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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
+#22 in our series by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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+The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
+
+by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+Published in a collection of short stories by Sir Arthur Conan
+Doyle entitled His Last Bow
+
+October, 2000  [Etext #2349]
+[Most recently updated August 11, 2003]
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
+******This file should be named dvlft10.txt or dvlft10.zip******
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+
+The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
+
+By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
+
+
+
+In recording from time to time some of the curious experiences
+and interesting recollections which I associate with my long and
+intimate friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have continually
+been faced by difficulties caused by his own aversion to
+publicity.  To his sombre and cynical spirit all popular applause
+was always abhorrent, and nothing amused him more at the end of a
+successful case than to hand over the actual exposure to some
+orthodox official, and to listen with a mocking smile to the
+general chorus of misplaced congratulation.  It was indeed this
+attitude upon the part of my friend and certainly not any lack of
+interesting material which has caused me of late years to lay
+very few of my records before the public.  My participation in
+some if his adventures was always a privilege which entailed
+discretion and reticence upon me.
+
+It was, then, with considerable surprise that I received a
+telegram from Homes last Tuesday--he has never been known to
+write where a telegram would serve--in the following terms:
+
+Why not tell them of the Cornish horror--strangest case I have
+handled.
+
+I have no idea what backward sweep of memory had brought the
+matter fresh to his mind, or what freak had caused him to desire
+that I should recount it; but I hasten, before another cancelling
+telegram may arrive, to hunt out the notes which give me the
+exact details of the case and to lay the narrative before my
+readers.
+
+It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmes's iron
+constitution showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of
+constant hard work of a most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps,
+by occasional indiscretions of his own.  In March of that year
+Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction to
+Holmes I may some day recount, gave positive injunctions that the
+famous private agent lay aside all his cases and surrender
+himself to complete rest if he wished to avert an absolute
+breakdown.  The state of his health was not a matter in which he
+himself took the faintest interest, for his mental detachment was
+absolute, but he was induced at last, on the threat of being
+permanently disqualified from work, to give himself a complete
+change of scene and air.  Thus it was that in the early spring of
+that year we found ourselves together in a small cottage near
+Poldhu Bay, at the further extremity of the Cornish peninsula.
+
+It was a singular spot, and one peculiarly well suited to the
+grim humour of my patient.  From the windows of our little
+whitewashed house, which stood high upon a grassy headland, we
+looked down upon the whole sinister semicircle of Mounts Bay,
+that old death trap of sailing vessels, with its fringe of black
+cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which innumerable seamen have met
+their end.  With a northerly breeze it lies placid and sheltered,
+inviting the storm-tossed craft to tack into it for rest and
+protection.
+
+Then come the sudden swirl round of the wind, the blistering gale
+from the south-west, the dragging anchor, the lee shore, and the
+last battle in the creaming breakers.  The wise mariner stands
+far out from that evil place.
+
+On the land side our surroundings were as sombre as on the sea.
+It was a country of rolling moors, lonely and dun-colored, with
+an occasional church tower to mark the site of some old-world
+village.  In every direction upon these moors there were traces
+of some vanished race which had passed utterly away, and left as
+it sole record strange monuments of stone, irregular mounds which
+contained the burned ashes of the dead, and curious earthworks
+which hinted at prehistoric strife. The glamour and mystery of
+the place, with its sinister atmosphere of forgotten nations,
+appealed to the imagination of my friend, and he spent much of
+his time in long walks and solitary meditations upon the moor.
+The ancient Cornish language had also arrested his attention, and
+he had, I remember, conceived the idea that it was akin to the
+Chaldean, and had been largely derived from the Phoenician
+traders in tin.  He had received a consignment of books upon
+philology and was settling down to develop this thesis when
+suddenly, to my sorrow and to his unfeigned delight, we found
+ourselves, even in that land of dreams, plunged into a problem at
+our very doors which was more intense, more engrossing, and
+infinitely more mysterious than any of those which had driven us
+from London.  Our simple life and peaceful, healthy routine were
+violently interrupted, and we were precipitated into the midst of
+a series of events which caused the utmost excitement not only in
+Cornwall but throughout the whole west of England. Many of my
+readers may retain some recollection of what was called at the
+time "The Cornish Horror," though a most imperfect account of the
+matter reached the London press. Now, after thirteen years, I
+will give the true details of this inconceivable affair to the
+public.
+
+I have said that scattered towers marked the villages which
+dotted this part of Cornwall.  The nearest of these was the
+hamlet of Tredannick Wollas, where the cottages of a couple of
+hundred inhabitants clustered round an ancient, moss-grown
+church.  The vicar of the parish, Mr. Roundhay, was something of
+an archaeologist, and as such Holmes had made his acquaintance.
+He was a middle-aged man, portly and affable, with a considerable
+fund of local lore.  At his invitation we had taken tea at the
+vicarage and had come to know, also, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, an
+independent gentleman, who increased the clergyman's scanty
+resources by taking rooms in his large, straggling house.  The
+vicar, being a bachelor, was glad to come to such an arrangement,
+though he had little in common with his lodger, who was a thin,
+dark, spectacled man, with a stoop which gave the impression of
+actual, physical deformity.  I remember that during our short
+visit we found the vicar garrulous, but his lodger strangely
+reticent, a sad-faced, introspective man, sitting with averted
+eyes, brooding apparently upon his own affairs.
+
+These were the two men who entered abruptly into our little
+sitting-room on Tuesday, March the 16th, shortly after our
+breakfast hour, as we were smoking together, preparatory to our
+daily excursion upon the moors.
+
+"Mr. Holmes," said the vicar in an agitated voice, "the most
+extraordinary and tragic affair has occurred during the night.
+It is the most unheard-of business.  We can only regard it as a
+special Providence that you should chance to be here at the time,
+for in all England you are the one man we need."
+
+I glared at the intrusive vicar with no very friendly eyes; but
+Holmes took his pipe from his lips and sat up in his chair like
+an old hound who hears the view-halloa.  He waved his hand to the
+sofa, and our palpitating visitor with his agitated companion sat
+side by side upon it.  Mr. Mortimer Tregennis was more self-
+contained than the clergyman, but the twitching of his thin hands
+and the brightness of his dark eyes showed that they shared a
+common emotion.
