ly and jealousy have reduced us. when i was a very

young man, mr. holmes, i loved with such a love as comes

only once in a lifetime. i offered the lady marriage,

but she refused it on the grounds that such a match might

mar my career. had she lived i would certainly never have

married anyone else. she died, and left this one child,

whom for her sake i have cherished and cared for. i could

not acknowledge the paternity to the world; but i gave him

the best of educations, and since he came to manhood i have

kept him near my person. he surprised my secret, and has

presumed ever since upon the claim which he has upon me and

upon his power of provoking a scandal, which would be

abhorrent to me. his presence had something to do with the

unhappy issue of my marriage. above all, he hated my young

legitimate heir from the first with a persistent hatred.

you may well ask me why, under these circumstances, i still

kept james under my roof. i answer that it was because i

could see his mother's face in his, and that for her dear

sake there was no end to my long-suffering. all her pretty

ways, too -- there was not one of them which he could not suggest

and bring back to my memory. i _could_ not send him away.

but i feared so much lest he should do arthur -- that is,

lord saltire -- a mischief that i dispatched him for safety

to dr. huxtable's school.

"james came into contact with this fellow hayes because the

man was a tenant of mine, and james acted as agent.

the fellow was a rascal from the beginning; but in some

extraordinary way james became intimate with him. he had

always a taste for low company. when james determined to

kidnap lord saltire it was of this man's service that he

availed himself. you remember that i wrote to arthur upon

that last day. well, james opened the letter and inserted

a note asking arthur to meet him in a little wood called

the ragged shaw, which is near to the school. he used the

duchess's name, and in that way got the boy to come.

that evening james bicycled over -- i am telling you what he has

himself confessed to me -- and he told arthur, whom he met in

the wood, that his mother longed to see him, that she was

awaiting him on the moor, and that if he would come back

into the wood at midnight he would find a man with a horse,

who would take him to her. poor arthur fell into the trap.

he came to the appointment and found this fellow hayes with

a led pony. arthur mounted, and they set off together.

it appears -- though this james only heard yesterday -- that they

were pursued, that hayes struck the pursuer with his stick,

and that the man died of his injuries. hayes brought

arthur to his public-house, the fighting cock, where he was

confined in an upper room, under the care of mrs. hayes,

who is a kindly woman, but entirely under the control of

her brutal husband.

"well, mr. holmes, that was the state of affairs when i

first saw you two days ago. i had no more idea of the

truth than you. you will ask me what was james's motive in

doing such a deed. i answer that there was a great deal

which was unreasoning and fanatical in the hatred which he

bore my heir. in his view he should himself have been heir

of all my estates, and he deeply resented those social laws

which made it impossible. at the same time he had a

definite motive also. he was eager that i should break the

entail, and he was of opinion that it lay in my power to do

so. he intended to make a bargain with me -- to restore

arthur if i would break the entail, and so make it possible

for the estate to be left to him by will. he knew well

that i should never willingly invoke the aid of the police

against him. i say that he would have proposed such a

bargain to me, but he did not actually do so, for events

moved too quickly for him, and he had not time to put his

plans into practice.

"what brought all his wicked scheme to wreck was your

discovery of this man heidegger's dead body. james was

seized with horror at the news. it came to us yesterday

as we sat together in this study. dr. huxtable had sent

a telegram. james was so overwhelmed with grief and

agitation that my suspicions, which had never been entirely

absent, rose instantly to a certainty, and i taxed him

with the deed. he made a complete voluntary confession.

then he implored me to keep his secret for three days longer,

so as to give his wretched accomplice a chance of saving his

guilty life. i yielded -- as i have always yielded -- to his

prayers, and instantly james hurried off to the fighting

cock to warn hayes and give him the means of flight.

i could not go there by daylight without provoking comment,

but as soon as night fell i hurried off to see my dear arthur.

i found him safe and well, but horrified beyond

expression by the dreadful deed he had witnessed.