If there had been nothing else, this incident alone would have suggested a prearranged conspiracy to my mind." "You think then, definitely, that Barker and Mrs.Douglas are guilty of the murder ?" "There is an appalling directness about your questions, Watson," said Holmes, shaking his pipe at me.

"They come at me like bullets.

If you put it that Mrs.Douglas and Barker know the truth about the murder, and are conspiring to conceal it, then I can give you a whole-souled answer.

I am sure they do.

But your more deadly proposition is not so clear.