HIS LAST BOW | |
Arthur Conan Doyle | |
Table of contents | |
Preface | |
The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge | |
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box | |
The Adventure of the Red Circle | |
The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans | |
The Adventure of the Dying Detective | |
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax | |
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot | |
His Last Bow | |
PREFACE | |
The friends of Mr. Sherlock Holmes will be glad to learn that he is | |
still alive and well, though somewhat crippled by occasional attacks | |
of rheumatism. He has, for many years, lived in a small farm upon the | |
downs five miles from Eastbourne, where his time is divided between | |
philosophy and agriculture. During this period of rest he has refused | |
the most princely offers to take up various cases, having determined | |
that his retirement was a permanent one. The approach of the German | |
war caused him, however, to lay his remarkable combination of | |
intellectual and practical activity at the disposal of the | |
government, with historical results which are recounted in His Last | |
Bow. Several previous experiences which have lain long in my | |
portfolio have been added to His Last Bow so as to complete the | |
volume. | |
John H. Watson, M. D. | |
THE ADVENTURE OF WISTERIA LODGE | |
Table of contents | |
The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles | |
The Tiger of San Pedro | |
CHAPTER I | |
The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles | |
I find it recorded in my notebook that it was a bleak and windy day | |
towards the end of March in the year 1892. Holmes had received a | |
telegram while we sat at our lunch, and he had scribbled a reply. He | |
made no remark, but the matter remained in his thoughts, for he stood | |
in front of the fire afterwards with a thoughtful face, smoking his | |
pipe, and casting an occasional glance at the message. Suddenly he | |
turned upon me with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. | |
"I suppose, Watson, we must look upon you as a man of letters," said | |
he. "How do you define the word 'grotesque'?" | |
"Strange--remarkable," I suggested. | |
He shook his head at my definition. | |
"There is surely something more than that," said he; "some underlying | |
suggestion of the tragic and the terrible. If you cast your mind | |
back to some of those narratives with which you have afflicted a | |
long-suffering public, you will recognize how often the grotesque has | |
deepened into the criminal. Think of that little affair of the | |
red-headed men. That was grotesque enough in the outset, and yet it | |
ended in a desperate attempt at robbery. Or, again, there was that | |
most grotesque affair of the five orange pips, which let straight to | |
a murderous conspiracy. The word puts me on the alert." | |
"Have you it there?" I asked. | |
He read the telegram aloud. | |
"Have just had most incredible and grotesque experience. May I | |
consult you? | |
"Scott Eccles, | |
"Post Office, Charing Cross." | |
"Man or woman?" I asked. | |
"Oh, man, of course. No woman would ever send a reply-paid telegram. | |
She would have come." | |
"Will you see him?" | |
"My dear Watson, you know how bored I have been since we locked up | |
Colonel Carruthers. My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself | |
to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it | |
was built. Life is commonplace, the papers are sterile; audacity and | |
romance seem to have passed forever from the criminal world. Can you | |
ask me, then, whether I am ready to look into any new problem, | |
however trivial it may prove? But here, unless I am mistaken, is our | |
client." | |
A measured step was heard upon the stairs, and a moment later a | |
stout, tall, gray-whiskered and solemnly respectable person was | |
ushered into the room. His life history was written in his heavy | |
features and pompous manner. From his spats to his gold-rimmed | |
spectacles he was a Conservative, a churchman, a good citizen, | |
orthodox and conventional to the last degree. But some amazing | |
experience had disturbed his native composure and left its traces in | |
his bristling hair, his flushed, angry cheeks, and his flurried, | |
excited manner. He plunged instantly into his business. | |
"I have had a most singular and unpleasant experience, Mr. Holmes," | |
said he. "Never in my life have I been placed in such a situation. It | |
is most improper--most outrageous. I must insist upon some | |
explanation." He swelled and puffed in his anger. | |
"Pray sit down, Mr. Scott Eccles," said Holmes in a soothing voice. | |
"May I ask, in the first place, why you came to me at all?" | |
"Well, sir, it did not appear to be a matter which concerned the | |
police, and yet, when you have heard the facts, you must admit that I | |
could not leave it where it was. Private detectives are a class with | |
whom I have absolutely no sympathy, but none the less, having heard | |
your name--" | |
"Quite so. But, in the second place, why did you not come at once?" | |
"What do you mean?" | |
Holmes glanced at his watch. | |
"It is a quarter-past two," he said. "Your telegram was dispatched | |
about one. But no one can glance at your toilet and attire without | |
seeing that your disturbance dates from the moment of your waking." | |
Our client smoothed down his unbrushed hair and felt his unshaven | |
chin. | |
"You are right, Mr. Holmes. I never gave a thought to my toilet. I | |
was only too glad to get out of such a house. But I have been running | |
round making inquiries before I came to you. I went to the house | |
agents, you know, and they said that Mr. Garcia's rent was paid up | |
all right and that everything was in order at Wisteria Lodge." | |
"Come, come, sir," said Holmes, laughing. "You are like my friend, | |
Dr. Watson, who has a bad habit of telling his stories wrong end | |
foremost. Please arrange your thoughts and let me know, in their due | |
sequence, exactly what those events are which have sent you out | |
unbrushed and unkempt, with dress boots and waistcoat buttoned awry, | |
in search of advice and assistance." | |
Our client looked down with a rueful face at his own unconventional | |
appearance. | |
"I'm sure it must look very bad, Mr. Holmes, and I am not aware that | |
in my whole life such a thing has ever happened before. But will tell | |
you the whole queer business, and when I have done so you will admit, | |
I am sure, that there has been enough to excuse me." | |
But his narrative was nipped in the bud. There was a bustle outside, | |
and Mrs. Hudson opened the door to usher in two robust and | |
official-looking individuals, one of whom was well known to us as | |
Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard, an energetic, gallant, and, | |
within his limitations, a capable officer. He shook hands with Holmes | |
and introduced his comrade as Inspector Baynes, of the Surrey | |
Constabulary. | |
"We are hunting together, Mr. Holmes, and our trail lay in this | |
direction." He turned his bulldog eyes upon our visitor. "Are you Mr. | |
John Scott Eccles, of Popham House, Lee?" | |
"I am." | |
"We have been following you about all the morning." | |
"You traced him through the telegram, no doubt," said Holmes. | |
"Exactly, Mr. Holmes. We picked up the scent at Charing Cross | |
Post-Office and came on here." | |
"But why do you follow me? What do you want?" | |
"We wish a statement, Mr. Scott Eccles, as to the events which let up | |
to the death last night of Mr. Aloysius Garcia, of Wisteria Lodge, | |
near Esher." | |
Our client had sat up with staring eyes and every tinge of colour | |
struck from his astonished face. | |
"Dead? Did you say he was dead?" | |
"Yes, sir, he is dead." | |
"But how? An accident?" | |
"Murder, if ever there was one upon earth." | |
"Good God! This is awful! You don't mean--you don't mean that I am | |
suspected?" | |
"A letter of yours was found in the dead man's pocket, and we know by | |
it that you had planned to pass last night at his house." | |
"So I did." | |
"Oh, you did, did you?" | |
Out came the official notebook. | |
"Wait a bit, Gregson," said Sherlock Holmes. "All you desire is a | |
plain statement, is it not?" | |
"And it is my duty to warn Mr. Scott Eccles that it may be used | |
against him." | |
"Mr. Eccles was going to tell us about it when you entered the room. | |
I think, Watson, a brandy and soda would do him no harm. Now, sir, I | |
suggest that you take no notice of this addition to your audience, | |
and that you proceed with your narrative exactly as you would have | |
done had you never been interrupted." | |
Our visitor had gulped off the brandy and the colour had returned to | |
his face. With a dubious glance at the inspector's notebook, he | |
plunged at once into his extraordinary statement. | |
"I am a bachelor," said he, "and being of a sociable turn I cultivate | |
a large number of friends. Among these are the family of a retired | |
brewer called Melville, living at Abermarle Mansion, Kensington. It | |
was at his table that I met some weeks ago a young fellow named | |
Garcia. He was, I understood, of Spanish descent and connected in | |
some way with the embassy. He spoke perfect English, was pleasing in | |
his manners, and as good-looking a man as ever I saw in my life. | |
"In some way we struck up quite a friendship, this young fellow and | |
I. He seemed to take a fancy to me from the first, and within two | |
days of our meeting he came to see me at Lee. One thing led to | |
another, and it ended in his inviting me out to spend a few days at | |
his house, Wisteria Lodge, between Esher and Oxshott. Yesterday | |
evening I went to Esher to fulfil this engagement. | |
"He had described his household to me before I went there. He lived | |
with a faithful servant, a countryman of his own, who looked after | |
all his needs. This fellow could speak English and did his | |
housekeeping for him. Then there was a wonderful cook, he said, a | |
half-breed whom he had picked up in his travels, who could serve an | |
excellent dinner. I remember that he remarked what a queer household | |
it was to find in the heart of Surrey, and that I agreed with him, | |
though it has proved a good deal queerer than I thought. | |
"I drove to the place--about two miles on the south side of Esher. | |
The house was a fair-sized one, standing back from the road, with a | |
curving drive which was banked with high evergreen shrubs. It was an | |
old, tumbledown building in a crazy state of disrepair. When the trap | |
pulled up on the grass-grown drive in front of the blotched and | |
weather-stained door, I had doubts as to my wisdom in visiting a man | |
whom I knew so slightly. He opened the door himself, however, and | |
greeted me with a great show of cordiality. I was handed over to the | |
manservant, a melancholy, swarthy individual, who led the way, my bag | |
in his hand, to my bedroom. The whole place was depressing. Our | |
dinner was tête-à -tête, and though my host did his best to be | |
entertaining, his thoughts seemed to continually wander, and he | |
talked so vaguely and wildly that I could hardly understand him. He | |
continually drummed his fingers on the table, gnawed his nails, and | |
gave other signs of nervous impatience. The dinner itself was neither | |
well served nor well cooked, and the gloomy presence of the taciturn | |
servant did not help to enliven us. I can assure you that many times | |
in the course of the evening I wished that I could invent some excuse | |
which would take me back to Lee. | |
"One thing comes back to my memory which may have a bearing upon the | |
business that you two gentlemen are investigating. I thought nothing | |
of it at the time. Near the end of dinner a note was handed in by the | |
servant. I noticed that after my host had read it he seemed even more | |
distrait and strange than before. He gave up all pretence at | |
conversation and sat, smoking endless cigarettes, lost in his own | |
thoughts, but he made no remark as to the contents. About eleven I | |
was glad to go to bed. Some time later Garcia looked in at my | |
door--the room was dark at the time--and asked me if I had rung. I | |
said that I had not. He apologized for having disturbed me so late, | |
saying that it was nearly one o'clock. I dropped off after this and | |
slept soundly all night. | |
"And now I come to the amazing part of my tale. When I woke it was | |
broad daylight. I glanced at my watch, and the time was nearly nine. | |
I had particularly asked to be called at eight, so I was very much | |
astonished at this forgetfulness. I sprang up and rang for the | |
servant. There was no response. I rang again and again, with the same | |
result. Then I came to the conclusion that the bell was out of order. | |
I huddled on my clothes and hurried downstairs in an exceedingly bad | |
temper to order some hot water. You can imagine my surprise when I | |
found that there was no one there. I shouted in the hall. There was | |
no answer. Then I ran from room to room. All were deserted. My host | |
had shown me which was his bedroom the night before, so I knocked at | |
the door. No reply. I turned the handle and walked in. The room was | |
empty, and the bed had never been slept in. He had gone with the | |
rest. The foreign host, the foreign footman, the foreign cook, all | |
had vanished in the night! That was the end of my visit to Wisteria | |
Lodge." | |
Sherlock Holmes was rubbing his hands and chuckling as he added this | |
bizarre incident to his collection of strange episodes. | |
"Your experience is, so far as I know, perfectly unique," said he. | |
"May I ask, sir, what you did then?" | |
"I was furious. My first idea was that I had been the victim of some | |
absurd practical joke. I packed my things, banged the hall door | |
behind me, and set off for Esher, with my bag in my hand. I called at | |
Allan Brothers', the chief land agents in the village, and found that | |
it was from this firm that the villa had been rented. It struck me | |
that the whole proceeding could hardly be for the purpose of making a | |
fool of me, and that the main objet must be to get out of the rent. | |
It is late in March, so quarter-day is at hand. But this theory would | |
not work. The agent was obliged to me for my warning, but told me | |
that the rent had been paid in advance. Then I made my way to town | |
and called at the Spanish embassy. The man was unknown there. After | |
this I went to see Melville, at whose house I had first met Garcia, | |
but I found that he really knew rather less about him than I did. | |
Finally when I got your reply to my wire I came out to you, since I | |
gather that you are a person who gives advice in difficult cases. But | |
now, Mr. Inspector, I understand, from what you said when you entered | |
the room, that you can carry the story on, and that some tragedy had | |
occurred. I can assure you that every word I have said is the truth, | |
and that, outside of what I have told you, I know absolutely nothing | |
about the fate of this man. My only desire is to help the law in | |
every possible way." | |
"I am sure of it, Mr. Scott Eccles--I am sure of it," said Inspector | |
Gregson in a very amiable tone. "I am bound to say that everything | |
which you have said agrees very closely with the facts as they have | |
come to our notice. For example, there was that note which arrived | |
during dinner. Did you chance to observe what became of it?" | |
"Yes, I did. Garcia rolled it up and threw it into the fire." | |
"What do you say to that, Mr. Baynes?" | |
The country detective was a stout, puffy, red man, whose face was | |
only redeemed from grossness by two extraordinarily bright eyes, | |
almost hidden behind the heavy creases of cheek and brow. With a slow | |
smile he drew a folded and discoloured scrap of paper from his | |
pocket. | |
"It was a dog-grate, Mr. Holmes, and he overpitched it. I picked this | |
out unburned from the back of it." | |
Holmes smiled his appreciation. | |
"You must have examined the house very carefully to find a single | |
pellet of paper." | |
"I did, Mr. Holmes. It's my way. Shall I read it, Mr. Gregson?" | |
The Londoner nodded. | |
"The note is written upon ordinary cream-laid paper without | |
watermark. It is a quarter-sheet. The paper is cut off in two snips | |
with a short-bladed scissors. It has been folded over three times and | |
sealed with purple wax, put on hurriedly and pressed down with some | |
flat oval object. It is addressed to Mr. Garcia, Wisteria Lodge. It | |
says: | |
"Our own colours, green and white. Green open, white shut. Main | |
stair, first corridor, seventh right, green baize. Godspeed. | |
D. | |
"It is a woman's writing, done with a sharp-pointed pen, but the | |
address is either done with another pen or by someone else. It is | |
thicker and bolder, as you see." | |
"A very remarkable note," said Holmes, glancing it over. "I must | |
compliment you, Mr. Baynes, upon your attention to detail in your | |
examination of it. A few trifling points might perhaps be added. The | |
oval seal is undoubtedly a plain sleeve-link--what else is of such a | |
shape? The scissors were bent nail scissors. Short as the two snips | |
are, you can distinctly see the same slight curve in each." | |
The country detective chuckled. | |
"I thought I had squeezed all the juice out of it, but I see there | |
was a little over," he said. "I'm bound to say that I make nothing of | |
the note except that there was something on hand, and that a woman, | |
as usual, was at the bottom of it." | |
Mr. Scott Eccles had fidgeted in his seat during this conversation. | |
"I am glad you found the note, since it corroborates my story," said | |
he. "But I beg to point out that I have not yet heard what has | |
happened to Mr. Garcia, nor what has become of his household." | |
"As to Garcia," said Gregson, "that is easily answered. He was found | |
dead this morning upon Oxshott Common, nearly a mile from his home. | |
His head had been smashed to pulp by heavy blows of a sandbag or some | |
such instrument, which had crushed rather than wounded. It is a | |
lonely corner, and there is no house within a quarter of a mile of | |
the spot. He had apparently been struck down first from behind, but | |
his assailant had gone on beating him long after he was dead. It was | |
a most furious assault. There are no footsteps nor any clue to the | |
criminals." | |
"Robbed?" | |
"No, there was no attempt at robbery." | |
"This is very painful--very painful and terrible," said Mr. Scott | |
Eccles in a querulous voice, "but it is really uncommonly hard on me. | |
I had nothing to do with my host going off upon a nocturnal excursion | |
and meeting so sad an end. How do I come to be mixed up with the | |
case?" | |
"Very simply, sir," Inspector Baynes answered. "The only document | |
found in the pocket of the deceased was a letter from you saying that | |
you would be with him on the night of his death. It was the envelope | |
of this letter which gave us the dead man's name and address. It was | |
after nine this morning when we reached his house and found neither | |
you nor anyone else inside it. I wired to Mr. Gregson to run you down | |
in London while I examined Wisteria Lodge. Then I came into town, | |
joined Mr. Gregson, and here we are." | |
"I think now," said Gregson, rising, "we had best put this matter | |
into an official shape. You will come round with us to the station, | |
Mr. Scott Eccles, and let us have your statement in writing." | |
"Certainly, I will come at once. But I retain your services, Mr. | |
Holmes. I desire you to spare no expense and no pains to get at the | |
truth." | |
My friend turned to the country inspector. | |
"I suppose that you have no objection to my collaborating with you, | |
Mr. Baynes?" | |
"Highly honoured, sir, I am sure." | |
"You appear to have been very prompt and businesslike in all that you | |
have done. Was there any clue, may I ask, as to the exact hour that | |
the man met his death?" | |
"He had been there since one o'clock. There was rain about that time, | |
and his death had certainly been before the rain." | |
"But that is perfectly impossible, Mr. Baynes," cried our client. | |
"His voice is unmistakable. I could swear to it that it was he who | |
addressed me in my bedroom at that very hour." | |
"Remarkable, but by no means impossible," said Holmes, smiling. | |
"You have a clue?" asked Gregson. | |
"On the face of it the case is not a very complex one, though it | |
certainly presents some novel and interesting features. A further | |
knowledge of facts is necessary before I would venture to give a | |
final and definite opinion. By the way, Mr. Baynes, did you find | |
anything remarkable besides this note in your examination of the | |
house?" | |
The detective looked at my friend in a singular way. | |
"There were," said he, "one or two very remarkable things. Perhaps | |
when I have finished at the police-station you would care to come out | |
and give me your opinion of them." | |
"In am entirely at your service," said Sherlock Holmes, ringing the | |
bell. "You will show these gentlemen out, Mrs. Hudson, and kindly | |
send the boy with this telegram. He is to pay a five-shilling reply." | |
We sat for some time in silence after our visitors had left. Holmes | |
smoked hard, with his browns drawn down over his keen eyes, and his | |
head thrust forward in the eager way characteristic of the man. | |
"Well, Watson," he asked, turning suddenly upon me, "what do you make | |
of it?" | |
"I can make nothing of this mystification of Scott Eccles." | |
"But the crime?" | |
"Well, taken with the disappearance of the man's companions, I should | |
say that they were in some way concerned in the murder and had fled | |
from justice." | |
"That is certainly a possible point of view. On the face of it you | |
must admit, however, that it is very strange that his two servants | |
should have been in a conspiracy against him and should have attacked | |
him on the one night when he had a guest. They had him alone at their | |
mercy every other night in the week." | |
"Then why did they fly?" | |
"Quite so. Why did they fly? There is a big fact. Another big fact is | |
the remarkable experience of our client, Scott Eccles. Now, my dear | |
Watson, is it beyond the limits of human ingenuity to furnish an | |
explanation which would cover both of these big facts? If it were one | |
which would also admit of the mysterious note with its very curious | |
phraseology, why, then it would be worth accepting as a temporary | |
hypothesis. If the fresh facts which come to our knowledge all fit | |
themselves into the scheme, then our hypothesis may gradually become | |
a solution." | |
"But what is our hypothesis?" | |
Holmes leaned back in his chair with half-closed eyes. | |
"You must admit, my dear Watson, that the idea of a joke is | |
impossible. There were grave events afoot, as the sequel showed, and | |
the coaxing of Scott Eccles to Wisteria Lodge had some connection | |
with them." | |
"But what possible connection?" | |
"Let us take it link by link. There is, on the face of it, something | |
unnatural about this strange and sudden friendship between the young | |
Spaniard and Scott Eccles. It was the former who forced the pace. He | |
called upon Eccles at the other end of London on the very day after | |
he first met him, and he kept in close touch with him until he got | |
him down to Esher. Now, what did he want with Eccles? What could | |
Eccles supply? I see no charm in the man. He is not particulary | |
intelligent--not a man likely to be congenial to a quick-witted | |
Latin. Why, then, was he picked out from all the other people whom | |
Garcia met as particularly suited to his purpose? Has he any one | |
outstanding quality? I say that he has. He is the very type of | |
conventional British respectability, and the very man as a witness to | |
impress another Briton. You saw yourself how neither of the | |
inspectors dreamed of questioning his statement, extraordinary as it | |
was." | |
"But what was he to witness?" | |
"Nothing, as things turned out, but everything had they gone another | |
way. That is how I read the matter." | |
"I see, he might have proved an alibi." | |
"Exactly, my dear Watson; he might have proved an alibi. We will | |
suppose, for argument's sake, that the household of Wisteria Lodge | |
are confederates in some design. The attempt, whatever it may be, is | |
to come off, we will say, before one o'clock. By some juggling of the | |
clocks it is quite possible that they may have got Scott Eccles to | |
bed earlier than he thought, but in any case it is likely that when | |
Garcia went out of his way to tell him that it was one it was really | |
not more than twelve. If Garcia could do whatever he had to do and be | |
back by the hour mentioned he had evidently a powerful reply to any | |
accusation. Here was this irreproachable Englishman ready to swear in | |
any court of law that the accused was in the house all the time. It | |
was an insurance against the worst." | |
"Yes, yes, I see that. But how about the disappearance of the | |
others?" | |
"I have not all my facts yet, but I do not think there are any | |
insuperable difficulties. Still, it is an error to argue in front of | |
your data. You find yourself insensibly twisting them round to fit | |
your theories." | |
"And the message?" | |
"How did it run? 'Our own colours, green and white.' Sounds like | |
racing. 'Green open, white shut.' That is clearly a signal. 'Main | |
stair, first corridor, seventh right, green baize.' This is an | |
assignation. We may find a jealous husband at the bottom of it all. | |
It was clearly a dangerous quest. She would not have said 'Godspeed' | |
had it not been so. 'D'--that should be a guide." | |
"The man was a Spaniard. I suggest that 'D' stands for Dolores, a | |
common female name in Spain." | |
"Good, Watson, very good--but quite inadmissable. A Spaniard would | |
write to a Spaniard in Spanish. The writer of this note is certainly | |
English. Well, we can only possess our soul in patience until this | |
excellent inspector come back for us. Meanwhile we can thank our | |
lucky fate which has rescued us for a few short hours from the | |
insufferable fatigues of idleness." | |
An answer had arrived to Holmes's telegram before our Surrey officer | |
had returned. Holmes read it and was about to place it in his | |
notebook when he caught a glimpse of my expectant face. He tossed it | |
across with a laugh. | |
"We are moving in exalted circles," said he. | |
The telegram was a list of names and addresses: | |
Lord Harringby, The Dingle; Sir George Ffolliott, Oxshott Towers; Mr. | |
Hynes Hynes, J.P., Purdley Place; Mr. James Baker Williams, Forton | |
Old Hall; Mr. Henderson, High Gable; Rev. Joshua Stone, Nether | |
Walsling. | |
"This is a very obvious way of limiting our field of operations," | |
said Holmes. "No doubt Baynes, with his methodical mind, has already | |
adopted some similar plan." | |
"I don't quite understand." | |
"Well, my dear fellow, we have already arrived at the conclusion that | |
the massage received by Garcia at dinner was an appointment or an | |
assignation. Now, if the obvious reading of it is correct, and in | |
order to keep the tryst one has to ascend a main stair and seek the | |
seventh door in a corridor, it is perfectly clear that the house is a | |
very large one. It is equally certain that this house cannot be more | |
than a mile or two from Oxshott, since Garcia was walking in that | |
direction and hoped, according to my reading of the facts, to be back | |
in Wisteria Lodge in time to avail himself of an alibi, which would | |
only be valid up to one o'clock. As the number of large houses close | |
to Oxshott must be limited, I adopted the obvious method of sending | |
to the agents mentioned by Scott Eccles and obtaining a list of them. | |
Here they are in this telegram, and the other end of our tangled | |
skein must lie among them." | |
It was nearly six o'clock before we found ourselves in the pretty | |
Surrey village of Esher, with Inspector Baynes as our companion. | |
Holmes and I had taken things for the night, and found comfortable | |
quarters at the Bull. Finally we set out in the company of the | |
detective on our visit to Wisteria Lodge. It was a cold, dark March | |
evening, with a sharp wind and a fine rain beating upon our faces, a | |
fit setting for the wild common over which our road passed and the | |
tragic goal to which it led us. | |
CHAPTER II | |
The Tiger of San Pedro | |
A cold and melancholy walk of a couple of miles brought us to a high | |
wooden gate, which opened into a gloomy avenue of chestnuts. The | |
curved and shadowed drive led us to a low, dark house, pitch-black | |
against a slate-coloured sky. From the front window upon the left of | |
the door there peeped a glimmer of a feeble light. | |
"There's a constable in possession," said Baynes. "I'll knock at the | |
window." He stepped across the grass plot and tapped with his hand on | |
the pane. Through the fogged glass I dimly saw a man spring up from a | |
chair beside the fire, and heard a sharp cry from within the room. An | |
instant later a white-faced, hard-breathing policeman had opened the | |
door, the candle wavering in his trembling hand. | |
"What's the matter, Walters?" asked Baynes sharply. | |
The man mopped his forehead with his handkerchief and agave a long | |
sigh of relief. | |
"I am glad you have come, sir. It has been a long evening, and I | |
don't think my nerve is as good as it was." | |
"Your nerve, Walters? I should not have thought you had a nerve in | |
your body." | |
"Well, sir, it's this lonely, silent house and the queer thing in the | |
kitchen. Then when you tapped at the window I thought it had come | |
again." | |
"That what had come again?" | |
"The devil, sir, for all I know. It was at the window." | |
"What was at the window, and when?" | |
"It was just about two hours ago. The light was just fading. I was | |
sitting reading in the chair. I don't know what made me look up, but | |
there was a face looking in at me through the lower pane. Lord, sir, | |
what a face it was! I'll see it in my dreams." | |
"Tut, tut, Walters. This is not talk for a police-constable." | |
"I know, sir, I know; but it shook me, sir, and there's no use to | |
deny it. It wasn't black, sir, nor was it white, nor any colour that | |
I know but a kind of queer shade like clay with a splash of milk in | |
it. Then there was the size of it--it was twice yours, sir. And the | |
look of it--the great staring goggle eyes, and the line of white | |
teeth like a hungry beast. I tell you, sir, I couldn't move a finger, | |
nor get my breath, till it whisked away and was gone. Out I ran and | |
through the shrubbery, but thank God there was no one there." | |
"If I didn't know you were a good man, Walters, I should put a black | |
mark against you for this. If it were the devil himself a constable | |
on duty should never thank God that he could not lay his hands upon | |
him. I suppose the whole thing is not a vision and a touch of | |
nerves?" | |
"That, at least, is very easily settled," said Holmes, lighting his | |
little pocket lantern. "Yes," he reported, after a short examination | |
of the grass bed, "a number twelve shoe, I should say. If he was all | |
on the same scale as his foot he must certainly have been a giant." | |
"What became of him?" | |
"He seems to have broken through the shrubbery and made for the | |
road." | |
"Well," said the inspector with a grave and thoughtful face, "whoever | |
he may have been, and whatever he may have wanted, he's gone for the | |
present, and we have more immediate things to attend to. Now, Mr. | |
Holmes, with your permission, I will show you round the house." | |
The various bedrooms and sitting-rooms had yielded nothing to a | |
careful search. Apparently the tenants had brought little or nothing | |
with them, and all the furniture down to the smallest details had | |
been taken over with the house. A good deal of clothing with the | |
stamp of Marx and Co., High Holborn, had been left behind. | |
Telegraphic inquiries had been already made which showed that Marx | |
knew nothing of his customer save that he was a good payer. Odds and | |
ends, some pipes, a few novels, two of them in Spanish, and | |
old-fashioned pinfire revolver, and a guitar were among the personal | |
property. | |
"Nothing in all this," said Baynes, stalking, candle in hand, from | |
room to room. "But now, Mr. Holmes, I invite your attention to the | |
kitchen." | |
It was a gloomy, high-ceilinged room at the back of the house, with a | |
straw litter in one corner, which served apparently as a bed for the | |
cook. The table was piled with half-eaten dishes and dirty plates, | |
the debris of last night's dinner. | |
"Look at this," said Baynes. "What do you make of it?" | |
He held up his candle before an extraordinary object which stood at | |
the back of the dresser. It was so wrinkled and shrunken and withered | |
that it was difficult to say what it might have been. One could but | |
say that it was black and leathery and that it bore some resemblance | |
to a dwarfish, human figure. At first, as I examined it, I thought | |
that it was a mummified negro baby, and then it seemed a very twisted | |
and ancient monkey. Finally I was left in doubt as to whether it was | |
animal or human. A double band of white shells were strung round the | |
centre of it. | |
"Very interesting--very interesting, indeed!" said Holmes, peering at | |
this sinister relic. "Anything more?" | |
In silence Baynes led the way to the sink and held forward his | |
candle. The limbs and body of some large, white bird, torn savagely | |
to pieces with the feathers still on, were littered all over it. | |
Holmes pointed to the wattles on the severed head. | |
"A white cock," said he. "Most interesting! It is really a very | |
curious case." | |
But Mr. Baynes had kept his most sinister exhibit to the last. From | |
under the sink he drew a zinc pail which contained a quantity of | |
blood. Then from the table he took a platter heaped with small pieces | |
of charred bone. | |
"Something has been killed and something has been burned. We raked | |
all these out of the fire. We had a doctor in this morning. He says | |
that they are not human." | |
Holmes smiled and rubbed his hands. | |
"I must congratulate you, Inspector, on handling so distinctive and | |
instructive a case. Your powers, if I may say so without offence, | |
seem superior to your opportunities." | |
Inspector Baynes's small eyes twinkled with pleasure. | |
"You're right, Mr. Holmes. We stagnate in the provinces. A case of | |
this sort gives a man a chance, and I hope that I shall take it. What | |
do you make of these bones?" | |
"A lamb, I should say, or a kid." | |
"And the white cock?" | |
"Curious, Mr. Baynes, very curious. I should say almost unique." | |
"Yes, sir, there must have been some very strange people with some | |
very strange ways in this house. One of them is dead. Did his | |
companions follow him and kill him? If they did we should have them, | |
for every port is watched. But my own views are different. Yes, sir, | |
my own views are very different." | |
"You have a theory then?" | |
"And I'll work it myself, Mr. Holmes. It's only due to my own credit | |
to do so. Your name is made, but I have still to make mine. I should | |
be glad to be able to say afterwards that I had solved it without | |
your help." | |
Holmes laughed good-humoredly. | |
"Well, well, Inspector," said he. "Do you follow your path and I will | |
follow mine. My results are always very much at your service if you | |
care to apply to me for them. I think that I have seen all that I | |
wish in this house, and that my time may be more profitably employed | |
elsewhere. Au revoir and good luck!" | |
I could tell by numerous subtle signs, which might have been lost | |
upon anyone but myself, that Holmes was on a hot scent. As impassive | |
as ever to the casual observer, there were none the less a subdued | |
eagerness and suggestion of tension in his brightened eyes and | |
brisker manner which assured me that the game was afoot. After his | |
habit he said nothing, and after mine I asked no questions. | |
Sufficient for me to share the sport and lend my humble help to the | |
capture without distracting that intent brain with needless | |
interruption. All would come round to me in due time. | |
I waited, therefore--but to my ever-deepening disappointment I waited | |
in vain. Day succeeded day, and my friend took no step forward. One | |
morning he spent in town, and I learned from a casual reference that | |
he had visited the British Museum. Save for this one excursion, he | |
spent his days in long and often solitary walks, or in chatting with | |
a number of village gossips whose acquaintance he had cultivated. | |
"I'm sure, Watson, a week in the country will be invaluable to you," | |
he remarked. "It is very pleasant to see the first green shoots upon | |
the hedges and the catkins on the hazels once again. With a spud, a | |
tin box, and an elementary book on botany, there are instructive days | |
to be spent." He prowled about with this equipment himself, but it | |
was a poor show of plants which he would bring back of an evening. | |
Occasionally in our rambles we came across Inspector Baynes. His fat, | |
red face wreathed itself in smiles and his small eyes glittered as he | |
greeted my companion. He said little about the case, but from that | |
little we gathered that he also was not dissatisfied at the course of | |
events. I must admit, however, that I was somewhat surprised when, | |
some five days after the crime, I opened my morning paper to find in | |
large letters: | |
The Oxshott Mystery | |
a solution | |
Arrest of Supposed Assassin | |
Holmes sprang in his chair as if he had been stung when I read the | |
headlines. | |
"By Jove!" he cried. "You don't mean that Baynes has got him?" | |
"Apparently," said I as I read the following report: | |
"Great excitement was caused in Esher and the neighbouring district | |
when it was learned late last night that an arrest had been effected | |
in connection with the Oxshott murder. It will be remembered that Mr. | |
Garcia, of Wisteria Lodge, was found dead on Oxshott Common, his body | |
showing signs of extreme violence, and that on the same night his | |
servant and his cook fled, which appeared to show their participation | |
in the crime. It was suggested, but never proved, that the deceased | |
gentleman may have had valuables in the house, and that their | |
abstraction was the motive of the crime. Every effort was made by | |
Inspector Baynes, who has the case in hand, to ascertain the hiding | |
place of the fugitives, and he had good reason to believe that they | |
had not gone far but were lurking in some retreat which had been | |
already prepared. It was certain from the first, however, that they | |
would eventually be detected, as the cook, from the evidence of one | |
or two tradespeople who have caught a glimpse of him through the | |
window, was a man of most remarkable appearance--being a huge and | |
hideous mulatto, with yellowish features of a pronounced negroid | |
type. This man has been seen since the crime, for he was detected and | |
pursued by Constable Walters on the same evening, when he had the | |
audacity to revisit Wisteria Lodge. Inspector Baynes, considering | |
that such a visit must have some purpose in view and was likely, | |
therefore, to be repeated, abandoned the house but left an ambuscade | |
in the shrubbery. The man walked into the trap and was captured last | |
night after a struggle in which Constable Downing was badly bitten by | |
the savage. We understand that when the prison is brought before the | |
magistrates a remand will be applied for by the police, and that | |
great developments are hoped from his capture." | |
"Really we must see Baynes at once," cried Holmes, picking up his | |
hat. "We will just catch him before he starts." We hurried down the | |
village street and found, as we had expected, that the inspector was | |
just leaving his lodgings. | |
"You've seen the paper, Mr. Holmes?" he asked, holding one out to us. | |
"Yes, Baynes, I've seen it. Pray don't think it a liberty if I give | |
you a word of friendly warning." | |
"Of warning, Mr. Holmes?" | |
"I have looked into this case with some care, and I am not convinced | |
that you are on the right lines. I don't want you to commit yourself | |
too far unless you are sure." | |
"You're very kind, Mr. Holmes." | |
"I assure you I speak for your good." | |
It seemed to me that something like a wink quivered for an instant | |
over one of Mr. Baynes's tiny eyes. | |
"We agreed to work on our own lines, Mr. Holmes. That's what I am | |
doing." | |
"Oh, very good," said Holmes. "Don't blame me." | |
"No, sir; I believe you mean well by me. But we all have our own | |
systems, Mr. Holmes. You have yours, and maybe I have mine." | |
"Let us say no more about it." | |
"You're welcome always to my news. This fellow is a perfect savage, | |
as strong as a cart-horse and as fierce as the devil. He chewed | |
Downing's thumb nearly off before they could master him. He hardly | |
speaks a word of English, and we can get nothing out of him but | |
grunts." | |
"And you think you have evidence that he murdered his late master?" | |
"I didn't say so, Mr. Holmes; I didn't say so. We all have our little | |
ways. You try yours and I will try mine. That's the agreement." | |
Holmes shrugged his shoulders as we walked away together. "I can't | |
make the man out. He seems to be riding for a fall. Well, as he says, | |
we must each try our own way and see what comes of it. But there's | |
something in Inspector Baynes which I can't quite understand." | |
"Just sit down in that chair, Watson," said Sherlock Holmes when we | |
had returned to our apartment at the Bull. "I want to put you in | |
touch with the situation, as I may need your help to-night. Let me | |
show you the evolution of this case so far as I have been able to | |
follow it. Simple as it has been in its leading features, it has none | |
the less presented surprising difficulties in the way of an arrest. | |
There are gaps in that direction which we have still to fill. | |
"We will go back to the note which was handed in to Garcia upon the | |
evening of his death. We may put aside this idea of Baynes's that | |
Garcia's servants were concerned in the matter. The proof of this | |
lies in the fact that it was he who had arranged for the presence of | |
Scott Eccles, which could only have been done for the purpose of an | |
alibi. It was Garcia, then, who had an enterprise, and apparently a | |
criminal enterprise, in hand that night in the course of which he met | |
his death. I say 'criminal' because only a man with a criminal | |
enterprise desires to establish an alibi. Who, then, is most likely | |
to have taken his life? Surely the person against whom the criminal | |
enterprise was directed. So far it seems to me that we are on safe | |
ground. | |
"We can now see a reason for the disappearance of Garcia's household. | |
They were all confederates in the same unknown crime. If it came off | |
when Garcia returned, any possible suspicion would be warded off by | |
the Englishman's evidence, and all would be well. But the attempt was | |
a dangerous one, and if Garcia did not return by a certain hour it | |
was probable that his own life had been sacrificed. It had been | |
arranged, therefore, that in such a case his two subordinates were to | |
make for some prearranged spot where they could escape investigation | |
and be in a position afterwards to renew their attempt. That would | |
fully explain the facts, would it not?" | |
The whole inexplicable tangle seemed to straighten out before me. I | |
wondered, as I always did, how it had not been obvious to me before. | |
"But why should one servant return?" | |
"We can imagine that in the confusion of flight something precious, | |
something which he could not bear to part with, had been left behind. | |
That would explain his persistence, would it not?" | |
"Well, what is the next step?" | |
"The next step is the note received by Garcia at the dinner. It | |
indicates a confederate at the other end. Now, where was the other | |
end? I have already shown you that it could only lie in some large | |
house, and that the number of large houses is limited. My first days | |
in this village were devoted to a series of walks in which in the | |
intervals of my botanical researches I made a reconnaissance of all | |
the large houses and an examination of the family history of the | |
occupants. One house, and only one, riveted my attention. It is the | |
famous old Jacobean grange of High Gable, one mile on the farther | |
side of Oxshott, and less than half a mile from the scene of the | |
tragedy. The other mansions belonged to prosaic and respectable | |
people who live far aloof from romance. But Mr. Henderson, of High | |
Gable, was by all accounts a curious man to whom curious adventures | |
might befall. I concentrated my attention, therefore, upon him and | |
his household. | |
"A singular set of people, Watson--the man himself the most singular | |
of them all. I managed to see him on a plausible pretext, but I | |
seemed to read in his dark, deepset, brooding eyes that he was | |
perfectly aware of my true business. He is a man of fifty, strong, | |
active, with iron-gray hair, great bunched black eyebrows, the step | |
of a deer and the air of an emperor--a fierce, masterful man, with a | |
red-hot spirit behind his parchment face. He is either a foreigner or | |
has lived long in the tropics, for he is yellow and sapless, but | |
tough as whipcord. His friend and secretary, Mr. Lucas, is | |
undoubtedly a foreigner, chocolate brown, wily, suave, and catlike, | |
with a poisonous gentleness of speech. You see, Watson, we have come | |
already upon two sets of foreigners--one at Wisteria Lodge and one at | |
High Gable--so our gaps are beginning to close. | |
"These two men, close and confidential friends, are the centre of the | |
household; but there is one other person who for our immediate | |
purpose may be even more important. Henderson has two children--girls | |
of eleven and thirteen. Their governess is a Miss Burnet, an | |
Englishwoman of forty or thereabouts. There is also one confidential | |
manservant. This little group forms the real family, for their travel | |
about together, and Henderson is a great traveller, always on the | |
move. It is only within the last weeks that he has returned, after a | |
year's absence, to High Gable. I may add that he is enormously rich, | |
and whatever his whims may be he can very easily satisfy them. For | |
the rest, his house is full of butlers, footmen, maidservants, and | |
the usual overfed, underworked staff of a large English country | |
house. | |
"So much I learned partly from village gossip and partly from my own | |
observation. There are no better instruments than discharged servants | |
with a grievance, and I was lucky enough to find one. I call it luck, | |
but it would not have come my way had I not been looking out for it. | |
As Baynes remarks, we all have our systems. It was my system which | |
enabled me to find John Warner, late gardener of High Gable, sacked | |
in a moment of temper by his imperious employer. He in turn had | |
friends among the indoor servants who unite in their fear and dislike | |
of their master. So I had my key to the secrets of the establishment. | |
"Curious people, Watson! I don't pretend to understand it all yet, | |
but very curious people anyway. It's a double-winged house, and the | |
servants live on one side, the family on the other. There's no link | |
between the two save for Henderson's own servant, who serves the | |
family's meals. Everything is carried to a certain door, which forms | |
the one connection. Governess and children hardly go out at all, | |
except into the garden. Henderson never by any chance walks alone. | |
His dark secretary is like his shadow. The gossip among the servants | |
is that their master is terribly afraid of something. 'Sold his soul | |
to the devil in exchange for money,' says Warner, 'and expects his | |
creditor to come up and claim his own.' Where they came from, or who | |
they are, nobody has an idea. They are very violent. Twice Henderson | |
has lashed at folk with his dog-whip, and only his long purse and | |
heavy compensation have kept him out of the courts. | |
