“No doubt you will like to hear our side of the story. It’s fairly simple. About ten minutes before midnight the constable on duty outside Ludgrove’s shop heard a terrific crash and a noise of breaking glass. He hammered at the door, and, getting no reply, had the sense to make his way round to the back, eventually reaching the place by much the same route as the Black Sailor used, according to what you have just told me. He found the window blown out of the back room, a terrible mess inside, and a jet of burning gas coming out of the broken bracket. He blew his whistle, and by the time that two or three of our fellows had got inside, you came to, Professor.

“Of course, when I heard that you had identified the dead man as Dr. Morlandson, I thought you were still dizzy with the shock. We couldn’t make out who he was; he was dressed as a sailor, but we couldn’t recognize his face, black and with all the hair burnt off. It couldn’t be Ludgrove, yet, if it wasn’t, what had become of the old herbalist?