Part 1 - Chapter 4

Darkness

At three in the morning the chief Sussex detective, obeying the
urgent call from Sergeant Wilson of Birlstone, arrived from
headquarters in a light dog-cart behind a breathless trotter. By
the five-forty train in the morning he had sent his message to
Scotland Yard, and he was at the Birlstone station at twelve
o'clock to welcome us. White Mason was a quiet,
comfortable-looking person in a loose tweed suit, with a
clean-shaved, ruddy face, a stoutish body, and powerful bandy
legs adorned with gaiters, looking like a small farmer, a retired
gamekeeper, or anything upon earth except a very favourable
specimen of the provincial criminal officer.

"A real downright snorter, Mr. MacDonald!" he kept repeating.
"We'll have the pressmen down like flies when they understand it.
I'm hoping we will get our work done before they get poking their
noses into it and messing up all the trails. There has been
nothing like this that I can remember. There are some bits that
will come home to you, Mr. Holmes, or I am mistaken. And you
also, Dr. Watson; for the medicos will have a word to say before
we finish. Your room is at the Westville Arms. There's no other
place; but I hear that it is clean and good. The man will carry
your bags. This way,gentlemen, if you please."

He was a very bustling and genial person, this Sussex detective.
In ten minutes we had all found our quarters. In ten more we
were seated in the parlour of the inn and being treated to a
rapid sketch of those events which have been outlined in the
previous chapter. MacDonald made an occasional note; while
Holmes sat absorbed, with the expression of surprised and
reverent admiration with which the botanist surveys the rare and
precious bloom.

"Remarkable!" he said, when the story was unfolded, "most
remarkable! I can hardly recall any case where the features have
been more peculiar."

"I thought you would say so, Mr. Holmes," said White Mason in
great delight. "We're well up with the times in Sussex. I've
told you now how matters were, up to the time when I took over
from Sergeant Wilson between three and four this morning. My
word! I made the old mare go! But I need not have been in such
a hurry, as it turned out; for there was nothing immediate that I
could do. Sergeant Wilson had all the facts. I checked them and
considered them and maybe added a few of my own."

"What were they?" asked Holmes eagerly.

"Well, I first had the hammer examined. There was Dr. Wood there
to help me. We found no signs of violence upon it. I was hoping
that if Mr. Douglas defended himself with the hammer, he might
have left his mark upon the murderer before he dropped it on the
mat. But there was no stain."