"Well, now, Watson, let us judge the situation by this new | |
information. We may take it that the letter came out of this strange | |
household and was an invitation to Garcia to carry out some attempt | |
which had already been planned. Who wrote the note? It was someone | |
within the citadel, and it was a woman. Who then but Miss Burnet, the | |
governess? All our reasoning seems to point that way. At any rate, we | |
may take it as a hypothesis and see what consequences it would | |
entail. I may add that Miss Burnet's age and character make it | |
certain that my first idea that there might be a love interest in our | |
story is out of the question. | |
"If she wrote the note she was presumably the friend and confederate | |
of Garcia. What, then, might she be expected to do if she heard of | |
his death? If he met it in some nefarious enterprise her lips might | |
be sealed. Still, in her heart, she must retain bitterness and hatred | |
against those who had killed him and would presumably help so far as | |
she could to have revenge upon them. Could we see her, then and try | |
to use her? That was my first thought. But now we come to a sinister | |
fact. Miss Burnet has not been seen by any human eye since the night | |
of the murder. From that evening she has utterly vanished. Is she | |
alive? Has she perhaps met her end on the same night as the friend | |
whom she had summoned? Or is she merely a prisoner? There is the | |
point which we still have to decide. | |
"You will appreciate the difficulty of the situation, Watson. There | |
is nothing upon which we can apply for a warrant. Our whole scheme | |
might seem fantastic if laid before a magistrate. The woman's | |
disappearance counts for nothing, since in that extraordinary | |
household any member of it might be invisible for a week. And yet she | |
may at the present moment be in danger of her life. All I can do is | |
to watch the house and leave my agent, Warner, on guard at the gates. | |
We can't let such a situation continue. If the law can do nothing we | |
must take the risk ourselves." | |
"What do you suggest?" | |
"I know which is her room. It is accessible from the top of an | |
outhouse. My suggestion is that you and I go to-night and see if we | |
can strike at the very heart of the mystery." | |
It was not, I must confess, a very alluring prospect. The old house | |
with its atmosphere of murder, the singular and formidable | |
inhabitants, the unknown dangers of the approach, and the fact that | |
we were putting ourselves legally in a false position all combined to | |
damp my ardour. But there was something in the ice-cold reasoning of | |
Holmes which made it impossible to shrink from any adventure which he | |
might recommend. One knew that thus, and only thus, could a solution | |
be found. I clasped his hand in silence, and the die was cast. | |
But it was not destined that our investigation should have so | |
adventurous an ending. It was about five o'clock, and the shadows of | |
the March evening were beginning to fall, when an excited rustic | |
rushed into our room. | |
"They've gone, Mr. Holmes. They went by the last train. The lady | |
broke away, and I've got her in a cab downstairs." | |
"Excellent, Warner!" cried Holmes, springing to his feet. "Watson, | |
the gaps are closing rapidly." | |
In the cab was a woman, half-collapsed from nervous exhaustion. She | |
bore upon her aquiline and emaciated face the traces of some recent | |
tragedy. Her head hung listlessly upon her breast, but as she raised | |
it and turned her dull eyes upon us I saw that her pupils were dark | |
dots in the centre of the broad gray iris. She was drugged with | |
opium. | |
"I watched at the gate, same as you advised, Mr. Holmes," said our | |
emissary, the discharged gardener. "When the carriage came out I | |
followed it to the station. She was like one walking in her sleep, | |
but when they tried to get her into the train she came to life and | |
struggled. They pushed her into the carriage. She fought her way out | |
again. I took her part, got her into a cab, and here we are. I shan't | |
forget the face at the carriage window as I led her away. I'd have a | |
short life if he had his way--the black-eyed, scowling, yellow | |
devil." | |
We carried her upstairs, laid her on the sofa, and a couple of cups | |
of the strongest coffee soon cleared her brain from the mists of the | |
drug. Baynes had been summoned by Holmes, and the situation rapidly | |
explained to him. | |
"Why, sir, you've got me the very evidence I want," said the | |
inspector warmly, shaking my friend by the hand. "I was on the same | |
scent as you from the first." | |
"What! You were after Henderson?" | |
"Why, Mr. Holmes, when you were crawling in the shrubbery at High | |
Gable I was up one of the trees in the plantation and saw you down | |
below. It was just who would get his evidence first." | |
"Then why did you arrest the mulatto?" | |
Baynes chuckled. | |
"I was sure Henderson, as he calls himself, felt that he was | |
suspected, and that he would lie low and make no move so long as he | |
thought he was in any danger. I arrested the wrong man to make him | |
believe that our eyes were off him. I knew he would be likely to | |
clear off then and give us a chance of getting at Miss Burnet." | |
Holmes laid his hand upon the inspector's shoulder. | |
"You will rise high in your profession. You have instinct and | |
intuition," said he. | |
Baynes flushed with pleasure. | |
"I've had a plain-clothes man waiting at the station all the week. | |
Wherever the High Gable folk go he will keep them in sight. But he | |
must have been hard put to it when Miss Burnet broke away. However, | |
your man picked her up, and it all ends well. We can't arrest without | |
her evidence, that is clear, so the sooner we get a statement the | |
better." | |
"Every minute she gets stronger," said Holmes, glancing at the | |
governess. "But tell me, Baynes, who is this man Henderson?" | |
"Henderson," the inspector answered, "is Don Murillo, once called the | |
Tiger of San Pedro." | |
The Tiger of San Pedro! The whole history of the man came back to me | |
in a flash. He had made his name as the most lewd and bloodthirsty | |
tyrant that had ever governed any country with a pretence to | |
civilization. Strong, fearless, and energetic, he had sufficient | |
virtue to enable him to impose his odious vices upon a cowering | |
people for ten or twelve years. His name was a terror through all | |
Central America. At the end of that time there was a universal rising | |
against him. But he was as cunning as he was cruel, and at the first | |
whisper of coming trouble he had secretly conveyed his treasures | |
aboard a ship which was manned by devoted adherents. It was an empty | |
palace which was stormed by the insurgents next day. The dictator, | |
his two children, his secretary, and his wealth had all escaped them. | |
From that moment he had vanished from the world, and his identity had | |
been a frequent subject for comment in the European press. | |
"Yes, sir, Don Murillo, the Tiger of San Pedro," said Baynes. "If you | |
look it up you will find that the San Pedro colours are green and | |
white, same as in the note, Mr. Holmes. Henderson he called himself, | |
but I traced him back, Paris and Rome and Madrid to Barcelona, where | |
his ship came in in '86. They've been looking for him all the time | |
for their revenge, but it is only now that they have begun to find | |
him out." | |
"They discovered him a year ago," said Miss Burnet, who had sat up | |
and was now intently following the conversation. "Once already his | |
life has been attempted, but some evil spirit shielded him. Now, | |
again, it is the noble, chivalrous Garcia who has fallen, while the | |
monster goes safe. But another will come, and yet another, until some | |
day justice will be done; that is as certain as the rise of | |
to-morrow's sun." Her thin hands clenched, and her worn face blanched | |
with the passion of her hatred. | |
"But how come you into this matter, Miss Burnet?" asked Holmes. "How | |
can an English lady join in such a murderous affair?" | |
"I join in it because there is no other way in the world by which | |
justice can be gained. What does the law of England care for the | |
rivers of blood shed years ago in San Pedro, or for the shipload of | |
treasure which this man has stolen? To you they are like crimes | |
committed in some other planet. But we know. We have learned the | |
truth in sorrow and in suffering. To us there is no fiend in hell | |
like Juan Murillo, and no peace in life while his victims still cry | |
for vengeance." | |
"No doubt," said Holmes, "he was as you say. I have heard that he was | |
atrocious. But how are you affected?" | |
"I will tell you it all. This villain's policy was to murder, on one | |
pretext or another, every man who showed such promise that he might | |
in time come to be a dangerous rival. My husband--yes, my real name | |
is Signora Victor Durando--was the San Pedro minister in London. He | |
met me and married me there. A nobler man never lived upon earth. | |
Unhappily, Murillo heard of his excellence, recalled him on some | |
pretext, and had him shot. With a premonition of his fate he had | |
refused to take me with him. His estates were confiscated, and I was | |
left with a pittance and a broken heart. | |
"Then came the downfall of the tyrant. He escaped as you have just | |
described. But the many whose lives he had ruined, whose nearest and | |
dearest had suffered torture and death at his hands, would not let | |
the matter rest. They banded themselves into a society which should | |
never be dissolved until the work was done. It was my part after we | |
had discovered in the transformed Henderson the fallen despot, to | |
attach myself to his household and keep the others in touch with his | |
movements. This I was able to do by securing the position of | |
governess in his family. He little knew that the woman who faced him | |
at every meal was the woman whose husband he had hurried at an hour's | |
notice into eternity. I smiled on him, did my duty to his children, | |
and bided my time. An attempt was made in Paris and failed. We | |
zig-zagged swiftly here and there over Europe to throw off the | |
pursuers and finally returned to this house, which he had taken upon | |
his first arrival in England. | |
"But here also the ministers of justice were waiting. Knowing that he | |
would return there, Garcia, who is the son of the former highest | |
dignitary in San Pedro, was waiting with two trusty companions of | |
humble station, all three fired with the same reasons for revenge. He | |
could do little during the day, for Murillo took every precaution and | |
never went out save with his satellite Lucas, or Lopez as he was | |
known in the days of his greatness. At night, however, he slept | |
alone, and the avenger might find him. On a certain evening, which | |
had been prearranged, I sent my friend final instructions, for the | |
man was forever on the alert and continually changed his room. I was | |
to see that the doors were open and the signal of a green or white | |
light in a window which faced the drive was to give notice if all was | |
safe or if the attempt had better be postponed. | |
"But everything went wrong with us. In some way I had excited the | |
suspicion of Lopez, the secretary. He crept up behind me and sprang | |
upon me just as I had finished the note. He and his master dragged me | |
to my room and held judgment upon me as a convicted traitress. Then | |
and there they would have plunged their knives into me could they | |
have seen how to escape the consequences of the deed. Finally, after | |
much debate, they concluded that my murder was too dangerous. But | |
they determined to get rid forever of Garcia. They had gagged me, and | |
Murillo twisted my arm round until I gave him the address. I swear | |
that he might have twisted it off had I understood what it would mean | |
to Garcia. Lopez addressed the note which I had written, sealed it | |
with his sleeve-link, and sent it by the hand of the servant, Jose. | |
How they murdered him I do not know, save that it was Murillo's hand | |
who struck him down, for Lopez had remained to guard me. I believe he | |
must have waited among the gorse bushes through which the path winds | |
and struck him down as he passed. At first they were of a mind to let | |
him enter the house and to kill him as a detected burglar; but they | |
argued that if they were mixed up in an inquiry their own identity | |
would at once be publicly disclosed and they would be open to further | |
attacks. With the death of Garcia, the pursuit might cease, since | |
such a death might frighten others from the task. | |
"All would now have been well for them had it not been for my | |
knowledge of what they had done. I have no doubt that there were | |
times when my life hung in the balance. I was confined to my room, | |
terrorized by the most horrible threats, cruelly ill-used to break my | |
spirit--see this stab on my shoulder and the bruises from end to end | |
of my arms--and a gag was thrust into my mouth on the one occasion | |
when I tried to call from the window. For five days this cruel | |
imprisonment continued, with hardly enough food to hold body and soul | |
together. This afternoon a good lunch was brought me, but the moment | |
after I took it I knew that I had been drugged. In a sort of dream I | |
remember being half-led, half-carried to the carriage; in the same | |
state I was conveyed to the train. Only then, when the wheels were | |
almost moving, did I suddenly realize that my liberty lay in my own | |
hands. I sprang out, they tried to drag me back, and had it not been | |
for the help of this good man, who led me to the cab, I should never | |
had broken away. Now, thank God, I am beyond their power forever." | |
We had all listened intently to this remarkable statement. It was | |
Holmes who broke the silence. | |
"Our difficulties are not over," he remarked, shaking his head. "Our | |
police work ends, but our legal work begins." | |
"Exactly," said I. "A plausible lawyer could make it out as an act of | |
self-defence. There may be a hundred crimes in the background, but it | |
is only on this one that they can be tried." | |
"Come, come," said Baynes cheerily, "I think better of the law than | |
that. Self-defence is one thing. To entice a man in cold blood with | |
the object of murdering him is another, whatever danger you may fear | |
from him. No, no, we shall all be justified when we see the tenants | |
of High Gable at the next Guildford Assizes." | |
It is a matter of history, however, that a little time was still to | |
elapse before the Tiger of San Pedro should meet with his deserts. | |
Wily and bold, he and his companion threw their pursuer off their | |
track by entering a lodging-house in Edmonton Street and leaving by | |
the back-gate into Curzon Square. From that day they were seen no | |
more in England. Some six months afterwards the Marquess of Montalva | |
and Signor Rulli, his secretary, were both murdered in their rooms at | |
the Hotel Escurial at Madrid. The crime was ascribed to Nihilism, and | |
the murderers were never arrested. Inspector Baynes visited us at | |
Baker Street with a printed description of the dark face of the | |
secretary, and of the masterful features, the magnetic black eyes, | |
and the tufted brows of his master. We could not doubt that justice, | |
if belated, had come at last. | |
"A chaotic case, my dear Watson," said Holmes over an evening pipe. | |
"It will not be possible for you to present in that compact form | |
which is dear to your heart. It covers two continents, concerns two | |
groups of mysterious persons, and is further complicated by the | |
highly respectable presence of our friend, Scott Eccles, whose | |
inclusion shows me that the deceased Garcia had a scheming mind and a | |
well-developed instinct of self-preservation. It is remarkable only | |
for the fact that amid a perfect jungle of possibilities we, with our | |
worthy collaborator, the inspector, have kept our close hold on the | |
essentials and so been guided along the crooked and winding path. Is | |
there any point which is not quite clear to you?" | |
"The object of the mulatto cook's return?" | |
"I think that the strange creature in the kitchen may account for it. | |
The man was a primitive savage from the backwoods of San Pedro, and | |
this was his fetish. When his companion and he had fled to some | |
prearranged retreat--already occupied, no doubt by a confederate--the | |
companion had persuaded him to leave so compromising an article of | |
furniture. But the mulatto's heart was with it, and he was driven | |
back to it next day, when, on reconnoitering through the window, he | |
found policeman Walters in possession. He waited three days longer, | |
and then his piety or his superstition drove him to try once more. | |
Inspector Baynes, who, with his usual astuteness, had minimized the | |
incident before me, had really recognized its importance and had left | |
a trap into which the creature walked. Any other point, Watson?" | |
"The torn bird, the pail of blood, the charred bones, all the mystery | |
of that weird kitchen?" | |
Holmes smiled as he turned up an entry in his note-book. | |
"I spent a morning in the British Museum reading up on that and other | |
points. Here is a quotation from Eckermann's Voodooism and the | |
Negroid Religions: | |
"'The true voodoo-worshipper attempts nothing of importance without | |
certain sacrifices which are intended to propitiate his unclean gods. | |
In extreme cases these rites take the form of human sacrifices | |
followed by cannibalism. The more usual victims are a white cock, | |
which is plucked in pieces alive, or a black goat, whose throat is | |
cut and body burned.' | |
"So you see our savage friend was very orthodox in his ritual. It is | |
grotesque, Watson," Holmes added, as he slowly fastened his notebook, | |
"but, as I have had occasion to remark, there is but one step from | |
the grotesque to the horrible." | |
THE ADVENTURE OF THE CARDBOARD BOX | |
In choosing a few typical cases which illustrate the remarkable | |
mental qualities of my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I have endeavoured, | |
as far as possible, to select those which presented the minimum of | |
sensationalism, while offering a fair field for his talents. It is, | |
however, unfortunately impossible entirely to separate the | |
sensational from the criminal, and a chronicler is left in the | |
dilemma that he must either sacrifice details which are essential to | |
his statement and so give a false impression of the problem, or he | |
must use matter which chance, and not choice, has provided him with. | |
With this short preface I shall turn to my notes of what proved to be | |
a strange, though a peculiarly terrible, chain of events. | |
It was a blazing hot day in August. Baker Street was like an oven, | |
and the glare of the sunlight upon the yellow brickwork of the house | |
across the road was painful to the eye. It was hard to believe that | |
these were the same walls which loomed so gloomily through the fogs | |
of winter. Our blinds were half-drawn, and Holmes lay curled upon the | |
sofa, reading and re-reading a letter which he had received by the | |
morning post. For myself, my term of service in India had trained me | |
to stand heat better than cold, and a thermometer at ninety was no | |
hardship. But the morning paper was uninteresting. Parliament had | |
risen. Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the glades of the | |
New Forest or the shingle of Southsea. A depleted bank account had | |
caused me to postpone my holiday, and as to my companion, neither the | |
country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him. He | |
loved to lie in the very center of five millions of people, with his | |
filaments stretching out and running through them, responsive to | |
every little rumour or suspicion of unsolved crime. Appreciation of | |
nature found no place among his many gifts, and his only change was | |
when he turned his mind from the evil-doer of the town to track down | |
his brother of the country. | |
Finding that Holmes was too absorbed for conversation I had tossed | |
side the barren paper, and leaning back in my chair I fell into a | |
brown study. Suddenly my companion's voice broke in upon my thoughts: | |
"You are right, Watson," said he. "It does seem a most preposterous | |
way of settling a dispute." | |
"Most preposterous!" I exclaimed, and then suddenly realizing how he | |
had echoed the inmost thought of my soul, I sat up in my chair and | |
stared at him in blank amazement. | |
"What is this, Holmes?" I cried. "This is beyond anything which I | |
could have imagined." | |
He laughed heartily at my perplexity. | |
"You remember," said he, "that some little time ago when I read you | |
the passage in one of Poe's sketches in which a close reasoner | |
follows the unspoken thoughts of his companion, you were inclined to | |
treat the matter as a mere tour-de-force of the author. On my | |
remarking that I was constantly in the habit of doing the same thing | |
you expressed incredulity." | |
"Oh, no!" | |
"Perhaps not with your tongue, my dear Watson, but certainly with | |
your eyebrows. So when I saw you throw down your paper and enter upon | |
a train of thought, I was very happy to have the opportunity of | |
reading it off, and eventually of breaking into it, as a proof that I | |
had been in rapport with you." | |
But I was still far from satisfied. "In the example which you read to | |
me," said I, "the reasoner drew his conclusions from the actions of | |
the man whom he observed. If I remember right, he stumbled over a | |
heap of stones, looked up at the stars, and so on. But I have been | |
seated quietly in my chair, and what clues can I have given you?" | |
"You do yourself an injustice. The features are given to man as the | |
means by which he shall express his emotions, and yours are faithful | |
servants." | |
"Do you mean to say that you read my train of thoughts from my | |
features?" | |
"Your features and especially your eyes. Perhaps you cannot yourself | |
recall how your reverie commenced?" | |
"No, I cannot." | |
"Then I will tell you. After throwing down your paper, which was the | |
action which drew my attention to you, you sat for half a minute with | |
a vacant expression. Then your eyes fixed themselves upon your newly | |
framed picture of General Gordon, and I saw by the alteration in your | |
face that a train of thought had been started. But it did not lead | |
very far. Your eyes flashed across to the unframed portrait of Henry | |
Ward Beecher which stands upon the top of your books. Then you | |
glanced up at the wall, and of course your meaning was obvious. You | |
were thinking that if the portrait were framed it would just cover | |
that bare space and correspond with Gordon's picture there." | |
"You have followed me wonderfully!" I exclaimed. | |
"So far I could hardly have gone astray. But now your thoughts went | |
back to Beecher, and you looked hard across as if you were studying | |
the character in his features. Then your eyes ceased to pucker, but | |
you continued to look across, and your face was thoughtful. You were | |
recalling the incidents of Beecher's career. I was well aware that | |
you could not do this without thinking of the mission which he | |
undertook on behalf of the North at the time of the Civil War, for I | |
remember your expressing your passionate indignation at the way in | |
which he was received by the more turbulent of our people. You felt | |
so strongly about it that I knew you could not think of Beecher | |
without thinking of that also. When a moment later I saw your eyes | |
wander away from the picture, I suspected that your mind had now | |
turned to the Civil War, and when I observed that your lips set, your | |
eyes sparkled, and your hands clenched I was positive that you were | |
indeed thinking of the gallantry which was shown by both sides in | |
that desperate struggle. But then, again, your face grew sadder, you | |
shook your head. You were dwelling upon the sadness and horror and | |
useless waste of life. Your hand stole towards your own old wound and | |
a smile quivered on your lips, which showed me that the ridiculous | |
side of this method of settling international questions had forced | |
itself upon your mind. At this point I agreed with you that it was | |
preposterous and was glad to find that all my deductions had been | |
correct." | |
"Absolutely!" said I. "And now that you have explained it, I confess | |
that I am as amazed as before." | |
"It was very superficial, my dear Watson, I assure you. I should not | |
have intruded it upon your attention had you not shown some | |
incredulity the other day. But I have in my hands here a little | |
problem which may prove to be more difficult of solution than my | |
small essay in thought reading. Have you observed in the paper a | |
short paragraph referring to the remarkable contents of a packet sent | |
through the post to Miss Cushing, of Cross Street, Croydon?" | |
"No, I saw nothing." | |
"Ah! then you must have overlooked it. Just toss it over to me. Here | |
it is, under the financial column. Perhaps you would be good enough | |
to read it aloud." | |
I picked up the paper which he had thrown back to me and read the | |
paragraph indicated. It was headed, "A Gruesome Packet." | |
"Miss Susan Cushing, living at Cross Street, Croydon, has been made | |
the victim of what must be regarded as a peculiarly revolting | |
practical joke unless some more sinister meaning should prove to be | |
attached to the incident. At two o'clock yesterday afternoon a small | |
packet, wrapped in brown paper, was handed in by the postman. A | |
cardboard box was inside, which was filled with coarse salt. On | |
emptying this, Miss Cushing was horrified to find two human ears, | |
apparently quite freshly severed. The box had been sent by parcel | |
post from Belfast upon the morning before. There is no indication as | |
to the sender, and the matter is the more mysterious as Miss Cushing, | |
who is a maiden lady of fifty, has led a most retired life, and has | |
so few acquaintances or correspondents that it is a rare event for | |
her to receive anything through the post. Some years ago, however, | |
when she resided at Penge, she let apartments in her house to three | |
young medical students, whom she was obliged to get rid of on account | |
of their noisy and irregular habits. The police are of opinion that | |
this outrage may have been perpetrated upon Miss Cushing by these | |
youths, who owed her a grudge and who hoped to frighten her by | |
sending her these relics of the dissecting-rooms. Some probability is | |
lent to the theory by the fact that one of these students came from | |
the north of Ireland, and, to the best of Miss Cushing's belief, from | |
Belfast. In the meantime, the matter is being actively investigated, | |
Mr. Lestrade, one of the very smartest of our detective officers, | |
being in charge of the case." | |
"So much for the Daily Chronicle," said Holmes as I finished reading. | |
"Now for our friend Lestrade. I had a note from him this morning, in | |
which he says: | |
"I think that this case is very much in your line. We have every hope | |
of clearing the matter up, but we find a little difficulty in getting | |
anything to work upon. We have, of course, wired to the Belfast | |
post-office, but a large number of parcels were handed in upon that | |
day, and they have no means of identifying this particular one, or of | |
remembering the sender. The box is a half-pound box of honeydew | |
tobacco and does not help us in any way. The medical student theory | |
still appears to me to be the most feasible, but if you should have a | |
few hours to spare I should be very happy to see you out here. I | |
shall be either at the house or in the police-station all day. | |
"What say you, Watson? Can you rise superior to the heat and run down | |
to Croydon with me on the off chance of a case for your annals?" | |
"I was longing for something to do." | |
"You shall have it then. Ring for our boots and tell them to order a | |
cab. I'll be back in a moment when I have changed my dressing-gown | |
and filled my cigar-case." | |
A shower of rain fell while we were in the train, and the heat was | |
far less oppressive in Croydon than in town. Holmes had sent on a | |
wire, so that Lestrade, as wiry, as dapper, and as ferret-like as | |
ever, was waiting for us at the station. A walk of five minutes took | |
us to Cross Street, where Miss Cushing resided. | |
It was a very long street of two-story brick houses, neat and prim, | |
with whitened stone steps and little groups of aproned women | |
gossiping at the doors. Halfway down, Lestrade stopped and tapped at | |
a door, which was opened by a small servant girl. Miss Cushing was | |
sitting in the front room, into which we were ushered. She was a | |
placid-faced woman, with large, gentle eyes, and grizzled hair | |
curving down over her temples on each side. A worked antimacassar lay | |
upon her lap and a basket of coloured silks stood upon a stool beside | |
her. | |
"They are in the outhouse, those dreadful things," said she as | |
Lestrade entered. "I wish that you would take them away altogether." | |
"So I shall, Miss Cushing. I only kept them here until my friend, Mr. | |
Holmes, should have seen them in your presence." | |
"Why in my presence, sir?" | |
"In case he wished to ask any questions." | |
"What is the use of asking me questions when I tell you I know | |
nothing whatever about it?" | |
"Quite so, madam," said Holmes in his soothing way. "I have no doubt | |
that you have been annoyed more than enough already over this | |
business." | |
"Indeed I have, sir. I am a quiet woman and live a retired life. It | |
is something new for me to see my name in the papers and to find the | |
police in my house. I won't have those things in here, Mr. Lestrade. | |
If you wish to see them you must go to the outhouse." | |
It was a small shed in the narrow garden which ran behind the house. | |
Lestrade went in and brought out a yellow cardboard box, with a piece | |
of brown paper and some string. There was a bench at the end of the | |
path, and we all sat down while Homes examined one by one, the | |
articles which Lestrade had handed to him. | |
"The string is exceedingly interesting," he remarked, holding it up | |
to the light and sniffing at it. "What do you make of this string, | |
Lestrade?" | |
"It has been tarred." | |
"Precisely. It is a piece of tarred twine. You have also, no doubt, | |
remarked that Miss Cushing has cut the cord with a scissors, as can | |
be seen by the double fray on each side. This is of importance." | |
"I cannot see the importance," said Lestrade. | |
"The importance lies in the fact that the knot is left intact, and | |
that this knot is of a peculiar character." | |
"It is very neatly tied. I had already made a note of that effect," | |
said Lestrade complacently. | |
"So much for the string, then," said Holmes, smiling, "now for the | |
box wrapper. Brown paper, with a distinct smell of coffee. What, did | |
you not observe it? I think there can be no doubt of it. Address | |
printed in rather straggling characters: 'Miss S. Cushing, Cross | |
Street, Croydon.' Done with a broad-pointed pen, probably a J, and | |
with very inferior ink. The word 'Croydon' has been originally | |
spelled with an 'i', which has been changed to 'y'. The parcel was | |
directed, then, by a man--the printing is distinctly masculine--of | |
limited education and unacquainted with the town of Croydon. So far, | |
so good! The box is a yellow, half-pound honeydew box, with nothing | |
distinctive save two thumb marks at the left bottom corner. It is | |
filled with rough salt of the quality used for preserving hides and | |
other of the coarser commercial purposes. And embedded in it are | |
these very singular enclosures." | |
He took out the two ears as he spoke, and laying a board across his | |
knee he examined them minutely, while Lestrade and I, bending forward | |
on each side of him, glanced alternately at these dreadful relics and | |
at the thoughtful, eager face of our companion. Finally he returned | |
them to the box once more and sat for a while in deep meditation. | |
"You have observed, of course," said he at last, "that the ears are | |
not a pair." | |
"Yes, I have noticed that. But if this were the practical joke of | |
some students from the dissecting-rooms, it would be as easy for them | |
to send two odd ears as a pair." | |
"Precisely. But this is not a practical joke." | |
"You are sure of it?" | |
"The presumption is strongly against it. Bodies in the | |
dissecting-rooms are injected with preservative fluid. These ears | |
bear no signs of this. They are fresh, too. They have been cut off | |
with a blunt instrument, which would hardly happen if a student had | |
done it. Again, carbolic or rectified spirits would be the | |
preservatives which would suggest themselves to the medical mind, | |
certainly not rough salt. I repeat that there is no practical joke | |
here, but that we are investigating a serious crime." | |
A vague thrill ran through me as I listened to my companion's words | |
and saw the stern gravity which had hardened his features. This | |
brutal preliminary seemed to shadow forth some strange and | |
inexplicable horror in the background. Lestrade, however, shook his | |
head like a man who is only half convinced. | |
"There are objections to the joke theory, no doubt," said he, "but | |
there are much stronger reasons against the other. We know that this | |
woman has led a most quiet and respectable life at Penge and here for | |
the last twenty years. She has hardly been away from her home for a | |
day during that time. Why on earth, then, should any criminal send | |
her the proofs of his guilt, especially as, unless she is a most | |
consummate actress, she understands quite as little of the matter as | |
we do?" | |
"That is the problem which we have to solve," Holmes answered, "and | |
for my part I shall set about it by presuming that my reasoning is | |
correct, and that a double murder has been committed. One of these | |
ears is a woman's, small, finely formed, and pierced for an earring. | |
The other is a man's, sun-burned, discoloured, and also pierced for | |
an earring. These two people are presumably dead, or we should have | |
heard their story before now. To-day is Friday. The packet was posted | |
on Thursday morning. The tragedy, then, occurred on Wednesday or | |
Tuesday, or earlier. If the two people were murdered, who but their | |
murderer would have sent this sign of his work to Miss Cushing? We | |
may take it that the sender of the packet is the man whom we want. | |
But he must have some strong reason for sending Miss Cushing this | |
packet. What reason then? It must have been to tell her that the deed | |
was done; or to pain her, perhaps. But in that case she knows who it | |
is. Does she know? I doubt it. If she knew, why should she call the | |
police in? She might have buried the ears, and no one would have been | |
the wiser. That is what she would have done if she had wished to | |
shield the criminal. But if she does not wish to shield him she would | |
give his name. There is a tangle here which needs straightening out." | |
He had been talking in a high, quick voice, staring blankly up over | |
the garden fence, but now he sprang briskly to his feet and walked | |
towards the house. | |
"I have a few questions to ask Miss Cushing," said he. | |
"In that case I may leave you here," said Lestrade, "for I have | |
another small business on hand. I think that I have nothing further | |
to learn from Miss Cushing. You will find me at the police-station." | |
"We shall look in on our way to the train," answered Holmes. A moment | |
later he and I were back in the front room, where the impassive lady | |
was still quietly working away at her antimacassar. She put it down | |
on her lap as we entered and looked at us with her frank, searching | |
blue eyes. | |
"I am convinced, sir," she said, "that this matter is a mistake, and | |
that the parcel was never meant for me at all. I have said this | |
several times to the gentlemen from Scotland Yard, but he simply | |
laughs at me. I have not an enemy in the world, as far as I know, so | |
why should anyone play me such a trick?" | |
"I am coming to be of the same opinion, Miss Cushing," said Holmes, | |
taking a seat beside her. "I think that it is more than probable--" | |
He paused, and I was surprised, on glancing round to see that he was | |
staring with singular intentness at the lady's profile. Surprise and | |
satisfaction were both for an instant to be read upon his eager face, | |
though when she glanced round to find out the cause of his silence he | |
had become as demure as ever. I stared hard myself at her flat, | |
grizzled hair, her trim cap, her little gilt earrings, her placid | |
features; but I could see nothing which could account for my | |
companion's evident excitement. | |
"There were one or two questions--" | |
"Oh, I am weary of questions!" cried Miss Cushing impatiently. | |
"You have two sisters, I believe." | |
"How could you know that?" | |
"I observed the very instant that I entered the room that you have a | |
portrait group of three ladies upon the mantelpiece, one of whom is | |
undoubtedly yourself, while the others are so exceedingly like you | |
that there could be no doubt of the relationship." | |
"Yes, you are quite right. Those are my sisters, Sarah and Mary." | |
"And here at my elbow is another portrait, taken at Liverpool, of | |
your younger sister, in the company of a man who appears to be a | |
steward by his uniform. I observe that she was unmarried at the | |
time." | |
"You are very quick at observing." | |
"That is my trade." | |
"Well, you are quite right. But she was married to Mr. Browner a few | |
days afterwards. He was on the South American line when that was | |
taken, but he was so fond of her that he couldn't abide to leave her | |
for so long, and he got into the Liverpool and London boats." | |
"Ah, the Conqueror, perhaps?" | |
"No, the May Day, when last I heard. Jim came down here to see me | |
once. That was before he broke the pledge; but afterwards he would | |
always take drink when he was ashore, and a little drink would send | |
him stark, staring mad. Ah! it was a bad day that ever he took a | |
glass in his hand again. First he dropped me, then he quarrelled with | |
Sarah, and now that Mary has stopped writing we don't know how things | |
are going with them." | |
It was evident that Miss Cushing had come upon a subject on which she | |
felt very deeply. Like most people who lead a lonely life, she was | |
shy at first, but ended by becoming extremely communicative. She told | |
us many details about her brother-in-law the steward, and then | |
wandering off on the subject of her former lodgers, the medical | |
students, she gave us a long account of their delinquencies, with | |
their names and those of their hospitals. Holmes listened attentively | |
to everything, throwing in a question from time to time. | |
"About your second sister, Sarah," said he. "I wonder, since you are | |
both maiden ladies, that you do not keep house together." | |
"Ah! you don't know Sarah's temper or you would wonder no more. I | |
tried it when I came to Croydon, and we kept on until about two | |
months ago, when we had to part. I don't want to say a word against | |
my own sister, but she was always meddlesome and hard to please, was | |
Sarah." | |
"You say that she quarrelled with your Liverpool relations." | |
"Yes, and they were the best of friends at one time. Why, she went up | |
there to live in order to be near them. And now she has no word hard | |
enough for Jim Browner. The last six months that she was here she | |
would speak of nothing but his drinking and his ways. He had caught | |
her meddling, I suspect, and given her a bit of his mind, and that | |
was the start of it." | |
"Thank you, Miss Cushing," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Your | |
sister Sarah lives, I think you said, at New Street, Wallington? | |
Good-bye, and I am very sorry that you should have been troubled over | |
a case with which, as you say, you have nothing whatever to do." | |
There was a cab passing as we came out, and Holmes hailed it. | |
"How far to Wallington?" he asked. | |
"Only about a mile, sir." | |
"Very good. Jump in, Watson. We must strike while the iron is hot. | |
Simple as the case is, there have been one or two very instructive | |
details in connection with it. Just pull up at a telegraph office as | |
you pass, cabby." | |
Holmes sent off a short wire and for the rest of the drive lay back | |
in the cab, with his hat tilted over his nose to keep the sun from | |
his face. Our drive pulled up at a house which was not unlike the one | |
which we had just quitted. My companion ordered him to wait, and had | |
his hand upon the knocker, when the door opened and a grave young | |
gentleman in black, with a very shiny hat, appeared on the step. | |
"Is Miss Cushing at home?" asked Holmes. | |
"Miss Sarah Cushing is extremely ill," said he. "She has been | |
suffering since yesterday from brain symptoms of great severity. As | |
her medical adviser, I cannot possibly take the responsibility of | |
allowing anyone to see her. I should recommend you to call again in | |
ten days." He drew on his gloves, closed the door, and marched off | |
down the street. | |
"Well, if we can't we can't," said Holmes, cheerfully. | |
"Perhaps she could not or would not have told you much." | |
"I did not wish her to tell me anything. I only wanted to look at | |
her. However, I think that I have got all that I want. Drive us to | |
some decent hotel, cabby, where we may have some lunch, and | |
afterwards we shall drop down upon friend Lestrade at the | |
police-station." | |
We had a pleasant little meal together, during which Holmes would | |
talk about nothing but violins, narrating with great exultation how | |
he had purchased his own Stradivarius, which was worth at least five | |
hundred guineas, at a Jew broker's in Tottenham Court Road for | |
fifty-five shillings. This led him to Paganini, and we sat for an | |
hour over a bottle of claret while he told me anecdote after anecdote | |
of that extraordinary man. The afternoon was far advanced and the hot | |
glare had softened into a mellow glow before we found ourselves at | |
the police-station. Lestrade was waiting for us at the door. | |
"A telegram for you, Mr. Holmes," said he. | |
"Ha! It is the answer!" He tore it open, glanced his eyes over it, | |
and crumpled it into his pocket. "That's all right," said he. | |
"Have you found out anything?" | |
"I have found out everything!" | |
"What!" Lestrade stared at him in amazement. "You are joking." | |
"I was never more serious in my life. A shocking crime has been | |
committed, and I think I have now laid bare every detail of it." | |
"And the criminal?" | |
Holmes scribbled a few words upon the back of one of his visiting | |
cards and threw it over to Lestrade. | |
"That is the name," he said. "You cannot effect an arrest until | |
to-morrow night at the earliest. I should prefer that you do not | |
mention my name at all in connection with the case, as I choose to be | |
only associated with those crimes which present some difficulty in | |
their solution. Come on, Watson." We strode off together to the | |
station, leaving Lestrade still staring with a delighted face at the | |
card which Holmes had thrown him. | |
"The case," said Sherlock Holmes as we chatted over or cigars that | |
night in our rooms at Baker Street, "is one where, as in the | |
investigations which you have chronicled under the names of 'A Study | |
in Scarlet' and of 'The Sign of Four,' we have been compelled to | |
reason backward from effects to causes. I have written to Lestrade | |
asking him to supply us with the details which are now wanting, and | |
which he will only get after he had secured his man. That he may be | |
safely trusted to do, for although he is absolutely devoid of reason, | |
he is as tenacious as a bulldog when he once understands what he has | |
to do, and indeed, it is just this tenacity which has brought him to | |
the top at Scotland Yard." | |
"Your case is not complete, then?" I asked. | |
"It is fairly complete in essentials. We know who the author of the | |
revolting business is, although one of the victims still escapes us. | |
Of course, you have formed your own conclusions." | |
"I presume that this Jim Browner, the steward of a Liverpool boat, is | |
the man whom you suspect?" | |
"Oh! it is more than a suspicion." | |
"And yet I cannot see anything save very vague indications." | |
"On the contrary, to my mind nothing could be more clear. Let me run | |
over the principal steps. We approached the case, you remember, with | |
an absolutely blank mind, which is always an advantage. We had formed | |
no theories. We were simply there to observe and to draw inferences | |
from our observations. What did we see first? A very placid and | |
respectable lady, who seemed quite innocent of any secret, and a | |
portrait which showed me that she had two younger sisters. It | |
instantly flashed across my mind that the box might have been meant | |
for one of these. I set the idea aside as one which could be | |
disproved or confirmed at our leisure. Then we went to the garden, as | |
you remember, and we saw the very singular contents of the little | |
yellow box. | |
"The string was of the quality which is used by sail-makers aboard | |
ship, and at once a whiff of the sea was perceptible in our | |
investigation. When I observed that the knot was one which is popular | |
with sailors, that the parcel had been posted at a port, and that the | |
male ear was pierced for an earring which is so much more common | |
among sailors than landsmen, I was quite certain that all the actors | |
in the tragedy were to be found among our seafaring classes. | |
"When I came to examine the address of the packet I observed that it | |
was to Miss S. Cushing. Now, the oldest sister would, of course, be | |
Miss Cushing, and although her initial was 'S' it might belong to one | |
of the others as well. In that case we should have to commence our | |
investigation from a fresh basis altogether. I therefore went into | |
the house with the intention of clearing up this point. I was about | |
to assure Miss Cushing that I was convinced that a mistake had been | |
made when you may remember that I came suddenly to a stop. The fact | |
was that I had just seen something which filled me with surprise and | |
at the same time narrowed the field of our inquiry immensely. | |
"As a medical man, you are aware, Watson, that there is no part of | |
the body which varies so much as the human ear. Each ear is as a rule | |
quite distinctive and differs from all other ones. In last year's | |
Anthropological Journal you will find two short monographs from my | |
pen upon the subject. I had, therefore, examined the ears in the box | |
with the eyes of an expert and had carefully noted their anatomical | |
peculiarities. Imagine my surprise, then, when on looking at Miss | |
Cushing I perceived that her ear corresponded exactly with the female | |
ear which I had just inspected. The matter was entirely beyond | |
coincidence. There was the same shortening of the pinna, the same | |
broad curve of the upper lobe, the same convolution of the inner | |
cartilage. In all essentials it was the same ear. | |
"In the first place, her sister's name was Sarah, and her address had | |
until recently been the same, so that it was quite obvious how the | |
mistake had occurred and for whom the packet was meant. Then we heard | |
of this steward, married to the third sister, and learned that he had | |
at one time been so intimate with Miss Sarah that she had actually | |
gone up to Liverpool to be near the Browners, but a quarrel had | |
afterwards divided them. This quarrel had put a stop to all | |
communications for some months, so that if Browner had occasion to | |
address a packet to Miss Sarah, he would undoubtedly have done so to | |
her old address. | |
"And now the matter had begun to straighten itself out wonderfully. | |
We had learned of the existence of this steward, an impulsive man, of | |
strong passions--you remember that he threw up what must have been a | |
