"Reginald Musgrave looked at me in astonishment. 'Now that you call itto my mind,' he answered, 'Brunton did ask me about the height of thetree some months ago, in connection with some little argument with thegroom.'
"This was excellent news, Watson, for it showed me that I was on theright road. I looked up at the sun. It was low in the heavens, and Icalculated that in less than an hour it would lie just above the topmostbranches of the old oak. One condition mentioned in the Ritual wouldthen be fulfilled. And the shadow of the elm must mean the farther endof the shadow, otherwise the trunk would have been chosen as the guide.I had, then, to find where the far end of the shadow would fall when thesun was just clear of the oak."
"That must have been difficult, Holmes, when the elm was no longerthere."
"Well, at least I knew that if Brunton could do it, I could also.Besides, there was no real difficulty. I went with Musgrave to his studyand whittled myself this peg, to which I tied this long string with aknot at each yard. Then I took two lengths of a fishing-rod, which cameto just six feet, and I went back with my client to where the elm hadbeen. The sun was just grazing the top of the oak. I fastened the rodon end, marked out the direction of the shadow, and measured it. It wasnine feet in length.
"Of course the calculation now was a simple one. If a rod of six feetthrew a shadow of nine, a tree of sixty-four feet would throw one ofninety-six, and the line of the one would of course be the line of theother. I measured out the distance, which brought me almost to thewall of the house, and I thrust a peg into the spot. You can imaginemy exultation, Watson, when within two inches of my peg I saw a conicaldepression in the ground. I knew that it was the mark made by Brunton inhis measurements, and that I was still upon his trail.
"From this starting-point I proceeded to step, having first taken thecardinal points by my pocket-compass. Ten steps with each foot took mealong parallel with the wall of the house, and again I marked my spotwith a peg. Then I carefully paced off five to the east and two to thesouth. It brought me to the very threshold of the old door. Two stepsto the west meant now that I was to go two paces down the stone-flaggedpassage, and this was the place indicated by the Ritual.
"Never have I felt such a cold chill of disappointment, Watson. For amoment is seemed to me that there must be some radical mistake in mycalculations. The setting sun shone full upon the passage floor, and Icould see that the old, foot-worn gray stones with which it was pavedwere firmly cemented together, and had certainly not been moved for manya long year. Brunton had not been at work here. I tapped upon the floor,but it sounded the same all over, and there was no sign of any crackor crevice. But, fortunately, Musgrave, who had begun to appreciate themeaning of my proceedings, and who was now as excited as myself, tookout his manuscript to check my calculation.
"'And under,' he cried. 'You have omitted the "and under."'
"I had thought that it meant that we were to dig, but now, of course,I saw at once that I was wrong. 'There is a cellar under this then?' Icried.
"'Yes, and as old as the house. Down here, through this door.'
"We went down a winding stone stair, and my companion, striking a match,lit a large lantern which stood on a barrel in the corner. In an instantit was obvious that we had at last come upon the true place, and that wehad not been the only people to visit the spot recently.
"It had been used for the storage of wood, but the billets, which hadevidently been littered over the floor, were now piled at the sides, soas to leave a clear space in the middle. In this space lay a large andheavy flagstone with a rusted iron ring in the centre to which a thickshepherd's-check muffler was attached.
"'By Jove!' cried my client. 'That's Brunton's muffler. I have seen iton him, and could swear to it. What has the villain been doing here?'
"At my suggestion a couple of the county police were summoned to bepresent, and I then endeavored to raise the stone by pulling on thecravat. I could only move it slightly, and it was with the aid of oneof the constables that I succeeded at last in carrying it to one side.A black hole yawned beneath into which we all peered, while Musgrave,kneeling at the side, pushed down the lantern.
"A small chamber about seven feet deep and four feet square lay open tous. At one side of this was a squat, brass-bound wooden box, the lid ofwhich was hinged upwards, with this curious old-fashioned key projectingfrom the lock. It was furred outside by a thick layer of dust, and dampand worms had eaten through the wood, so that a crop of livid fungiwas growing on the inside of it. Several discs of metal, old coinsapparently, such as I hold here, were scattered over the bottom of thebox, but it contained nothing else.
"At the moment, however, we had no thought for the old chest, for oureyes were riveted upon that which crouched beside it. It was the figureof a man, clad in a suit of black, who squatted down upon his hams withhis forehead sunk upon the edge of the box and his two arms thrown outon each side of it. The attitude had drawn all the stagnant blood tothe face, and no man could have recognized that distorted liver-coloredcountenance; but his height, his dress, and his hair were all sufficientto show my client, when we had drawn the body up, that it was indeed hismissing butler. He had been dead some days, but there was no wound orbruise upon his person to show how he had met his dreadful end. Whenhis body had been carried from the cellar we found ourselves stillconfronted with a problem which was almost as formidable as that withwhich we had started.
