'Douglas!' he stammered. 'Birlstone! What's this, Mr Holmes?... Where in the name of all that is wonderful did you get those names?'
'It is a cipher that Dr Watson and I have had occasion to solve. But why - what's amiss with the names?'
The inspector looked from one to the other of us in dazed astonishment.
'Just this,' said he, 'that Mr Douglas, of Birlstone Manor House, was horribly murdered this morning.'

To the local police it is a formidable case and they are grateful for the razor brain of the great detective Holmes. There are perplexing details - a wedding ring missing together with one dumb-bell, the odd behaviour of the widow and a card inscribed 'VV 341' lying by the faceless body. But Holmes can make sense of them all - even before he and Watson have the complete record of the terrible past when Bodymaster McGinty ruled in the Valley of Fear...