artless creature to sit
laughing at some jest within a few hours of her husband's murder."

"Exactly. She does not shine as a wife even in her own account of what
occurred. I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind, as you are
aware, Watson, but my experience of life has taught me that there are
few wives, having any regard for their husbands, who would let any
man's spoken word stand between them and that husband's dead body.
Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some
feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper
when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her. It was badly
stage-managed; for even the rawest investigators must be struck by the
absence of the usual feminine ululation. If there had been nothing
else, this incident alone would have suggested a prearranged conspiracy
to my mind."

"You think then, definitely, that Barker and Mrs. Douglas are guilty of
the murder?"

"There is an appalling directness about your questions, Watson," said
Holmes, shaking his pipe at me. "They come at me like bullets. If you
put it that Mrs. Douglas and Barker know the truth about the murder,
and are conspiring to conceal it, then I can give you a whole-souled
answer. I am sure they do. But your more deadly proposition is not so
clear. Let us for a moment consider the difficulties which stand in the
way.

"We will suppose that this couple are united by the bonds of a guilty
love, and that they have determined to get rid of the man who stands
between them. It is a large supposition; for discreet inquiry among
servants and others has failed to corroborate it in any way. On the
contrary, there is a good deal of evidence that the Douglases were very
attached to each other."

"That, I am sure, cannot be true." said I, thinking of the beautiful
smiling face in the garden.

"Well at least they gave that impression. However, we will suppose that
they are an extraordinarily astute couple, who deceive everyone upon
this point, and conspire to murder the husband. He happens to be a man
over whose head some danger hangs--"

"We have only their word for that."

Holmes looked thoughtful. "I see, Watson. You are sketching out a
theory by which everything they say from the beginning is false.
According to your idea, there was never any hidden menace, or secret
society, or Valley of Fear, or Boss MacSomebody, or anything else.
Well, that is a good sweeping generalization. Let