enant of mine, and James acted as agent. The fellow was a rascal from
the beginning, but, in some extraordinary way, James became intimate
with him. He had always a taste for low company. When James determined
to kidnap Lord Saltire, it was of this man's service that he availed
himself. You remember that I wrote to Arthur upon that last day. Well,
James opened the letter and inserted a note asking Arthur to meet him
in a little wood called the Ragged Shaw, which is near to the school.
He used the Duchess's name, and in that way got the boy to come. That
evening James bicycled over--I am telling you what he has himself
confessed to me--and he told Arthur, whom he met in the wood, that his
mother longed to see him, that she was awaiting him on the moor, and
that if he would come back into the wood at midnight he would find a man
with a horse, who would take him to her. Poor Arthur fell into the trap.
He came to the appointment, and found this fellow Hayes with a led pony.
Arthur mounted, and they set off together. It appears--though this James
only heard yesterday--that they were pursued, that Hayes struck the
pursuer with his stick, and that the man died of his injuries. Hayes
brought Arthur to his public-house, the Fighting Cock, where he was
confined in an upper room, under the care of Mrs. Hayes, who is a kindly
woman, but entirely under the control of her brutal husband.

"Well, Mr. Holmes, that was the state of affairs when I first saw you
two days ago. I had no more idea of the truth than you. You will ask me
what was James's motive in doing such a deed. I answer that there was
a great deal which was unreasoning and fanatical in the hatred which
he bore my heir. In his view he should himself have been heir of all
my estates, and he deeply resented those social laws which made it
impossible. At the same time, he had a definite motive also. He was
eager that I should break the entail, and he was of opinion that it lay
in my power to do so. He intended to make a bargain with me--to restore
Arthur if I would break the entail, and so make it possible for the
estate to be left to him by will. He knew well that I should never
willingly invoke the aid of the police against him. I say that he would
have proposed such a bargain to me, but he did not actually do so, for
events moved too quickly for him, and he had not time to put his plans
into practice.

"What brought all his wicked scheme to wreck was your discovery of this