Chapters 1 through 3 Summary

Mary Russell is reading a telegram from her husband Sherlock Holmes that requests she take the train immediately to Devonshire. The telegram is brief, saying only that she's to come, regardless of whether she has time, and that she's to bring a compass. A couple of hours later, as Russell sits reading, a second telegram arrives with instructions that she's also to bring a map. That telegram also orders that she "close her books" and embark on the trip. Russell is annoyed that Holmes knows her so well that he would have realized she was still reading. She gathers the map and compass, packs a bag and catches the train. At the Coryton station in Devon, she finds that Holmes isn't there to meet her but that he's left a note giving directions to Lew House, two miles from the station...