very superior berth in order to be nearer to his wife--subject, too, | |
to occasional fits of hard drinking. We had reason to believe that | |
his wife had been murdered, and that a man--presumably a seafaring | |
man--had been murdered at the same time. Jealousy, of course, at once | |
suggests itself as the motive for the crime. And why should these | |
proofs of the deed be sent to Miss Sarah Cushing? Probably because | |
during her residence in Liverpool she had some hand in bringing about | |
the events which led to the tragedy. You will observe that this line | |
of boats call at Belfast, Dublin, and Waterford; so that, presuming | |
that Browner had committed the deed and had embarked at once upon his | |
steamer, the May Day, Belfast would be the first place at which he | |
could post his terrible packet. | |
"A second solution was at this stage obviously possible, and although | |
I thought it exceedingly unlikely, I was determined to elucidate it | |
before going further. An unsuccessful lover might have killed Mr. and | |
Mrs. Browner, and the male ear might have belonged to the husband. | |
There were many grave objections to this theory, but it was | |
conceivable. I therefore sent off a telegram to my friend Algar, of | |
the Liverpool force, and asked him to find out if Mrs. Browner were | |
at home, and if Browner had departed in the May Day. Then we went on | |
to Wallington to visit Miss Sarah. | |
"I was curious, in the first place, to see how far the family ear had | |
been reproduced in her. Then, of course, she might give us very | |
important information, but I was not sanguine that she would. She | |
must have heard of the business the day before, since all Croydon was | |
ringing with it, and she alone could have understood for whom the | |
packet was meant. If she had been willing to help justice she would | |
probably have communicated with the police already. However, it was | |
clearly our duty to see her, so we went. We found that the news of | |
the arrival of the packet--for her illness dated from that time--had | |
such an effect upon her as to bring on brain fever. It was clearer | |
than ever that she understood its full significance, but equally | |
clear that we should have to wait some time for any assistance from | |
her. | |
"However, we were really independent of her help. Our answers were | |
waiting for us at the police-station, where I had directed Algar to | |
send them. Nothing could be more conclusive. Mrs. Browner's house had | |
been closed for more than three days, and the neighbours were of | |
opinion that she had gone south to see her relatives. It had been | |
ascertained at the shipping offices that Browner had left aboard of | |
the May Day, and I calculate that she is due in the Thames tomorrow | |
night. When he arrives he will be met by the obtuse but resolute | |
Lestrade, and I have no doubt that we shall have all our details | |
filled in." | |
Sherlock Holmes was not disappointed in his expectations. Two days | |
later he received a bulky envelope, which contained a short note from | |
the detective, and a typewritten document, which covered several | |
pages of foolscap. | |
"Lestrade has got him all right," said Holmes, glancing up at me. | |
"Perhaps it would interest you to hear what he says. | |
"My dear Mr. Holmes: | |
"In accordance with the scheme which we had formed in order to test | |
our theories" ["the 'we' is rather fine, Watson, is it not?"] "I went | |
down to the Albert Dock yesterday at 6 p.m., and boarded the S.S. May | |
Day, belonging to the Liverpool, Dublin, and London Steam Packet | |
Company. On inquiry, I found that there was a steward on board of the | |
name of James Browner and that he had acted during the voyage in such | |
an extraordinary manner that the captain had been compelled to | |
relieve him of his duties. On descending to his berth, I found him | |
seated upon a chest with his head sunk upon his hands, rocking | |
himself to and fro. He is a big, powerful chap, clean-shaven, and | |
very swarthy--something like Aldrige, who helped us in the bogus | |
laundry affair. He jumped up when he heard my business, and I had my | |
whistle to my lips to call a couple of river police, who were round | |
the corner, but he seemed to have no heart in him, and he held out | |
his hands quietly enough for the darbies. We brought him along to the | |
cells, and his box as well, for we thought there might be something | |
incriminating; but, bar a big sharp knife such as most sailors have, | |
we got nothing for our trouble. However, we find that we shall want | |
no more evidence, for on being brought before the inspector at the | |
station he asked leave to make a statement, which was, of course, | |
taken down, just as he made it, by our shorthand man. We had three | |
copies typewritten, one of which I enclose. The affair proves, as I | |
always thought it would, to be an extremely simple one, but I am | |
obliged to you for assisting me in my investigation. With kind | |
regards, | |
"Yours very truly, | |
"G. Lestrade. | |
"Hum! The investigation really was a very simple one," remarked | |
Holmes, "but I don't think it struck him in that light when he first | |
called us in. However, let us see what Jim Browner has to say for | |
himself. This is his statement as made before Inspector Montgomery at | |
the Shadwell Police Station, and it has the advantage of being | |
verbatim." | |
"'Have I anything to say? Yes, I have a deal to say. I have to make a | |
clean breast of it all. You can hang me, or you can leave me alone. I | |
don't care a plug which you do. I tell you I've not shut an eye in | |
sleep since I did it, and I don't believe I ever will again until I | |
get past all waking. Sometimes it's his face, but most generally it's | |
hers. I'm never without one or the other before me. He looks frowning | |
and black-like, but she has a kind o' surprise upon her face. Ay, the | |
white lamb, she might well be surprised when she read death on a face | |
that had seldom looked anything but love upon her before. | |
"'But it was Sarah's fault, and may the curse of a broken man put a | |
blight on her and set the blood rotting in her veins! It's not that I | |
want to clear myself. I know that I went back to drink, like the | |
beast that I was. But she would have forgiven me; she would have | |
stuck as close to me as a rope to a block if that woman had never | |
darkened our door. For Sarah Cushing loved me--that's the root of the | |
business--she loved me until all her love turned to poisonous hate | |
when she knew that I thought more of my wife's footmark in the mud | |
than I did of her whole body and soul. | |
"'There were three sisters altogether. The old one was just a good | |
woman, the second was a devil, and the third was an angel. Sarah was | |
thirty-three, and Mary was twenty-nine when I married. We were just | |
as happy as the day was long when we set up house together, and in | |
all Liverpool there was no better woman than my Mary. And then we | |
asked Sarah up for a week, and the week grew into a month, and one | |
thing led to another, until she was just one of ourselves. | |
"'I was blue ribbon at that time, and we were putting a little money | |
by, and all was as bright as a new dollar. My God, whoever would have | |
thought that it could have come to this? Whoever would have dreamed | |
it? | |
"'I used to be home for the week-ends very often, and sometimes if | |
the ship were held back for cargo I would have a whole week at a | |
time, and in this way I saw a deal of my sister-in-law, Sarah. She | |
was a fine tall woman, black and quick and fierce, with a proud way | |
of carrying her head, and a glint from her eye like a spark from a | |
flint. But when little Mary was there I had never a thought of her, | |
and that I swear as I hope for God's mercy. | |
"'It had seemed to me sometimes that she liked to be alone with me, | |
or to coax me out for a walk with her, but I had never thought | |
anything of that. But one evening my eyes were opened. I had come up | |
from the ship and found my wife out, but Sarah at home. "Where's | |
Mary?" I asked. "Oh, she has gone to pay some accounts." I was | |
impatient and paced up and down the room. "Can't you be happy for | |
five minutes without Mary, Jim?" says she. "It's a bad compliment to | |
me that you can't be contented with my society for so short a time." | |
"That's all right, my lass," said I, putting out my hand towards her | |
in a kindly way, but she had it in both hers in an instant, and they | |
burned as if they were in a fever. I looked into her eyes and I read | |
it all there. There was no need for her to speak, nor for me either. | |
I frowned and drew my hand away. Then she stood by my side in silence | |
for a bit, and then put up her hand and patted me on the shoulder. | |
"Steady old Jim!" said she, and with a kind o' mocking laugh, she ran | |
out of the room. | |
"'Well, from that time Sarah hated me with her whole heart and soul, | |
and she is a woman who can hate, too. I was a fool to let her go on | |
biding with us--a besotted fool--but I never said a word to Mary, for | |
I knew it would grieve her. Things went on much as before, but after | |
a time I began to find that there was a bit of a change in Mary | |
herself. She had always been so trusting and so innocent, but now she | |
became queer and suspicious, wanting to know where I had been and | |
what I had been doing, and whom my letters were from, and what I had | |
in my pockets, and a thousand such follies. Day by day she grew | |
queerer and more irritable, and we had ceaseless rows about nothing. | |
I was fairly puzzled by it all. Sarah avoided me now, but she and | |
Mary were just inseparable. I can see now how she was plotting and | |
scheming and poisoning my wife's mind against me, but I was such a | |
blind beetle that I could not understand it at the time. Then I broke | |
my blue ribbon and began to drink again, but I think I should not | |
have done it if Mary had been the same as ever. She had some reason | |
to be disgusted with me now, and the gap between us began to be wider | |
and wider. And then this Alec Fairbairn chipped in, and things became | |
a thousand times blacker. | |
"'It was to see Sarah that he came to my house first, but soon it was | |
to see us, for he was a man with winning ways, and he made friends | |
wherever he went. He was a dashing, swaggering chap, smart and | |
curled, who had seen half the world and could talk of what he had | |
seen. He was good company, I won't deny it, and he had wonderful | |
polite ways with him for a sailor man, so that I think there must | |
have been a time when he knew more of the poop than the forecastle. | |
For a month he was in and out of my house, and never once did it | |
cross my mind that harm might come of his soft, tricky ways. And then | |
at last something made me suspect, and from that day my peace was | |
gone forever. | |
"'It was only a little thing, too. I had come into the parlour | |
unexpected, and as I walked in at the door I saw a light of welcome | |
on my wife's face. But as she saw who it was it faded again, and she | |
turned away with a look of disappointment. That was enough for me. | |
There was no one but Alec Fairbairn whose step she could have | |
mistaken for mine. If I could have seen him then I should have killed | |
him, for I have always been like a madman when my temper gets loose. | |
Mary saw the devil's light in my eyes, and she ran forward with her | |
hands on my sleeve. "Don't, Jim, don't!" says she. "Where's Sarah?" I | |
asked. "In the kitchen," says she. "Sarah," says I as I went in, | |
"this man Fairbairn is never to darken my door again." "Why not?" | |
says she. "Because I order it." "Oh!" says she, "if my friends are | |
not good enough for this house, then I am not good enough for it | |
either." "You can do what you like," says I, "but if Fairbairn shows | |
his face here again I'll send you one of his ears for a keepsake." | |
She was frightened by my face, I think, for she never answered a | |
word, and the same evening she left my house. | |
"'Well, I don't know now whether it was pure devilry on the part of | |
this woman, or whether she thought that she could turn me against my | |
wife by encouraging her to misbehave. Anyway, she took a house just | |
two streets off and let lodgings to sailors. Fairbairn used to stay | |
there, and Mary would go round to have tea with her sister and him. | |
How often she went I don't know, but I followed her one day, and as I | |
broke in at the door Fairbairn got away over the back garden wall, | |
like the cowardly skunk that he was. I swore to my wife that I would | |
kill her if I found her in his company again, and I led her back with | |
me, sobbing and trembling, and as white as a piece of paper. There | |
was no trace of love between us any longer. I could see that she | |
hated me and feared me, and when the thought of it drove me to drink, | |
then she despised me as well. | |
"'Well, Sarah found that she could not make a living in Liverpool, so | |
she went back, as I understand, to live with her sister in Croydon, | |
and things jogged on much the same as ever at home. And then came | |
this week and all the misery and ruin. | |
"'It was in this way. We had gone on the May Day for a round voyage | |
of seven days, but a hogshead got loose and started one of our | |
plates, so that we had to put back into port for twelve hours. I left | |
the ship and came home, thinking what a surprise it would be for my | |
wife, and hoping that maybe she would be glad to see me so soon. The | |
thought was in my head as I turned into my own street, and at that | |
moment a cab passed me, and there she was, sitting by the side of | |
Fairbairn, the two chatting and laughing, with never a thought for me | |
as I stood watching them from the footpath. | |
"'I tell you, and I give you my word for it, that from that moment I | |
was not my own master, and it is all like a dim dream when I look | |
back on it. I had been drinking hard of late, and the two things | |
together fairly turned my brain. There's something throbbing in my | |
head now, like a docker's hammer, but that morning I seemed to have | |
all Niagara whizzing and buzzing in my ears. | |
"'Well, I took to my heels, and I ran after the cab. I had a heavy | |
oak stick in my hand, and I tell you I saw red from the first; but as | |
I ran I got cunning, too, and hung back a little to see them without | |
being seen. They pulled up soon at the railway station. There was a | |
good crowd round the booking-office, so I got quite close to them | |
without being seen. They took tickets for New Brighton. So did I, but | |
I got in three carriages behind them. When we reached it they walked | |
along the Parade, and I was never more than a hundred yards from | |
them. At last I saw them hire a boat and start for a row, for it was | |
a very hot day, and they thought, no doubt, that it would be cooler | |
on the water. | |
"'It was just as if they had been given into my hands. There was a | |
bit of a haze, and you could not see more than a few hundred yards. I | |
hired a boat for myself, and I pulled after them. I could see the | |
blur of their craft, but they were going nearly as fast as I, and | |
they must have been a long mile from the shore before I caught them | |
up. The haze was like a curtain all round us, and there were we three | |
in the middle of it. My God, shall I ever forget their faces when | |
they saw who was in the boat that was closing in upon them? She | |
screamed out. He swore like a madman and jabbed at me with an oar, | |
for he must have seen death in my eyes. I got past it and got one in | |
with my stick that crushed his head like an egg. I would have spared | |
her, perhaps, for all my madness, but she threw her arms round him, | |
crying out to him, and calling him "Alec." I struck again, and she | |
lay stretched beside him. I was like a wild beast then that had | |
tasted blood. If Sarah had been there, by the Lord, she should have | |
joined them. I pulled out my knife, and--well, there! I've said | |
enough. It gave me a kind of savage joy when I thought how Sarah | |
would feel when she had such signs as these of what her meddling had | |
brought about. Then I tied the bodies into the boat, stove a plank, | |
and stood by until they had sunk. I knew very well that the owner | |
would think that they had lost their bearings in the haze, and had | |
drifted off out to sea. I cleaned myself up, got back to land, and | |
joined my ship without a soul having a suspicion of what had passed. | |
That night I made up the packet for Sarah Cushing, and next day I | |
sent it from Belfast. | |
"'There you have the whole truth of it. You can hang me, or do what | |
you like with me, but you cannot punish me as I have been punished | |
already. I cannot shut my eyes but I see those two faces staring at | |
me--staring at me as they stared when my boat broke through the haze. | |
I killed them quick, but they are killing me slow; and if I have | |
another night of it I shall be either mad or dead before morning. You | |
won't put me alone into a cell, sir? For pity's sake don't, and may | |
you be treated in your day of agony as you treat me now.' | |
"What is the meaning of it, Watson?" said Holmes solemnly as he laid | |
down the paper. "What object is served by this circle of misery and | |
violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or else our universe is | |
ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But what end? There is the | |
great standing perennial problem to which human reason is as far from | |
an answer as ever." | |
THE ADVENTURE OF THE RED CIRCLE | |
Table of contents | |
Part One | |
Part Two | |
CHAPTER I | |
Part One | |
"Well, Mrs. Warren, I cannot see that you have any particular cause | |
for uneasiness, nor do I understand why I, whose time is of some | |
value, should interfere in the matter. I really have other things to | |
engage me." So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned back to the great | |
scrapbook in which he was arranging and indexing some of his recent | |
material. | |
But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of her sex. | |
She held her ground firmly. | |
"You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year," she | |
said--"Mr. Fairdale Hobbs." | |
"Ah, yes--a simple matter." | |
"But he would never cease talking of it--your kindness, sir, and the | |
way in which you brought light into the darkness. I remembered his | |
words when I was in doubt and darkness myself. I know you could if | |
you only would." | |
Holmes was accessible upon the side of flattery, and also, to do him | |
justice, upon the side of kindliness. The two forces made him lay | |
down his gum-brush with a sigh of resignation and push back his | |
chair. | |
"Well, well, Mrs. Warren, let us hear about it, then. You don't | |
object to tobacco, I take it? Thank you, Watson--the matches! You are | |
uneasy, as I understand, because your new lodger remains in his rooms | |
and you cannot see him. Why, bless you, Mrs. Warren, if I were your | |
lodger you often would not see me for weeks on end." | |
"No doubt, sir; but this is different. It frightens me, Mr. Holmes. I | |
can't sleep for fright. To hear his quick step moving here and moving | |
there from early morning to late at night, and yet never to catch so | |
much as a glimpse of him--it's more than I can stand. My husband is | |
as nervous over it as I am, but he is out at his work all day, while | |
I get no rest from it. What is he hiding for? What has he done? | |
Except for the girl, I am all alone in the house with him, and it's | |
more than my nerves can stand." | |
Holmes leaned forward and laid his long, thin fingers upon the | |
woman's shoulder. He had an almost hypnotic power of soothing when he | |
wished. The scared look faded from her eyes, and her agitated | |
features smoothed into their usual commonplace. She sat down in the | |
chair which he had indicated. | |
"If I take it up I must understand every detail," said he. "Take time | |
to consider. The smallest point may be the most essential. You say | |
that the man came ten days ago and paid you for a fortnight's board | |
and lodging?" | |
"He asked my terms, sir. I said fifty shillings a week. There is a | |
small sitting-room and bedroom, and all complete, at the top of the | |
house." | |
"Well?" | |
"He said, 'I'll pay you five pounds a week if I can have it on my own | |
terms.' I'm a poor woman, sir, and Mr. Warren earns little, and the | |
money meant much to me. He took out a ten-pound note, and he held it | |
out to me then and there. 'You can have the same every fortnight for | |
a long time to come if you keep the terms,' he said. 'If not, I'll | |
have no more to do with you.' | |
"What were the terms?" | |
"Well, sir, they were that he was to have a key of the house. That | |
was all right. Lodgers often have them. Also, that he was to be left | |
entirely to himself and never, upon any excuse, to be disturbed." | |
"Nothing wonderful in that, surely?" | |
"Not in reason, sir. But this is out of all reason. He has been there | |
for ten days, and neither Mr. Warren, nor I, nor the girl has once | |
set eyes upon him. We can hear that quick step of his pacing up and | |
down, up and down, night, morning, and noon; but except on that first | |
night he had never once gone out of the house." | |
"Oh, he went out the first night, did he?" | |
"Yes, sir, and returned very late--after we were all in bed. He told | |
me after he had taken the rooms that he would do so and asked me not | |
to bar the door. I heard him come up the stair after midnight." | |
"But his meals?" | |
"It was his particular direction that we should always, when he rang, | |
leave his meal upon a chair, outside his door. Then he rings again | |
when he has finished, and we take it down from the same chair. If he | |
wants anything else he prints it on a slip of paper and leaves it." | |
"Prints it?" | |
"Yes, sir; prints it in pencil. Just the word, nothing more. Here's | |
the one I brought to show you--soap. Here's another--match. This is | |
one he left the first morning--daily gazette. I leave that paper with | |
his breakfast every morning." | |
"Dear me, Watson," said Homes, staring with great curiosity at the | |
slips of foolscap which the landlady had handed to him, "this is | |
certainly a little unusual. Seclusion I can understand; but why | |
print? Printing is a clumsy process. Why not write? What would it | |
suggest, Watson?" | |
"That he desired to conceal his handwriting." | |
"But why? What can it matter to him that his landlady should have a | |
word of his writing? Still, it may be as you say. Then, again, why | |
such laconic messages?" | |
"I cannot imagine." | |
"It opens a pleasing field for intelligent speculation. The words are | |
written with a broad-pointed, violet-tinted pencil of a not unusual | |
pattern. You will observe that the paper is torn away at the side | |
here after the printing was done, so that the 's' of 'soap' is partly | |
gone. Suggestive, Watson, is it not?" | |
"Of caution?" | |
"Exactly. There was evidently some mark, some thumbprint, something | |
which might give a clue to the person's identity. Now. Mrs. Warren, | |
you say that the man was of middle size, dark, and bearded. What age | |
would he be?" | |
"Youngish, sir--not over thirty." | |
"Well, can you give me no further indications?" | |
"He spoke good English, sir, and yet I thought he was a foreigner by | |
his accent." | |
"And he was well dressed?" | |
"Very smartly dressed, sir--quite the gentleman. Dark | |
clothes--nothing you would note." | |
"He gave no name?" | |
"No, sir." | |
"And has had no letters or callers?" | |
"None." | |
"But surely you or the girl enter his room of a morning?" | |
"No, sir; he looks after himself entirely." | |
"Dear me! that is certainly remarkable. What about his luggage?" | |
"He had one big brown bag with him--nothing else." | |
"Well, we don't seem to have much material to help us. Do you say | |
nothing has come out of that room--absolutely nothing?" | |
The landlady drew an envelope from her bag; from it she shook out two | |
burnt matches and a cigarette-end upon the table. | |
"They were on his tray this morning. I brought them because I had | |
heard that you can read great things out of small ones." | |
Holmes shrugged his shoulders. | |
"There is nothing here," said he. "The matches have, of course, been | |
used to light cigarettes. That is obvious from the shortness of the | |
burnt end. Half the match is consumed in lighting a pipe or cigar. | |
But, dear me! this cigarette stub is certainly remarkable. The | |
gentleman was bearded and moustached, you say?" | |
"Yes, sir." | |
"I don't understand that. I should say that only a clean-shaven man | |
could have smoked this. Why, Watson, even your modest moustache would | |
have been singed." | |
"A holder?" I suggested. | |
"No, no; the end is matted. I suppose there could not be two people | |
in your rooms, Mrs. Warren?" | |
"No, sir. He eats so little that I often wonder it can keep life in | |
one." | |
"Well, I think we must wait for a little more material. After all, | |
you have nothing to complain of. You have received your rent, and he | |
is not a troublesome lodger, though he is certainly an unusual one. | |
He pays you well, and if he chooses to lie concealed it is no direct | |
business of yours. We have no excuse for an intrusion upon his | |
privacy until we have some reason to think that there is a guilty | |
reason for it. I've taken up the matter, and I won't lose sight of | |
it. Report to me if anything fresh occurs, and rely upon my | |
assistance if it should be needed. | |
"There are certainly some points of interest in this case, Watson," | |
he remarked when the landlady had left us. "It may, of course, be | |
trivial--individual eccentricity; or it may be very much deeper than | |
appears on the surface. The first thing that strike one is the | |
obvious possibility that the person now in the rooms may be entirely | |
different from the one who engaged them." | |
"Why should you think so?" | |
"Well, apart form this cigarette-end, was it not suggestive that the | |
only time the lodger went out was immediately after his taking the | |
rooms? He came back--or someone came back--when all witnesses were | |
out of the way. We have no proof that the person who came back was | |
the person who went out. Then, again, the man who took the rooms | |
spoke English well. This other, however, prints 'match' when it | |
should have been 'matches.' I can imagine that the word was taken out | |
of a dictionary, which would give the noun but not the plural. The | |
laconic style may be to conceal the absence of knowledge of English. | |
Yes, Watson, there are good reasons to suspect that there has been a | |
substitution of lodgers." | |
"But for what possible end?" | |
"Ah! there lies our problem. There is one rather obvious line of | |
investigation." He took down the great book in which, day by day, he | |
filed the agony columns of the various London journals. "Dear me!" | |
said he, turning over the pages, "what a chorus of groans, cries, and | |
bleatings! What a rag-bag of singular happenings! But surely the most | |
valuable hunting-ground that ever was given to a student of the | |
unusual! This person is alone and cannot be approached by letter | |
without a breach of that absolute secrecy which is desired. How is | |
any news or any message to reach him from without? Obviously by | |
advertisement through a newspaper. There seems no other way, and | |
fortunately we need concern ourselves with the one paper only. Here | |
are the Daily Gazette extracts of the last fortnight. 'Lady with a | |
black boa at Prince's Skating Club'--that we may pass. 'Surely Jimmy | |
will not break his mother's heart'--that appears to be irrelevant. | |
'If the lady who fainted on Brixton bus'--she does not interest me. | |
'Every day my heart longs--' Bleat, Watson--unmitigated bleat! Ah, | |
this is a little more possible. Listen to this: 'Be patient. Will | |
find some sure means of communications. Meanwhile, this column. G.' | |
That is two days after Mrs. Warren's lodger arrived. It sounds | |
plausible, does it not? The mysterious one could understand English, | |
even if he could not print it. Let us see if we can pick up the trace | |
again. Yes, here we are--three days later. 'Am making successful | |
arrangements. Patience and prudence. The clouds will pass. G.' | |
Nothing for a week after that. Then comes something much more | |
definite: 'The path is clearing. If I find chance signal message | |
remember code agreed--One A, two B, and so on. You will hear soon. | |
G.' That was in yesterday's paper, and there is nothing in to-day's. | |
It's all very appropriate to Mrs. Warren's lodger. If we wait a | |
little, Watson, I don't doubt that the affair will grow more | |
intelligible." | |
So it proved; for in the morning I found my friend standing on the | |
hearthrug with his back to the fire and a smile of complete | |
satisfaction upon his face. | |
"How's this, Watson?" he cried, picking up the paper from the table. | |
"'High red house with white stone facings. Third floor. Second window | |
left. After dusk. G.' That is definite enough. I think after | |
breakfast we must make a little reconnaissance of Mrs. Warren's | |
neighbourhood. Ah, Mrs. Warren! what news do you bring us this | |
morning?" | |
Our client had suddenly burst into the room with an explosive energy | |
which told of some new and momentous development. | |
"It's a police matter, Mr. Holmes!" she cried. "I'll have no more of | |
it! He shall pack out of there with his baggage. I would have gone | |
straight up and told him so, only I thought it was but fair to you to | |
take your opinion first. But I'm at the end of my patience, and when | |
it comes to knocking my old man about--" | |
"Knocking Mr. Warren about?" | |
"Using him roughly, anyway." | |
"But who used him roughly?" | |
"Ah! that's what we want to know! It was this morning, sir. Mr. | |
Warren is a timekeeper at Morton and Waylight's, in Tottenham Court | |
Road. He has to be out of the house before seven. Well, this morning | |
he had not gone ten paces down the road when two men came up behind | |
him, threw a coat over his head, and bundled him into a cab that was | |
beside the curb. They drove him an hour, and then opened the door and | |
shot him out. He lay in the roadway so shaken in his wits that he | |
never saw what became of the cab. When he picked himself up he found | |
he was on Hampstead Heath; so he took a bus home, and there he lies | |
now on his sofa, while I came straight round to tell you what had | |
happened." | |
"Most interesting," said Holmes. "Did he observe the appearance of | |
these men--did he hear them talk?" | |
"No; he is clean dazed. He just knows that he was lifted up as if by | |
magic and dropped as if by magic. Two a least were in it, and maybe | |
three." | |
"And you connect this attack with your lodger?" | |
"Well, we've lived there fifteen years and no such happenings ever | |
came before. I've had enough of him. Money's not everything. I'll | |
have him out of my house before the day is done." | |
"Wait a bit, Mrs. Warren. Do nothing rash. I begin to think that this | |
affair may be very much more important than appeared at first sight. | |
It is clear now that some danger is threatening your lodger. It is | |
equally clear that his enemies, lying in wait for him near your door, | |
mistook your husband for him in the foggy morning light. On | |
discovering their mistake they released him. What they would have | |
done had it not been a mistake, we can only conjecture." | |
"Well, what am I to do, Mr. Holmes?" | |
"I have a great fancy to see this lodger of yours, Mrs. Warren." | |
"I don't see how that is to be managed, unless you break in the door. | |
I always hear him unlock it as I go down the stair after I leave the | |
tray." | |
"He has to take the tray in. Surely we could conceal ourselves and | |
see him do it." | |
The landlady thought for a moment. | |
"Well, sir, there's the box-room opposite. I could arrange a | |
looking-glass, maybe, and if you were behind the door--" | |
"Excellent!" said Holmes. "When does he lunch?" | |
"About one, sir." | |
"Then Dr. Watson and I will come round in time. For the present, Mrs. | |
Warren, good-bye." | |
At half-past twelve we found ourselves upon the steps of Mrs. | |
Warren's house--a high, thin, yellow-brick edifice in Great Orme | |
Street, a narrow thoroughfare at the northeast side of the British | |
Museum. Standing as it does near the corner of the street, it | |
commands a view down Howe Street, with its ore pretentious houses. | |
Holmes pointed with a chuckle to one of these, a row of residential | |
flats, which projected so that they could not fail to catch the eye. | |
"See, Watson!" said he. "'High red house with stone facings.' There | |
is the signal station all right. We know the place, and we know the | |
code; so surely our task should be simple. There's a 'to let' card in | |
that window. It is evidently an empty flat to which the confederate | |
has access. Well, Mrs. Warren, what now?" | |
"I have it all ready for you. If you will both come up and leave your | |
boots below on the landing, I'll put you there now." | |
It was an excellent hiding-place which she had arranged. The mirror | |
was so placed that, seated in the dark, we could very plainly see the | |
door opposite. We had hardly settled down in it, and Mrs. Warren left | |
us, when a distant tinkle announced that our mysterious neighbour had | |
rung. Presently the landlady appeared with the tray, laid it down | |
upon a chair beside the closed door, and then, treading heavily, | |
departed. Crouching together in the angle of the door, we kept our | |
eyes fixed upon the mirror. Suddenly, as the landlady's footsteps | |
died away, there was the creak of a turning key, the handle revolved, | |
and two thin hands darted out and lifted the tray form the chair. An | |
instant later it was hurriedly replaced, and I caught a glimpse of a | |
dark, beautiful, horrified face glaring at the narrow opening of the | |
box-room. Then the door crashed to, the key turned once more, and all | |
was silence. Holmes twitched my sleeve, and together we stole down | |
the stair. | |
"I will call again in the evening," said he to the expectant | |
landlady. "I think, Watson, we can discuss this business better in | |
our own quarters." | |
"My surmise, as you saw, proved to be correct," said he, speaking | |
from the depths of his easy-chair. "There has been a substitution of | |
lodgers. What I did not foresee is that we should find a woman, and | |
no ordinary woman, Watson." | |
"She saw us." | |
"Well, she saw something to alarm her. That is certain. The general | |
sequence of events is pretty clear, is it not? A couple seek refuge | |
in London from a very terrible and instant danger. The measure of | |
that danger is the rigour of their precautions. The man, who has some | |
work which he must do, desires to leave the woman in absolute safety | |
while he does it. It is not an easy problem, but he solved it in an | |
original fashion, and so effectively that her presence was not even | |
known to the landlady who supplies her with food. The printed | |
messages, as is now evident, were to prevent her sex being discovered | |
by her writing. The man cannot come near the woman, or he will guide | |
their enemies to her. Since he cannot communicate with her direct, he | |
has recourse to the agony column of a paper. So far all is clear." | |
"But what is at the root of it?" | |
"Ah, yes, Watson--severely practical, as usual! What is at the root | |
of it all? Mrs. Warren's whimsical problem enlarges somewhat and | |
assumes a more sinister aspect as we proceed. This much we can say: | |
that it is no ordinary love escapade. You saw the woman's face at the | |
sign of danger. We have heard, too, of the attack upon the landlord, | |
which was undoubtedly meant for the lodger. These alarms, and the | |
desperate need for secrecy, argue that the matter is one of life or | |
death. The attack upon Mr. Warren further shows that the enemy, | |
whoever they are, are themselves not aware of the substitution of the | |
female lodger for the male. It is very curious and complex, Watson." | |
"Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain from it?" | |
"What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson. I suppose when you | |
doctored you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?" | |
"For my education, Holmes." | |
"Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the | |
greatest for the last. This is an instructive case. There is neither | |
money nor credit in it, and yet one would wish to tidy it up. When | |
dusk comes we should find ourselves one stage advanced in our | |
investigation." | |
When we returned to Mrs. Warren's rooms, the gloom of a London winter | |
evening had thickened into one gray curtain, a dead monotone of | |
colour, broken only by the sharp yellow squares of the windows and | |
the blurred haloes of the gas-lamps. As we peered from the darkened | |
sitting-room of the lodging-house, one more dim light glimmered high | |
up through the obscurity. | |
"Someone is moving in that room," said Holmes in a whisper, his gaunt | |
and eager face thrust forward to the window-pane. "Yes, I can see his | |
shadow. There he is again! He has a candle in his hand. Now he is | |
peering across. He wants to be sure that she is on the lookout. Now | |
he begins to flash. Take the message also, Watson, that we may check | |
each other. A single flash--that is A, surely. Now, then. How many | |
did you make it? Twenty. Do did In. That should mean T. AT--that's | |
intelligible enough. Another T. Surely this is the beginning of a | |
second word. Now, then--TENTA. Dead stop. That can't be all, Watson? | |
ATTENTA gives no sense. Nor is it any better as three words AT, TEN, | |
TA, unless T. A. are a person's initials. There it goes again! What's | |
that? ATTE--why, it is the same message over again. Curious, Watson, | |
very curious. Now he is off once more! AT--why he is repeating it for | |
the third time. ATTENTA three times! How often will he repeat it? No, | |
that seems to be the finish. He has withdrawn form the window. What | |
do you make of it, Watson?" | |
"A cipher message, Holmes." | |
My companion gave a sudden chuckle of comprehension. "And not a very | |
obscure cipher, Watson," said he. "Why, of course, it is Italian! The | |
A means that it is addressed to a woman. 'Beware! Beware! Beware!' | |
How's that, Watson? | |
"I believe you have hit it." | |
"Not a doubt of it. It is a very urgent message, thrice repeated to | |
make it more so. But beware of what? Wait a bit, he is coming to the | |
window once more." | |
Again we saw the dim silhouette of a crouching man and the whisk of | |
the small flame across the window as the signals were renewed. They | |
came more rapidly than before--so rapid that it was hard to follow | |
them. | |
"PERICOLO--pericolo--eh, what's that, Watson? 'Danger,' isn't it? | |
Yes, by Jove, it's a danger signal. There he goes again! PERI. | |
Halloa, what on earth--" | |
The light had suddenly gone out, the glimmering square of window had | |
disappeared, and the third floor formed a dark band round the lofty | |
building, with its tiers of shining casements. That last warning cry | |
had been suddenly cut short. How, and by whom? The same thought | |
occurred on the instant to us both. Holmes sprang up from where he | |
crouched by the window. | |
"This is serious, Watson," he cried. "There is some devilry going | |
forward! Why should such a message stop in such a way? I should put | |
Scotland Yard in touch with this business--and yet, it is too | |
pressing for us to leave." | |
"Shall I go for the police?" | |
"We must define the situation a little more clearly. It may bear some | |
more innocent interpretation. Come, Watson, let us go across | |
ourselves and see what we can make of it." | |
CHAPTER II | |
Part Two | |
As we walked rapidly down Howe Street I glanced back at the building | |
which we had left. There, dimly outlined at the top window, I could | |
see the shadow of a head, a woman's head, gazing tensely, rigidly, | |
out into the night, waiting with breathless suspense for the renewal | |
of that interrupted message. At the doorway of the Howe Street flats | |
a man, muffled in a cravat and greatcoat, was leaning against the | |
railing. He started as the hall-light fell upon our faces. | |
"Holmes!" he cried. | |
"Why, Gregson!" said my companion as he shook hands with the Scotland | |
Yard detective. "Journeys end with lovers' meetings. What brings you | |
here?" | |
"The same reasons that bring you, I expect," said Gregson. "How you | |
got on to it I can't imagine." | |
"Different threads, but leading up to the same tangle. I've been | |
taking the signals." | |
"Signals?" | |
"Yes, from that window. They broke off in the middle. We came over to | |
see the reason. But since it is safe in your hands I see no object in | |
continuing this business." | |
"Wait a bit!" cried Gregson eagerly. "I'll do you this justice, Mr. | |
Holmes, that I was never in a case yet that I didn't feel stronger | |
for having you on my side. There's only the one exit to these flats, | |
so we have him safe." | |
"Who is he?" | |
"Well, well, we score over you for once, Mr. Holmes. You must give us | |
best this time." He struck his stick sharply upon the ground, on | |
which a cabman, his whip in his hand, sauntered over from a | |
four-wheeler which stood on the far side of the street. "May I | |
introduce you to Mr. Sherlock Holmes?" he said to the cabman. "This | |
is Mr. Leverton, of Pinkerton's American Agency." | |
"The hero of the Long Island cave mystery?" said Holmes. "Sir, I am | |
pleased to meet you." | |
The American, a quiet, businesslike young man, with a clean-shaven, | |
hatchet face, flushed up at the words of commendation. "I am on the | |
trail of my life now, Mr. Holmes," said he. "If I can get Gorgiano--" | |
"What! Gorgiano of the Red Circle?" | |
"Oh, he has a European fame, has he? Well, we've learned all about | |
him in America. We know he is at the bottom of fifty murders, and yet | |
we have nothing positive we can take him on. I tracked him over from | |
New York, and I've been close to him for a week in London, waiting | |
some excuse to get my hand on his collar. Mr. Gregson and I ran him | |
to ground in that big tenement house, and there's only one door, so | |
he can't slip us. There's three folk come out since he went in, but | |
I'll swear he wasn't one of them." | |
"Mr. Holmes talks of signals," said Gregson. "I expect, as usual, he | |
knows a good deal that we don't." | |
In a few clear words Holmes explained the situation as it had | |
appeared to us. The American struck his hands together with vexation. | |
"He's on to us!" he cried. | |
"Why do you think so?" | |
"Well, it figures out that way, does it not? Here he is, sending out | |
messages to an accomplice--there are several of his gang in London. | |
Then suddenly, just as by your own account he was telling them that | |
there was danger, he broke short off. What could it mean except that | |
from the window he had suddenly either caught sight of us in the | |
street, or in some way come to understand how close the danger was, | |
and that he must act right away if he was to avoid it? What do you | |
suggest, Mr. Holmes?" | |
"That we go up at once and see for ourselves." | |
"But we have no warrant for his arrest." | |
"He is in unoccupied premises under suspicious circumstances," said | |
Gregson. "That is good enough for the moment. When we have him by the | |
heels we can see if New York can't help us to keep him. I'll take the | |
responsibility of arresting him now." | |
Our official detectives may blunder in the matter of intelligence, | |
but never in that of courage. Gregson climbed the stair to arrest | |
this desperate murderer with the same absolutely quiet and | |
businesslike bearing with which he would have ascended the official | |
staircase of Scotland Yard. The Pinkerton man had tried to push past | |
him, but Gregson had firmly elbowed him back. London dangers were the | |
privilege of the London force. | |
The door of the left-hand flat upon the third landing was standing | |
ajar. Gregson pushed it open. Within all was absolute silence and | |
darkness. I struck a match and lit the detective's lantern. As I did | |
so, and as the flicker steadied into a flame, we all gave a gasp of | |
surprise. On the deal boards of the carpetless floor there was | |
outlined a fresh track of blood. The red steps pointed towards us and | |
led away from an inner room, the door of which was closed. Gregson | |
flung it open and held his light full blaze in front of him, while we | |
all peered eagerly over his shoulders. | |
In the middle of the floor of the empty room was huddled the figure | |
of an enormous man, his clean-shaven, swarthy face grotesquely | |
horrible in its contortion and his head encircled by a ghastly | |
crimson halo of blood, lying in a broad wet circle upon the white | |
woodwork. His knees were drawn up, his hands thrown out in agony, and | |
from the centre of his broad, brown, upturned throat there projected | |
the white haft of a knife driven blade-deep into his body. Giant as | |
he was, the man must have gone down like a pole-axed ox before that | |
terrific blow. Beside his right hand a most formidable horn-handled, | |
two-edged dagger lay upon the floor, and near it a black kid glove. | |
"By George! it's Black Gorgiano himself!" cried the American | |
detective. "Someone has got ahead of us this time." | |
"Here is the candle in the window, Mr. Holmes," said Gregson. "Why, | |
whatever are you doing?" | |
Holmes had stepped across, had lit the candle, and was passing it | |
backward and forward across the window-panes. Then he peered into the | |
darkness, blew the candle out, and threw it on the floor. | |
"I rather think that will be helpful," said he. He came over and | |
stood in deep thought while the two professionals were examining the | |
body. "You say that three people came out form the flat while you | |
were waiting downstairs," said he at last. "Did you observe them | |
closely?" | |
"Yes, I did." | |
"Was there a fellow about thirty, black-bearded, dark, of middle | |
size?" | |
"Yes; he was the last to pass me." | |
"That is your man, I fancy. I can give you his description, and we | |
have a very excellent outline of his footmark. That should be enough | |
for you." | |
"Not much, Mr. Holmes, among the millions of London." | |
"Perhaps not. That is why I thought it best to summon this lady to | |
your aid." | |
We all turned round at the words. There, framed in the doorway, was a | |
tall and beautiful woman--the mysterious lodger of Bloomsbury. Slowly | |
she advanced, her face pale and drawn with a frightful apprehension, | |
her eyes fixed and staring, her terrified gaze riveted upon the dark | |
figure on the floor. | |
"You have killed him!" she muttered. "Oh, Dio mio, you have killed | |
him!" Then I heard a sudden sharp intake of her breath, and she | |
sprang into the air with a cry of joy. Round and round the room she | |
danced, her hands clapping, her dark eyes gleaming with delighted | |
wonder, and a thousand pretty Italian exclamations pouring from her | |
lips. It was terrible and amazing to see such a woman so convulsed | |
with joy at such a sight. Suddenly she stopped and gazed at us all | |
with a questioning stare. | |
"But you! You are police, are you not? You have killed Giuseppe | |
Gorgiano. Is it not so?" | |
"We are police, madam." | |
She looked round into the shadows of the room. | |
"But where, then, is Gennaro?" she asked. "He is my husband, Gennaro | |
Lucca. I am Emilia Lucca, and we are both from New York. Where is | |
Gennaro? He called me this moment from this window, and I ran with | |
all my speed." | |
"It was I who called," said Holmes. | |
"You! How could you call?" | |
"Your cipher was not difficult, madam. Your presence here was | |
desirable. I knew that I had only to flash 'Vieni' and you would | |
surely come." | |
The beautiful Italian looked with awe at my companion. | |
"I do not understand how you know these things," she said. "Giuseppe | |
Gorgiano--how did he--" She paused, and then suddenly her face lit up | |
with pride and delight. "Now I see it! My Gennaro! My splendid, | |
beautiful Gennaro, who has guarded me safe from all harm, he did it, | |