+
+"Shall I speak or you?" he asked of the vicar.
+
+"Well, as you seem to have made the discovery, whatever it may
+be, and the vicar to have had it second-hand, perhaps you had
+better do the speaking," said Holmes.
+
+I glanced at the hastily clad clergyman, with the formally
+dressed lodger seated beside him, and was amused at the surprise
+which Holmes's simple deduction had brought to their faces.
+
+"Perhaps I had best say a few words first," said the vicar, "and
+then you can judge if you will listen to the details from Mr.
+Tregennis, or whether we should not hasten at once to the scene
+of this mysterious affair.  I may explain, then, that our friend
+here spent last evening in the company of his two brothers, Owen
+and George, and of his sister Brenda, at their house of
+Tredannick Wartha, which is near the old stone cross upon the
+moor.  He left them shortly after ten o'clock, playing cards
+round the dining-room table, in excellent health and spirits.
+This morning, being an early riser, he walked in that direction
+before breakfast and was overtaken by the carriage of Dr.
+Richards, who explained that he had just been sent for on a most
+urgent call to Tredannick Wartha.  Mr. Mortimer Tregennis
+naturally went with him.  When he arrived at Tredannick Wartha he
+found an extraordinary state of things.  His two brothers and his
+sister were seated round the table exactly as he had left them,
+the cards still spread in front of them and the candles burned
+down to their sockets.  The sister lay back stone-dead in her
+chair, while the two brothers sat on each side of her laughing,
+shouting, and singing, the senses stricken clean out of them.
+All three of them, the dead woman and the two demented men,
+retained upon their faces an expression of the utmost horror--a
+convulsion of terror which was dreadful to look upon.  There was
+no sign of the presence of anyone in the house, except Mrs.
+Porter, the old cook and housekeeper, who declared that she had
+slept deeply and heard no sound during the night.  Nothing had
+been stolen or disarranged, and there is absolutely no
+explanation of what the horror can be which has frightened a
+woman to death and two strong men out of their senses.  There is
+the situation, Mr. Holmes, in a nutshell, and if you can help us
+to clear it up you will have done a great work."
+
+I had hoped that in some way I could coax my companion back into
+the quiet which had been the object of our journey; but one
+glance at his intense face and contracted eyebrows told me how
+vain was now the expectation.  He sat for some little time in
+silence, absorbed in the strange drama which had broken in upon
+our peace.
+
+"I will look into this matter," he said at last.  "On the face of
+it, it would appear to be a case of a very exceptional nature.
+Have you been there yourself, Mr. Roundhay?"
+
+"No, Mr. Holmes.  Mr. Tregennis brought back the account to the
+vicarage, and I at once hurried over with him to consult you."
+
+"How far is it to the house where this singular tragedy
+occurred?"
+
+"About a mile inland."
+
+"Then we shall walk over together.  But before we start I must
+ask you a few questions, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis."
+
+The other had been silent all this time, but I had observed that
+his more controlled excitement was even greater than the
+obtrusive emotion of the clergyman.  He sat with a pale, drawn
+face, his anxious gaze fixed upon Holmes, and his thin hands
+clasped convulsively together.  His pale lips quivered as he
+listened to the dreadful experience which had befallen his
+family, and his dark eyes seemed to reflect something of the
+horror of the scene.
+
+"Ask what you like, Mr. Holmes," said he eagerly.  "It is a bad
+thing to speak of, but I will answer you the truth."
+
+"Tell me about last night."
+
+"Well, Mr. Holmes, I supped there, as the vicar has said, and my
+elder brother George proposed a game of whist afterwards.  We sat
+down about nine o'clock.  It was a quarter-past ten when I moved
+to go.  I left them all round the table, as merry as could be."
+
+"Who let you out?"
+
+"Mrs. Porter had gone to bed, so I let myself out.  I shut the
+hall door behind me.  The window of the room in which they sat
+was closed, but the blind was not drawn down.  There was no
+change in door or window this morning, or any reason to think
+that any stranger had been to the house.  Yet there they sat,
+driven clean mad with terror, and Brenda lying dead of fright,
+with her head hanging over the arm of the chair.  I'll never get
+the sight of that room out of my mind so long as I live."
+
+"The facts, as you state them, are certainly most remarkable,"
+said Holmes.  "I take it that you have no theory yourself which
+can in any way account for them?"
+
+"It's devilish, Mr. Holmes, devilish!" cried Mortimer Tregennis.
+"It is not of this world.  Something has come into that room
+which has dashed the light of reason from their minds.  What
+human contrivance could do that?"
+
+"I fear," said Holmes, "that if the matter is beyond humanity it
+is certainly beyond me.  Yet we must exhaust all natural
+explanations before we fall back upon such a theory as this.  As
+to yourself, Mr. Tregennis, I take it you were divided in some
+way from your family, since they lived together and you had rooms
+apart?"
+
+"That is so, Mr. Holmes, though the matter is past and done with.
+We were a family of tin-miners at Redruth, but we sold our
+venture to a company, and so retired with enough to keep us.  I
+won't deny that there was some feeling about the division of the
+money and it stood between us for a time, but it was all forgiven
+and forgotten, and we were the best of friends together."
+
+"Looking back at the evening which you spent together, does
+anything stand out in your memory as throwing any possible light
+upon the tragedy?  Think carefully, Mr. Tregennis, for any clue
+which can help me."
+
+"There is nothing at all, sir."
+
+"Your people were in their usual spirits?"
+
+"Never better."
+
+"Were they nervous people?  Did they ever show any apprehension
+of coming danger?"
+
+"Nothing of the kind."
+
+"You have nothing to add then, which could assist me?"
+
+Mortimer Tregennis considered earnestly for a moment.
+
+"There is one thing occurs to me," said he at last.  "As we sat
+at the table my back was to the window, and my brother George, he
+being my partner at cards, was facing it.  I saw him once look
+hard over my shoulder, so I turned round and looked also.  The
+blind was up and the window shut, but I could just make out the
+bushes on the lawn, and it seemed to me for a moment that I saw
+something moving among them.  I couldn't even say if it was man
+or animal, but I just thought there was something there.  When I
+asked him what he was looking at, he told me that he had the same
+feeling.  That is all that I can say."