"I confess that so far, Watson, I had been disappointed in myinvestigation. I had reckoned upon solving the matter when once I hadfound the place referred to in the Ritual; but now I was there, and wasapparently as far as ever from knowing what it was which the family hadconcealed with such elaborate precautions. It is true that I had throwna light upon the fate of Brunton, but now I had to ascertain how thatfate had come upon him, and what part had been played in the matter bythe woman who had disappeared. I sat down upon a keg in the corner andthought the whole matter carefully over.
"You know my methods in such cases, Watson. I put myself in the man'splace and, having first gauged his intelligence, I try to imagine how Ishould myself have proceeded under the same circumstances. In thiscase the matter was simplified by Brunton's intelligence being quitefirst-rate, so that it was unnecessary to make any allowance for thepersonal equation, as the astronomers have dubbed it. He knew thatsomething valuable was concealed. He had spotted the place. He foundthat the stone which covered it was just too heavy for a man to moveunaided. What would he do next? He could not get help from outside, evenif he had some one whom he could trust, without the unbarring of doorsand considerable risk of detection. It was better, if he could, to havehis helpmate inside the house. But whom could he ask? This girl had beendevoted to him. A man always finds it har
d to realize that he may havefinally lost a woman's love, however badly he may have treated her. Hewould try by a few attentions to make his peace with the girl Howells,and then would engage her as his accomplice. Together they would come atnight to the cellar, and their united force would suffice to raise thestone. So far I could follow their actions as if I had actually seenthem.
"But for two of them, and one a woman, it must have been heavy work theraising of that stone. A burly Sussex policeman and I had found it nolight job. What would they do to assist them? Probably what I shouldhave done myself. I rose and examined carefully the different billetsof wood which were scattered round the floor. Almost at once I cameupon what I expected. One piece, about three feet in length, had a verymarked indentation at one end, while several were flattened at the sidesas if they had been compressed by some considerable weight. Evidently,as they had dragged the stone up they had thrust the chunks of wood intothe chink, until at last, when the opening was large enough to crawlthrough, they would hold it open by a billet placed lengthwise, whichmight very well become indented at the lower end, since the whole weightof the stone would press it down on to the edge of this other slab. Sofar I was still on safe ground.
"And now how was I to proceed to reconstruct this midnight drama?Clearly, only one could fit into the hole, and that one was Brunton. Thegirl must have waited above. Brunton then unlocked the box, handed upthe contents presumably--since they were not to be found--and then--andthen what happened?
"What smouldering fire of vengeance had suddenly sprung into flame inthis passionate Celtic woman's soul when she saw the man who had wrongedher--wronged her, perhaps, far more than we suspected--in her power?Was it a chance that the wood had slipped, and that the stone had shutBrunton into what had become his sepulchre? Had she only been guilty ofsilence as to his fate? Or had some sudden blow from her hand dashed thesupport away and sent the slab crashing down into its place? Be thatas it might, I seemed to see that woman's figure still clutching at hertreasure trove and flying wildly up the winding stair, with her earsringing perhaps with the muffled screams from behind her and with thedrumming of frenzied hands against the slab of stone which was chokingher faithless lover's life out.
"Here was the secret of her blanched face, her shaken nerves, her pealsof hysterical laughter on the next morning. But what had been in thebox? What had she done with that? Of course, it must have been the oldmetal and pebbles which my client had dragged from the mere. She hadthrown them in there at the first opportunity to remove the last traceof her crime.
"For twenty minutes I had sat motionless, thinking the matter out.Musgrave still stood with a very pale face, swinging his lantern andpeering down into the hole.
"'These are coins of Charles the First,' said he, holding out the fewwhich had been in the box; 'you see we were right in fixing our date forthe Ritual.'
"'We may find something else of Charles the First,' I cried, as theprobable meaning of the first two questions of the Ritual broke suddenlyupon me. 'Let me see the contents of the bag which you fished from themere.'
"We ascended to his study, and he laid the debris before me. I couldunderstand his regarding it as of small importance when I looked at it,for the metal was almost black and the stones lustreless and dull. Irubbed one of them on my sleeve, however, and it glowed afterwards likea spark in the dark hollow of my hand. The metal work was in the formof a double ring, but it had been bent and twisted out of its originalshape.
"'You must bear in mind,' said I, 'that the royal party made head inEngland even after the death of the king, and that when they at lastfled they probably left many of their most precious possessions buriedbehind them, with the intention of returning for them in more peacefultimes.'
"'My ancestor, Sir Ralph Musgrave, was a prominent Cavalier and theright-hand man of Charles the Second in his wanderings,' said my friend.
"'Ah, indeed!' I answered. 'Well now, I think that really should give usthe last link that we wanted. I must congratulate you on coming intothe possession, though in rather a tragic manner of a relic which is ofgreat intrinsic value, but of even greater importance as an historicalcuriosity.'