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"What time was that?"

"It was ten o'clock.

And now he is dead, and the police will be called in, and I shall be suspected of having had a hand in it.

Oh, yes, I am sure I shall.

But you don't think so, gentlemen? Surely you don't think that it was l? Is it likely that I would have brought you here if it were l? Oh, dear! oh, dear! I know that I shall go mad!"

He jerked his arms and stamped his feet in a kind of convulsive frenzy.

"You have no reason for fear, Mr. Sholto," said Holmes kindly, putting his hand upon his shoulder; "take my advice and drive down to the station to report the matter to the police. Offer to assist them in every way. We shall wait here until your return."

The little man obeyed in a half-stupefied fashion, and we heard him stumbling down the stairs in the dark.

"Now, Watson," said Holmes, rubbing his hands, "we have half an hour to ourselves. Let us make good use of it. My case is, as I have told you, almost complete; but we must not err on the side of overconfidence. Simple as the case seems now, there may be something deeper underlying it."

"Simple!" I ejaculated.

"Surely," said he with something of the air of a clinical professor expounding to his class.

"Just sit in the corner there, that your footprints may not complicate matters.

Now to work! In the first place, how did these folk come and how did they go? The door has not been opened since last night.

How of the window?" He carried the lamp across to it, muttering his observations aloud the while but addressing them to himself rather than to me.

"Window is snibbed on the inner side.

Frame-work is solid.

No hinges at the side.

Let us open it.

No water-pipe near.

Roof quite out of reach.

Yet a man has mounted by the window.

It rained a little last night.

Here is the print of a foot in mould upon the sill.

And here is a circular muddy mark, and here again upon the floor, and here again by the table.

Chapter 6. Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration

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