“What are they?”


“It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after the

return to Hatherley Farm. On the inspector of constabulary informing him that

he was a prisoner, he remarked that he was not surprised to hear it, and that

it was no more than his deserts. This observation of his had the natural effect

of removing any traces of doubt which might have remained in the minds of the

coroner’s jury.”


“It was a confession,” I ejaculated.


“No, for it was followed by a protestation of innocence.”


“Coming on the top of such a damning series of events, it was at least a

most suspicious remark.”


“On the contrary,” said Holmes, “it is the brightest rift

which I can at present see in the clouds. However innocent he might be, he

could not be such an absolute imbecile as not to see that the circumstances

were very black against him. Had he appeared surprised at his own arrest, or

feigned indignation at it, I should have looked upon it as highly suspicious,

because such surprise or anger would not be natural under the circumstances,

and yet might appear to be the best policy to a scheming man. His frank

acceptance of the situation marks him as either an innocent man, or else as a

man of considerable self-restraint and firmness. As to his remark about his

deserts, it was also not unnatural if you consider that he stood beside the

dead body of his father, and that there is no doubt that he had that very day

so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and even,

according to the little girl whose evidence is so important, to raise his hand

as if to strike him. The self-reproach and contrition which are displayed in

his remark appear to me to be the signs of a healthy mind rather than of a

guilty one.”


I shook my head. “Many men have been hanged on far slighter

evidence,” I remarked.


“So they have. And many men have been wrongfully hanged.”