and which he thrust into his
pocket when you appeared.'

"'That is true. But what could he have to do with this old family custom
of ours, and what does this rigmarole mean?'

"'I don't think that we should have much difficulty in determining
that,' said I; 'with your permission we will take the first train down
to Sussex, and go a little more deeply into the matter upon the spot.'

"The same afternoon saw us both at Hurlstone. Possibly you have seen
pictures and read descriptions of the famous old building, so I will
confine my account of it to saying that it is built in the shape of
an L, the long arm being the more modern portion, and the shorter the
ancient nucleus, from which the other had developed. Over the low,
heavily-lintelled door, in the centre of this old part, is chiseled the
date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams and stone-work are
really much older than this. The enormously thick walls and tiny windows
of this part had in the last century driven the family into building the
new wing, and the old one was used now as a store-house and a cellar,
when it was used at all. A splendid park with fine old timber surrounds
the house, and the lake, to which my client had referred, lay close to
the avenue, about two hundred yards from the building.

"I was already firmly convinced, Watson, that there were not three
separate mysteries here, but one only, and that if I could read the
Musgrave Ritual aright I should hold in my hand the clue which would
lead me to the truth concerning both the butler Brunton and the maid
Howells. To that then I turned all my energies. Why should this servant
be so anxious to master this old formula? Evidently because he saw
something in it which had escaped all those generations of country
squires, and from which he expected some personal advantage. What was it
then, and how had it affected his fate?

"It was perfectly obvious to me, on reading the ritual, that the
measurements must refer to some spot to which the rest of the document
alluded, and that if we could find that spot, we should be in a fair way
towards finding what the secret was which the old Musgraves had thought
it necessary to embalm in so curious a fashion. There were two guides
given us to start with, an oak and an elm. As to the oak there could be
no question at all. Right in front of the house, upon the left-hand
side of the drive, there stood a patriarch among oaks, one of the most
magnificent tree