+
+"Did you not investigate?"
+
+"No; the matter passed as unimportant."
+
+"You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?"
+
+"None at all."
+
+"I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this
+morning."
+
+"I am an early riser and generally take a walk before breakfast.
+This morning I had hardly started when the doctor in his carriage
+overtook me.  He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down
+with an urgent message.  I sprang in beside him and we drove on.
+When we got there we looked into that dreadful room.  The candles
+and the fire must have burned out hours before, and they had been
+sitting there in the dark until dawn had broken.  The doctor said
+Brenda must have been dead at least six hours.  There were no
+signs of violence.  She just lay across the arm of the chair with
+that look on her face.  George and Owen were singing snatches of
+songs and gibbering like two great apes.  Oh, it was awful to
+see!  I couldn't stand it, and the doctor was as white as a
+sheet.  Indeed, he fell into a chair in a sort of faint, and we
+nearly had him on our hands as well."
+
+"Remarkable--most remarkable!" said Holmes, rising and taking his
+hat.  "I think, perhaps, we had better go down to Tredannick
+Wartha without further delay.  I confess that I have seldom known
+a case which at first sight presented a more singular problem."
+
+
+Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the
+investigation.  It was marked, however, at the outset by an
+incident which left the most sinister impression upon my mind.
+The approach to the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a
+narrow, winding, country lane.  While we made our way along it we
+heard the rattle of a carriage coming towards us and stood aside
+to let it pass.  As it drove by us I caught a glimpse through the
+closed window of a horribly contorted, grinning face glaring out
+at us.  Those staring eyes and gnashing teeth flashed past us
+like a dreadful vision.
+
+"My brothers!" cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips.
+"They are taking them to Helston."
+
+We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering upon
+its way.  Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house
+in which they had met their strange fate.
+
+It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a
+cottage, with a considerable garden which was already, in that
+Cornish air, well filled with spring flowers.  Towards this
+garden the window of the sitting-room fronted, and from it,
+according to Mortimer Tregennis, must have come that thing of
+evil which had by sheer horror in a single instant blasted their
+minds.  Holmes walked slowly and thoughtfully among the flower-
+plots and along the path before we entered the porch.  So
+absorbed was he in his thoughts, I remember, that he stumbled
+over the watering-pot, upset its contents, and deluged both our
+feet and the garden path.  Inside the house we were met by the
+elderly Cornish housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the aid of a
+young girl, looked after the wants of the family.  She readily
+answered all Holmes's questions.  She had heard nothing in the
+night.  Her employers had all been in excellent spirits lately,
+and she had never known them more cheerful and prosperous.  She
+had fainted with horror upon entering the room in the morning and
+seeing that dreadful company round the table.  She had, when she
+recovered, thrown open the window to let the morning air in, and
+had run down to the lane, whence she sent a farm-lad for the
+doctor.  The lady was on her bed upstairs if we cared to see her.
+It took four strong men to get the brothers into the asylum
+carriage.  She would not herself stay in the house another day
+and was starting that very afternoon to rejoin her family at St.
+Ives.
+
+We ascended the stairs and viewed the body.  Miss Brenda
+Tregennis had been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon
+middle age.  Her dark, clear-cut face was handsome, even in
+death, but there still lingered upon it something of that
+convulsion of horror which had been her last human emotion.  From
+her bedroom we descended to the sitting-room, where this strange
+tragedy had actually occurred.  The charred ashes of the
+overnight fire lay in the grate.  On the table were the four
+guttered and burned-out candles, with the cards scattered over
+its surface.  The chairs had been moved back against the walls,
+but all else was as it had been the night before.  Holmes paced
+with light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various
+chairs, drawing them up and reconstructing their positions.  He
+tested how much of the garden was visible; he examined the floor,
+the ceiling, and the fireplace; but never once did I see that
+sudden brightening of his eyes and tightening of his lips which
+would have told me that he saw some gleam of light in this utter
+darkness.
+
+"Why a fire?" he asked once.  "Had they always a fire in this
+small room on a spring evening?"
+
+Mortimer Tregennis explained that the night was cold and damp.
+For that reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit.  "What are
+you going to do now, Mr. Holmes?" he asked.
+
+My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm.  "I think,
+Watson, that I shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning
+which you have so often and so justly condemned," said he.  "With
+your permission, gentlemen, we will now return to our cottage,
+for I am not aware that any new factor is likely to come to our
+notice here.  I will turn the facts over in my mid, Mr,
+Tregennis, and should anything occur to me I will certainly
+ommunicate with you and the vicar.  In the meantime I wish you
+both good-morning."
+
+It was not until long after we were back in Poldhu Cottage that
+Holmes broke his complete and absorbed silence.  He sat coiled in
+his armchair, his haggard and ascetic face hardly visible amid
+the blue swirl of his tobacco smoke, his black brows drawn down,
+his forehead contracted, his eyes vacant and far away.  Finally
+he laid down his pipe and sprang to his feet.
+
+"It won't do, Watson!" said he with a laugh.  "Let us walk along
+the cliffs together and search for flint arrows.  We are more
+likely to find them than clues to this problem.  To let the brain
+work without sufficient material is like racing an engine.  It
+racks itself to pieces.  The sea air, sunshine, and patience,
+Watson--all else will come.
+
+"Now, let us calmly define our position, Watson," he continued as
+we skirted the cliffs together.  "Let us get a firm grip of the
+very little which we DO know, so that when fresh facts arise we
+may be ready to fit them into their places.  I take it, in the
+first place, that neither of us is prepared to admit diabolical
+intrusions into the affairs of men.  Let us begin by ruling that
+entirely out of our minds.  Very good.  There remain three
+persons who have been grievously stricken by some conscious or
+unconscious human agency.  That is firm ground.  Now, when did
+this occur?  Evidently, assuming his narrative to be true, it was
+immediately after Mr. Mortimer Tregennis had left the room.  That
+is a very important point.  The presumption is that it was within
+a few minutes afterwards.  The cards still lay upon the table.
