"Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good enough to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can deduce all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to this system of imprisonment?"
     "Yes, sir."
     "And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get rid of the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler."
     "That was it, sir."
     "But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman should be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded by certain arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you that your interests were the same as his."
     "Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentleman," said Mrs. Toller serenely.
     "And in this way he managed that your good man should have no want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the moment when your master had gone out."
     "You have it, sir, just as it happened."
  &nbs............