The air had turned chill and we withdrew into the hut for warmth.

There, sitting together in the twilight, I told Holmes of my conversation with the lady.

So interested was he that I had to repeat some of it twice before he was satisfied.
"This is most important," said he when I had concluded.

"It fills up a gap which I had been unable to bridge, in this most complex affair.

You are aware, perhaps, that a close intimacy exists between this lady and the man Stapleton ?" "I did not know of a close intimacy." "There can be no doubt about the matter.