its way. Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house
in which they had met their strange fate.

It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a
cottage, with a considerable garden which was already, in that
Cornish air, well filled with spring flowers. Towards this
garden the window of the sitting-room fronted, and from it,
according to Mortimer Tregennis, must have come that thing of
evil which had by sheer horror in a single instant blasted their
minds. Holmes walked slowly and thoughtfully among the flower-
plots and along the path before we entered the porch. So
absorbed was he in his thoughts, I remember, that he stumbled
over the watering-pot, upset its contents, and deluged both our
feet and the garden path. Inside the house we were met by the
elderly Cornish housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the aid of a
young girl, looked after the wants of the family. She readily
answered all Holmes's questions. She had heard nothing in the
night. Her employers had all been in excellent spirits lately,
and she had never known them more cheerful and prosperous. She
had fainted with horror upon entering the room in the morning and
seeing that dreadful company round the table. She had, when she
recovered, thrown open the window to let the morning air in, and
had run down to the lane, whence she sent a farm-lad for the
doctor. The lady was on her bed upstairs if we cared to see her.
It took four strong men to get the brothers into the asylum
carriage. She would not herself stay in the house another day
and was starting that very afternoon to rejoin her family at St.
Ives.

We ascended the stairs and viewed the body. Miss Brenda