation. I would suggest
that you return to Norfolk, that you keep a keen look-out,
and that you take an exact copy of any fresh dancing men
which may appear. It is a thousand pities that we have not
a reproduction of those which were done in chalk upon the
window-sill. Make a discreet inquiry also as to any
strangers in the neighbourhood. When you have collected
some fresh evidence come to me again. That is the best
advice which I can give you, Mr. Hilton Cubitt. If there
are any pressing fresh developments I shall be always ready
to run down and see you in your Norfolk home."
The interview left Sherlock Holmes very thoughtful, and
several times in the next few days I saw him take his slip
of paper from his note-book and look long and earnestly at
the curious figures inscribed upon it. He made no allusion
to the affair, however, until one afternoon a fortnight or
so later. I was going out when he called me back.
"You had better stay here, Watson."
"Why?"
"Because I had a wire from Hilton Cubitt this morning --
you remember Hilton Cubitt, of the dancing men? He was to
reach Liverpool Street at one-twenty. He may be here at
any moment. I gather from his wire that there have been
some new incidents of importance."
We had not long to wait, for our Norfolk squire came
straight from the station as fast as a hansom could bring
him. He was looking worried and depressed, with tired eyes
and a lined forehead.
"It's getting on my nerves, this business, Mr. Holmes,"
said he, as he sank, like a wearied man, into an arm-chair.
"It's bad enough to feel that you are surrounded by unseen,
unknown folk, who have some kind of design upon you; but
when, in addition to that, you know that it is just killing
your wife by inches, then it becomes as much as flesh and
blood can endure. She's wearing away under it -- just
wearing away before my eyes."
"Has she said anything yet?"
"No, Mr. Holmes, she has not. And yet there have been
times when the poor girl has wanted to speak, and yet could
not quite bring herself to take the plunge. I have tried
to help her; but I dare say I did it clumsily, and scared
her off from it. She has spoken about my old family, and
our reputation in the county, and our pride in our
unsullied honour, and I always felt it was leading to the
point; but somehow it turned off before we got there."
"But you have found out something for yourself?"
"A good deal, Mr. Holmes. I have several fresh dancing men
pictures for you to examine, and, what is more important, I
have seen the fellow."
"What, the man who draws them?"
"Yes, I saw him at his work. But I will tell you
everything in order. When I got back after my visit to
you, the very first thing I saw next morning was a fresh
crop of dancing men. They had been drawn in chalk upon the
black wooden door of the tool-house, which stands beside
the lawn in full view of the front windows. I took an
exact copy, and here it is." He unfolded a paper and laid
it upon the table. Here is a copy of the hieroglyphics:--
{GRAPHIC}
"Excellent!" said Holmes. "Excellent! Pray continue."
"When I had taken the copy I rubbed out the marks; but two
mornings later a fresh inscription had appeared. I have a
copy of it here":--
{GRAPHIC}
Holmes rubbed his hands and chuckled with delight.
"Our material is rapidly accumulating," said he.
"Three days later a message was left scrawled upon paper,
and placed under a pebble upon the sun-dial. Here it is.
The characters are, as you see, exactly the same as th
e
last one. After that I determined to lie in wait; so I got
out my revolver and I sat up in my study, which overlooks
the lawn and garden. About two in the morning I was seated
by the window, all being dark save for the moonlight
outside, when I heard steps behind me, and there was my
wife in her dressing-gown. She implored me to come to bed.
I told her frankly that I wished to see who it was who
played such absurd tricks upon us. She answered that it
was some senseless practical joke, and that I should not
take any notice of it.
"'If it really annoys you, Hilton, we might go and travel,
you and I, and so avoid this nuisance.'
"'What, be driven out of our own house by a practical
joker?' said I. 'Why, we should have the whole county
laughing at us.'
"'Well, come to bed,' said she, 'and we can discuss it in
the morning.'
"Suddenly, as she spoke, I saw her white face grow whiter
yet in the moonlight, and her hand tightened upon my
shoulder. Something was moving in the shadow of the
tool-house. I saw a dark, creeping figure which crawled
round the corner and squatted in front of the door.
