stration: "THE KEY OF THE RIDDLE WAS IN MY HANDS."]

"It was short and terse, the warning, as I now read it to my
companion:--

"'The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life.'

"Victor Trevor sank his face into his shaking hands. 'It must he that, I
suppose,' said he. 'This is worse than death, for it means disgrace as
well. But what is the meaning of these "head-keepers" and "hen
pheasants"?

"'It means nothing to the message, but it might mean a good deal to us
if we had no other means of discovering the sender. You see that he has
begun by writing, "The ... game ... is," and so on. Afterwards he had,
to fulfil the prearranged cipher, to fill in any two words in each
space. He would naturally use the first words which came to his mind,
and if there were so many which referred to sport among them, you may be
tolerably sure that he is either an ardent shot or interested in
breeding. Do you know anything of this Beddoes?'

"'Why, now that you mention it,' said he, 'I remember that my poor
father used to have an invitation from him to shoot over his preserves
every autumn.'

"'Then it is undoubtedly from him that the note comes,' said I. 'It only
remains for us to find out what this secret was which the sailor Hudson
seems to have held over the heads of these two wealthy and respected
men.'

"'Alas, Holmes, I fear that it is one of sin and shame!' cried my
friend. 'But from you I shall have no secrets. Here is the statement
which was drawn up by my father when he knew that the danger from Hudson
had become imminent. I found it in the Japanese cabinet, as he told the
doctor. Take it and read it to me, for I have neither the strength nor
the courage to do it myself.'

"These are the very papers, Watson, which he handed to me, and I will
read them to you as I read them in the old study that night to him. They
are indorsed outside, as you see: 'Some particulars of the voyage of the
barque _Gloria Scott_, from her leaving Falmouth on the 8th October,
1855, to her destruction in N. lat. 15 deg. 20', W. long. 25 deg. 14', on
November 6th.' It is in the form of a letter, and runs in this way:--

"My dear, dear son,--Now that approaching disgrace begins to darken the
closing years of my life, I can write with all truth and honesty that it
is not the terror of the law, it is not the loss of my position in the
county, nor is it my fall in the eyes of all who have known me, which
cuts me to the heart; but it is