So
I had my key to the secrets of the establishment.
"Curious people, Watson! I don't pretend to understand it all
yet, but very curious people anyway. It's a double-winged house,
and the servants live on one side, the family on the other.
There's no link between the two save for Henderson's own servant,
who serves the family's meals. Everything is carried to a
certain door, which forms the one connection. Governess and
children hardly go out at all, except into the garden. Henderson
never by any chance walks alone. His dark secretary is like his
shadow. The gossip among the servants is that their master is
terribly afraid of something. 'Sold his soul to the devil in
exchange for money,' says Warner, 'and expects his creditor to
come up and claim his own.' Where they came from, or who they
are, nobody has an idea. They are very violent. Twice Henderson
has lashed at folk with his dog-whip, and only his long purse and
heavy compensation have kept him out of the courts.
"Well, now, Watson, let us judge the situation by this new
information. We may take it that the letter came out of this
strange household and was an invitation to Garcia to carry out
some attempt which had already been planned.
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