with his own strong hand he killed the monster! Oh, Gennaro, how | |
wonderful you are! What woman could every be worthy of such a man?" | |
"Well, Mrs. Lucca," said the prosaic Gregson, laying his hand upon | |
the lady's sleeve with as little sentiment as if she were a Notting | |
Hill hooligan, "I am not very clear yet who you are or what you are; | |
but you've said enough to make it very clear that we shall want you | |
at the Yard." | |
"One moment, Gregson," said Holmes. "I rather fancy that this lady | |
may be as anxious to give us information as we can be to get it. You | |
understand, madam, that your husband will be arrested and tried for | |
the death of the man who lies before us? What you say may be used in | |
evidence. But if you think that he has acted from motives which are | |
not criminal, and which he would wish to have known, then you cannot | |
serve him better than by telling us the whole story." | |
"Now that Gorgiano is dead we fear nothing," said the lady. "He was a | |
devil and a monster, and there can be no judge in the world who would | |
punish my husband for having killed him." | |
"In that case," said Holmes, "my suggestion is that we lock this | |
door, leave things as we found them, go with this lady to her room, | |
and form our opinion after we have heard what it is that she has to | |
say to us." | |
Half an hour later we were seated, all four, in the small | |
sitting-room of Signora Lucca, listening to her remarkable narrative | |
of those sinister events, the ending of which we had chanced to | |
witness. She spoke in rapid and fluent but very unconventional | |
English, which, for the sake of clearness, I will make grammatical. | |
"I was born in Posilippo, near Naples," said she, "and was the | |
daughter of Augusto Barelli, who was the chief lawyer and once the | |
deputy of that part. Gennaro was in my father's employment, and I | |
came to love him, as any woman must. He had neither money nor | |
position--nothing but his beauty and strength and energy--so my | |
father forbade the match. We fled together, were married at Bari, and | |
sold my jewels to gain the money which would take us to America. This | |
was four years ago, and we have been in New York ever since. | |
"Fortune was very good to us at first. Gennaro was able to do a | |
service to an Italian gentleman--he saved him from some ruffians in | |
the place called the Bowery, and so made a powerful friend. His name | |
was Tito Castalotte, and he was the senior partner of the great firm | |
of Castalotte and Zamba, who are the chief fruit importers of New | |
York. Signor Zamba is an invalid, and our new friend Castalotte has | |
all power within the firm, which employs more than three hundred men. | |
He took my husband into his employment, made him head of a | |
department, and showed his good-will towards him in every way. Signor | |
Castalotte was a bachelor, and I believe that he felt as if Gennaro | |
was his son, and both my husband and I loved him as if he were our | |
father. We had taken and furnished a little house in Brooklyn, and | |
our whole future seemed assured when that black cloud appeared which | |
was soon to overspread our sky. | |
"One night, when Gennaro returned from his work, he brought a | |
fellow-countryman back with him. His name was Gorgiano, and he had | |
come also from Posilippo. He was a huge man, as you can testify, for | |
you have looked upon his corpse. Not only was his body that of a | |
giant but everything about him was grotesque, gigantic, and | |
terrifying. His voice was like thunder in our little house. There was | |
scarce room for the whirl of his great arms as he talked. His | |
thoughts, his emotions, his passions, all were exaggerated and | |
monstrous. He talked, or rather roared, with such energy that others | |
could but sit and listen, cowed with the mighty stream of words. His | |
eyes blazed at you and held you at his mercy. He was a terrible and | |
wonderful man. I thank God that he is dead! | |
"He came again and again. Yet I was aware that Gennaro was no more | |
happy than I was in his presence. My poor husband would sit pale and | |
listless, listening to the endless raving upon politics and upon | |
social questions which made up or visitor's conversation. Gennaro | |
said nothing, but I, who knew him so well, could read in his face | |
some emotion which I had never seen there before. At first I thought | |
that it was dislike. And then, gradually, I understood that it was | |
more than dislike. It was fear--a deep, secret, shrinking fear. That | |
night--the night that I read his terror--I put my arms round him and | |
I implored him by his love for me and by all that he held dear to | |
hold nothing from me, and to tell me why this huge man overshadowed | |
him so. | |
"He told me, and my own heart grew cold as ice as I listened. My poor | |
Gennaro, in his wild and fiery days, when all the world seemed | |
against him and his mind was driven half mad by the injustices of | |
life, had joined a Neapolitan society, the Red Circle, which was | |
allied to the old Carbonari. The oaths and secrets of this | |
brotherhood were frightful, but once within its rule no escape was | |
possible. When we had fled to America Gennaro thought that he had | |
cast it all off forever. What was his horror one evening to meet in | |
the streets the very man who had initiated him in Naples, the giant | |
Gorgiano, a man who had earned the name of 'Death' in the south of | |
Italy, for he was red to the elbow in murder! He had come to New York | |
to avoid the Italian police, and he had already planted a branch of | |
this dreadful society in his new home. All this Gennaro told me and | |
showed me a summons which he had received that very day, a Red Circle | |
drawn upon the head of it telling him that a lodge would be held upon | |
a certain date, and that his presence at it was required and ordered. | |
"That was bad enough, but worse was to come. I had noticed for some | |
time that when Gorgiano came to us, as he constantly did, in the | |
evening, he spoke much to me; and even when his words were to my | |
husband those terrible, glaring, wild-beast eyes of his were always | |
turned upon me. One night his secret came out. I had awakened what he | |
called 'love' within him--the love of a brute--a savage. Gennaro had | |
not yet returned when he came. He pushed his way in, seized me in his | |
mighty arms, hugged me in his bear's embrace, covered me with kisses, | |
and implored me to come away with him. I was struggling and screaming | |
when Gennaro entered and attacked him. He struck Gennaro senseless | |
and fled from the house which he was never more to enter. It was a | |
deadly enemy that we made that night. | |
"A few days later came the meeting. Gennaro returned from it with a | |
face which told me that something dreadful had occurred. It was worse | |
than we could have imagined possible. The funds of the society were | |
raised by blackmailing rich Italians and threatening them with | |
violence should they refuse the money. It seems that Castalotte, our | |
dear friend and benefactor, had been approached. He had refused to | |
yield to threats, and he had handed the notices to the police. It was | |
resolved now that such an example should be made of them as would | |
prevent any other victim from rebelling. At the meeting it was | |
arranged that he and his house should be blown up with dynamite. | |
There was a drawing of lots as to who should carry out the deed. | |
Gennaro saw our enemy's cruel face smiling at him as he dipped his | |
hand in the bag. No doubt it had been prearranged in some fashion, | |
for it was the fatal disc with the Red Circle upon it, the mandate | |
for murder, which lay upon his palm. He was to kill his best friend, | |
or he was to expose himself and me to the vengeance of his comrades. | |
It was part of their fiendish system to punish those whom they feared | |
or hated by injuring not only their own persons but those whom they | |
loved, and it was the knowledge of this which hung as a terror over | |
my poor Gennaro's head and drove him nearly crazy with apprehension. | |
"All that night we sat together, our arms round each other, each | |
strengthening each for the troubles that lay before us. The very next | |
evening had been fixed for the attempt. By midday my husband and I | |
were on our way to London, but not before he had given our benefactor | |
full warning of this danger, and had also left such information for | |
the police as would safeguard his life for the future. | |
"The rest, gentlemen, you know for yourselves. We were sure that our | |
enemies would be behind us like our own shadows. Gorgiano had his | |
private reasons for vengeance, but in any case we knew how ruthless, | |
cunning, and untiring he could be. Both Italy and America are full of | |
stories of his dreadful powers. If ever they were exerted it would be | |
now. My darling made use of the few clear days which our start had | |
given us in arranging for a refuge for me in such a fashion that no | |
possible danger could reach me. For his own part, he wished to be | |
free that he might communicate both with the American and with the | |
Italian police. I do not myself know where he lived, or how. All that | |
I learned was through the columns of a newspaper. But once as I | |
looked through my window, I saw two Italians watching the house, and | |
I understood that in some way Gorgiano had found our retreat. Finally | |
Gennaro told me, through the paper, that he would signal to me from a | |
certain window, but when the signals came they were nothing but | |
warnings, which were suddenly interrupted. It is very clear to me now | |
that he knew Gorgiano to be close upon him, and that, thank God! he | |
was ready for him when he came. And now, gentleman, I would ask you | |
whether we have anything to fear from the law, or whether any judge | |
upon earth would condemn my Gennaro for what he has done?" | |
"Well, Mr. Gregson," said the American, looking across at the | |
official, "I don't know what your British point of view may be, but I | |
guess that in New York this lady's husband will receive a pretty | |
general vote of thanks." | |
"She will have to come with me and see the chief," Gregson answered. | |
"If what she says is corroborated, I do not think she or her husband | |
has much to fear. But what I can't make head or tail of, Mr. Holmes, | |
is how on earth you got yourself mixed up in the matter." | |
"Education, Gregson, education. Still seeking knowledge at the old | |
university. Well, Watson, you have one more specimen of the tragic | |
and grotesque to add to your collection. By the way, it is not eight | |
o'clock, and a Wagner night at Covent Garden! If we hurry, we might | |
be in time for the second act." | |
THE ADVENTURE OF THE BRUCE-PARTINGTON PLANS | |
In the third week of November, in the year 1895, a dense yellow fog | |
settled down upon London. From the Monday to the Thursday I doubt | |
whether it was ever possible from our windows in Baker Street to see | |
the loom of the opposite houses. The first day Holmes had spent in | |
cross-indexing his huge book of references. The second and third had | |
been patiently occupied upon a subject which he hand recently made | |
his hobby--the music of the Middle Ages. But when, for the fourth | |
time, after pushing back our chairs from breakfast we saw the greasy, | |
heavy brown swirl still drifting past us and condensing in oily drops | |
upon the window-panes, my comrade's impatient and active nature could | |
endure this drab existence no longer. He paced restlessly about our | |
sitting-room in a fever of suppressed energy, biting his nails, | |
tapping the furniture, and chafing against inaction. | |
"Nothing of interest in the paper, Watson?" he said. | |
In was aware that by anything of interest, Holmes meant anything of | |
criminal interest. There was the news of a revolution, of a possible | |
war, and of an impending change of government; but these did not come | |
within the horizon of my companion. I could see nothing recorded in | |
the shape of crime which was not commonplace and futile. Holmes | |
groaned and resumed hs restless meanderings. | |
"The London criminal is certainly a dull fellow," said he in the | |
querulous voice of the sportsman whose game has failed him. "Look out | |
this window, Watson. See how the figures loom up, are dimly seen, and | |
then blend once more into the cloud-bank. The thief or the murderer | |
could roam London on such a day as the tiger does the jungle, unseen | |
until he pounces, and then evident only to his victim." | |
"There have," said I, "been numerous petty thefts." | |
Holmes snorted his contempt. | |
"This great and sombre stage is set for something more worthy than | |
that," said he. "It is fortunate for this community that I am not a | |
criminal." | |
"It is, indeed!" said I heartily. | |
"Suppose that I were Brooks or Woodhouse, or any of the fifty men who | |
have good reason for taking my life, how long could I survive against | |
my own pursuit? A summons, a bogus appointment, and all would be | |
over. It is well they don't have days of fog in the Latin | |
countries--the countries of assassination. By Jove! here comes | |
something at last to break our dead monotony." | |
It was the maid with a telegram. Holmes tore it open and burst out | |
laughing. | |
"Well, well! What next?" said he. "Brother Mycroft is coming round." | |
"Why not?" I asked. | |
"Why not? It is as if you met a tram-car coming down a country lane. | |
Mycroft has his rails and he runs on them. His Pall Mall lodgings, | |
the Diogenes Club, Whitehall--that is his cycle. Once, and only once, | |
he has been here. What upheaval can possibly have derailed him?" | |
"Does he not explain?" | |
Holmes handed me his brother's telegram. | |
Must see you over Cadogen West. Coming at once. | |
Mycroft. | |
"Cadogen West? I have heard the name." | |
"It recalls nothing to my mind. But that Mycroft should break out in | |
this erratic fashion! A planet might as well leave its orbit. By the | |
way, do you know what Mycroft is?" | |
I had some vague recollection of an explanation at the time of the | |
Adventure of the Greek Interpreter. | |
"You told me that he had some small office under the British | |
government." | |
Holmes chuckled. | |
"I did not know you quite so well in those days. One has to be | |
discreet when one talks of high matters of state. You are right in | |
thinking that he under the British government. You would also be | |
right in a sense if you said that occasionally he is the British | |
government." | |
"My dear Holmes!" | |
"I thought I might surprise you. Mycroft draws four hundred and fifty | |
pounds a year, remains a subordinate, has no ambitions of any kind, | |
will receive neither honour nor title, but remains the most | |
indispensable man in the country." | |
"But how?" | |
"Well, his position is unique. He has made it for himself. There has | |
never been anything like it before, nor will be again. He has the | |
tidiest and most orderly brain, with the greatest capacity for | |
storing facts, of any man living. The same great powers which I have | |
turned to the detection of crime he has used for this particular | |
business. The conclusions of every department are passed to him, and | |
he is the central exchange, the clearinghouse, which makes out the | |
balance. All other men are specialists, but his specialism is | |
omniscience. We will suppose that a minister needs information as to | |
a point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic | |
question; he could get his separate advices from various departments | |
upon each, but only Mycroft can focus them all, and say offhand how | |
each factor would affect the other. They began by using him as a | |
short-cut, a convenience; now he has made himself an essential. In | |
that great brain of his everything is pigeon-holed and can be handed | |
out in an instant. Again and again his word has decided the national | |
policy. He lives in it. He thinks of nothing else save when, as an | |
intellectual exercise, he unbends if I call upon him and ask him to | |
advise me on one of my little problems. But Jupiter is descending | |
to-day. What on earth can it mean? Who is Cadogan West, and what is | |
he to Mycroft?" | |
"I have it," I cried, and plunged among the litter of papers upon the | |
sofa. "Yes, yes, here he is, sure enough! Cadogen West was the young | |
man who was found dead on the Underground on Tuesday morning." | |
Holmes sat up at attention, his pipe halfway to his lips. | |
"This must be serious, Watson. A death which has caused my brother to | |
alter his habits can be no ordinary one. What in the world can he | |
have to do with it? The case was featureless as I remember it. The | |
young man had apparently fallen out of the train and killed himself. | |
He had not been robbed, and there was no particular reason to suspect | |
violence. Is that not so?" | |
"There has been an inquest," said I, "and a good many fresh facts | |
have come out. Looked at more closely, I should certainly say that it | |
was a curious case." | |
"Judging by its effect upon my brother, I should think it must be a | |
most extraordinary one." He snuggled down in his armchair. "Now, | |
Watson, let us have the facts." | |
"The man's name was Arthur Cadogan West. He was twenty-seven years of | |
age, unmarried, and a clerk at Woolwich Arsenal." | |
"Government employ. Behold the link with Brother Mycroft!" | |
"He left Woolwich suddenly on Monday night. Was last seen by his | |
fiancee, Miss Violet Westbury, whom he left abruptly in the fog about | |
7.30 that evening. There was no quarrel between them and she can give | |
no motive for his action. The next thing heard of him was when his | |
dead body was discovered by a plate-layer named Mason, just outside | |
Aldgate Station on the Underground system in London." | |
"When?" | |
"The body was found at six on Tuesday morning. It was lying wide of | |
the metals upon the left hand of the track as one goes eastward, at a | |
point close to the station, where the line emerges from the tunnel in | |
which it runs. The head was badly crushed--an injury which might well | |
have been caused by a fall from the train. The body could only have | |
come on the line in that way. Had it been carried down from any | |
neighbouring street, it must have passed the station barriers, where | |
a collector is always standing. This point seems absolutely certain." | |
"Very good. The case is definite enough. The man, dead or alive, | |
either fell or was precipitated from a train. So much is clear to me. | |
Continue." | |
"The trains which traverse the lines of rail beside which the body | |
was found are those which run from west to east, some being purely | |
Metropolitan, and some from Willesden and outlying junctions. It can | |
be stated for certain that this young man, when he met his death, was | |
travelling in this direction at some late hour of the night, but at | |
what point he entered the train it is impossible to state." | |
"His ticket, of course, would show that." | |
"There was no ticket in his pockets." | |
"No ticket! Dear me, Watson, this is really very singular. According | |
to my experience it is not possible to reach the platform of a | |
Metropolitan train without exhibiting one's ticket. Presumably, then, | |
the young man had one. Was it taken from him in order to conceal the | |
station from which he came? It is possible. Or did he drop it in the | |
carriage? That is also possible. But the point is of curious | |
interest. I understand that there was no sign of robbery?" | |
"Apparently not. There is a list here of his possessions. His purse | |
contained two pounds fifteen. He had also a check-book on the | |
Woolwich branch of the Capital and Counties Bank. Through this his | |
identity was established. There were also two dress-circle tickets | |
for the Woolwich Theatre, dated for that very evening. Also a small | |
packet of technical papers." | |
Holmes gave an exclamation of satisfaction. | |
"There we have it at last, Watson! British government--Woolwich. | |
Arsenal--technical papers--Brother Mycroft, the chain is complete. | |
But here he comes, if I am not mistaken, to speak for himself." | |
A moment later the tall and portly form of Mycroft Holmes was ushered | |
into the room. Heavily built and massive, there was a suggestion of | |
uncouth physical inertia in the figure, but above this unwieldy frame | |
there was perched a head so masterful in its brow, so alert in its | |
steel-gray, deep-set eyes, so firm in its lips, and so subtle in its | |
play of expression, that after the first glance one forgot the gross | |
body and remembered only the dominant mind. | |
At his heels came our old friend Lestrade, of Scotland Yard--thin and | |
austere. The gravity of both their faces foretold some weighty quest. | |
The detective shook hands without a word. Mycroft Holmes struggled | |
out of his overcoat and subsided into an armchair. | |
"A most annoying business, Sherlock," said he. "I extremely dislike | |
altering my habits, but the powers that be would take no denial. In | |
the present state of Siam it is most awkward that I should be away | |
from the office. But it is a real crisis. I have never seen the Prime | |
Minister so upset. As to the Admiralty--it is buzzing like an | |
overturned bee-hive. Have you read up the case?" | |
"We have just done so. What were the technical papers?" | |
"Ah, there's the point! Fortunately, it has not come out. The press | |
would be furious if it did. The papers which this wretched youth had | |
in his pocket were the plans of the Bruce-Partington submarine." | |
Mycroft Holmes spoke with a solemnity which showed his sense of the | |
importance of the subject. His brother and I sat expectant. | |
"Surely you have heard of it? I thought everyone had heard of it." | |
"Only as a name." | |
"Its importance can hardly be exaggerated. It has been the most | |
jealously guarded of all government secrets. You may take it from me | |
that naval warfare becomes impossible within the radius of a | |
Bruce-Partington's operation. Two years ago a very large sum was | |
smuggled through the Estimates and was expended in acquiring a | |
monopoly of the invention. Every effort has been made to keep the | |
secret. The plans, which are exceedingly intricate, comprising some | |
thirty separate patents, each essential to the working of the whole, | |
are kept in an elaborate safe in a confidential office adjoining the | |
arsenal, with burglar-proof doors and windows. Under no conceivable | |
circumstances were the plans to be taken from the office. If the | |
chief constructor of the Navy desired to consult them, even he was | |
forced to go to the Woolwich office for the purpose. And yet here we | |
find them in the pocket of a dead junior clerk in the heart of | |
London. From an official point of view it's simply awful." | |
"But you have recovered them?" | |
"No, Sherlock, no! That's the pinch. We have not. Ten papers were | |
taken from Woolwich. There were seven in the pocket of Cadogan West. | |
The three most essential are gone--stolen, vanished. You must drop | |
everything, Sherlock. Never mind your usual petty puzzles of the | |
police-court. It's a vital international problem that you have to | |
solve. Why did Cadogan West take the papers, where are the missing | |
ones, how did he die, how came his body where it was found, how can | |
the evil be set right? Find an answer to all these questions, and you | |
will have done good service for your country." | |
"Why do you not solve it yourself, Mycroft? You can see as far as I." | |
"Possibly, Sherlock. But it is a question of getting details. Give me | |
your details, and from an armchair I will return you an excellent | |
expert opinion. But to run here and run there, to cross-question | |
railway guards, and lie on my face with a lens to my eye--it is not | |
my métier. No, you are the one man who can clear the matter up. If | |
you have a fancy to see your name in the next honours list--" | |
My friend smiled and shook his head. | |
"I play the game for the game's own sake," said he. "But the problem | |
certainly presents some points of interest, and I shall be very | |
pleased to look into it. Some more facts, please." | |
"I have jotted down the more essential ones upon this sheet of paper, | |
together with a few addresses which you will find of service. The | |
actual official guardian of the papers is the famous government | |
expert, Sir James Walter, whose decorations and sub-titles fill two | |
lines of a book of reference. He has grown gray in the service, is a | |
gentleman, a favoured guest in the most exalted houses, and, above | |
all, a man whose patriotism is beyond suspicion. He is one of two who | |
have a key of the safe. I may add that the papers were undoubtedly in | |
the office during working hours on Monday, and that Sir James left | |
for London about three o'clock taking his key with him. He was at the | |
house of Admiral Sinclair at Barclay Square during the whole of the | |
evening when this incident occurred." | |
"Has the fact been verified?" | |
"Yes; his brother, Colonel Valentine Walter, has testified to his | |
departure from Woolwich, and Admiral Sinclair to his arrival in | |
London; so Sir James is no longer a direct factor in the problem." | |
"Who was the other man with a key?" | |
"The senior clerk and draughtsman, Mr. Sidney Johnson. He is a man of | |
forty, married, with five children. He is a silent, morose man, but | |
he has, on the whole, an excellent record in the public service. He | |
is unpopular with his colleagues, but a hard worker. According to his | |
own account, corroborated only by the word of his wife, he was at | |
home the whole of Monday evening after office hours, and his key has | |
never left the watch-chain upon which it hangs." | |
"Tell us about Cadogan West." | |
"He has been ten years in the service and has done good work. He has | |
the reputation of being hot-headed and imperious, but a straight, | |
honest man. We have nothing against him. He was next Sidney Johnson | |
in the office. His duties brought him into daily, personal contact | |
with the plans. No one else had the handling of them." | |
"Who locked up the plans that night?" | |
"Mr. Sidney Johnson, the senior clerk." | |
"Well, it is surely perfectly clear who took them away. They are | |
actually found upon the person of this junior clerk, Cadogan West. | |
That seems final, does it not?" | |
"It does, Sherlock, and yet it leaves so much unexplained. In the | |
first place, why did he take them?" | |
"I presume they were of value?" | |
"He could have got several thousands for them very easily." | |
"Can you suggest any possible motive for taking the papers to London | |
except to sell them?" | |
"No, I cannot." | |
"Then we must take that as our working hypothesis. Young West took | |
the papers. Now this could only be done by having a false key--" | |
"Several false keys. He had to open the building and the room." | |
"He had, then, several false keys. He took the papers to London to | |
sell the secret, intending, no doubt, to have the plans themselves | |
back in the safe next morning before they were missed. While in | |
London on this treasonable mission he met his end." | |
"How?" | |
"We will suppose that he was travelling back to Woolwich when he was | |
killed and thrown out of the compartment." | |
"Aldgate, where the body was found, is considerably past the station | |
London Bridge, which would be his route to Woolwich." | |
"Many circumstances could be imagined under which he would pass | |
London Bridge. There was someone in the carriage, for example, with | |
whom he was having an absorbing interview. This interview led to a | |
violent scene in which he lost his life. Possibly he tried to leave | |
the carriage, fell out on the line, and so met his end. The other | |
closed the door. There was a thick fog, and nothing could be seen." | |
"No better explanation can be given with our present knowledge; and | |
yet consider, Sherlock, how much you leave untouched. We will | |
suppose, for argument's sake, that young Cadogan West had determined | |
to convey these papers to London. He would naturally have made an | |
appointment with the foreign agent and kept his evening clear. | |
Instead of that he took two tickets for the theatre, escorted his | |
fiancee halfway there, and then suddenly disappeared." | |
"A blind," said Lestrade, who had sat listening with some impatience | |
to the conversation. | |
"A very singular one. That is objection No. 1. Objection No. 2: We | |
will suppose that he reaches London and sees the foreign agent. He | |
must bring back the papers before morning or the loss will be | |
discovered. He took away ten. Only seven were in his pocket. What had | |
become of the other three? He certainly would not leave them of his | |
own free will. Then, again, where is the price of his treason? Once | |
would have expected to find a large sum of money in his pocket." | |
"It seems to me perfectly clear," said Lestrade. "I have no doubt at | |
all as to what occurred. He took the papers to sell them. He saw the | |
agent. They could not agree as to price. He started home again, but | |
the agent went with him. In the train the agent murdered him, took | |
the more essential papers, and threw his body from the carriage. That | |
would account for everything, would it not?" | |
"Why had he no ticket?" | |
"The ticket would have shown which station was nearest the agent's | |
house. Therefore he took it from the murdered man's pocket." | |
"Good, Lestrade, very good," said Holmes. "Your theory holds | |
together. But if this is true, then the case is at an end. On the one | |
hand, the traitor is dead. On the other, the plans of the | |
Bruce-Partington submarine are presumably already on the Continent. | |
What is there for us to do?" | |
"To act, Sherlock--to act!" cried Mycroft, springing to his feet. | |
"All my instincts are against this explanation. Use your powers! Go | |
to the scene of the crime! See the people concerned! Leave no stone | |
unturned! In all your career you have never had so great a chance of | |
serving your country." | |
"Well, well!" said Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. "Come, Watson! | |
And you, Lestrade, could you favour us with your company for an hour | |
or two? We will begin our investigation by a visit to Aldgate | |
Station. Good-bye, Mycroft. I shall let you have a report before | |
evening, but I warn you in advance that you have little to expect." | |
An hour later Holmes, Lestrade and I stood upon the Underground | |
railroad at the point where it emerges from the tunnel immediately | |
before Aldgate Station. A courteous red-faced old gentleman | |
represented the railway company. | |
"This is where the young man's body lay," said he, indicating a spot | |
about three feet from the metals. "It could not have fallen from | |
above, for these, as you see, are all blank walls. Therefore, it | |
could only have come from a train, and that train, so far as we can | |
trace it, must have passed about midnight on Monday." | |
"Have the carriages been examined for any sign of violence?" | |
"There are no such signs, and no ticket has been found." | |
"No record of a door being found open?" | |
"None." | |
"We have had some fresh evidence this morning," said Lestrade. "A | |
passenger who passed Aldgate in an ordinary Metropolitan train about | |
11.40 on Monday night declares that he heard a heavy thud, as of a | |
body striking the line, just before the train reached the station. | |
There was dense fog, however, and nothing could be seen. He made no | |
report of it at the time. Why, whatever is the matter with Mr. | |
Holmes?" | |
My friend was standing with an expression of strained intensity upon | |
his face, staring at the railway metals where they curved out of the | |
tunnel. Aldgate is a junction, and there was a network of points. On | |
these his eager, questioning eyes were fixed, and I saw on his keen, | |
alert face that tightening of the lips, that quiver of the nostrils, | |
and concentration of the heavy, tufted brows which I knew so well. | |
"Points," he muttered; "the points." | |
"What of it? What do you mean?" | |
"I suppose there are no great number of points on a system such as | |
this?" | |
"No; they are very few." | |
"And a curve, too. Points, and a curve. By Jove! if it were only so." | |
"What is it, Mr. Holmes? Have you a clue?" | |
"An idea--an indication, no more. But the case certainly grows in | |
interest. Unique, perfectly unique, and yet why not? I do not see any | |
indications of bleeding on the line." | |
"There were hardly any." | |
"But I understand that there was a considerable wound." | |
"The bone was crushed, but there was no great external injury." | |
"And yet one would have expected some bleeding. Would it be possible | |
for me to inspect the train which contained the passenger who heard | |
the thud of a fall in the fog?" | |
"I fear not, Mr. Holmes. The train has been broken up before now, and | |
the carriages redistributed." | |
"I can assure you, Mr. Holmes," said Lestrade, "that every carriage | |
has been carefully examined. I saw to it myself." | |
It was one of my friend's most obvious weaknesses that he was | |
impatient with less alert intelligences than his own. | |
"Very likely," said he, turning away. "As it happens, it was not the | |
carriages which I desired to examine. Watson, we have done all we can | |
here. We need not trouble you any further, Mr. Lestrade. I think our | |
investigations must now carry us to Woolwich." | |
At London Bridge, Holmes wrote a telegram to his brother, which he | |
handed to me before dispatching it. It ran thus: | |
See some light in the darkness, but it may possibly flicker out. | |
Meanwhile, please send by messenger, to await return at Baker Street, | |
a complete list of all foreign spies or international agents known to | |
be in England, with full address. | |
Sherlock. | |
"That should be helpful, Watson," he remarked as we took our seats in | |
the Woolwich train. "We certainly owe Brother Mycroft a debt for | |
having introduced us to what promises to be a really very remarkable | |
case." | |
His eager face still wore that expression of intense and high-strung | |
energy, which showed me that some novel and suggestive circumstance | |
had opened up a stimulating line of thought. See the foxhound with | |
hanging ears and drooping tail as it lolls about the kennels, and | |
compare it with the same hound as, with gleaming eyes and straining | |
muscles, it runs upon a breast-high scent--such was the change in | |
Holmes since the morning. He was a different man from the limp and | |
lounging figure in the mouse-coloured dressing-gown who had prowled | |
so restlessly only a few hours before round the fog-girt room. | |
"There is material here. There is scope," said he. "I am dull indeed | |
not to have understood its possibilities." | |
"Even now they are dark to me." | |
"The end is dark to me also, but I have hold of one idea which may | |
lead us far. The man met his death elsewhere, and his body was on the | |
roof of a carriage." | |
"On the roof!" | |
"Remarkable, is it not? But consider the facts. Is it a coincidence | |
that it is found at the very point where the train pitches and sways | |
as it comes round on the points? Is not that the place where an | |
object upon the roof might be expected to fall off? The points would | |
affect no object inside the train. Either the body fell from the | |
roof, or a very curious coincidence has occurred. But now consider | |
the question of the blood. Of course, there was no bleeding on the | |
line if the body had bled elsewhere. Each fact is suggestive in | |
itself. Together they have a cumulative force." | |
"And the ticket, too!" I cried. | |
"Exactly. We could not explain the absence of a ticket. This would | |
explain it. Everything fits together." | |
"But suppose it were so, we are still as far as ever from unravelling | |
the mystery of his death. Indeed, it becomes not simpler but | |
stranger." | |
"Perhaps," said Holmes, thoughtfully, "perhaps." He relapsed into a | |
silent reverie, which lasted until the slow train drew up at last in | |
Woolwich Station. There he called a cab and drew Mycroft's paper from | |
his pocket. | |
"We have quite a little round of afternoon calls to make," said he. | |
"I think that Sir James Walter claims our first attention." | |
The house of the famous official was a fine villa with green lawns | |
stretching down to the Thames. As we reached it the fog was lifting, | |
and a thin, watery sunshine was breaking through. A butler answered | |
our ring. | |
"Sir James, sir!" said he with solemn face. "Sir James died this | |
morning." | |
"Good heavens!" cried Holmes in amazement. "How did he die?" | |
"Perhaps you would care to step in, sir, and see his brother, Colonel | |
Valentine?" | |
"Yes, we had best do so." | |
We were ushered into a dim-lit drawing-room, where an instant later | |
we were joined by a very tall, handsome, light-beared man of fifty, | |
the younger brother of the dead scientist. His wild eyes, stained | |
cheeks, and unkempt hair all spoke of the sudden blow which had | |
fallen upon the household. He was hardly articulate as he spoke of | |
it. | |
"It was this horrible scandal," said he. "My brother, Sir James, was | |
a man of very sensitive honour, and he could not survive such an | |
affair. It broke his heart. He was always so proud of the efficiency | |
of his department, and this was a crushing blow." | |
"We had hoped that he might have given us some indications which | |
would have helped us to clear the matter up." | |
"I assure you that it was all a mystery to him as it is to you and to | |
all of us. He had already put all his knowledge at the disposal of | |
the police. Naturally he had no doubt that Cadogan West was guilty. | |
But all the rest was inconceivable." | |
"You cannot throw any new light upon the affair?" | |
"I know nothing myself save what I have read or heard. I have no | |
desire to be discourteous, but you can understand, Mr. Holmes, that | |
we are much disturbed at present, and I must ask you to hasten this | |
interview to an end." | |
"This is indeed an unexpected development," said my friend when we | |
had regained the cab. "I wonder if the death was natural, or whether | |
the poor old fellow killed himself! If the latter, may it be taken as | |
some sign of self-reproach for duty neglected? We must leave that | |
question to the future. Now we shall turn to the Cadogan Wests." | |
A small but well-kept house in the outskirts of the town sheltered | |
the bereaved mother. The old lady was too dazed with grief to be of | |
any use to us, but at her side was a white-faced young lady, who | |
introduced herself as Miss Violet Westbury, the fiancee of the dead | |
man, and the last to see him upon that fatal night. | |
"I cannot explain it, Mr. Holmes," she said. "I have not shut an eye | |
since the tragedy, thinking, thinking, thinking, night and day, what | |
the true meaning of it can be. Arthur was the most single-minded, | |
chivalrous, patriotic man upon earth. He would have cut his right | |
hand off before he would sell a State secret confided to his keeping. | |
It is absurd, impossible, preposterous to anyone who knew him." | |
"But the facts, Miss Westbury?" | |
"Yes, yes; I admit I cannot explain them." | |
"Was he in any want of money?" | |
"No; his needs were very simple and his salary ample. He had saved a | |
few hundreds, and we were to marry at the New Year." | |
"No signs of any mental excitement? Come, Miss Westbury, be | |
absolutely frank with us." | |
The quick eye of my companion had noted some change in her manner. | |
She coloured and hesitated. | |
"Yes," she said at last, "I had a feeling that there was something on | |
his mind." | |
"For long?" | |
"Only for the last week or so. He was thoughtful and worried. Once I | |
pressed him about it. He admitted that there was something, and that | |
it was concerned with his official life. 'It is too serious for me to | |
speak about, even to you,' said he. I could get nothing more." | |
Holmes looked grave. | |
"Go on, Miss Westbury. Even if it seems to tell against him, go on. | |
We cannot say what it may lead to." | |
"Indeed, I have nothing more to tell. Once or twice it seemed to me | |
that he was on the point of telling me something. He spoke one | |
evening of the importance of the secret, and I have some recollection | |
that he said that no doubt foreign spies would pay a great deal to | |
have it." | |
My friend's face grew graver still. | |
"Anything else?" | |
"He said that we were slack about such matters--that it would be easy | |
for a traitor to get the plans." | |
"Was it only recently that he made such remarks?" | |
"Yes, quite recently." | |
"Now tell us of that last evening." | |
"We were to go to the theatre. The fog was so thick that a cab was | |
useless. We walked, and our way took us close to the office. Suddenly | |
he darted away into the fog." | |
"Without a word?" | |
"He gave an exclamation; that was all. I waited but he never | |
returned. Then I walked home. Next morning, after the office opened, | |
they came to inquire. About twelve o'clock we heard the terrible | |
news. Oh, Mr. Holmes, if you could only, only save his honour! It was | |
so much to him." | |
Holmes shook his head sadly. | |
"Come, Watson," said he, "our ways lie elsewhere. Our next station | |
must be the office from which the papers were taken. | |
"It was black enough before against this young man, but our inquiries | |
make it blacker," he remarked as the cab lumbered off. "His coming | |
marriage gives a motive for the crime. He naturally wanted money. The | |
idea was in his head, since he spoke about it. He nearly made the | |
girl an accomplice in the treason by telling her his plans. It is all | |
very bad." | |
"But surely, Holmes, character goes for something? Then, again, why | |
should he leave the girl in the street and dart away to commit a | |
felony?" | |
"Exactly! There are certainly objections. But it is a formidable case | |
which they have to meet." | |
Mr. Sidney Johnson, the senior clerk, met us at the office and | |
received us with that respect which my companion's card always | |
commanded. He was a thin, gruff, bespectacled man of middle age, his | |
cheeks haggard, and his hands twitching from the nervous strain to | |
which he had been subjected. | |
"It is bad, Mr. Holmes, very bad! Have you heard of the death of the | |
chief?" | |
"We have just come from his house." | |
"The place is disorganized. The chief dead, Cadogan West dead, our | |
papers stolen. And yet, when we closed our door on Monday evening, we | |
were as efficient an office as any in the government service. Good | |
God, it's dreadful to think of! That West, of all men, should have | |
done such a thing!" | |
"You are sure of his guilt, then?" | |
"I can see no other way out of it. And yet I would have trusted him | |
as I trust myself." | |
"At what hour was the office closed on Monday?" | |
"At five." | |
"Did you close it?" | |
"I am always the last man out." | |
"Where were the plans?" | |
"In that safe. I put them there myself." | |
"Is there no watchman to the building?" | |
"There is, but he has other departments to look after as well. He is | |
an old soldier and a most trustworthy man. He saw nothing that | |
evening. Of course the fog was very thick." | |
"Suppose that Cadogan West wished to make his way into the building | |
after hours; he would need three keys, would he not, before the could | |
reach the papers?" | |
"Yes, he would. The key of the outer door, the key of the office, and | |
the key of the safe." | |
"Only Sir James Walter and you had those keys?" | |
"I had no keys of the doors--only of the safe." | |
"Was Sir James a man who was orderly in his habits?" | |
"Yes, I think he was. I know that so far as those three keys are | |
concerned he kept them on the same ring. I have often seen them | |
there." | |
"And that ring went with him to London?" | |
"He said so." | |
"And your key never left your possession?" | |
"Never." | |
"Then West, if he is the culprit, must have had a duplicate. And yet | |
none was found upon his body. One other point: if a clerk in this | |
office desired to sell the plans, would it not be simply to copy the | |
plans for himself than to take the originals, as was actually done?" | |
"It would take considerable technical knowledge to copy the plans in | |
an effective way." | |
"But I suppose either Sir James, or you, or West has that technical | |
knowledge?" | |
"No doubt we had, but I beg you won't try to drag me into the matter, | |
Mr. Holmes. What is the use of our speculating in this way when the | |
original plans were actually found on West?" | |
"Well, it is certainly singular that he should run the risk of taking | |
originals if he could safely have taken copies, which would have | |
equally served his turn." | |
"Singular, no doubt--and yet he did so." | |
"Every inquiry in this case reveals something inexplicable. Now there | |
are three papers still missing. They are, as I understand, the vital | |
ones." | |
"Yes, that is so." | |
"Do you mean to say that anyone holding these three papers, and | |
without the seven others, could construct a Bruce-Partington | |
submarine?" | |
"I reported to that effect to the Admiralty. But to-day I have been | |
over the drawings again, and I am not so sure of it. The double | |
valves with the automatic self-adjusting slots are drawn in one of | |
the papers which have been returned. Until the foreigners had | |
invented that for themselves they could not make the boat. Of course | |
they might soon get over the difficulty." | |
"But the three missing drawings are the most important?" | |
"Undoubtedly." | |
"I think, with your permission, I will now take a stroll round the | |
premises. I do not recall any other question which I desired to ask." | |
He examined the lock of the safe, the door of the room, and finally | |
the iron shutters of the window. It was only when we were on the lawn | |
outside that his interest was strongly excited. There was a laurel | |
bush outside the window, and several of the branches bore signs of | |
having been twisted or snapped. He examined them carefully with his | |
lens, and then some dim and vague marks upon the earth beneath. | |
Finally he asked the chief clerk to close the iron shutters, and he | |
pointed out to me that they hardly met in the centre, and that it | |
would be possible for anyone outside to see what was going on within | |
the room. | |
"The indications are ruined by three days' delay. They may mean | |
something or nothing. Well, Watson, I do not think that Woolwich can | |
help us further. It is a small crop which we have gathered. Let us | |
see if we can do better in London." | |
Yet we added one more sheaf to our harvest before we left Woolwich | |
Station. The clerk in the ticket office was able to say with | |
confidence that he saw Cadogan West--whom he knew well by sight--upon | |
the Monday night, and that he went to London by the 8.15 to London | |
Bridge. He was alone and took a single third-class ticket. The clerk | |
was struck at the time by his excited and nervous manner. So shaky | |
was he that he could hardly pick up his change, and the clerk had | |
helped him with it. A reference to the timetable showed that the 8.15 | |
was the first train which it was possible for West to take after he | |
had left the lady about 7.30. | |
"Let us reconstruct, Watson," said Holmes after half an hour of | |
silence. "I am not aware that in all our joint researches we have | |
ever had a case which was more difficult to get at. Every fresh | |
advance which we make only reveals a fresh ridge beyond. And yet we | |
have surely made some appreciable progress. | |
"The effect of our inquiries at Woolwich has in the main been against | |
young Cadogan West; but the indications at the window would lend | |
themselves to a more favourable hypothesis. Let us suppose, for | |
example, that he had been approached by some foreign agent. It might | |
have been done under such pledges as would have prevented him from | |
speaking of it, and yet would have affected his thoughts in the | |
direction indicated by his remarks to his fiancee. Very good. We will | |
now suppose that as he went to the theatre with the young lady he | |
suddenly, in the fog, caught a glimpse of this same agent going in | |
the direction of the office. He was an impetuous man, quick in his | |
