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1"Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that your little problem promises to be the most interesting
2which has come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel about some of the features. If you should
3find yourself in doubt or in danger--" "Danger! What danger do you foresee?" Holmes shook his head gravely. "It would
4cease to be a danger if we could define it," said he. "But at any time, day or night, a telegram would bring me down to
5your help." "That is enough." She rose briskly from her chair with the anxiety all swept from her face. "I shall go down
6to Hampshire quite easy in my mind now. I shall write to Mr. Rucastle at once, sacrifice my poor hair to-night, and
7start for Winchester to-morrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes she bade us both good-night and bustled off upon
8her way. "At least," said I as we heard her quick, firm steps descending the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who
9is very well able to take care of herself." "And she would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much mistaken if we
10do not hear from her before many days are past." It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. A
11fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts turning in her direction and wondering what strange
12side-alley of human experience this lonely woman had strayed into. The unusual salary, the curious conditions, the light
13duties, all pointed to something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether the man were a philanthropist or a
14villain, it was quite beyond my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that he sat frequently for half an hour on
15end, with knitted brows and an abstracted air, but he swept the matter away with a wave of his hand when I mentioned it.
16"Data! data! data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet he would always wind up by
17muttering that no sister of his should ever have accepted such a situation. The telegram which we eventually received
18came late one night just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down to one of those all-night chemical
19researches which he frequently indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over a retort and a test-tube at night and
20find him in the same position when I came down to breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope, and then,
21glancing at the message, threw it across to me. "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back to his
22chemical studies. The summons was a brief and urgent one. "Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday
23to-morrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. "HUNTER." "Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up. "I
24should wish to." "Just look it up, then." "There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my Bradshaw. "It
25is due at Winchester at 11:30." "That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the
26acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the morning." By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to
27the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers all the way down, but after we had passed the
28Hampshire border he threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky,
29flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet
30there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy. All over the countryside, away to the
31rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light green
32of the new foliage. "Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the enthusiasm of a man fresh from the fogs of
33Baker Street. But Holmes shook his head gravely. "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind
34with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these
35scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a
36feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there." "Good heavens!" I cried. "Who
37would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?" "They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief,
38Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of
39sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside." "You horrify me!" "But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of
40public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured
41child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the
42whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between
43the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor
44ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on,
45year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in
46Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger. Still, it is
47clear that she is not personally threatened." "No. If she can come to Winchester to meet us she can get away." "Quite
48so. She has her freedom." "What can be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?" "I have devised seven separate
49explanations, each of which would cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is correct can only be
50determined by the fresh information which we shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of the
51cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has to tell." The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High
52Street, at no distance from the station, and there we found the young lady waiting for us. She had engaged a
53sitting-room, and our lunch awaited us upon the table. "I am so delighted that you have come," she said earnestly. "It
54is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to
55me." "Pray tell us what has happened to you." "I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Mr. Rucastle to be
56back before three. I got his leave to come into town this morning, though he little knew for what purpose." "Let us have
57everything in its due order." Holmes thrust his long thin legs out towards the fire and composed himself to listen. "In
58the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, with no actual ill-treatment from Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle. It is
59only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and I am not easy in my mind about them." "What can you not
60understand?" "Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just as it occurred. When I came down, Mr.
61Rucastle met me here and drove me in his dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as he said, beautifully situated, but it
62is not beautiful in itself, for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all stained and streaked with
63damp and bad weather. There are grounds round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which slopes down to
64the Southampton high road, which curves past about a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs to
65the house, but the woods all round are part of Lord Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in
66front of the hall door has given its name to the place.
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