Seizing my pistol I was rushing out, when my wife threw her
arms round me and held me with convulsive strength. I
tried to throw her off, but she clung to me most
desperately. At last I got clear, but by the time I had
opened the door and reached the house the creature was
gone. He had left a trace of his presence, however, for
there on the door was the very same arrangement of dancing
men which had already twice appeared, and which I have
copied on that paper. There was no other sign of the
fellow anywhere, though I ran all over the grounds. And
yet the amazing thing is that he must have been there all
the time, for when I examined the door again in the morning
he had scrawled some more of his pictures under the line
which I had already seen."
"Have you that fresh drawing?"
"Yes; it is very short, but I made a copy of it, and here
it is."
Again he produced a paper. The new dance was in this form:--
{GRAPHIC}
"Tell me," said Holmes -- and I could see by his eyes that
he was much excited -- "was this a mere addition to the
first, or did it appear to be entirely separate?"
"It was on a different panel of the door."
"Excellent! This is far the most important of all for our
purpose. It fills me with hopes. Now, Mr. Hilton Cubitt,
please continue your most interesting statement."
"I have nothing more to say, Mr. Holmes, except that I was
angry with my wife that night for having held me back when
I might have caught the skulking rascal. She said that she
feared that I might come to harm. For an instant it had
crossed my mind that perhaps what she really feared was
that _he_ might come to harm, for I could not doubt that
she knew who this man was and what he meant by these
strange signals. But there is a tone in my wife's voice,
Mr. Holmes, and a look in her eyes which forbid doubt, and
I am sure that it was indeed my own safety that was in her
mind. There's the whole case, and now I want your advice
as to what I ought to do. My own inclination is to put
half-a-dozen of my farm lads in the shrubbery, and when
this fellow comes again to give him such a hiding that he
will leave us in peace for the future."
"I fear it is too deep a case for such simple remedies,"
said Holmes. "How long can you stay in London?"
"I must go back to-day. I would not leave my wife alone
all night for anything. She is very nervous and begged me
to come back."
"I dare say you are right. But if you could have stopped I
might possibly have been able to return with you in a day
or two. Meanwhile you will leave me these papers, and I
think that it is very likely that I shall be able to pay
you a visit shortly and to throw some light upon your
case."
Sherlock Holmes preserved his calm professional manner
until our visitor had left us, although it was easy for me,
who knew him so well, to see that he was profoundly
excited. The moment that Hilton Cubitt's broad back had
disappeared through the door my comrade rushed to the
table, laid out all the slips of paper containing dancing
men in front of him, and threw himself into an intricate
and elaborate calculation. For two hours I watched him as
he covered sheet after sheet of paper with figures and
letters, so completely absorbed in his task that he had
evidently forgotten my presence. Sometimes he was making
progress and whistled and sang at his work; sometimes he
was puzzled, and would sit for long spells with a furrowed
brow and a vacant eye. Finally he sprang from his chair
with a cry of satisfaction, and walked up and down the room
rubbing his hands together. Then he wrote a long telegram
upon a cable form. "If my answer to this is as I hope, you
will have a very pretty case to add to your collection,
Watson," said he. "I expect that we shall be able to go
down to Norfolk to-morrow, and to take our friend some very
definite news as to the secret of his annoyance."
I confess that I was filled with curiosity, but I was aware
that Holmes liked to make his disclosures at his own time
and in his own way; so I waited until it should suit him to
take me into his confidence.
But there was a delay in that answering telegram, and two
days of impatience followed, during which Holmes pricked up
his ears at every ring of the bell. On the evening of the
second there came a letter from Hilton Cubitt. All was
quiet with him, save that a long inscription had appeared
that morning upon the pedestal of the sun-dial. He
enclosed a copy of it, which is here reproduced:--
{GRAPHIC}
Holmes bent over this grotesque frieze for some minutes,
and then suddenly sprang to his feet with an exclamation of
surprise and dismay. His face was haggard with anxiety.
