n get
for Birlstone, and I will meet it--or have it met if I am too
occupied. This case is a snorter. Don't waste a moment in getting
started. If you can bring Mr. Holmes, please do so; for he will find
something after his own heart. We would think the whole thing had been
fixed up for theatrical effect if there wasn't a dead man in the middle
of it. My word! it is a snorter."

"Your friend seems to be no fool," remarked Holmes.

"No, sir, White Mason is a very live man, if I am any judge."

"Well, have you anything more?"

"Only that he will give us every detail when we meet."

"Then how did you get at Mr. Douglas and the fact that he had been
horribly murdered?"

"That was in the enclosed official report. It didn't say 'horrible':
that's not a recognized official term. It gave the name John Douglas.
It mentioned that his injuries had been in the head, from the discharge
of a shotgun. It also mentioned the hour of the alarm, which was close
on to midnight last night. It added that the case was undoubtedly one
of murder, but that no arrest had been made, and that the case was one
which presented some very perplexing and extraordinary features. That's
absolutely all we have at present, Mr. Holmes."

"Then, with your permission, we will leave it at that, Mr. Mac. The
temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the
bane of our profession. I can see only two things for certain at
present--a great brain in London, and a dead man in Sussex. It's the
chain between that we are going to trace."

Chapter 3

The Tragedy of Birlstone

Now for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificant
personality and to describe events which occurred before we arrived
upon the scene by the light of knowledge which came to us afterwards.
Only in this way can I make the reader appreciate the people concerned
and the strange setting in which their fate was cast.

The village of Birlstone is a small and very ancient cluster of
half-timbered cottages on the northern border of the county of Sussex.
For centuries it had remained unchanged; but within the last few years
its picturesque appearance and situation have attracted a number of
well-to-do residents, whose villas peep out from the woods around.
These woods are locally supposed to be the extreme fringe of the great
Weald forest, which thins away until it reaches the northern chalk
downs. A number of small shops have come into being to meet the wa