o condonment [11] in the eyes of the law.

The more I thought of it the more extraordinary did my companion's
hypothesis, that the man had been poisoned, appear. I remembered how he
had sniffed his lips, and had no doubt that he had detected something
which had given rise to the idea. Then, again, if not poison, what
had caused the man's death, since there was neither wound nor marks of
strangulation? But, on the other hand, whose blood was that which lay so
thickly upon the floor? There were no signs of a struggle, nor had the
victim any weapon with which he might have wounded an antagonist. As
long as all these questions were unsolved, I felt that sleep would be
no easy matter, either for Holmes or myself. His quiet self-confident
manner convinced me that he had already formed a theory which explained
all the facts, though what it was I could not for an instant conjecture.

He was very late in returning--so late, that I knew that the concert
could not have detained him all the time. Dinner was on the table before
he appeared.

"It was magnificent," he said, as he took his seat. "Do you remember
what Darwin says about music? He claims that the power of producing and
appreciating it existed among the human race long before the power of
speech was arrived at. Perhaps that is why we are so subtly influenced
by it. There are vague memories in our souls of those misty centuries
when the world was in its childhood."

"That's rather a broad idea," I remarked.

"One's ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret
Nature," he answered. "What's the matter? You're not looking quite
yourself. This Brixton Road affair has upset you."

"To tell the truth, it has," I said. "I ought to be more case-hardened
after my Afghan experiences. I saw my own comrades hacked to pieces at
Maiwand without losing my nerve."

"I can understand. There is a mystery about this which stimulates the
imagination; where there is no imagination there is no horror. Have you
seen the evening paper?"

"No."

"It gives a fairly good account of the affair. It does not mention the
fact that when the man was raised up, a woman's wedding ring fell upon
the floor. It is just as well it does not."

"Why?"

"Look at this advertisement," he answered. "I had one sent to every
paper this morning immediately after the affair."

He threw the paper across to me and I glanced at the place indicated. It
was the first announcement in the "Found" colu