CHAPTER I.
THE SCIENCE OF DEDUCTION.
Sherlock Holmes took his bottle from the corner of the mantel-piece and his
hypodermic syringe from its
. With his long, white, nervous fingers he adjusted the delicate needle, and
rolled back his left shirt-cuff. For some little time his eyes rested thoughtfully
upon the sinewy forearm and wrist all dotted and scarred with innumerable
puncture-marks. Finally he thrust the sharp point home, pressed down the tiny piston,
and sank back into the velvet-lined arm-chair with a long sigh of satisfaction.
Three times a day for many months I had witnessed this performance, but custom had
not reconciled my mind to it. On the contrary, from day to day I had become more
irritable at the sight, and my conscience swelled nightly within me at the thought
that I had lacked the courage to protest. Again and again I had registered a vow that
I should deliver my soul upon the subject, but there was that in the cool, nonchalant
air of my companion which made him the last man with whom one would care to take
anything approaching to a liberty. His great powers, his masterly manner, and the
experience which I had had of his many extraordinary qualities, all made me diffident
and backward in crossing him.
Yet upon that afternoon, whether it was
, or the
additional exasperation produced by the extreme deliberation of his manner, I
suddenly felt that I could hold out no longer.
“Which is it to-day?" I asked,—“
?"
He raised his eyes languidly from the old
volume which he had opened. “It is cocaine," he said,—“a
seven-per-cent. solution. Would you care to try it?"
“No, indeed," I answered, brusquely. “My constitution has not 148got over the
yet. I cannot afford to throw any extra strain upon
it."
He smiled at my vehemence. “Perhaps you are right, Watson," he said. “I suppose that
its influence is physically a bad one. I find it, however, so transcendently
stimulating and clarifying to the mind that its secondary action is a matter of small
moment."
“But consider!" I said, earnestly. “Count the cost! Your brain may, as you say, be
roused and excited, but it is a pathological and morbid process, which involves
increased tissue-change and may at last leave a permanent weakness. You know, too,
what a black reaction comes upon you. Surely the game is hardly worth the candle. Why
should you, for a mere passing pleasure, risk the loss of those great powers with
which you have been endowed? Remember that I speak not only as one comrade to
another, but as a medical man to one for whose constitution he is to some extent
answerable."
He did not seem offended. On the contrary, he put his finger-tips together and leaned
his elbows on the arms of his chair, like one who has a relish for conversation.
“My mind," he said, “rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me
the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own
proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the
dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation. That is why I have chosen
my own particular profession,—or rather created it, for I am the only one in the
world."
“The only unofficial detective?" I said, raising my eyebrows.
“The only unofficial consulting detective," he answered. “I am the last and highest
court of appeal in detection. When Gregson or Lestrade or Athelney Jones are out of
their depths—which, by the way, is their normal state—the matter is laid before me. I
examine the data, as an expert, and pronounce a specialist’s opinion. I claim no
credit in such cases. My name figures in no newspaper. The work itself, the pleasure
of finding a field for my peculiar powers, is my highest reward. But you have
yourself had some experience of my methods of work in the Jefferson Hope case."
“Yes, indeed," said I, cordially. “I was never so struck by anything in my life. I
even embodied it in a small brochure with the somewhat fantastic title of
"
He shook his head sadly. “I glanced over it," said he. “Honestly, I cannot
congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should
be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it
with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story
or an elopement into
."
“But the romance was there," I remonstrated. “I could not tamper with the facts."
“Some facts should be suppressed, or at least a just sense of proportion should be
observed in treating them. The only point in the case which deserved mention was the
curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes by which I succeeded in
unraveling it."
149
I was annoyed at this criticism of a work which had been specially designed to please
him. I confess, too, that I was irritated by the egotism which seemed to demand that
every line of my pamphlet should be devoted to his own special doings. More than once
during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed that a
small vanity underlay my companion’s quiet and didactic manner. I made no remark,
however, but sat nursing my wounded leg. I had a
through it some time before, and, though it did not prevent me from walking, it ached
wearily at every change of the weather.
“My practice has extended recently to
," said Holmes, after a while, filling up his old
. “I was consulted last week by François Le Villard, who, as you probably
know, has come rather to the front lately in the French detective service. He has all
the Celtic power of quick intuition, but he is deficient in the wide range of exact
knowledge which is essential to the higher developments of his art. The case was
concerned with a will, and possessed some features of interest. I was able to refer
him to two parallel cases, the one at Riga in 1857, and the
other at St. Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the
true solution. Here is the letter which I had this morning acknowledging my
assistance." He tossed over, as he spoke, a crumpled sheet of foreign notepaper. I
glanced my eyes down it, catching a profusion of notes of admiration, with stray
“magnifiques," “
," and
“
," all testifying to the ardent admiration of the
Frenchman.
“He speaks as a pupil to his master," said I.
“Oh, he rates my assistance too highly," said Sherlock Holmes, lightly. “He has
considerable gifts himself. He possesses two out of the three qualities necessary for
the ideal detective. He has the power of observation and that of deduction. He is
only wanting in knowledge; and that may come in time. He is now translating my small
works into French."
“Your works?"
“Oh, didn’t you know?" he cried, laughing. “Yes, I have been guilty of several
monographs. They are all upon technical subjects. Here, for example, is one ‘Upon the
Distinction between the Ashes of the Various Tobaccoes.’ In it I enumerate a hundred
and forty forms of cigar-, cigarette-, and pipe-tobacco, with coloured plates
illustrating the difference in the ash. It is a point which is continually turning up
in criminal trials, and which is sometimes of supreme importance as a clue. If you
can say definitely, for example, that some murder has been done by a man who was
smoking an Indian
, it obviously narrows your field of search. To the trained eye there
is as much difference between the black ash of a
and the white fluff of bird’s-eye as there is between a
cabbage and a potato."
“You have an extraordinary genius for minutiæ," I remarked.
“I appreciate their importance. Here is my monograph upon the tracing of footsteps,
with some remarks upon the uses of plaster of Paris as a preserver of impresses.
Here, too, is a curious little work upon the influence of a trade upon the form of
the hand, with lithotypes of the hands of slaters, sailors, corkcutters, compositors,
weavers, and 150diamond-polishers. That is a
matter of great practical interest to the scientific detective,—especially in cases
of unclaimed bodies, or in discovering the antecedents of criminals. But I weary you
with my hobby."
“Not at all," I answered, earnestly. “It is of the greatest interest to me,
especially since I have had the opportunity of observing your practical application
of it. But you spoke just now of observation and deduction. Surely the one to some
extent implies the other."
“Why, hardly," he answered, leaning back luxuriously in his arm-chair, and sending up
thick blue wreaths from his pipe. “For example, observation shows me that you have
been to the Wigmore Street Post-Office this morning, but deduction lets me know that
when there you dispatched a
."
“Right!" said I. “Right on both points! But I confess that I don’t see how you
arrived at it. It was a sudden impulse upon my part, and I have mentioned it to no
one."
“It is simplicity itself," he remarked, chuckling at my surprise,—“so absurdly simple
that an explanation is superfluous; and yet it may serve to define the limits of
observation and of deduction. Observation tells me that you have a little reddish
mould adhering to your instep. Just opposite the Wigmore Street Office they have
taken up the pavement and thrown up some earth which lies in such a way that it is
difficult to avoid treading in it in entering. The earth is of this peculiar reddish
tint which is found, as far as I know, nowhere else in the neighbourhood. So much is
observation. The rest is deduction."
“How, then, did you deduce the telegram?"
“Why, of course I knew that you had not written a letter, since I sat opposite to you
all morning. I see also in your open desk there that you have a sheet of stamps and a
thick bundle of post-cards. What could you go into the post-office for, then, but to
send a wire? Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the
truth."
“In this case it certainly is so," I replied, after a little thought. “The thing,
however, is, as you say, of the simplest. Would you think me impertinent if I were to
put your theories to a more severe test?"
“On the contrary," he answered, “it would prevent me from taking a second dose of
cocaine. I should be delighted to look into any problem which you might submit to
me."
“I have heard you say that it is difficult for a man to have any object in daily use
without leaving the impress of his individuality upon it in such a way that a trained
observer might read it. Now, I have here a watch which has recently come into my
possession. Would you have the kindness to let me have an opinion upon the character
or habits of the late owner?"
I handed him over the watch with some slight feeling of amusement in my heart, for
the test was, as I thought, an impossible one, and I intended it as a lesson against
the somewhat dogmatic tone which he occasionally assumed. He balanced the watch in
his hand, gazed hard at the dial, opened the back, and examined the works, first with
his naked eyes and then with a powerful convex lens. I could hardly keep 151from smiling at his crestfallen face when he finally
snapped the case to and handed it back.
“There are hardly any data," he remarked. “The watch has been recently cleaned, which
robs me of my most suggestive facts."
“You are right," I answered. “It was cleaned before being sent to me." In my heart I
accused my companion of putting forward a most lame and impotent excuse to cover his
failure. What data could he expect from an uncleaned watch?
“Though unsatisfactory, my research has not been entirely barren," he observed,
staring up at the ceiling with dreamy, lack-lustre eyes. “Subject to your correction,
I should judge that the watch belonged to your elder brother, who inherited it from
your father."
“That you gather, no doubt, from the H. W. upon the back?"
“Quite so. The W. suggests your own name. The date of the watch is nearly fifty years
back, and the initials are as old as the watch: so it was made for the last
generation. Jewelry usually descends to the eldest son, and he is most likely to have
the same name as the father. Your father has, if I remember right, been dead many
years. It has, therefore, been in the hands of your eldest brother."
“Right, so far," said I. “Anything else?"
“He was a man of untidy habits,—very untidy and careless. He was left with good
prospects, but he threw away his chances, lived for some time in poverty with
occasional short intervals of prosperity, and finally, taking to drink, he died. That
is all I can gather."
I sprang from my chair and limped impatiently about the room with considerable
bitterness in my heart.
“This is unworthy of you, Holmes," I said. “I could not have believed that you would
have descended to this. You have made inquires into the history of my unhappy
brother, and you now pretend to deduce this knowledge in some fanciful way. You
cannot expect me to believe that you have read all this from his old watch! It is
unkind, and, to speak plainly, has a touch of charlatanism in it."
“My dear doctor," said he, kindly, “pray accept my apologies. Viewing the matter as
an abstract problem, I had forgotten how personal and painful a thing it might be to
you. I assure you, however, that I never even knew that you had a brother until you
handed me the watch."
“Then how in the name of all that is wonderful did you get these facts? They are
absolutely correct in every particular."
“Ah, that is good luck. I could only say what was the balance of probability. I did
not at all expect to be so accurate."
“But it was not mere guess-work?"
“No, no: I never guess. It is a shocking habit,—destructive to the logical faculty.
What seems strange to you is only so because you do not follow my train of thought or
observe the small facts upon which large inferences may depend. For example, I began
by stating that your brother was careless. When you observe the lower part of that
watch-case you notice that it is not only dinted in two places, but it is cut and
marked all over from the habit of keeping other hard objects, such as coins or keys,
in the same pocket. Surely it is no great 152feat
to assume that a man who treats a fifty-guinea watch so cavalierly must be a careless
man. Neither is it a very far-fetched inference that a man who inherits one article
of such value is pretty well provided for in other respects."
I nodded, to show that I followed his reasoning.
“It is very customary for pawnbrokers in England, when they
take a watch, to scratch the number of the ticket with a pin-point upon the inside of
the case. It is more handy than a label, as there is no risk of the number being lost
or transposed. There are no less than four such numbers visible to my lens on the
inside of this case. Inference,—that your brother was often at low water. Secondary
inference,—that he had occasional bursts of prosperity, or he could not have redeemed
the pledge. Finally, I ask you to look at the inner plate, which contains the
key-hole. Look at the thousands of scratches all round the hole,—marks where the key
has slipped. What sober man’s key could have scored those grooves? But you will never
see a drunkard’s watch without them. He winds it at night, and he leaves these traces
of his unsteady hand. Where is the mystery in all this?"
“It is as clear as daylight," I answered. “I regret the injustice which I did you. I
should have had more faith in your marvellous faculty. May I ask whether you have any
professional inquiry on foot at present?"
“None. Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to
live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable
world? See how the
swirls down the street and drifts across the
dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the
use of having powers, doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime
is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are
commonplace have any function upon earth."
I had opened my mouth to reply to this tirade, when with a crisp knock our landlady
entered, bearing a card upon the
.
“A young lady for you, sir," she said, addressing my companion.
“Miss Mary ," he read. “Hum! I have no recollection of the name. Ask the young lady
to step up, Mrs. Hudson. Don’t go, doctor. I should prefer that you remain."
CHAPTER II.
THE STATEMENT OF THE CASE.
Miss entered the room with a firm step and an outward composure of manner. She was a
blonde young lady, small, dainty,
,
and dressed in
. There was, however, a plainness and simplicity
about which bore with it a suggestion of
limited means. The dress was a sombre greyish beige, untrimmed and unbraided, and she
wore a small turban of the same dull hue, relieved only by a suspicion of white
feather in the side. Her face had neither regularity of feature nor beauty of
complexion, but 152her expression was
, and her large blue eyes were singularly spiritual and
sympathetic. In an experience of women which extends over many nations and three
separate continents, I have never looked upon a face which gave a clearer promise of
a refined and sensitive nature. I could not but observe that as she took the seat
which Sherlock Holmes placed for her, her lip trembled, her hand quivered, and she
showed every sign of intense inward agitation.
“I have come to you, Mr. Holmes," she said, “because you once enabled my employer,
Mrs. Cecil Forrester, to unravel a little domestic complication. She was much
impressed by your kindness and skill."
“Mrs. Cecil Forrester," he repeated thoughtfully. “I believe that I was of some
slight service to her. The case, however, as I remember it, was a very simple
one."
“She did not think so. But at least you cannot say the same of mine. I can hardly
imagine anything more strange, more utterly inexplicable, than the situation in which
I find myself."
Holmes rubbed his hands, and his eyes glistened. He leaned forward in his chair with
an expression of extraordinary concentration upon his clear-cut, hawklike features.
“State your case," said he, in brisk, business tones.
I felt that my position was an embarrassing one. “You will, I am sure, excuse me," I
said, rising from my chair.
To my surprise, the young lady held up her gloved hand to detain me. “If your
friend," she said, “would be good enough to stop, he might be of inestimable service
to me."
I relapsed into my chair.
“Briefly," she continued, “the facts are these. My father was an officer in an Indian
regiment who sent me home when I was quite a child. My mother was dead, and I had no
relative in England. I was placed, however, in a comfortable
at
Edinburgh, and there I remained until I was seventeen years
of age. In the year 1878 my father, who was senior captain of his regiment, obtained
twelve months’ leave and came home. He telegraphed to me from London that he had arrived all safe, and directed me to
come down at once, giving the Langham Hotel as his address. His message, as I
remember, was full of kindness and love. On reaching London I drove to the Langham, and was informed that
Captain was staying there, but that he had gone out the night before and had not yet
returned. I waited all day without news of him. That night, on the advice of the
manager of the hotel, I communicated with the police, and next morning we advertised
in all the papers. Our inquiries led to no result; and from that day to this no word
has ever been heard of my unfortunate father. He came home with his heart full of
hope, to find some peace, some comfort, and instead—" She put her hand to her throat,
and a choking sob cut short the sentence.
“The date?" asked Holmes, opening his note-book.
“He disappeared upon the 3rd of December, 1878,—
."
“His luggage?"
“Remained at the hotel. There was nothing in it to suggest a clue,154—some clothes, some books, and a considerable number of
curiosities from the
He had been one of the officers in charge of the convict-guard
there."
“Had he any friends in town?"
“Only one that we know of,—Major Sholto, of his own regiment, the 34th Bombay
Infantry. The major had retired some little time before, and lived at Upper Norwood. We communicated with him, of
course, but he did not even know that his brother officer was in England."
“A singular case," remarked Holmes.
“I have not yet described to you the most singular part. About six years ago—to be
exact, upon the 4th of May, 1882—an advertisement appeared in the Times asking for
the address of Miss Mary and stating that it would be to her advantage to come
forward. There was no name or address appended.
. By her advice I published my address in the
advertisement column. The same day there arrived through the post a small card-board
box addressed to me, which I found to contain a very large and lustrous pearl. No
word of writing was enclosed. Since then every year upon the same date there has
always appeared a similar box, containing a similar pearl, without any clue as to the
sender. They have been pronounced by an expert to be of a rare variety and of
considerable value. You can see for yourselves that they are very handsome." She
opened a flat box as she spoke, and showed me six of the finest pearls that I had
ever seen.
“Your statement is most interesting," said Sherlock Holmes. “Has anything else
occurred to you?"
“Yes, and no later than to-day. That is why I have come to you. This morning I
received this letter, which you will perhaps read for yourself."
“Thank you," said Holmes. “The envelope too, please. Postmark, London, S.W. Date, July 7. Hum! Man’s thumb-mark on
corner,—probably postman. Best quality paper. Envelopes at sixpence a packet.
Particular man in his stationery. No address. ‘Be at the third pillar from the left
outside the Lyceum Theatre to-night at seven o’clock. If you are distrustful, bring
two friends. You are a wronged woman, and shall have justice. Do not bring police. If
you do, all will be in vain. Your unknown friend.’ Well, really, this is a very
pretty little mystery. What do you intend to do, Miss ?"
“That is exactly what I want to ask you."
“Then we shall most certainly go. You and I and—yes, why, Dr. Watson is the very man.
Your correspondent says two friends. He and I have worked together before."
“But would he come?" she asked, with something appealing in her voice and
expression.
“I should be proud and happy," said I, fervently, “if I can be of any service."
“You are both very kind," she answered. “I have led a retired life, and have no
friends whom I could appeal to. If I am here at six it will do, I suppose?"
“You must not be later," said Holmes. “There is one other point,155 however. Is this handwriting the same as that upon the
pearl-box addresses?"
“I have them here," she answered, producing half a dozen pieces of paper.
“You are certainly a model client. You have the correct intuition. Let us see, now."
He spread out the papers upon the table, and gave little darting glances from one to
the other. “They are disguised hands, except the letter," he said, presently, “but
there can be no question as to the authorship. See how the irrepressible Greek e will
break out, and see the twirl of the final s. They are undoubtedly by the same person.
I should not like to suggest false hopes, Miss , but is there any resemblance between
this hand and that of your father?"
“Nothing could be more unlike."
“I expected to hear you say so. We shall look out for you, then, at six. Pray allow
me to keep the papers. I may look into the matter before then. It is only half-past
three. Au revoir, then."
“Au revoir," said our visitor, and, with a bright, kindly glance from one to the
other of us, she replaced her pearl-box in her bosom and hurried away. Standing at
the window, I watched her walking briskly down the street, until the grey turban and
white feather were but a speck in the sombre crowd.
“What a very attractive woman!" I exclaimed, turning to my companion.
He had lit his pipe again, and was leaning back with drooping eyelids. “Is she?" he
said, languidly. “I did not observe."
“You really are an automaton,—a calculating-machine!" I cried. “There is something
positively inhuman in you at times."
He smiled gently. “It is of the first importance," he said, “not to allow your
judgment to be biased by personal qualities. A client is to me a mere unit,—a factor
in a problem. The emotional qualities are antagonistic to clear reasoning. I assure
you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little
children for their insurance-money, and the most repellant man of my acquaintance is
a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million upon the London poor."
“In this case, however—"
“I never make exceptions. An exception disproves the rule. Have you ever had occasion
to study
? What do you make of this fellow’s scribble?"
“It is legible and regular," I answered. “A man of business habits and some force of
character."
Holmes shook his head. “Look at his long letters," he said. “They hardly rise above
the common herd. That d might be an a, and that l an e. Men of character always
differentiate their long letters, however illegibly they may write. There is
vacillation in his k’s and self-esteem in his capitals. I am going out now. I have
some few references to make. Let me recommend this book,—one of the most remarkable
ever penned. It is
I
shall be back in an hour."
I sat in the window with the volume in my hand, but my thoughts156 were far from the daring speculations of the writer.
My mind ran upon our late visitor,—her smiles, the deep rich tones of her voice, the
strange mystery which overhung her life. If she were seventeen at the time of her
father’s disappearance she must be seven-and-twenty now,—a sweet age, when youth has
lost its self-consciousness and become a little sobered by experience. So I sat and
mused, until such dangerous thoughts came into my head that I hurried away to my desk
and plunged furiously into the latest treatise upon pathology. What was I, an army
surgeon with a weak leg and a weaker banking-account, that I should dare to think of
such things? She was a unit, a factor,—nothing more. If my future were black, it was
better surely to face it like a man than to attempt to brighten it by mere
will-o’-the-wisps of the imagination.
CHAPTER III
IN QUEST OF A SOLUTION.
It was half-past five before Holmes returned. He was bright, eager, and in excellent
spirits,—a mood which in his case alternated with fits of the blackest
depression.
“There is no great mystery in this matter," he said, taking the cup of tea which I
had poured out for him. “The facts appear to admit of only one explanation."
“What! you have solved it already?"
“Well, that would be too much to say. I have discovered a suggestive fact, that is
all. It is, however, very suggestive. The details are still to be added. I have just
found, on consulting the back files of
,
that Major Sholto, of Upper Norwood, late of the
, died upon the 28th of April, 1882."
“I may be very obtuse, Holmes, but I fail to see what this suggests."
“No? You surprise me. Look at it in this way, then. Captain disappears. The only
person in London whom he could have
visited is Major Sholto. Major Sholto denies having heard that he was in London. Four years later Sholto dies. Within
a week of his death Captain ’s daughter receives a valuable present, which is
repeated from year to year, and now culminates in a letter which describes her as a
wronged woman. What wrong can it refer to except this deprivation of her father? And
why should the presents begin immediately after Sholto’s death, unless it is that
Sholto’s heir knows something of the mystery and desires to make compensation? Have
you any alternative theory which will meet the facts?"
“But what a strange compensation! And how strangely made! Why, too, should he write a
letter now, rather than six years ago? Again, the letter speaks of giving her
justice. What justice can she have? It is too much to suppose that her father is
still alive. There is no other injustice in her case that you know of."
“There are difficulties; there are certainly difficulties," said Sherlock Holmes,
pensively. “But our expedition of to-night will solve157 them all. Ah, here is
, and Miss is inside. Are you all ready? Then we had
better go down, for it is a little past the hour."
I picked up my hat and my heaviest stick, but I observed that Holmes took his
revolver from his drawer and slipped it into his pocket. It was clear that he thought
that our night’s work might be a serious one.
Miss was muffled in a dark cloak, and her sensitive face was composed, but pale. She
must have been more than woman if she did not feel some uneasiness at the strange
enterprise upon which we were embarking, yet her self-control was perfect, and she
readily answered the few additional questions which Sherlock Holmes put to her.
“Major Sholto was a very particular friend of papa’s," she said. “His letters were
full of allusions to the major. He and papa were in command of the troops at the
Andaman Islands, so they were thrown a great deal together. By the way, a curious
paper was found in papa’s desk which no one could understand. I don’t suppose that it
is of the slightest importance, but I thought you might care to see it, so I brought
it with me. It is here."
Holmes unfolded the paper carefully and smoothed it out upon his knee. He then very
methodically examined it all over with his double lens.
“It is paper of native Indian manufacture," he remarked. “It has at some time been
pinned to a board. The diagram upon it appears to be a plan of part of a large
building with numerous halls, corridors, and passages. At one point is a small cross
done in red ink, and above it is ‘3.37 from left,’ in faded pencil-writing. In the
left-hand corner is a curious hieroglyphic like four crosses in a line with their
arms touching. Beside it is written, in very rough and coarse characters, ‘The sign
of the four,—Jonathan Small, Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan, Dost Akbar.’ No, I confess
that I do not see how this bears upon the matter. Yet it is evidently a document of
importance. It has been kept carefully in a
; for the one side is as clean as the other."
