m?"
"very lonely, sir."
"perhaps they have not heard yet of all that happened here
during the night?"
"maybe not, sir."
holmes thought for a little and then a curious smile played
over his face.
"saddle a horse, my lad," said he. "i shall wish you to
take a note to elrige's farm."
he took from his pocket the various slips of the dancing
men. with these in front of him he worked for some time at
the study-table. finally he handed a note to the boy, with
directions to put it into the hands of the person to whom
it was addressed, and especially to answer no questions of
any sort which might be put to him. i saw the outside of
the note, addressed in straggling, irregular characters,
very unlike holmes's usual precise hand. it was consigned
to mr. abe slaney, elrige's farm, east ruston, norfolk.
"i think, inspector," holmes remarked, "that you would do
well to telegraph for an escort, as, if my calculations
prove to be correct, you may have a particularly dangerous
prisoner to convey to the county gaol. the boy who takes
this note could no doubt forward your telegram. if there
is an afternoon train to town, watson, i think we should do
well to take it, as i have a chemical analysis of some
interest to finish, and this investigation draws rapidly to
a close."
when the youth had been dispatched with the note, sherlock
holmes gave his instructions to the servants. if any
visitor were to call asking for mrs. hilton cubitt no
information should be given as to her condition, but he was
to be shown at once into the drawing-room. he impressed
these points upon them with the utmost earnestness.
finally he led the way into the drawing-room with the
remark that the business was now out of our hands, and that
we must while away the time as best we might until we could
see what was in store for us. the doctor had departed to
his patients, and only the inspector and myself remained.
"i think that i can help you to pass an hour in an
interesting and profitable manner," said holmes, drawing
his chair up to the table and spreading out in front of him
the various papers upon which were recorded the antics of
the dancing men. "as to you, friend watson, i owe you
every atonement for having allowed your natural curiosity
to remain so long unsatisfied. to you, inspector, the
whole incident may appeal as a remarkable professional
study. i must tell you first of all the interesting
circumstances connected with the previous consultations
which mr. hilton cubitt has had with me in baker street."
he then shortly recapitulated the facts which have already
been recorded. "i have here in front of me these singular
productions, at which one might smile had they not proved
themselves to be the fore-runners of so terrible a tragedy.
i am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and
am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the
subject, in which i analyze one hundred and sixty separate
ciphers; but i confess that this is entirely new to me.
the object of those who invented the system has apparently
been to conceal that these characters convey a message, and
to give the idea that they are the mere random sketches of
children.
"having once recognised, however, that the symbols stood
for letters, and having applied the rules which guide us in
all forms of secret writings, the solution was easy enough.
the first message submitted to me was so short that it was
impossible for me to do more than to say with some
confidence that the symbol
{graphic}
stood for e. as you are aware, e is the most common letter
in the english alphabet, and it predominates to so marked
an extent that even in a short sentence one would expect to
find it most often. out of fifteen symbols in the first
message four were the same, so it was reasonable to set
this down as e. it is true that in some cases the figure
was bearing a flag and in some cases not, but it was
probable from the way in which the flags were distributed
that they were used to break the sentence up into words. i
accepted this as a hypothesis, and noted that e was
represented by
{graphic}
"but now came the real difficulty of the inquiry. the
order of the english letters after e is by no means well
marked, and any preponderance which may be shown in an
average of a printed sheet may be reversed in a single
short sentence. speaking roughly, t, a, o, i, n, s, h, r,
d, and l are the numerical order in which letters occur;
but t, a, o, and i are very nearly abreast of each other,
and it would be an endless task to try each combination
until a meaning was arrived at. i, therefore, waited for
fresh material. in my second interview with mr. hilton
cubitt he was able to give me two other short sentences and
one message, which appeared --
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