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 of Mr. John Douglas at all, but must be that of the
bicyclist from Tunbridge Wells. No other conclusion was possible.
Therefore I had to determine where Mr. John Douglas himself could be,
and the balance of probability was that with the connivance of his wife
and his friend he was concealed in a house which had such conveniences
for a fugitive, and awaiting quieter times when he could make his final
escape."

"Well, you figured it out about right," said Douglas approvingly. "I
thought I'd dodge your British law; for I was not sure how I stood under
it, and also I saw my chance to throw these hounds once for all off my
track. Mind you, from first to last I have done nothing to be ashamed
of, and nothing that I would not