cushioned seat. Both you and the coroner have been at some pains,
said he, to single out the very strongest points in the young man s
favour. Don t you see that you alternately give him credit for having
too much imagination and too little? Too little, if he could not invent
a cause of quarrel which would give him the sympathy of the jury; too
much, if he evolved from his own inner consciousness anything so
_outre_ as a dying reference to a rat, and the incident of the
vanishing cloth. No, sir, I shall approach this case from the point of
view that what this young man says is true, and we shall see whither
that hypothesis will lead us. And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and
not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the scene of
action. We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be there in twenty
minutes.
It was nearly four o clock when we at last, after passing through the
beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, found
ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross. A lean,
ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for us upon the
platform. In spite of the light brown dustcoat and leather-leggings
which he wore in deference to his rustic surroundings, I had no
difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Scotland Yard. With him we drove
to the Hereford Arms where a room had already been engaged for us.
I have ordered a carriage, said Lestrade as we sat over a cup of tea.
I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be happy until
you had been on the scene of the crime.
It was very nice and complimentary of you, Holmes answered. It is
entirely a question of barometric pressure.
Lestrade looked startled. I do not quite follow, he said.
How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see. No wind, and not a cloud in the
sky. I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need smoking, and the
sofa is very much superior to the usual country hotel abomination. I do
not think that it is probable that I shall use the carriage to-night.
Lestrade laughed indulgently. You have, no doubt, already formed your
conclusions from the newspapers, he said. The case is as plain as a
pikestaff, and the more one goes into it the plainer it becomes. Still,
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