“It was in his pocket-book that we found it."
“Preserve it carefully, then, Miss , for it may prove to be of use to us. I begin to
suspect that this matter may turn out to be much deeper and more subtle than I at
first supposed. I must reconsider my ideas." He leaned back in the cab, and I could
see by his drawn brow and his vacant eye that he was thinking intently. Miss and I
chatted in an undertone about our present expedition and its possible outcome, but
our companion maintained his impenetrable reserve until the end of our journey.
It was a September evening, and not yet seven o’clock, but the day had been a dreary
one, and a dense drizzly fog lay low upon
. Mud-coloured clouds drooped sadly over the muddy streets. Down the
Strand the lamps were but misty splotches of diffused light which threw a feeble
circular glimmer upon the slimy pavement. The yellow glare from the shop-windows
streamed out into the steamy,158 vaporous air,
and threw a murky, shifting radiance across the crowded thoroughfare. There was, to
my mind, something eerie and ghost-like in the endless procession of faces which
flitted across these narrow bars of light,—sad faces and glad, haggard and merry.
Like all human kind, they flitted from the gloom into the light, and so back into the
gloom once more. I am not subject to impressions, but the dull, heavy evening, with
the strange business upon which we were engaged, combined to make me nervous and
depressed. I could see from Miss ’s manner that she was suffering from the same
feeling. Holmes alone could rise superior to petty influences. He held his open
note-book upon his knee, and from time to time he jotted down figures and memoranda
in the light of his pocket-lantern.
At the Lyceum Theatre the crowds were already thick at the side-entrances. In front a
continuous stream of hansoms and four-wheelers were rattling up, discharging their
cargoes of shirt-fronted men and beshawled, bediamonded women. We had hardly reached
the third pillar, which was our rendezvous, before a small, dark, brisk man in the
dress of a coachman accosted us.
“Are you the parties who come with Miss ?" he asked.
“I am Miss , and these two gentlemen are my friends," said she.
He bent a pair of wonderfully penetrating and questioning eyes upon us. “You will
excuse me, miss," he said with a certain dogged manner, “but I was to ask you to give
me your word that neither of your companions is a police-officer."
“I give you my word on that," she answered.
He gave a shrill whistle, on which a
led across a four-wheeler and opened the
door. The man who had addressed us mounted to the box, while we took our places
inside. We had hardly done so before the driver whipped up his horse, and we plunged
away at a furious pace through the foggy streets.
The situation was a curious one. We were driving to an unknown place, on an unknown
errand. Yet our invitation was either a complete hoax,—which was an inconceivable
hypothesis,—or else we had good reason to think that important issues might hang upon
our journey. Miss ’s demeanor was as resolute and collected as ever. I endeavored to
cheer and amuse her by reminiscences of my adventures in Afghanistan; but, to tell the truth, I was myself so
excited at our situation and so curious as to our destination that my stories were
slightly involved. To this day she declares that I told her one moving anecdote as to
how a musket looked into my tent at the dead of night, and how I fired a
double-barrelled tiger cub at it. At first I had some idea as to the direction in
which we were driving; but soon, what with our pace, the fog, and my own limited
knowledge of London, I lost my
bearings, and knew nothing, save that we seemed to be going a very long way. Sherlock
Holmes was never at fault, however, and he muttered the names as the cab rattled
through squares and in and out by tortuous by-streets.
“Rochester Row," said he. “Now Vincent Square. Now we come out on the Vauxhall Bridge
Road. We are making for the159
, apparently. Yes, I thought
so. Now we are on the bridge. You can catch glimpses of the river."
We did indeed get a fleeting view of a stretch of the Thames with the lamps shining upon the broad, silent
water; but our cab dashed on, and was soon involved in a labyrinth of streets upon
the other side.
“Wordsworth Road," said my companion. “Priory Road. Lark Hall Lane. Stockwell Place.
Robert Street. Cold Harbor Lane. Our quest does not appear to take us to very
fashionable regions."
We had, indeed, reached a questionable and forbidding neighbourhood. Long lines of
dull brick houses were only relieved by the coarse glare and tawdry brilliancy of
public houses at the corner. Then came rows of two-storied villas each with a
fronting of miniature garden, and then again interminable lines of new staring brick
buildings,—the monster tentacles which the giant city was throwing out into the
country. At last the cab drew up at the third house in a new terrace. None of the
other houses were inhabited, and that at which we stopped was as dark as its
neighbours, save for a single glimmer in the kitchen window. On our knocking,
however, the door was instantly thrown open by a Hindoo servant clad in a yellow
turban, white loose-fitting clothes, and a yellow sash. There was something strangely
incongruous in this Oriental figure framed in the commonplace doorway of a third-rate
suburban dwelling-house.
“The
awaits you," said
he, and even as he spoke there came a high piping voice from some inner room. “Show
them in to me,
," it cried. “Show
them straight in to me."
CHAPTER IV.
THE STORY OF THE BALD-HEADED MAN.
We followed the Indian down a sordid and common passage, ill-lit and worse furnished,
until he came to a door upon the right, which he threw open. A blaze of yellow light
streamed out upon us, and in the centre of the glare there stood a small man with a
very high head, a bristle of red hair all round the fringe of it, and a bald, shining
scalp which shot out from among it like a mountain-peak from fir-trees. He writhed
his hands together as he stood, and his features were in a perpetual jerk, now
smiling, now scowling, but never for an instant in repose. Nature had given him a
pendulous lip, and a too visible line of yellow and irregular teeth, which he strove
feebly to conceal by constantly passing his hand over the lower part of his face. In
spite of his obtrusive baldness, he gave the impression of youth. In point of fact he
had just turned his thirtieth year.
“Your servant, Miss ," he kept repeating, in a thin, high voice. “Your servant,
gentlemen. Pray step into my little sanctum. A small place, miss, but furnished to my
own liking. An oasis of art in the howling desert of South London."
We were all astonished by the appearance of the apartment into which he invited us.
In that sorry house it looked as out of place as a diamond of the first water in a
setting of brass. The richest and160 glossiest of
curtains and tapestries draped the walls, looped back here and there to expose some
richly-mounted painting or Oriental vase. The carpet was of amber-and-black, so soft
and so thick that the foot sank pleasantly into it, as into a bed of moss. Two great
tiger-skins thrown athwart it increased the suggestion of Eastern luxury, as did a
huge
which stood upon a mat in the corner. A
lamp in the fashion of a silver dove was hung from an almost invisible golden wire in
the centre of the room. As it burned it filled the air with a subtle and aromatic
odour.
“Mr. Thaddeus Sholto," said the little man, still jerking and smiling. “That is my
name. You are Miss , of course. And these gentlemen—"
“This is Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and this is Dr. Watson."
“A doctor, eh?" cried he, much excited. “Have you your stethoscope? Might I ask
you—would you have the kindness? I have grave doubts as to my mitral valve, if you
would be so very good. The aortic I may rely upon, but I should value your opinion
upon the mitral."
I listened to his heart, as requested, but was unable to find anything amiss, save
indeed that he was in an ecstasy of fear, for he shivered from head to foot. “It
appears to be normal," I said. “You have no cause for uneasiness."
“You will excuse my anxiety, Miss ," he remarked, airily. “I am a great sufferer, and
I have long had suspicions as to that valve. I am delighted to hear that they are
unwarranted. Had your father, Miss , refrained from throwing a strain upon his heart,
he might have been alive now."
I could have struck the man across the face, so hot was I at this callous and
off-hand reference to so delicate a matter. Miss sat down, and her face grew white to
the lips. “I knew in my heart that he was dead," said she.
“I can give you every information," said he, “and, what is more, I can do you
justice; and I will, too, whatever Brother Bartholomew may say. I am so glad to have
your friends here, not only as an escort to you, but also as witnesses to what I am
about to do and say. The three of us can show a bold front to Brother Bartholomew.
But let us have no outsiders,—no police or officials. We can settle everything
satisfactorily among ourselves, without any interference. Nothing would annoy Brother
Bartholomew more than any publicity." He sat down upon a low settee and blinked at us
inquiringly with his weak, watery blue eyes.
“For my part," said Holmes, “whatever you may choose to say will go no further."
I nodded to show my agreement.
“That is well! That is well!" said he. “May I offer you a glass of Chianti, Miss ? Or
of Tokay? I keep no other wines. Shall I open a flask? No? Well, then, I trust that
you have no objection to tobacco-smoke, to the mild balsamic odour of the Eastern
tobacco. I am a little nervous, and I find my hookah an invaluable sedative." He
applied a taper to the great bowl, and the smoke bubbled 161 [break after bub-]merrily through the
rose-water. We sat all three in a semi-circle, with our heads advanced, and our chins
upon our hands, while the strange, jerky little fellow, with his high, shining head,
puffed uneasily in the centre.
“When I first determined to make this communication to you," said he, “I might have
given you my address, but I feared that you might disregard my request and bring
unpleasant people with you. I took the liberty, therefore, of making an appointment
in such a way that my man Williams might be able to see you first. I have complete
confidence in his discretion, and he had orders, if he were dissatisfied, to proceed
no further in the matter. You will excuse these precautions, but I am a man of
somewhat retiring, and I might even say refined, tastes, and there is nothing more
unæsthetic than a policeman. I have a natural shrinking from all forms of rough
materialism. I seldom come in contact with the rough crowd. I live, as you see, with
some little atmosphere of elegance around me. I may call myself a patron of the arts.
It is my weakness.
, and, though a connoisseur might
perhaps throw a doubt upon that
, there cannot be the least question
about the Bouguereau. I am partial to the modern French school."
“You will excuse me, Mr. Sholto," said Miss , “but I am here at your request to learn
something which you desire to tell me. It is very late, and I should desire the
interview to be as short as possible."
“At the best it must take some time," he answered; “for we shall certainly have to go
to Norwood and see Brother
Bartholomew. We shall all go and try if we can get the better of Brother Bartholomew.
He is very angry with me for taking the course which has seemed right to me. I had
quite high words with him last night. You cannot imagine what a terrible fellow he is
when he is angry."
“If we are to go to Norwood it would
perhaps be as well to start at once," I ventured to remark.
He laughed until his ears were quite red. “That would hardly do," he cried. “I don’t
know what he would say if I brought you in that sudden way. No, I must prepare you by
showing you how we all stand to each other. In the first place, I must tell you that
there are several points in the story of which I am myself ignorant. I can only lay
the facts before you as far as I know them myself.
“My father was, as you may have guessed, Major John Sholto, once of the Indian army.
He retired some eleven years ago, and came to live at Pondicherry Lodge in Upper
Norwood. He had prospered in
India, and brought back with him a considerable sum of money, a large collection of
valuable curiosities, and a staff of native servants. With these advantages he bought
himself a house, and lived in great luxury. My twin-brother Bartholomew and I were
the only children.
“I very well remember the sensation which was caused by the disappearance of Captain
. We read the details in the papers, and, knowing that he had been a friend of our
father’s, we discussed the case freely in his presence. He used to join in our
speculations as to what could have happened. Never for an instant did we suspect
that162 he had the whole secret hidden in his
own breast,—that of all men he alone knew the fate of Arthur .
“We did know, however, that some mystery—some positive danger—overhung our father. He
was very fearful of going out alone, and he always employed two prize-fighters to act
as porters at Pondicherry Lodge. Williams, who drove you to-night, was one of them.
He was once light-weight champion of England. Our father would never tell us what it
was he feared, but he had a most marked aversion to men with wooden legs. On one
occasion he actually fired his revolver at a wooden-legged man, who proved to be a
harmless tradesman canvassing for orders. We had to pay a large sum to hush the
matter up. My brother and I used to think this a mere whim of my father’s, but events
have since led us to change our opinion.
“Early in 1882 my father received a letter from India which was a great shock to him.
He nearly fainted at the breakfast-table when he opened it, and from that day he
sickened to his death. What was in the letter we could never discover, but I could
see as he held it that it was short and written in a scrawling hand. He had suffered
for years from an enlarged spleen, but he now became rapidly worse, and towards the
end of April we were informed that he was beyond all hope, and that he wished to make
a last communication to us.
“When we entered his room he was propped up with pillows and breathing heavily. He
besought us to lock the door and to come upon either side of the bed. Then, grasping
our hands, he made a remarkable statement to us, in a voice which was broken as much
by emotion as by pain. I shall try and give it to you in his own very words.
“‘I have only one thing,’ he said, ‘which weighs upon my mind at this supreme moment.
It is my treatment of poor ’s orphan. The cursed greed which has been my besetting
sin through life has withheld from her the treasure, half at least of which should
have been hers. And yet I have made no use of it myself,—so blind and foolish a thing
is avarice. The mere feeling of possession has been so dear to me that I could not
bear to share it with another. See that chaplet dipped with pearls beside the
quinine-bottle. Even that I could not bear to part with, although I had got it out
with the design of sending it to her. You, my sons, will give her a fair share of the
Agra treasure. But send her nothing—not even the chaplet—until I am gone. After all,
men have been as bad as this and have recovered.
“‘I will tell you how died,’ he continued. ‘He had suffered for years from a weak
heart, but he concealed it from every one. I alone knew it. When in India, he and I,
through a remarkable chain of circumstances, came into possession of a considerable
treasure. I brought it over to England, and on the night of ’s arrival he came
straight over here to claim his share. He walked over from the station, and was
admitted by my faithful old Lal Chowdar, who is now dead. and I had a difference of
opinion as to the division of the treasure, and we came to heated words. had sprung
out of his chair in a paroxysm of anger, when he suddenly pressed his hand to his
side, his face turned a dusky hue, and he fell backwards, cutting163 his head against the corner of the treasure-chest.
When I stooped over him I found, to my horror, that he was dead.
“‘For a long time I sat half distracted, wondering what I should do. My first impulse
was, of course, to call for assistance; but I could not but recognise that there was
every chance that I would be accused of his murder. His death at the moment of a
quarrel, and the gash in his head, would be black against me. Again, an official
inquiry could not be made without bringing out some facts about the treasure, which I
was particularly anxious to keep secret. He had told me that no soul upon earth knew
where he had gone. There seemed to be no necessity why any soul ever should know.
“‘I was still pondering over the matter, when, looking up, I saw my servant, Lal
Chowdar, in the doorway. He stole in and bolted the door behind him. “Do not fear,
Sahib," he said. “No one need know that you have killed him. Let us hide him away,
and who is the wiser?" “I did not kill him," said I. Lal Chowdar shook his head and
smiled. “I heard it all, Sahib," said he. “I heard you quarrel, and I heard the blow.
But my lips are sealed. All are asleep in the house. Let us put him away together."
That was enough to decide me. If my own servant could not believe my innocence, how
could I hope to make it good before twelve foolish tradesmen in a jury-box? Lal
Chowdar and I disposed of the body that night, and within a few days the London papers were full of the mysterious
disappearance of Captain . You will see from what I say that I can hardly be blamed
in the matter. My fault lies in the fact that we concealed not only the body, but
also the treasure, and that I have clung to ’s share as well as to my own. I wish
you, therefore, to make restitution. Put your ears down to my mouth. The treasure is
hidden in—’
“At this instant a horrible change came over his expression; his eyes stared wildly,
his jaw dropped, and he yelled, in a voice which I can never forget, ‘Keep him out!
For Christ’s sake keep him out!’ We both stared round at the window behind us upon
which his gaze was fixed. A face was looking in at us out of the darkness. We could
see the whitening of the nose where it was pressed against the glass. It was a
bearded, hairy face, with wild cruel eyes and an expression of concentrated
malevolence. My brother and164 I rushed towards
the window, but the man was gone. When we returned to my father his head had dropped
and his pulse had ceased to beat.
“We searched the garden that night, but found no sign of the intruder, save that just
under the window a single footmark was visible in the flower-bed. But for that one
trace, we might have thought that our imaginations had conjured up that wild, fierce
face. We soon, however, had another and a more striking proof that there were secret
agencies at work all round us. The window of my father’s room was found open in the
morning, his cupboards and boxes had been rifled, and upon his chest was fixed a torn
piece of paper, with the words ‘The sign of the four’ scrawled across it. What the
phrase meant, or who our secret visitor may have been, we never knew. As far as we
can judge, none of my father’s property had been actually stolen, though everything
had been turned out. My brother and I naturally associated this peculiar incident
with the fear which haunted my father during his life; but it is still a complete
mystery to us."
The little man stopped to relight his hookah and puffed thoughtfully for a few
moments. We had all sat absorbed, listening to his extraordinary narrative. At the
short account of her father’s death Miss had turned deadly white, and for a moment I
feared that she was about to faint. She rallied however, on drinking a glass of water
which I quietly poured out for her from a
upon the side-table. Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair
with an abstracted expression and the lids drawn low over his glittering eyes. As I
glanced at him I could not but think how on that very day he had complained bitterly
of the commonplaceness of life. Here at least was a problem which would tax his
sagacity to the utmost. Mr. Thaddeus Sholto looked from one to the other of us with
an obvious pride at the effect which his story had produced, and then continued
between the puffs of his overgrown pipe.
“My brother and I," said he, “were, as you may imagine, much excited as to the
treasure which my father had spoken of. For weeks and for months we dug and delved in
every part of the garden, without discovering its whereabouts. It was maddening to
think that the hiding-place was on his very lips at the moment that he died. We could
judge the splendour of the missing riches by the chaplet which he had taken out. Over
this chaplet my brother Bartholomew and I had some little discussion. The pearls were
evidently of great value, and he was averse to part with them, for, between friends,
my brother was himself a little inclined to my father’s fault. He thought, too, that
if we parted with the chaplet it might give rise to gossip and finally bring us into
trouble. It was all that I could do to persuade him to let me find out Miss ’s
address and send her a detached pearl at fixed intervals, so that at least she might
never feel destitute."
“It was a kindly thought," said our companion, earnestly. “It was extremely good of
you."
The little man waved his hand deprecatingly. “We were your trustees," he said. “That
was the view which I took of it, though Brother Bartholomew could not altogether see
it in that light. We had plenty of money ourselves. I desired no more. Besides, it
would have been such bad taste to have treated a young lady in so scurvy a fashion.
‘Le mauvais goût mène au crime.’ The French have a very neat way of putting these
things. Our difference of opinion on this subject went so far that I thought it best
to set up rooms for myself: so I left Pondicherry Lodge, taking the old khitmutgar
and Williams with me. Yesterday, however, I learn that an event of extreme importance
has occurred. The treasure has been discovered. I instantly communicated with Miss ,
and it only remains for us to drive out to Norwood and demand our share. I explained my views last night to
Brother Bartholomew: so we shall be expected, if not welcome, visitors."
Mr. Thaddeus Sholto ceased, and sat twitching on his luxurious settee. We all
remained silent, with our thoughts upon the new165 development which the mysterious business had taken. Holmes was the first to
spring to his feet.
“You have done well, sir, from first to last," said he. “It is possible that we may
be able to make you some small return by throwing some light upon that which is still
dark to you. But, as Miss remarked just now, it is late, and we had best put the
matter through without delay."
Our new acquaintance very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah, and produced
from behind a curtain a very long befrogged topcoat with
. This he buttoned tightly up, in spite of the extreme
closeness of the night, and finished his attire by putting on a rabbit-skin cap with
hanging lappets which covered the ears, so that no part of him was visible save his
mobile and peaky face. “My health is somewhat fragile," he remarked, as he led the
way down the passage. “I am compelled to be a
."
Our cab was awaiting us outside, and our programme was evidently prearranged, for the
driver started off at once at a rapid pace. Thaddeus Sholto talked incessantly, in a
voice which rose high above the rattle of the wheels.
“Bartholomew is a clever fellow," said he. “How do you think he found out where the
treasure was? He had come to the conclusion that it was somewhere indoors: so he
worked out all the cubic space of the house, and made measurements everywhere, so
that not one inch should be unaccounted for. Among other things, he found that the
height of the building was seventy-four feet, but on adding together the heights of
all the separate rooms, and making every allowance for the space between, which he
ascertained by borings, he could not bring the total to more than seventy feet. There
were four feet unaccounted for. These could only be at the top of the building. He
knocked a hole, therefore, in the lath-and-plaster ceiling of the highest room, and
there, sure enough, he came upon another little garret above it, which had been
sealed up and was known to no one. In the centre stood the treasure-chest, resting
upon two rafters. He lowered it through the hole, and there it lies. He computes the
value of the jewels at not less than half a million sterling."
At the mention of this gigantic sum we all stared at one another open-eyed. Miss ,
could we secure her rights, would change from a needy governess to the richest
heiress in England. Surely it was the place of a loyal friend to rejoice at such
news; yet I am ashamed to say that selfishness took me by the soul, and that my heart
turned as heavy as lead within me. I stammered out some few halting words of
congratulation, and then sat downcast, with my head drooped, deaf to the babble of
our new acquaintance. He was clearly a confirmed hypochondriac, and I was dreamily
conscious that he was pouring forth interminable trains of symptoms, and imploring
information as to the composition and action of innumerable
, some of which he bore
about in a leather case in his pocket. I trust that he may not remember any of the
answers which I gave him that night. Holmes declares that he overheard me caution him
against the great danger of taking more than two drops of castor oil, while I
recommended166 [Break after recom-] strychnine
in large doses as a sedative. However that may be, I was certainly relieved when our
cab pulled up with a jerk and the coachman sprang down to open the door.
“This, Miss , is Pondicherry Lodge," said Mr. Thaddeus Sholto, as he handed her
out.
CHAPTER V.
THE TRAGEDY OF PONDICHERRY LODGE.
It was nearly eleven o’clock when we reached this final stage of our night’s
adventures. We had left the damp fog of the great city behind us, and the night was
fairly fine. A warm wind blew from the westward, and heavy clouds moved slowly across
the sky, with half a moon peeping occasionally through the rifts. It was clear enough
to see for some distance, but Thaddeus Sholto took down one of the side-lamps from
the carriage to give us a better light upon our way.
Pondicherry Lodge stood in its own grounds, and was girt round with a very high stone
wall topped with broken glass. A single narrow iron-clamped door formed the only
means of entrance. On this our guide knocked with a peculiar postman-like
rat-tat.
“Who is there?" cried a gruff voice from within.
“It is I, McMurdo. You surely know my knock by this time."
There was a grumbling sound and a clanking and jarring of keys. The door swung
heavily back, and a short, deep-chested man stood in the opening, with the yellow
light of the lantern shining upon his protruded face and twinkling distrustful
eyes.
“That you, Mr. Thaddeus? But who are the others? I had no orders about them from the
master."
“No, McMurdo? You surprise me! I told my brother last night that I should bring some
friends."
“He ain’t been out o’ his room to-day, Mr. Thaddeus, and I have no orders. You know
very well that I must stick to regulations. I can let you in, but your friends must
just stop where they are."
This was an unexpected obstacle. Thaddeus Sholto looked about him in a perplexed and
helpless manner. “This is too bad of you, McMurdo!" he said. “If I guarantee them,
that is enough for you. There is the young lady, too. She cannot wait on the public
road at this hour."
“Very sorry, Mr. Thaddeus," said the porter, inexorably. “Folk may be friends o’
yours, and yet no friends o’ the master’s. He pays me well to do my duty, and my duty
I’ll do. I don’t know none o’ your friends."
“Oh, yes you do, McMurdo," cried Sherlock Holmes, genially. “I don’t think you can
have forgotten me. Don’t you remember the amateur who fought three rounds with you at
on the night of your benefit four years back?"
