naged;
for even the rawest investigators must be struck by the absence of the
usual feminine ululation. If there had been nothing else, this incident
alone would have suggested a prearranged conspiracy to my mind."

"You think then, definitely, that Barker and Mrs. Douglas are guilty of
the murder?"

"There is an appalling directness about your questions, Watson," said
Holmes, shaking his pipe at me. "They come at me like bullets. If you
put it that Mrs. Douglas and Barker know the truth about the murder, and
are conspiring to conceal it, then I can give you a whole-souled answer.
I am sure they do. But your more deadly proposition is not so clear. Let
us for a moment consider the difficulties which stand in the way.

"We will suppose that this couple are united by the bonds of a guilty
love, and that they have determined to get rid of the man who stands
between them. It is a large supposition; for discreet inquiry among
servants and others has failed to corroborate it in any way. On the
contrary, there is a good deal of evidence that the Douglases were very
attached to each other."

"That, I am sure, cannot be true," said I, thinking of the beautiful
smiling face in the garden.

"Well at least they gave that impression. However, we will suppose that
they are an extraordinarily astute couple, who deceive everyone upon
this point, and conspire to murder the husband. He happens to be a man
over whose head some danger hangs--"

"We have only their word for that."

Holmes looked thoughtful. "I see, Watson. You are sketching out a theory
by which everything they say from the beginning is false. According
to your idea, there was never any hidden menace, or secret society, or
Valley of Fear, or Boss MacSomebody, or anything else. Well, that is a
good sweeping generalization. Let us see what that brings us to. They
invent this theory to account for the crime. They then play up to the
idea by leaving this bicycle in the park as proof of the existence of
some outsider. The stain on the windowsill conveys the same idea. So
does the card on the body, which might have been prepared in the house.
That all fits into your hypothesis, Watson. But now we come on the
nasty, angular, uncompromising bits which won't slip into their places.
Why a cut-off shotgun of all weapons--and an American one at that? How
could they be so sure that the sound of it would not bring someone on to
them? It's a mere chance as it is that Mrs. Allen di