morning to the Professor's
dictation, and he usually spent the evening in hunting up references and
passages which bore upon the next day's work. This Willoughby Smith has
nothing against him either as a boy at Uppingham or as a young man at
Cambridge. I have seen his testimonials, and from the first he was a
decent, quiet, hardworking fellow, with no weak spot in him at all.
And yet this is the lad who has met his death this morning in the
Professor's study under circumstances which can point only to murder."

The wind howled and screamed at the windows. Holmes and I drew closer to
the fire while the young inspector slowly and point by point developed
his singular narrative.

"If you were to search all England," said he, "I don't suppose you could
find a household more self-contained or free from outside influences.
Whole weeks would pass and not one of them go past the garden gate. The
Professor was buried in his work and existed for nothing else. Young
Smith knew nobody in the neighbourhood, and lived very much as his
employer did. The two women had nothing to take them from the
house. Mortimer the gardener, who wheels the bath-chair, is an Army
pensioner--an old Crimean man of excellent character. He does not live
in the house, but in a three-roomed cottage at the other end of the
garden. Those are the only people that you would find within the grounds
of Yoxley Old Place. At the same time, the gate of the garden is a
hundred yards from the main London to Chatham road. It opens with a
latch, and there is nothing to prevent anyone from walking in.

"Now I will give you the evidence of Susan Tarlton, who is the only
person who can say anything positive about the matter. It was in the
forenoon, between eleven and twelve. She was engaged at the moment in
hanging some curtains in the upstairs front bedroom. Professor Coram was
still in bed, for when the weather is bad he seldom rises before midday.
The housekeeper was busied with some work in the back of the
house. Willoughby Smith had been in his bedroom, which he uses as a
sitting-room; but the maid heard him at that moment pass along the
passage and descend to the study immediately below her. She did not
see him, but she says that she could not be mistaken in his quick, firm
tread. She did not hear the study door close, but a minute or so later
there was a dreadful cry in the room below. It was a wild, hoarse
scream, so strange and unnatural that it might have come