ce I've sworn off coming for that
reason, and then he would write me such penitent, imploring letters that
I just had to. But you can take it from me, gentlemen, if it was my last
word, that no man ever had a more loving, faithful wife--and I can say
also no friend could be more loyal than I!"

It was spoken with fervour and feeling, and yet Inspector MacDonald
could not dismiss the subject.

"You are aware," said he, "that the dead man's wedding ring has been
taken from his finger?"

"So it appears," said Barker.

"What do you mean by 'appears'? You know it as a fact."

The man seemed confused and undecided. "When I said 'appears' I meant
that it was conceivable that he had himself taken off the ring."

"The mere fact that the ring should be absent, whoever may have removed
it, would suggest to anyone's mind, would it not, that the marriage and
the tragedy were connected?"

Barker shrugged his broad shoulders. "I can't profess to say what it
means," he answered. "But if you mean to hint that it could reflect in
any way upon this lady's honour"--his eyes blazed for an instant, and
then with an evident effort he got a grip upon his own emotions--"well,
you are on the wrong track, that's all."

"I don't know that I've anything else to ask you at present," said
MacDonald, coldly.

"There was one small point," remarked Sherlock Holmes. "When you entered
the room there was only a candle lighted on the table, was there not?"

"Yes, that was so."

"By its light you saw that some terrible incident had occurred?"

"Exactly."

"You at once rang for help?"

"Yes."

"And it arrived very speedily?"

"Within a minute or so."

"And yet when they arrived they found that the candle was out and that
the lamp had been lighted. That seems very remarkable."

Again Barker showed some signs of indecision. "I don't see that it was
remarkable, Mr. Holmes," he answered after a pause. "The candle threw a
very bad light. My first thought was to get a better one. The lamp was
on the table; so I lit it."

"And blew out the candle?"

"Exactly."

Holmes asked no further question, and Barker, with a deliberate look
from one to the other of us, which had, as it seemed to me, something of
defiance in it, turned and left the room.

Inspector MacDonald had sent up a note to the effect that he would wait
upon Mrs. Douglas in her room; but she had replied that she would meet
us in the dining room. She entered now, a tall and bea