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"All would now have been well for them had it not been for my knowledge of what they had done.

I have no doubt that there were times when my life hung in the balance.

I was confined to my room, terrorized by the most horrible threats, cruelly ill-used to break my spirit-see this stab on my shoulder and the bruises from end to end of my arms-and a gag was thrust into my mouth on the one occasion when I tried to call from the window.

For five days this cruel imprisonment continued, with hardly enough food to hold body and soul together.

This afternoon a good lunch was brought me, but the moment after I took it I knew that I had been drugged.

In a sort of dream I remember being half-led, half-carried to the carriage; in the same state I was conveyed to the train.

Only then, when the wheels were almost moving, did I suddenly realize that my liberty lay in my own hands.

I sprang out, they tried to drag me back, and had it not been for the help of this good man, who led me to the cab, I should never had broken away.

Now, thank God, I am beyond their power forever."

We had all listened intently to this remarkable statement. It was Holmes who broke the silence.

"Our difficulties are not over," he remarked, shaking his head. "Our police work ends, but our legal work begins."

"Exactly," said I. "A plausible lawyer could make it out as an act of self-defence. There may be a hundred crimes in the background, but it is only on this one that they can be tried."

"Come, come," said Baynes cheerily, "I think better of the law than that.

Self-defence is one thing.

To entice a man in cold blood with the object of murdering him is another, whatever danger you may fear from him.

No, no, we shall all be justified when we see the tenants of High Gable at the next Guildford Assizes."

It is a matter of history, however, that a little time was still to elapse before the Tiger of San Pedro should meet with his deserts.

Wily and bold, he and his companion threw their pursuer off their track by entering a lodging-house in Edmonton Street and leaving by the back-gate into Curzon Square.

From that day they were seen no more in England.

Some six months afterwards the Marquess of Montalva and Signor Rulli, his secretary, were both murdered in their rooms at the Hotel Escurial at Madrid.

The crime was ascribed to Nihilism, and the murderers were never arrested.

Inspector Baynes visited us at Baker Street with a printed description of the dark face of the secretary, and of the masterful features, the magnetic black eyes, and the tufted brows of his master.

We could not doubt that justice, if belated, had come at last.

"A chaotic case, my dear Watson," said Holmes over an evening pipe.

"It will not be possible for you to present in that compact form which is dear to your heart.

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