“Not Mr. Sherlock Holmes!" roared the prize-fighter. “God’s truth! how could I have
mistook you? If instead o’ standin’ there167 so
quiet you had just stepped up and given me that cross-hit of yours under the jaw, I’d
ha’ known you without a question. Ah, you’re one that has wasted your gifts, you
have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the fancy."
“You see, Watson, if all else fails me I have still one of the scientific professions
open to me," said Holmes, laughing. “Our friend won’t keep us out in the cold now, I
am sure."
“In you come, sir, in you come,—you and your friends," he answered. “Very sorry, Mr.
Thaddeus, but orders are very strict. Had to be certain of your friends before I let
them in."
Inside, a gravel path wound through desolate grounds to a huge clump of a house,
square and prosaic, all plunged in shadow save where a moonbeam struck one corner and
glimmered in a garret window. The vast size of the building, with its gloom and its
deathly silence, struck a chill to the heart. Even Thaddeus Sholto seemed ill at
ease, and the lantern quivered and rattled in his hand.
“I cannot understand it," he said. “There must be some mistake. I distinctly told
Bartholomew that we should be here, and yet there is no light in his window. I do not
know what to make of it."
“Does he always guard the premises in this way?" asked Holmes.
“Yes; he has followed my father’s custom. He was the favourite son, you know, and I
sometimes think that my father may have told him more than he ever told me. That is
Bartholomew’s window up there where the moonshine strikes. It is quite bright, but
there is no light from within, I think."
“None," said Holmes. “But I see the glint of a light in that little window beside the
door."
“Ah, that is the housekeeper’s room. That is where old Mrs. Bernstone sits. She can
tell us all about it. But perhaps you would not mind waiting here for a minute or
two, for if we all go in together and she has no word of our coming she may be
alarmed. But hush! what is that?"
He held up the lantern, and his hand shook until the circles of light flickered and
wavered all round us. Miss seized my wrist, and we all stood with thumping hearts,
straining our ears. From the great black house there sounded through the silent night
the saddest and most pitiful of sounds,—the shrill, broken whimpering of a frightened
woman.
“It is Mrs. Bernstone," said Sholto. “She is the only woman in the house. Wait here.
I shall be back in a moment." He hurried for the door, and knocked in his peculiar
way. We could see a tall old woman admit him, and sway with pleasure at the very
sight of him.
“Oh, Mr. Thaddeus, sir, I am so glad you have come! I am so glad you have come, Mr.
Thaddeus, sir!" We heard her reiterated rejoicings until the door was closed and her
voice died away into a muffled monotone.
Our guide had left us the lantern. Holmes swung it slowly round, and peered keenly at
the house, and at the great rubbish-heaps which cumbered the grounds. Miss and I
stood together, and her hand was in mine. A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here
were we168 two who had never seen each other
before that day, between whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed, and
yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other. I have
marvelled at it since, but at the time it seemed the most natural thing that I should
go out to her so, and, as she has often told me, there was in her also the instinct
to turn to me for comfort and protection. So we stood hand in hand, like two
children, and there was peace in our hearts for all the dark things that surrounded
us.
“What a strange place!" she said, looking round.
“It looks as though all the moles in England had been let loose in it. I have seen
something of the sort on the side of a hill near Ballarat, where the prospectors had
been at work."
“And from the same cause," said Holmes. “These are the traces of the
treasure-seekers. You must remember that they were six years looking for it. No
wonder that the grounds look like a gravel-pit."
At that moment the door of the house burst open, and Thaddeus Sholto came running
out, with his hands thrown forward and terror in his eyes.
“There is something amiss with Bartholomew!" he cried. “I am frightened! My nerves
cannot stand it." He was, indeed, half blubbering with fear, and his twitching feeble
face peeping out from the great Astrakhan collar had the helpless appealing
expression of a terrified child.
“Come into the house," said Holmes, in his crisp, firm way.
“Yes, do!" pleaded Thaddeus Sholto. “I really do not feel equal to giving
directions."
We all followed him into the housekeeper’s room, which stood upon the left-hand side
of the passage. The old woman was pacing up and down with a scared look and restless
picking fingers, but the sight of Miss appeared to have a soothing effect upon
her.
“God bless your sweet calm face!" she cried, with an hysterical sob. “It does me good
to see you. Oh, but I have been sorely tried this day!"
Our companion patted her thin, work-worn hand, and murmured some few words of kindly
womanly comfort which brought the colour back into the other’s bloodless cheeks.
“Master has locked himself in and will not answer me," she explained. “All day I have
waited to hear from him, for he often likes to be alone; but an hour ago I feared
that something was amiss, so I went up and peeped through the key-hole. You must go
up, Mr. Thaddeus,—you must go up and look for yourself. I have seen Mr. Bartholomew
Sholto in joy and in sorrow for ten long years, but I never saw him with such a face
on him as that."
Sherlock Holmes took the lamp and led the way, for Thaddeus Sholto’s teeth were
chattering in his head. So shaken was he that I had to pass my hand under his arm as
we went up the stairs, for his knees were trembling under him. Twice as we ascended
Holmes whipped his lens out of his pocket and carefully examined marks which appeared
to me to be mere shapeless smudges of dust upon the cocoa-nut matting which served as
a stair-carpet. He walked slowly from step to169
step, holding the lamp, and shooting keen glances to right and left. Miss had
remained behind with the frightened housekeeper.
The third flight of stairs ended in a straight passage of some length, with a great
picture in Indian tapestry upon the right of it and three doors upon the left. Holmes
advanced along it in the same slow and methodical way, while we kept close at his
heels, with our long black shadows streaming backwards down the corridor. The third
door was that which we were seeking. Holmes knocked without receiving any answer, and
then tried to turn the handle and force it open. It was locked on the inside,
however, and by a broad and powerful bolt, as we could see when we set our lamp up
against it. The key being turned, however, the hole was not entirely closed. Sherlock
Holmes bent down to it, and instantly rose again with a sharp intaking of the
breath.
“There is something devilish in this, Watson," said he, more moved than I had ever
before seen him. “What do you make of it?"
I stooped to the hole, and recoiled in horror. Moonlight was streaming into the room,
and it was bright with a vague and shifty radiance. Looking straight at me, and
suspended, as it were, in the air, for all beneath was in shadow, there hung a
face,—the very face of our companion Thaddeus. There was the same high, shining head,
the same circular bristle of red hair, the same bloodless countenance. The features
were set, however, in a horrible smile, a fixed and unnatural grin, which in that
still and moonlit room was more jarring to the nerves than any scowl or contortion.
So like was the face to that of our little friend that I looked round at him to make
sure that he was indeed with us. Then I recalled to mind that he had mentioned to us
that his brother and he were twins.
“This is terrible!" I said to Holmes. “What is to be done?"
“The door must come down," he answered, and, springing against it, he put all his
weight upon the lock. It creaked and groaned, but did not yield. Together we flung
ourselves upon it once more, and this time it gave way with a sudden snap, and we
found ourselves within Bartholomew Sholto’s chamber.
It appeared to have been fitted up as a chemical laboratory. A double line of
glass-stoppered bottles was drawn up upon the wall opposite the door, and the table
was littered over with Bunsen burners, test-tubes, and
. In the
corners stood
of acid in wicker baskets. One of these appeared to leak
or to have been broken, for a stream of dark-coloured liquid had trickled out from
it, and the air was heavy with a peculiarly pungent, tar-like odour. A set of steps
stood at one side of the room, in the midst of a litter of
, and above them there was an opening in the ceiling
large enough for a man to pass through. At the foot of the steps a long coil of rope
was thrown carelessly together.
By the table, in a wooden arm-chair, the master of the house was seated all in a
heap, with his head sunk upon his left shoulder, and that ghastly, inscrutable smile
upon his face. He was stiff and cold, and had clearly been dead many hours. It seemed
to me that not only his features but all his limbs were twisted and turned in the
most fantastic fashion. By his hand upon the table there lay a peculiar
instrument,—170a brown, close-grained stick,
with a stone head like a hammer, rudely lashed on with coarse twine. Beside it was a
torn sheet of note-paper with some words scrawled upon it. Holmes glanced at it, and
then handed it to me.
“You see," he said, with a significant raising of the eyebrows.
In the light of the lantern I read, with a thrill of horror, “The sign of the
four."
“In God’s name, what does it all mean?" I asked.
“It means murder," said he, stooping over the dead man. “Ah, I expected it. Look
here!" He pointed to what looked like a long, dark thorn stuck in the skin just above
the ear.
“It looks like a thorn," said I.
“It is a thorn. You may pick it out. But be careful, for it is poisoned."
I took it up between my finger and thumb. It came away from the skin so readily that
hardly any mark was left behind. One tiny speck of blood showed where the puncture
had been.
“This is all an insoluble mystery to me," said I. “It grows darker instead of
clearer."
“On the contrary," he answered, “it clears every instant. I only require a few
missing links to have an entirely connected case."
We had almost forgotten our companion’s presence since we entered the chamber. He was
still standing in the doorway, the very picture of terror, wringing his hands and
moaning to himself. Suddenly, however, he broke out into a sharp, querulous cry.
“The treasure is gone!" he said. “They have robbed him of the treasure! There is the
hole through which we lowered it. I helped him to do it! I was the last person who
saw him! I left him here last night, and I heard him lock the door as I came
downstairs."
“What time was that?"
“It was ten o’clock. And now he is dead, and
will be called in, and I shall be
suspected of having had a hand in it. Oh, yes, I am sure I shall. But you don’t think
so, gentlemen? Surely you don’t think that it was I? Is it likely that I would have
brought you here if it were I? Oh, dear! oh, dear! I know that I shall go mad!" He
jerked his arms and stamped his feet in a kind of convulsive frenzy.
“You have no reason for fear, Mr. Sholto," said Holmes, kindly, putting his hand upon
his shoulder. “Take my advice, and drive down to the station to report this matter to
the police. Offer to assist them in every way. We shall wait here until your
return."
The little man obeyed in a half-stupefied fashion, and we heard him stumbling down
the stairs in the dark.
CHAPTER VI.
SHERLOCK HOLMES GIVES A DEMONSTRATION.
“Now, Watson," said Holmes, rubbing his hands, “we have half an hour to ourselves.
Let us make good use of it. My case is, as I have told you, almost complete; but we
must not err on the side of171 over-confidence.
Simple as the case seems now, there may be something deeper underlying it."
“Simple!" I ejaculated.
“Surely," said he, with something of the air of a clinical professor expounding to
his class. “Just sit in the corner there, that your footprints may not complicate
matters. Now to work! In the first place, how did these folk come, and how did they
go? The door has not been opened since last night. How of the window?" He carried the
lamp across to it, muttering his observations aloud the while, but addressing them to
himself rather than to me. “Window is
on the inner side. Framework is solid. No hinges at the side. Let
us open it. No water-pipe near. Roof quite out of reach. Yet a man has mounted by the
window. It rained a little last night. Here is the print of a foot in mould upon the
sill. And here is a circular muddy mark, and here again upon the floor, and here
again by the table. See here, Watson! This is really a very pretty
demonstration."
I looked at the round, well-defined muddy discs. “This is not a
," said I.
“It is something much more valuable to us. It is the impression of a wooden stump.
You see here on the sill is the boot-mark, a heavy boot with the broad metal heel,
and beside it is the mark of the timber-toe."
“It is the wooden-legged man."
“Quite so. But there has been some one else,—a very able and efficient ally. Could
you scale that wall, doctor?"
I looked out of the open window. The moon still shone brightly on that angle of the
house. We were a good sixty feet from the ground, and, look where I would, I could
see no foothold, nor as much as a crevice in the brick-work.
“It is absolutely impossible," I answered.
“Without aid it is so. But suppose you had a friend up here who lowered you this good
stout rope which I see in the corner, securing one end of it to this great hook in
the wall. Then, I think, if you were an active man, You might swarm up, wooden leg
and all. You would depart, of course, in the same fashion, and your ally would draw
up the rope, untie it from the hook, shut the window, snib it on the inside, and get
away in the way that he originally came. As a minor point it may be noted," he
continued, fingering the rope, “that our wooden-legged friend, though a fair climber,
was not a professional sailor. His hands were far from horny. My lens discloses more
than one blood-mark, especially towards the end of the rope, from which I gather that
he slipped down with such velocity that he took the skin off his hand."
“This is all very well," said I, “but the thing becomes more unintelligible than
ever. How about this mysterious ally? How came he into the room?"
“Yes, the ally!" repeated Holmes, pensively. “There are features of interest about
this ally. He lifts the case from the regions of the commonplace. I fancy that this
ally breaks fresh ground in the annals of crime in this country,—though parallel
cases suggest themselves from India, and, if my memory serves me, from
Senegambia."
172
“How came he, then?" I reiterated. “The door is locked, the window is inaccessible.
Was it through the chimney?"
“The grate is much too small," he answered. “I had already considered that
possibility."
“How then?" I persisted.
“You will not apply my precept," he said, shaking his head. “How often have I said to
you that when you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains, however
improbable, must be the truth? We know that he did not come through the door, the
window, or the chimney. We also know that he could not have been concealed in the
room, as there is no concealment possible. Whence, then, did he come?"
“He came through the hole in the roof," I cried.
“Of course he did. He must have done so. If you will have the kindness to hold the
lamp for me, we shall now extend our researches to the room above,—the secret room in
which the treasure was found."
He mounted the steps, and, seizing a rafter with either hand, he swung himself up
into the garret. Then, lying on his face, he reached down for the lamp and held it
while I followed him.
The chamber in which we found ourselves was about ten feet one way and six the other.
The floor was formed by the rafters, with thin lath-and-plaster between, so that in
walking one had to step from beam to beam. The roof ran up to an apex, and was
evidently the inner shell of the true roof of the house. There was no furniture of
any sort, and the accumulated dust of years lay thick upon the floor.
“Here you are, you see," said Sherlock Holmes, putting his hand against the sloping
wall. “This is a trap-door which leads out on to the roof. I can press it back, and
here is the roof itself, sloping at a gentle angle. This, then, is the way by which
Number One entered. Let us see if we can find any other traces of his
individuality."
He held down the lamp to the floor, and as he did so I saw for the second time that
night a startled, surprised look come over his face. For myself, as I followed his
gaze my skin was cold under my clothes. The floor was covered thickly with the prints
of a naked foot,—clear, well defined, perfectly formed, but scarce half the size of
those of an ordinary man.
“Holmes," I said, in a whisper, “a child has done the horrid thing."
He had recovered his self-possession in an instant. “I was staggered for the moment,"
he said, “but the thing is quite natural. My memory failed me, or I should have been
able to foretell it. There is nothing more to be learned here. Let us go down."
“What is your theory, then, as to those footmarks?" I asked, eagerly, when we had
regained the lower room once more.
“My dear Watson, try a little analysis yourself," said he, with a touch of
impatience. “You know my methods. Apply them, and it will be instructive to compare
results."
“I cannot conceive anything which will cover the facts," I answered.
“It will be clear enough to you soon," he said, in an off-hand way. “I think that
there is nothing else of importance here, but I will look."173 He whipped out his lens and a tape measure, and
hurried about the room on his knees, measuring, comparing, examining, with his long
thin nose only a few inches from the planks, and his beady eyes gleaming and deep-set
like those of a bird. So swift, silent, and furtive were his movements, like those of
a trained blood-hound picking out a scent, that I could not but think what a terrible
criminal he would have made had he turned his energy and sagacity against the law,
instead of exerting them in its defence. As he hunted about, he kept muttering to
himself, and finally he broke out into a loud crow of delight.
“We are certainly in luck," said he. “We ought to have very little trouble now.
Number One has had the misfortune to tread in the creosote. You can see the outline
of the edge of his small foot here at the side of this evil-smelling mess. The carboy
has been cracked, You see, and the stuff has leaked out."
“What then?" I asked.
“Why, we have got him, that’s all," said he. “I know a dog that would follow that
scent to the world’s end. If a pack can track a trailed herring across a shire, how
far can a specially-trained hound follow so pungent a smell as this? It sounds like a
sum in the rule of three. The answer should give us the—But halloa! here are the
accredited representatives of the law."
Heavy steps and the clamour of loud voices were audible from below, and the hall door
shut with a loud crash.
“Before they come," said Holmes, “just put your hand here on this poor fellow’s arm,
and here on his leg. What do you feel?"
“The muscles are as hard as a board," I answered.
“Quite so. They are in a state of extreme contraction, far exceeding the usual rigor
mortis. Coupled with this distortion of the face, this Hippocratic smile, or ‘
,’ as the old writers called it, what conclusion would it
suggest to your mind?"
“Death from some powerful vegetable alkaloid," I answered,—“some strychnine-like
substance which would produce tetanus."
“That was the idea which occurred to me the instant I saw the drawn muscles of the
face. On getting into the room I at once looked for the means by which the poison had
entered the system. As you saw, I discovered a thorn which had been driven or shot
with no great force into the scalp. You observe that the part struck was that which
would be turned towards the hole in the ceiling if the man were erect in his chair.
Now examine the thorn."
I took it up gingerly and held it in the light of the lantern. It was long, sharp,
and black, with a glazed look near the point as though some gummy substance had dried
upon it. The blunt end had been trimmed and rounded off with a knife.
“Is that an ?" he asked.
“No, it certainly is not."
“With all these data you should be able to draw some just inference. But here are the
regulars; so the auxiliary forces may beat a retreat."
As he spoke, the steps which had been coming nearer sounded loudly on the passage,
and a very stout, portly man in a gray suit173
strode heavily into the room. He was red-faced, burly and plethoric, with a pair of
very small twinkling eyes which looked keenly out from between swollen and puffy
pouches. He was closely followed by an inspector in uniform, and by the still
palpitating Thaddeus Sholto.
“Here’s a business!" he cried, in a muffled, husky voice. “Here’s a pretty business!
But who are all these? Why, the house seems to be as full as a rabbit-warren!"
“I think you must recollect me, Mr. Athelney Jones," said Holmes, quietly.
“Why, of course I do!" he wheezed. “It’s Mr. Sherlock Holmes, the theorist. Remember
you! I’ll never forget how you lectured us all on causes and inferences and effects
in the Bishopgate jewel case. It’s true you set us on the right track; but you’ll own
now that it was more by good luck than good guidance."
“It was a piece of very simple reasoning."
“Oh, come, now, come! Never be ashamed to own up. But what is all this? Bad business!
Bad business! Stern facts here,—no room for theories. How lucky that I happened to be
out at Norwood over another case! I
was at the station when the message arrived. What d’you think the man died of?"
“Oh, this is hardly a case for me to theorise over," said Holmes, dryly.
“No, no. Still, we can’t deny that you hit the nail on the head sometimes. Dear me!
Door locked, I understand. Jewels worth half a million missing. How was the
window?"
“Fastened; but there are steps on the sill."
“Well, well, if it was fastened the steps could have nothing to do with the matter.
That’s common sense. Man might have died in a fit; but then the jewels are missing.
Ha! I have a theory. These flashes come upon me at times.—Just step outside,
sergeant, and you, Mr. Sholto. Your friend can remain.—What do you think of this,
Holmes? Sholto was, on his own confession, with his brother last night. The brother
died in a fit, on which Sholto walked off with the treasure. How’s that?"
“On which the dead man very considerately got up and locked the door on the
inside."
“Hum! There’s a flaw there. Let us apply common sense to the matter. This Thaddeus
Sholto was with his brother; there was a quarrel; so much we know. The brother is
dead and the jewels are gone. So much also we know. No one saw the brother from the
time Thaddeus left him. His bed had not been slept in. Thaddeus is evidently in a
most disturbed state of mind. His appearance is—well, not attractive. You see that I
am weaving my web round Thaddeus. The net begins to close upon him."
“You are not quite in possession of the facts yet," said Holmes. “This splinter of
wood, which I have every reason to believe to be poisoned, was in the man’s scalp
where you still see the mark; this card, inscribed as you see it, was on the table;
and beside it lay this rather curious stone-headed instrument. How does all that fit
into your theory?"
175
“Confirms it in every respect," said the fat detective, pompously. “House is full of
Indian curiosities. Thaddeus brought this up, and if this splinter be poisonous
Thaddeus may as well have made murderous use of it as any other man. The card is some
hocus-pocus,—a blind, as like as not. The only question is, how did he depart? Ah, of
course, here is a hole in the roof." With great activity, considering his bulk, he
sprang up the steps and squeezed through into the garret, and immediately afterwards
we heard his exulting voice proclaiming that he had found the trap-door.
“He can find something," remarked Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. “He has occasional
glimmerings of reason. Il n’y a pas des sots si incommodes que ceux qui ont de
l’esprit!"
“You see!" said Athelney Jones, reappearing down the steps again. “Facts are better
than mere theories, after all. My view of the case is confirmed. There is a trap-door
communicating with the roof, and it is partly open."
“It was I who opened it."
“Oh, indeed! You did notice it, then?" He seemed a little crestfallen at the
discovery. “Well, whoever noticed it, it shows how our gentleman got away.
Inspector!"
“Yes, sir," from the passage.
“Ask Mr. Sholto to step this way.—Mr. Sholto, it is my duty to inform you that
anything which you may say will be used against you. I arrest you in the Queen’s name
as being concerned in the death of your brother."
“There, now! Didn’t I tell you!" cried the poor little man, throwing out his hands,
and looking from one to the other of us.
“Don’t trouble yourself about it, Mr. Sholto," said Holmes. “I think that I can
engage to clear you of the charge."
“Don’t promise too much, Mr. Theorist,—don’t promise too much!" snapped the
detective. “You may find it a harder matter than you think."
“Not only will I clear him, Mr. Jones, but I will make you a free present of the name
and description of one of the two people who were in this room last night. His name,
I have every reason to believe, is Jonathan Small. He is a poorly-educated man,
small, active, with his right leg off, and wearing a wooden stump which is worn away
upon the inner side. His left boot has a coarse, square-toed sole, with an iron band
round the heel. He is a middle-aged man, much sunburned, and has been a convict.
These few indications may be of some assistance to you, coupled with the fact that
there is a good deal of skin missing from the palm of his hand. The other man—"
“Ah! the other man—?" asked Athelney Jones, in a sneering voice, but impressed none
the less, as I could easily see, by the precision of the other’s manner.
“Is a rather curious person," said Sherlock Holmes, turning upon his heel. “I hope
before very long to be able to introduce you to the pair of them.—A word with you,
Watson."
He led me out to the head of the stair. “This unexpected occurrence," 176 [Break after occur-]he said, “has caused us
rather to lose sight of the original purpose of our journey."
“I have just been thinking so," I answered. “It is not right that Miss should remain
in this stricken house."
“No. You must escort her home. She lives with Mrs. Cecil Forrester, in Lower
Camberwell: so it is not very far. I will wait for you here if you will drive out
again. Or perhaps you are too tired?"
“By no means. I don’t think I could rest until I know more of this fantastic
business. I have seen something of the rough side of life, but I give you my word
that this quick succession of strange surprises to-night has shaken my nerve
completely. I should like, however, to see the matter through with you, now that I
have got so far."
“Your presence will be of great service to me," he answered. “We shall work the case
out independently, and leave this fellow Jones to exult over any mare’s-nest which he
may choose to construct. When you have dropped Miss I wish you to go on to No. 3,
Pinchin Lane, down near the water’s edge at Lambeth. The third house on the
right-hand side is a bird-stuffer’s: Sherman is the name. You will see a weasel
holding a young rabbit in the window. Knock old Sherman up, and tell him, with my
compliments, that I want Toby at once. You will bring Toby back in the cab with
you."
“A dog, I suppose."
“Yes,—a queer mongrel, with a most amazing power of scent. I would rather have Toby’s
help than that of the whole detective force of London."
“I shall bring him, then," said I. “It is one now. I ought to be back before three,
if I can get a fresh horse."