+It was already past their usual hour for bed.  Yet they had not
+changed their position or pushed back their chairs.  I repeat,
+then, that the occurrence was immediately after his departure,
+and not later than eleven o'clock last night.
+
+"Our next obvious step is to check, so far as we can, the
+movements of Mortimer Tregennis after he left the room.  In this
+there is no difficulty, and they seem to be above suspicion.
+Knowing my methods as you do, you were, of course, conscious of
+the somewhat clumsy water-pot expedient by which I obtained a
+clearer impress of his foot than might otherwise have been
+possible.  The wet, sandy path took it admirably.  Last night was
+also wet, you will remember, and it was not difficult--having
+obtained a sample print--to pick out his track among others and
+to follow his movements.  He appears to have walked away swiftly
+in the direction of the vicarage.
+
+"If, then, Mortimer Tregennis disappeared from the scene, and yet
+some outside person affected the card-players, how can we
+reconstruct that person, and how was such an impression of horror
+conveyed?  Mrs. Porter may be eliminated.  She is evidently
+harmless.  Is there any evidence that someone crept up to the
+garden window and in some manner produced so terrific an effect
+that he drove those who saw it out of their senses?  The only
+suggestion in this direction comes from Mortimer Tregennis
+himself, who says that his brother spoke about some movement in
+the garden.  That is certainly remarkable, as the night was
+rainy, cloudy, and dark.  Anyone who had the design to alarm
+these people would be compelled to place his very face against
+the glass before he could be seen.  There is a three-foot flower-
+border outside this window, but no indication of a footmark.  It
+is difficult to imagine, then, how an outsider could have made so
+terrible an impression upon the company, nor have we found any
+possible motive for so strange and elaborate an attempt.  You
+perceive our difficulties, Watson?"
+
+"They are only too clear," I answered with conviction.
+
+"And yet, with a little more material, we may prove that they are
+not insurmountable," said Holmes.  "I fancy that among your
+extensive archives, Watson, you may find some which were nearly
+as obscure.  Meanwhile, we shall put the case aside until more
+accurate data are available, and devote the rest of our morning
+to the pursuit of neolithic man."
+
+I may have commented upon my friend's power of mental detachment,
+but never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring
+morning in Cornwall when for two hours he discoursed upon celts,
+arrowheads, and shards, as lightly as if no sinister mystery were
+waiting for his solution.  It was not until we had returned in
+the afternoon to our cottage that we found a visitor awaiting us,
+who soon brought our minds back to the matter in hand.  Neither
+of us needed to be told who that visitor was.  The huge body, the
+craggy and deeply seamed face with the fierce eyes and hawk-like
+nose, the grizzled hair which nearly brushed our cottage ceiling,
+the beard--golden at the fringes and white near the lips, save
+for the nicotine stain from his perpetual cigar--all these were
+as well known in London as in Africa, and could only be
+associated with the tremendous personality of Dr. Leon Sterndale,
+the great lion-hunter and explorer.
+
+We had heard of his presence in the district and had once or
+twice caught sight of his tall figure upon the moorland paths.
+He made no advances to us, however, nor would we have dreamed of
+doing so to him, as it was well known that it was his love of
+seclusion which caused him to spend the greater part of the
+intervals between his journeys in a small bungalow buried in the
+lonely wood of Beauchamp Arriance.  Here, amid his books and his
+maps, he lived an absolutely lonely life, attending to his own
+simple wants and paying little apparent heed to the affairs of
+his neighbours.  It was a surprise to me, therefore, to hear him
+asking Holmes in an eager voice whether he had made any advance
+in his reconstruction of this mysterious episode.  "The county
+police are utterly at fault," said he, "but perhaps your wider
+experience has suggested some conceivable explanation.  My only
+claim to being taken into your confidence is that during my many
+residences here I have come to know this family of Tregennis very
+well--indeed, upon my Cornish mother's side I could call them
+cousins--and their strange fate has naturally been a great shock
+to me.  I may tell you that I had got as far as Plymouth upon my
+way to Africa, but the news reached me this morning, and I came
+straight back again to help in the inquiry."
+
+Holmes raised his eyebrows.
+
+"Did you lose your boat through it?"
+
+"I will take the next."
+
+"Dear me! that is friendship indeed."
+
+"I tell you they were relatives."
+
+"Quite so--cousins of your mother.  Was your baggage aboard the
+ship?"
+
+"Some of it, but the main part at the hotel."
+
+"I see.  But surely this event could not have found its way into
+the Plymouth morning papers."
+
+"No, sir; I had a telegram."
+
+"Might I ask from whom?"
+
+A shadow passed over the gaunt face of the explorer.
+
+"You are very inquisitive, Mr. Holmes."
+
+"It is my business."
+
+With an effort Dr. Sterndale recovered his ruffled composure.
+
+"I have no objection to telling you," he said.  "It was Mr.
+Roundhay, the vicar, who sent me the telegram which recalled me."
+
+"Thank you," said Holmes.  "I may say in answer to your original
+question that I have not cleared my mind entirely on the subject
+of this case, but that I have every hope of reaching some
+conclusion.  It would be premature to say more."
+
+"Perhaps you would not mind telling me if your suspicions point
+in any particular direction?"
+
+"No, I can hardly answer that."
+
+"Then I have wasted my time and need not prolong my visit."  The
+famous doctor strode out of our cottage in considerable ill-
+humour, and within five minutes Holmes had followed him.  I saw
+him no more until the evening, when he returned with a slow step
+and haggard face which assured me that he had made no great
+progress with his investigation.  He glanced at a telegram which
+awaited him and threw it into the grate.
+
+"From the Plymouth hotel, Watson," he said.  "I learned the name
+of it from the vicar, and I wired to make certain that Dr. Leon
+Sterndale's account was true.  It appears that he did indeed
+spend last night there, and that he has actually allowed some of
+his baggage to go on to Africa, while he returned to be present
+at this investigation.  What do you make of that, Watson?"
+
+"He is deeply interested."
