inesperado. Era una bolsa de lino que contenía en su interior una masa de metal viejo, oxidado y descolorido, y varias piezas de guijarro o vidrio de tonos apagados. Este extraño hallazgo fue todo lo que pudimos sacar del estanque y, aunque ayer hicimos todas las búsquedas e indagaciones posibles, no sabemos nada de la suerte corrida ni por Rachel Howells ni por Richard Brunton. La policía del condado está desesperada y he venido a verle a usted como último recurso”.
“You can imagine, Watson, with what eagerness I listened to this extraordinary sequence of events, and endeavored to piece them together, and to devise some common thread upon which they might all hang.
- The butler was gone.
- The maid was gone.
- The maid had loved the butler, but had afterwards had cause to hate him.
- She was of Welsh blood, fiery and passionate.
- She had been terribly excited immediately after his disappearance.
- She had flung into the lake a bag containing some curious contents.
These were all factors which had to be taken into consideration, and yet none of them got quite to the heart of the matter.
What was the starting-point of this chain of events? There lay the end of this tangled line.
—«Tengo que ver ese papel, Musgrave —le dije—, que este mayordomo vuestro consideró que valía la pena consultar, aun a riesgo de perder su puesto».
—Es un asunto más bien absurdo, este ritual nuestro —respondió—. Pero tiene al menos la gracia salvadora de la antigüedad para disculparlo. Aquí tengo una copia de las preguntas y respuestas por si le apetece echarles un vistazo.