one other person is involved ("us"), and there is some kind of danger. Other papers left in the room yield clues. Lord Mount-James also briefly visits, but can give Holmes no useful information as to his nephew's whereabouts. The old miser seems utterly aghast at the possibility that it might be a kidnapping whose object would be to extort his wealth. Holmes and Watson then go to the telegraph office where Holmes uses a ruse to get the woman there to show him the counterfoil of the message that Staunton sent. It was addressed to Dr. Leslie Armstrong, a medical academic at Cambridge. They go to see him. Armstrong tells Holmes that Staunton is an intimate friend of his. He does not react when told that Staunton has disappeared, and claims not to know where he is, and not to have seen him recently. He also says that Staunton is very healthy, but Holmes then produces one of Staunton's papers, a thirteen-guinea bill from Armstrong. Furious, Armstrong refuses to answer any more questions, denies that he had the telegram from Staunton, and has his butler show Holmes and Watson out. They lodge at an inn just across the street from Armstrong's office, where they can watch him. Holmes conducts some inquiries. A man in the yard before the inn tells Holmes that Armstrong, although not in actual medical practice, regularly rides in his brougham out into the country somewhere. The round trip seems to take about three hours. Holmes tries following the brougham on one of its outings, hiring a bicycle for the purpose. He is thwarted by Dr. Armstrong, who makes it quite clear that he is aware that Holmes is following him. He gives Holmes the slip. The next day, Holmes's inquiries in all the local villages come to naught; no one has seen the doctor's brougham passing through their village. The mystery is at last unlocked by Pompey, a beagle-foxhound cross by appearance, who tracks the doctor's brougham to a cottage in the countryside after Holmes had coated the wheels in aniseed oil. What Holmes finds is not pleasant. Staunton is there, but is grieving over his young wife, who has just died of consumption. Her existence was kept secret, because Lord Mount-James would not have approved of the marriage and would have disowned his nephew. Armstrong had told the woman's father about her condition, and he,