decisions. Everything gave way to his duty. He followed the man, | |
reached the window, saw the abstraction of the documents, and pursued | |
the thief. In this way we get over the objection that no one would | |
take originals when he could make copies. This outsider had to take | |
originals. So far it holds together." | |
"What is the next step?" | |
"Then we come into difficulties. One would imagine that under such | |
circumstances the first act of young Cadogan West would be to seize | |
the villain and raise the alarm. Why did he not do so? Could it have | |
been an official superior who took the papers? That would explain | |
West's conduct. Or could the chief have given West the slip in the | |
fog, and West started at once to London to head him off from his own | |
rooms, presuming that he knew where the rooms were? The call must | |
have been very pressing, since he left his girl standing in the fog | |
and made no effort to communicate with her. Our scent runs cold here, | |
and there is a vast gap between either hypothesis and the laying of | |
West's body, with seven papers in his pocket, on the roof of a | |
Metropolitan train. My instinct now is to work form the other end. If | |
Mycroft has given us the list of addresses we may be able to pick our | |
man and follow two tracks instead of one." | |
Surely enough, a note awaited us at Baker Street. A government | |
messenger had brought it post-haste. Holmes glanced at it and threw | |
it over to me. | |
There are numerous small fry, but few who would handle so big an | |
affair. The only men worth considering are Adolph Mayer, of 13 Great | |
George Street, Westminster; Louis La Rothiere, of Campden Mansions, | |
Notting Hill; and Hugo Oberstein, 13 Caulfield Gardens, Kensington. | |
The latter was known to be in town on Monday and is now reported as | |
having left. Glad to hear you have seen some light. The Cabinet | |
awaits your final report with the utmost anxiety. Urgent | |
representations have arrived from the very highest quarter. The whole | |
force of the State is at your back if you should need it. | |
Mycroft. | |
"I'm afraid," said Holmes, smiling, "that all the queen's horses and | |
all the queen's men cannot avail in this matter." He had spread out | |
his big map of London and leaned eagerly over it. "Well, well," said | |
he presently with an exclamation of satisfaction, "things are turning | |
a little in our direction at last. Why, Watson, I do honestly believe | |
that we are going to pull it off, after all." He slapped me on the | |
shoulder with a sudden burst of hilarity. "I am going out now. It is | |
only a reconnaissance. I will do nothing serious without my trusted | |
comrade and biographer at my elbow. Do you stay here, and the odds | |
are that you will see me again in an hour or two. If time hangs heavy | |
get foolscap and a pen, and begin your narrative of how we saved the | |
State." | |
I felt some reflection of his elation in my own mind, for I knew well | |
that he would not depart so far from his usual austerity of demeanour | |
unless there was good cause for exultation. All the long November | |
evening I waited, filled with impatience for his return. At last, | |
shortly after nine o'clock, there arrived a messenger with a note: | |
Am dining at Goldini's Restaurant, Gloucester Road, Kensington. | |
Please come at once and join me there. Bring with you a jemmy, a dark | |
lantern, a chisel, and a revolver. | |
S.H. | |
It was a nice equipment for a respectable citizen to carry through | |
the dim, fog-draped streets. I stowed them all discreetly away in my | |
overcoat and drove straight to the address given. There sat my friend | |
at a little round table near the door of the garish Italian | |
restaurant. | |
"Have you had something to eat? Then join me in a coffee and curacao. | |
Try one of the proprietor's cigars. They are less poisonous than one | |
would expect. Have you the tools?" | |
"They are here, in my overcoat." | |
"Excellent. Let me give you a short sketch of what I have done, with | |
some indication of what we are about to do. Now it must be evident to | |
you, Watson, that this young man's body was placed on the roof of the | |
train. That was clear from the instant that I determined the fact | |
that it was from the roof, and not from a carriage, that he had | |
fallen." | |
"Could it not have been dropped from a bridge?" | |
"I should say it was impossible. If you examine the roofs you will | |
find that they are slightly rounded, and there is no railing round | |
them. Therefore, we can say for certain that young Cadogan West was | |
placed on it." | |
"How could he be placed there?" | |
"That was the question which we had to answer. There is only one | |
possible way. You are aware that the Underground runs clear of | |
tunnels at some points in the West End. I had a vague memory that as | |
I have travelled by it I have occasionally seen windows just above my | |
head. Now, suppose that a train halted under such a window, would | |
there be any difficulty in laying a body upon the roof?" | |
"It seems most improbable." | |
"We must fall back upon the old axiom that when all other | |
contingencies fail, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the | |
truth. Here all other contingencies have failed. When I found that | |
the leading international agent, who had just left London, lived in a | |
row of houses which abutted upon the Underground, I was so pleased | |
that you were a little astonished at my sudden frivolity." | |
"Oh, that was it, was it?" | |
"Yes, that was it. Mr. Hugo Oberstein, of 13 Caulfield Gardens, had | |
become my objective. I began my operations at Gloucester Road | |
Station, where a very helpful official walked with me along the track | |
and allowed me to satisfy myself not only that the back-stair windows | |
of Caulfield Gardens open on the line but the even more essential | |
fact that, owing to the intersection of one of the larger railways, | |
the Underground trains are frequently held motionless for some | |
minutes at that very spot." | |
"Splendid, Holmes! You have got it!" | |
"So far--so far, Watson. We advance, but the goal is afar. Well, | |
having seen the back of Caulfield Gardens, I visited the front and | |
satisfied myself that the bird was indeed flown. It is a considerable | |
house, unfurnished, so far as I could judge, in the upper rooms. | |
Oberstein lived there with a single valet, who was probably a | |
confederate entirely in his confidence. We must bear in mind that | |
Oberstein has gone to the Continent to dispose of his booty, but not | |
with any idea of flight; for he had no reason to fear a warrant, and | |
the idea of an amateur domiciliary visit would certainly never occur | |
to him. Yet that is precisely what we are about to make." | |
"Could we not get a warrant and legalize it?" | |
"Hardly on the evidence." | |
"What can we hope to do?" | |
"We cannot tell what correspondence may be there." | |
"I don't like it, Holmes." | |
"My dear fellow, you shall keep watch in the street. I'll do the | |
criminal part. It's not a time to stick at trifles. Think of | |
Mycroft's note, of the Admiralty, the Cabinet, the exalted person who | |
waits for news. We are bound to go." | |
My answer was to rise from the table. | |
"You are right, Holmes. We are bound to go." | |
He sprang up and shook me by the hand. | |
"I knew you would not shrink at the last," said he, and for a moment | |
I saw something in his eyes which was nearer to tenderness than I had | |
ever seen. The next instant he was his masterful, practical self once | |
more. | |
"It is nearly half a mile, but there is no hurry. Let us walk," said | |
he. "Don't drop the instruments, I beg. Your arrest as a suspicious | |
character would be a most unfortunate complication." | |
Caulfield Gardens was one of those lines of flat-faced pillared, and | |
porticoed houses which are so prominent a product of the middle | |
Victorian epoch in the West End of London. Next door there appeared | |
to be a children's party, for the merry buzz of young voices and the | |
clatter of a piano resounded through the night. The fog still hung | |
about and screened us with its friendly shade. Holmes had lit his | |
lantern and flashed it upon the massive door. | |
"This is a serious proposition," said he. "It is certainly bolted as | |
well as locked. We would do better in the area. There is an excellent | |
archway down yonder in case a too zealous policeman should intrude. | |
Give me a hand, Watson, and I'll do the same for you." | |
A minute later we were both in the area. Hardly had we reached the | |
dark shadows before the step of the policeman was heard in the fog | |
above. As its soft rhythm died away, Holmes set to work upon the | |
lower door. I saw him stoop and strain until with a sharp crash it | |
flew open. We sprang through into the dark passage, closing the area | |
door behind us. Holmes let the way up the curving, uncarpeted stair. | |
His little fan of yellow light shone upon a low window. | |
"Here we are, Watson--this must be the one." He threw it open, and as | |
he did so there was a low, harsh murmur, growing steadily into a loud | |
roar as a train dashed past us in the darkness. Holmes swept his | |
light along the window-sill. It was thickly coated with soot from the | |
passing engines, but the black surface was blurred and rubbed in | |
places. | |
"You can see where they rested the body. Halloa, Watson! what is | |
this? There can be no doubt that it is a blood mark." He was pointing | |
to faint discolourations along the woodwork of the window. "Here it | |
is on the stone of the stair also. The demonstration is complete. Let | |
us stay here until a train stops." | |
We had not long to wait. The very next train roared from the tunnel | |
as before, but slowed in the open, and then, with a creaking of | |
brakes, pulled up immediately beneath us. It was not four feet from | |
the window-ledge to the roof of the carriages. Holmes softly closed | |
the window. | |
"So far we are justified," said he. "What do you think of it, | |
Watson?" | |
"A masterpiece. You have never risen to a greater height." | |
"I cannot agree with you there. From the moment that I conceived the | |
idea of the body being upon the roof, which surely was not a very | |
abstruse one, all the rest was inevitable. If it were not for the | |
grave interests involved the affair up to this point would be | |
insignificant. Our difficulties are still before us. But perhaps we | |
may find something here which may help us." | |
We had ascended the kitchen stair and entered the suite of rooms upon | |
the first floor. One was a dining-room, severely furnished and | |
containing nothing of interest. A second was a bedroom, which also | |
drew blank. The remaining room appeared more promising, and my | |
companion settled down to a systematic examination. It was littered | |
with books and papers, and was evidently used as a study. Swiftly and | |
methodically Holmes turned over the contents of drawer after drawer | |
and cupboard after cupboard, but no gleam of success came to brighten | |
his austere face. At the end of an hour he was no further than when | |
he started. | |
"The cunning dog has covered his tracks," said he. "He has left | |
nothing to incriminate him. His dangerous correspondence has been | |
destroyed or removed. This is our last chance." | |
It was a small tin cash-box which stood upon the writing-desk. Holmes | |
pried it open with his chisel. Several rolls of paper were within, | |
covered with figures and calculations, without any note to show to | |
what they referred. The recurring words, "water pressure" and | |
"pressure to the square inch" suggested some possible relation to a | |
submarine. Holmes tossed them all impatiently aside. There only | |
remained an envelope with some small newspaper slips inside it. He | |
shook them out on the table, and at once I saw by his eager face that | |
his hopes had been raised. | |
"What's this, Watson? Eh? What's this? Record of a series of messages | |
in the advertisements of a paper. Daily Telegraph agony column by the | |
print and paper. Right-hand top corner of a page. No dates--but | |
messages arrange themselves. This must be the first: | |
"Hoped to hear sooner. Terms agreed to. Write fully to address given | |
on card. | |
Pierrot. | |
"Next comes: | |
"Too complex for description. Must have full report, Stuff awaits you | |
when goods delivered. | |
Pierrot. | |
"Then comes: | |
"Matter presses. Must withdraw offer unless contract completed. Make | |
appointment by letter. Will confirm by advertisement. | |
Pierrot. | |
"Finally: | |
"Monday night after nine. Two taps. Only ourselves. Do not be so | |
suspicious. Payment in hard cash when goods delivered. | |
Pierrot. | |
"A fairly complete record, Watson! If we could only get at the man at | |
the other end!" He sat lost in thought, tapping his fingers on the | |
table. Finally he sprang to his feet. | |
"Well, perhaps it won't be so difficult, after all. There is nothing | |
more to be done here, Watson. I think we might drive round to the | |
offices of the Daily Telegraph, and so bring a good day's work to a | |
conclusion." | |
Mycroft Holmes and Lestrade had come round by appointment after | |
breakfast next day and Sherlock Holmes had recounted to them our | |
proceedings of the day before. The professional shook his head over | |
our confessed burglary. | |
"We can't do these things in the force, Mr. Holmes," said he. "No | |
wonder you get results that are beyond us. But some of these days | |
you'll go too far, and you'll find yourself and your friend in | |
trouble." | |
"For England, home and beauty--eh, Watson? Martyrs on the altar of | |
our country. But what do you think of it, Mycroft?" | |
"Excellent, Sherlock! Admirable! But what use will you make of it?" | |
Holmes picked up the Daily Telegraph which lay upon the table. | |
"Have you seen Pierrot's advertisement to-day?" | |
"What? Another one?" | |
"Yes, here it is: | |
"To-night. Same hour. Same place. Two taps. Most vitally important. | |
Your own safety at stake. | |
Pierrot. | |
"By George!" cried Lestrade. "If he answers that we've got him!" | |
"That was my idea when I put it in. I think if you could both make it | |
convenient to come with us about eight o'clock to Caulfield Gardens | |
we might possibly get a little nearer to a solution." | |
One of the most remarkable characteristics of Sherlock Holmes was his | |
power of throwing his brain out of action and switching all his | |
thoughts on to lighter things whenever he had convinced himself that | |
he could no longer work to advantage. I remember that during the | |
whole of that memorable day he lost himself in a monograph which he | |
had undertaken upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus. For my own part | |
I had none of this power of detachment, and the day, in consequence, | |
appeared to be interminable. The great national importance of the | |
issue, the suspense in high quarters, the direct nature of the | |
experiment which we were trying--all combined to work upon my nerve. | |
It was a relief to me when at last, after a light dinner, we set out | |
upon our expedition. Lestrade and Mycroft met us by appointment at | |
the outside of Gloucester Road Station. The area door of Oberstein's | |
house had been left open the night before, and it was necessary for | |
me, as Mycroft Holmes absolutely and indignantly declined to climb | |
the railings, to pass in and open the hall door. By nine o'clock we | |
were all seated in the study, waiting patently for our man. | |
An hour passed and yet another. When eleven struck, the measured beat | |
of the great church clock seemed to sound the dirge of our hopes. | |
Lestrade and Mycroft were fidgeting in their seats and looking twice | |
a minute at their watches. Holmes sat silent and composed, his | |
eyelids half shut, but every sense on the alert. He raised his head | |
with a sudden jerk. | |
"He is coming," said he. | |
There had been a furtive step past the door. Now it returned. We | |
heard a shuffling sound outside, and then two sharp taps with the | |
knocker. Holmes rose, motioning us to remain seated. The gas in the | |
hall was a mere point of light. He opened the outer door, and then as | |
a dark figure slipped past him he closed and fastened it. "This way!" | |
we heard him say, and a moment later our man stood before us. Holmes | |
had followed him closely, and as the man turned with a cry of | |
surprise and alarm he caught him by the collar and threw him back | |
into the room. Before our prisoner had recovered his balance the door | |
was shut and Holmes standing with his back against it. The man glared | |
round him, staggered, and fell senseless upon the floor. With the | |
shock, his broad-brimmed hat flew from his head, his cravat slipped | |
sown from his lips, and there were the long light beard and the soft, | |
handsome delicate features of Colonel Valentine Walter. | |
Holmes gave a whistle of surprise. | |
"You can write me down an ass this time, Watson," said he. "This was | |
not the bird that I was looking for." | |
"Who is he?" asked Mycroft eagerly. | |
"The younger brother of the late Sir James Walter, the head of the | |
Submarine Department. Yes, yes; I see the fall of the cards. He is | |
coming to. I think that you had best leave his examination to me." | |
We had carried the prostrate body to the sofa. Now our prisoner sat | |
up, looked round him with a horror-stricken face, and passed his hand | |
over his forehead, like one who cannot believe his own senses. | |
"What is this?" he asked. "I came here to visit Mr. Oberstein." | |
"Everything is known, Colonel Walter," said Holmes. "How an English | |
gentleman could behave in such a manner is beyond my comprehension. | |
But your whole correspondence and relations with Oberstein are within | |
our knowledge. So also are the circumstances connected with the death | |
of young Cadogan West. Let me advise you to gain at least the small | |
credit for repentance and confession, since there are still some | |
details which we can only learn from your lips." | |
The man groaned and sank his face in his hands. We waited, but he was | |
silent. | |
"I can assure you," said Holmes, "that every essential is already | |
known. We know that you were pressed for money; that you took an | |
impress of the keys which your brother held; and that you entered | |
into a correspondence with Oberstein, who answered your letters | |
through the advertisement columns of the Daily Telegraph. We are | |
aware that you went down to the office in the fog on Monday night, | |
but that you were seen and followed by young Cadogan West, who had | |
probably some previous reason to suspect you. He saw your theft, but | |
could not give the alarm, as it was just possible that you were | |
taking the papers to your brother in London. Leaving all his private | |
concerns, like the good citizen that he was, he followed you closely | |
in the fog and kept at your heels until you reached this very house. | |
There he intervened, and then it was, Colonel Walter, that to treason | |
you added the more terrible crime of murder." | |
"I did not! I did not! Before God I swear that I did not!" cried our | |
wretched prisoner. | |
"Tell us, then, how Cadogan West met his end before you laid him upon | |
the roof of a railway carriage." | |
"I will. I swear to you that I will. I did the rest. I confess it. It | |
was just as you say. A Stock Exchange debt had to be paid. I needed | |
the money badly. Oberstein offered me five thousand. It was to save | |
myself from ruin. But as to murder, I am as innocent as you." | |
"What happened, then?" | |
"He had his suspicions before, and he followed me as you describe. I | |
never knew it until I was at the very door. It was thick fog, and one | |
could not see three yards. I had given two taps and Oberstein had | |
come to the door. The young man rushed up and demanded to know what | |
we were about to do with the papers. Oberstein had a short | |
life-preserver. He always carried it with him. As West forced his way | |
after us into the house Oberstein struck him on the head. The blow | |
was a fatal one. He was dead within five minutes. There he lay in the | |
hall, and we were at our wit's end what to do. Then Oberstein had | |
this idea about the trains which halted under his back window. But | |
first he examined the papers which I had brought. He said that three | |
of them were essential, and that he must keep them. 'You cannot keep | |
them,' said I. 'There will be a dreadful row at Woolwich if they are | |
not returned.' 'I must keep them,' said he, 'for they are so | |
technical that it is impossible in the time to make copies.' 'Then | |
they must all go back together to-night,' said I. He thought for a | |
little, and then he cried out that he had it. 'Three I will keep,' | |
said he. 'The others we will stuff into the pocket of this young man. | |
When he is found the whole business will assuredly be put to his | |
account.' I could see no other way out of it, so we did as he | |
suggested. We waited half an hour at the window before a train | |
stopped. It was so thick that nothing could be seen, and we had no | |
difficulty in lowering West's body on to the train. That was the end | |
of the matter so far as I was concerned." | |
"And your brother?" | |
"He said nothing, but he had caught me once with his keys, and I | |
think that he suspected. I read in his eyes that he suspected. As you | |
know, he never held up his head again." | |
There was silence in the room. It was broken by Mycroft Holmes. | |
"Can you not make reparation? It would ease your conscience, and | |
possibly your punishment." | |
"What reparation can I make?" | |
"Where is Oberstein with the papers?" | |
"I do not know." | |
"Did he give you no address?" | |
"He said that letters to the Hôtel du Louvre, Paris, would eventually | |
reach him." | |
"Then reparation is still within your power," said Sherlock Holmes. | |
"I will do anything I can. I owe this fellow no particular good-will. | |
He has been my ruin and my downfall." | |
"Here are paper and pen. Sit at this desk and write to my dictation. | |
Direct the envelope to the address given. That is right. Now the | |
letter: | |
"Dear Sir: | |
"With regard to our transaction, you will no doubt have observed by | |
now that one essential detail is missing. I have a tracing which will | |
make it complete. This has involved me in extra trouble, however, and | |
I must ask you for a further advance of five hundred pounds. I will | |
not trust it to the post, nor will I take anything but gold or notes. | |
I would come to you abroad, but it would excite remark if I left the | |
country at present. Therefore I shall expect to meet you in the | |
smoking-room of the Charing Cross Hotel at noon on Saturday. Remember | |
that only English notes, or gold, will be taken. | |
"That will do very well. I shall be very much surprised if it does | |
not fetch our man." | |
And it did! It is a matter of history--that secret history of a | |
nation which is often so much more intimate and interesting than its | |
public chronicles--that Oberstein, eager to complete the coup of his | |
lifetime, came to the lure and was safely engulfed for fifteen years | |
in a British prison. In his trunk were found the invaluable | |
Bruce-Partington plans, which he had put up for auction in all the | |
naval centres of Europe. | |
Colonel Walter died in prison towards the end of the second year of | |
his sentence. As to Holmes, he returned refreshed to his monograph | |
upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus, which has since been printed | |
for private circulation, and is said by experts to be the last word | |
upon the subject. Some weeks afterwards I learned incidentally that | |
my friend spent a day at Windsor, whence be returned with a | |
remarkably fine emerald tie-pin. When I asked him if he had bought | |
it, he answered that it was a present from a certain gracious lady in | |
whose interests he had once been fortunate enough to carry out a | |
small commission. He said no more; but I fancy that I could guess at | |
that lady's august name, and I have little doubt that the emerald pin | |
will forever recall to my friend's memory the adventure of the | |
Bruce-Partington plans. | |
THE ADVENTURE OF THE DYING DETECTIVE | |
Mrs. Hudson, the landlady of Sherlock Holmes, was a long-suffering | |
woman. Not only was her first-floor flat invaded at all hours by | |
throngs of singular and often undesirable characters but her | |
remarkable lodger showed an eccentricity and irregularity in his life | |
which must have sorely tried her patience. His incredible untidiness, | |
his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver | |
practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific | |
experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung | |
around him made him the very worst tenant in London. On the other | |
hand, his payments were princely. I have no doubt that the house | |
might have been purchased at the price which Holmes paid for his | |
rooms during the years that I was with him. | |
The landlady stood in the deepest awe of him and never dared to | |
interfere with him, however outrageous his proceedings might seem. | |
She was fond of him, too, for he had a remarkable gentleness and | |
courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the | |
sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent. Knowing how genuine was | |
her regard for him, I listened earnestly to her story when she came | |
to my rooms in the second year of my married life and told me of the | |
sad condition to which my poor friend was reduced. | |
"He's dying, Dr. Watson," said she. "For three days he has been | |
sinking, and I doubt if he will last the day. He would not let me get | |
a doctor. This morning when I saw his bones sticking out of his face | |
and his great bright eyes looking at me I could stand no more of it. | |
'With your leave or without it, Mr. Holmes, I am going for a doctor | |
this very hour,' said I. 'Let it be Watson, then,' said he. I | |
wouldn't waste an hour in coming to him, sir, or you may not see him | |
alive." | |
I was horrified for I had heard nothing of his illness. I need not | |
say that I rushed for my coat and my hat. As we drove back I asked | |
for the details. | |
"There is little I can tell you, sir. He has been working at a case | |
down at Rotherhithe, in an alley near the river, and he has brought | |
this illness back with him. He took to his bed on Wednesday afternoon | |
and has never moved since. For these three days neither food nor | |
drink has passed his lips." | |
"Good God! Why did you not call in a doctor?" | |
"He wouldn't have it, sir. You know how masterful he is. I didn't | |
dare to disobey him. But he's not long for this world, as you'll see | |
for yourself the moment that you set eyes on him." | |
He was indeed a deplorable spectacle. In the dim light of a foggy | |
November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt, | |
wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my | |
heart. His eyes had the brightness of fever, there was a hectic flush | |
upon either cheek, and dark crusts clung to his lips; the thin hands | |
upon the coverlet twitched incessantly, his voice was croaking and | |
spasmodic. He lay listlessly as I entered the room, but the sight of | |
me brought a gleam of recognition to his eyes. | |
"Well, Watson, we seem to have fallen upon evil days," said he in a | |
feeble voice, but with something of his old carelessness of manner. | |
"My dear fellow!" I cried, approaching him. | |
"Stand back! Stand right back!" said he with the sharp imperiousness | |
which I had associated only with moments of crisis. "If you approach | |
me, Watson, I shall order you out of the house." | |
"But why?" | |
"Because it is my desire. Is that not enough?" | |
Yes, Mrs. Hudson was right. He was more masterful than ever. It was | |
pitiful, however, to see his exhaustion. | |
"I only wished to help," I explained. | |
"Exactly! You will help best by doing what you are told." | |
"Certainly, Holmes." | |
He relaxed the austerity of his manner. | |
"You are not angry?" he asked, gasping for breath. | |
Poor devil, how could I be angry when I saw him lying in such a | |
plight before me? | |
"It's for your own sake, Watson," he croaked. | |
"For my sake?" | |
"I know what is the matter with me. It is a coolie disease from | |
Sumatra--a thing that the Dutch know more about than we, though they | |
have made little of it up to date. One thing only is certain. It is | |
infallibly deadly, and it is horribly contagious." | |
He spoke now with a feverish energy, the long hands twitching and | |
jerking as he motioned me away. | |
"Contagious by touch, Watson--that's it, by touch. Keep your distance | |
and all is well." | |
"Good heavens, Holmes! Do you suppose that such a consideration | |
weighs with me of an instant? It would not affect me in the case of a | |
stranger. Do you imagine it would prevent me from doing my duty to so | |
old a friend?" | |
Again I advanced, but he repulsed me with a look of furious anger. | |
"If you will stand there I will talk. If you do not you must leave | |
the room." | |
I have so deep a respect for the extraordinary qualities of Holmes | |
that I have always deferred to his wishes, even when I least | |
understood them. But now all my professional instincts were aroused. | |
Let him be my master elsewhere, I at least was his in a sick room. | |
"Holmes," said I, "you are not yourself. A sick man is but a child, | |
and so I will treat you. Whether you like it or not, I will examine | |
your symptoms and treat you for them." | |
He looked at me with venomous eyes. | |
"If I am to have a doctor whether I will or not, let me at least have | |
someone in whom I have confidence," said he. | |
"Then you have none in me?" | |
"In your friendship, certainly. But facts are facts, Watson, and, | |
after all, you are only a general practitioner with very limited | |
experience and mediocre qualifications. It is painful to have to say | |
these things, but you leave me no choice." | |
I was bitterly hurt. | |
"Such a remark is unworthy of you, Holmes. It shows me very clearly | |
the state of your own nerves. But if you have no confidence in me I | |
would not intrude my services. Let me bring Sir Jasper Meek or | |
Penrose Fisher, or any of the best men in London. But someone you | |
must have, and that is final. If you think that I am going to stand | |
here and see you die without either helping you myself or bringing | |
anyone else to help you, then you have mistaken your man." | |
"You mean well, Watson," said the sick man with something between a | |
sob and a groan. "Shall I demonstrate your own ignorance? What do you | |
know, pray, of Tapanuli fever? What do you know of the black Formosa | |
corruption?" | |
"I have never heard of either." | |
"There are many problems of disease, many strange pathological | |
possibilities, in the East, Watson." He paused after each sentence to | |
collect his failing strength. "I have learned so much during some | |
recent researches which have a medico-criminal aspect. It was in the | |
course of them that I contracted this complaint. You can do nothing." | |
"Possibly not. But I happen to know that Dr. Ainstree, the greatest | |
living authority upon tropical disease, is now in London. All | |
remonstrance is useless, Holmes, I am going this instant to fetch | |
him." I turned resolutely to the door. | |
Never have I had such a shock! In an instant, with a tiger-spring, | |
the dying man had intercepted me. I heard the sharp snap of a twisted | |
key. The next moment he had staggered back to his bed, exhausted and | |
panting after his one tremendous outflame of energy. | |
"You won't take the key from be by force, Watson, I've got you, my | |
friend. Here you are, and here you will stay until I will otherwise. | |
But I'll humour you." (All this in little gasps, with terrible | |
struggles for breath between.) "You've only my own good at heart. Of | |
course I know that very well. You shall have your way, but give me | |
time to get my strength. Not now, Watson, not now. It's four o'clock. | |
At six you can go." | |
"This is insanity, Holmes." | |
"Only two hours, Watson. I promise you will go at six. Are you | |
content to wait?" | |
"I seem to have no choice." | |
"None in the world, Watson. Thank you, I need no help in arranging | |
the clothes. You will please keep your distance. Now, Watson, there | |
is one other condition that I would make. You will seek help, not | |
from the man you mention, but from the one that I choose." | |
"By all means." | |
"The first three sensible words that you have uttered since you | |
entered this room, Watson. You will find some books over there. I am | |
somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours | |
electricity into a non-conductor? At six, Watson, we resume our | |
conversation." | |
But it was destined to be resumed long before that hour, and in | |
circumstances which gave me a shock hardly second to that caused by | |
his spring to the door. I had stood for some minutes looking at the | |
silent figure in the bed. His face was almost covered by the clothes | |
and he appeared to be asleep. Then, unable to settle down to reading, | |
I walked slowly round the room, examining the pictures of celebrated | |
criminals with which every wall was adorned. Finally, in my aimless | |
perambulation, I came to the mantelpiece. A litter of pipes, | |
tobacco-pouches, syringes, penknives, revolver-cartridges, and other | |
debris was scattered over it. In the midst of these was a small black | |
and white ivory box with a sliding lid. It was a neat little thing, | |
and I had stretched out my hand to examine it more closely when-- | |
It was a dreadful cry that he gave--a yell which might have been | |
heard down the street. My skin went cold and my hair bristled at that | |
horrible scream. As I turned I caught a glimpse of a convulsed face | |
and frantic eyes. I stood paralyzed, with the little box in my hand. | |
"Put it down! Down, this instant, Watson--this instant, I say!" His | |
head sank back upon the pillow and he gave a deep sigh of relief as I | |
replaced the box upon the mantelpiece. "I hate to have my things | |
touched, Watson. You know that I hate it. You fidget me beyond | |
endurance. You, a doctor--you are enough to drive a patient into an | |
asylum. Sit down, man, and let me have my rest!" | |
The incident left a most unpleasant impression upon my mind. The | |
violent and causeless excitement, followed by this brutality of | |
speech, so far removed from his usual suavity, showed me how deep was | |
the disorganization of his mind. Of all ruins, that of a noble mind | |
is the most deplorable. I sat in silent dejection until the | |
stipulated time had passed. He seemed to have been watching the clock | |
as well as I, for it was hardly six before he began to talk with the | |
same feverish animation as before. | |
"Now, Watson," said he. "Have you any change in your pocket?" | |
"Yes." | |
"Any silver?" | |
"A good deal." | |
"How many half-crowns?" | |
"I have five." | |
"Ah, too few! Too few! How very unfortunate, Watson! However, such as | |
they are you can put them in your watchpocket. And all the rest of | |
your money in your left trouser pocket. Thank you. It will balance | |
you so much better like that." | |
This was raving insanity. He shuddered, and again made a sound | |
between a cough and a sob. | |
"You will now light the gas, Watson, but you will be very careful | |
that not for one instant shall it be more than half on. I implore you | |
to be careful, Watson. Thank you, that is excellent. No, you need not | |
draw the blind. Now you will have the kindness to place some letters | |
and papers upon this table within my reach. Thank you. Now some of | |
that litter from the mantelpiece. Excellent, Watson! There is a | |
sugar-tongs there. Kindly raise that small ivory box with its | |
assistance. Place it here among the papers. Good! You can now go and | |
fetch Mr. Culverton Smith, of 13 Lower Burke Street." | |
To tell the truth, my desire to fetch a doctor had somewhat weakened, | |
for poor Holmes was so obviously delirious that it seemed dangerous | |
to leave him. However, he was as eager now to consult the person | |
named as he had been obstinate in refusing. | |
"I never heard the name," said I. | |
"Possibly not, my good Watson. It may surprise you to know that the | |
man upon earth who is best versed in this disease is not a medical | |
man, but a planter. Mr. Culverton Smith is a well-known resident of | |
Sumatra, now visiting London. An outbreak of the disease upon his | |
plantation, which was distant from medical aid, caused him to study | |
it himself, with some rather far-reaching consequences. He is a very | |
methodical person, and I did not desire you to start before six, | |
because I was well aware that you would not find him in his study. If | |
you could persuade him to come here and give us the benefit of his | |
unique experience of this disease, the investigation of which has | |
been his dearest hobby, I cannot doubt that he could help me." | |
I gave Holmes's remarks as a consecutive whole and will not attempt | |
to indicate how they were interrupted by gaspings for breath and | |
those clutchings of his hands which indicated the pain from which he | |
was suffering. His appearance had changed for the worse during the | |
few hours that I had been with him. Those hectic spots were more | |
pronounced, the eyes shone more brightly out of darker hollows, and a | |
cold sweat glimmered upon his brow. He still retained, however, the | |
jaunty gallantry of his speech. To the last gasp he would always be | |
the master. | |
"You will tell him exactly how you have left me," said he. "You will | |
convey the very impression which is in your own mind--a dying man--a | |
dying and delirious man. Indeed, I cannot think why the whole bed of | |
the ocean is not one solid mass of oysters, so prolific the creatures | |
seem. Ah, I am wondering! Strange how the brain controls the brain! | |
What was I saying, Watson?" | |
"My directions for Mr. Culverton Smith." | |
"Ah, yes, I remember. My life depends upon it. Plead with him, | |
Watson. There is no good feeling between us. His nephew, Watson--I | |
had suspicions of foul play and I allowed him to see it. The boy died | |
horribly. He has a grudge against me. You will soften him, Watson. | |
Beg him, pray him, get him here by any means. He can save me--only | |
he!" | |
"I will bring him in a cab, if I have to carry him down to it." | |
"You will do nothing of the sort. You will persuade him to come. And | |
then you will return in front of him. Make any excuse so as not to | |
come with him. Don't forget, Watson. You won't fail me. You never did | |
fail me. No doubt there are natural enemies which limit the increase | |
of the creatures. You and I, Watson, we have done our part. Shall the | |
world, then, be overrun by oysters? No, no; horrible! You'll convey | |
all that is in your mind." | |
I left him full of the image of this magnificent intellect babbling | |
like a foolish child. He had handed me the key, and with a happy | |
thought I took it with me lest he should lock himself in. Mrs. Hudson | |
was waiting, trembling and weeping, in the passage. Behind me as I | |
passed from the flat I heard Holmes's high, thin voice in some | |
delirious chant. Below, as I stood whistling for a cab, a man came on | |
me through the fog. | |
"How is Mr. Holmes, sir?" he asked. | |
It was an old acquaintance, Inspector Morton, of Scotland Yard, | |
dressed in unofficial tweeds. | |
"He is very ill," I answered. | |
He looked at me in a most singular fashion. Had it not been too | |
fiendish, I could have imagined that the gleam of the fanlight showed | |
exultation in his face. | |
"I heard some rumour of it," said he. | |
The cab had driven up, and I left him. | |
Lower Burke Street proved to be a line of fine houses lying in the | |
vague borderland between Notting Hill and Kensington. The particular | |
one at which my cabman pulled up had an air of smug and demure | |
respectability in its old-fashioned iron railings, its massive | |
folding-door, and its shining brasswork. All was in keeping with a | |
solemn butler who appeared framed in the pink radiance of a tinted | |
electrical light behind him. | |
"Yes, Mr. Culverton Smith is in. Dr. Watson! Very good, sir, I will | |
take up your card." | |
My humble name and title did not appear to impress Mr. Culverton | |
Smith. Through the half-open door I heard a high, petulant, | |
penetrating voice. | |
"Who is this person? What does he want? Dear me, Staples, how often | |
have I said that I am not to be disturbed in my hours of study?" | |
There came a gentle flow of soothing explanation from the butler. | |
"Well, I won't see him, Staples. I can't have my work interrupted | |
like this. I am not at home. Say so. Tell him to come in the morning | |
if he really must see me." | |
Again the gentle murmur. | |
"Well, well, give him that message. He can come in the morning, or he | |
can stay away. My work must not be hindered." | |
I thought of Holmes tossing upon his bed of sickness and counting the | |
minutes, perhaps, until I could bring help to him. It was not a time | |
to stand upon ceremony. His life depended upon my promptness. Before | |
the apologetic butler had delivered his message I had pushed past him | |
and was in the room. | |
With a shrill cry of anger a man rose from a reclining chair beside | |
the fire. I saw a great yellow face, coarse-grained and greasy, with | |
heavy, double-chin, and two sullen, menacing gray eyes which glared | |
at me from under tufted and sandy brows. A high bald head had a small | |
velvet smoking-cap poised coquettishly upon one side of its pink | |
curve. The skull was of enormous capacity, and yet as I looked down I | |
saw to my amazement that the figure of the man was small and frail, | |
twisted in the shoulders and back like one who has suffered from | |
rickets in his childhood. | |
"What's this?" he cried in a high, screaming voice. "What is the | |
meaning of this intrusion? Didn't I send you word that I would see | |
you to-morrow morning?" | |
"I am sorry," said I, "but the matter cannot be delayed. Mr. Sherlock | |
Holmes--" | |
The mention of my friend's name had an extraordinary effect upon the | |
little man. The look of anger passed in an instant from his face. His | |
features became tense and alert. | |
"Have you come from Holmes?" he asked. | |
"I have just left him." | |
"What about Holmes? How is he?" | |
"He is desperately ill. That is why I have come." | |
The man motioned me to a chair, and turned to resume his own. As he | |
did so I caught a glimpse of his face in the mirror over the | |
mantelpiece. I could have sworn that it was set in a malicious and | |
abominable smile. Yet I persuaded myself that it must have been some | |
nervous contraction which I had surprised, for he turned to me an | |
instant later with genuine concern upon his features. | |
"I am sorry to hear this," said he. "I only know Mr. Holmes through | |
some business dealings which we have had, but I have every respect | |
for his talents and his character. He is an amateur of crime, as I am | |
of disease. For him the villain, for me the microbe. There are my | |
prisons," he continued, pointing to a row of bottles and jars which | |
stood upon a side table. "Among those gelatine cultivations some of | |
the very worst offenders in the world are now doing time." | |
"It was on account of your special knowledge that Mr. Holmes desired | |
to see you. He has a high opinion of you and thought that you were | |
the one man in London who could help him." | |
The little man started, and the jaunty smoking-cap slid to the floor. | |
"Why?" he asked. "Why should Mr. Homes think that I could help him in | |
his trouble?" | |
"Because of your knowledge of Eastern diseases." | |
"But why should he think that this disease which he has contracted is | |
Eastern?" | |
"Because, in some professional inquiry, he has been working among | |
Chinese sailors down in the docks." | |
Mr. Culverton Smith smiled pleasantly and picked up his smoking-cap. | |
"Oh, that's it--is it?" said he. "I trust the matter is not so grave | |
as you suppose. How long has he been ill?" | |
"About three days." | |
"Is he delirious?" | |
"Occasionally." | |
"Tut, tut! This sounds serious. It would be inhuman not to answer his | |
call. I very much resent any interruption to my work, Dr. Watson, but | |
this case is certainly exceptional. I will come with you at once." | |
I remembered Holmes's injunction. | |
"I have another appointment," said I. | |
"Very good. I will go alone. I have a note of Mr. Holmes's address. | |
You can rely upon my being there within half an hour at most." | |
It was with a sinking heart that I reentered Holmes's bedroom. For | |
all that I knew the worst might have happened in my absence. To my | |
enormous relief, he had improved greatly in the interval. His | |
appearance was as ghastly as ever, but all trace of delirium had left | |
him and he spoke in a feeble voice, it is true, but with even more | |
than his usual crispness and lucidity. | |
"Well, did you see him, Watson?" | |
"Yes; he is coming." | |
"Admirable, Watson! Admirable! You are the best of messengers." | |
"He wished to return with me." | |
"That would never do, Watson. That would be obviously impossible. Did | |
he ask what ailed me?" | |
"I told him about the Chinese in the East End." | |
"Exactly! Well, Watson, you have done all that a good friend could. | |
You can now disappear from the scene." | |
"I must wait and hear his opinion, Holmes." | |
"Of course you must. But I have reasons to suppose that this opinion | |
would be very much more frank and valuable if he imagines that we are | |
alone. There is just room behind the head of my bed, Watson." | |
"My dear Holmes!" | |
"I fear there is no alternative, Watson. The room does not lend | |
itself to concealment, which is as well, as it is the less likely to | |
arouse suspicion. But just there, Watson, I fancy that it could be | |
done." Suddenly he sat up with a rigid intentness upon his haggard | |
face. "There are the wheels, Watson. Quick, man, if you love me! And | |
don't budge, whatever happens--whatever happens, do you hear? Don't | |
speak! Don't move! Just listen with all your ears." Then in an | |
instant his sudden access of strength departed, and his masterful, | |
purposeful talk droned away into the low, vague murmurings of a | |
semi-delirious man. | |
From the hiding-place into which I had been so swiftly hustled I | |
heard the footfalls upon the stair, with the opening and the closing | |
of the bedroom door. Then, to my surprise, there came a long silence, | |
broken only by the heavy breathings and gaspings of the sick man. I | |
could imagine that our visitor was standing by the bedside and | |
looking down at the sufferer. At last that strange hush was broken. | |
"Holmes!" he cried. "Holmes!" in the insistent tone of one who | |
awakens a sleeper. "Can't you hear me, Holmes?" There was a rustling, | |
as if he had shaken the sick man roughly by the shoulder. | |
"Is that you, Mr. Smith?" Holmes whispered. "I hardly dared hope that | |
you would come." | |
The other laughed. | |
"I should imagine not," he said. "And yet, you see, I am here. Coals | |
of fire, Holmes--coals of fire!" | |
"It is very good of you--very noble of you. I appreciate your special | |
knowledge." | |
Our visitor sniggered. | |
"You do. You are, fortunately, the only man in London who does. Do | |
you know what is the matter with you?" | |
"The same," said Holmes. | |
"Ah! You recognize the symptoms?" | |
"Only too well." | |
"Well, I shouldn't be surprised, Holmes. I shouldn't be surprised if | |
it were the same. A bad lookout for you if it is. Poor Victor was a | |
dead man on the fourth day--a strong, hearty young fellow. It was | |
certainly, as you said, very surprising that he should have | |
contracted and out-of-the-way Asiatic disease in the heart of | |
London--a disease, too, of which I had made such a very special | |
study. Singular coincidence, Holmes. Very smart of you to notice it, | |
but rather uncharitable to suggest that it was cause and effect." | |
"I knew that you did it." | |
"Oh, you did, did you? Well, you couldn't prove it, anyhow. But what | |
do you think of yourself spreading reports about me like that, and | |
then crawling to me for help the moment you are in trouble? What sort | |
