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"The two McCarthys were seen after the time when William Crowder, the 
game -keeper, lost sight of them. The Boscombe Pool is thickly wooded round, 
with just a fringe of grass and of reeds round the edge. A girl of fourteen, Patience 
Moran, who is the daughter of the lodge -keeper of the Boscombe Valley estate, 
was in one of the woods picking flowers. She states that while she was there she 
saw, at the border of the wood and close by the lake, Mr. McCarthy and his son, 
and that they appeared to be having a violent quarrel. She heard Mr. McCarthy the 
elder using very strong language to his son, and she saw the latter raise up his hand 
as if to strike his father. She was so frightened by their violence that she ran away 
and told her mother when she reached home that she had left the two McCarthys 
quarrelling near Boscombe Pool, and that she was afraid that they were going to 
fight. She had hardly said the words when young Mr. McCarthy came running up 
to the lodge to say that he had found his father dead in the wood, and to ask for 
the help of the lodge-keeper. He was much excited, without either his gun or his 
hat, and his right hand and sleeve were observed to be stained with fresh blood. 
On following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the grass beside 
the pool. The head had been beaten in by repeated blows of some heavy and blunt 
weapon. The injuries were such as might very well have been inflicted by the butt- 
end of his son's gun, which was found lying on the grass within a few paces of 
the body. Under these circumstances the young man was instantly arrested, and 
a verdict of 'wilful murder' having been returned at the inquest on Tuesday, he was 
on Wednesday brought before the magistrates at Ross, who have referred the case 
to the next Assizes. Those are the main facts of the case as they came out before 
the coroner and the police-court." 

"I could hardly imagine a more damning case," I remarked. "If ever circum- 
stantial evidence pointed to a criminal it does so here." 

"Circumstantial evidence is a very tricky thing," answered Holmes thought- 
fully. "It may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own 
point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncompromising man- 
ner to something entirely different. It must be confessed, however, that the case 
looks exceedingly grave against the young man, and it is very possible that he 
is indeed the culprit. There are several people in the neighbourhood, however, 
and among them Miss Turner, the daughter of the neighbouring landowner, who 
believe in his innocence, and who have retained Lestrade, whom you may recol- 
lect in connection with the Study in Scarlet, to work out the case in his interest. 
Lestrade, being rather puzzled, has referred the case to me, and hence it is that two 
middle-aged gentlemen are flying westward at fifty miles an hour instead of quietly 
digesting their breakfasts at home." 

"I am afraid," said I, "that the facts are so obvious that you will find little credit 
to be gained out of this case." 

"There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact," he answered, laughing. 
"Besides, we may chance to hit upon some other obvious facts which may have 
been by no means obvious to Mr. Lestrade. You know me too well to think that 
I am boasting when I say that I shall either confirm or destroy his theory by means 



ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY