ing. "You are
the historian of this bunch. Well, Dr. Watson, you've never had such a
story as that pass through your hands before, and I'll lay my last
dollar on that. Tell it your own way; but there are the facts, and you
can't miss the public so long as you have those. I've been cooped up
two days, and I've spent the daylight hours--as much daylight as I
could get in that rat trap--in putting the thing into words. You're
welcome to them--you and your public. There's the story of the Valley
of Fear."

"That's the past, Mr. Douglas," said Sherlock Holmes quietly. "What we
desire now is to hear your story of the present."

"You'll have it, sir," said Douglas. "May I smoke as I talk? Well,
thank you, Mr. Holmes. You're a smoker yourself, if I remember right,
and you'll guess what it is to be sitting for two days with tobacco in
your pocket and afraid that the smell will give you away." He leaned
against the mantelpiece and sucked at the cigar which Holmes had handed
him. "I've heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I never guessed that I should meet
you. But before you are through with that," he nodded at my papers,
"you will say I've brought you something fresh."

Inspector MacDonald had been staring at the newcomer with the greatest
amazement. "Well, this fairly beats me!" he cried at last. "If you are
Mr. John Douglas of Birlstone Manor, then whose death have we been
investigating for these two days, and where in the world have you
sprung from now? You seemed to me to come out of the floor like a
jack-in-a-box."

"Ah, Mr. Mac," said Holmes, shaking a reproving forefinger, "you would
not read that excellent local compilation which described the
concealment of King Charles. People did not hide in those days without
excellent hiding places, and the hiding place that has once been used
may be again. I had persuaded myself that we should find Mr. Douglas
under this roof."

"And how long have you been playing this trick upon us, Mr. Holmes?"
said the inspector angrily. "How long have you allowed us to waste
ourselves upon a search that you knew to be an absurd one?"

"Not one instant, my dear Mr. Mac. Only last night did I form my views
of the case. As they could not be put to the proof until this evening,
I invited you and your colleague to take a holiday for the day. Pray
what more could I do? When I found the suit of clothes in the moat, it
at once became apparent to me that the body we had found could not have
been the body o