"This is a very obvious way of limiting our field of operations,"
said Holmes. "No doubt Baynes, with his methodical mind, has
already adopted some similar plan."

"I don't quite understand."

"Well, my dear fellow, we have already arrived at the conclusion
that the massage received by Garcia at dinner was an appointment
or an assignation. Now, if the obvious reading of it is correct,
and in order to keep the tryst one has to ascend a main stair and
seek the seventh door in a corridor, it is perfectly clear that
the house is a very large one. It is equally certain that this
house cannot be more than a mile or two from Oxshott, since
Garcia was walking in that direction and hoped, according to my
reading of the facts, to be back in Wisteria Lodge in time to
avail himself of an alibi, which would only be valid up to one
o'clock. As the number of large houses close to Oxshott must be
limited, I adopted the obvious method of sending to the agents
mentioned by Scott Eccles and obtaining a list of them. Here
they are in this telegram, and the other end of our tangled skein
must lie among them."


It was nearly six o'clock before we found ourselves in the pretty
Surrey village of Esher, with Inspector Baynes as our companion.

Holmes and I had taken things for the night, and found
comfortable quarters at the Bull. Finally we set out in the
company of the detective on our visit to Wisteria Lodge. It was
a cold, dark March evening, with a sharp wind and a fine rain