“And I," said Holmes, “shall see what I can learn from Mrs. Bernstone, and from the
Indian servant, who, Mr. Thaddeus tell me, sleeps in the next garret. Then I shall
study the great Jones’s methods and listen to his not too delicate sarcasms.
Goethe is always pithy."
CHAPTER VII.
THE EPISODE OF THE BARREL.
The police had brought a cab with them, and in this I escorted Miss back to her home.
After the angelic fashion of women, she had borne trouble with a calm face as long as
there was some one weaker than herself to support, and I had found her bright and
placid by the side of the frightened housekeeper. In the cab, however, she first
turned faint, and then burst into a passion of weeping,—so sorely had she been tried
by the adventures of the night. She has told me since that she thought me cold and
distant upon that journey. She little guessed the struggle within my breast, or the
effort of self-restraint which held me back. My sympathies and my love went out to
her, even as my hand had in the garden. I felt that years of the conventionalities177 [Break after conven-] of life could not teach
me to know her sweet, brave nature as had this one day of strange experiences. Yet
there were two thoughts which sealed the words of affection upon my lips. She was
weak and helpless, shaken in mind and nerve. It was to take her at a disadvantage to
obtrude love upon her at such a time. Worse still, she was rich. If Holmes’s
researches were successful, she would be an heiress. Was it fair, was it honourable,
that a half-pay surgeon should take such advantage of an intimacy which chance had
brought about? Might she not look upon me as a mere vulgar fortune-seeker? I could
not bear to risk that such a thought should cross her mind. This Agra treasure
intervened like an impassable barrier between us.
It was nearly two o’clock when we reached Mrs. Cecil Forrester’s. The servants had
retired hours ago, but Mrs. Forrester had been so interested by the strange message
which Miss had received that she had sat up in the hope of her return. She opened the
door herself, a middle-aged, graceful woman, and it gave me joy to see how tenderly
her arm stole round the other’s waist and how motherly was the voice in which she
greeted her. She was clearly no mere paid dependant, but an honoured friend. I was
introduced, and Mrs. Forrester earnestly begged me to step in and tell her our
adventures. I explained, however, the importance of my errand, and promised
faithfully to call and report any progress which we might make with the case. As we
drove away I stole a glance back, and I still seem to see that little group on the
step, the two graceful, clinging figures, the half-opened door, the hall-light
shining through stained glass, the barometer, and the bright stair-rods. It was
soothing to catch even that passing glimpse of a tranquil English home in the midst
of the wild, dark business which had absorbed us.
And the more I thought of what had happened, the wilder and darker it grew. I
reviewed the whole extraordinary sequence of events as I rattled on through the
silent gas-lit streets. There was the original problem: that at least was pretty
clear now. The death of Captain , the sending of the pearls, the advertisement, the
letter,—we had had light upon all those events. They had only led us, however, to a
deeper and far more tragic mystery. The Indian treasure, the curious plan found among
’s baggage, the strange scene at Major Sholto’s death, the rediscovery of the
treasure immediately followed by the murder of the discoverer, the very singular
accompaniments to the crime, the footsteps, the remarkable weapons, the words upon
the card, corresponding with those upon Captain ’s chart,—here was indeed a labyrinth
in which a man less singularly endowed than my fellow-lodger might well despair of
ever finding the clue.
Pinchin Lane was a row of shabby two-storied brick houses in the lower quarter of
Lambeth. I had to knock for some time at No. 3 before I could make my impression. At
last, however, there was the glint of a candle behind the blind, and a face looked
out at the upper window.
“Go on, you drunken
," said the face. “If you kick up any more row
I’ll open the kennels and let out forty-three dogs upon you."
178
“If you’ll let one out it’s just what I have come for," said I.
“Go on!" yelled the voice. “So help me gracious, I have a wiper in the bag, an’ I’ll
drop it on your ’ead if you don’t hook it."
“But I want a dog," I cried.
“I won’t be argued with!" shouted Mr. Sherman. “Now stand clear, for when I say
‘three,’ down goes the wiper."
“Mr. Sherlock Holmes—" I began, but the words had a most magical effect, for the
window instantly slammed down, and within a minute the door was unbarred and open.
Mr. Sherman was a lanky, lean old man, with stooping shoulders, a stringy neck, and
blue-tinted glasses.
“A friend of Mr. Sherlock is always welcome," said he. “Step in, sir. Keep clear of
the badger; for he bites. Ah, naughty, naughty, would you take a nip at the
gentleman?" This to a stoat which thrust its wicked head and red eyes between the
bars of its cage. “Don’t mind that, sir: it’s only a slow-worm. It hain’t got no
fangs, so I gives it the run o’ the room, for it keeps the beetles down. You must not
mind my bein’ just a little short wi’ you at first, for I’m guyed at by the children,
and there’s many a one just comes down this lane to knock me up. What was it that Mr.
Sherlock Holmes wanted, sir?"
“He wanted a dog of yours."
“Ah! that would be Toby."
“Yes, Toby was the name."
“Toby lives at No. 7 on the left here." He moved slowly forward with his candle among
the queer animal family which he had gathered round him. In the uncertain, shadowy
light I could see dimly that there were glancing, glimmering eyes peeping down at us
from every cranny and corner. Even the rafters above our heads were lined by solemn
fowls, who lazily shifted their weight from one leg to the other as our voices
disturbed their slumbers.
Toby proved to be an ugly, long-haired, lop-eared creature, half spaniel and half
, brown-and-white in colour, with a very
clumsy waddling gait. It accepted after some hesitation a lump of sugar which the old
naturalist handed to me, and, having thus sealed an alliance, it followed me to the
cab, and made no difficulties about accompanying me. It had just struck three on the
Palace clock when I found myself back once more at Pondicherry Lodge. The
ex-prize-fighter McMurdo had, I found, been arrested as an accessory, and both he and
Mr. Sholto had been marched off to the station. Two constables guarded the narrow
gate, but they allowed me to pass with the dog on my mentioning the detective’s
name.
Holmes was standing on the door-step, with his hands in his pockets, smoking his
pipe.
“Ah, you have him there!" said he. “Good dog, then! Atheney Jones has gone. We have
had an immense display of energy since you left. He has arrested not only friend
Thaddeus, but the gatekeeper, the housekeeper, and the Indian servant. We have the
place to ourselves, but for a sergeant upstairs. Leave the dog here, and come
up."
We tied Toby to the hall table, and re-ascended the stairs. The room was as he had
left it, save that a sheet had been draped over179 the central figure. A weary-looking police-sergeant reclined in the corner.
“Lend me your bull’s-eye, sergeant," said my companion. “Now tie this bit of card
round my neck, so as to hang it in front of me. Thank you. Now I must kick off my
boots and stockings.—Just you carry them down with you, Watson. I am going to do a
little climbing. And dip my handkerchief into the creasote. That will do. Now come up
into the garret with me for a moment."
We clambered up through the hole. Holmes turned his light once more upon the
footsteps in the dust.
“I wish you particularly to notice these footmarks," he said. “Do you observe
anything noteworthy about them?"
“They belong," I said, “to a child or a small woman."
“Apart from their size, though. Is there nothing else?"
“They appear to be much as other footmarks."
“Not at all. Look here! This is the print of a right foot in the dust. Now I make one
with my naked foot beside it. What is the chief difference?"
“Your toes are all cramped together. The other print has each toe distinctly
divided."
“Quite so. That is the point. Bear that in mind. Now, would you kindly step over to
that flap-window and smell the edge of the wood-work? I shall stay here, as I have
this handkerchief in my hand."
I did as he directed, and was instantly conscious of a strong tarry smell.
“That is where he put his foot in getting out. If you can trace him, I should think
that Toby will have no difficulty. Now run downstairs, loose the dog, and look out
for Blondin."
By the time that I got out into the grounds Sherlock Holmes was on the roof, and I
could see him like an enormous glow-worm crawling very slowly along the ridge. I lost
sight of him behind a stack of chimneys, but he presently reappeared, and then
vanished once more upon the opposite side. When I made my way round there I found him
seated at one of the corner eaves.
“That you, Watson?" he cried.
“Yes."
“This is the place. What is that black thing down there?"
“A water-barrel."
“Top on it?"
“Yes."
“No sign of a ladder?"
“No."
“Confound the fellow! It’s a most break-neck place. I ought to be able to come down
where he could climb up. The water-pipe feels pretty firm. Here goes, anyhow."
There was a scuffling of feet, and the lantern began to come steadily down the side
of the wall. Then with a light spring he came on to the barrel, and from there to the
earth.
“It was easy to follow him," he said, drawing on his stockings and180 boots. “Tiles were loosened the whole way along, and
in his hurry he had dropped this. It confirms my diagnosis, as you doctors express
it."
The object which he held up to me was a small pocket or pouch woven out of coloured
grasses and with a few tawdry beads strung round it. In shape and size it was not
unlike a cigarette-case. Inside were half a dozen spines of dark wood, sharp at one
end and rounded at the other, like that which had struck Bartholomew Sholto.
“They are hellish things," said he. “Look out that you don’t prick yourself. I’m
delighted to have them, for the chances are that they are all he has. There is the
less fear of you or me finding one in our skin before long. I would sooner face a
, myself. Are
you game for a six-mile trudge, Watson?"
“Certainly," I answered.
“Your leg will stand it?"
“Oh, yes."
“Here you are, doggy! Good old Toby! Smell it, Toby, smell it!" He pushed the
creasote handkerchief under the dog’s nose, while the creature stood with its fluffy
legs separated, and with a most comical cock to its head, like a connoisseur sniffing
the bouquet of a famous vintage. Holmes then threw the handkerchief to a distance,
fastened a stout cord to the mongrel’s collar, and led him to the foot of the
water-barrel. The creature instantly broke into a succession of high, tremulous
yelps, and, with his nose on the ground, and his tail in the air, pattered off upon
the trail at a pace which strained his leash and kept us at the top of our speed.
The east had been gradually whitening, and we could now see some distance in the cold
grey light. The square, massive house, with its black, empty windows and high, bare
walls, towered up, sad and forlorn, behind us. Our course led right across the
grounds, in and out among the trenches and pits with which they were scarred and
intersected. The whole place, with its scattered dirt-heaps and ill-grown shrubs, had
a blighted, ill-omened look which harmonized with the black tragedy which hung over
it.
On reaching the boundary wall Toby ran along, whining eagerly, underneath its shadow,
and stopped finally in a corner screened by a young beech. Where the two walls
joined, several bricks had been loosened, and the crevices left were worn down and
rounded upon the lower side, as though they had frequently been used as a ladder.
Holmes clambered up, and, taking the dog from me, he dropped it over upon the other
side.
“There’s the print of wooden-leg’s hand," he remarked, as I mounted up beside him.
“You see the slight smudge of blood upon the white plaster. What a lucky thing it is
that we have had no very heavy rain since yesterday! The scent will lie upon the road
in spite of their eight-and-twenty hours’ start."
I confess that I had my doubts myself when I reflected upon the great traffic which
had passed along the London road in
the interval. My fears were soon appeased, however. Toby never hesitated or swerved,
but waddled on in his peculiar rolling fashion. Clearly, the pungent smell of the
creasote rose high above all other contending scents.
181
“Do not imagine," said Holmes, “that I depend for my success in this case upon the
mere chance of one of these fellows having put his foot in the chemical. I have
knowledge now which would enable me to trace them in many different ways. This,
however, is the readiest and, since fortune has put it into our hands, I should be
culpable if I neglected it. It has, however, prevented the case from becoming the
pretty little intellectual problem which it at one time promised to be. There might
have been some credit to be gained out of it, but for this too palpable clue."
“There is credit, and to spare," said I. “I assure you, Holmes, that I marvel at the
means by which you obtain your results in this case, even more than I did in the
Jefferson Hope Murder. The thing seems to me to be deeper and more inexplicable. How,
for example, could you describe with such confidence the wooden-legged man?"
“Pshaw, my dear boy! it was simplicity itself. I don’t wish to be theatrical. It is
all patent and above-board. Two officers who are in command of a convict-guard learn
an important secret as to buried treasure. A map is drawn for them by an Englishman
named Jonathan Small. You remember that we saw the name upon the chart in Captain ’s
possession. He had signed it in behalf of himself and his associates,—the sign of the
four, as he somewhat dramatically called it. Aided by this chart, the officers—or one
of them—gets the treasure and brings it to England, leaving, we will suppose, some
condition under which he received it unfulfilled. Now, then, why did not Jonathan
Small get the treasure himself? The answer is obvious. The chart is dated at a time
when was brought into close association with convicts. Jonathan Small did not get the
treasure because he and his associates were themselves convicts and could not get
away."
“But that is mere speculation," said I.
“It is more than that. It is the only hypothesis which covers the facts. Let us see
how it fits in with the sequel. Major Sholto remains at peace for some years, happy
in the possession of his treasure. Then he receives a letter from India which gives
him a great fright. What was that?"
“A letter to say that the men whom he had wronged had been set free."
“Or had escaped. That is much more likely, for he would have known what their term of
imprisonment was. It would not have been a surprise to him. What does he do then? He
guards himself against a wooden-legged man,—a white man, mark you, for he mistakes a
white tradesman for him, and actually fires a pistol at him. Now, only one white
man’s name is on the chart. The others are Hindoos or Mohammedans. There is no other
white man. Therefore we may say with confidence that the wooden-legged man is
identical with Jonathan Small. Does the reasoning strike you as being faulty?"
“No: it is clear and concise."
“Well, now, let us put ourselves in the place of Jonathan Small. Let us look at it
from his point of view. He comes to England with the double idea of regaining what he
would consider to be his rights and of having his revenge upon the man who had
wronged him. He found182 out where Sholto lived,
and very possibly he established communications with some one inside the house. There
is this butler, Lal Rao, whom we have not seen. Mrs. Bernstone gives him far from a
good character. Small could not find out, however, where the treasure was hid, for no
one ever knew, save the major and one faithful servant who had died. Suddenly Small
learns that the major is on his death-bed. In a frenzy lest the secret of the
treasure die with him, he runs the gauntlet of the guards, makes his way to the dying
man’s window, and is only deterred from entering by the presence of his two sons. Mad
with hate, however, against the dead man, he enters the room that night, searches his
private papers in the hope of discovering some memorandum relating to the treasure,
and finally leaves a momento of his visit in the short inscription upon the card. He
had doubtless planned beforehand that should he slay the major he would leave some
such record upon the body as a sign that it was not a common murder, but, from the
point of view of the four associates, something in the nature of an act of justice.
Whimsical and bizarre conceits of this kind are common enough in the annals of crime,
and usually afford valuable indications as to the criminal. Do you follow all
this?"
“Very clearly."
“Now, what could Jonathan Small do? He could only continue to keep a secret watch
upon the efforts made to find the treasure. Possibly he leaves England and only comes
back at intervals. Then comes the discovery of the garret, and he is instantly
informed of it. We again trace the presence of some confederate in the household.
Jonathan, with his wooden leg, is utterly unable to reach the lofty room of
Bartholomew Sholto. He takes with him, however, a rather curious associate, who gets
over this difficulty, but dips his naked foot into creasote, whence comes Toby, and a
six-mile limp for a half-pay officer with a damaged tendo Achillis."
“But it was the associate, and not Jonathan, who committed the crime."
“Quite so. And rather to Jonathan’s disgust, to judge by the way he stamped about
when he got into the room. He bore no grudge against Bartholomew Sholto, and would
have preferred if he could have been simply bound and gagged. He did not wish to put
his head in a halter. There was no help for it, however: the savage instincts of his
companion had broken out, and the poison had done its work: so Jonathan Small left
his record, lowered the treasure-box to the ground, and followed it himself. That was
the train of events as far as I can decipher them. Of course as to his personal
appearance he must be middle-aged, and must be sunburned after serving his time in
such an oven as the Andamans. His height is readily calculated from the length of his
stride, and we know that he was bearded. His hairiness was the one point which
impressed itself upon Thaddeus Sholto when he saw him at the window. I don’t know
that there is anything else."
“The associate?"
“Ah, well, there is no great mystery in that. But you will know all about it soon
enough. How sweet the morning air is! See how183
that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the
red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare
bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty
ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of nature! Are
you well up in your
?"
“Fairly so. I worked back to him through ."
“That was like following the brook to the parent lake. He makes one curious but
profound remark. It is that the chief proof of man’s real greatness lies in his
perception of his own smallness. It argues, you see, a power of comparison and of
appreciation which is in itself a proof of nobility. There is much food for thought
in Richter. You have not a pistol, have you?"
“I have my stick."
“It is just possible that we may need something of the sort if we get to their lair.
Jonathan I shall leave to you, but if the other turns nasty I shall shoot him dead."
He took out his revolver as he spoke, and, having loaded two of the chambers, he put
it back into the right-hand pocket of his jacket.
We had during this time been following the guidance of Toby down the half-rural
villa-lined roads which lead to the metropolis. Now, however, we were beginning to
come among continuous streets, where labourers and dockmen were already astir, and
slatternly women were taking down shutters and brushing door-steps. At the
square-topped corner public houses business was just beginning, and rough-looking men
were emerging, rubbing their sleeves across their beards after their morning wet.
Strange dogs sauntered up and stared wonderingly at us as we passed, but our
inimitable Toby looked neither to the right nor to the left, but trotted onwards with
his nose to the ground and an occasional eager whine which spoke of a hot scent.
We had traversed Streatham, Brixton, Camberwell, and now found ourselves in
Kennington Lane, having borne away through the side-streets to the east of
. The men whom
we pursued seemed to have taken a curiously zigzag road, with the idea probably of
escaping observation. They had never kept to the main road if a parallel side-street
would serve their turn. At the foot of Kennington Lane they had edged away to the
left through Bond Street and Miles Street. Where the latter street turns into
Knight’s Place, Toby ceased to advance, but began to run backwards and forwards with
one ear cocked and the other drooping, the very picture of canine indecision. Then he
waddled round in circles, looking up to us from time to time, as if to ask for
sympathy in his embarrassment.
“What the deuce is the matter with the dog?" growled Holmes. “They surely would not
take a cab, or go off in a balloon."
“Perhaps they stood here for some time," I suggested.
“Ah! it’s all right. He’s off again," said my companion, in a tone of relief.
He was indeed off, for after sniffing round again he suddenly made up his mind, and
darted away with an energy and determination such as he had not yet shown. The scent
appeared to be much hotter than184 before, for he
had not even to put his nose on the ground, but tugged at his leash and tried to
break into a run. I could see by the gleam in Holmes’s eyes that he thought we were
nearing the end of our journey.
Our course now ran down Nine Elms until we came to Broderick and Nelson’s large
timber-yard, just past the White Eagle tavern. Here the dog, frantic with excitement,
turned down through the side-gate into the enclosure, where the sawyers were already
at work. On the dog raced through sawdust and shavings, down an alley, round a
passage, between two wood-piles, and finally, with a triumphant yelp, sprang upon a
large barrel which still stood upon the hand-trolley on which it had been brought.
With lolling tongue and blinking eyes, Toby stood upon the cask, looking from one to
the other of us for some sign of appreciation. The staves of the barrel and the
wheels of the trolley were smeared with a dark liquid, and the whole air was heavy
with the smell of creasote.
Sherlock Holmes and I looked blankly at each other, and then burst simultaneously
into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS.
“What now?" I asked. “Toby has lost his character for infallibility."
“He acted according to his lights," said Holmes, lifting him down from the barrel and
walking him out of the timber-yard. “If you consider how much creasote is carted
about London in one day, it is no
great wonder that our trail should have been crossed. It is much used now, especially
for the seasoning of wood. Poor Toby is not to blame."
“We must get on the main scent again, I suppose."
“Yes. And, fortunately, we have no distance to go. Evidently what puzzled the dog at
the corner of Knight’s Place was that there were two different trails running in
opposite directions. We took the wrong one. It only remains to follow the other."
There was no difficulty about this. On leading Toby to the place where he had
committed his fault, he cast about in a wide circle and finally dashed off in a fresh
direction.
“We must take care that he does not now bring us to the place where the
creasote-barrel came from," I observed.
“I had thought of that. But you notice that he keeps on the pavement, whereas the
barrel passed down the roadway. No, we are on the true scent now."
It tended down towards the river-side, running through Belmont Place and Prince’s
Street. At the end of Broad Street it ran right down to the water’s edge, where there
was a small wooden
.
Toby led us to the very edge of this, and there stood whining, looking out on the
dark current beyond.
“We are out of luck," said Holmes. “They have taken to a boat185 here." Several small punts and skiffs were lying about
in the water and on the edge of the wharf. We took Toby round to each in turn, but,
though he sniffed earnestly, he made no sign.
Close to the rude landing-stage was a small brick house, with a wooden placard slung
out through the second window. “Mordecai Smith" was printed across it in large
letters, and, underneath, “Boats to hire by the hour or day." A second inscription
above the door informed us that a
was kept,—a statement which was confirmed by a great pile of coke
upon the jetty. Sherlock Holmes looked slowly round, and his face assumed an ominous
expression.
“This looks bad," said he. “These fellows are sharper than I expected. They seem to
have covered their tracks. There has, I fear, been preconcerted management here."
He was approaching the door of the house, when it opened, and a little, curly-headed
lad of six came running out, followed by a stoutish, red-faced woman with a large
sponge in her hand.
“You come back and be washed, Jack," she shouted. “Come back, you young imp; for if
your father comes home and finds you like that, he’ll let us hear of it."
“Dear little chap!" said Holmes, strategically. “What a rosy-cheeked young rascal!
Now, Jack, is there anything you would like?"
The youth pondered for a moment. “I’d like a shillin’," said he.
“Nothing you would like better?"
“I’d like two shillin’ better," the prodigy answered, after some thought.
“Here you are, then! Catch!—A fine child, Mrs. Smith!"
“Lor’ bless you, sir, he is that, and forward. He gets a’most too much for me to
manage, ’specially when my man is away days at a time."
“Away, is he?" said Holmes, in a disappointed voice. “I am sorry for that, for I
wanted to speak to Mr. Smith."
“He’s been away since yesterday mornin’, sir, and, truth to tell, I am beginnin’ to
feel frightened about him. But if it was about a boat, sir, maybe I could serve as
well."
“I wanted to hire his steam launch."
“Why, bless you, sir, it is in the steam launch that he has gone. That’s what puzzles
me; for I know there ain’t more coals in her than would take her to about Woolwich
and back. If he’d been away in the barge I’d ha’ thought nothin’; for many a time a
job has taken him as far as Gravesend, and then if there was much doin’ there he
might ha’ stayed over. But what good is a steam launch without coals?"
“He might have bought some at a wharf down the river."
“He might, sir, but it weren’t his way. Many a time I’ve heard him call out at the
prices they charge for a few odd bags. Besides, I don’t like that wooden-legged man,
wi’ his ugly face and outlandish talk. What did he want always knockin’ about here
for?"
“A wooden-legged man?" said Holmes, with bland surprise.
“Yes, sir, a brown, monkey-faced chap that’s called more’n once for my old man. It
was him that roused him up yesternight, and, what’s186 more, my man knew he was comin’, for he had steam up
in the launch. I tell you straight, sir, I don’t feel easy in my mind about it."
“But, my dear Mrs. Smith," said Holmes, shrugging his shoulders, “You are frightening
yourself about nothing. How could you possibly tell that it was the wooden-legged man
who came in the night? I don’t quite understand how you can be so sure."
“His voice, sir. I knew his voice, which is kind o’ thick and foggy. He tapped at the
winder,—about three it would be. ‘Show a leg, matey,’ says he: ‘time to turn out
guard.’ My old man woke up Jim,—that’s my eldest,—and away they went, without so much
as a word to me. I could hear the wooden leg clackin’ on the stones."