+
+"Deeply interested--yes.  There is a thread here which we had not
+yet grasped and which might lead us through the tangle.  Cheer
+up, Watson, for I am very sure that our material has not yet all
+come to hand.  When it does we may soon leave our difficulties
+behind us."
+
+Little did I think how soon the words of Holmes would be
+realized, or how strange and sinister would be that new
+development which opened up an entirely fresh line of
+investigation.  I was shaving at my window in the morning when I
+heard the rattle of hoofs and, looking up, saw a dog-cart coming
+at a gallop down the road.  It pulled up at our door, and our
+friend, the vicar, sprang from it and rushed up our garden path.
+Holmes was already dressed, and we hastened down to meet him.
+
+Our visitor was so excited that he could hardly articulate, but
+at last in gasps and bursts his tragic story came out of him.
+
+"We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes!  My poor parish is devil-
+ridden!" he cried.  "Satan himself is loose in it!  We are given
+over into his hands!"  He danced about in his agitation, a
+ludicrous object if it were not for his ashy face and startled
+eyes.  Finally he shot out his terrible news.
+
+"Mr. Mortimer Tregennis died during the night, and with exactly
+the same symptoms as the rest of his family."
+
+Holmes sprang to his feet, all energy in an instant.
+
+"Can you fit us both into your dog-cart?"
+
+"Yes, I can."
+
+"Then, Watson, we will postpone our breakfast.  Mr. Roundhay, we
+are entirely at your disposal.  Hurry--hurry, before things get
+disarranged."
+
+The lodger occupied two rooms at the vicarage, which were in an
+angle by themselves, the one above the other.  Below was a large
+sitting-room; above, his bedroom.  They looked out upon a croquet
+lawn which came up to the windows.  We had arrived before the
+doctor or the police, so that everything was absolutely
+undisturbed.  Let me describe exactly the scene as we saw it upon
+that misty March morning.  It has left an impression which can
+never be effaced from my mind.
+
+The atmosphere of the room was of a horrible and depressing
+stuffiness.  The servant had first entered had thrown up the
+window, or it would have been even more intolerable.  This might
+partly be due to the fact that a lamp stood flaring and smoking
+on the centre table.  Beside it sat the dead man, leaning back in
+his chair, his thin beard projecting, his spectacles pushed up
+on to his forehead, and his lean dark face turned towards the
+window and twisted into the same distortion of terror which had
+marked the features of his dead sister.  His limbs were convulsed
+and his fingers contorted as though he had died in a very
+paroxysm of fear.  He was fully clothed, though there were signs
+that his dressing had been done in a hurry.  We had already
+learned that his bed had been slept in, and that the tragic end
+had come to him in the early morning.
+
+One realized the red-hot energy which underlay Holmes's
+phlegmatic exterior when one saw the sudden change which came
+over him from the moment that he entered the fatal apartment.  In
+an instant he was tense and alert, his eyes shining, his face
+set, his limbs quivering with eager activity.  He was out on the
+lawn, in through the window, round the room, and up into the
+bedroom, for all the world like a dashing foxhound drawing a
+cover.  In the bedroom he made a rapid cast around and ended by
+throwing open the window, which appeared to give him some fresh
+cause for excitement, for he leaned out of it with loud
+ejaculations of interest and delight.  Then he rushed down the
+stair, out through the open window, threw himself upon his face
+on the lawn, sprang up and into the room once more, all with the
+energy of the hunter who is at the very heels of his quarry.  The
+lamp, which was an ordinary standard, he examined with minute
+care, making certain measurements upon its bowl.  He carefully
+scrutinized with his lens the talc shield which covered the top
+of the chimney and scraped off some ashes which adhered to its
+upper surface, putting some of them into an envelope, which he
+placed in his pocketbook.  Finally, just as the doctor and the
+official police put in an appearance, he beckoned to the vicar
+and we all three went out upon the lawn.
+
+"I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely
+barren," he remarked.  "I cannot remain to discuss the matter
+with the police, but I should be exceedingly obliged, Mr.
+Roundhay, if you would give the inspector my compliments and
+direct his attention to the bedroom window and to the sitting-
+room lamp.  Each is suggestive, and together they are almost
+conclusive.  If the police would desire further information I
+shall be happy to see any of them at the cottage.  And now,
+Watson, I think that, perhaps, we shall be better employed
+elsewhere."
+
+It may be that the police resented the intrusion of an amateur,
+or that they imagined themselves to be upon some hopeful line of
+investigation; but it is certain that we heard nothing from them
+for the next two days.  During this time Holmes spent some of his
+time smoking and dreaming in the cottage; but a greater portion
+in country walks which he undertook alone, returning after many
+hours without remark as to where he had been.  One experiment
+served to show me the line of his investigation.  He had bought a
+lamp which was the duplicate of the one which had burned in the
+room of Mortimer Tregennis on the morning of the tragedy.  This
+he filled with the same oil as that used at the vicarage, and he
+carefully timed the period which it would take to be exhausted.
+Another experiment which he made was of a more unpleasant nature,
+and one which I am not likely ever to forget.
+
+"You will remember, Watson," he remarked one afternoon, "that
+there is a single common point of resemblance in the varying
+reports which have reached us.  This concerns the effect of the
+atmosphere of the room in each case upon those who had first
+entered it.  You will recollect that Mortimer Tregennis, in
+describing the episode of his last visit to his brother's house,
+remarked that the doctor on entering the room fell into a chair?
+You had forgotten?  Well I can answer for it that it was so.
+Now, you will remember also that Mrs. Porter, the housekeeper,
+told us that she herself fainted upon entering the room and had
+afterwards opened the window.  In the second case--that of
+Mortimer Tregennis himself--you cannot have forgotten the
+horrible stuffiness of the room when we arrived, though the
+servant had thrown open the window.  That servant, I found upon
+inquiry, was so ill that she had gone to her bed.  You will
+admit, Watson, that these facts are very suggestive.  In each
+case there is evidence of a poisonous atmosphere.  In each case,
+also, there is combustion going on in the room--in the one case a
+fire, in the other a lamp.  The fire was needed, but the lamp was
+lit--as a comparison of the oil consumed will show--long after it
+was broad daylight.  Why?  Surely because there is some
+connection between three things--the burning, the stuffy
+atmosphere, and, finally, the madness or death of those
+unfortunate people.  That is clear, is it not?"
