m?"

"very lonely, sir."

"perhaps they have not heard yet of all that happened here

during the night?"

"maybe not, sir."

holmes thought for a little and then a curious smile played

over his face.

"saddle a horse, my lad," said he. "i shall wish you to

take a note to elrige's farm."

he took from his pocket the various slips of the dancing

men. with these in front of him he worked for some time at

the study-table. finally he handed a note to the boy, with

directions to put it into the hands of the person to whom

it was addressed, and especially to answer no questions of

any sort which might be put to him. i saw the outside of

the note, addressed in straggling, irregular characters,

very unlike holmes's usual precise hand. it was consigned

to mr. abe slaney, elrige's farm, east ruston, norfolk.

"i think, inspector," holmes remarked, "that you would do

well to telegraph for an escort, as, if my calculations

prove to be correct, you may have a particularly dangerous

prisoner to convey to the county gaol. the boy who takes

this note could no doubt forward your telegram. if there

is an afternoon train to town, watson, i think we should do

well to take it, as i have a chemical analysis of some

interest to finish, and this investigation draws rapidly to

a close."

when the youth had been dispatched with the note, sherlock

holmes gave his instructions to the servants. if any

visitor were to call asking for mrs. hilton cubitt no

information should be given as to her condition, but he was

to be shown at once into the drawing-room. he impressed

these points upon them with the utmost earnestness.

finally he led the way into the drawing-room with the

remark that the business was now out of our hands, and that

we must while away the time as best we might until we could

see what was in store for us. the doctor had departed to

his patients, and only the inspector and myself remained.

"i think that i can help you to pass an hour in an

interesting and profitable manner," said holmes, drawing

his chair up to the table and spreading out in front of him

the various papers upon which were recorded the antics of

the dancing men. "as to you, friend watson, i owe you

every atonement for having allowed your natural curiosity

to remain so long unsatisfied. to you, inspector, the

whole incident may appeal as a remarkable professional

study. i must tell you first of all the interesting

circumstances connected with the previous consultations

which mr. hilton cubitt has had with me in baker street."

he then shortly recapitulated the facts which have already

been recorded. "i have here in front of me these singular

productions, at which one might smile had they not proved

themselves to be the fore-runners of so terrible a tragedy.

i am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and

am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the

subject, in which i analyze one hundred and sixty separate

ciphers; but i confess that this is entirely new to me.

the object of those who invented the system has apparently

been to conceal that these characters convey a message, and

to give the idea that they are the mere random sketches of

children.

"having once recognised, however, that the symbols stood

for letters, and having applied the rules which guide us in

all forms of secret writings, the solution was easy enough.

the first message submitted to me was so short that it was

impossible for me to do more than to say with some

confidence that the symbol

{graphic}

stood for e. as you are aware, e is the most common letter

in the english alphabet, and it predominates to so marked

an extent that even in a short sentence one would expect to

find it most often. out of fifteen symbols in the first

message four were the same, so it was reasonable to set

this down as e. it is true that in some cases the figure

was bearing a flag and in some cases not, but it was

probable from the way in which the flags were distributed

that they were used to break the sentence up into words. i

accepted this as a hypothesis, and noted that e was

represented by

{graphic}

"but now came the real difficulty of the inquiry. the

order of the english letters after e is by no means well

marked, and any preponderance which may be shown in an

average of a printed sheet may be reversed in a single

short sentence. speaking roughly, t, a, o, i, n, s, h, r,

d, and l are the numerical order in which letters occur;

but t, a, o, and i are very nearly abreast of each other,

and it would be an endless task to try each combination

until a meaning was arrived at. i, therefore, waited for

fresh material. in my second interview with mr. hilton

cubitt he was able to give me two other short sentences and

one message, which appeared --