from the gate with a
hunting-crop swinging in his hand.

"What's this, Dawson!" he cried. "No gossiping! Go about your business!
And you, what the devil do you want here?"

"Ten minutes' talk with you, my good sir," said Holmes in the sweetest
of voices.

"I've no time to talk to every gadabout. We want no stranger here. Be
off, or you may find a dog at your heels."

Holmes leaned forward and whispered something in the trainer's ear. He
started violently and flushed to the temples.

"It's a lie!" he shouted, "an infernal lie!"

"Very good. Shall we argue about it here in public or talk it over in
your parlor?"

"Oh, come in if you wish to."

Holmes smiled. "I shall not keep you more than a few minutes, Watson,"
said he. "Now, Mr. Brown, I am quite at your disposal."

It was twenty minutes, and the reds had all faded into grays before
Holmes and the trainer reappeared. Never have I seen such a change as
had been brought about in Silas Brown in that short time. His face was
ashy pale, beads of perspiration shone upon his brow, and his hands
shook until the hunting-crop wagged like a branch in the wind. His
bullying, overbearing manner was all gone too, and he cringed along at
my companion's side like a dog with its master.

"Your instructions will be done. It shall all be done," said he.

"There must be no mistake," said Holmes, looking round at him. The other
winced as he read the menace in his eyes.

"Oh no, there shall be no mistake. It shall be there. Should I change it
first or not?"

Holmes thought a little and then burst out laughing. "No, don't," said
he; "I shall write to you about it. No tricks, now, or--"

"Oh, you can trust me, you can trust me!"

"Yes, I think I can. Well, you shall hear from me to-morrow." He turned
upon his heel, disregarding the trembling hand which the other held out
to him, and we set off for King's Pyland.

"A more perfect compound of the bully, coward, and sneak than Master
Silas Brown I have seldom met with," remarked Holmes as we trudged along
together.

"He has the horse, then?"

"He tried to bluster out of it, but I described to him so exactly what
his actions had been upon that morning that he is convinced that I was
watching him. Of course you observed the peculiarly square toes in the
impressions, and that his own boots exactly corresponded to them.
Again, of course no subordinate would have dared to do such a thing.
I described to him how, when accordin