“And was this wooden-legged man alone?"
“Couldn’t say, I am sure, sir. I didn’t hear no one else."
“I am sorry, Mrs. Smith, for I wanted a steam launch, and I have heard good reports
of the—Let me see, what is her name?"
“The Aurora, sir."
“Ah! She’s not that old green launch with a yellow line, very broad in the beam?"
“No, indeed. She’s as trim a little thing as any on the river. She’s been fresh
painted, black with two red streaks."
“Thanks. I hope that you will hear soon from Mr. Smith. I am going down the river;
and if I should see anything of the Aurora I shall let him know that you are uneasy.
A black funnel, you say?"
“No, sir. Black with a white band."
“Ah, of course. It was the sides which were black. Good-morning, Mrs. Smith.—There is
a boatman here with a wherry, Watson. We shall take it and cross the river.
“The main thing with people of that sort," said Holmes, as we sat in the sheets of
the
, “is never to let them think that their
information can be of the slightest importance to you. If you do, they will instantly
shut up like an oyster. If you listen to them under protest, as it were, you are very
likely to get what you want."
“Our course now seems pretty clear," said I.
“What would you do, then?"
“I would engage a launch and go down the river on the track of the Aurora."
“My dear fellow, it would be a colossal task. She may have touched at any wharf on
either side of the stream between here and Greenwich. Below the bridge there is a
perfect labyrinth of landing-places for miles. It would take you days and days to
exhaust them, if you set about it alone."
“Employ the police, then."
“No. I shall probably call Athelney Jones in at the last moment. He is not a bad
fellow, and I should not like to do anything which would injure him professionally.
But I have a fancy for working it out myself, now that we have gone so far."
“Could we advertise, then, asking for information from wharfingers?"
“Worse and worse! Our men would know that the chase was hot at their heels, and they
would be off out of the country. As it is, they187 are likely enough to leave, but as long as they think they are perfectly safe they
will be in no hurry. Jones’s energy will be of use to us there, for his view of the
case is sure to push itself into the daily press, and the runaways will think that
every one is off on the wrong scent."
“What are we to do, then?" I asked, as we landed near Millbank Penitentiary.
“Take this
, drive home, have some breakfast, and get an
hour’s sleep. It is quite on the cards that we may be afoot to-night again. Stop at a
telegraph-office, cabby! We will keep Toby, for he may be of use to us yet."
We pulled up at the Great Peter Street post-office, and Holmes despatched his wire.
“Whom do you think that is to?" he asked, as we resumed our journey.
“I am sure I don’t know."
“You remember the Baker Street division of the detective police force whom I employed
in the Jefferson Hope case?"
“Well," said I, laughing.
“This is just the case where they might be invaluable. If they fail, I have other
resources; but I shall try them first. That wire was to my dirty little lieutenant,
Wiggins, and I expect that he and his gang will be with us before we have finished
our breakfast."
It was between eight and nine o’clock now, and I was conscious of a strong reaction
after the successive excitements of the night. I was limp and weary, befogged in mind
and fatigued in body. I had not the professional enthusiasm which carried my
companion on, nor could I look at the matter as a mere abstract intellectual problem.
As far as the death of Bartholomew Sholto went, I had heard little good of him, and
could feel no intense antipathy to his murderers. The treasure, however, was a
different matter. That, or part of it, belonged rightfully to Miss . While there was
a chance of recovering it I was ready to devote my life to the one object. True, if I
found it it would probably put her forever beyond my reach. Yet it would be a petty
and selfish love which would be influenced by such a thought as that. If Holmes could
work to find the criminals, I had a tenfold stronger reason to urge me on to find the
treasure.
A bath at Baker Street and a complete change freshened me up wonderfully. When I came
down to our room I found the breakfast laid and Homes pouring out the coffee.
“Here it is," said he, laughing, and pointing to an open newspaper. “The energetic
Jones and the ubiquitous reporter have fixed it up between them. But you have had
enough of the case. Better have your ham and eggs first."
I took the paper from him and read the short notice, which was headed “Mysterious
Business at Upper Norwood."
“About twelve o’clock last night," said the Standard, “Mr. Bartholomew Sholto, of
Pondicherry Lodge, Upper Norwood, was
found dead in his room under circumstances which point to foul play. As far as we can
learn, no actual traces of violence were found upon Mr. Sholto’s person, but a
valuable collection of Indian gems which the188
deceased gentleman had inherited from his father has been carried off. The discovery
was first made by Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, who had called at the house
with Mr. Thaddeus Sholto, brother of the deceased. By a singular piece of good
fortune, Mr. Athelney Jones, the well-known member of the detective police force,
happened to be at the Norwood Police
Station, and was on the ground within half an hour of the first alarm. His trained
and experienced faculties were at once directed towards the detection of the
criminals, with the gratifying result that the brother, Thaddeus Sholto, has already
been arrested, together with the housekeeper, Mrs. Bernstone, an Indian butler named
Lal Rao, and a porter, or gatekeeper, named McMurdo. It is quite certain that the
thief or thieves were well acquainted with the house, for Mr. Jones’s well-known
technical knowledge and his powers of minute observation have enabled him to prove
conclusively that the miscreants could not have entered by the door or by the window,
but must have made their way across the roof of the building, and so through a
trap-door into a room which communicated with that in which the body was found. This
fact, which has been very clearly made out, proves conclusively that it was no mere
haphazard burglary. The prompt and energetic action of the officers of the law shows
the great advantage of the presence on such occasions of a single vigorous and
masterful mind. We cannot but think that it supplies an argument to those who would
wish to see our detectives more decentralised, and so brought into closer and more
effective touch with the cases which it is their duty to investigate."
“Isn’t it gorgeous!" said Holmes, grinning over his coffee-cup. “What do you think of
it?"
“I think that we have had a close shave ourselves of being arrested for the
crime."
“So do I. I wouldn’t answer for our safety now, if he should happen to have another
of his attacks of energy."
At this moment there was a loud ring at the bell, and I could hear Mrs. Hudson, our
landlady, raising her voice in a wail of expostulation and dismay.
“By heaven, Holmes," I said, half rising, “I believe that they are really after
us."
“No, it’s not quite so bad as that. It is the unofficial force,—the Baker Street
irregulars."
As he spoke, there came a swift pattering of naked feet upon the stairs, a clatter of
high voices, and in rushed a dozen dirty and ragged little street-Arabs. There was
some show of discipline among them, despite their tumultuous entry, for they
instantly drew up in line and stood facing us with expectant faces. One of their
number, taller and older than the others, stood forward with an air of lounging
superiority which was very funny in such a disreputable little scarecrow.
“Got your message, sir," said he, “and brought ’em on sharp. Three bob and a tanner
for tickets."
“Here you are," said Holmes, producing some silver. “In future they can report to
you, Wiggins, and you to me. I cannot have the house invaded in this way. However, it
is just as well that you should189 all hear the
instructions. I want to find the whereabouts of a steam launch called the Aurora,
owner Mordecai Smith, black with two red streaks, funnel black with a white band. She
is down the river somewhere. I want one boy to be at Mordecai Smith’s landing-stage
opposite Millbank to say if the boat comes back. You must divide it out among
yourselves, and do both banks thoroughly. Let me know the moment you have news. Is
that all clear?"
“Yes, guv’nor," said Wiggins.
“The old scale of pay, and a guinea to the boy who finds the boat. Here’s a day in
advance. Now off you go!" He handed them a shilling each, and away they buzzed down
the stairs, and I saw them a moment later streaming down the street.
“If the launch is above water they will find her," said Holmes, as he rose from the
table and lit his pipe. “They can go everywhere, see everything, overhear every one.
I expect to hear before evening that they have spotted her. In the meanwhile, we can
do nothing but await results. We cannot pick up the broken trail until we find either
the Aurora or Mr. Mordecai Smith."
“Toby could eat these scraps, I dare say. Are you going to bed, Holmes?"
“No; I am not tired. I have a curious constitution. I never remember feeling tired by
work, though idleness exhausts me completely. I am going to smoke and to think over
this queer business to which my fair client has introduced us. If ever man had an
easy task, this of ours ought to be. Wooden-legged men are not so common, but the
other man must, I should think, be absolutely unique."
“That other man again!"
“I have no wish to make a mystery of him,—to you, anyway. But you must have formed
your own opinion. Now, do consider the data. Diminutive footmarks, toes never
fettered by boots, naked feet, stone-headed wooden mace, great agility, small
poisoned darts. What do you make of all this?"
“A savage!" I exclaimed. “Perhaps one of those Indians who were the associates of
Jonathan Small."
“Hardly that," said he. “When first I saw signs of strange weapons I was inclined to
think so; but the remarkable character of the footmarks caused me to reconsider my
views. Some of the inhabitants of the Indian Peninsula are small men, but none could
have left such marks as that. The Hindoo proper has long and thin feet. The
sandal-wearing
has the great toe well separated from the
others, because the thong is commonly passed between. These little darts, too, could
only be shot in one way. They are from a blow-pipe. Now, then, where are we to find
our savage?"
“South American," I hazarded.
He stretched his hand up, and took down a bulky volume from the shelf. “This is the
first volume of a
which is now being published. It may be looked upon
as the very latest authority. What have we here? ‘Andaman Islands, situated 340 miles
to the north of Sumatra, in the Bay of Bengal.’ Hum! hum! What’s all this? Moist
climate, coral reefs, sharks, Port Blair, convict-barracks, Rutland190 Island, cottonwoods—Ah, here we are. ‘The aborigines
of the Andaman Islands may perhaps claim the distinction of being the smallest race
upon this earth, though some anthropologists prefer the Bushmen of Africa, the Digger
Indians of America, and the Terra del Fuegians. The average height is rather below
four feet, although many full-grown adults may be found who are very much smaller
than this. They are a fierce, morose, and intractable people, though capable of
forming most devoted friendships when their confidence has once been gained.’ Mark
that, Watson. Now, then, listen to this. ‘They are naturally hideous, having large,
misshapen heads, small, fierce eyes, and distorted features. Their feet and hands,
however, are remarkably small. So intractable and fierce are they that all the
efforts of the British official have failed to win them over in any degree. They have
always been a terror to shipwrecked crews, braining the survivors with their
stone-headed clubs, or shooting them with their poisoned arrows. These massacres are
invariably concluded by a cannibal feast.’ Nice, amiable people, Watson! If this
fellow had been left to his own unaided devices this affair might have taken an even
more ghastly turn. I fancy that, even as it is, Jonathan Small would give a good deal
not to have employed him."
“But how came he to have so singular a companion?"
“Ah, that is more than I can tell. Since, however, we had already determined that
Small had come from the Andamans, it is not so very wonderful that this islander
should be with him. No doubt we shall know all about it in time. Look here, Watson;
you look regularly done. Lie down there on the sofa, and see if I can put you to
sleep."
He took up his violin from the corner, and as I stretched myself out he began to play
some low, dreamy, melodious air,—his own, no doubt, for he had a remarkable gift for
improvisation. I have a vague remembrance of his gaunt limbs, his earnest face, and
the rise and fall of his bow. Then I seemed to be floated peacefully away upon a soft
sea of sound, until I found myself in dreamland, with the sweet face of Mary looking
down upon me.
CHAPTER IX.
A BREAK IN THE CHAIN.
It was late in the afternoon before I woke, strengthened and refreshed. Sherlock
Holmes still sat exactly as I had left him, save that he had laid aside his violin
and was deep in a book. He looked across at me, as I stirred, and I noticed that his
face was dark and troubled.
“You have slept soundly," he said. “I feared that our talk would wake you."
“I heard nothing," I answered. “Have you had fresh news, then?"
“Unfortunately, no. I confess that I am surprised and disappointed. I expected
something definite by this time. Wiggins has just been up to report. He says that no
trace can be found of the launch. It is a provoking check, for every hour is of
importance."
191
“Can I do anything? I am perfectly fresh now, and quite ready for another night’s
outing."
“No, we can do nothing. We can only wait. If we go ourselves, the message might come
in our absence, and delay be caused. You can do what you will, but I must remain on
guard."
“Then I shall run over to Camberwell and call upon Mrs. Cecil Forrester. She asked me
to, yesterday."
“On Mrs. Cecil Forrester?" asked Holmes, with the twinkle of a smile in his eyes.
“Well, of course Miss too. They were anxious to hear what happened."
“I would not tell them too much," said Holmes. “Women are never to be entirely
trusted,—not the best of them."
I did not pause to argue over this atrocious sentiment. “I shall be back in an hour
or two," I remarked.
“All right! Good luck! But, I say, if you are crossing the river you may as well
return Toby, for I don’t think it is at all likely that we shall have any use for him
now."
I took our mongrel accordingly, and left him, together with a half-sovereign, at the
old naturalist’s in Pinchin Lane. At Camberwell I found Miss a little weary after her
night’s adventures, but very eager to hear the news. Mrs. Forrester, too, was full of
curiosity. I told them all that we had done, suppressing, however, the more dreadful
parts of the tragedy. Thus, although I spoke of Mr. Sholto’s death, I said nothing of
the exact manner and method of it. With all my omissions, however, there was enough
to startle and amaze them.
“It is a
!" cried Mrs.
Forrester. “An injured lady, half a million in treasure, a black cannibal, and a
wooden-legged ruffian. They take the place of the conventional dragon or wicked
earl."
“And two knight-errants to the rescue," added Miss , with a bright glance at me.
“Why, Mary, your fortune depends upon the issue of this search. I don’t think that
you are nearly excited enough. Just imagine what it must be to be so rich, and to
have the world at your feet!"
It sent a little thrill of joy to my heart to notice that she showed no sign of
elation at the prospect. On the contrary, she gave a toss of her proud head, as
though the matter were one in which she took small interest.
“It is for Mr. Thaddeus Sholto that I am anxious," she said. “Nothing else is of any
consequence; but I think that he has behaved most kindly and honourably throughout.
It is our duty to clear him of this dreadful and unfounded charge."
It was evening before I left Camberwell, and quite dark by the time I reached home.
My companion’s book and pipe lay by his chair, but he had disappeared. I looked about
in the hope of seeing a note, but there was none.
“I suppose that Mr. Sherlock Holmes has gone out," I said to Mrs. Hudson as she came
up to lower the blinds.
“No, sir. He has gone to his room, sir. Do you know, sir,"192 sinking her voice into an impressive whisper, “I am
afraid for his health?"
“Why so, Mrs. Hudson?"
“Well, he’s that strange, sir. After you was gone he walked and he walked, up and
down, and up and down, until I was weary of the sound of his footstep. Then I heard
him talking to himself and muttering, and every time the bell rang out he came on the
stairhead, with ‘What is that, Mrs. Hudson?’ And now he has slammed off to his room,
but I can hear him walking away the same as ever. I hope he’s not going to be ill,
sir. I ventured to say something to him about cooling medicine, but he turned on me,
sir, with such a look that I don’t know how ever I got out of the room."
“I don’t think that you have any cause to be uneasy, Mrs. Hudson," I answered. “I
have seen him like this before. He has some small matter upon his mind which makes
him restless." I tried to speak lightly to our worthy landlady, but I was myself
somewhat uneasy when through the long night I still from time to time heard the dull
sound of his tread, and knew how his keen spirit was chafing against this involuntary
inaction.
At breakfast-time he looked worn and haggard, with a little fleck of feverish colour
upon either cheek.
“You are knocking yourself up, old man," I remarked. “I heard you marching about in
the night."
“No, I could not sleep," he answered. “This infernal problem is consuming me. It is
too much to be balked by so petty an obstacle, when all else had been overcome. I
know the men, the launch, everything; and yet I can get no news. I have set other
agencies at work, and used every means at my disposal. The whole river has been
searched on either side, but there is no news, nor has Mrs. Smith heard of her
husband. I shall come to the conclusion soon that they have scuttled the craft. But
there are objections to that."
“Or that Mrs. Smith has put us on a wrong scent."
“No, I think that may be dismissed. I had inquiries made, and there is a launch of
that description."
“Could it have gone up the river?"
“I have considered that possibility too, and there is a search-party who will work up
as far as Richmond. If no news comes to-day, I shall start off myself to-morrow, and
go for the men rather than the boat. But surely, surely, we shall hear
something."
We did not, however. Not a word came to us either from Wiggins or from the other
agencies. There were articles in most of the papers upon the Norwood tragedy. They all appeared to be rather hostile
to the unfortunate Thaddeus Sholto. No fresh details were to be found, however, in
any of them, save that an inquest was to be held upon the following day. I walked
over to Camberwell in the evening to report our ill success to the ladies, and on my
return I found Holmes dejected and somewhat morose. He would hardly reply to my
questions, and busied himself all evening in an abstruse chemical analysis which
involved much heating of retorts and distilling of vapours, ending at last in a smell
which fairly drove me out of the apartment. Up to193 the small hours of the morning I could hear the
clinking of his test-tubes which told me that he was still engaged in his malodorous
experiment.
In the early dawn I woke with a start, and was surprised to find him standing by my
bedside, clad in a rude sailor dress with a pea-jacket, and a coarse red scarf round
his neck.
“I am off down the river, Watson," said he. “I have been turning it over in my mind,
and I can see only one way out of it. It is worth trying, at all events."
“Surely I can come with you, then?" said I.
“No; you can be much more useful if you will remain here as my representative. I am
loath to go, for it is quite on the cards that some message may come during the day,
though Wiggins was despondent about it last night. I want you to open all notes and
telegrams, and to act on your own judgment if any news should come. Can I rely upon
you?"
“Most certainly."
“I am afraid that you will not be able to wire to me, for I can hardly tell yet where
I may find myself. If I am in luck, however, I may not be gone so very long. I shall
have news of some sort or other before I get back."
I had heard nothing of him by breakfast-time. On opening
, however, I found that there was a fresh
allusion to the business. “With reference to the Upper Norwood tragedy," it remarked, “we have reason to
believe that the matter promises to be even more complex and mysterious than was
originally supposed. Fresh evidence has shown that it is quite impossible that Mr.
Thaddeus Sholto could have been in any way concerned in the matter. He and the
housekeeper, Mrs. Bernstone, were both released yesterday evening. It is believed,
however, that the police have a clue as to the real culprits, and that it is being
prosecuted by Mr. Athelney Jones, of Scotland Yard, with all his well-known energy
and sagacity. Further arrests may be expected at any moment."
“That is satisfactory so far as it goes," thought I. “Friend Sholto is safe, at any
rate. I wonder what the fresh clue may be; though it seems to be a stereotyped form
whenever the police have made a blunder."
I tossed the paper down upon the table, but at that moment my eye caught an
advertisement in
. It ran in this way:
“Lost.—Whereas Mordecai Smith, boatman, and his son, Jim, left Smith’s Wharf at or
about three o’clock last Tuesday morning in the steam launch Aurora, black with two
red stripes, funnel black with a white band, the sum of five pounds will be paid to
any one who can give information to Mrs. Smith, at Smith’s Wharf, or at 221b Baker
Street, as to the whereabouts of the said Mordecai Smith and the launch Aurora."
This was clearly Holmes’s doing. The Baker Street address was enough to prove that.
It struck me as rather ingenious, because it might be read by the fugitives without
their seeing in it more than the natural anxiety of a wife for her missing
husband.
194
It was a long day. Every time that a knock came to the door, or a sharp step passed
in the street, I imagined that it was either Holmes returning or an answer to his
advertisement. I tried to read, but my thoughts would wander off to our strange quest
and to the ill-assorted and villainous pair whom we were pursuing. Could there be, I
wondered, some radical flaw in my companion’s reasoning. Might he be suffering from
some huge self-deception? Was it not possible that his nimble and speculative mind
had built up this wild theory upon faulty premises? I had never known him to be
wrong; and yet the keenest reasoner may occasionally be deceived. He was likely, I
thought, to fall into error through the over-refinement of his logic,—his preference
for a subtle and bizarre explanation when a plainer and more commonplace one lay
ready to his hand. Yet, on the other hand, I had myself seen the evidence, and I had
heard the reasons for his deductions. When I looked back on the long chain of curious
circumstances, many of them trivial in themselves, but all tending in the same
direction, I could not disguise from myself that even if Holmes’s explanation were
incorrect the true theory must be equally outré and startling.
At three o’clock in the afternoon there was a loud peal at the bell, an authoritative
voice in the hall, and, to my surprise, no less a person than Mr. Athelney Jones was
shown up to me. Very different was he, however, from the brusque and masterful
professor of common sense who had taken over the case so confidently at Upper
Norwood. His expression was
downcast, and his bearing meek and even apologetic.
“Good-day, sir; good-day," said he. “Mr. Sherlock Holmes is out, I understand."
“Yes, and I cannot be sure when he will be back. But perhaps you would care to wait.
Take that chair and try one of these cigars."
“Thank you; I don’t mind if I do," said he, mopping his face with a red bandanna
handkerchief.
“And a whiskey-and-soda?"
“Well, half a glass. It is very hot for the time of year; and I have had a good deal
to worry and try me. You know my theory about this Norwood case?"
“I remember that you expressed one."
“Well, I have been obliged to reconsider it. I had my net drawn tightly round Mr.
Sholto, sir, when pop he went through a hole in the middle of it. He was able to
prove an alibi which could not be shaken. From the time that he left his brother’s
room he was never out of sight of some one or other. So it could not be he who
climbed over roofs and through trap-doors. It’s a very dark case, and my professional
credit is at stake. I should be very glad of a little assistance."
“We all need help sometimes," said I.
“Your friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes is a wonderful man, sir," said he, in a husky and
confidential voice. “He’s a man who is not to be beat. I have known that young man go
into a good many cases, but I never saw the case yet that he could not throw a light
upon. He is irregular in his methods, and a little quick perhaps in jumping at
theories, but, on the whole, I think he would have made a most promising officer, and
I don’t care who knows it. I have had a wire from195 him this morning, by which I understand that he has
got some clue to this Sholto business. Here is the message."
He took the telegram out of his pocket, and handed it to me. It was dated from Poplar
at twelve o’clock. “Go to Baker Street at once," it said. “If I have not returned,
wait for me. I am close on the track of the Sholto gang. You can come with us
to-night if you want to be in at the finish."
“This sounds well. He has evidently picked up the scent again," said I.
“Ah, then he has been at fault too," exclaimed Jones, with evident satisfaction.
“Even the best of us are thrown off sometimes. Of course this may prove to be a false
alarm; but it is my duty as an officer of the law to allow no chance to slip. But
there is some one at the door. Perhaps this is he."
A heavy step was heard ascending the stair, with a great wheezing and rattling as
from a man who was sorely put to it for breath. Once or twice he stopped, as though
the climb were too much for him, but at last he made his way to our door and entered.
His appearance corresponded to the sounds which we had heard. He was an aged man,
clad in seafaring garb, with an old pea-jacket buttoned up to his throat. His back
was bowed, his knees were shaky, and his breathing was painfully asthmatic. As he
leaned upon a thick oaken cudgel his shoulders heaved in the effort to draw the air
into his lungs. He had a coloured scarf round his chin, and I could see little of his
face save a pair of keen dark eyes, overhung by bushy white brows, and long grey
side-whiskers. Altogether he gave me the impression of a respectable master mariner
who had fallen into years and poverty.
“What is it, my man?" I asked.
He looked about him in the slow methodical fashion of old age.
“Is Mr. Sherlock Holmes here?" said he.
“No; but I am acting for him. You can tell me any message you have for him."
“It was to him himself I was to tell it," said he.
“But I tell you that I am acting for him. Was it about Mordecai Smith’s boat?"
“Yes. I knows well where it is. An’ I knows where the men he is after are. An’ I
knows where the treasure is. I knows all about it."
“Then tell me, and I shall let him know."
“It was to him I was to tell it," he repeated, with the petulant obstinacy of a very
old man.
