was inevitable. The magistrate's signature might not be obtained
until next morning. If Holmes would call about nine he could go
down with Lestrade and see it acted upon. So ended the day, save
that near midnight our friend, the sergeant, called to say that
he had seen flickering lights here and there in the windows of
the great dark house, but that no one had left it and none had
entered. We could but pray for patience and wait for the morrow.

Sherlock Holmes was too irritable for conversation and too
restless for sleep. I left him smoking hard, with his heavy,
dark brows knotted together, and his long, nervous fingers
tapping upon the arms of his chair, as he turned over in his mind
every possible solution of the mystery. Several times in the
course of the night I heard him prowling about the house.
Finally, just after I had been called in the morning, he rushed
into my room. He was in his dressing-gown, but his pale, hollow-
eyed face told me that his night had been a sleepless one.

"What time was the funeral? Eight, was it not?" he asked
eagerly. "Well, it is 7:20 now. Good heavens, Watson, what has
become of any brains that God has given me? Quick, man, quick!
It's life or death--a hundred chances on death to one on life.
I'll never forgive myself, never, if we are too late!"

Five minutes had not passed before we were flying in a hansom
down Baker Street. But even so it was twenty-five to eight as we
passed Big Ben, and eight struck as we tore down the Brixton
Road. But others were late as well as we. Ten minutes after the
hour the hearse was still standing at the door of the house, and
even as our foaming horse came to a halt the coffin, supported by