+
+"It would appear so."
+
+"At least we may accept it as a working hypothesis.  We will
+suppose, then, that something was burned in each case which
+produced an atmosphere causing strange toxic effects.  Very good.
+In the first instance--that of the Tregennis family--this
+substance was placed in the fire.  Now the window was shut, but
+the fire would naturally carry fumes to some extent up the
+chimney.  Hence one would expect the effects of the poison to be
+less than in the second case, where there was less escape for the
+vapour.  The result seems to indicate that it was so, since in
+the first case only the woman, who had presumably the more
+sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting that
+temporary or permanent lunacy which is evidently the first effect
+of the drug.  In the second case the result was complete.  The
+facts, therefore, seem to bear out the theory of a poison which
+worked by combustion.
+
+"With this train of reasoning in my head I naturally looked about
+in Mortimer Tregennis's room to find some remains of this
+substance.  The obvious place to look was the talc shelf or
+smoke-guard of the lamp. There, sure enough, I perceived a number
+of flaky ashes, and round the edges a fringe of brownish powder,
+which had not yet been consumed.  Half of this I took, as you
+saw, and I placed it in an envelope."
+
+"Why half, Holmes?"
+
+"It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the
+official police force.  I leave them all the evidence which I
+found.  The poison still remained upon the talc had they the wit
+to find it.  Now, Watson, we will light our lamp; we will,
+however, take the precaution to open our window to avoid the
+premature decease of two deserving members of society, and you
+will seat yourself near that open window in an armchair unless,
+like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to do with the
+affair.  Oh, you will see it out, will you?  I thought I knew my
+Watson.  This chair I will place opposite yours, so that we may
+be the same distance from the poison and face to face.  The door
+we will leave ajar.  Each is now in a position to watch the other
+and to bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem
+alarming.  Is that all clear?  Well, then, I take our powder--or
+what remains of it--from the envelope, and I lay it above the
+burning lamp.  So!  Now, Watson, let us sit down and await
+developments."
+
+They were not long in coming.  I had hardly settled in my chair
+before I was conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and
+nauseous.  At the very first whiff of it my brain and my
+imagination were beyond all control.  A thick, black cloud
+swirled before my eyes, and my mind told me that in this cloud,
+unseen as yet, but about to spring out upon my appalled senses,
+lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and
+inconceivably wicked in the universe.  Vague shapes swirled and
+swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning of
+something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the
+threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul.  A freezing
+horror took possession of me.  I felt that my hair was rising,
+that my eyes were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my
+tongue like leather.  The turmoil within my brain was such that
+something must surely snap.  I tried to scream and was vaguely
+aware of some hoarse croak which was my own voice, but distant
+and detached from myself  At the same moment, in some effort of
+escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had a glimpse
+of Holmes's face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror--the very
+look which I had seen upon the features of the dead.  It was that
+vision which gave me an instant of sanity and of strength.  I
+dashed from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together we
+lurched through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown
+ourselves down upon the grass plot and were lying side by side,
+conscious only of the glorious sunshine which was bursting its
+way through the hellish cloud of terror which had girt us in.
+Slowly it rose from our souls like the mists from a landscape
+until peace and reason had returned, and we were sitting upon the
+grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking with apprehension
+at each other to mark the last traces of that terrific experience
+which we had undergone.
+
+"Upon my word, Watson!" said Holmes at last with an unsteady
+voice, "I owe you both my thanks and an apology.  It was an
+unjustifiable experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a
+friend.  I am really very sorry."
+
+"You know," I answered with some emotion, for I have never seen
+so much of Holmes's heart before, "that it is my greatest joy and
+privilege to help you."
+
+He relapsed at once into the half-humorous, half-cynical vein
+which was his habitual attitude to those about him.  "It would be
+superfluous to drive us mad, my dear Watson," said he.  "A candid
+observer would certainly declare that we were so already before
+we embarked upon so wild an experiment.  I confess that I never
+imagined that the effect could be so sudden and so severe."  He
+dashed into the cottage, and, reappearing with the burning lamp
+held at full arm's length, he threw it among a bank of brambles.
+"We must give the room a little time to clear.  I take it,
+Watson, that you have no longer a shadow of a doubt as to how
+these tragedies were produced?"
+
+"None whatever."
+
+"But the cause remains as obscure as before.  Come into the
+arbour here and let us discuss it together.  That villainous
+stuff seems still to linger round my throat.  I think we must
+admit that all the evidence points to this man, Mortimer
+Tregennis, having been the criminal in the first tragedy, though
+he was the victim in the second one.  We must remember, in the
+first place, that there is some story of a family quarrel,
+followed by a reconciliation.  How bitter that quarrel may have
+been, or how hollow the reconciliation we cannot tell.   When I
+think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face and the small
+shrewd, beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom I
+should judge to be of a particularly forgiving disposition.
+Well, in the next place, you will remember that this idea of
+someone moving in the garden, which took our attention for a
+moment from the real cause of the tragedy, emanated from him.  He
+had a motive in misleading us.  Finally, if he did not throw the
+substance into the fire at the moment of leaving the room, who
+did do so?  The affair happened immediately after his departure.
+Had anyone else come in, the family would certainly have risen
+from the table.  Besides, in peaceful Cornwall, visitors did not
+arrive after ten o'clock at night.  We may take it, then, that
+all the evidence points to Mortimer Tregennis as the culprit."
+
+"Then his own death was suicide!"
+
+"Well, Watson, it is on the face of it a not impossible
+supposition.  The man who had the guilt upon his soul of having
+brought such a fate upon his own family might well be driven by
+remorse to inflict it upon himself.  There are, however, some
+cogent reasons against it.  Fortunately, there is one man in
+England who knows all about it, and I have made arrangements by
+which we shall hear the facts this afternoon from his own lips.
+Ah! he is a little before his time.  Perhaps you would kindly
+step this way, Dr. Leon Sterndale. We have been conducing a
+chemical experiment indoors which has left our little room hardly
+fit for the reception of so distinguished a visitor."