"We have let this affair go far enough," said he. "Is
there a train to North Walsham to-night?"
I turned up the time-table. The last had just gone.
"Then we shall breakfast early and take the very first in
the morning," said Holmes. "Our presence is most urgently
needed. Ah! here is our expected cablegram. One moment,
Mrs. Hudson; there may be an answer. No, that is quite as
I expected. This message makes it even more essential that
we should not lose an hour in letting Hilton Cubitt know
how matters stand, for it is a singular and a dangerous web
in which our simple Norfolk squire is entangled."
So, indeed, it proved, and as I come to the dark conclusion
of a story which had seemed to me to be only childish and
&
nbsp; bizarre I experience once again the dismay and horror with
which I was filled. Would that I had some brighter ending
to communicate to my readers, but these are the chronicles
of fact, and I must follow to their dark crisis the strange
chain of events which for some days made Ridling Thorpe
Manor a household word through the length and breadth of
England.
We had hardly alighted at North Walsham, and mentioned the
name of our destination, when the station-master hurried
towards us. "I suppose that you are the detectives from
London?" said he.
A look of annoyance passed over Holmes's face.
"What makes you think such a thing?"
"Because Inspector Martin from Norwich has just passed
through. But maybe you are the surgeons. She's not dead --
or wasn't by last accounts. You may be in time to save
her yet -- though it be for the gallows."
Holmes's brow was dark with anxiety.
"We are going to Ridling Thorpe Manor," said he, "but we
have heard nothing of what has passed there."
"It's a terrible business," said the station-master. "They
are shot, both Mr. Hilton Cubitt and his wife. She shot
him and then herself -- so the servants say. He's dead and
her life is despaired of. Dear, dear, one of the oldest
families in the County of Norfolk, and one of the most
honoured."
Without a word Holmes hurried to a carriage, and during the
long seven miles' drive he never opened his mouth. Seldom
have I seen him so utterly despondent. He had been uneasy
during all our journey from town, and I had observed that
he had turned over the morning papers with anxious
attention; but now this sudden realization of his worst
fears left him in a blank melancholy. He leaned back in
his seat, lost in gloomy speculation. Yet there was much
around us to interest us, for we were passing through as
singular a country-side as any in England, where a few
scattered cottages represented the population of to-day,
while on every hand enormous square-towered churches
bristled up from the flat, green landscape and told of the
glory and prosperity of old East Anglia. At last the
violet rim of the German Ocean appeared over the green edge
of the Norfolk coast, and the driver pointed with his whip
to two old brick and timber gables which projected from a
grove of trees. "That's Ridling Thorpe Manor," said he.
As we drove up to the porticoed front door I observed in
front of it, beside the tennis lawn, the black tool-house
and the pedestalled sun-dial with which we had such strange
associations. A dapper little man, with a quick, alert
manner and a waxed moustache, had just descended from a
high dog-cart. He introduced himself as Inspector Martin,
of the Norfolk Constabulary, and he was considerably
astonished when he heard the name of my companion.
"Why, Mr. Holmes, the crime was only committed at three
this morning. How could you hear of it in London and get
to the spot as soon as I?"
"I anticipated it. I came in the hope of preventing it."
"Then you must have important evidence of which we are
ignorant, for they were said to be a most united couple."
"I have only the evidence of the dancing men," said Holmes.
"I will explain the matter to you later. Meanwhile, since
it is too late to prevent this tragedy, I am very anxious
that I should use the knowledge which I possess in order to
ensure that justice be done. Will you associate me in your
investigation, or will you prefer that I should act
independently?"
"I should be proud to feel that we were acting together,
Mr. Holmes," said the inspector, earnestly.
"In that case I should be glad to hear the evidence and to
examine the premises without an instant of unnecessary
delay."
Inspector Martin had the good sense to allow my friend to
do things in his own fashion, and contented himself with
carefully noting the results. The local surgeon, an old,