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"Someone has tried to force this also. Whoever it was has failed to make his way in. He must have been a very poor burglar."

"This is a most extraordinary thing," said the inspector; "I could swear that these marks were not here yesterday evening."

"Some curious person from the village, perhaps," I suggested.

"Very unlikely. Few of them would dare to set foot in the grounds, far less try to force their way into the cabin. What do you think of it, Mr. Holmes?"

"I think that fortune is very kind to us."

"You mean that the person will come again?"

"It is very probable. He came expecting to find the door open. He tried to get in with the blade of a very small penknife. He could not manage it. What would he do?"

"Come again next night with a more useful tool."

"So I should say. It will be our fault if we are not there to receive him. Meanwhile, let me see the inside of the cabin."

The traces of the tragedy had been removed, but the furniture within the little room still stood as it had been on the night of the crime.

For two hours, with most intense concentration, Holmes examined every object in turn, but his face showed that his quest was not a successful one.

Once only he paused in his patient investigation.

"Have you taken anything off this shelf, Hopkins?"

"No; I have moved nothing."

"Something has been taken.

There is less dust in this corner of the shelf than elsewhere.

It may have been a book lying on its side.

It may have been a box.

Well, well, I can do nothing more.

Let us walk in these beautiful woods, Watson, and give a few hours to the birds and the flowers.

We shall meet you here later, Hopkins, and see if we can come to closer quarters with the gentleman who has paid this visit in the night."

It was past eleven o'clock when we formed our little ambuscade.

Hopkins was for leaving the door of the hut open, but Holmes was of the opinion that this would rouse the suspicions of the stranger.

The lock was a perfectly simple one, and only a strong blade was needed to push it back.

Holmes also suggested that we should wait, not inside the hut, but outside it among the bushes which grew round the farther window.

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