"A promise is a promise, Mr. Holmes. If Elsie wished to tell
me she would. If not, it is not for me to force her confidence.
But I am justified in taking my own line -- and I will."
"Then I will help you with all my heart. In the first place,
have you heard of any strangers being seen in your neighbourhood?"
"No."
"I presume that it is a very quiet place. Any fresh face would
cause comment?"
"In the immediate neighbourhood, yes. But we have several small
watering-places not very far away. And the farmers take in lodgers."
"These hieroglyphics have evidently a meaning. If it is a
purely arbitrary one it may be impossible for us to solve it.
If, on the other hand, it is systematic, I have no doubt that
we shall get to the bottom of it. But this particular sample
is so short that I can do nothing, and the facts which you have
brought me are so indefinite that we have no basis for an
investigation. I would suggest that you return to Norfolk,
that you keep a keen look-out, and that you take an exact copy
of any fresh dancing men which may appear. It is a thousand
pities that we have not a reproduction of those which were done
in chalk upon the window-sill.
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