since there was no flag --
to be a single word. here are the symbols. now, in the
single word i have already got the two e's coming second
and fourth in a word of five letters. it might be 'sever,'
or 'lever,' or 'never.' there can be no question that the
latter as a reply to an appeal is far the most probable,
and the circumstances pointed to its being a reply written
by the lady. accepting it as correct, we are now able to
say that the symbols
{graphic}
stand respectively for n, v, and r.
"even now i was in considerable difficulty, but a happy
thought put me in possession of several other letters. it
occurred to me that if these appeals came, as i expected,
from someone who had been intimate with the lady in her
early life, a combination which contained two e's with
three letters between might very well stand for the name
'elsie.' on examination i found that such a combination
formed the termination of the message which was three times
repeated. it was certainly some appeal to 'elsie.' in
this way i had got my l, s, and i. but what appeal could
it be? there were only four letters in the word which
preceded 'elsie,' and it ended in e. surely the word must
be 'come.' i tried all other four letters ending in e, but
could find none to fit the case. so now i was in
possession of c, o, and m, and i was in a position to
attack the first message once more, dividing it into words
and putting dots for each symbol which was still unknown.
so treated it worked out in this fashion:--
.m .ere ..e sl.ne.
"now the first letter _can_ only be a, which is a most
useful discovery, since it occurs no fewer than three times
in this short sentence, and the h is also apparent in the
second word. now it becomes:--
am here a.e slane.
or, filling in the obvious vacancies in the name:--
am here abe slaney.
i had so many letters now that i could proceed with
considerable confidence to the second message, which worked
out in this fashion:--
a. elri.es.
here i could only make sense by putting t and g for the
missing letters, and supposing that the name was that of
some house or inn at which the writer was staying."
inspector martin and i had listened with the utmost
interest to the full and clear account of how my friend had
produced results which had led to so complete a command
over our difficulties.
"what did you do then, sir?" asked the inspector.
"i had every reason to suppose that this abe slaney was an
american, since abe is an american contraction, and since a
letter from america had been the starting-point of all the
trouble. i had also every cause to think that there was
some criminal secret in the matter. the lady's allusions
to her past and her refusal to take her husband into her
confidence both pointed in that direction. i therefore
cabled to my friend, wilson hargreave, of the new york
police bureau, who has more than once made use of my
knowledge of london crime. i asked him whether the name of
abe slaney was known to him. here is his reply: 'the most
dangerous crook in chicago.' on the very evening upon
which i had his answer hilton cubitt sent me the last
message from slaney. working with known letters it took
this form:--
elsie .re.are to meet thy go.
the addition of a p and a d completed a message which
showed me that the rascal was proceeding from persuasion to
threats, and my knowledge of the crooks of chicago prepared
me to find that he might very rapidly put his words into
action. i at once came to norfolk with my friend and
colleague, dr. watson, but, unhappily, only in time to find
that the worst had already occurred."
"it is a privilege to be associated with you in the
handling of a case," said the inspector, warmly. "you will
excuse me, however, if i speak frankly to you. you are
only answerable to yourself, but i have to answer to my
superiors. if this abe slaney, living at elrige's, is
indeed the murderer, and if he has made his escape while i
am seated here, i should certainly get into serious
trouble."
"you need not be uneasy. he will not try to escape."
"how do you know?"
"to fly would be a confession of guilt."
"then let us go to arrest him."
"i expect him here every instant."
"but why should he come?"
"because i have written and asked him."
"but this is incredible, mr. holmes! why should he come
because you have asked him? would not such a request
rather rouse his suspicions and cause him to fly?"
"i think i have known how to frame the letter," said
sherlock holmes. "in fact, if i am not very much mistaken,
here is the gentleman himself coming up the drive."
a man was striding up the path which led to the door. he
was a tall, handsome, swarthy fellow, clad in a suit of
grey flannel, with a panama hat, a bristling black
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