"The Adventure of the Dancing Men", one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

 short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...

, is one of 13 stories in the cycle collected as The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1903-1904, by Arthur Conan Doyle.-History:...

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Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" third in his list of his twelve favorite Holmes stories.
Mr. Hilton Cubitt of Ridling Thorpe Manor in Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 visits Sherlock Holmes and gives him a piece of paper with this mysterious sequence of stick figures.

The little dancing men are at the heart of a mystery which seems to be driving his young wife Elsie to distraction.