latter raise up his hand as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by

their violence that she ran away and told her mother when she reached home that

she had left the two McCarthys quarrelling near Boscombe Pool, and that she was

afraid that they were going to fight. She had hardly said the words when young

Mr. McCarthy came running up to the lodge to say that he had found his father

dead in the wood, and to ask for the help of the lodge-keeper. He was much

excited, without either his gun or his hat, and his right hand and sleeve were

observed to be stained with fresh blood. On following him they found the dead

body stretched out upon the grass beside the pool. The head had been beaten in

by repeated blows of some heavy and blunt weapon. The injuries were such as

might very well have been inflicted by the butt-end of his son’s gun,

which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of the body. Under these

circumstances the young man was instantly arrested, and a verdict of

‘wilful murder’ having been returned at the inquest on Tuesday, he

was on Wednesday brought before the magistrates at Ross, who have referred the

case to the next Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out

before the coroner and the police-court.”


“I could hardly imagine a more damning case,” I remarked. “If

ever circumstantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so here.”


“Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing,” answered Holmes

thoughtfully. “It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if

you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an

equally uncompromising manner to something entirely different. It must be

confessed, however, that the case looks exceedingly grave against the young

man, and it is very possible that he is indeed the culprit. There are several

people in the neighbourhood, however, and among them Miss Turner, the daughter