But why, having an urgent message to deliver, did he proceed to take a ticket for the gallery in company with two sailors, apparently strangers to him?
Again, this explanation does not even touch the crucial question, which is--How came our friend to disappear ?" The Doctor shook his head.
"On the other hand," Mr.Basket continued, "if we take the darker view, that this man had entered the fish-pond not for purposes of rescue, but--dreadful thought--to hold the victim under water, why should he have exposed himself to detection by coming to the theatre?
Why, in fine, should he desire to communicate at all with me ?" "Perhaps," suggested Mrs.Basket, who had been listening while she knitted, "his conscience pricked him." "My dear Maria!" began her husband testily.

But at this moment the house rang with an alarm upon the front-door bell.
The poor lady stood up fluttering, white in the face.
"You must answer it, Elihu! I couldn't, not if you was to offer me twice the reward at this moment--and him standing there, perhaps, or his ghost, like Peter out of prison!" But their visitor proved to be the Chief Constable himself.

He, too, was pale with excitement, and he held in his hand a copy of the Sherborne _Mercury_.
"Your friend--" he began.
"Well ?" "He is dead.

The mystery is not, indeed, explained, but the issue of it appears too certain.

I was walking along old Town Street when the Sherborne Rider came along.