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"And you think that they brought you back all that way when you

were unconscious?"

"They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having

been lifted and conveyed somewhere."

"What I cannot understand," said I, "is why they should have

spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden.

Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties."

"I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face

in my life."

"Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I

have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon

it the folk that we are in search of are to be found."

"I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly.

"Really, now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your

opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is

south, for the country is more deserted there."

"And I say east," said my patient.

"I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. "There are

several quiet little villages up there."