of a game is that--eh?" | |
I heard the rasping, laboured breathing of the sick man. "Give me the | |
water!" he gasped. | |
"You're precious near your end, my friend, but I don't want you to go | |
till I have had a word with you. That's why I give you water. There, | |
don't slop it about! That's right. Can you understand what I say?" | |
Holmes groaned. | |
"Do what you can for me. Let bygones be bygones," he whispered. "I'll | |
put the words out of my head--I swear I will. Only cure me, and I'll | |
forget it." | |
"Forget what?" | |
"Well, about Victor Savage's death. You as good as admitted just now | |
that you had done it. I'll forget it." | |
"You can forget it or remember it, just as you like. I don't see you | |
in the witnessbox. Quite another shaped box, my good Holmes, I assure | |
you. It matters nothing to me that you should know how my nephew | |
died. It's not him we are talking about. It's you." | |
"Yes, yes." | |
"The fellow who came for me--I've forgotten his name--said that you | |
contracted it down in the East End among the sailors." | |
"I could only account for it so." | |
"You are proud of your brains, Holmes, are you not? Think yourself | |
smart, don't you? You came across someone who was smarter this time. | |
Now cast your mind back, Holmes. Can you think of no other way you | |
could have got this thing?" | |
"I can't think. My mind is gone. For heaven's sake help me!" | |
"Yes, I will help you. I'll help you to understand just where you are | |
and how you got there. I'd like you to know before you die." | |
"Give me something to ease my pain." | |
"Painful, is it? Yes, the coolies used to do some squealing towards | |
the end. Takes you as cramp, I fancy." | |
"Yes, yes; it is cramp." | |
"Well, you can hear what I say, anyhow. Listen now! Can you remember | |
any unusual incident in your life just about the time your symptoms | |
began?" | |
"No, no; nothing." | |
"Think again." | |
"I'm too ill to think." | |
"Well, then, I'll help you. Did anything come by post?" | |
"By post?" | |
"A box by chance?" | |
"I'm fainting--I'm gone!" | |
"Listen, Holmes!" There was a sound as if he was shaking the dying | |
man, and it was all that I could do to hold myself quiet in my | |
hiding-place. "You must hear me. You shall hear me. Do you remember a | |
box--an ivory box? It came on Wednesday. You opened it--do you | |
remember?" | |
"Yes, yes, I opened it. There was a sharp spring inside it. Some | |
joke--" | |
"It was no joke, as you will find to your cost. You fool, you would | |
have it and you have got it. Who asked you to cross my path? If you | |
had left me alone I would not have hurt you." | |
"I remember," Holmes gasped. "The spring! It drew blood. This | |
box--this on the table." | |
"The very one, by George! And it may as well leave the room in my | |
pocket. There goes your last shred of evidence. But you have the | |
truth now, Holmes, and you can die with the knowledge that I killed | |
you. You knew too much of the fate of Victor Savage, so I have sent | |
you to share it. You are very near your end, Holmes. I will sit here | |
and I will watch you die." | |
Holmes's voice had sunk to an almost inaudible whisper. | |
"What is that?" said Smith. "Turn up the gas? Ah, the shadows begin | |
to fall, do they? Yes, I will turn it up, that I may see you the | |
better." He crossed the room and the light suddenly brightened. "Is | |
there any other little service that I can do you, my friend?" | |
"A match and a cigarette." | |
I nearly called out in my joy and my amazement. He was speaking in | |
his natural voice--a little weak, perhaps, but the very voice I knew. | |
There was a long pause, and I felt that Culverton Smith was standing | |
in silent amazement looking down at his companion. | |
"What's the meaning of this?" I heard him say at last in a dry, | |
rasping tone. | |
"The best way of successfully acting a part is to be it," said | |
Holmes. "I give you my word that for three days I have tasted neither | |
food nor drink until you were good enough to pour me out that glass | |
of water. But it is the tobacco which I find most irksome. Ah, here | |
are some cigarettes." I heard the striking of a match. "That is very | |
much better. Halloa! halloa! Do I hear the step of a friend?" | |
There were footfalls outside, the door opened, and Inspector Morton | |
appeared. | |
"All is in order and this is your man," said Holmes. | |
The officer gave the usual cautions. | |
"I arrest you on the charge of the murder of one Victor Savage," he | |
concluded. | |
"And you might add of the attempted murder of one Sherlock Holmes," | |
remarked my friend with a chuckle. "To save an invalid trouble, | |
Inspector, Mr. Culverton Smith was good enough to give our signal by | |
turning up the gas. By the way, the prisoner has a small box in the | |
right-hand pocket of his coat which it would be as well to remove. | |
Thank you. I would handle it gingerly if I were you. Put it down | |
here. It may play its part in the trial." | |
There was a sudden rush and a scuffle, followed by the clash of iron | |
and a cry of pain. | |
"You'll only get yourself hurt," said the inspector. "Stand still, | |
will you?" There was the click of the closing handcuffs. | |
"A nice trap!" cried the high, snarling voice. "It will bring you | |
into the dock, Holmes, not me. He asked me to come here to cure him. | |
I was sorry for him and I came. Now he will pretend, no doubt, that I | |
have said anything which he may invent which will corroborate his | |
insane suspicions. You can lie as you like, Holmes. My word is | |
always as good as yours." | |
"Good heavens!" cried Holmes. "I had totally forgotten him. My dear | |
Watson, I owe you a thousand apologies. To think that I should have | |
overlooked you! I need not introduce you to Mr. Culverton Smith, | |
since I understand that you met somewhat earlier in the evening. Have | |
you the cab below? I will follow you when I am dressed, for I may be | |
of some use at the station. | |
"I never needed it more," said Holmes as he refreshed himself with a | |
glass of claret and some biscuits in the intervals of his toilet. | |
"However, as you know, my habits are irregular, and such a feat means | |
less to me than to most men. It was very essential that I should | |
impress Mrs. Hudson with the reality of my condition, since she was | |
to convey it to you, and you in turn to him. You won't be offended, | |
Watson? You will realize that among your many talents dissimulation | |
finds no place, and that if you had shared my secret you would never | |
have been able to impress Smith with the urgent necessity of his | |
presence, which was the vital point of the whole scheme. Knowing his | |
vindictive nature, I was perfectly certain that he would come to look | |
upon his handiwork." | |
"But your appearance, Holmes--your ghastly face?" | |
"Three days of absolute fast does not improve one's beauty, Watson. | |
For the rest, there is nothing which a sponge may not cure. With | |
vaseline upon one's forehead, belladonna in one's eyes, rouge over | |
the cheek-bones, and crusts of beeswax round one's lips, a very | |
satisfying effect can be produced. Malingering is a subject upon | |
which I have sometimes thought of writing a monograph. A little | |
occasional talk about half-crowns, oysters, or any other extraneous | |
subject produces a pleasing effect of delirium." | |
"But why would you not let me near you, since there was in truth no | |
infection?" | |
"Can you ask, my dear Watson? Do you imagine that I have no respect | |
for your medical talents? Could I fancy that your astute judgment | |
would pass a dying man who, however weak, had no rise of pulse or | |
temperature? At four yards, I could deceive you. If I failed to do | |
so, who would bring my Smith within my grasp? No, Watson, I would not | |
touch that box. You can just see if you look at it sideways where the | |
sharp spring like a viper's tooth emerges as you open it. I dare say | |
it was by some such device that poor Savage, who stood between this | |
monster and a reversion, was done to death. My correspondence, | |
however, is, as you know, a varied one, and I am somewhat upon my | |
guard against any packages which reach me. It was clear to me, | |
however, that by pretending that he had really succeeded in his | |
design I might surprise a confession. That pretence I have carried | |
out with the thoroughness of the true artist. Thank you, Watson, you | |
must help me on with my coat. When we have finished at the | |
police-station I think that something nutritious at Simpson's would | |
not be out of place." | |
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY FRANCES CARFAX | |
"But why Turkish?" asked Mr. Sherlock Holmes, gazing fixedly at my | |
boots. I was reclining in a cane-backed chair at the moment, and my | |
protruded feet had attracted his ever-active attention. | |
"English," I answered in some surprise. "I got them at Latimer's, in | |
Oxford Street." | |
Holmes smiled with an expression of weary patience. | |
"The bath!" he said; "the bath! Why the relaxing and expensive | |
Turkish rather than the invigorating home-made article?" | |
"Because for the last few days I have been feeling rheumatic and old. | |
A Turkish bath is what we call an alterative in medicine--a fresh | |
starting-point, a cleanser of the system. | |
"By the way, Holmes," I added, "I have no doubt the connection | |
between my boots and a Turkish bath is a perfectly self-evident one | |
to a logical mind, and yet I should be obliged to you if you would | |
indicate it." | |
"The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson," said Holmes | |
with a mischievous twinkle. "It belongs to the same elementary class | |
of deduction which I should illustrate if I were to ask you who | |
shared your cab in your drive this morning." | |
"I don't admit that a fresh illustration is an explanation," said I | |
with some asperity. | |
"Bravo, Watson! A very dignified and logical remonstrance. Let me | |
see, what were the points? Take the last one first--the cab. You | |
observe that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulder | |
of your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you would | |
probably have had no splashes, and if you had they would certainly | |
have been symmetrical. Therefore it is clear that you sat at the | |
side. Therefore it is equally clear that you had a companion." | |
"That is very evident." | |
"Absurdly commonplace, is it not?" | |
"But the boots and the bath?" | |
"Equally childish. You are in the habit of doing up your boots in a | |
certain way. I see them on this occasion fastened with an elaborate | |
double bow, which is not your usual method of tying them. You have, | |
therefore, had them off. Who has tied them? A bootmaker--or the boy | |
at the bath. It is unlikely that it is the bootmaker, since your | |
boots are nearly new. Well, what remains? The bath. Absurd, is it | |
not? But, for all that, the Turkish bath has served a purpose." | |
"What is that?" | |
"You say that you have had it because you need a change. Let me | |
suggest that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dear | |
Watson--first-class tickets and all expenses paid on a princely | |
scale?" | |
"Splendid! But why?" | |
Holmes leaned back in his armchair and took his notebook from his | |
pocket. | |
"One of the most dangerous classes in the world," said he, "is the | |
drifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless and often the | |
most useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable inciter of crime in | |
others. She is helpless. She is migratory. She has sufficient means | |
to take her from country to country and from hotel to hotel. She is | |
lost, as often as not, in a maze of obscure pensions and | |
boardinghouses. She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes. When she | |
is gobbled up she is hardly missed. I much fear that some evil has | |
come to the Lady Frances Carfax." | |
I was relieved at this sudden descent from the general to the | |
particular. Holmes consulted his notes. | |
"Lady Frances," he continued, "is the sole survivor of the direct | |
family of the late Earl of Rufton. The estates went, as you may | |
remember, in the male line. She was left with limited means, but with | |
some very remarkable old Spanish jewellery of silver and curiously | |
cut diamonds to which she was fondly attached--too attached, for she | |
refused to leave them with her banker and always carried them about | |
with her. A rather pathetic figure, the Lady Frances, a beautiful | |
woman, still in fresh middle age, and yet, by a strange change, the | |
last derelict of what only twenty years ago was a goodly fleet." | |
"What has happened to her, then?" | |
"Ah, what has happened to the Lady Frances? Is she alive or dead? | |
There is our problem. She is a lady of precise habits, and for four | |
years it has been her invariable custom to write every second week to | |
Miss Dobney, her old governess, who has long retired and lives in | |
Camberwell. It is this Miss Dobney who has consulted me. Nearly five | |
weeks have passed without a word. The last letter was from the Hotel | |
National at Lausanne. Lady Frances seems to have left there and given | |
no address. The family are anxious, and as they are exceedingly | |
wealthy no sum will be spared if we can clear the matter up." | |
"Is Miss Dobney the only source of information? Surely she had other | |
correspondents?" | |
"There is one correspondent who is a sure draw, Watson. That is the | |
bank. Single ladies must live, and their passbooks are compressed | |
diaries. She banks at Silvester's. I have glanced over her account. | |
The last check but one paid her bill at Lausanne, but it was a large | |
one and probably left her with cash in hand. Only one check has been | |
drawn since." | |
"To whom, and where?" | |
"To Miss Marie Devine. There is nothing to show where the check was | |
drawn. It was cashed at the Credit Lyonnais at Montpellier less than | |
three weeks ago. The sum was fifty pounds." | |
"And who is Miss Marie Devine?" | |
"That also I have been able to discover. Miss Marie Devine was the | |
maid of Lady Frances Carfax. Why she should have paid her this check | |
we have not yet determined. I have no doubt, however, that your | |
researches will soon clear the matter up." | |
"My researches!" | |
"Hence the health-giving expedition to Lausanne. You know that I | |
cannot possibly leave London while old Abrahams is in such mortal | |
terror of his life. Besides, on general principles it is best that I | |
should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, | |
and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes. Go, | |
then, my dear Watson, and if my humble counsel can ever be valued at | |
so extravagant a rate as two pence a word, it waits your disposal | |
night and day at the end of the Continental wire." | |
Two days later found me at the Hotel National at Lausanne, where I | |
received every courtesy at the hands of M. Moser, the well-known | |
manager. Lady Frances, as he informed me, had stayed there for | |
several weeks. She had been much liked by all who met her. Her age | |
was not more than forty. She was still handsome and bore every sign | |
of having in her youth been a very lovely woman. M. Moser knew | |
nothing of any valuable jewellery, but it had been remarked by the | |
servants that the heavy trunk in the lady's bedroom was always | |
scrupulously locked. Marie Devine, the maid, was as popular as her | |
mistress. She was actually engaged to one of the head waiters in the | |
hotel, and there was no difficulty in getting her address. It was 11 | |
Rue de Trajan, Montpellier. All this I jotted down and felt that | |
Holmes himself could not have been more adroit in collecting his | |
facts. | |
Only one corner still remained in the shadow. No light which I | |
possessed could clear up the cause for the lady's sudden departure. | |
She was very happy at Lausanne. There was every reason to believe | |
that she intended to remain for the season in her luxurious rooms | |
overlooking the lake. And yet she had left at a single day's notice, | |
which involved her in the useless payment of a week's rent. Only | |
Jules Vibart, the lover of the maid, had any suggestion to offer. He | |
connected the sudden departure with the visit to the hotel a day or | |
two before of a tall, dark, bearded man. "Un sauvage--un véritable | |
sauvage!" cried Jules Vibart. The man had rooms somewhere in the | |
town. He had been seen talking earnestly to Madame on the promenade | |
by the lake. Then he had called. She had refused to see him. He was | |
English, but of his name there was no record. Madame had left the | |
place immediately afterwards. Jules Vibart, and, what was of more | |
importance, Jules Vibart's sweetheart, thought that this call and the | |
departure were cause and effect. Only one thing Jules would not | |
discuss. That was the reason why Marie had left her mistress. Of that | |
he could or would say nothing. If I wished to know, I must go to | |
Montpellier and ask her. | |
So ended the first chapter of my inquiry. The second was devoted to | |
the place which Lady Frances Carfax had sought when she left | |
Lausanne. Concerning this there had been some secrecy, which | |
confirmed the idea that she had gone with the intention of throwing | |
someone off her track. Otherwise why should not her luggage have been | |
openly labelled for Baden? Both she and it reached the Rhenish spa by | |
some circuitous route. This much I gathered from the manager of | |
Cook's local office. So to Baden I went, after dispatching to Holmes | |
an account of all my proceedings and receiving in reply a telegram of | |
half-humorous commendation. | |
At Baden the track was not difficult to follow. Lady Frances had | |
stayed at the Englischer Hof for a fortnight. While there she had | |
made the acquaintance of a Dr. Shlessinger and his wife, a missionary | |
from South America. Like most lonely ladies, Lady Frances found her | |
comfort and occupation in religion. Dr. Shlessinger's remarkable | |
personality, his whole hearted devotion, and the fact that he was | |
recovering from a disease contracted in the exercise of his apostolic | |
duties affected her deeply. She had helped Mrs. Shlessinger in the | |
nursing of the convalescent saint. He spent his day, as the manager | |
described it to me, upon a lounge-chair on the veranda, with an | |
attendant lady upon either side of him. He was preparing a map of the | |
Holy Land, with special reference to the kingdom of the Midianites, | |
upon which he was writing a monograph. Finally, having improved much | |
in health, he and his wife had returned to London, and Lady Frances | |
had started thither in their company. This was just three weeks | |
before, and the manager had heard nothing since. As to the maid, | |
Marie, she had gone off some days beforehand in floods of tears, | |
after informing the other maids that she was leaving service forever. | |
Dr. Shlessinger had paid the bill of the whole party before his | |
departure. | |
"By the way," said the landlord in conclusion, "you are not the only | |
friend of Lady Frances Carfax who is inquiring after her just now. | |
Only a week or so ago we had a man here upon the same errand." | |
"Did he give a name?" I asked. | |
"None; but he was an Englishman, though of an unusual type." | |
"A savage?" said I, linking my facts after the fashion of my | |
illustrious friend. | |
"Exactly. That describes him very well. He is a bulky, bearded, | |
sunburned fellow, who looks as if he would be more at home in a | |
farmers' inn than in a fashionable hotel. A hard, fierce man, I | |
should think, and one whom I should be sorry to offend." | |
Already the mystery began to define itself, as figures grow clearer | |
with the lifting of a fog. Here was this good and pious lady pursued | |
from place to place by a sinister and unrelenting figure. She feared | |
him, or she would not have fled from Lausanne. He had still followed. | |
Sooner or later he would overtake her. Had he already overtaken her? | |
Was that the secret of her continued silence? Could the good people | |
who were her companions not screen her from his violence or his | |
blackmail? What horrible purpose, what deep design, lay behind this | |
long pursuit? There was the problem which I had to solve. | |
To Holmes I wrote showing how rapidly and surely I had got down to | |
the roots of the matter. In reply I had a telegram asking for a | |
description of Dr. Shlessinger's left ear. Holmes's ideas of humour | |
are strange and occasionally offensive, so I took no notice of his | |
ill-timed jest--indeed, I had already reached Montpellier in my | |
pursuit of the maid, Marie, before his message came. | |
I had no difficulty in finding the ex-servant and in learning all | |
that she could tell me. She was a devoted creature, who had only left | |
her mistress because she was sure that she was in good hands, and | |
because her own approaching marriage made a separation inevitable in | |
any case. Her mistress had, as she confessed with distress, shown | |
some irritability of temper towards her during their stay in Baden, | |
and had even questioned her once as if she had suspicions of her | |
honesty, and this had made the parting easier than it would otherwise | |
have been. Lady Frances had given her fifty pounds as a | |
wedding-present. Like me, Marie viewed with deep distrust the | |
stranger who had driven her mistress from Lausanne. With her own eyes | |
she had seen him seize the lady's wrist with great violence on the | |
public promenade by the lake. He was a fierce and terrible man. She | |
believed that it was out of dread of him that Lady Frances had | |
accepted the escort of the Shlessingers to London. She had never | |
spoken to Marie about it, but many little signs had convinced the | |
maid that her mistress lived in a state of continual nervous | |
apprehension. So far she had got in her narrative, when suddenly she | |
sprang from her chair and her face was convulsed with surprise and | |
fear. "See!" she cried. "The miscreant follows still! There is the | |
very man of whom I speak." | |
Through the open sitting-room window I saw a huge, swarthy man with a | |
bristling black beard walking slowly down the centre of the street | |
and staring eagerly at he numbers of the houses. It was clear that, | |
like myself, he was on the track of the maid. Acting upon the impulse | |
of the moment, I rushed out and accosted him. | |
"You are an Englishman," I said. | |
"What if I am?" he asked with a most villainous scowl. | |
"May I ask what your name is?" | |
"No, you may not," said he with decision. | |
The situation was awkward, but the most direct way is often the best. | |
"Where is the Lady Frances Carfax?" I asked. | |
He stared at me with amazement. | |
"What have you done with her? Why have you pursued her? I insist upon | |
an answer!" said I. | |
The fellow gave a below of anger and sprang upon me like a tiger. I | |
have held my own in many a struggle, but the man had a grip of iron | |
and the fury of a fiend. His hand was on my throat and my senses were | |
nearly gone before an unshaven French ouvrier in a blue blouse darted | |
out from a cabaret opposite, with a cudgel in his hand, and struck my | |
assailant a sharp crack over the forearm, which made him leave go his | |
hold. He stood for an instant fuming with rage and uncertain whether | |
he should not renew his attack. Then, with a snarl of anger, he left | |
me and entered the cottage from which I had just come. I turned to | |
thank my preserver, who stood beside me in the roadway. | |
"Well, Watson," said he, "a very pretty hash you have made of it! I | |
rather think you had better come back with me to London by the night | |
express." | |
An hour afterwards, Sherlock Holmes, in his usual garb and style, was | |
seated in my private room at the hotel. His explanation of his sudden | |
and opportune appearance was simplicity itself, for, finding that he | |
could get away from London, he determined to head me off at the next | |
obvious point of my travels. In the disguise of a workingman he had | |
sat in the cabaret waiting for my appearance. | |
"And a singularly consistent investigation you have made, my dear | |
Watson," said he. "I cannot at the moment recall any possible blunder | |
which you have omitted. The total effect of your proceeding has been | |
to give the alarm everywhere and yet to discover nothing." | |
"Perhaps you would have done no better," I answered bitterly. | |
"There is no 'perhaps' about it. I have done better. Here is the Hon. | |
Philip Green, who is a fellow-lodger with you in this hotel, and we | |
may find him the starting-point for a more successful investigation." | |
A card had come up on a salver, and it was followed by the same | |
bearded ruffian who had attacked me in the street. He started when he | |
saw me. | |
"What is this, Mr. Holmes?" he asked. "I had your note and I have | |
come. But what has this man to do with the matter?" | |
"This is my old friend and associate, Dr. Watson, who is helping us | |
in this affair." | |
The stranger held out a huge, sunburned hand, with a few words of | |
apology. | |
"I hope I didn't harm you. When you accused me of hurting her I lost | |
my grip of myself. Indeed, I'm not responsible in these days. My | |
nerves are like live wires. But this situation is beyond me. What I | |
want to know, in the first place, Mr. Holmes, is, how in the world | |
you came to hear of my existence at all." | |
"I am in touch with Miss Dobney, Lady Frances's governess." | |
"Old Susan Dobney with the mob cap! I remember her well." | |
"And she remembers you. It was in the days before--before you found | |
it better to go to South Africa." | |
"Ah, I see you know my whole story. I need hide nothing from you. I | |
swear to you, Mr. Holmes, that there never was in this world a man | |
who loved a woman with a more wholehearted love than I had for | |
Frances. I was a wild youngster, I know--not worse than others of my | |
class. But her mind was pure as snow. She could not bear a shadow of | |
coarseness. So, when she came to hear of things that I had done, she | |
would have no more to say to me. And yet she loved me--that is the | |
wonder of it!--loved me well enough to remain single all her sainted | |
days just for my sake alone. When the years had passed and I had made | |
my money at Barberton I thought perhaps I could seek her out and | |
soften her. I had heard that she was still unmarried, I found her at | |
Lausanne and tried all I knew. She weakened, I think, but her will | |
was strong, and when next I called she had left the town. I traced | |
her to Baden, and then after a time heard that her maid was here. I'm | |
a rough fellow, fresh from a rough life, and when Dr. Watson spoke to | |
me as he did I lost hold of myself for a moment. But for God's sake | |
tell me what has become of the Lady Frances." | |
"That is for us to find out," said Sherlock Holmes with peculiar | |
gravity. "What is your London address, Mr. Green?" | |
"The Langham Hotel will find me." | |
"Then may I recommend that you return there and be on hand in case I | |
should want you? I have no desire to encourage false hopes, but you | |
may rest assured that all that can be done will be done for the | |
safety of Lady Frances. I can say no more for the instant. I will | |
leave you this card so that you may be able to keep in touch with us. | |
Now, Watson, if you will pack your bag I will cable to Mrs. Hudson to | |
make one of her best efforts for two hungry travellers at 7.30 | |
to-morrow." | |
A telegram was awaiting us when we reached our Baker Street rooms, | |
which Holmes read with an exclamation of interest and threw across to | |
me. "Jagged or torn," was the message, and the place of origin, | |
Baden. | |
"What is this?" I asked. | |
"It is everything," Holmes answered. "You may remember my seemingly | |
irrelevant question as to this clerical gentleman's left ear. You did | |
not answer it." | |
"I had left Baden and could not inquire." | |
"Exactly. For this reason I sent a duplicate to the manager of the | |
Englischer Hof, whose answer lies here." | |
"What does it show?" | |
"It shows, my dear Watson, that we are dealing with an exceptionally | |
astute and dangerous man. The Rev. Dr. Shlessinger, missionary from | |
South America, is none other than Holy Peters, one of the most | |
unscrupulous rascals that Australia has ever evolved--and for a young | |
country it has turned out some very finished types. His particular | |
specialty is the beguiling of lonely ladies by playing upon their | |
religious feelings, and his so-called wife, an Englishwoman named | |
Fraser, is a worthy helpmate. The nature of his tactics suggested his | |
identity to me, and this physical peculiarity--he was badly bitten in | |
a saloon-fight at Adelaide in '89--confirmed my suspicion. This poor | |
lady is in the hands of a most infernal couple, who will stick at | |
nothing, Watson. That she is already dead is a very likely | |
supposition. If not, she is undoubtedly in some sort of confinement | |
and unable to write to Miss Dobney or her other friends. It is always | |
possible that she never reached London, or that she has passed | |
through it, but the former is improbable, as, with their system of | |
registration, it is not easy for foreigners to play tricks with the | |
Continental police; and the latter is also unlikely, as these rouges | |
could not hope to find any other place where it would be as easy to | |
keep a person under restraint. All my instincts tell me that she is | |
in London, but as we have at present no possible means of telling | |
where, we can only take the obvious steps, eat our dinner, and | |
possess our souls in patience. Later in the evening I will stroll | |
down and have a word with friend Lestrade at Scotland Yard." | |
But neither the official police nor Holmes's own small but very | |
efficient organization sufficed to clear away the mystery. Amid the | |
crowded millions of London the three persons we sought were as | |
completely obliterated as if they had never lived. Advertisements | |
were tried, and failed. Clues were followed, and led to nothing. | |
Every criminal resort which Shlessinger might frequent was drawn in | |
vain. His old associates were watched, but they kept clear of him. | |
And then suddenly, after a week of helpless suspense there came a | |
flash of light. A silver-and-brilliant pendant of old Spanish design | |
had been pawned at Bovington's, in Westminster Road. The pawner was a | |
large, clean-shaven man of clerical appearance. His name and address | |
were demonstrably false. The ear had escaped notice, but the | |
description was surely that of Shlessinger. | |
Three times had our bearded friend from the Langham called for | |
news--the third time within an hour of this fresh development. His | |
clothes were getting looser on his great body. He seemed to be | |
wilting away in his anxiety. "If you will only give me something to | |
do!" was his constant wail. At last Holmes could oblige him. | |
"He has begun to pawn the jewels. We should get him now." | |
"But does this mean that any harm has befallen the Lady Frances?" | |
Holmes shook his head very gravely. | |
"Supposing that they have held her prisoner up to now, it is clear | |
that they cannot let her loose without their own destruction. We must | |
prepare for the worst." | |
"What can I do?" | |
"These people do not know you by sight?" | |
"No." | |
"It is possible that he will go to some other pawnbroker in the | |
future. in that case, we must begin again. On the other hand, he has | |
had a fair price and no questions asked, so if he is in need of | |
ready-money he will probably come back to Bovington's. I will give | |
you a note to them, and they will let you wait in the shop. If the | |
fellow comes you will follow him home. But no indiscretion, and, | |
above all, no violence. I put you on your honour that you will take | |
no step without my knowledge and consent." | |
For two days the Hon. Philip Green (he was, I may mention, the son of | |
the famous admiral of that name who commanded the Sea of Azof fleet | |
in the Crimean War) brought us no news. On the evening of the third | |
he rushed into our sitting-room, pale, trembling, with every muscle | |
of his powerful frame quivering with excitement. | |
"We have him! We have him!" he cried. | |
He was incoherent in his agitation. Holmes soothed him with a few | |
words and thrust him into an armchair. | |
"Come, now, give us the order of events," said he. | |
"She came only an hour ago. It was the wife, this time, but the | |
pendant she brought was the fellow of the other. She is a tall, pale | |
woman, with ferret eyes." | |
"That is the lady," said Holmes. | |
"She left the office and I followed her. She walked up the Kennington | |
Road, and I kept behind her. Presently she went into a shop. Mr. | |
Holmes, it was an undertaker's." | |
My companion started. "Well?" he asked in that vibrant voice which | |
told of the fiery soul behind the cold gray face. | |
"She was talking to the woman behind the counter. I entered as well. | |
'It is late,' I heard her say, or words to that effect. The woman was | |
excusing herself. 'It should be there before now,' she answered. 'It | |
took longer, being out of the ordinary.' They both stopped and looked | |
at me, so I asked some questions and then left the shop." | |
"You did excellently well. What happened next?" | |
"The woman came out, but I had hid myself in a doorway. Her | |
suspicions had been aroused, I think, for she looked round her. Then | |
she called a cab and got in. I was lucky enough to get another and so | |
to follow her. She got down at last at No. 36, Poultney Square, | |
Brixton. I drove past, left my cab at the corner of the square, and | |
watched the house." | |
"Did you see anyone?" | |
"The windows were all in darkness save one on the lower floor. The | |
blind was down, and I could not see in. I was standing there, | |
wondering what I should do next, when a covered van drove up with two | |
men in it. They descended, took something out of the van, and carried | |
it up the steps to the hall door. Mr. Holmes, it was a coffin." | |
"Ah!" | |
"For an instant I was on the point of rushing in. The door had been | |
opened to admit the men and their burden. It was the woman who had | |
opened it. But as I stood there she caught a glimpse of me, and I | |
think that she recognized me. I saw her start, and she hastily closed | |
the door. I remembered my promise to you, and here I am." | |
"You have done excellent work," said Holmes, scribbling a few words | |
upon a half-sheet of paper. "We can do nothing legal without a | |
warrant, and you can serve the cause best by taking this note down to | |
the authorities and getting one. There may be some difficulty, but I | |
should think that the sale of the jewellery should be sufficient. | |
Lestrade will see to all details." | |
"But they may murder her in the meanwhile. What could the coffin | |
mean, and for whom could it be but for her?" | |
"We will do all that can be done, Mr. Green. Not a moment will be | |
lost. Leave it in our hands. Now Watson," he added as our client | |
hurried away, "he will set the regular forces on the move. We are, as | |
usual, the irregulars, and we must take our own line of action. The | |
situation strikes me as so desperate that the most extreme measures | |
are justified. Not a moment is to be lost in getting to Poultney | |
Square. | |
"Let us try to reconstruct the situation," said he as we drove | |
swiftly past the Houses of Parliament and over Westminster Bridge. | |
"These villains have coaxed this unhappy lady to London, after first | |
alienating her from her faithful maid. If she has written any letters | |
they have been intercepted. Through some confederate they have | |
engaged a furnished house. Once inside it, they have made her a | |
prisoner, and they have become possessed of the valuable jewellery | |
which has been their object from the first. Already they have begun | |
to sell part of it, which seems safe enough to them, since they have | |
no reason to think that anyone is interested in the lady's fate. When | |
she is released she will, of course, denounce them. Therefore, she | |
must not be released. But they cannot keep her under lock and key | |
forever. So murder is their only solution." | |
"That seems very clear." | |
"Now we will take another line of reasoning. When you follow two | |
separate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of | |
intersection which should approximate to the truth. We will start | |
now, not from the lady but from the coffin and argue backward. That | |
incident proves, I fear, beyond all doubt that the lady is dead. It | |
points also to an orthodox burial with proper accompaniment of | |
medical certificate and official sanction. Had the lady been | |
obviously murdered, they would have buried her in a hole in the back | |
garden. But here all is open and regular. What does this mean? Surely | |
that they have done her to death in some way which has deceived the | |
doctor and simulated a natural end--poisoning, perhaps. And yet how | |
strange that they should ever let a doctor approach her unless he | |
were a confederate, which is hardly a credible proposition." | |
"Could they have forged a medical certificate?" | |
"Dangerous, Watson, very dangerous. No, I hardly see them doing that. | |
Pull up, cabby! This is evidently the undertaker's, for we have just | |
passed the pawnbroker's. Would go in, Watson? Your appearance | |
inspires confidence. Ask what hour the Poultney Square funeral takes | |
place to-morrow." | |
The woman in the shop answered me without hesitation that it was to | |
be at eight o'clock in the morning. "You see, Watson, no mystery; | |
everything above-board! In some way the legal forms have undoubtedly | |
been complied with, and they think that they have little to fear. | |
Well, there's nothing for it now but a direct frontal attack. Are you | |
armed?" | |
"My stick!" | |
"Well, well, we shall be strong enough. 'Thrice is he armed who hath | |
his quarrel just.' We simply can't afford to wait for the police or | |
to keep within the four corners of the law. You can drive off, cabby. | |
Now, Watson, we'll just take our luck together, as we have | |
occasionally in the past." | |
He had rung loudly at the door of a great dark house in the centre of | |
Poultney Square. It was opened immediately, and the figure of a tall | |
woman was outlined against the dim-lit hall. | |
"Well, what do you want?" she asked sharply, peering at us through | |
the darkness. | |
"I want to speak to Dr. Shlessinger," said Holmes. | |
"There is no such person here," she answered, and tried to close the | |
door, but Holmes had jammed it with his foot. | |
"Well, I want to see the man who lives here, whatever he may call | |
himself," said Holmes firmly. | |
She hesitated. Then she threw open the door. "Well, come in!" said | |
she. "My husband is not afraid to face any man in the world." She | |
closed the door behind us and showed us into a sitting-room on the | |
right side of the hall, turning up the gas as she left us. "Mr. | |
Peters will be with you in an instant," she said. | |
Her words were literally true, for we had hardly time to look around | |
the dusty and moth-eaten apartment in which we found ourselves before | |
the door opened and a big, clean-shaven bald-headed man stepped | |
lightly into the room. He had a large red face, with pendulous | |
cheeks, and a general air of superficial benevolence which was marred | |
by a cruel, vicious mouth. | |
"There is surely some mistake here, gentlemen," he said in an | |
unctuous, make-everything-easy voice. "I fancy that you have been | |
misdirected. Possibly if you tried farther down the street--" | |
"That will do; we have no time to waste," said my companion firmly. | |
"You are Henry Peters, of Adelaide, late the Rev. Dr. Shlessinger, of | |
Baden and South America. I am as sure of that as that my own name is | |
Sherlock Holmes." | |
Peters, as I will now call him, started and stared hard at his | |
formidable pursuer. "I guess your name does not frighten me, Mr. | |
Holmes," said he coolly. "When a man's conscience is easy you can't | |
rattle him. What is your business in my house?" | |
"I want to know what you have done with the Lady Frances Carfax, whom | |
you brought away with you from Baden." | |
"I'd be very glad if you could tell me where that lady may be," | |
Peters answered coolly. "I've a bill against her for a nearly a | |
hundred pounds, and nothing to show for it but a couple of trumpery | |
pendants that the dealer would hardly look at. She attached herself | |
to Mrs. Peters and me at Baden--it is a fact that I was using another | |
name at the time--and she stuck on to us until we came to London. I | |
paid her bill and her ticket. Once in London, she gave us the slip, | |
and, as I say, left these out-of-date jewels to pay her bills. You | |
find her, Mr. Holmes, and I'm your debtor." | |
In mean to find her," said Sherlock Holmes. "I'm going through this | |
house till I do find her." | |
"Where is your warrant?" | |
Holmes half drew a revolver from his pocket. "This will have to serve | |
till a better one comes." | |
"Why, you're a common burglar." | |
"So you might describe me," said Holmes cheerfully. "My companion is | |
also a dangerous ruffian. And together we are going through your | |
house." | |
Our opponent opened the door. | |
"Fetch a policeman, Annie!" said he. There was a whisk of feminine | |
skirts down the passage, and the hall door was opened and shut. | |
"Our time is limited, Watson," said Holmes. "If you try to stop us, | |
Peters, you will most certainly get hurt. Where is that coffin which | |
was brought into your house?" | |
"What do you want with the coffin? It is in use. There is a body in | |
it." | |
"I must see the body." | |
"Never with my consent." | |
"Then without it." With a quick movement Holmes pushed the fellow to | |
one side and passed into the hall. A door half opened stood | |
immediately before us. We entered. It was the dining-room. On the | |
table, under a half-lit chandelier, the coffin was lying. Holmes | |
turned up the gas and raised the lid. Deep down in the recesses of | |
the coffin lay an emaciated figure. The glare from the lights above | |
beat down upon an aged and withered face. By no possible process of | |
cruelty, starvation, or disease could this wornout wreck be the still | |
beautiful Lady Frances. Holmes's face showed his amazement, and also | |
his relief. | |
"Thank God!" he muttered. "It's someone else." | |
"Ah, you've blundered badly for once, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said | |
Peters, who had followed us into the room. | |
"Who is the dead woman?" | |
"Well, if you really must know, she is an old nurse of my wife's, | |
Rose Spender by name, whom we found in the Brixton Workhouse | |
Infirmary. We brought her round here, called in Dr. Horsom, of 13 | |
Firbank Villas--mind you take the address, Mr. Holmes--and had her | |
carefully tended, as Christian folk should. On the third day she | |
died--certificate says senile decay--but that's only the doctor's | |
opinion, and of course you know better. We ordered her funeral to be | |
carried out by Stimson and Co., of the Kennington Road, who will bury | |
her at eight o'clock to-morrow morning. Can you pick any hole in | |
that, Mr. Holmes? You've made a silly blunder, and you may as well | |
own up to it. I'd give something for a photograph of your gaping, | |
staring face when you pulled aside that lid expecting to see the Lady | |
Frances Carfax and only found a poor old woman of ninety." | |
Holmes's expression was as impassive as ever under the jeers of his | |
antagonist, but his clenched hands betrayed his acute annoyance. | |
"I am going through your house," said he. | |
"Are you, though!" cried Peters as a woman's voice and heavy steps | |
sounded in the passage. "We'll soon see about that. This way, | |
officers, if you please. These men have forced their way into my | |
house, and I cannot get rid of them. Help me to put them out." | |
A sergeant and a constable stood in the doorway. Holmes drew his card | |
from his case. | |
"This is my name and address. This is my friend, Dr. Watson." | |
"Bless you, sir, we know you very well," said the sergeant, "but you | |
can't stay here without a warrant." | |
"Of course not. I quite understand that." | |
"Arrest him!" cried Peters. | |
"We know where to lay our hands on this gentleman if he is wanted," | |
said the sergeant majestically, "but you'll have to go, Mr. Holmes." | |
"Yes, Watson, we shall have to go." | |
A minute later we were in the street once more. Holmes was as cool as | |
ever, but I was hot with anger and humiliation. The sergeant had | |
followed us. | |
"Sorry, Mr. Holmes, but that's the law." | |
"Exactly, Sergeant, you could not do otherwise." | |
"I expect there was good reason for your presence there. If there is | |
anything I can do--" | |
"It's a missing lady, Sergeant, and we think she is in that house. I | |
expect a warrant presently." | |
"Then I'll keep my eye on the parties, Mr. Holmes. If anything comes | |
along, I will surely let you know." | |
It was only nine o'clock, and we were off full cry upon the trail at | |
once. First we drove to Brixton Workhoused Infirmary, where we found | |
that it was indeed the truth that a charitable couple had called some | |
days before, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former | |
servant, and that they had obtained permission to take her away with | |
them. No surprise was expressed at the news that she had since died. | |
The doctor was our next goal. He had been called in, had found the | |
woman dying of pure senility, had actually seen her pass away, and | |
had signed the certificate in due form. "I assure you that everything | |
was perfectly normal and there was no room for foul play in the | |
matter," said he. Nothing in the house had struck him as suspicious | |
save that for people of their class it was remarkable that they | |
should have no servant. So far and no further went the doctor. | |
Finally we found our way to Scotland Yard. There had been | |
difficulties of procedure in regard to the warrant. Some delay was | |
inevitable. The magistrate's signature might not be obtained until | |
next morning. If Holmes would call about nine he could go down with | |
Lestrade and see it acted upon. So ended the day, save that near | |
midnight our friend, the sergeant, called to say that he had seen | |
flickering lights here and there in the windows of the great dark | |
house, but that no one had left it and none had entered. We could but | |
pray for patience and wait for the morrow. | |
Sherlock Holmes was too irritable for conversation and too restless | |
for sleep. I left him smoking hard, with his heavy, dark brows | |
knotted together, and his long, nervous fingers tapping upon the arms | |
of his chair, as he turned over in his mind every possible solution | |
of the mystery. Several times in the course of the night I heard him | |
prowling about the house. Finally, just after I had been called in | |
the morning, he rushed into my room. He was in his dressing-gown, but | |
his pale, hollow-eyed face told me that his night had been a | |
sleepless one. | |
"What time was the funeral? Eight, was it not?" he asked eagerly. | |
"Well, it is 7.20 now. Good heavens, Watson, what has become of any | |
brains that God has given me? Quick, man, quick! It's life or | |
death--a hundred chances on death to one on life. I'll never forgive | |
myself, never, if we are too late!" | |
Five minutes had not passed before we were flying in a hansom down | |
Baker Street. But even so it was twenty-five to eight as we passed | |
Big Ben, and eight struck as we tore down the Brixton Road. But | |
others were late as well as we. Ten minutes after the hour the hearse | |
was still standing at the door of the house, and even as our foaming | |
horse came to a halt the coffin, supported by three men, appeared on | |
the threshold. Holmes darted forward and barred their way. | |
"Take it back!" he cried, laying his hand on the breast of the | |
foremost. "Take it back this instant!" | |
"What the devil do you mean? Once again I ask you, where is your | |
warrant?" shouted the furious Peters, his big red face glaring over | |
the farther end of the coffin. | |
"The warrant is on its way. The coffin shall remain in the house | |
until it comes." | |
