49235    Holmes struck the door just over the lock with the flat of his foot, and it flew open.

49236    Pistol in hand, we all three rushed into the room.

49237    But there was no sign within it of that desperate and defiant villain whom we expected to see.

49238    Instead we were faced by an object so strange and so unexpected that we stood for a moment staring at it in amazement.

49239    The room had been fashioned into a small museum, and the walls were lined by a number of glass-topped cases full of that collection of butterflies and moths the formation of which had been the relaxation of this complex and dangerous man.

49240    In the centre of this room there was an upright beam, which had been placed at some period as a support for the old worm-eaten balk of timber which spanned the roof.

49241    To this post a figure was tied, so swathed and muffled in sheets which had been used to secure it that one could not for the moment tell whether it was that of a man or a woman.

49242    One towel passed round the throat, and was secured at the back of the pillar.

49243    Another covered the lower part of the face and over it two dark eyes - eyes full of grief and shame and a dreadful questioning - stared back at us.

49244    In a minute we had torn off the gag, unswathed the bonds, and Mrs Stapleton sank upon the floor in front of us.

49245    As her beautiful head fell upon her chest I saw the clear red weal of a whiplash across her neck.

49246    'The brute!' cried Holmes.

49247    'Here, Lestrade, your brandy-bottle!

49248    Put her in the chair!

49249    She has fainted from ill-usage and exhaustion.'