my
patient's objections to any experiments that might be deemed advisable
on her dog. I meant something much more serious than that. I have
known you only a few hours, Mr. Ewart; but nobody need tell me you are
anything of a fool, unless he wants a very flat contradiction. You are
looking at this affair from a personal point of view--and no wonder,
either. But if you were not so worried about your _fiancee_ your brain
would have grasped my point at once. That is why I want you to send
for a friend."

"I will," I promised solemnly. "Now tell me--what did you mean?"

"When I said I was the cause of the dog's disappearance, I meant that
if I hadn't arrived on the scene the dog would never have been
touched. The dog was taken by someone who knew he was blind, who knew
that I would experiment on him, and who was determined to get there
first."

"But," I exclaimed, "that would be carrying professional jealousy a
bit too far--if that's what you mean!"

"It would be carrying it so far that we can rule it out of court," he
answered. "So that's what I don't mean. Let's go back and analyse the
occurrence. I say the dog was not stolen by poachers, because of the
chloroform; you said the same yourself. I say that the thief knew the
dog was blind, because he knew he was in a darkened room above the
coach-house, and he stole him from there. A poacher would have gone to
the kennel, and found it empty--and that would have been the end of
that. But the man who knew the dog was in a special room must have
known why he was there; and it seems to me that the man who steals a
blind dog steals him because, for some reason or other, he wants a
blind dog--that very one, probably. Have you got me?"

"Yes," I said, "I follow you so far. Go on." And I was surprised to
find how relieved I was at this suggested complication. I felt that if
we could only attribute this amazing week of mysteries to some human
agent I should be able to grapple with it.

"Now I come to my main point," Garnesk continued, "and it's this: The
man who wanted Sholto because he was blind wanted him to experiment
on. But no professional man would do a thing like that, even supposing
there to be one about. That motive again is ruled out of court. There
remains one possible solution----"

"Well?" I asked breathlessly, for even now I failed to grasp the
conclusion my scientific companion could be coming to. "Go on!"

"If this thief did not want Sholto to experiment on h