The authority in Holmes's voice had its effect upon the bearers. | |
Peters had suddenly vanished into the house, and they obeyed these | |
new orders. "Quick, Watson, quick! Here is a screw-driver!" he | |
shouted as the coffin was replaced upon the table. "Here's one for | |
you, my man! A sovreign if the lid comes off in a minute! Ask no | |
questions--work away! That's good! Another! And another! Now pull all | |
together! It's giving! It's giving! Ah, that does it at last." | |
With a united effort we tore off the coffin-lid. As we did so there | |
came from the inside a stupefying and overpowering smell of | |
chloroform. A body lay within, its head all wreathed in cotton-wool, | |
which had been soaked in the narcotic. Holmes plucked it off and | |
disclosed the statuesque face of a handsome and spiritual woman of | |
middle age. In an instant he had passed his arm round the figure and | |
raised her to a sitting position. | |
"Is she gone, Watson? Is there a spark left? Surely we are not too | |
late!" | |
For half an hour it seemed that we were. What with actual | |
suffocation, and what with the poisonous fumes of the chloroform, the | |
Lady Frances seemed to have passed the last point of recall. And | |
then, at last, with artificial respiration, with injected ether, and | |
with every device that science could suggest, some flutter of life, | |
some quiver of the eyelids, some dimming of a mirror, spoke of the | |
slowly returning life. A cab had driven up, and Holmes, parting the | |
blind, looked out at it. "Here is Lestrade with his warrant," said | |
he. "He will find that his birds have flown. And here," he added as a | |
heavy step hurried along the passage, "is someone who has a better | |
right to nurse this lady than we have. Good morning, Mr. Green; I | |
think that the sooner we can move the Lady Frances the better. | |
Meanwhile, the funeral may proceed, and the poor old woman who still | |
lies in that coffin may go to her last resting-place alone." | |
"Should you care to add the case to your annals, my dear Watson," | |
said Holmes that evening, "it can only be as an example of that | |
temporary eclipse to which even the best-balanced mind may be | |
exposed. Such slips are common to all mortals, and the greatest is he | |
who can recognize and repair them. To this modified credit I may, | |
perhaps, make some claim. My night was haunted by the thought that | |
somewhere a clue, a strange sentence, a curious observation, had come | |
under my notice and had been too easily dismissed. Then, suddenly, in | |
the gray of the morning, the words came back to me. It was the remark | |
of the undertaker's wife, as reported by Philip Green. She had said, | |
'It should be there before now. It took longer, being out of the | |
ordinary.' It was the coffin of which she spoke. It had been out of | |
the ordinary. That could only mean that it had been made to some | |
special measurement. But why? Why? Then in an instant I remembered | |
the deep sides, and the little wasted figure at the bottom. Why so | |
large a coffin for so small a body? To leave room for another body. | |
Both would be buried under the one certificate. It had all been so | |
clear, if only my own sight had not been dimmed. At eight the Lady | |
Frances would be buried. Our one chance was to stop the coffin before | |
it left the house. | |
"It was a desperate chance that we might find her alive, but it was a | |
chance, as the result showed. These people had never, to my | |
knowledge, done a murder. They might shrink from actual violence at | |
the last. The could bury her with no sign of how she met her end, and | |
even if she were exhumed there was a chance for them. I hoped that | |
such considerations might prevail with them. You can reconstruct the | |
scene well enough. You saw the horrible den upstairs, where the poor | |
lady had been kept so long. They rushed in and overpowered her with | |
their chloroform, carried her down, poured more into the coffin to | |
insure against her waking, and then screwed down the lid. A clever | |
device, Watson. It is new to me in the annals of crime. If our | |
ex-missionary friends escape the clutches of Lestrade, I shall expect | |
to hear of some brilliant incidents in their future career." | |
THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL'S FOOT | |
In recording from time to time some of the curious experiences and | |
interesting recollections which I associate with my long and intimate | |
friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have continually been faced by | |
difficulties caused by his own aversion to publicity. To his sombre | |
and cynical spirit all popular applause was always abhorrent, and | |
nothing amused him more at the end of a successful case than to hand | |
over the actual exposure to some orthodox official, and to listen | |
with a mocking smile to the general chorus of misplaced | |
congratulation. It was indeed this attitude upon the part of my | |
friend and certainly not any lack of interesting material which has | |
caused me of late years to lay very few of my records before the | |
public. My participation in some if his adventures was always a | |
privilege which entailed discretion and reticence upon me. | |
It was, then, with considerable surprise that I received a telegram | |
from Homes last Tuesday--he has never been known to write where a | |
telegram would serve--in the following terms: | |
Why not tell them of the Cornish horror--strangest case I have | |
handled. | |
I have no idea what backward sweep of memory had brought the matter | |
fresh to his mind, or what freak had caused him to desire that I | |
should recount it; but I hasten, before another cancelling telegram | |
may arrive, to hunt out the notes which give me the exact details of | |
the case and to lay the narrative before my readers. | |
It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmes's iron | |
constitution showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of | |
constant hard work of a most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, by | |
occasional indiscretions of his own. In March of that year Dr. Moore | |
Agar, of Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction to Holmes I may | |
some day recount, gave positive injunctions that the famous private | |
agent lay aside all his cases and surrender himself to complete rest | |
if he wished to avert an absolute breakdown. The state of his health | |
was not a matter in which he himself took the faintest interest, for | |
his mental detachment was absolute, but he was induced at last, on | |
the threat of being permanently disqualified from work, to give | |
himself a complete change of scene and air. Thus it was that in the | |
early spring of that year we found ourselves together in a small | |
cottage near Poldhu Bay, at the further extremity of the Cornish | |
peninsula. | |
It was a singular spot, and one peculiarly well suited to the grim | |
humour of my patient. From the windows of our little whitewashed | |
house, which stood high upon a grassy headland, we looked down upon | |
the whole sinister semicircle of Mounts Bay, that old death trap of | |
sailing vessels, with its fringe of black cliffs and surge-swept | |
reefs on which innumerable seamen have met their end. With a | |
northerly breeze it lies placid and sheltered, inviting the | |
storm-tossed craft to tack into it for rest and protection. | |
Then come the sudden swirl round of the wind, the blistering gale | |
from the south-west, the dragging anchor, the lee shore, and the last | |
battle in the creaming breakers. The wise mariner stands far out from | |
that evil place. | |
On the land side our surroundings were as sombre as on the sea. It | |
was a country of rolling moors, lonely and dun-colored, with an | |
occasional church tower to mark the site of some old-world village. | |
In every direction upon these moors there were traces of some | |
vanished race which had passed utterly away, and left as it sole | |
record strange monuments of stone, irregular mounds which contained | |
the burned ashes of the dead, and curious earthworks which hinted at | |
prehistoric strife. The glamour and mystery of the place, with its | |
sinister atmosphere of forgotten nations, appealed to the imagination | |
of my friend, and he spent much of his time in long walks and | |
solitary meditations upon the moor. The ancient Cornish language had | |
also arrested his attention, and he had, I remember, conceived the | |
idea that it was akin to the Chaldean, and had been largely derived | |
from the Phoenician traders in tin. He had received a consignment of | |
books upon philology and was settling down to develop this thesis | |
when suddenly, to my sorrow and to his unfeigned delight, we found | |
ourselves, even in that land of dreams, plunged into a problem at our | |
very doors which was more intense, more engrossing, and infinitely | |
more mysterious than any of those which had driven us from London. | |
Our simple life and peaceful, healthy routine were violently | |
interrupted, and we were precipitated into the midst of a series of | |
events which caused the utmost excitement not only in Cornwall but | |
throughout the whole west of England. Many of my readers may retain | |
some recollection of what was called at the time "The Cornish | |
Horror," though a most imperfect account of the matter reached the | |
London press. Now, after thirteen years, I will give the true details | |
of this inconceivable affair to the public. | |
I have said that scattered towers marked the villages which dotted | |
this part of Cornwall. The nearest of these was the hamlet of | |
Tredannick Wollas, where the cottages of a couple of hundred | |
inhabitants clustered round an ancient, moss-grown church. The vicar | |
of the parish, Mr. Roundhay, was something of an archaeologist, and | |
as such Holmes had made his acquaintance. He was a middle-aged man, | |
portly and affable, with a considerable fund of local lore. At his | |
invitation we had taken tea at the vicarage and had come to know, | |
also, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, an independent gentleman, who increased | |
the clergyman's scanty resources by taking rooms in his large, | |
straggling house. The vicar, being a bachelor, was glad to come to | |
such an arrangement, though he had little in common with his lodger, | |
who was a thin, dark, spectacled man, with a stoop which gave the | |
impression of actual, physical deformity. I remember that during our | |
short visit we found the vicar garrulous, but his lodger strangely | |
reticent, a sad-faced, introspective man, sitting with averted eyes, | |
brooding apparently upon his own affairs. | |
These were the two men who entered abruptly into our little | |
sitting-room on Tuesday, March the 16th, shortly after our breakfast | |
hour, as we were smoking together, preparatory to our daily excursion | |
upon the moors. | |
"Mr. Holmes," said the vicar in an agitated voice, "the most | |
extraordinary and tragic affair has occurred during the night. It is | |
the most unheard-of business. We can only regard it as a special | |
Providence that you should chance to be here at the time, for in all | |
England you are the one man we need." | |
I glared at the intrusive vicar with no very friendly eyes; but | |
Holmes took his pipe from his lips and sat up in his chair like an | |
old hound who hears the view-halloa. He waved his hand to the sofa, | |
and our palpitating visitor with his agitated companion sat side by | |
side upon it. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis was more self-contained than the | |
clergyman, but the twitching of his thin hands and the brightness of | |
his dark eyes showed that they shared a common emotion. | |
"Shall I speak or you?" he asked of the vicar. | |
"Well, as you seem to have made the discovery, whatever it may be, | |
and the vicar to have had it second-hand, perhaps you had better do | |
the speaking," said Holmes. | |
I glanced at the hastily clad clergyman, with the formally dressed | |
lodger seated beside him, and was amused at the surprise which | |
Holmes's simple deduction had brought to their faces. | |
"Perhaps I had best say a few words first," said the vicar, "and then | |
you can judge if you will listen to the details from Mr. Tregennis, | |
or whether we should not hasten at once to the scene of this | |
mysterious affair. I may explain, then, that our friend here spent | |
last evening in the company of his two brothers, Owen and George, and | |
of his sister Brenda, at their house of Tredannick Wartha, which is | |
near the old stone cross upon the moor. He left them shortly after | |
ten o'clock, playing cards round the dining-room table, in excellent | |
health and spirits. This morning, being an early riser, he walked in | |
that direction before breakfast and was overtaken by the carriage of | |
Dr. Richards, who explained that he had just been sent for on a most | |
urgent call to Tredannick Wartha. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis naturally | |
went with him. When he arrived at Tredannick Wartha he found an | |
extraordinary state of things. His two brothers and his sister were | |
seated round the table exactly as he had left them, the cards still | |
spread in front of them and the candles burned down to their sockets. | |
The sister lay back stone-dead in her chair, while the two brothers | |
sat on each side of her laughing, shouting, and singing, the senses | |
stricken clean out of them. All three of them, the dead woman and the | |
two demented men, retained upon their faces an expression of the | |
utmost horror--a convulsion of terror which was dreadful to look | |
upon. There was no sign of the presence of anyone in the house, | |
except Mrs. Porter, the old cook and housekeeper, who declared that | |
she had slept deeply and heard no sound during the night. Nothing had | |
been stolen or disarranged, and there is absolutely no explanation of | |
what the horror can be which has frightened a woman to death and two | |
strong men out of their senses. There is the situation, Mr. Holmes, | |
in a nutshell, and if you can help us to clear it up you will have | |
done a great work." | |
I had hoped that in some way I could coax my companion back into the | |
quiet which had been the object of our journey; but one glance at his | |
intense face and contracted eyebrows told me how vain was now the | |
expectation. He sat for some little time in silence, absorbed in the | |
strange drama which had broken in upon our peace. | |
"I will look into this matter," he said at last. "On the face of it, | |
it would appear to be a case of a very exceptional nature. Have you | |
been there yourself, Mr. Roundhay?" | |
"No, Mr. Holmes. Mr. Tregennis brought back the account to the | |
vicarage, and I at once hurried over with him to consult you." | |
"How far is it to the house where this singular tragedy occurred?" | |
"About a mile inland." | |
"Then we shall walk over together. But before we start I must ask you | |
a few questions, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis." | |
The other had been silent all this time, but I had observed that his | |
more controlled excitement was even greater than the obtrusive | |
emotion of the clergyman. He sat with a pale, drawn face, his anxious | |
gaze fixed upon Holmes, and his thin hands clasped convulsively | |
together. His pale lips quivered as he listened to the dreadful | |
experience which had befallen his family, and his dark eyes seemed to | |
reflect something of the horror of the scene. | |
"Ask what you like, Mr. Holmes," said he eagerly. "It is a bad thing | |
to speak of, but I will answer you the truth." | |
"Tell me about last night." | |
"Well, Mr. Holmes, I supped there, as the vicar has said, and my | |
elder brother George proposed a game of whist afterwards. We sat down | |
about nine o'clock. It was a quarter-past ten when I moved to go. I | |
left them all round the table, as merry as could be." | |
"Who let you out?" | |
"Mrs. Porter had gone to bed, so I let myself out. I shut the hall | |
door behind me. The window of the room in which they sat was closed, | |
but the blind was not drawn down. There was no change in door or | |
window this morning, or any reason to think that any stranger had | |
been to the house. Yet there they sat, driven clean mad with terror, | |
and Brenda lying dead of fright, with her head hanging over the arm | |
of the chair. I'll never get the sight of that room out of my mind so | |
long as I live." | |
"The facts, as you state them, are certainly most remarkable," said | |
Holmes. "I take it that you have no theory yourself which can in any | |
way account for them?" | |
"It's devilish, Mr. Holmes, devilish!" cried Mortimer Tregennis. "It | |
is not of this world. Something has come into that room which has | |
dashed the light of reason from their minds. What human contrivance | |
could do that?" | |
"I fear," said Holmes, "that if the matter is beyond humanity it is | |
certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations | |
before we fall back upon such a theory as this. As to yourself, Mr. | |
Tregennis, I take it you were divided in some way from your family, | |
since they lived together and you had rooms apart?" | |
"That is so, Mr. Holmes, though the matter is past and done with. We | |
were a family of tin-miners at Redruth, but we sold our venture to a | |
company, and so retired with enough to keep us. I won't deny that | |
there was some feeling about the division of the money and it stood | |
between us for a time, but it was all forgiven and forgotten, and we | |
were the best of friends together." | |
"Looking back at the evening which you spent together, does anything | |
stand out in your memory as throwing any possible light upon the | |
tragedy? Think carefully, Mr. Tregennis, for any clue which can help | |
me." | |
"There is nothing at all, sir." | |
"Your people were in their usual spirits?" | |
"Never better." | |
"Were they nervous people? Did they ever show any apprehension of | |
coming danger?" | |
"Nothing of the kind." | |
"You have nothing to add then, which could assist me?" | |
Mortimer Tregennis considered earnestly for a moment. | |
"There is one thing occurs to me," said he at last. "As we sat at the | |
table my back was to the window, and my brother George, he being my | |
partner at cards, was facing it. I saw him once look hard over my | |
shoulder, so I turned round and looked also. The blind was up and the | |
window shut, but I could just make out the bushes on the lawn, and it | |
seemed to me for a moment that I saw something moving among them. I | |
couldn't even say if it was man or animal, but I just thought there | |
was something there. When I asked him what he was looking at, he told | |
me that he had the same feeling. That is all that I can say." | |
"Did you not investigate?" | |
"No; the matter passed as unimportant." | |
"You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?" | |
"None at all." | |
"I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this morning." | |
"I am an early riser and generally take a walk before breakfast. This | |
morning I had hardly started when the doctor in his carriage overtook | |
me. He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down with an | |
urgent message. I sprang in beside him and we drove on. When we got | |
there we looked into that dreadful room. The candles and the fire | |
must have burned out hours before, and they had been sitting there in | |
the dark until dawn had broken. The doctor said Brenda must have been | |
dead at least six hours. There were no signs of violence. She just | |
lay across the arm of the chair with that look on her face. George | |
and Owen were singing snatches of songs and gibbering like two great | |
apes. Oh, it was awful to see! I couldn't stand it, and the doctor | |
was as white as a sheet. Indeed, he fell into a chair in a sort of | |
faint, and we nearly had him on our hands as well." | |
"Remarkable--most remarkable!" said Holmes, rising and taking his | |
hat. "I think, perhaps, we had better go down to Tredannick Wartha | |
without further delay. I confess that I have seldom known a case | |
which at first sight presented a more singular problem." | |
Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the | |
investigation. It was marked, however, at the outset by an incident | |
which left the most sinister impression upon my mind. The approach to | |
the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a narrow, winding, | |
country lane. While we made our way along it we heard the rattle of a | |
carriage coming towards us and stood aside to let it pass. As it | |
drove by us I caught a glimpse through the closed window of a | |
horribly contorted, grinning face glaring out at us. Those staring | |
eyes and gnashing teeth flashed past us like a dreadful vision. | |
"My brothers!" cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips. "They are | |
taking them to Helston." | |
We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering upon its | |
way. Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house in which | |
they had met their strange fate. | |
It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a cottage, | |
with a considerable garden which was already, in that Cornish air, | |
well filled with spring flowers. Towards this garden the window of | |
the sitting-room fronted, and from it, according to Mortimer | |
Tregennis, must have come that thing of evil which had by sheer | |
horror in a single instant blasted their minds. Holmes walked slowly | |
and thoughtfully among the flower-plots and along the path before we | |
entered the porch. So absorbed was he in his thoughts, I remember, | |
that he stumbled over the watering-pot, upset its contents, and | |
deluged both our feet and the garden path. Inside the house we were | |
met by the elderly Cornish housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the | |
aid of a young girl, looked after the wants of the family. She | |
readily answered all Holmes's questions. She had heard nothing in the | |
night. Her employers had all been in excellent spirits lately, and | |
she had never known them more cheerful and prosperous. She had | |
fainted with horror upon entering the room in the morning and seeing | |
that dreadful company round the table. She had, when she recovered, | |
thrown open the window to let the morning air in, and had run down to | |
the lane, whence she sent a farm-lad for the doctor. The lady was on | |
her bed upstairs if we cared to see her. It took four strong men to | |
get the brothers into the asylum carriage. She would not herself stay | |
in the house another day and was starting that very afternoon to | |
rejoin her family at St. Ives. | |
We ascended the stairs and viewed the body. Miss Brenda Tregennis had | |
been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon middle age. Her | |
dark, clear-cut face was handsome, even in death, but there still | |
lingered upon it something of that convulsion of horror which had | |
been her last human emotion. From her bedroom we descended to the | |
sitting-room, where this strange tragedy had actually occurred. The | |
charred ashes of the overnight fire lay in the grate. On the table | |
were the four guttered and burned-out candles, with the cards | |
scattered over its surface. The chairs had been moved back against | |
the walls, but all else was as it had been the night before. Holmes | |
paced with light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various | |
chairs, drawing them up and reconstructing their positions. He tested | |
how much of the garden was visible; he examined the floor, the | |
ceiling, and the fireplace; but never once did I see that sudden | |
brightening of his eyes and tightening of his lips which would have | |
told me that he saw some gleam of light in this utter darkness. | |
"Why a fire?" he asked once. "Had they always a fire in this small | |
room on a spring evening?" | |
Mortimer Tregennis explained that the night was cold and damp. For | |
that reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit. "What are you going | |
to do now, Mr. Holmes?" he asked. | |
My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm. "I think, Watson, | |
that I shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning which you have | |
so often and so justly condemned," said he. "With your permission, | |
gentlemen, we will now return to our cottage, for I am not aware that | |
any new factor is likely to come to our notice here. I will turn the | |
facts over in my mid, Mr, Tregennis, and should anything occur to me | |
I will certainly ommunicate with you and the vicar. In the meantime I | |
wish you both good-morning." | |
It was not until long after we were back in Poldhu Cottage that | |
Holmes broke his complete and absorbed silence. He sat coiled in his | |
armchair, his haggard and ascetic face hardly visible amid the blue | |
swirl of his tobacco smoke, his black brows drawn down, his forehead | |
contracted, his eyes vacant and far away. Finally he laid down his | |
pipe and sprang to his feet. | |
"It won't do, Watson!" said he with a laugh. "Let us walk along the | |
cliffs together and search for flint arrows. We are more likely to | |
find them than clues to this problem. To let the brain work without | |
sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to | |
pieces. The sea air, sunshine, and patience, Watson--all else will | |
come. | |
"Now, let us calmly define our position, Watson," he continued as we | |
skirted the cliffs together. "Let us get a firm grip of the very | |
little which we do know, so that when fresh facts arise we may be | |
ready to fit them into their places. I take it, in the first place, | |
that neither of us is prepared to admit diabolical intrusions into | |
the affairs of men. Let us begin by ruling that entirely out of our | |
minds. Very good. There remain three persons who have been grievously | |
stricken by some conscious or unconscious human agency. That is firm | |
ground. Now, when did this occur? Evidently, assuming his narrative | |
to be true, it was immediately after Mr. Mortimer Tregennis had left | |
the room. That is a very important point. The presumption is that it | |
was within a few minutes afterwards. The cards still lay upon the | |
table. It was already past their usual hour for bed. Yet they had not | |
changed their position or pushed back their chairs. I repeat, then, | |
that the occurrence was immediately after his departure, and not | |
later than eleven o'clock last night. | |
"Our next obvious step is to check, so far as we can, the movements | |
of Mortimer Tregennis after he left the room. In this there is no | |
difficulty, and they seem to be above suspicion. Knowing my methods | |
as you do, you were, of course, conscious of the somewhat clumsy | |
water-pot expedient by which I obtained a clearer impress of his foot | |
than might otherwise have been possible. The wet, sandy path took it | |
admirably. Last night was also wet, you will remember, and it was not | |
difficult--having obtained a sample print--to pick out his track | |
among others and to follow his movements. He appears to have walked | |
away swiftly in the direction of the vicarage. | |
"If, then, Mortimer Tregennis disappeared from the scene, and yet | |
some outside person affected the card-players, how can we reconstruct | |
that person, and how was such an impression of horror conveyed? Mrs. | |
Porter may be eliminated. She is evidently harmless. Is there any | |
evidence that someone crept up to the garden window and in some | |
manner produced so terrific an effect that he drove those who saw it | |
out of their senses? The only suggestion in this direction comes from | |
Mortimer Tregennis himself, who says that his brother spoke about | |
some movement in the garden. That is certainly remarkable, as the | |
night was rainy, cloudy, and dark. Anyone who had the design to alarm | |
these people would be compelled to place his very face against the | |
glass before he could be seen. There is a three-foot flower-border | |
outside this window, but no indication of a footmark. It is difficult | |
to imagine, then, how an outsider could have made so terrible an | |
impression upon the company, nor have we found any possible motive | |
for so strange and elaborate an attempt. You perceive our | |
difficulties, Watson?" | |
"They are only too clear," I answered with conviction. | |
"And yet, with a little more material, we may prove that they are not | |
insurmountable," said Holmes. "I fancy that among your extensive | |
archives, Watson, you may find some which were nearly as obscure. | |
Meanwhile, we shall put the case aside until more accurate data are | |
available, and devote the rest of our morning to the pursuit of | |
neolithic man." | |
I may have commented upon my friend's power of mental detachment, but | |
never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring morning in | |
Cornwall when for two hours he discoursed upon celts, arrowheads, and | |
shards, as lightly as if no sinister mystery were waiting for his | |
solution. It was not until we had returned in the afternoon to our | |
cottage that we found a visitor awaiting us, who soon brought our | |
minds back to the matter in hand. Neither of us needed to be told who | |
that visitor was. The huge body, the craggy and deeply seamed face | |
with the fierce eyes and hawk-like nose, the grizzled hair which | |
nearly brushed our cottage ceiling, the beard--golden at the fringes | |
and white near the lips, save for the nicotine stain from his | |
perpetual cigar--all these were as well known in London as in Africa, | |
and could only be associated with the tremendous personality of Dr. | |
Leon Sterndale, the great lion-hunter and explorer. | |
We had heard of his presence in the district and had once or twice | |
caught sight of his tall figure upon the moorland paths. He made no | |
advances to us, however, nor would we have dreamed of doing so to | |
him, as it was well known that it was his love of seclusion which | |
caused him to spend the greater part of the intervals between his | |
journeys in a small bungalow buried in the lonely wood of Beauchamp | |
Arriance. Here, amid his books and his maps, he lived an absolutely | |
lonely life, attending to his own simple wants and paying little | |
apparent heed to the affairs of his neighbours. It was a surprise to | |
me, therefore, to hear him asking Holmes in an eager voice whether he | |
had made any advance in his reconstruction of this mysterious | |
episode. "The county police are utterly at fault," said he, "but | |
perhaps your wider experience has suggested some conceivable | |
explanation. My only claim to being taken into your confidence is | |
that during my many residences here I have come to know this family | |
of Tregennis very well--indeed, upon my Cornish mother's side I could | |
call them cousins--and their strange fate has naturally been a great | |
shock to me. I may tell you that I had got as far as Plymouth upon my | |
way to Africa, but the news reached me this morning, and I came | |
straight back again to help in the inquiry." | |
Holmes raised his eyebrows. | |
"Did you lose your boat through it?" | |
"I will take the next." | |
"Dear me! that is friendship indeed." | |
"I tell you they were relatives." | |
"Quite so--cousins of your mother. Was your baggage aboard the ship?" | |
"Some of it, but the main part at the hotel." | |
"I see. But surely this event could not have found its way into the | |
Plymouth morning papers." | |
"No, sir; I had a telegram." | |
"Might I ask from whom?" | |
A shadow passed over the gaunt face of the explorer. | |
"You are very inquisitive, Mr. Holmes." | |
"It is my business." | |
With an effort Dr. Sterndale recovered his ruffled composure. | |
"I have no objection to telling you," he said. "It was Mr. Roundhay, | |
the vicar, who sent me the telegram which recalled me." | |
"Thank you," said Holmes. "I may say in answer to your original | |
question that I have not cleared my mind entirely on the subject of | |
this case, but that I have every hope of reaching some conclusion. It | |
would be premature to say more." | |
"Perhaps you would not mind telling me if your suspicions point in | |
any particular direction?" | |
"No, I can hardly answer that." | |
"Then I have wasted my time and need not prolong my visit." The | |
famous doctor strode out of our cottage in considerable ill-humour, | |
and within five minutes Holmes had followed him. I saw him no more | |
until the evening, when he returned with a slow step and haggard face | |
which assured me that he had made no great progress with his | |
investigation. He glanced at a telegram which awaited him and threw | |
it into the grate. | |
"From the Plymouth hotel, Watson," he said. "I learned the name of it | |
from the vicar, and I wired to make certain that Dr. Leon Sterndale's | |
account was true. It appears that he did indeed spend last night | |
there, and that he has actually allowed some of his baggage to go on | |
to Africa, while he returned to be present at this investigation. | |
What do you make of that, Watson?" | |
"He is deeply interested." | |
"Deeply interested--yes. There is a thread here which we had not yet | |
grasped and which might lead us through the tangle. Cheer up, Watson, | |
for I am very sure that our material has not yet all come to hand. | |
When it does we may soon leave our difficulties behind us." | |
Little did I think how soon the words of Holmes would be realized, or | |
how strange and sinister would be that new development which opened | |
up an entirely fresh line of investigation. I was shaving at my | |
window in the morning when I heard the rattle of hoofs and, looking | |
up, saw a dog-cart coming at a gallop down the road. It pulled up at | |
our door, and our friend, the vicar, sprang from it and rushed up our | |
garden path. Holmes was already dressed, and we hastened down to meet | |
him. | |
Our visitor was so excited that he could hardly articulate, but at | |
last in gasps and bursts his tragic story came out of him. | |
"We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes! My poor parish is devil-ridden!" he | |
cried. "Satan himself is loose in it! We are given over into his | |
hands!" He danced about in his agitation, a ludicrous object if it | |
were not for his ashy face and startled eyes. Finally he shot out his | |
terrible news. | |
"Mr. Mortimer Tregennis died during the night, and with exactly the | |
same symptoms as the rest of his family." | |
Holmes sprang to his feet, all energy in an instant. | |
"Can you fit us both into your dog-cart?" | |
"Yes, I can." | |
"Then, Watson, we will postpone our breakfast. Mr. Roundhay, we are | |
entirely at your disposal. Hurry--hurry, before things get | |
disarranged." | |
The lodger occupied two rooms at the vicarage, which were in an angle | |
by themselves, the one above the other. Below was a large | |
sitting-room; above, his bedroom. They looked out upon a croquet lawn | |
which came up to the windows. We had arrived before the doctor or the | |
police, so that everything was absolutely undisturbed. Let me | |
describe exactly the scene as we saw it upon that misty March | |
morning. It has left an impression which can never be effaced from my | |
mind. | |
The atmosphere of the room was of a horrible and depressing | |
stuffiness. The servant who had first entered had thrown up the | |
window, or it would have been even more intolerable. This might | |
partly be due to the fact that a lamp stood flaring and smoking on | |
the centre table. Beside it sat the dead man, leaning back in his | |
chair, his thin beard projecting, his spectacles pushed up on to his | |
forehead, and his lean dark face turned towards the window and | |
twisted into the same distortion of terror which had marked the | |
features of his dead sister. His limbs were convulsed and his fingers | |
contorted as though he had died in a very paroxysm of fear. He was | |
fully clothed, though there were signs that his dressing had been | |
done in a hurry. We had already learned that his bed had been slept | |
in, and that the tragic end had come to him in the early morning. | |
One realized the red-hot energy which underlay Holmes's phlegmatic | |
exterior when one saw the sudden change which came over him from the | |
moment that he entered the fatal apartment. In an instant he was | |
tense and alert, his eyes shining, his face set, his limbs quivering | |
with eager activity. He was out on the lawn, in through the window, | |
round the room, and up into the bedroom, for all the world like a | |
dashing foxhound drawing a cover. In the bedroom he made a rapid cast | |
around and ended by throwing open the window, which appeared to give | |
him some fresh cause for excitement, for he leaned out of it with | |
loud ejaculations of interest and delight. Then he rushed down the | |
stair, out through the open window, threw himself upon his face on | |
the lawn, sprang up and into the room once more, all with the energy | |
of the hunter who is at the very heels of his quarry. The lamp, which | |
was an ordinary standard, he examined with minute care, making | |
certain measurements upon its bowl. He carefully scrutinized with his | |
lens the talc shield which covered the top of the chimney and scraped | |
off some ashes which adhered to its upper surface, putting some of | |
them into an envelope, which he placed in his pocketbook. Finally, | |
just as the doctor and the official police put in an appearance, he | |
beckoned to the vicar and we all three went out upon the lawn. | |
"I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely | |
barren," he remarked. "I cannot remain to discuss the matter with the | |
police, but I should be exceedingly obliged, Mr. Roundhay, if you | |
would give the inspector my compliments and direct his attention to | |
the bedroom window and to the sitting-room lamp. Each is suggestive, | |
and together they are almost conclusive. If the police would desire | |
further information I shall be happy to see any of them at the | |
cottage. And now, Watson, I think that, perhaps, we shall be better | |
employed elsewhere." | |
It may be that the police resented the intrusion of an amateur, or | |
that they imagined themselves to be upon some hopeful line of | |
investigation; but it is certain that we heard nothing from them for | |
the next two days. During this time Holmes spent some of his time | |
smoking and dreaming in the cottage; but a greater portion in country | |
walks which he undertook alone, returning after many hours without | |
remark as to where he had been. One experiment served to show me the | |
line of his investigation. He had bought a lamp which was the | |
duplicate of the one which had burned in the room of Mortimer | |
Tregennis on the morning of the tragedy. This he filled with the same | |
oil as that used at the vicarage, and he carefully timed the period | |
which it would take to be exhausted. Another experiment which he made | |
was of a more unpleasant nature, and one which I am not likely ever | |
to forget. | |
"You will remember, Watson," he remarked one afternoon, "that there | |
is a single common point of resemblance in the varying reports which | |
have reached us. This concerns the effect of the atmosphere of the | |
room in each case upon those who had first entered it. You will | |
recollect that Mortimer Tregennis, in describing the episode of his | |
last visit to his brother's house, remarked that the doctor on | |
entering the room fell into a chair? You had forgotten? Well I can | |
answer for it that it was so. Now, you will remember also that Mrs. | |
Porter, the housekeeper, told us that she herself fainted upon | |
entering the room and had afterwards opened the window. In the second | |
case--that of Mortimer Tregennis himself--you cannot have forgotten | |
the horrible stuffiness of the room when we arrived, though the | |
servant had thrown open the window. That servant, I found upon | |
inquiry, was so ill that she had gone to her bed. You will admit, | |
Watson, that these facts are very suggestive. In each case there is | |
evidence of a poisonous atmosphere. In each case, also, there is | |
combustion going on in the room--in the one case a fire, in the other | |
a lamp. The fire was needed, but the lamp was lit--as a comparison of | |
the oil consumed will show--long after it was broad daylight. Why? | |
Surely because there is some connection between three things--the | |
burning, the stuffy atmosphere, and, finally, the madness or death of | |
those unfortunate people. That is clear, is it not?" | |
"It would appear so." | |
"At least we may accept it as a working hypothesis. We will suppose, | |
then, that something was burned in each case which produced an | |
atmosphere causing strange toxic effects. Very good. In the first | |
instance--that of the Tregennis family--this substance was placed in | |
the fire. Now the window was shut, but the fire would naturally carry | |
fumes to some extent up the chimney. Hence one would expect the | |
effects of the poison to be less than in the second case, where there | |
was less escape for the vapour. The result seems to indicate that it | |
was so, since in the first case only the woman, who had presumably | |
the more sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting that | |
temporary or permanent lunacy which is evidently the first effect of | |
the drug. In the second case the result was complete. The facts, | |
therefore, seem to bear out the theory of a poison which worked by | |
combustion. | |
"With this train of reasoning in my head I naturally looked about in | |
Mortimer Tregennis's room to find some remains of this substance. The | |
obvious place to look was the talc shelf or smoke-guard of the lamp. | |
There, sure enough, I perceived a number of flaky ashes, and round | |
the edges a fringe of brownish powder, which had not yet been | |
consumed. Half of this I took, as you saw, and I placed it in an | |
envelope." | |
"Why half, Holmes?" | |
"It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the | |
official police force. I leave them all the evidence which I found. | |
The poison still remained upon the talc had they the wit to find it. | |
Now, Watson, we will light our lamp; we will, however, take the | |
precaution to open our window to avoid the premature decease of two | |
deserving members of society, and you will seat yourself near that | |
open window in an armchair unless, like a sensible man, you determine | |
to have nothing to do with the affair. Oh, you will see it out, will | |
you? I thought I knew my Watson. This chair I will place opposite | |
yours, so that we may be the same distance from the poison and face | |
to face. The door we will leave ajar. Each is now in a position to | |
watch the other and to bring the experiment to an end should the | |
symptoms seem alarming. Is that all clear? Well, then, I take our | |
powder--or what remains of it--from the envelope, and I lay it above | |
the burning lamp. So! Now, Watson, let us sit down and await | |
developments." | |
They were not long in coming. I had hardly settled in my chair before | |
I was conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and nauseous. At the | |
very first whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all | |
control. A thick, black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind | |
told me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, but about to spring out | |
upon my appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all | |
that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague | |
shapes swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a | |
warning of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller | |
upon the threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing | |
horror took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, that my | |
eyes were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my tongue like | |
leather. The turmoil within my brain was such that something must | |
surely snap. I tried to scream and was vaguely aware of some hoarse | |
croak which was my own voice, but distant and detached from myself. | |
At the same moment, in some effort of escape, I broke through that | |
cloud of despair and had a glimpse of Holmes's face, white, rigid, | |
and drawn with horror--the very look which I had seen upon the | |
features of the dead. It was that vision which gave me an instant of | |
sanity and of strength. I dashed from my chair, threw my arms round | |
Holmes, and together we lurched through the door, and an instant | |
afterwards had thrown ourselves down upon the grass plot and were | |
lying side by side, conscious only of the glorious sunshine which was | |
bursting its way through the hellish cloud of terror which had girt | |
us in. Slowly it rose from our souls like the mists from a landscape | |
until peace and reason had returned, and we were sitting upon the | |
grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking with apprehension at | |
each other to mark the last traces of that terrific experience which | |
we had undergone. | |
"Upon my word, Watson!" said Holmes at last with an unsteady voice, | |
"I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable | |
experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a friend. I am | |
really very sorry." | |
"You know," I answered with some emotion, for I have never seen so | |
much of Holmes's heart before, "that it is my greatest joy and | |
privilege to help you." | |
He relapsed at once into the half-humorous, half-cynical vein which | |
was his habitual attitude to those about him. "It would be | |
superfluous to drive us mad, my dear Watson," said he. "A candid | |
observer would certainly declare that we were so already before we | |
embarked upon so wild an experiment. I confess that I never imagined | |
that the effect could be so sudden and so severe." He dashed into the | |
cottage, and, reappearing with the burning lamp held at full arm's | |
length, he threw it among a bank of brambles. "We must give the room | |
a little time to clear. I take it, Watson, that you have no longer a | |
shadow of a doubt as to how these tragedies were produced?" | |
"None whatever." | |
"But the cause remains as obscure as before. Come into the arbour | |
here and let us discuss it together. That villainous stuff seems | |
still to linger round my throat. I think we must admit that all the | |
evidence points to this man, Mortimer Tregennis, having been the | |
criminal in the first tragedy, though he was the victim in the second | |
one. We must remember, in the first place, that there is some story | |
of a family quarrel, followed by a reconciliation. How bitter that | |
quarrel may have been, or how hollow the reconciliation we cannot | |
tell. When I think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face and the | |
small shrewd, beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom | |
I should judge to be of a particularly forgiving disposition. Well, | |
in the next place, you will remember that this idea of someone moving | |
in the garden, which took our attention for a moment from the real | |
cause of the tragedy, emanated from him. He had a motive in | |
misleading us. Finally, if he did not throw the substance into the | |
fire at the moment of leaving the room, who did do so? The affair | |
happened immediately after his departure. Had anyone else come in, | |
the family would certainly have risen from the table. Besides, in | |
peaceful Cornwall, visitors did not arrive after ten o'clock at | |
night. We may take it, then, that all the evidence points to Mortimer | |
Tregennis as the culprit." | |
"Then his own death was suicide!" | |
"Well, Watson, it is on the face of it a not impossible supposition. | |
The man who had the guilt upon his soul of having brought such a fate | |
upon his own family might well be driven by remorse to inflict it | |
upon himself. There are, however, some cogent reasons against it. | |
Fortunately, there is one man in England who knows all about it, and | |
I have made arrangements by which we shall hear the facts this | |
afternoon from his own lips. Ah! he is a little before his time. | |
Perhaps you would kindly step this way, Dr. Leon Sterndale. We have | |
been conducing a chemical experiment indoors which has left our | |
little room hardly fit for the reception of so distinguished a | |
visitor." | |
I had heard the click of the garden gate, and now the majestic figure | |
