woman to death and two strong men out of their senses. There is the situation, Mr Holmes, in a nutshell, and if you can help us to clear it up you will have done a great work.’

I had hoped that in some way I could coax my companion back into the quiet which had been the object of our journey; but one glance at his intense face and contracted eyebrows told me how vain was now the expectation. He sat for some little time in silence, absorbed in the strange drama which had broken in upon our peace.

‘I will look into this matter,’ he said at last. ‘On the face of it, it would appear to be a case of a very exceptional nature. Have you been there yourself, Mr Roundhay?’

‘No, Mr Holmes. Mr Tregennis brought back the account to the vicarage, and I at once hurried over with him to consult you.’

‘How far is it to the house where this singular tragedy occurred?’

‘About a mile inland.’

‘Then we shall walk over together. But, before we start, I must ask you a few questions, Mr Mortimer Tregennis.’

The other had been silent all this time, but I had observed that his more controlled excitement was even greater than the obtrusive emotion of the clergyman. He sat with a pale, drawn face, his anxious gaze fixed upon Holmes, and his thin hands clasped convulsively together. His pale lips quivered as he listened to the dreadful experience which had befallen his family, and his dark eyes seemed to reflect something of the horror of the scene.

‘Ask what you like, Mr Holmes,’ said he, eagerly. ‘It is a bad thing to speak of, but I will answer you the truth.’

‘Tell me about last night.’

‘Well, Mr Holmes, I supped there, as the vicar has said, and my elder brother George proposed a game of whist afterwards. We sat down about nine o’clock. It was a quarter past ten when I moved to go. I left them all round the table, as merry as could be.’

‘Who let you out?’

‘Mrs Porter had gone to bed, so I let myself out. I shut the hall door behind me. The window of the room in which they sat was closed, but the blind was not drawn down. There was no change in door or window this morning, nor any reason to think that any stranger had been to the house. Yet there they sat, driven clean mad with terror, and Brenda lying dead of fright, with her head hanging over the arm of the chair. I’ll never get the sight of that room out of my mind so long as I live.’

‘The facts, as you state them, are certainly most remarkable,’ said Holmes. ‘I take it that you have no theory yourself which can in any way account for them?’

‘It’s devilish, Mr Holmes; devilish!’ cried Mortimer Tregennis. ‘It is not of this world. Something has come into that room which has dashed the light of reason from their minds. What human contrivance could do that?’

‘I fear,’ said Holmes, ‘that if the matter is beyond humanity it is certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations before we fall back upon such a theory as this. As to yourself, Mr Tregennis, I take it you were divided in some way from your family, since they lived together and you had rooms apart?’