message—in dancing figure characters—and has it delivered to a lodger at a nearby farm. While waiting for the result of this message, Holmes explains to Watson and Inspector Martin how he cracked the code of the dancing figures. The last message, which caused Holmes and Watson to rush to Norfolk, read "ELSIE PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD". The lodger, Abe Slaney, another American, unaware that Elsie is gravely wounded, arrives at Ridling Thorpe Manor and is seized as he comes through the door. Holmes had sent for Slaney using the dancing men, knowing that Slaney would believe the message is from Elsie. Slaney reveals that he had been engaged to Elsie, the daughter of the Chicago crime boss whom Slaney works for, and that she had fled to escape her old life. Slaney had come to England to get her back. When Slaney and Elsie were speaking through a window, Cubitt had appeared and shots were exchanged; Cubitt was killed and Slaney had fled. Apparently, Elsie then shot herself. Slaney is arrested and sentenced to hang, but his sentence is reduced to penal servitude because Cubitt had fired the first shot. Elsie recovers from her injuries, and spends her life helping the poor and administering her late husband's estate. Publication history The story was published in the UK in The Strand Magazine in December 1903, and in the US in Collier's on 5 December 1903. It was published with seven illustrations by Sidney Paget in the Strand, and with six illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in Collier's. It was included in the short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes, which was published in the US in February 1905 and in the UK in March 1905. Substitution cipher The mysterious sequence of stick men is a simple substitution cipher; that is, each stick man represents a given letter of the alphabet. The above-mentioned fifth and message that decodes as "ELSIE PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD" looks like this: Note how the first stick man repeats in the 5th, 8th and 12th position: it represents the "e" twice present in the words "Elsie" and "prepare". The second and fourth time the stick man carries a flag; this denotes the end of a word - both words end with an "e". Adaptations Film and television Eille Norwood starred as Holmes in a 1923 short film adapted from the story as part of