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Page 60
"The same afternoon saw us both at Hurlstone.
Possibly you have seen pictures and read descriptions
of the famous old building, so I will confine my
account of it to saying that it is built in the shape
of an L, the long arm being the more modern portion,
and the shorter the ancient nucleus, from which the
other had developed. Over the low, heavily-lintelled
door, in the centre of this old part, is chiseled the
date, 1607, but experts are agreed that the beams and
stone-work are really much older than this. The
enormously thick walls and tiny windows of this part
had in the last century driven the family into
building the new wing, and the old one was used now as
a store-house and a cellar, when it was used at all.
A splendid park with fine old timber surrounds the
house, and the lake, to which my client had referred,
lay close to the avenue, about two hundred yards from
the building.
"I was already firmly convinced, Watson, that there
were not three separate mysteries here, but one only,
and that if I could read the Musgrave Ritual aright I
should hold in my hand the clue which would lead me to
the truth concerning both the butler Brunton and the
maid Howells. To that then I turned all my energies.
Why should this servant be so anxious to master this
old formula? Evidently because he saw something in it
which had escaped all those generations of country
squires, and from which he expected some personal
advantage. What was it then, and how had it affected
his fate?
"It was perfectly obvious to me, on reading the
ritual, that the measurements must refer to some spot
to which the rest of the document alluded, and that if
we could find that spot, we should be in a fair way
towards finding what the secret was which the old
Musgraves had thought it necessary to embalm in so
curious a fashion. There were two guides given us to
start with, an oak and an elm. As to the oak there
could be no question at all. Right in front of the
house, upon the left-hand side of the drive, there
stood a patriarch among oaks, one of the most
magnificent trees that I have ever seen.
"'That was there when you ritual was drawn up,' said
I, as we drove past it.
"'It was there at the Norman Conquest in all
probability,' he answered. 'It has a girth of
twenty-three feet.'
"'Have you any old elms?' I asked.
"'There used to be a very old one over yonder but it
was struck by lightning ten years ago, and we cut down
the stump.'
"'You can see where it used to be?'
"'Oh, yes.'
"'There are no other elms?'
"'No old ones, but plenty of beeches.'
"'I should like to see where it grew.'
"We had driven up in a dog-cart, and my client led me
away at once, without our entering the house, to the
scar on the lawn where the elm had stood. It was
nearly midway between the oak and the house. My
investigation seemed to be progressing.
"'I suppose it is impossible to find out how high the
elm was?' I asked.
"'I can give you it at once. It was sixty-four feet.'
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