olmes?" asked Hopkins.

"I will not impose any further tax upon Lady Brackenstall's patience and
time," said Holmes. "Before I go into the dining-room I should like to
hear your experience." He looked at the maid.

"I saw the men before ever they came into the house," said she. "As I
sat by my bedroom window I saw three men in the moonlight down by the
lodge gate yonder, but I thought nothing of it at the time. It was more
than an hour after that I heard my mistress scream, and down I ran, to
find her, poor lamb, just as she says, and him on the floor with his
blood and brains over the room. It was enough to drive a woman out of
her wits, tied there, and her very dress spotted with him; but she never
wanted courage, did Miss Mary Fraser of Adelaide, and Lady Brackenstall
of Abbey Grange hasn't learned new ways. You've questioned her long
enough, you gentlemen, and now she is coming to her own room, just with
her old Theresa, to get the rest that she badly needs."

With a motherly tenderness the gaunt woman put her arm round her
mistress and led her from the room.

"She has been with her all her life," said Hopkins. "Nursed her as
a baby, and came with her to England when they first left Australia
eighteen months ago. Theresa Wright is her name, and the kind of maid
you don't pick up nowadays. This way, Mr. Holmes, if you please!"

The keen interest had passed out of Holmes's expressive face, and I
knew that with the mystery all the charm of the case had departed. There
still remained an arrest to be effected, but what were these commonplace
rogues that he should soil his hands with them? An abstruse and learned
specialist who finds that he has been called in for a case of measles
would experience something of the annoyance which I read in my
friend's eyes. Yet the scene in the dining-room of the Abbey Grange was
sufficiently strange to arrest his attention and to recall his waning
interest.

It was a very large and high chamber, with carved oak ceiling, oaken
panelling, and a fine array of deer's heads and ancient weapons around
the walls. At the farther end from the door was the high French window
of which we had heard. Three smaller windows on the right-hand side
filled the apartment with cold winter sunshine. On the left was a large,
deep fireplace, with a massive, over-hanging oak mantelpiece. Beside
the fireplace was a heavy oaken chair with arms and cross-bars at the
bottom. In and out through the open woodw