This, I take it, belongs to the room in which you used to sleep, the
centre one to your sister s, and the one next to the main building to
Dr. Roylott s chamber?
Exactly so. But I am now sleeping in the middle one.
Pending the alterations, as I understand. By the way, there does not
seem to be any very pressing need for repairs at that end wall.
There were none. I believe that it was an excuse to move me from my
room.
Ah! that is suggestive. Now, on the other side of this narrow wing
runs the corridor from which these three rooms open. There are windows
in it, of course?
Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass through.
As you both locked your doors at night, your rooms were unapproachable
from that side. Now, would you have the kindness to go into your room
and bar your shutters?
Miss Stoner did so, and Holmes, after a careful examination through the
open window, endeavoured in every way to force the shutter open, but
without success. There was no slit through which a knife could be
passed to raise the bar. Then with his lens he tested the hinges, but
they were of solid iron, built firmly into the massive masonry. Hum!
said he, scratching his chin in some perplexity, my theory certainly
presents some difficulties. No one could pass these shutters if they
were bolted. Well, we shall see if the inside throws any light upon the
matter.
A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which the
three bedrooms opened. Holmes refused to examine the third chamber, so
we passed at once to the second, that in which Miss Stoner was now
sleeping, and in which her sister had met with her fate. It was a
homely little room, with a low ceiling and a gaping fireplace, after
the fashion of old country-houses. A brown chest of drawers stood in
one corner, a narrow white-counterpaned bed in another, and a
dressing-table on the left-hand side of the window. These articles,
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