“Well, you must wait for him."
“No, no; I ain’t goin’ to lose a whole day to please no one. If Mr. Holmes ain’t
here, then Mr. Holmes must find it all out for himself. I don’t care about the look
of either of you, and I won’t tell a word."
He shuffled towards the door, but Athelney Jones got in front of him.
“Wait a bit, my friend," said he. “You have important information, and you must not
walk off. We shall keep you, whether you like or not, until our friend returns."
196
The old man made a little run towards the door, but, as Athelney Jones put his broad
back up against it, he recognised the uselessness of resistance.
“Pretty sort o’ treatment this!" he cried, stamping his stick. “I come here to see a
gentleman, and you two, who I never saw in my life, seize me and treat me in this
fashion!"
“You will be none the worse," I said. “We shall recompense you for the loss of your
time. Sit over here on the sofa, and you will not have long to wait."
He came across sullenly enough, and seated himself with his face resting on his
hands. Jones and I resumed our cigars and our talk. Suddenly, however, Holmes’s voice
broke in upon us.
“I think that you might offer me a cigar too," he said.
We both started in our chairs. There was Holmes sitting close to us with an air of
quiet amusement.
“Holmes!" I exclaimed. “You here! But where is the old man?"
“Here is the old man," said he, holding out a heap of white hair. “Here he is,—wig,
whiskers, eyebrows, and all. I thought my disguise was pretty good, but I hardly
expected that it would stand that test."
“Ah, You rogue!" cried Jones, highly delighted. “You would have made an actor, and a
rare one. You had the proper workhouse cough, and those weak legs of yours are worth
ten pounds a week. I thought I knew the glint of your eye, though. You didn’t get
away from us so easily, You see."
“I have been working in that get-up all day," said he, lighting his cigar. “You see,
a good many of the criminal classes begin to know me,—especially since our friend
here took to publishing some of my cases: so I can only go on the war-path under some
simple disguise like this. You got my wire?"
“Yes; that was what brought me here."
“How has your case prospered?"
“It has all come to nothing. I have had to release two of my prisoners, and there is
no evidence against the other two."
“Never mind. We shall give you two others in the place of them. But you must put
yourself under my orders. You are welcome to all the official credit, but you must
act on the line that I point out. Is that agreed?"
“Entirely, if you will help me to the men."
“Well, then, in the first place I shall want a fast police-boat—a steam launch—to be
at the Westminster Stairs at seven o’clock."
“That is easily managed. There is always one about there; but I can step across the
road and telephone to make sure."
“Then I shall want two stanch men, in case of resistance."
“There will be two or three in the boat. What else?"
“When we secure the men we shall get the treasure. I think that it would be a
pleasure to my friend here to take the box round to the young lady to whom half of it
rightfully belongs. Let her be the first to open it.—Eh, Watson?"
197
“It would be a great pleasure to me."
“Rather an irregular proceeding," said Jones, shaking his head. “However, the whole
thing is irregular, and I suppose we must wink at it. The treasure must afterwards be
handed over to the authorities until after the official investigation."
“Certainly. That is easily managed. One other point. I should much like to have a few
details about this matter from the lips of Jonathan Small himself. You know I like to
work the detail of my cases out. There is no objection to my having an unofficial
interview with him, either here in my rooms or elsewhere, as long as he is
efficiently guarded?"
“Well, you are master of the situation. I have had no proof yet of the existence of
this Jonathan Small. However, if you can catch him I don’t see how I can refuse you
an interview with him."
“That is understood, then?"
“Perfectly. Is there anything else?"
“Only that I insist upon your dining with us. It will be ready in half an hour. I
have oysters and a brace of grouse, with something a little choice in white
wines.—Watson, you have never yet recognised my merits as a housekeeper."
CHAPTER X.
THE END OF THE ISLANDER.
Our meal was a merry one. Holmes could talk exceedingly well when he chose, and that
night he did choose. He appeared to be in a state of nervous exaltation. I have never
known him so brilliant. He spoke on a quick succession of subjects,—on miracle-plays,
on mediæval pottery, on Stradivarius violins, on the Buddhism of Ceylon, and on the
war-ships of the future,—handling each as though he had made a special study of it.
His bright humour marked the reaction from his black depression of the preceding
days. Athelney Jones proved to be a sociable soul in his hours of relaxation, and
faced his dinner with
. For myself, I felt
elated at the thought that we were nearing the end of our task, and I caught
something of Holmes’s gaiety. None of us alluded during dinner to the cause which had
brought us together.
When the cloth was cleared, Holmes glanced at his watch, and filled up three glasses
with port. “One bumper," said he, “to the success of our little expedition. And now
it is high time we were off. Have you a pistol, Watson?"
“I have my old service-revolver in my desk."
“You had best take it, then. It is well to be prepared. I see that the cab is at the
door. I ordered it for half-past six."
It was a little past seven before we reached the Westminster wharf, and found our
launch awaiting us. Holmes eyed it critically.
“Is there anything to mark it as a police-boat?"
“Yes,—that green lamp at the side."
198
“Then take it off."
The small change was made, we stepped on board, and the ropes were cast off. Jones,
Holmes, and I sat in the stern. There was one man at the rudder, one to tend the
engines, and two burly police-inspectors forward.
“Where to?" asked Jones.
“To the Tower. Tell them to stop opposite Jacobson’s Yard."
Our craft was evidently a very fast one. We shot past the long lines of loaded barges
as though they were stationary. Holmes smiled with satisfaction as we overhauled a
river steamer and left her behind us.
“We ought to be able to catch anything on the river," he said.
“Well, hardly that. But there are not many launches to beat us."
“We shall have to catch the Aurora, and she has a name for being a clipper. I will
tell you how the land lies, Watson. You recollect how annoyed I was at being balked
by so small a thing?"
“Yes."
“Well, I gave my mind a thorough rest by plunging into a chemical analysis. One of
our greatest statesmen has said that a change of work is the best rest. So it is.
When I had succeeded in dissolving the hydrocarbon which I was at work at, I came
back to our problem of the Sholtos, and thought the whole matter out again. My boys
had been up the river and down the river without result. The launch was not at any
landing-stage or wharf, nor had it returned. Yet it could hardly have been scuttled
to hide their traces,—though that always remained as a possible hypothesis if all
else failed. I knew this man Small had a certain degree of low cunning, but I did not
think him capable of anything in the nature of delicate finesse. That is usually a
product of higher education. I then reflected that since he had certainly been in
London some time—as we had
evidence that he maintained a continual watch over Pondicherry Lodge—he could hardly
leave at a moment’s notice, but would need some little time, if it were only a day,
to arrange his affairs. That was the balance of probability, at any rate."
“It seems to me to be a little weak," said I. “It is more probable that he had
arranged his affairs before ever he set out upon his expedition."
“No, I hardly think so. This lair of his would be too valuable a retreat in case of
need for him to give it up until he was sure that he could do without it. But a
second consideration struck me. Jonathan Small must have felt that the peculiar
appearance of his companion, however much he may have top-coated him, would give rise
to gossip, and possibly be associated with this Norwood tragedy. He was quite sharp enough to see that. They had
started from their head-quarters under cover of darkness, and he would wish to get
back before it was broad light. Now, it was past three o’clock, according to Mrs.
Smith, when they got the boat. It would be quite bright, and people would be about in
an hour or so. Therefore, I argued, they did not go very far. They paid Smith well to
hold his tongue, reserved his launch for the final escape, and hurried to their
lodgings with the treasure-box. In a couple of nights, when they had time to see what
view the papers199 took, and whether there was
any suspicion, they would make their way under cover of darkness to some ship at
Gravesend or in the Downs, where no doubt they had already arranged for passages to
America or
."
“But the launch? They could not have taken that to their lodgings."
“Quite so. I argued that the launch must be no great way off, in spite of its
invisibility. I then put myself in the place of Small, and looked at it as a man of
his capacity would. He would probably consider that to send back the launch or to
keep it at a wharf would make pursuit easy if the police did happen to get on his
track. How, then, could he conceal the launch and yet have her at hand when wanted? I
wondered what I should do myself if I were in his shoes. I could only think of one
way of doing it. I might land the launch over to some boat-builder or repairer, with
directions to make a trifling change in her. She would then be removed to his shed or
yard, and so be effectually concealed, while at the same time I could have her at a
few hours’ notice."
“That seems simple enough."
“It is just these very simple things which are extremely liable to be overlooked.
However, I determined to act on the idea. I started at once in this harmless seaman’s
rig and inquired at all the yards down the river. I drew blank at fifteen, but at the
sixteenth—Jacobson’s—I learned that the Aurora had been handed over to them two days
ago by a wooden-legged man, with some trivial directions as to her rudder. ‘There
ain’t naught amiss with her rudder,’ said the foreman. ‘There she lies, with the red
streaks.’ At that moment who should come down but Mordecai Smith, the missing owner?
He was rather the worse for liquor. I should not, of course, have known him, but he
bellowed out his name and the name of his launch. ‘I want her to-night at eight
o’clock,’ said he,—‘eight o’clock sharp, mind, for I have two gentlemen who won’t be
kept waiting.’ They had evidently paid him well, for he was very flush of money,
chucking shillings about to the men. I followed him some distance, but he subsided
into an ale-house: so I went back to the yard, and, happening to pick up one of my
boys on the way, I stationed him as a sentry over the launch. He is to stand at
water’s edge and wave his handkerchief to us when they start. We shall be lying off
in the stream, and it will be a strange thing if we do not take men, treasure, and
all."
“You have planned it all very neatly, whether they are the right men or not," said
Jones; “but if the affair were in my hands I should have had a body of police in
Jacobson’s Yard, and arrested them when they came down."
“Which would have been never. This man Small is a pretty shrewd fellow. He would send
a scout on ahead, and if anything made him suspicious lie snug for another week."
“But you might have stuck to Mordecai Smith, and so been led to their hiding-place,"
said I.
“In that case I should have wasted my day. I think that it is a hundred to one
against Smith knowing where they live. As long as he200 has liquor and good pay, why should he ask questions?
They send him messages what to do. No, I thought over every possible course, and this
is the best."
While this conversation had been proceeding, we had been shooting the long series of
bridges which span the Thames. As we
passed the City the last rays of the sun were gilding the cross upon the summit of
St. Paul’s. It was twilight before we reached the Tower.
“That is Jacobson’s Yard," said Holmes, pointing to a bristle of masts and rigging on
the Surrey side. “Cruise gently up and down here under cover of this string of
lighters." He took a pair of
from his
pocket and gazed some time at the shore. “I see my sentry at his post," he remarked,
“but no sign of a handkerchief."
“Suppose we go down-stream a short way and lie in wait for them," said Jones,
eagerly. We were all eager by this time, even the policemen and stokers, who had a
very vague idea of what was going forward.
“We have no right to take anything for granted," Holmes answered. “It is certainly
ten to one that they go down-stream, but we cannot be certain. From this point we can
see the entrance of the yard, and they can hardly see us. It will be a clear night
and plenty of light. We must stay where we are. See how the folk swarm over yonder in
the gaslight."
“They are coming from work in the yard."
“Dirty-looking rascals, but I suppose every one has some little immortal spark
concealed about him. You would not think it, to look at them. There is no a priori
probability about it. A strange enigma is man!"
“Some one calls him a soul concealed in an animal," I suggested.
“Winwood Reade is good upon the subject," said Holmes. “He remarks that, while the
individual man is an insoluble puzzle, in the aggregate he becomes a mathematical
certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can
say with precision what an average number will be up to. Individuals vary, but
percentages remain constant. So says the statistician. But do I see a handkerchief?
Surely there is a white flutter over yonder."
“Yes, it is your boy," I cried. “I can see him plainly."
“And there is the Aurora," exclaimed Holmes, “and going like the devil! Full speed
ahead, engineer. Make after that launch with the yellow light. By heaven, I shall
never forgive myself if she proves to have the heels of us!"
She had slipped unseen through the yard-entrance and passed behind two or three small
craft, so that she had fairly got her speed up before we saw her. Now she was flying
down the stream, near in to the shore, going at a tremendous rate. Jones looked
gravely at her and shook his head.
“She is very fast," he said. “I doubt if we shall catch her."
“We must catch her!" cried Holmes, between his teeth. “Heap it on, stokers! Make her
do all she can! If we burn the boat we must have them!"
We were fairly after her now. The furnaces roared, and the powerful201 [break after power-] engines whizzed and
clanked, like a great metallic heart. Her sharp, steep prow cut through the
river-water and sent two rolling waves to right and to left of us. With every throb
of the engines we sprang and quivered like a living thing. One great yellow lantern
in our bows threw a long, flickering funnel of light in front of us. Right ahead a
dark blur upon the water showed where the Aurora lay, and the swirl of white foam
behind her spoke of the pace at which she was going. We flashed past barges,
steamers, merchant-vessels, in and out, behind this one and round the other. Voices
hailed us out of the darkness, but still the Aurora thundered on, and still we
followed close upon her track.
“Pile it on, men, pile it on!" cried Holmes, looking down into the engine-room, while
the fierce glow from below beat upon his eager, aquiline face. “Get every pound of
steam you can."
“I think we gain a little," said Jones, with his eyes on the Aurora.
“I am sure of it," said I. “We shall be up with her in a very few minutes."
At that moment, however, as our evil fate would have it, a tug with three barges in
tow blundered in between us. It was only by putting our helm hard down that we
avoided a collision, and before we could round them and recover our way the Aurora
had gained a good two hundred yards. She was still, however, well in view, and the
murky uncertain twilight was setting into a clear starlit night. Our boilers were
strained to their utmost, and the frail shell vibrated and creaked with the fierce
energy which was driving us along. We had shot through the Pool, past the West India
Docks, down the long Deptford Reach, and up again after rounding the Isle of Dogs.
The dull blur in front of us resolved itself now clearly enough into the dainty
Aurora. Jones turned our search-light upon her, so that we could plainly see the
figures upon her deck. One man sat by the stern, with something black between his
knees over which he stooped. Beside him lay a dark mass which looked like a
Newfoundland dog. The boy held the tiller, while against the red glare of the furnace
I could see old Smith, stripped to the waist, and shovelling coals for dear life.
They may have had some doubt at first as to whether we were really pursuing them, but
now as we followed every winding and turning which they took there could no longer be
any question about it. At Greenwich we were about three hundred paces behind them. At
Blackwall we could not have been more than two hundred and fifty. I have coursed many
creatures in many countries during my checkered career, but never did sport give me
such a wild thrill as this mad, flying man-hunt down the Thames. Steadily we drew in upon them, yard by yard. In
the silence of the night we could hear the panting and clanking of their machinery.
The man in the stern still crouched upon the deck, and his arms were moving as though
he were busy, while every now and then he would look up and measure with a glance the
distance which still separated us. Nearer we came and nearer. Jones yelled to them to
stop. We were not more than four boat’s lengths behind them, both boats flying at a
tremendous pace. It was a clear reach of the river, with Barking Level upon one side
and the melancholy Plumstead Marshes upon the202
other. At our hail the man in the stern sprang up from the deck and shook his two
clinched fists at us, cursing the while in a high, cracked voice. He was a
good-sized, powerful man, and as he stood poising himself with legs astride I could
see that from the thigh downwards there was but a wooden stump upon the right side.
At the sound of his strident, angry cries there was movement in the huddled bundle
upon the deck. It straightened itself into a little black man—the smallest I have
ever seen—with a great, misshapen head and a shock of tangled, dishevelled hair.
Holmes had already drawn his revolver, and I whipped out mine at the sight of this
savage, distorted creature. He was wrapped in some sort of dark
or blanket, which left
only his face exposed; but that face was enough to give a man a sleepless night.
Never have I seen features so deeply marked with all bestiality and cruelty. His
small eyes glowed and burned with a sombre light, and his thick lips were writhed
back from his teeth, which grinned and chattered at us with a half animal fury.
“Fire if he raises his hand," said Holmes, quietly. We were within a boat’s-length by
this time, and almost within touch of our quarry. I can see the two of them now as
they stood, the white man with his legs far apart, shrieking out curses, and the
dwarf with his hideous face, and his strong yellow teeth
gnashing at us in the light of our lantern.
It was well that we had so clear a view of him. Even as we looked he plucked out from
under his covering a short, round piece of wood, like a school-ruler, and clapped it
to his lips. Our pistols rang out together. He whirled round, threw up his arms, and
with a kind of choking cough fell sideways into the stream. I caught one glimpse of
his venomous, menacing eyes amid the white swirl of the waters. At the same moment
the wooden-legged man threw himself upon the rudder and put it hard down, so that his
boat made straight in for the southern bank, while we shot past her stern, only
clearing her by a few feet. We were round after her in an instant, but she was
already nearly at the bank. It was a wild and desolate place, where the moon
glimmered upon a wide expanse of marsh-land, with pools of stagnant water and beds of
decaying vegetation. The launch with a dull thud ran up upon the mud-bank, with her
bow in the air and her stern flush with the water. The fugitive sprang out, but his
stump instantly sank its whole length into the sodden soil. In vain he struggled and
writhed. Not one step could he possibly take either forwards or backwards. He yelled
in impotent rage, and kicked frantically into the mud with his other foot, but his
struggles only bored his wooden pin the deeper into the sticky bank. When we brought
our launch alongside he was so firmly anchored that it was only by throwing the end
of a rope over his shoulders that we were able to haul him out, and to drag him, like
some evil fish, over our side. The two Smiths, father and son, sat sullenly in their
launch, but came aboard meekly enough when commanded. The Aurora herself we hauled
off and made fast to our stern. A solid iron chest of Indian workmanship stood upon
the deck. This, there could be no question, was the same that had contained the
ill-omened treasure of the Sholtos. There was no key, but it was of considerable203 [Break after con-] weight, so we transferred
it carefully to our own little cabin. As we steamed slowly up-stream again, we
flashed our search-light in every direction, but there was no sign of the Islander.
Somewhere in the dark ooze at the bottom of the Thames lie the bones of that strange visitor to our shores.
“See here," said Holmes, pointing to the wooden hatchway. “We were hardly quick
enough with our pistols." There, sure enough, just behind where we had been standing,
stuck one of those murderous darts which we knew so well. It must have whizzed
between us at the instant that we fired. Holmes smiled at it and shrugged his
shoulders in his easy fashion, but I confess that it turned me sick to think of the
horrible death which had passed so close to us that night.
CHAPTER XI.
THE GREAT AGRA TREASURE.
Our captive sat in the cabin opposite to the iron box which he had done so much and
waited so long to gain. He was a sunburned, reckless-eyed fellow, with a network of
lines and wrinkles all over his mahogany features, which told of a hard, open-air
life. There was a singular prominence about his bearded chin which marked a man who
was not to be easily turned from his purpose. His age may have been fifty or
thereabouts, for his black, curly hair was thickly shot with grey. His face in repose
was not an unpleasing one, though his heavy brows and aggressive chin gave him, as I
had lately seen, a terrible expression when moved to anger. He sat now with his
handcuffed hands upon his lap, and his head sunk upon his breast, while he looked
with his keen, twinkling eyes at the box which had been the cause of his ill-doings.
It seemed to me that there was more sorrow than anger in his rigid and contained
countenance. Once he looked up at me with a gleam of something like humour in his
eyes.
“Well, Jonathan Small," said Holmes, lighting a cigar, “I am sorry that it has come
to this."
“And so am I, sir," he answered, frankly. “I don’t believe that I can swing over the
job. I give you my word on the book that I never raised hand against Mr. Sholto. It
was that little hell-hound Tonga who shot one of his cursed darts into him. I had no
part in it, sir. I was as grieved as if it had been my blood-relation. I welted the
little devil with the slack end of the rope for it, but it was done, and I could not
undo it again."
“Have a cigar," said Holmes; “and you had best take a pull out of my flask, for you
are very wet. How could you expect so small and weak a man as this black fellow to
overpower Mr. Sholto and hold him while you were climbing the rope?"
“You seem to know as much about it as if you were there, sir. The truth is that I
hoped to find the room clear. I knew the habits of the house pretty well, and it was
the time when Mr. Sholto usually went down to his supper. I shall make no secret of
the business. The best defence that I can make is just the simple truth. Now, if it
had204 been the old major I would have swung
for him with a light heart. I would have thought no more of knifing him than of
smoking this cigar. But it’s cursed hard that I should be lagged over this young
Sholto, with whom I had no quarrel whatever."
“You are under the charge of Mr. Athelney Jones, of Scotland Yard. He is going to
bring you up to my rooms, and I shall ask you for a true account of the matter. You
must make a clean breast of it, for if you do I hope that I may be of use to you. I
think I can prove that the poison acts so quickly that the man was dead before ever
you reached the room."
“That he was, sir. I never got such a turn in my life as when I saw him grinning at
me with his head on his shoulder as I climbed through the window. It fairly shook me,
sir. I’d have half killed Tonga for it if he had not scrambled off. That was how he
came to leave his club, and some of his darts too, as he tells me, which I dare say
helped to put you on our track; though how you kept on it is more than I can tell. I
don’t feel no malice against you for it. But it does seem a queer thing," he added,
with a bitter smile, “that I who have a fair claim to nigh upon half a million of
money should spend the first half of my life building a
in
the Andamans, and am like to spend the other half digging drains at Dartmoor. It was
an evil day for me when first I clapped eyes upon the merchant Achmet and had to do
with the Agra treasure, which never brought anything but a curse yet upon the man who
owned it. To him it brought murder, to Major Sholto it brought fear and guilt, to me
it has meant slavery for life."
At this moment Athelney Jones thrust his broad face and heavy shoulders into the tiny
cabin. “Quite a family party," he remarked. “I think I shall have a pull at that
flask, Holmes. Well, I think we may all congratulate each other. Pity we didn’t take
the other alive; but there was no choice. I say, Holmes, you must confess that you
cut it rather fine. It was all we could do to overhaul her."
“All is well that ends well," said Holmes. “But I certainly did not know that the
Aurora was such a clipper."
“Smith says she is one of the fastest launches on the river, and that if he had had
another man to help him with the engines we should never have caught her. He swears
he knew nothing of this Norwood
business."
“Neither he did," cried our prisoner,—“not a word. I chose his launch because I heard
that she was a flier. We told him nothing, but we paid him well, and he was to get
something handsome if we reached our vessel, the Esmeralda, at Gravesend, outward
bound for the Brazils."
“Well, if he has done no wrong we shall see that no wrong comes to him. If we are
pretty quick in catching our men, we are not so quick in condemning them." It was
amusing to notice how the consequential Jones was already beginning to give himself
airs on the strength of the capture. From the slight smile which played over Sherlock
Holmes’s face, I could see that the speech had not been lost upon him.
205
“We will be at Vauxhall Bridge presently," said Jones, “and shall land you, Dr.
Watson, with the treasure-box. I need hardly tell you that I am taking a very grave
responsibility upon myself in doing this. It is most irregular; but of course an
agreement is an agreement. I must, however, as a matter of duty, send an inspector
with you, since you have so valuable a charge. You will drive, no doubt?"
“Yes, I shall drive."
“It is a pity there is no key, that we may make an inventory first. You will have to
break it open. Where is the key, my man?"
“At the bottom of the river," said Small, shortly.
“Hum! There was no use your giving this unnecessary trouble. We have had work enough
already through you. However, doctor, I need not warn you to be careful. Bring the
box back with you to the Baker Street rooms. You will find us there, on our way to
the station."
They landed me at Vauxhall, with my heavy iron box, and with a bluff, genial
inspector as my companion. A quarter of an hour’s drive brought us to Mrs. Cecil
Forrester’s. The servant seemed surprised at so late a visitor. Mrs. Cecil Forrester
was out for the evening, she explained, and likely to be very late. Miss , however,
was in the drawing-room: so to the drawing-room I went, box in hand, leaving the
obliging inspector in the cab.