of the great African explorer appeared upon the path. He turned in | |
some surprise towards the rustic arbour in which we sat. | |
"You sent for me, Mr. Holmes. I had your note about an hour ago, and | |
I have come, though I really do not know why I should obey your | |
summons." | |
"Perhaps we can clear the point up before we separate," said Holmes. | |
"Meanwhile, I am much obliged to you for your courteous acquiescence. | |
You will excuse this informal reception in the open air, but my | |
friend Watson and I have nearly furnished an additional chapter to | |
what the papers call the Cornish Horror, and we prefer a clear | |
atmosphere for the present. Perhaps, since the matters which we have | |
to discuss will affect you personally in a very intimate fashion, it | |
is as well that we should talk where there can be no eavesdropping." | |
The explorer took his cigar from his lips and gazed sternly at my | |
companion. | |
"I am at a loss to know, sir," he said, "what you can have to speak | |
about which affects me personally in a very intimate fashion." | |
"The killing of Mortimer Tregennis," said Holmes. | |
For a moment I wished that I were armed. Sterndale's fierce face | |
turned to a dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted, passionate | |
veins started out in his forehead, while he sprang forward with | |
clenched hands towards my companion. Then he stopped, and with a | |
violent effort he resumed a cold, rigid calmness, which was, perhaps, | |
more suggestive of danger than his hot-headed outburst. | |
"I have lived so long among savages and beyond the law," said he, | |
"that I have got into the way of being a law to myself. You would do | |
well, Mr. Holmes, not to forget it, for I have no desire to do you an | |
injury." | |
"Nor have I any desire to do you an injury, Dr. Sterndale. Surely the | |
clearest proof of it is that, knowing what I know, I have sent for | |
you and not for the police." | |
Sterndale sat down with a gasp, overawed for, perhaps, the first time | |
in his adventurous life. There was a calm assurance of power in | |
Holmes's manner which could not be withstood. Our visitor stammered | |
for a moment, his great hands opening and shutting in his agitation. | |
"What do you mean?" he asked at last. "If this is bluff upon your | |
part, Mr. Holmes, you have chosen a bad man for your experiment. Let | |
us have no more beating about the bush. What do you mean?" | |
"I will tell you," said Holmes, "and the reason why I tell you is | |
that I hope frankness may beget frankness. What my next step may be | |
will depend entirely upon the nature of your own defence." | |
"My defence?" | |
"Yes, sir." | |
"My defence against what?" | |
"Against the charge of killing Mortimer Tregennis." | |
Sterndale mopped his forehead with his handkerchief. "Upon my word, | |
you are getting on," said he. "Do all your successes depend upon this | |
prodigious power of bluff?" | |
"The bluff," said Holmes sternly, "is upon your side, Dr. Leon | |
Sterndale, and not upon mine. As a proof I will tell you some of the | |
facts upon which my conclusions are based. Of your return from | |
Plymouth, allowing much of your property to go on to Africa, I will | |
say nothing save that it first informed me that you were one of the | |
factors which had to be taken into account in reconstructing this | |
drama--" | |
"I came back--" | |
"I have heard your reasons and regard them as unconvincing and | |
inadequate. We will pass that. You came down here to ask me whom I | |
suspected. I refused to answer you. You then went to the vicarage, | |
waited outside it for some time, and finally returned to your | |
cottage." | |
"How do you know that?" | |
"I followed you." | |
"I saw no one." | |
"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you. You spent a | |
restless night at your cottage, and you formed certain plans, which | |
in the early morning you proceeded to put into execution. Leaving | |
your door just as day was breaking, you filled your pocket with some | |
reddish gravel that was lying heaped beside your gate." | |
Sterndale gave a violent start and looked at Holmes in amazement. | |
"You then walked swiftly for the mile which separated you from the | |
vicarage. You were wearing, I may remark, the same pair of ribbed | |
tennis shoes which are at the present moment upon your feet. At the | |
vicarage you passed through the orchard and the side hedge, coming | |
out under the window of the lodger Tregennis. It was now daylight, | |
but the household was not yet stirring. You drew some of the gravel | |
from your pocket, and you threw it up at the window above you." | |
Sterndale sprang to his feet. | |
"I believe that you are the devil himself!" he cried. | |
Holmes smiled at the compliment. "It took two, or possibly three, | |
handfuls before the lodger came to the window. You beckoned him to | |
come down. He dressed hurriedly and descended to his sitting-room. | |
You entered by the window. There was an interview--a short | |
one--during which you walked up and down the room. Then you passed | |
out and closed the window, standing on the lawn outside smoking a | |
cigar and watching what occurred. Finally, after the death of | |
Tregennis, you withdrew as you had come. Now, Dr. Sterndale, how do | |
you justify such conduct, and what were the motives for your actions? | |
If you prevaricate or trifle with me, I give you my assurance that | |
the matter will pass out of my hands forever." | |
Our visitor's face had turned ashen gray as he listened to the words | |
of his accuser. Now he sat for some time in thought with his face | |
sunk in his hands. Then with a sudden impulsive gesture he plucked a | |
photograph from his breast-pocket and threw it on the rustic table | |
before us. | |
"That is why I have done it," said he. | |
It showed the bust and face of a very beautiful woman. Holmes stooped | |
over it. | |
"Brenda Tregennis," said he. | |
"Yes, Brenda Tregennis," repeated our visitor. "For years I have | |
loved her. For years she has loved me. There is the secret of that | |
Cornish seclusion which people have marvelled at. It has brought me | |
close to the one thing on earth that was dear to me. I could not | |
marry her, for I have a wife who has left me for years and yet whom, | |
by the deplorable laws of England, I could not divorce. For years | |
Brenda waited. For years I waited. And this is what we have waited | |
for." A terrible sob shook his great frame, and he clutched his | |
throat under his brindled beard. Then with an effort he mastered | |
himself and spoke on: | |
"The vicar knew. He was in our confidence. He would tell you that she | |
was an angel upon earth. That was why he telegraphed to me and I | |
returned. What was my baggage or Africa to me when I learned that | |
such a fate had come upon my darling? There you have the missing clue | |
to my action, Mr. Holmes." | |
"Proceed," said my friend. | |
Dr. Sterndale drew from his pocket a paper packet and laid it upon | |
the table. On the outside was written "Radix pedis diaboli" with a | |
red poison label beneath it. He pushed it towards me. "I understand | |
that you are a doctor, sir. Have you ever heard of this preparation?" | |
"Devil's-foot root! No, I have never heard of it." | |
"It is no reflection upon your professional knowledge," said he, "for | |
I believe that, save for one sample in a laboratory at Buda, there is | |
no other specimen in Europe. It has not yet found its way either into | |
the pharmacopoeia or into the literature of toxicology. The root is | |
shaped like a foot, half human, half goatlike; hence the fanciful | |
name given by a botanical missionary. It is used as an ordeal poison | |
by the medicine-men in certain districts of West Africa and is kept | |
as a secret among them. This particular specimen I obtained under | |
very extraordinary circumstances in the Ubangi country." He opened | |
the paper as he spoke and disclosed a heap of reddish-brown, | |
snuff-like powder. | |
"Well, sir?" asked Holmes sternly. | |
"I am about to tell you, Mr. Holmes, all that actually occurred, for | |
you already know so much that it is clearly to my interest that you | |
should know all. I have already explained the relationship in which I | |
stood to the Tregennis family. For the sake of the sister I was | |
friendly with the brothers. There was a family quarrel about money | |
which estranged this man Mortimer, but it was supposed to be made up, | |
and I afterwards met him as I did the others. He was a sly, subtle, | |
scheming man, and several things arose which gave me a suspicion of | |
him, but I had no cause for any positive quarrel. | |
"One day, only a couple of weeks ago, he came down to my cottage and | |
I showed him some of my African curiosities. Among other things I | |
exhibited this powder, and I told him of its strange properties, how | |
it stimulates those brain centres which control the emotion of fear, | |
and how either madness or death is the fate of the unhappy native who | |
is subjected to the ordeal by the priest of his tribe. I told him | |
also how powerless European science would be to detect it. How he | |
took it I cannot say, for I never left the room, but there is no | |
doubt that it was then, while I was opening cabinets and stooping to | |
boxes, that he managed to abstract some of the devil's-foot root. I | |
well remember how he plied me with questions as to the amount and the | |
time that was needed for its effect, but I little dreamed that he | |
could have a personal reason for asking. | |
"I thought no more of the matter until the vicar's telegram reached | |
me at Plymouth. This villain had thought that I would be at sea | |
before the news could reach me, and that I should be lost for years | |
in Africa. But I returned at once. Of course, I could not listen to | |
the details without feeling assured that my poison had been used. I | |
came round to see you on the chance that some other explanation had | |
suggested itself to you. But there could be none. I was convinced | |
that Mortimer Tregennis was the murderer; that for the sake of money, | |
and with the idea, perhaps, that if the other members of his family | |
were all insane he would be the sole guardian of their joint | |
property, he had used the devil's-foot powder upon them, driven two | |
of them out of their senses, and killed his sister Brenda, the one | |
human being whom I have ever loved or who has ever loved me. There | |
was his crime; what was to be his punishment? | |
"Should I appeal to the law? Where were my proofs? I knew that the | |
facts were true, but could I help to make a jury of countrymen | |
believe so fantastic a story? I might or I might not. But I could not | |
afford to fail. My soul cried out for revenge. I have said to you | |
once before, Mr. Holmes, that I have spent much of my life outside | |
the law, and that I have come at last to be a law to myself. So it | |
was even now. I determined that the fate which he had given to others | |
should be shared by himself. Either that or I would do justice upon | |
him with my own hand. In all England there can be no man who sets | |
less value upon his own life than I do at the present moment. | |
"Now I have told you all. You have yourself supplied the rest. I did, | |
as you say, after a restless night, set off early from my cottage. I | |
foresaw the difficulty of arousing him, so I gathered some gravel | |
from the pile which you have mentioned, and I used it to throw up to | |
his window. He came down and admitted me through the window of the | |
sitting-room. I laid his offence before him. I told him that I had | |
come both as judge and executioner. The wretch sank into a chair, | |
paralyzed at the sight of my revolver. I lit the lamp, put the powder | |
above it, and stood outside the window, ready to carry out my threat | |
to shoot him should he try to leave the room. In five minutes he | |
died. My God! how he died! But my heart was flint, for he endured | |
nothing which my innocent darling had not felt before him. There is | |
my story, Mr. Holmes. Perhaps, if you loved a woman, you would have | |
done as much yourself. At any rate, I am in your hands. You can take | |
what steps you like. As I have already said, there is no man living | |
who can fear death less than I do." | |
Holmes sat for some little time in silence. | |
"What were your plans?" he asked at last. | |
"I had intended to bury myself in central Africa. My work there is | |
but half finished." | |
"Go and do the other half," said Holmes. "I, at least, am not | |
prepared to prevent you." | |
Dr. Sterndale raised his giant figure, bowed gravely, and walked from | |
the arbour. Holmes lit his pipe and handed me his pouch. | |
"Some fumes which are not poisonous would be a welcome change," said | |
he. "I think you must agree, Watson, that it is not a case in which | |
we are called upon to interfere. Our investigation has been | |
independent, and our action shall be so also. You would not denounce | |
the man?" | |
"Certainly not," I answered. | |
"I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I loved | |
had met such an end, I might act even as our lawless lion-hunter has | |
done. Who knows? Well, Watson, I will not offend your intelligence by | |
explaining what is obvious. The gravel upon the window-sill was, of | |
course, the starting-point of my research. It was unlike anything in | |
the vicarage garden. Only when my attention had been drawn to Dr. | |
Sterndale and his cottage did I find its counterpart. The lamp | |
shining in broad daylight and the remains of powder upon the shield | |
were successive links in a fairly obvious chain. And now, my dear | |
Watson, I think we may dismiss the matter from our mind and go back | |
with a clear conscience to the study of those Chaldean roots which | |
are surely to be traced in the Cornish branch of the great Celtic | |
speech." | |
HIS LAST BOW | |
An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes | |
It was nine o'clock at night upon the second of August--the most | |
terrible August in the history of the world. One might have thought | |
already that God's curse hung heavy over a degenerate world, for | |
there was an awesome hush and a feeling of vague expectancy in the | |
sultry and stagnant air. The sun had long set, but one blood-red gash | |
like an open wound lay low in the distant west. Above, the stars were | |
shining brightly, and below, the lights of the shipping glimmered in | |
the bay. The two famous Germans stood beside the stone parapet of the | |
garden walk, with the long, low, heavily gabled house behind them, | |
and they looked down upon the broad sweep of the beach at the foot of | |
the great chalk cliff in which Von Bork, like some wandering eagle, | |
had perched himself four years before. They stood with their heads | |
close together, talking in low, confidential tones. From below the | |
two glowing ends of their cigars might have been the smouldering eyes | |
of some malignant fiend looking down in the darkness. | |
A remarkable man this Von Bork--a man who could hardly be matched | |
among all the devoted agents of the Kaiser. It was his talents which | |
had first recommended him for the English mission, the most important | |
mission of all, but since he had taken it over those talents had | |
become more and more manifest to the half-dozen people in the world | |
who were really in touch with the truth. One of these was his present | |
companion, Baron Von Herling, the chief secretary of the legation, | |
whose huge 100-horse-power Benz car was blocking the country lane as | |
it waited to waft its owner back to London. | |
"So far as I can judge the trend of events, you will probably be back | |
in Berlin within the week," the secretary was saying. "When you get | |
there, my dear Von Bork, I think you will be surprised at the welcome | |
you will receive. I happen to know what is thought in the highest | |
quarters of your work in this country." He was a huge man, the | |
secretary, deep, broad, and tall, with a slow, heavy fashion of | |
speech which had been his main asset in his political career. | |
Von Bork laughed. | |
"They are not very hard to deceive," he remarked. "A more docile, | |
simple folk could not be imagined." | |
"I don't know about that," said the other thoughtfully. "They have | |
strange limits and one must learn to observe them. It is that surface | |
simplicity of theirs which makes a trap for the stranger. One's first | |
impression is that they are entirely soft. Then one comes suddenly | |
upon something very hard, and you know that you have reached the | |
limit and must adapt yourself to the fact. They have, for example, | |
their insular conventions which simply must be observed." | |
"Meaning 'good form' and that sort of thing?" Von Bork sighed as one | |
who had suffered much. | |
"Meaning British prejudice in all its queer manifestations. As an | |
example I may quote one of my own worst blunders--I can afford to | |
talk of my blunders, for you know my work well enough to be aware of | |
my successes. It was on my first arrival. I was invited to a week-end | |
gathering at the country house of a cabinet minister. The | |
conversation was amazingly indiscreet." | |
Von Bork nodded. "I've been there," said he dryly. | |
"Exactly. Well, I naturally sent a resume of the information to | |
Berlin. Unfortunately our good chancellor is a little heavy-handed in | |
these matters, and he transmitted a remark which showed that he was | |
aware of what had been said. This, of course, took the trail straight | |
up to me. You've no idea the harm that it did me. There was nothing | |
soft about our British hosts on that occasion, I can assure you. I | |
was two years living it down. Now you, with this sporting pose of | |
yours--" | |
"No, no, don't call it a pose. A pose is an artificial thing. This is | |
quite natural. I am a born sportsman. I enjoy it." | |
"Well, that makes it the more effective. You yacht against them, you | |
hunt with them, you play polo, you match them in every game, your | |
four-in-hand takes the prize at Olympia. I have even heard that you | |
go the length of boxing with the young officers. What is the result? | |
Nobody takes you seriously. You are a 'good old sport,' 'quite a | |
decent fellow for a German,' a hard-drinking, night-club, | |
knock-about-town, devil-may-care young fellow. And all the time this | |
quiet country house of yours is the centre of half the mischief in | |
England, and the sporting squire the most astute secret-service man | |
in Europe. Genius, my dear Von Bork--genius!" | |
"You flatter me, Baron. But certainly I may claim my four years in | |
this country have not been unproductive. I've never shown you my | |
little store. Would you mind stepping in for a moment?" | |
The door of the study opened straight on to the terrace. Von Bork | |
pushed it back, and, leading the way, he clicked the switch of the | |
electric light. He then closed the door behind the bulky form which | |
followed him and carefully adjusted the heavy curtain over the | |
latticed window. Only when all these precautions had been taken and | |
tested did he turn his sunburned aquiline face to his guest. | |
"Some of my papers have gone," said he. "When my wife and the | |
household left yesterday for Flushing they took the less important | |
with them. I must, of course, claim the protection of the embassy for | |
the others." | |
"Your name has already been filed as one of the personal suite. There | |
will be no difficulties for you or your baggage. Of course, it is | |
just possible that we may not have to go. England may leave France to | |
her fate. We are sure that there is no binding treaty between them." | |
"And Belgium?" | |
"Yes, and Belgium, too." | |
Von Bork shook his head. "I don't see how that could be. There is a | |
definite treaty there. She could never recover from such a | |
humiliation." | |
"She would at least have peace for the moment." | |
"But her honor?" | |
"Tut, my dear sir, we live in a utilitarian age. Honour is a | |
mediaeval conception. Besides England is not ready. It is an | |
inconceivable thing, but even our special war tax of fifty million, | |
which one would think made our purpose as clear as if we had | |
advertised it on the front page of the Times, has not roused these | |
people from their slumbers. Here and there one hears a question. It | |
is my business to find an answer. Here and there also there is an | |
irritation. It is my business to soothe it. But I can assure you that | |
so far as the essentials go--the storage of munitions, the | |
preparation for submarine attack, the arrangements for making high | |
explosives--nothing is prepared. How, then, can England come in, | |
especially when we have stirred her up such a devil's brew of Irish | |
civil war, window-breaking Furies, and God knows what to keep her | |
thoughts at home." | |
"She must think of her future." | |
"Ah, that is another matter. I fancy that in the future we have our | |
own very definite plans about England, and that your information will | |
be very vital to us. It is to-day or to-morrow with Mr. John Bull. If | |
he prefers to-day we are perfectly ready. If it is to-morrow we shall | |
be more ready still. I should think they would be wiser to fight with | |
allies than without them, but that is their own affair. This week is | |
their week of destiny. But you were speaking of your papers." He sat | |
in the armchair with the light shining upon his broad bald head, | |
while he puffed sedately at his cigar. | |
The large oak-panelled, book-lined room had a curtain hung in the | |
future corner. When this was drawn it disclosed a large, brass-bound | |
safe. Von Bork detached a small key from his watch chain, and after | |
some considerable manipulation of the lock he swung open the heavy | |
door. | |
"Look!" said he, standing clear, with a wave of his hand. | |
The light shone vividly into the opened safe, and the secretary of | |
the embassy gazed with an absorbed interest at the rows of stuffed | |
pigeon-holes with which it was furnished. Each pigeon-hole had its | |
label, and his eyes as he glanced along them read a long series of | |
such titles as "Fords," "Harbour-defences," "Aeroplanes," "Ireland," | |
"Egypt," "Portsmouth forts," "The Channel," "Rosythe," and a score of | |
others. Each compartment was bristling with papers and plans. | |
"Colossal!" said the secretary. Putting down his cigar he softly | |
clapped his fat hands. | |
"And all in four years, Baron. Not such a bad show for the | |
hard-drinking, hard-riding country squire. But the gem of my | |
collection is coming and there is the setting all ready for it." He | |
pointed to a space over which "Naval Signals" was printed. | |
"But you have a good dossier there already." | |
"Out of date and waste paper. The Admiralty in some way got the alarm | |
and every code has been changed. It was a blow, Baron--the worst | |
setback in my whole campaign. But thanks to my check-book and the | |
good Altamont all will be well to-night." | |
The Baron looked at his watch and gave a guttural exclamation of | |
disappointment. | |
"Well, I really can wait no longer. You can imagine that things are | |
moving at present in Carlton Terrace and that we have all to be at | |
our posts. I had hoped to be able to bring news of your great coup. | |
Did Altamont name no hour?" | |
Von Bork pushed over a telegram. | |
Will come without fail to-night and bring new sparking plugs. | |
--Altamont. | |
"Sparking plugs, eh?" | |
"You see he poses as a motor expert and I keep a full garage. In our | |
code everything likely to come up is named after some spare part. If | |
he talks of a radiator it is a battleship, of an oil pump a cruiser, | |
and so on. Sparking plugs are naval signals." | |
"From Portsmouth at midday," said the secretary, examining the | |
superscription. "By the way, what do you give him?" | |
"Five hundred pounds for this particular job. Of course he has a | |
salary as well." | |
"The greedy rouge. They are useful, these traitors, but I grudge them | |
their blood money." | |
"I grudge Altamont nothing. He is a wonderful worker. If I pay him | |
well, at least he delivers the goods, to use his own phrase. Besides | |
he is not a traitor. I assure you that our most pan-Germanic Junker | |
is a sucking dove in his feelings towards England as compared with a | |
real bitter Irish-American." | |
"Oh, an Irish-American?" | |
"If you heard him talk you would not doubt it. Sometimes I assure you | |
I can hardly understand him. He seems to have declared war on the | |
King's English as well as on the English king. Must you really go? He | |
may be here any moment." | |
"No. I'm sorry, but I have already overstayed my time. We shall | |
expect you early to-morrow, and when you get that signal book through | |
the little door on the Duke of York's steps you can put a triumphant | |
finis to your record in England. What! Tokay!" He indicated a heavily | |
sealed dust-covered bottle which stood with two high glasses upon a | |
salver. | |
"May I offer you a glass before your journey?" | |
"No, thanks. But it looks like revelry." | |
"Altamont has a nice taste in wines, and he took a fancy to my Tokay. | |
He is a touchy fellow and needs humouring in small things. I have to | |
study him, I assure you." They had strolled out on to the terrace | |
again, and along it to the further end where at a touch from the | |
Baron's chauffeur the great car shivered and chuckled. "Those are the | |
lights of Harwich, I suppose," said the secretary, pulling on his | |
dust coat. "How still and peaceful it all seems. There may be other | |
lights within the week, and the English coast a less tranquil place! | |
The heavens, too, may not be quite so peaceful if all that the good | |
Zeppelin promises us comes true. By the way, who is that?" | |
Only one window showed a light behind them; in it there stood a lamp, | |
and beside it, seated at a table, was a dear old ruddy-faced woman in | |
a country cap. She was bending over her knitting and stopping | |
occasionally to stroke a large black cat upon a stool beside her. | |
"That is Martha, the only servant I have left." | |
The secretary chuckled. | |
"She might almost personify Britannia," said he, "with her complete | |
self-absorption and general air of comfortable somnolence. Well, au | |
revoir, Von Bork!" With a final wave of his hand he sprang into the | |
car, and a moment later the two golden cones from the headlights shot | |
through the darkness. The secretary lay back in the cushions of the | |
luxurious limousine, with his thoughts so full of the impending | |
European tragedy that he hardly observed that as his car swung round | |
the village street it nearly passed over a little Ford coming in the | |
opposite direction. | |
Von Bork walked slowly back to the study when the last gleams of the | |
motor lamps had faded into the distance. As he passed he observed | |
that his old housekeeper had put out her lamp and retired. It was a | |
new experience to him, the silence and darkness of his widespread | |
house, for his family and household had been a large one. It was a | |
relief to him, however, to think that they were all in safety and | |
that, but for that one old woman who had lingered in the kitchen, he | |
had the whole place to himself. There was a good deal of tidying up | |
to do inside his study and he set himself to do it until his keen, | |
handsome face was flushed with the heat of the burning papers. A | |
leather valise stood beside his table, and into this he began to pack | |
very neatly and systematically the precious contents of his safe. He | |
had hardly got started with the work, however, when his quick ears | |
caught the sounds of a distant car. Instantly he gave an exclamation | |
of satisfaction, strapped up the valise, shut the safe, locked it, | |
and hurried out on to the terrace. He was just in time to see the | |
lights of a small car come to a halt at the gate. A passenger sprang | |
out of it and advanced swiftly towards him, while the chauffeur, a | |
heavily built, elderly man with a gray moustache, settled down like | |
one who resigns himself to a long vigil. | |
"Well?" asked Von Bork eagerly, running forward to meet his visitor. | |
For answer the man waved a small brown-paper parcel triumphantly | |
above his head. | |
"You can give me the glad hand to-night, mister," he cried. "I'm | |
bringing home the bacon at last." | |
"The signals?" | |
"Same as I said in my cable. Every last one of them, semaphore, lamp | |
code, Marconi--a copy, mind you, not the original. That was too | |
dangerous. But it's the real goods, and you can lay to that." He | |
slapped the German upon the shoulder with a rough familiarity from | |
which the other winced. | |
"Come in," he said. "I'm all alone in the house. I was only waiting | |
for this. Of course a copy is better than the original. If an | |
original were missing they would change the whole thing. You think | |
it's all safe about the copy?" | |
The Irish-American had entered the study and stretched his long limbs | |
from the armchair. He was a tall, gaunt man of sixty, with clear-cut | |
features and a small goatee beard which gave him a general | |
resemblance to the caricatures of Uncle Sam. A half-smoked, sodden | |
cigar hung from the corner of his mouth, and as he sat down he struck | |
a match and relit it. "Making ready for a move?" he remarked as he | |
looked round him. "Say, mister," he added, as his eyes fell upon the | |
safe from which the curtain was now removed, "you don't tell me you | |
keep your papers in that?" | |
"Why not?" | |
"Gosh, in a wide-open contraption like that! And they reckon you to | |
be some spy. Why, a Yankee crook would be into that with a | |
can-opener. If I'd known that any letter of mine was goin' to lie | |
loose in a thing like that I'd have been a mug to write to you at | |
all." | |
"It would puzzle any crook to force that safe," Von Bork answered. | |
"You won't cut that metal with any tool." | |
"But the lock?" | |
"No, it's a double combination lock. You know what that is?" | |
"Search me," said the American. | |
"Well, you need a word as well as a set of figures before you can get | |
the lock to work." He rose and showed a double-radiating disc round | |
the keyhole. "This outer one is for the letters, the inner one for | |
the figures." | |
"Well, well, that's fine." | |
"So it's not quite as simple as you thought. It was four years ago | |
that I had it made, and what do you think I chose for the word and | |
figures?" | |
"It's beyond me." | |
"Well, I chose August for the word, and 1914 for the figures, and | |
here we are." | |
The American's face showed his surprise and admiration. | |
"My, but that was smart! You had it down to a fine thing." | |
"Yes, a few of us even then could have guessed the date. Here it is, | |
and I'm shutting down to-morrow morning." | |
"Well, I guess you'll have to fix me up also. I'm not staying is this | |
gol-darned country all on my lonesome. In a week or less, from what I | |
see, John Bull will be on his hind legs and fair ramping. I'd rather | |
watch him from over the water." | |
"But you're an American citizen?" | |
"Well, so was Jack James an American citizen, but he's doing time in | |
Portland all the same. It cuts no ice with a British copper to tell | |
him you're an American citizen. 'It's British law and order over | |
here,' says he. By the way, mister, talking of Jack James, it seems | |
to me you don't do much to cover your men." | |
"What do you mean?" Von Bork asked sharply. | |
"Well, you are their employer, ain't you? It's up to you to see that | |
they don't fall down. But they do fall down, and when did you ever | |
pick them up? There's James--" | |
"It was James's own fault. You know that yourself. He was too | |
self-willed for the job." | |
"James was a bonehead--I give you that. Then there was Hollis." | |
"The man was mad." | |
"Well, he went a bit woozy towards the end. It's enough to make a man | |
bug-house when he has to play a part from morning to night with a | |
hundred guys all ready to set the coppers wise to him. But now there | |
is Steiner--" | |
Von Bork started violently, and his ruddy face turned a shade paler. | |
"What about Steiner?" | |
"Well, they've got him, that's all. They raided his store last night, | |
and he and his papers are all in Portsmouth jail. You'll go off and | |
he, poor devil, will have to stand the racket, and lucky if he gets | |
off with his life. That's why I want to get over the water as soon as | |
you do." | |
Von Bork was a strong, self-contained man, but it was easy to see | |
that the news had shaken him. | |
"How could they have got on to Steiner?" he muttered. "That's the | |
worst blow yet." | |
"Well, you nearly had a worse one, for I believe they are not far off | |
me." | |
"You don't mean that!" | |
"Sure thing. My landlady down Fratton way had some inquiries, and | |
when I heard of it I guessed it was time for me to hustle. But what I | |
want to know, mister, is how the coppers know these things? Steiner | |
is the fifth man you've lost since I signed on with you, and I know | |
the name of the sixth if I don't get a move on. How do you explain | |
it, and ain't you ashamed to see your men go down like this?" | |
Von Bork flushed crimson. | |
"How dare you speak in such a way!" | |
"If I didn't dare things, mister, I wouldn't be in your service. But | |
I'll tell you straight what is in my mind. I've heard that with you | |
German politicians when an agent has done his work you are not sorry | |
to see him put away." | |
Von Bork sprang to his feet. | |
"Do you dare to suggest that I have given away my own agents!" | |
"I don't stand for that, mister, but there's a stool pigeon or a | |
cross somewhere, and it's up to you to find out where it is. Anyhow I | |
am taking no more chances. It's me for little Holland, and the sooner | |
the better." | |
Von Bork had mastered his anger. | |
"We have been allies too long to quarrel now at the very hour of | |
victory," he said. "You've done splendid work and taken risks, and I | |
can't forget it. By all means go to Holland, and you can get a boat | |
from Rotterdam to New York. No other line will be safe a week from | |
now. I'll take that book and pack it with the rest." | |
The American held the small parcel in his hand, but made no motion to | |
give it up. | |
"What about the dough?" he asked. | |
"The what?" | |
"The boodle. The reward. The £500. The gunner turned damned nasty at | |
the last, and I had to square him with an extra hundred dollars or it | |
would have been nitsky for you and me. 'Nothin' doin'!' says he, and | |
he meant it, too, but the last hundred did it. It's cost me two | |
hundred pound from first to last, so it isn't likely I'd give it up | |
without gettin' my wad." | |
Von Bork smiled with some bitterness. "You don't seem to have a very | |
high opinion of my honour," said he, "you want the money before you | |
give up the book." | |
"Well, mister, it is a business proposition." | |
"All right. Have your way." He sat down at the table and scribbled a | |
check, which he tore from the book, but he refrained from handing it | |
to his companion. "After all, since we are to be on such terms, Mr. | |
Altamont," said he, "I don't see why I should trust you any more than | |
you trust me. Do you understand?" he added, looking back over his | |
shoulder at the American. "There's the check upon the table. I claim | |
the right to examine that parcel before you pick the money up." | |
The American passed it over without a word. Von Bork undid a winding | |
of string and two wrappers of paper. Then he sat dazing for a moment | |
in silent amazement at a small blue book which lay before him. Across | |
the cover was printed in golden letters Practical Handbook of Bee | |
Culture. Only for one instant did the master spy glare at this | |
strangely irrelevant inscription. The next he was gripped at the back | |
of his neck by a grasp of iron, and a chloroformed sponge was held in | |
front of his writhing face. | |
"Another glass, Watson!" said Mr. Sherlock Holmes as he extended the | |
bottle of Imperial Tokay. | |
The thickset chauffeur, who had seated himself by the table, pushed | |
forward his glass with some eagerness. | |
"It is a good wine, Holmes." | |
"A remarkable wine, Watson. Our friend upon the sofa has assured me | |
that it is from Franz Josef's special cellar at the Schoenbrunn | |
Palace. Might I trouble you to open the window, for chloroform vapour | |
does not help the palate." | |
The safe was ajar, and Holmes standing in front of it was removing | |
dossier after dossier, swiftly examining each, and then packing it | |
neatly in Von Bork's valise. The German lay upon the sofa sleeping | |
stertorously with a strap round his upper arms and another round his | |
legs. | |
"We need not hurry ourselves, Watson. We are safe from interruption. | |
Would you mind touching the bell? There is no one in the house except | |
old Martha, who has played her part to admiration. I got her the | |
situation here when first I took the matter up. Ah, Martha, you will | |
be glad to hear that all is well." | |
The pleasant old lady had appeared in the doorway. She curtseyed with | |
a smile to Mr. Holmes, but glanced with some apprehension at the | |
figure upon the sofa. | |
"It is all right, Martha. He has not been hurt at all." | |
"I am glad of that, Mr. Holmes. According to his lights he has been a | |
kind master. He wanted me to go with his wife to Germany yesterday, | |
but that would hardly have suited your plans, would it, sir?" | |
"No, indeed, Martha. So long as you were here I was easy in my mind. | |
We waited some time for your signal to-night." | |
"It was the secretary, sir." | |
"I know. His car passed ours." | |
"I thought he would never go. I knew that it would not suit your | |
plans, sir, to find him here." | |
"No, indeed. Well, it only meant that we waited half an hour or so | |
until I saw your lamp go out and knew that the coast was clear. You | |
can report to me to-morrow in London, Martha, at Claridge's Hotel." | |
"Very good, sir." | |
"I suppose you have everything ready to leave." | |
"Yes, sir. He posted seven letters to-day. I have the addresses as | |
usual." | |
"Very good, Martha. I will look into them to-morrow. Good-night. | |
These papers," he continued as the old lady vanished, "are not of | |
very great importance, for, of course, the information which they | |
represent has been sent off long ago to the German government. These | |
are the originals which cold not safely be got out of the country." | |
"Then they are of no use." | |
"I should not go so far as to say that, Watson. They will at least | |
show our people what is known and what is not. I may say that a good | |
many of these papers have come through me, and I need not add are | |
thoroughly untrustworthy. It would brighten my declining years to see | |
a German cruiser navigating the Solent according to the mine-field | |
plans which I have furnished. But you, Watson"--he stopped his work | |
and took his old friend by the shoulders--"I've hardly seen you in | |
the light yet. How have the years used you? You look the same blithe | |
boy as ever." | |
"I feel twenty years younger, Holmes. I have seldom felt so happy as | |
when I got your wire asking me to meet you at Harwich with the car. | |
But you, Holmes--you have changed very little--save for that horrible | |
goatee." | |
"These are the sacrifices one makes for one's country, Watson," said | |
Holmes, pulling at his little tuft. "To-morrow it will be but a | |
dreadful memory. With my hair cut and a few other superficial changes | |
I shall no doubt reappear at Claridge's to-morrow as I was before | |
this American stunt--I beg your pardon, Watson, my well of English | |
seems to be permanently defiled--before this American job came my | |
way." | |
"But you have retired, Holmes. We heard of you as living the life of | |
a hermit among your bees and your books in a small farm upon the | |
South Downs." | |
"Exactly, Watson. Here is the fruit of my leisured ease, the magnum | |
opus of my latter years!" He picked up the volume from the table and | |
read out the whole title, Practical Handbook of Bee Culture, with | |
Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen. "Alone I did it. | |
Behold the fruit of pensive nights and laborious days when I watched | |
the little working gangs as once I watched the criminal world of | |
London." | |
"But how did you get to work again?" | |
"Ah, I have often marvelled at it myself. The Foreign Minister alone | |
I could have withstood, but when the Premier also deigned to visit my | |
humble roof--! The fact is, Watson, that this gentleman upon the sofa | |
was a bit too good for our people. He was in a class by himself. | |
Things were going wrong, and no one could understand why they were | |
going wrong. Agents were suspected or even caught, but there was | |
evidence of some strong and secret central force. It was absolutely | |
necessary to expose it. Strong pressure was brought upon me to look | |
into the matter. It has cost me two years, Watson, but they have not | |
been devoid of excitement. When I say that I started my pilgrimage at | |
Chicago, graduated in an Irish secret society at Buffalo, gave | |
serious trouble to the constabulary at Skibbareen, and so eventually | |
caught the eye of a subordinate agent of Von Bork, who recommended me | |
as a likely man, you will realize that the matter was complex. Since | |
then I have been honoured by his confidence, which has not prevented | |
most of his plans going subtly wrong and five of his best agents | |
being in prison. I watched them, Watson, and I picked them as they | |
ripened. Well, sir, I hope that you are none the worse!" | |
The last remark was addressed to Von Bork himself, who after much | |
gasping and blinking had lain quietly listening to Holmes's | |
statement. He broke out now into a furious stream of German | |
invective, his face convulsed with passion. Holmes continued his | |
swift investigation of documents while his prisoner cursed and swore. | |
"Though unmusical, German is the most expressive of all languages," | |
he observed when Von Bork had stopped from pure exhaustion. "Hullo! | |
Hullo!" he added as he looked hard at the corner of a tracing before | |
putting it in the box. "This should put another bird in the cage. I | |
had no idea that the paymaster was such a rascal, though I have long | |
had an eye upon him. Mister Von Bork, you have a great deal to answer | |
for." | |
The prisoner had raised himself with some difficulty upon the sofa | |
and was staring with a strange mixture of amazement and hatred at his | |
captor. | |
"I shall get level with you, Altamont," he said, speaking with slow | |
deliberation. "If it takes me all my life I shall get level with | |
you!" | |
"The old sweet song," said Holmes. "How often have I heard it in days | |
gone by. It was a favorite ditty of the late lamented Professor | |
Moriarty. Colonel Sebastian Moran has also been known to warble it. | |
And yet I live and keep bees upon the South Downs." | |
"Curse you, you double traitor!" cried the German, straining against | |
his bonds and glaring murder from his furious eyes. | |
"No, no, it is not so bad as that," said Holmes, smiling. "As my | |
speech surely shows you, Mr. Altamont of Chicago had no existence in | |
fact. I used him and he is gone." | |
"Then who are you?" | |
"It is really immaterial who I am, but since the matter seems to | |
interest you, Mr. Von Bork, I may say that this is not my first | |
acquaintance with the members of your family. I have done a good deal | |
of business in Germany in the past and my name is probably familiar | |
to you." | |
"I would wish to know it," said the Prussian grimly. | |
"It was I who brought about the separation between Irene Adler and | |
the late King of Bohemia when your cousin Heinrich was the Imperial | |
Envoy. It was I also who saved from murder, by the Nihilist Klopman, | |
Count Von und Zu Grafenstein, who was your mother's elder brother. It | |
was I--" | |
Von Bork sat up in amazement. | |
"There is only one man," he cried. | |
"Exactly," said Holmes. | |
Von Bork groaned and sank back on the sofa. "And most of that | |
information came through you," he cried. "What is it worth? What have | |
I done? It is my ruin forever!" | |
"It is certainly a little untrustworthy," said Holmes. "It will | |
require some checking and you have little time to check it. Your | |
admiral may find the new guns rather larger than he expects, and the | |
cruisers perhaps a trifle faster." | |
Von Bork clutched at his own throat in despair. | |
"There are a good many other points of detail which will, no doubt, | |
come to light in good time. But you have one quality which is very | |
rare in a German, Mr. Von Bork: you are a sportsman and you will bear | |
me no ill-will when you realize that you, who have outwitted so many | |
other people, have at last been outwitted yourself. After all, you | |
have done your best for your country, and I have done my best for | |
mine, and what could be more natural? Besides," he added, not | |
unkindly, as he laid his hand upon the shoulder of the prostrate man, | |
"it is better than to fall before some ignoble foe. These papers are | |
now ready, Watson. If you will help me with our prisoner, I think | |
that we may get started for London at once." | |
It was no easy task to move Von Bork, for he was a strong and a | |
desperate man. Finally, holding either arm, the two friends walked | |
him very slowly down the garden walk which he had trod with such | |
proud confidence when he received the congratulations of the famous | |
diplomatist only a few hours before. After a short, final struggle he | |
was hoisted, still bound hand and foot, into the spare seat of the | |
little car. His precious valise was wedged in beside him. | |
"I trust that you are as comfortable as circumstances permit," said | |
Holmes when the final arrangements were made. "Should I be guilty of | |
a liberty if I lit a cigar and placed it between your lips?" | |
But all amenities were wasted upon the angry German. | |
"I suppose you realize, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said he, "that if your | |
government bears you out in this treatment it becomes an act of war." | |
"What about your government and all this treatment?" said Holmes, | |
tapping the valise. | |
"You are a private individual. You have no warrant for my arrest. The | |
whole proceeding is absolutely illegal and outrageous." | |
"Absolutely," said Holmes. | |
"Kidnapping a German subject." | |
"And stealing his private papers." | |
"Well, you realize your position, you and your accomplice here. If I | |
were to shout for help as we pass through the village--" | |
"My dear sir, if you did anything so foolish you would probably | |
enlarge the two limited titles of our village inns by giving us 'The | |
Dangling Prussian' as a signpost. The Englishman is a patient | |
creature, but at present his temper is a little inflamed, and it | |
would be as well not to try him too far. No, Mr. Von Bork, you will | |
go with us in a quiet, sensible fashion to Scotland Yard, whence you | |
can send for your friend, Baron Von Herling, and see if even now you | |
may not fill that place which he has reserved for you in the | |
ambassadorial suite. As to you, Watson, you are joining us with your | |
old service, as I understand, so London won't be out of your way. | |
Stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be the last quiet | |
talk that we shall ever have." | |
The two friends chatted in intimate converse for a few minutes, | |
recalling once again the days of the past, while their prisoner | |
vainly wriggled to undo the bonds that held him. As they turned to | |
the car Holmes pointed back to the moonlit sea and shook a thoughtful | |
head. | |
"There's an east wind coming, Watson." | |
"I think not, Holmes. It is very warm." | |
"Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. | |
There's an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew | |
on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many | |
of us may wither before its blast. But it's God's own wind none the | |
less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine | |
when the storm has cleared. Start her up, Watson, for it's time that | |
we were on our way. I have a check for five hundred pounds which | |
should be cashed early, for the drawer is quite capable of stopping | |
it if he can." | |
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