s that I have ever seen.

"'That was there when your ritual was drawn up,' said I, as we drove
past it.

"'It was there at the Norman Conquest in all probability,' he answered.
'It has a girth of twenty-three feet.'

"'Have you any old elms?' I asked.

"'There used to be a very old one over yonder but it was struck by
lightning ten years ago, and we cut down the stump.'

"'You can see where it used to be?'

"'Oh, yes.'

"'There are no other elms?'

"'No old ones, but plenty of beeches.'

"'I should like to see where it grew.'

"We had driven up in a dog-cart, and my client led me away at once,
without our entering the house, to the scar on the lawn where the
elm had stood. It was nearly midway between the oak and the house. My
investigation seemed to be progressing.

"'I suppose it is impossible to find out how high the elm was?' I asked.

"'I can give you it at once. It was sixty-four feet.'

"'How do you come to know it?' I asked, in surprise.

"'When my old tutor used to give me an exercise in trigonometry, it
always took the shape of measuring heights. When I was a lad I worked
out every tree and building in the estate.'

"This was an unexpected piece of luck. My data were coming more quickly
than I could have reasonably hoped.

"'Tell me,' I asked, 'did your butler ever ask you such a question?'

"Reginald Musgrave looked at me in astonishment. 'Now that you call it
to my mind,' he answered, 'Brunton did ask me about the height of the
tree some months ago, in connection with some little argument with the
groom.'

"This was excellent news, Watson, for it showed me that I was on the
right road. I looked up at the sun. It was low in the heavens, and I
calculated that in less than an hour it would lie just above the topmost
branches of the old oak. One condition mentioned in the Ritual would
then be fulfilled. And the shadow of the elm must mean the farther end
of the shadow, otherwise the trunk would have been chosen as the guide.
I had, then, to find where the far end of the shadow would fall when the
sun was just clear of the oak."

"That must have been difficult, Holmes, when the elm was no longer
there."

"Well, at least I knew that if Brunton could do it, I could also.
Besides, there was no real difficulty. I went with Musgrave to his study
and whittled myself this peg, to which I tied this long string with a
knot at each yard. Then I took two lengths of a fishing-rod, which came
to jus