She was seated by the open window, dressed in some sort of white diaphanous material,
with a little touch of scarlet at the neck and waist. The soft light of a shaded lamp
fell upon her as she leaned back in the basket chair, playing over her sweet, grave
face, and tinting with a dull, metallic sparkle the rich coils of her luxuriant hair.
One white arm and hand drooped over the side of the chair, and her whole pose and
figure spoke of an absorbing melancholy. At the sound of my foot-fall she sprang to
her feet, however, and a bright flush of surprise and of pleasure coloured her pale
cheeks.
“I heard a cab drive up," she said. “I thought that Mrs. Forrester had come back very
early, but I never dreamed that it might be you. What news have you brought me?"
“I have brought something better than news," said I, putting down the box upon the
table and speaking jovially and boisterously, though my heart was heavy within me. “I
have brought you something which is worth all the news in the world. I have brought
you a fortune."
She glanced at the iron box. “Is that the treasure, then?" she asked, coolly
enough.
“Yes, this is the great Agra treasure. Half of it is yours and half is Thaddeus
Sholto’s. You will have a couple of hundred thousand each. Think of that! An annuity
of ten thousand pounds. There will be few richer young ladies in England. Is it not
glorious?"
I think that I must have been rather overacting my delight, and that she detected a
hollow ring in my congratulations, for I saw her eyebrows rise a little, and she
glanced at me curiously.
“If I have it," said she, “I owe it to you."
“No, no," I answered, “not to me, but to my friend Sherlock205 Holmes. With all the will in the world, I could never
have followed up a clue which has taxed even his analytical genius. As it was, we
very nearly lost it at the last moment."
“Pray sit down and tell me all about it, Dr. Watson," said she.
I narrated briefly what had occurred since I had seen her last,—Holmes’s new method
of search, the discovery of the Aurora, the appearance of Athelney Jones, our
expedition in the evening, and the wild chase down the Thames. She listened with parted lips and shining eyes
to my recital of our adventures. When I spoke of the dart which had so narrowly
missed us, she turned so white that I feared that she was about to faint.
“It is nothing," she said, as I hastened to pour her out some water. “I am all right
again. It was a shock to me to hear that I had placed my friends in such horrible
peril."
“That is all over," I answered. “It was nothing. I will tell you no more gloomy
details. Let us turn to something brighter. There is the treasure. What could be
brighter than that? I got leave to bring it with me, thinking that it would interest
you to be the first to see it."
“It would be of the greatest interest to me," she said. There was no eagerness in her
voice, however. It had struck her, doubtless, that it might seem ungracious upon her
part to be indifferent to a prize which had cost so much to win.
“What a pretty box!" she said, stooping over it. “This is Indian work, I
suppose?"
“Yes; it is
."
“And so heavy!" she exclaimed, trying to raise it. “The box alone must be of some
value. Where is the key?"
“Small threw it into the Thames," I
answered. “I must borrow Mrs. Forrester’s poker." There was in the front a thick and
broad hasp, wrought in the image of a sitting Buddha. Under this I thrust the end of
the poker and twisted it outward as a lever. The hasp sprang open with a loud snap.
With trembling fingers I flung back the lid. We both stood gazing in astonishment.
The box was empty!
No wonder that it was heavy. The iron-work was two-thirds of an inch thick all round.
It was massive, well made, and solid, like a chest constructed to carry things of
great price, but not one shred or crumb of metal or jewelry lay within it. It was
absolutely and completely empty.
“The treasure is lost," said Miss, calmly.
As I listened to the words and realised what they meant, a great shadow seemed to
pass from my soul. I did not know how this Agra treasure had weighed me down, until
now that it was finally removed. It was selfish, no doubt, disloyal, wrong, but I
could realise nothing save that the golden barrier was gone from between us. “Thank
God!" I ejaculated from my very heart.
She looked at me with a quick, questioning smile. “Why do you say that?" she
asked.
“Because you are within my reach again," I said, taking her hand. She did not
withdraw it. “Because I love you, Mary, as truly as ever a man loved a woman. Because
this treasure, these riches, sealed my207 lips.
Now that they are gone I can tell you how I love you. That is why I said, ‘Thank
God.’"
“Then I say, ‘Thank God,’ too," she whispered, as I drew her to my side. Whoever had
lost a treasure, I knew that night that I had gained one.
CHAPTER XII.
THE STRANGE STORY OF JONATHAN SMALL.
A very patient man was that inspector in the cab, for it was a weary time before I
rejoined him. His face clouded over when I showed him the empty box.
“There goes the reward!" said he, gloomily. “Where there is no money there is no pay.
This night’s work would have been worth a tenner each to Sam Brown and me if the
treasure had been there."
“Mr. Thaddeus Sholto is a rich man," I said. “He will see that you are rewarded,
treasure or no."
The inspector shook his head despondently, however. “It’s a bad job," he repeated;
“and so Mr. Athelney Jones will think."
His forecast proved to be correct, for the detective looked blank enough when I got
to Baker Street and showed him the empty box. They had only just arrived, Holmes, the
prisoner, and he, for they had changed their plans so far as to report themselves at
a station upon the way. My companion lounged in his arm-chair with his usual listless
expression, while Small sat stolidly opposite to him with his wooden leg cocked over
his sound one. As I exhibited the empty box he leaned back in his chair and laughed
aloud.
“This is your doing, Small," said Athelney Jones, angrily.
“Yes, I have put it away where you shall never lay hand upon it," he cried,
exultantly. “It is my treasure; and if I can’t have the loot I’ll take darned good
care that no one else does. I tell you that no living man has any right to it, unless
it is three men who are in the Andaman convict-barracks and myself. I know now that I
cannot have the use of it, and I know that they cannot. I have acted all through for
them as much as for myself. It’s been the sign of four with us always. Well I know
that they would have had me do just what I have done, and throw the treasure into the
Thames rather than let it go to
kith or kin of Sholto or of . It was not to make them rich that we did for Achmet.
You’ll find the treasure where the key is, and where little Tonga is. When I saw that
your launch must catch us, I put the loot away in a safe place. There are no
for you this journey."
“You are deceiving us, Small," said Athelney Jones, sternly. “If you had wished to
throw the treasure into the Thames it
would have been easier for you to have thrown box and all."
“Easier for me to throw, and easier for you to recover," he answered, with a shrewd,
sidelong look. “The man that was clever enough to hunt me down is clever enough to
pick an iron box from the bottom of a river. Now that they are scattered over five
miles or so,208 it may be a harder job. It went
to my heart to do it, though. I was half mad when you came up with us. However,
there’s no good grieving over it. I’ve had ups in my life, and I’ve had downs, but
I’ve learned not to cry over spilled milk."
“This is a very serious matter, Small," said the detective. “If you had helped
justice, instead of thwarting it in this way, you would have had a better chance at
your trial."
“Justice!" snarled the ex-convict. “A pretty justice! Whose loot is this, if it is
not ours? Where is the justice that I should give it up to those who have never
earned it? Look how I have earned it! Twenty long years in that fever-ridden swamp,
all day at work under the mangrove-tree, all night chained up in the filthy
convict-huts, bitten by mosquitoes, racked with ague, bullied by every cursed
black-faced policeman who loved to take it out of a white man. That was how I earned
the Agra treasure; and you talk to me of justice because I cannot bear to feel that I
have paid this price only that another may enjoy it! I would rather swing a score of
times, or have one of Tonga’s darts in my hide, than live in a convict’s cell and
feel that another man is at his ease in a palace with the money that should be mine."
Small had dropped his mask of stoicism, and all this came out in a wild whirl of
words, while his eyes blazed, and the handcuffs clanked together with the impassioned
movement of his hands. I could understand, as I saw the fury and the passion of the
man, that it was no groundless or unnatural terror which had possessed Major Sholto
when he first learned that the injured convict was upon his track.
“You forget that we know nothing of all this," said Holmes quietly. “We have not
heard your story, and we cannot tell how far justice may originally have been on your
side."
“Well, sir, you have been very fair-spoken to me, though I can see that I have you to
thank that I have these bracelets upon my wrists. Still, I bear no grudge for that.
It is all fair and above-board. If you want to hear my story I have no wish to hold
it back. What I say to you is God’s truth, every word of it. Thank you; you can put
the glass beside me here, and I’ll put my lips to it if I am dry.
“I am a Worcestershire man myself,—born near Pershore. I dare say you would find a
heap of Smalls living there now if you were to look. I have often thought of taking a
look round there, but the truth is that I was never much of a credit to the family,
and I doubt if they would be so very glad to see me. They were all steady,
chapel-going folk, small farmers, well-known and respected over the country-side,
while I was always a bit of a rover. At last, however, when I was about eighteen, I
gave them no more trouble, for I got into a mess over a girl, and could only get out
of it again by and joining the
, which was just starting for India.
“I wasn’t destined to do much soldiering, however. I had just got past the
goose-step, and learned to handle my musket, when I was fool enough to go swimming in
the Ganges. Luckily for me, my company sergeant, John Holder, was in the water at the
same time, and he was one of the finest swimmers in the service. A crocodile took me,
just as209 I was half-way across, and nipped off
my right leg as clean as a surgeon could have done it, just above the knee. What with
the shock and the loss of blood, I fainted, and should have drowned if Holder had not
caught hold of me and paddled for the bank. I was five months in hospital over it,
and when at last I was able to limp out of it with this timber toe strapped to my
stump I found myself invalided out of the army and unfitted for any active
occupation.
“I was, as you can imagine, pretty down on my luck at this time, for I was a useless
cripple though not yet in my twentieth year. However, my misfortune soon proved to be
a blessing in disguise. A man named Abel White, who had come out there as an
, wanted an
overseer to look after his coolies and keep them up to their work. He happened to be
a friend of our colonel’s, who had taken an interest in me since the accident. To
make a long story short, the colonel recommended me strongly for the post and, as the
work was mostly to be done on horseback, my leg was no great obstacle, for I had
enough knee left to keep good grip on the saddle. What I had to do was to ride over
the plantation, to keep an eye on the men as they worked, and to report the idlers.
The pay was fair, I had comfortable quarters, and altogether I was content to spend
the remainder of my life in indigo-planting. Mr. Abel White was a kind man, and he
would often drop into my little shanty and smoke a pipe with me, for white folk out
there feel their hearts warm to each other as they never do here at home.
“Well, I was never in luck’s way long. Suddenly, without a note of warning,
broke upon us. One month India lay as still and
peaceful, to all appearance, as Surrey or Kent; the next there were two hundred
thousand black devils let loose, and the country was a perfect hell. Of course you
know all about it, gentlemen,—a deal more than I do, very like, since reading is not
in my line. I only know what I saw with my own eyes. Our plantation was at a place
called Muttra, near the border of the Northwest Provinces. Night after night the
whole sky was alight with
, and day after day we had small companies
of Europeans passing through our estate with their wives and children, on their way
to Agra, where were the nearest troops. Mr. Abel White was an obstinate man. He had
it in his head that the affair had been exaggerated, and that it would blow over as
suddenly as it had sprung up. There he sat on his veranda, drinking whiskey-pegs and
smoking cheroots, while the country was in a blaze about him. Of course we stuck by
him, I and Dawson, who, with his wife, used to do the book-work and the managing.
Well, one fine day the crash came. I had been away on a distant plantation, and was
riding slowly home in the evening, when my eye fell upon something all huddled
together at the bottom of a steep nullah. I rode down to see what it was, and the
cold struck through my heart when I found it was Dawson’s wife, all cut into ribbons,
and half eaten by jackals and native dogs. A little further up the road Dawson
himself was lying on his face, quite dead, with an empty revolver in his hand and
four greg.gillespie (edited) Sep 6
lying
across each other in front of him. I reined up my horse, wondering which way I should
turn, but at that moment I saw thick smoke curling up from Abel White’s bungalow and
the flames beginning to burst through the roof.210 I knew then that I could do my employer no good, but would only throw my own life
away if I meddled in the matter. From where I stood I could see hundreds of the black
fiends, with their red coats still on their backs, dancing and howling round the
burning house. Some of them pointed at me, and a couple of bullets sang past my head;
so I broke away across the paddy-fields, and found myself late at night safe within
the walls at Agra.
“As it proved, however, there was no great safety there, either. The whole country
was up like a swarm of bees. Wherever the English could collect in little bands they
held just the ground that their guns commanded. Everywhere else they were helpless
fugitives. It was a fight of the millions against the hundreds; and the cruellest
part of it was that these men that we fought against, foot, horse, and gunners, were
our own picked troops, whom we had taught and trained, handling our own weapons, and
blowing our own bugle-calls. At Agra there were the 3rd Bengal Fusiliers, some
, two
troops of horse, and a battery of artillery. A volunteer corps of clerks and
merchants had been formed, and this I joined, wooden leg and all. We went out to meet
the rebels at Shahgunge early in July, and we beat them back for a time, but our
powder gave out, and we had to fall back upon the city.
“Nothing but the worst news came to us from every side,—which is not to be wondered
at, for if you look at the map you will see that we were right in the heart of it.
Lucknow is rather better than a hundred miles to the east, and Cawnpore about as far
to the south. From every point on the compass there was nothing but torture and
murder and outrage.
“The city of Agra is a great place, swarming with fanatics and fierce
devil-worshippers of all sorts. Our handful of men were lost among the narrow,
winding streets. Our leader moved across the river, therefore, and took up his
position in
. I
don’t know if any of you gentlemen have ever read or heard anything of that old fort.
It is a very queer place,—the queerest that ever I was in, and I have been in some
rum corners, too. First of all, it is enormous in size. I should think that the
enclosure must be acres and acres. There is a modern part, which took all our
garrison, women, children, stores, and everything else, with plenty of room over. But
the modern part is nothing like the size of the old quarter, where nobody goes, and
which is given over to the scorpions and the centipedes. It is all full of great
deserted halls, and winding passages, and long corridors twisting in and out, so that
it is easy enough for folk to get lost in it. For this reason it was seldom that any
one went into it, though now and again a party with torches might go exploring.
“The river washes along the front of the old fort, and so protects it, but on the
sides and behind there are many doors, and these had to be guarded, of course, in the
old quarter as well as in that which was actually held by our troops. We were
short-handed, with hardly men enough to man the angles of the building and to serve
the guns. It was impossible for us, therefore, to station a strong guard at every one
of the innumerable gates. What we did was to organise a central guard-house in the
middle of the fort, and to leave each gate under the charge of one white man and two
or three natives. I was selected to211 take
charge during certain hours of the night of a small isolated door upon the southwest
side of the building. Two Sikh troopers were placed under my command, and I was
instructed if anything went wrong to fire my musket, when I might rely upon help
coming at once from the central guard. As the guard was a good two hundred paces
away, however, and as the space between was cut up into a labyrinth of passages and
corridors, I had great doubts as to whether they could arrive in time to be of any
use in case of an actual attack.
“Well, I was pretty proud at having this small command given me, since I was a raw
recruit, and a game-legged one at that. For two nights I kept the watch with my
Punjaubees. They were tall, fierce-looking chaps, Mahomet Singh and Abdullah Khan by
name, both old fighting-men who had borne arms against us at Chilian-wallah. They
could talk English pretty well, but I could get little out of them. They preferred to
stand together and jabber all night in their queer Sikh lingo. For myself, I used to
stand outside the gateway, looking down on the broad, winding river and on the
twinkling lights of the great city. The beating of drums, the rattle of tomtoms, and
the yells and howls of the rebels, drunk with opium and with bang, were enough to
remind us all night of our dangerous neighbours across the stream. Every two hours
the officer of the night used to come round to all the posts, to make sure that all
was well.
“The third night of my watch was dark and dirty, with a small, driving rain. It was
dreary work standing in the gateway hour after hour in such weather. I tried again
and again to make my Sikhs talk, but without much success. At two in the morning the
rounds passed, and broke for a moment the weariness of the night. Finding that my
companions would not be led into conversation, I took out my pipe, and laid down my
musket to strike the match. In an instant the two Sikhs were upon me. One of them
snatched my firelock up and levelled it at my head, while the other held a great
knife to my throat and swore between his teeth that he would plunge it into me if I
moved a step.
“My first thought was that these fellows were in league with the rebels, and that
this was the beginning of an assault. If our door were in the hands of the Sepoys the
place must fall, and the women and children be treated as they were in Cawnpore.
Maybe you gentlemen think that I am just making out a case for myself, but I give you
my word that when I thought of that, though I felt the point of the knife at my
throat, I opened my mouth with the intention of giving a scream, if it was my last
one, which might alarm the main guard. The man who held me seemed to know my
thoughts; for, even as I braced myself to it, he whispered, ‘Don’t make a noise. The
fort is safe enough. There are no rebel dogs on this side of the river.’ There was
the ring of truth in what he said, and I knew that if I raised my voice I was a dead
man. I could read it in the fellow’s brown eyes. I waited, therefore, in silence, to
see what it was that they wanted from me.
“‘Listen to me, Sahib,’ said the taller and fiercer of the pair, the one whom they
called Abdullah Khan. ‘You must either be with us212 now or you must be silenced forever. The thing is too
great a one for us to hesitate. Either you are heart and soul with us on your oath on
the cross of the Christians, or your body this night shall be thrown into the ditch
and we shall pass over to our brothers in the rebel army. There is no middle way.
Which is it to be, death or life? We can only give you three minutes to decide, for
the time is passing, and all must be done before the rounds come again.’
“‘How can I decide?’ said I. ‘You have not told me what you want of me. But I tell
you now that if it is anything against the safety of the fort I will have no truck
with it, so you can drive home your knife and welcome.’
“‘It is nothing against the fort,’ said he. ‘We only ask you to do that which your
countrymen come to this land for. We ask you to be rich. If you will be one of us
this night, we will swear to you upon the naked knife, and by the threefold oath
which no Sikh was ever known to break, that you shall have your fair share of the
loot. A quarter of the treasure shall be yours. We can say no fairer.’
“‘But what is the treasure, then?’ I asked. ‘I am as ready to be rich as you can be,
if you will but show me how it can be done.’
“‘You will swear, then,’ said he, ‘by the bones of your father, by the honour of your
mother, by the cross of your faith, to raise no hand and speak no word against us,
either now or afterwards?’
“‘I will swear it,’ I answered, ‘provided that the fort is not endangered.’
“‘Then my comrade and I will swear that you shall have a quarter of the treasure
which shall be equally divided among the four of us.’
“‘There are but three,’ said I.
“‘No; Dost Akbar must have his share. We can tell the tale to you while we await
them. Do you stand at the gate, Mahomet Singh, and give notice of their coming. The
thing stands thus, Sahib, and I tell it to you because I know that an oath is binding
upon a Feringhee, and that we may trust you. Had you been a lying Hindoo, though you
had sworn by all the gods in their false temples, your blood would have been upon the
knife, and your body in the water. But the Sikh knows the Englishman, and the
Englishman knows the Sikh. Hearken, then, to what I have to say.
“‘There is a
in the northern provinces who has much wealth,
though his lands are small. Much has come to him from his father, and more still he
has set by himself, for he is of a low nature and hoards his gold rather than spend
it. When the troubles broke out he would be friends both with the lion and the
tiger,—with the Sepoy and with the
. Soon, however, it seemed to him that the white men’s day
was come, for through all the land he could hear of nothing but of their death and
their overthrow. Yet, being a careful man, he made such plans that, come what might,
half at least of his treasure should be left to him. That which was in gold and
silver he kept by him in the vaults of his palace, but the most precious stones and
the choicest pearls that he had he put in an iron box, and sent it by a trusty
servant who, under the guise of a merchant, should take it to the fort at Agra, there
to lie until the land is at peace. Thus, if the213 rebels won he would have his money, but if the Company conquered his jewels would
be saved to him. Having thus divided his hoard, he threw himself into the cause of
the Sepoys, since they were strong upon his borders. By doing this, mark you, Sahib,
his property becomes the due of those who have been true to their salt.
“‘This pretended merchant, who travels under the name of Achmet, is now in the city
of Agra, and desires to gain his way into the fort. He has with him as
travelling-companion my foster-brother Dost Akbar, who knows his secret. Dost Akbar
has promised this night to lead him to a side-postern of the fort, and has chosen
this one for his purpose. Here he will come presently, and here he will find Mahomet
Singh and myself awaiting him. The place is lonely, and none shall know of his
coming. The world shall know of the merchant Achmet no more, but the great treasure
of the rajah shall be divided among us. What say you to it, Sahib?’
“In Worcestershire the life of a man seems a great and a sacred thing; but it is very
different when there is fire and blood all round you and you have been used to
meeting death at every turn. Whether Achmet the merchant lived or died was a thing as
light as air to me, but at the talk about the treasure my heart turned to it, and I
thought of what I might do in the old country with it, and how my folk would stare
when they saw their ne’er-do-well coming back with his pockets full of gold
. I had, therefore,
already made up my mind. Abdullah Khan, however, thinking that I hesitated, pressed
the matter more closely.
“‘Consider, Sahib,’ said he, ‘that if this man is taken by the commandant he will be
hung or shot, and his jewels taken by the government, so that no man will be a rupee
the better for them. Now, since we do the taking of him, why should we not do the
rest as well? The jewels will be as well with us as in the Company’s coffers. There
will be enough to make every one of us rich men and great chiefs. No one can know
about the matter, for here we are cut off from all men. What could be better for the
purpose? Say again, then, Sahib, whether you are with us, or if we must look upon you
as an enemy.’
“‘I am with you heart and soul,’ said I.
“‘It is well,’ he answered, handing me back my firelock. ‘You see that we trust you,
for your word, like ours, is not to be broken. We have now only to wait for my
brother and the merchant.’
“‘Does your brother know, then, of what you will do?’ I asked.
“‘The plan is his. He has devised it. We will go to the gate and share the watch with
Mahomet Singh.’
“The rain was still falling steadily, for it was just the beginning of the wet
season. Brown, heavy clouds were drifting across the sky, and it was hard to see more
than a stone-cast. A deep moat lay in front of our door, but the water was in places
nearly dried up, and it could easily be crossed. It was strange to me to be standing
there with those two wild Punjaubees waiting for the man who was coming to his
death.
“Suddenly my eye caught the glint of a shaded lantern at the other side of the moat.
It vanished among the mound-heaps, and then appeared again coming slowly in our
direction.
214
“‘Here they are!’ I exclaimed.
“‘You will challenge him, Sahib, as usual,’ whispered Abdullah. ‘Give him no cause
for fear. Send us in with him, and we shall do the rest while you stay here on guard.
Have the lantern ready to uncover, that we may be sure that it is indeed the
man.’
“The light had flickered onwards, now stopping and now advancing, until I could see
two dark figures upon the other side of the moat. I let them scramble down the
sloping bank, splash through the mire, and climb half-way up to the gate, before I
challenged them.
“‘Who goes there?’ said I, in a subdued voice.
“‘Friends,’ came the answer. I uncovered my lantern and threw a flood of light upon
them. The first was an enormous Sikh, with a black beard which swept nearly down to
his cummerbund. Outside of a show I have never seen so tall a man. The other was a
little, fat, round fellow, with a great yellow turban, and a bundle in his hand, done
up in a shawl. He seemed to be all in a quiver with fear, for his hands twitched as
if he had the ague, and his head kept turning to left and right with two bright
little twinkling eyes, like a mouse when he ventures out from his hole. It gave me
the chills to think of killing him, but I thought of the treasure, and my heart set
as hard as a flint within me. When he saw my white face he gave a little chirrup of
joy and came running up towards me.
