I
didn't know she was
injured,'
he said.
'I
shot her husband
when he tried to kill me. But I would never injure Elsie. I love her
more than anything in the
world.'
Suddenly the man looked up.
'Wait,'
he said.
'If
Elsie is badly injured, who wrote
this?'
He opened his hands and threw a note onto the table.
'I
wrote it, to make you come
here,'
said Holmes.
'You
wrote it? But how could you know the meaning of the
dancing
men?'
'I
worked out what the figures
meant,'
replied Holmes.
'But
now, tell us your
story.'
'All
right,'
said the man.
'If
Elsie dies, it doesn't matter what
happens to me.
'My
name is Abe Slaney and I've known Elsie since she was a
child. Her father was head of a gang of crooks in Chicago and I was
a
member of the gang.
'Elsie's
father thought of the secret writing of the dancing
men. The members of the gang used it to send messages to one
another.
'Elsie
and I were engaged to be married. But Elsie hated
her father's business and she didn't want to be married to a
criminal. So she ran away to England. She met and married this
Englishman, Hilton Cubitt.
'I
wrote to Elsie, but she didn't answer my letters. In the end,
'
came to England and stayed at Elrige's Farm.
'I
knew Elsie understood the pictures of the dancing men.