terrible injuries to which the trainer had succumbed.
On the other hand, there was no wound upon his person,
while the state of Straker's knife would show that one
at least of his assailants must bear his mark upon
him. There you have it all in a nutshell, Watson, and
if you can give me any light I shall be infinitely
obliged to you."

I had listened with the greatest interest to the
statement which Holmes, with characteristic clearness,
had laid before me. Though most of the facts were
familiar to me, I had not sufficiently appreciated
their relative importance, nor their connection to
each other.

"Is it not possible," I suggested, "that the incised
wound upon Straker may have been caused by his own
knife in the convulsive struggles which follow any
brain injury?"

"It is more than possible; it is probable," said
Holmes. "In that case one of the main points in favor
of the accused disappears."

"And yet," said I, "even now I fail to understand what
the theory of the police can be."

"I am afraid that whatever theory we state has very
grave objections to it," returned my companion. "The
police imagine, I take it, that this Fitzroy Simpson,