since there was no flag --

to be a single word. here are the symbols. now, in the

single word i have already got the two e's coming second

and fourth in a word of five letters. it might be 'sever,'

or 'lever,' or 'never.' there can be no question that the

latter as a reply to an appeal is far the most probable,

and the circumstances pointed to its being a reply written

by the lady. accepting it as correct, we are now able to

say that the symbols

{graphic}

stand respectively for n, v, and r.

"even now i was in considerable difficulty, but a happy

thought put me in possession of several other letters. it

occurred to me that if these appeals came, as i expected,

from someone who had been intimate with the lady in her

early life, a combination which contained two e's with

three letters between might very well stand for the name

'elsie.' on examination i found that such a combination

formed the termination of the message which was three times

repeated. it was certainly some appeal to 'elsie.' in

this way i had got my l, s, and i. but what appeal could

it be? there were only four letters in the word which

preceded 'elsie,' and it ended in e. surely the word must

be 'come.' i tried all other four letters ending in e, but

could find none to fit the case. so now i was in

possession of c, o, and m, and i was in a position to

attack the first message once more, dividing it into words

and putting dots for each symbol which was still unknown.

so treated it worked out in this fashion:--

.m .ere ..e sl.ne.

"now the first letter _can_ only be a, which is a most

useful discovery, since it occurs no fewer than three times

in this short sentence, and the h is also apparent in the

second word. now it becomes:--

am here a.e slane.

or, filling in the obvious vacancies in the name:--

am here abe slaney.

i had so many letters now that i could proceed with

considerable confidence to the second message, which worked

out in this fashion:--

a. elri.es.

here i could only make sense by putting t and g for the

missing letters, and supposing that the name was that of

some house or inn at which the writer was staying."

inspector martin and i had listened with the utmost

interest to the full and clear account of how my friend had

produced results which had led to so complete a command

over our difficulties.

"what did you do then, sir?" asked the inspector.

"i had every reason to suppose that this abe slaney was an

american, since abe is an american contraction, and since a

letter from america had been the starting-point of all the

trouble. i had also every cause to think that there was

some criminal secret in the matter. the lady's allusions

to her past and her refusal to take her husband into her

confidence both pointed in that direction. i therefore

cabled to my friend, wilson hargreave, of the new york

police bureau, who has more than once made use of my

knowledge of london crime. i asked him whether the name of

abe slaney was known to him. here is his reply: 'the most

dangerous crook in chicago.' on the very evening upon

which i had his answer hilton cubitt sent me the last

message from slaney. working with known letters it took

this form:--

elsie .re.are to meet thy go.

the addition of a p and a d completed a message which

showed me that the rascal was proceeding from persuasion to

threats, and my knowledge of the crooks of chicago prepared

me to find that he might very rapidly put his words into

action. i at once came to norfolk with my friend and

colleague, dr. watson, but, unhappily, only in time to find

that the worst had already occurred."

"it is a privilege to be associated with you in the

handling of a case," said the inspector, warmly. "you will

excuse me, however, if i speak frankly to you. you are

only answerable to yourself, but i have to answer to my

superiors. if this abe slaney, living at elrige's, is

indeed the murderer, and if he has made his escape while i

am seated here, i should certainly get into serious

trouble."

"you need not be uneasy. he will not try to escape."

"how do you know?"

"to fly would be a confession of guilt."

"then let us go to arrest him."

"i expect him here every instant."

"but why should he come?"

"because i have written and asked him."

"but this is incredible, mr. holmes! why should he come

because you have asked him? would not such a request

rather rouse his suspicions and cause him to fly?"

"i think i have known how to frame the letter," said

sherlock holmes. "in fact, if i am not very much mistaken,

here is the gentleman himself coming up the drive."

a man was striding up the path which led to the door. he

was a tall, handsome, swarthy fellow, clad in a suit of

grey flannel, with a panama hat, a bristling black