would have told you that your pains were wasted.”

“Ha!” said Holmes, looking keenly at her. “It is clear that Mrs. Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else.”

“Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know.”

“_then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for _there are several points on which I must confess that I am still in _the dark.”

“I will soon make it clear to you,” said she; “and I’d have done so before now if I could ha’ got out from _the cellar. If _there’s police-court business over this, you’ll remember that I was _the one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice’s friend too.

“She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn’t, from _the time that her fa_ther married again. She was slighted like and had no say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend’s house. As well as I could learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about _them but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle’s hands. He knew he was safe with her; but when _there was a chance of a husband coming forward, who would ask for all that _the law would give him, _then her fa_ther thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her to sign a paper, so that whe_ther she married or not, he could use her money. When she wouldn’t do it, he kept on worrying her until she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death’s door. _then she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her beautiful hair cut off; but that didn’t make no change in her young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be.”

“Ah,” said Holmes, “I think that what you have been good enough to tell us makes _the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce all that remains. Mr. Rucastle _then, I presume, took to this system of imprisonment?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of _the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler.”

“That was it, sir.”

“But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should be, blockaded _the house, and having met you succeeded by certain arguments, metallic or o_therwise, in convincing you that your interests were _the same as his.”

“Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman,” said Mrs. Toller serenely.

“And in this way he managed that your good man should have no want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at _the moment when your master had gone out.”

“You have it, sir, just as it happened.”

“I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller,” said Holmes, “for you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And here comes _the country surgeon and Mrs. Rucastle, so I think, Watson, that we had best escort Miss Hunter back to Winchester, as it seems to me that our locus standi now is ra_ther a questionable one.”

And thus was solved _the mystery of _the sinister house with _the copper beeches in front of _the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but was always a broken man, kept alive solely through _the care of his devoted wife. _they still live with _their old servants, who probably know so much of Rucastle’s past life that he finds it difficult to part from _them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were married, by special license, in Southampton _the day after _their flight, and he is now _the holder of a government appointment in _the island of Mauritius. As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend Holmes, ra_ther to my disappointment, manifested no fur_ther interest in her when once she had ceased to be _the centre of one of his problems, and she is now _the head of a private school at Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success.