have him, and I dare
swear that before tomorrow night he will be fluttering in our net as
helpless as one of his own butterflies. A pin, a cork, and a card, and
we add him to the Baker Street collection!" He burst into one of his
rare fits of laughter as he turned away from the picture. I have not
heard him laugh often, and it has always boded ill to somebody.

I was up betimes in the morning, but Holmes was afoot earlier still, for
I saw him as I dressed, coming up the drive.

"Yes, we should have a full day today," he remarked, and he rubbed his
hands with the joy of action. "The nets are all in place, and the drag
is about to begin. We'll know before the day is out whether we have
caught our big, leanjawed pike, or whether he has got through the
meshes."

"Have you been on the moor already?"

"I have sent a report from Grimpen to Princetown as to the death of
Selden. I think I can promise that none of you will be troubled in the
matter. And I have also communicated with my faithful Cartwright, who
would certainly have pined away at the door of my hut, as a dog does at
his master's grave, if I had not set his mind at rest about my safety."

"What is the next move?"

"To see Sir Henry. Ah, here he is!"

"Good-morning, Holmes," said the baronet. "You look like a general who
is planning a battle with his chief of the staff."

"That is the exact situation. Watson was asking for orders."

"And so do I."

"Very good. You are engaged, as I understand, to dine with our friends
the Stapletons tonight."

"I hope that you will come also. They are very hospitable people, and I
am sure that they would be very glad to see you."

"I fear that Watson and I must go to London."

"To London?"

"Yes, I think that we should be more useful there at the present
juncture."

The baronet's face perceptibly lengthened.

"I hoped that you were going to see me through this business. The Hall
and the moor are not very pleasant places when one is alone."

"My dear fellow, you must trust me implicitly and do exactly what I tell
you. You can tell your friends that we should have been happy to have
come with you, but that urgent business required us to be in town. We
hope very soon to return to Devonshire. Will you remember to give them
that message?"

"If you insist upon it."

"There is no alternative, I assure you."

I saw by the baronet's clouded brow that he was deeply hurt by what he
regarded as our desertion.

"When