So I moved next door—into the very room in which Julia died!

“Last night I lay there, thinking about Julia. And then I heard it! A long, low whistle! It was the same sound Julia had talked about—on the night she had died!

“I jumped up and lit a candle. I could see nothing in the room. But I could not go back to bed. I got dressed. I waited for daylight. And then I came right here, to ask your help.”

Holmes said nothing for a long time. Then he spoke. “We must act right away,” he said. “I will come to Stoke Moran this afternoon, Miss Stoner. Can I get into the house without Dr. Roylott knowing it?”

“Yes,” she said. “He said he would be away all day.”

“Good. You go back home, then,” Holmes said. “We will come down on an early afternoon train.”

Miss Stoner left the room.

“And what do you think of it all, Watson?” Holmes asked.

“It is a very dark business,” I said.

“I am afraid it is. But we do have some clues. We have her words, ‘the speckled band.’ We know that a band of gypsies was camping on the land. They could have whistled. Then there was the clanging sound. That might have been a gypsy too. It could have been the clanging of a window bar.”

“I see many things wrong with that idea,” I said.

“So do I,” said Holmes. “That is why we are going to Stoke Moran.

“Let’s order breakfast, Watson. Then I shall walk downtown. I’ll need some facts before we do anything else.”

It was one o’clock when Holmes got back. He had a blue paper in his hand. It had notes and numbers all over it.

“I have seen the will of Dr. Roylott’s wife,” he said. “She left a thousand pounds, all right. But each girl was to get two hundred and fifty pounds when she got married. If the girls died before getting married, Roylott would get all the money.