+
+I had heard the click of the garden gate, and now the majestic
+figure of the great African explorer appeared upon the path.  He
+turned in some surprise towards the rustic arbour in which we
+sat.
+
+"You sent for me, Mr. Holmes.  I had your note about an hour ago,
+and I have come, though I really do not know why I should obey
+your summons."
+
+"Perhaps we can clear the point up before we separate," said
+Holmes.  "Meanwhile, I am much obliged to you for your courteous
+acquiescence.  You will excuse this informal reception in the
+open air, but my friend Watson and I have nearly furnished an
+additional chapter to what the papers call the Cornish Horror,
+and we prefer a clear atmosphere for the present.  Perhaps, since
+the matters which we have to discuss will affect you personally
+in a very intimate fashion, it is as well that we should talk
+where there can be no eavesdropping."
+
+The explorer took his cigar from his lips and gazed sternly at my
+companion.
+
+"I am at a loss to know, sir," he said, "what you can have to
+speak about which affects me personally in a very intimate
+fashion."
+
+"The killing of Mortimer Tregennis," said Holmes.
+
+For a moment I wished that I were armed.  Sterndale's fierce face
+turned to a dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted,
+passionate veins started out in his forehead, while he sprang
+forward with clenched hands towards my companion.  Then he
+stopped, and with a violent effort he resumed a cold, rigid
+calmness, which was, perhaps, more suggestive of danger than his
+hot-headed outburst.
+
+"I have lived so long among savages and beyond the law," said he,
+"that I have got into the way of being a law to myself.  You
+would do well, Mr. Holmes, not to forget it, for I have no desire
+to do you an injury."
+
+"Nor have I any desire to do you an injury, Dr. Sterndale.
+Surely the clearest proof of it is that, knowing what I know, I
+have sent for you and not for the police."
+
+Sterndale sat down with a gasp, overawed for, perhaps, the first
+time in his adventurous life.  There was a calm assurance of
+power in Holmes's manner which could not be withstood.  Our
+visitor stammered for a moment, his great hands opening and
+shutting in his agitation.
+
+"What do you mean?" he asked at last.  "If this is bluff upon
+your part, Mr. Holmes, you have chosen a bad man for your
+experiment. Let us have no more beating about the bush.  What DO
+you mean?"
+
+"I will tell you," said Holmes, "and the reason why I tell you is
+that I hope frankness may beget frankness.  What my next step may
+be will depend entirely upon the nature of your own defence."
+
+"My defence?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"My defence against what?"
+
+"Against the charge of killing Mortimer Tregennis."
+
+Sterndale mopped his forehead with his handkerchief.  "Upon my
+word, you are getting on," said he.  "Do all your successes
+depend upon this prodigious power of bluff?"
+
+"The bluff," said Holmes sternly, "is upon your side, Dr. Leon
+Sterndale, and not upon mine.  As a proof I will tell you some of
+the facts upon which my conclusions are based.  Of your return
+from Plymouth, allowing much of your property to go on to Africa,
+I will say nothing save that it first informed me that you were
+one of the factors which had to be taken into account in
+reconstructing this drama--"
+
+"I came back--"
+
+"I have heard your reasons and regard them as unconvincing and
+inadequate.  We will pass that.  You came down here to ask me
+whom I suspected.  I refused to answer you. You then went to the
+vicarage, waited outside it for some time, and finally returned
+to your cottage."
+
+"How do you know that?"
+
+"I followed you."
+
+"I saw no one."
+
+"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you.  You spent
+a restless night at your cottage, and you formed certain plans,
+which in the early morning you proceeded to put into execution.
+Leaving your door just as day was breaking, you filled your
+pocket with some reddish gravel that was lying heaped beside your
+gate."
+
+Sterndale gave a violent start and looked at Holmes in amazement.
+
+"You then walked swiftly for the mile which separated you from
+the vicarage.  You were wearing, I may remark, the same pair of
+ribbed tennis shoes which are at the present moment upon your
+feet.  At the vicarage you passed through the orchard and the
+side hedge, coming out under the window of the lodger Tregennis.
+It was now daylight, but the household was not yet stirring.  You
+drew some of the gravel from your pocket, and you threw it up at
+the window above you."
+
+Sterndale sprang to his feet.
+
+"I believe that you are the devil himself!" he cried.
+
+Holmes smiled at the compliment.  "It took two, or possibly
+three, handfuls before the lodger came to the window.  You
+beckoned him to come down.  He dressed hurriedly and descended to
+his sitting-room.  You entered by the window.  There was an
+interview--a short one--during which you walked up and down the
+room.  Then you passed out and closed the window, standing on the
+lawn outside smoking a cigar and watching what occurred.
+Finally, after the death of Tregennis, you withdrew as you had
+come.  Now, Dr. Sterndale, how do you justify such conduct, and
+what were the motives for your actions?  If you prevaricate or
+trifle with me, I give you my assurance that the matter will pass
+out of my hands forever."
+
+Our visitor's face had turned ashen gray as he listened to the
+words of his accuser.  Now he sat for some time in thought with
+his face sunk in his hands.  Then with a sudden impulsive gesture
+he plucked a photograph from his breast-pocket and threw it on
+the rustic table before us.
+
+"That is why I have done it," said he.
+
+It showed the bust and face of a very beautiful woman.  Holmes
+stooped over it.
+
+"Brenda Tregennis," said he.
+
+"Yes, Brenda Tregennis," repeated our visitor.  "For years I have
+loved her.  For years she has loved me.  There is the secret of
+that Cornish seclusion which people have marvelled at.  It has
+brought me close to the one thing on earth that was dear to me.
+I could not marry her, for I have a wife who has left me for
+years and yet whom, by the deplorable laws of England, I could
+not divorce.  For years Brenda waited.  For years I waited.  And
+this is what we have waited for."  A terrible sob shook his great
+frame, and he clutched his throat under his brindled beard.  Then
+with an effort he mastered himself and spoke on:
+
+"The vicar knew.  He was in our confidence.  He would tell you
+that she was an angel upon earth.  That was why he telegraphed to
+me and I returned.  What was my baggage or Africa to me when I
+learned that such a fate had come upon my darling?  There you
+have the missing clue to my action, Mr. Holmes."
