As Doctor Winchester tells me that there are some strange matters outside this case which seem to puzzle him--and others--and in which he thinks you may yet be specially interested, it might be as well that you should know every phase of the case.

For myself I do not take much account of mysteries--except those of science; and as there seems to be some idea of an attempt at assassination or robbery, all I can say is that if assassins were at work they ought to take some elementary lessons in anatomy before their next job, for they seem thoroughly ignorant.

If robbery were their purpose, they seem to have worked with marvellous inefficiency.

That, however, is not my business." Here he took a big pinch of snuff, and turning to to Miss Trelawny, went on: "Now as to the patient.

Leaving out the cause of his illness, all we can say at present is that he appears to be suffering from a marked attack of catalepsy.