“‘Your protection, Sahib,’ he panted,—‘your protection for the unhappy merchant
Achmet. I have travelled across Rajpootana that I might seek the shelter of the fort
at Agra. I have been robbed and beaten and abused because I have been the friend of
the Company. It is a blessed night this when I am once more in safety,—I and my poor
possessions.’
“‘What have you in the bundle?’ I asked.
“‘An iron box,’ he answered, ‘which contains one or two little family matters which
are of no value to others, but which I should be sorry to lose. Yet I am not a
beggar; and I shall reward you, young Sahib, and your governor also, if he will give
me the shelter I ask.’
“I could not trust myself to speak longer with the man. The more I looked at his fat,
frightened face, the harder did it seem that we should slay him in cold blood. It was
best to get it over.
“‘Take him to the main guard,’ said I. The two Sikhs closed in upon him on each side,
and the giant walked behind, while they marched in through the dark gateway. Never
was a man so compassed round with death. I remained at the gateway with the
lantern.
“I could hear the measured tramp of their footsteps sounding through the lonely
corridors. Suddenly it ceased, and I heard voices, and a scuffle, with the sound of
blows. A moment later there came, to my horror, a rush of footsteps coming in my
direction, with the loud breathing of a running man. I turned my lantern down the
long, straight passage, and there was the fat man, running like the wind, with a
smear of blood across his face, and close at his heels, bounding like a tiger, the
great black-bearded Sikh, with a knife flashing in his hand. I have never seen a man
run so fast as that little merchant. He was gaining on the Sikh, and I could see that
if he once passed215 me and got to the open air
he would save himself yet. My heart softened to him, but again the thought of his
treasure turned me hard and bitter. I cast my firelock between his legs as he raced
past, and he rolled twice over like a shot rabbit. Ere he could stagger to his feet
the Sikh was upon him, and buried his knife twice in his side. The man never uttered
moan nor moved muscle, but lay were he had fallen. I think myself that he may have
broken his neck with the fall. You see, gentlemen, that I am keeping my promise. I am
telling you every work of the business just exactly as it happened, whether it is in
my favour or not."
He stopped, and held out his manacled hands for the whiskey-and-water which Holmes
had brewed for him. For myself, I confess that I had now conceived the utmost horror
of the man, not only for this cold-blooded business in which he had been concerned,
but even more for the somewhat flippant and careless way in which he narrated it.
Whatever punishment was in store for him, I felt that he might expect no sympathy
from me. Sherlock Holmes and Jones sat with their hands upon their knees, deeply
interested in the story, but with the same disgust written upon their faces. He may
have observed it, for there was a touch of defiance in his voice and manner as he
proceeded.
“It was all very bad, no doubt," said he. “I should like to know how many fellows in
my shoes would have refused a share of this loot when they knew that they would have
their throats cut for their pains. Besides, it was my life or his when once he was in
the fort. If he had got out, the whole business would come to light, and I should
have been court-martialled and shot as likely as not; for people were not very
lenient at a time like that."
“Go on with your story," said Holmes, shortly.
“Well, we carried him in, Abdullah, Akbar, and I. A fine weight he was, too, for all
that he was so short. Mahomet Singh was left to guard the door. We took him to a
place which the Sikhs had already prepared. It was some distance off, where a winding
passage leads to a great empty hall, the brick walls of which were all crumbling to
pieces. The earth floor had sunk in at one place, making a natural grave, so we left
Achmet the merchant there, having first covered him over with loose bricks. This
done, we all went back to the treasure.
“It lay where he had dropped it when he was first attacked. The box was the same
which now lies open upon your table. A key was hung by a silken cord to that carved
handle upon the top. We opened it, and the light of the lantern gleamed upon a
collection of gems such as I have read of and thought about when I was a little lad
at Pershore. It was blinding to look upon them. When we had feasted our eyes we took
them all out and made a list of them. There were one hundred and forty-three diamonds
of the first water, including one which has been called, I believe, ‘
’ and is said to be the second
largest stone in existence. Then there were ninety-seven very fine emeralds, and one
hundred and seventy rubies, some of which, however, were small. There were forty
carbuncles, two hundred and ten sapphires, sixty-one agates, and a great quantity of
beryls, onyxes, cats’-eyes, turquoises, and other stones, the very names of which I
did not216 know at the time, though I have become
more familiar with them since. Besides this, there were nearly three hundred very
fine pearls, twelve of which were set in a gold coronet. By the way, these last had
been taken out of the chest and were not there when I recovered it.
“After we had counted our treasures we put them back into the chest and carried them
to the gateway to show them to Mahomet Singh. Then we solemnly renewed our oath to
stand by each other and be true to our secret. We agreed to conceal our loot in a
safe place until the country should be at peace again, and then to divide it equally
among ourselves. There was no use dividing it at present, for if gems of such value
were found upon us it would cause suspicion, and there was no privacy in the fort nor
any place where we could keep them. We carried the box, therefore, into the same hall
where we had buried the body, and there, under certain bricks in the best-preserved
wall, we made a hollow and put our treasure. We made careful note of the place, and
next day I drew four plans, one for each of us, and put the sign of the four of us at
the bottom, for we had sworn that we should each always act for all, so that none
might take advantage. That is an oath that I can put my hand to my heart and swear
that I have never broken.
“Well, there’s no use my telling you gentlemen what came of the Indian mutiny. After
Wilson took Delhi and Sir Colin relieved Lucknow the back of the business was broken.
Fresh troops came pouring in, and Nana Sahib made himself scarce over the frontier. A
flying column under Colonel Greathed came round to Agra and cleared the
away from it.
Peace seemed to be settling upon the country, and we four were beginning to hope that
the time was at hand when we might safely go off with our shares of the plunder. In a
moment, however, our hopes were shattered by our being arrested as the murderers of
Achmet.
“It came about in this way. When the rajah put his jewels into the hands of Achmet he
did it because he knew that he was a trusty man. They are suspicious folk in the
East, however: so what does this rajah do but take a second even more trusty servant
and set him to play the spy upon the first? This second man was ordered never to let
Achmet out of his sight, and he followed him like his shadow. He went after him that
night and saw him pass through the doorway. Of course he thought he had taken refuge
in the fort, and applied for admission there himself next day, but could find no
trace of Achmet. This seemed to him so strange that he spoke about it to a sergeant
of guides, who brought it to the ears of the commandant. A thorough search was
quickly made, and the body was discovered. Thus at the very moment that we thought
that all was safe we were all four seized and brought to trial on a charge of
murder,—three of us because we had held the gate that night, and the fourth because
he was known to have been in the company of the murdered man. Not a word about the
jewels came out at the trial, for the rajah had been deposed and driven out of India:
so no one had any particular interest in them. The murder, however, was clearly made
out, and it was certain that we must all have been concerned in it. The three Sikhs
got penal servitude217 for life, and I was
condemned to death, though my sentence was afterwards commuted into the same as the
others.
“It was rather a queer position that we found ourselves in then. There we were all
four tied by the leg and with precious little chance of ever getting out again, while
we each held a secret which might have put each of us in a palace if we could only
have made use of it. It was enough to make a man eat his heart out to have to stand
the kick and the cuff of every petty jack-in-office, to have rice to eat and water to
drink, when that gorgeous fortune was ready for him outside, just waiting to be
picked up. It might have driven me mad; but I was always a pretty stubborn one, so I
just held on and bided my time.
“At last it seemed to me to have come. I was changed from Agra to Madras, and from
there to Blair Island in the Andamans. There are very few white convicts at this
settlement, and, as I had behaved well from the first, I soon found myself a sort of
privileged person. I was given a hut in Hope Town, which is a small place on the
slopes of Mount Harriet, and I was left pretty much to myself. It is a dreary,
fever-stricken place, and all beyond our little clearings was infested with wild
cannibal natives, who were ready enough to blow a poisoned dart at us if they saw a
chance. There was digging, and ditching, and yam-planting, and a dozen other things
to be done, so we were busy enough all day; though in the evening we had a little
time to ourselves. Among other things, I learned to dispense drugs for the surgeon,
and picked up a smattering of his knowledge. All the time I was on the lookout for a
chance of escape; but it is hundreds of miles from any other land, and there is
little or no wind in those seas: so it was a terribly difficult job to get away.
“The surgeon, Dr. Somerton, was a fast, sporting young chap, and the other young
officers would meet in his rooms of an evening and play cards. The surgery, where I
used to make up my drugs, was next to his sitting-room, with a small window between
us. Often, if I felt lonesome, I used to turn out the lamp in the surgery, and then,
standing there, I could hear their talk and watch their play. I am fond of a hand at
cards myself, and it was almost as good as having one to watch the others. There was
Major Sholto, Captain , and Lieutenant Bromley Brown, who were in command of the
native troops, and there was the surgeon himself, and two or three prison-officials,
crafty old hands who played a nice sly safe game. A very snug little party they used
to make.
“Well, there was one thing which very soon struck me, and that was that the soldiers
used always to lose and the civilians to win. Mind, I don’t say that there was
anything unfair, but so it was. These prison-chaps had done little else than play
cards ever since they had been at the Andamans, and they knew each other’s game to a
point, while the others just played to pass the time and threw their cards down
anyhow. Night after night the soldiers got up poorer men, and the poorer they got the
more keen they were to play. Major Sholto was the hardest hit. He used to pay in
notes and gold at first, but soon it came to notes of hand and for big sums. He
sometimes would win for a few deals, just to give him heart, and then the luck would
set in218 against him worse than ever. All day he
would wander about as black as thunder, and he took to drinking a deal more than was
good for him.
“One night he lost even more heavily than usual. I was sitting in my hut when he and
Captain came stumbling along on the way to their quarters. They were bosom friends,
those two, and never far apart. The major was raving about his losses.
“‘It’s all up, ,’ he was saying, as they passed my hut. ‘I shall have to send in my
papers. I am a ruined man.’
“‘Nonsense, old chap!’ said the other, slapping him upon the shoulder. ‘I’ve had a
nasty facer myself, but—’ That was all I could hear, but it was enough to set me
thinking.
“A couple of days later Major Sholto was strolling on the beach: so I took the chance
of speaking to him.
“‘I wish to have your advice, major,’ said I.
“‘Well, Small, what is it?’ he asked, taking his cheroot from his lips.
“‘I wanted to ask you, sir,’ said I, ‘who is the proper person to whom hidden
treasure should be handed over. I know where half a million worth lies, and, as I
cannot use it myself, I thought perhaps the best thing that I could do would be to
hand it over to the proper authorities, and then perhaps they would get my sentence
shortened for me.’
“‘Half a million, Small?’ he gasped, looking hard at me to see if I was in
earnest.
“‘Quite that, sir,—in jewels and pearls. It lies there ready for any one. And the
queer thing about it is that the real owner is outlawed and cannot hold property, so
that it belongs to the first comer.’
“‘To government, Small,’ he stammered,—‘to government.’ But he said it in a halting
fashion, and I knew in my heart that I had got him.
“‘You think, then, sir, that I should give the information to the Governor-General?’
said I, quietly.
“‘Well, well, you must not do anything rash, or that you might repent. Let me hear
all about it, Small. Give me the facts.’
“I told him the whole story, with small changes so that he could not identify the
places. When I had finished he stood stock still and full of thought. I could see by
the twitch of his lip that there was a struggle going on within him.
“‘This is a very important matter, Small,’ he said, at last. ‘You must not say a word
to any one about it, and I shall see you again soon.’
“Two nights later he and his friend Captain came to my hut in the dead of the night
with a lantern.
“‘I want you just to let Captain hear that story from your own lips, Small,’ said
he.
“I repeated it as I had told it before.
“‘It rings true, eh?’ said he. ‘It’s good enough to act upon?’
“Captain nodded.
“‘Look here, Small,’ said the major. ‘We have been talking it over, my friend here
and I, and we have come to the conclusion that219
this secret of yours is hardly a government matter, after all, but is a private
concern of your own, which of course you have the power of disposing of as you think
best. Now, the question is, what price would you ask for it? We might be inclined to
take it up, and at least look into it, if we could agree as to terms.’ He tried to
speak in a cool, careless way, but his eyes were shining with excitement and
greed.
“‘Why, as to that, gentlemen,’ I answered, trying also to be cool, but feeling as
excited as he did, ‘there is only one bargain which a man in my position can make. I
shall want you to help me to my freedom, and to help my three companions to theirs.
We shall then take you into partnership, and give you a fifth share to divide between
you.’
“‘Hum!’ said he. ‘A fifth share! That is not very tempting.’
“‘It would come to fifty thousand apiece,’ said I.
“‘But how can we gain your freedom? You know very well that you ask an
impossibility.’
“‘Nothing of the sort,’ I answered. ‘I have thought it all out to the last detail.
The only bar to our escape is that we can get no boat fit for the voyage, and no
provisions to last us for so long a time. There are plenty of little yachts and yawls
at Calcutta or Madras which would serve our turn well. Do you bring one over. We
shall engage to get aboard her by night, and if you will drop us on any part of the
Indian coast you will have done your part of the bargain.’
“‘If there were only one,’ he said.
“‘None or all,’ I answered. ‘We have sworn it. The four of us must always act
together.’
“‘You see, ,’ said he, ‘Small is a man of his word. He does not flinch from his
friend. I think we may very well trust him.’
“‘It’s a dirty business,’ the other answered. ‘Yet, as you say, the money would save
our commissions handsomely.’
“‘Well, Small,’ said the major, ‘we must, I suppose, try and meet you. We must first,
of course, test the truth of your story. Tell me where the box is hid, and I shall
get leave of absence and go back to India in the monthly relief-boat to inquire into
the affair.’
“‘Not so fast,’ said I, growing colder as he got hot. ‘I must have the consent of my
three comrades. I tell you that it is four or none with us.’
“‘Nonsense!’ he broke in. ‘What have three black fellows to do with our
agreement?’
“‘Black or blue,’ said I, ‘they are in with me, and we all go together.’
“Well, the matter ended by a second meeting, at which Mahomet Singh, Abdullah Khan,
and Dost Akbar were all present. We talked the matter over again, and at last we came
to an arrangement. We were to provide both the officers with charts of the part of
the Agra fort and mark the place in the wall where the treasure was hid. Major Sholto
was to go to India to test our story. If he found the box he was to leave it there,
to send out a small yacht provisioned for a voyage, which was to lie off Rutland
Island, and to which we were to make our way, and finally to return to his duties.
Captain was then to apply for leave of absence, to meet us at Agra, and there we220 were to have a final division of the treasure,
he taking the major’s share as well as his own. All this we sealed by the most solemn
oaths that the mind could think or the lips utter. I sat up all night with paper and
ink, and by the morning I had the two charts all ready, signed with the sign of
four,—that is, of Abdullah, Akbar, Mahomet, and myself.
“Well, gentlemen, I weary you with my long story, and I know that my friend Mr. Jones
is impatient to get me safely stowed in chokey. I’ll make it as short as I can. The
villain Sholto went off to India, but he never came back again. Captain showed me his
name among a list of passengers in one of the mail-boats very shortly afterwards. His
uncle had died, leaving him a fortune, and he had left the army, yet he could stoop
to treat five men as he had treated us. went over to Agra shortly afterwards, and
found, as we expected, that the treasure was indeed gone. The scoundrel had stolen it
all, without carrying out one of the conditions on which we had sold him the secret.
From that day I lived only for vengeance. I thought of it by day and I nursed it by
night. It became an overpowering, absorbing passion with me. I cared nothing for the
law,—nothing for the gallows. To escape, to track down Sholto, to have my hand upon
his throat,—that was my one thought. Even the Agra treasure had come to be a smaller
thing in my mind than the slaying of Sholto.
“Well, I have set my mind on many things in this life, and never one which I did not
carry out. But it was weary years before my time came. I have told you that I had
picked up something of medicine. One day when Dr. Somerton was down with a fever a
little Andaman Islander was picked up by a convict-gang in the woods. He was sick to
death, and had gone to a lonely place to die. I took him in hand, though he was as
venomous as a young snake, and after a couple of months I got him all right and able
to walk. He took a kind of fancy to me then, and would hardly go back to his woods,
but was always hanging about my hut. I learned a little of his lingo from him, and
this made him all the fonder of me.
“Tonga—for that was his name—was a fine boatman, and owned a big, roomy canoe of his
own. When I found that he was devoted to me and would do anything to serve me, I saw
my chance of escape. I talked it over with him. He was to bring his boat round on a
certain night to an old wharf which was never guarded, and there he was to pick me
up. I gave him directions to have several gourds of water and a lot of yams,
cocoa-nuts, and sweet potatoes.
“He was stanch and true, was little Tonga. No man ever had a more faithful mate. At
the night named he had his boat at the wharf. As it chanced, however, there was one
of the convict-guard down there,—a vile Pathan who had never missed a chance of
insulting and injuring me. I had always vowed vengeance, and now I had my chance. It
was as if fate had placed him in my way that I might pay my debt before I left the
island. He stood on the bank with his back to me, and his carbine on his shoulder. I
looked about for a stone to beat out his brains with, but none could I see. Then a
queer thought came into my head and showed me where I could lay my hand on a weapon.
I221 sat down in the darkness and unstrapped
my wooden leg. With three long hops I was on him. He put his carbine to his shoulder,
but I struck him full, and knocked the whole front of his skull in. You can see the
split in the wood now where I hit him. We both went down together, for I could not
keep my balance, but when I got up I found him still lying quiet enough. I made for
the boat, and in an hour we were well out at sea. Tonga had brought all his earthly
possessions with him, his arms and his gods. Among other things, he had a long bamboo
spear, and some Andaman cocoa-nut matting, with which I made a sort of sail. For ten
days we were beating about, trusting to luck, and on the eleventh we were picked up
by a trader which was going from Singapore to Jiddah with a cargo of Malay pilgrims.
They were
, and Tonga and
I soon managed to settle down among them. They had one very good quality: they let
you alone and asked no questions.
“Well, if I were to tell you all the adventures that my little chum and I went
through, you would not thank me, for I would have you here until the sun was shining.
Here and there we drifted about the world, something always turning up to keep us
from London. All the time, however, I
never lost sight of my purpose. I would dream of Sholto at night. A hundred times I
have killed him in my sleep. At last, however, some three or four years ago, we found
ourselves in England. I had no great difficulty in finding where Sholto lived, and I
set to work to discover whether he had realised the treasure, or if he still had it.
I made friends with someone who could help me,—I name no names, for I don’t want to
get any one else in a hole,—and I soon found that he still had the jewels. Then I
tried to get at him in many ways; but he was pretty sly, and had always two
prize-fighters, besides his sons and his khitmutgar, on guard over him.
“One day, however, I got word that he was dying. I hurried at once to the garden, mad
that he should slip out of my clutches like that, and, looking through the window, I
saw him lying in his bed, with his sons on each side of him. I’d have come through
and taken my chance with the three of them, only even as I looked at him his jaw
dropped, and I knew that he was gone. I got into his room that same night, though,
and I searched his papers to see if there was any record of where he had hidden our
jewels. There was not a line, however: so I came away, bitter and savage as a man
could be. Before I left I bethought me that if I ever met my Sikh friends again it
would be a satisfaction to know that I had left some mark of our hatred; so I
scrawled down the sign of the four of us, as it had been on the chart, and I pinned
it on his bosom. It was too much that he should be taken to the grave without some
token from the men whom he had robbed and befooled.
“We earned a living at this time by my
poor Tonga at fairs
and other such places as the black cannibal. He would eat raw meat and dance his
war-dance: so we always had a hatful of pennies after a day’s work. I still heard all
the news from Pondicherry Lodge, and for some years there was no news to hear, except
that they were hunting for the treasure. At last, however, came what we had222 waited for so long. The treasure had been
found. It was up at the top of the house, in Mr. Bartholomew Sholto’s chemical
laboratory. I came at once and had a look at the place, but I could not see how with
my wooden leg I was to make my way up to it. I learned, however, about a trap-door in
the roof, and also about Mr. Sholto’s supper-hour. It seemed to me that I could
manage the thing easily through Tonga. I brought him out with me with a long rope
wound round his waist. He could climb like a cat, and he soon made his way through
the roof, but, as ill luck would have it, Bartholomew Sholto was still in the room,
to his cost. Tonga thought he had done something very clever in killing him, for when
I came up by the rope I found him strutting about as proud as a peacock. Very much
surprised was he when I made at him with the rope’s end and cursed him for a little
blood-thirsty imp. I took the treasure-box and let it down, and then slid down
myself, having first left the sign of the four upon the table, to show that the
jewels had come back at last to those who had most right to them. Tonga then pulled
up the rope, closed the window, and made off the way that he had come.
“I don’t know that I have anything else to tell you. I had heard a waterman speak of
the speed of Smith’s launch the Aurora, so I thought she would be a handy craft for
our escape. I engaged with old Smith, and was to give him a big sum if he got us safe
to our ship. He knew, no doubt, that there was some screw loose, but he was not in
our secrets. All this is the truth, and if I tell it to you, gentlemen, it is not to
amuse you,—for you have not done me a very good turn,—but it is because I believe the
best defence I can make is just to hold back nothing, but let all the world know how
badly I have myself been served by Major Sholto, and how innocent I am of the death
of his son."
“A very remarkable account," said Sherlock Holmes. “A fitting wind-up to an extremely
interesting case. There is nothing at all new to me in the latter part of your
narrative, except that you brought your own rope. That I did not know. By the way, I
had hoped that Tonga had lost all his darts; yet he managed to shoot one at us in the
boat."
“He had lost them all, sir, except the one which was in his blow-pipe at the
time."
“Ah, of course," said Holmes. “I had not thought of that."
“Is there any other point which you would like to ask about?" asked the convict,
affably.
“I think not, thank you," my companion answered.
“Well, Holmes," said Athelney Jones, “You are a man to be humoured, and we all know
that you are a connoisseur of crime, but duty is duty, and I have gone rather far in
doing what you and your friend asked me. I shall feel more at ease when we have our
story-teller here safe under lock and key. The cab still waits, and there are two
inspectors downstairs. I am much obliged to you both for your assistance. Of course
you will be wanted at the trial. Good-night to you."
“Good-night, gentlemen both," said Jonathan Small.
223
“You first, Small," remarked the wary Jones as they left the room. “I’ll take
particular care that you don’t club me with your wooden leg, whatever you may have
done to the gentleman at the Andaman Isles."
“Well, and there is the end of our little drama," I remarked, after we had set some
time smoking in silence. “I fear that it may be the last investigation in which I
shall have the chance of studying your methods. Miss has done me the honour to accept
me as a husband
."
He gave a most dismal groan. “I feared as much," said he. “I really cannot
congratulate you."
I was a little hurt. “Have you any reason to be dissatisfied with my choice?" I
asked.
“Not at all. I think she is one of the most charming young ladies I ever met, and
might have been most useful in such work as we have been doing. She had a decided
genius that way: witness the way in which she preserved that Agra plan from all the
other papers of her father. But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional
is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things. I should never
marry myself, lest I bias my judgment."
“I trust," said I, laughing, “that my judgment may survive the ordeal. But you look
weary."
“Yes, the reaction is already upon me. I shall be as limp as a rag for a week."
“Strange," said I, “how terms of what in another man I should call laziness alternate
with your fits of splendid energy and vigour."
“Yes," he answered, “there are in me the makings of a very fine loafer and also of a
pretty spry sort of fellow. I often think of those lines of old Goethe,—
“By the way,
of this Norwood business, you see that they had, as I surmised, a confederate
in the house, who could be none other than Lal Rao, the butler: so Jones actually has
the undivided honour of having caught one fish in his great haul."
“The division seems rather unfair," I remarked. “You have done all the work in this
business. I get a wife out of it, Jones gets the credit, pray what remains for
you?"
“For me," said Sherlock Holmes, “there still remains the cocaine-bottle." And he
stretched his long white hand up for it.