+
+"Proceed," said my friend.
+
+Dr. Sterndale drew from his pocket a paper packet and laid it
+upon the table.  On the outside was written "Radix pedis diaboli"
+with a red poison label beneath it.  He pushed it towards me.  "I
+understand that you are a doctor, sir.  Have you ever heard of
+this preparation?"
+
+"Devil's-foot root!  No, I have never heard of it."
+
+"It is no reflection upon your professional knowledge," said he,
+"for I believe that, save for one sample in a laboratory at Buda,
+there is no other specimen in Europe.  It has not yet found its
+way either into the pharmacopoeia or into the literature of
+toxicology.  The root is shaped like a foot, half human, half
+goatlike; hence the fanciful name given by a botanical
+missionary.  It is used as an ordeal poison by the medicine-men
+in certain districts of West Africa and is kept as a secret among
+them.  This particular specimen I obtained under very
+extraordinary circumstances in the Ubangi country."  He opened
+the paper as he spoke and disclosed a heap of reddish-brown,
+snuff-like powder.
+
+"Well, sir?" asked Holmes sternly.
+
+"I am about to tell you, Mr. Holmes, all that actually occurred,
+for you already know so much that it is clearly to my interest
+that you should know all.  I have already explained the
+relationship in which I stood to the Tregennis family. For the
+sake of the sister I was friendly with the brothers.  There was a
+family quarrel about money which estranged this man Mortimer, but
+it was supposed to be made up, and I afterwards met him as I did
+the others.  He was a sly, subtle, scheming man, and several
+things arose which gave me a suspicion of him, but I had no cause
+for any positive quarrel.
+
+"One day, only a couple of weeks ago, he came down to my cottage
+and I showed him some of my African curiosities.  Among other
+things I exhibited this powder, and I told him of its strange
+properties, how it stimulates those brain centres which control
+the emotion of fear, and how either madness or death is the fate
+of the unhappy native who is subjected to the ordeal by the
+priest of his tribe.  I told him also how powerless European
+science would be to detect it.  How he took it I cannot say, for
+I never left the room, but there is no doubt that it was then,
+while I was opening cabinets and stooping to boxes, that he
+managed to abstract some of the devil's-foot root.  I well
+remember how he plied me with questions as to the amount and the
+time that was needed for its effect, but I little dreamed that he
+could have a personal reason for asking.
+
+"I thought no more of the matter until the vicar's telegram
+reached me at Plymouth.  This villain had thought that I would be
+at sea before the news could reach me, and that I should be lost
+for years in Africa.  But I returned at once.  Of course, I could
+not listen to the details without feeling assured that my poison
+had been used.  I came round to see you on the chance that some
+other explanation had suggested itself to you.  But there could
+be none.  I was convinced that Mortimer Tregennis was the
+murderer; that for the sake of money, and with the idea, perhaps,
+that if the other members of his family were all insane he would
+be the sole guardian of their joint property, he had used the
+devil's-foot powder upon them, driven two of them out of their
+senses, and killed his sister Brenda, the one human being whom I
+have ever loved or who has ever loved me.  There was his crime;
+what was to be his punishment?
+
+"Should I appeal to the law?  Where were my proofs?  I knew that
+the facts were true, but could I help to make a jury of
+countrymen believe so fantastic a story?  I might or I might not.
+But I could not afford to fail.  My soul cried out for revenge.
+I have said to you once before, Mr. Holmes, that I have spent
+much of my life outside the law, and that I have come at last to
+be a law to myself.  So it was even now.  I determined that the
+fate which he had given to others should be shared by himself.
+Either that or I would do justice upon him with my own hand.  In
+all England there can be no man who sets less value upon his own
+life than I do at the present moment.
+
+"Now I have told you all.  You have yourself supplied the rest.
+I did, as you say, after a restless night, set off early from my
+cottage.  I foresaw the difficulty of arousing him, so I gathered
+some gravel from the pile which you have mentioned, and I used it
+to throw up to his window.  He came down and admitted me through
+the window of the sitting-room.  I laid his offence before him.
+I told him that I had come both as judge and executioner.  The
+wretch sank into a chair, paralyzed at the sight of my revolver.
+I lit the lamp, put the powder above it, and stood outside the
+window, ready to carry out my threat to shoot him should he try
+to leave the room.  In five minutes he died.  My God! how he
+died!  But my heart was flint, for he endured nothing which my
+innocent darling had not felt before him.  There is my story, Mr.
+Holmes.  Perhaps, if you loved a woman, you would have done as
+much yourself.  At any rate, I am in your hands.  You can take
+what steps you like.  As I have already said, there is no man
+living who can fear death less than I do."
+
+Holmes sat for some little time in silence.
+
+"What were your plans?" he asked at last.
+
+"I had intended to bury myself in central Africa.  My work there
+is but half finished."
+
+"Go and do the other half," said Holmes.  "I, at least, am not
+prepared to prevent you."
+
+Dr. Sterndale raised his giant figure, bowed gravely, and walked
+from the arbour.  Holmes lit his pipe and handed me his pouch.
+
+"Some fumes which are not poisonous would be a welcome change,"
+said he.  "I think you must agree, Watson, that it is not a case
+in which we are called upon to interfere.  Our investigation has
+been independent, and our action shall be so also.  You would not
+denounce the man?"
+
+"Certainly not," I answered.
+
+"I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I
+loved had met such an end, I might act even as our lawless lion-
+hunter has done.  Who knows?  Well, Watson, I will not offend
+your intelligence by explaining what is obvious.  The gravel upon
+the window-sill was, of course, the starting-point of my
+research.  It was unlike anything in the vicarage garden.  Only
+when my attention had been drawn to Dr. Sterndale and his cottage
+did I find its counterpart.  The lamp shining in broad daylight
+and the remains of powder upon the shield were successive links
+in a fairly obvious chain.  And now, my dear Watson, I think we
+may dismiss the matter from our mind and go back with a clear
+conscience to the study of those Chaldean roots which are surely
+to be traced in the Cornish branch of the great Celtic speech."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
+
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