Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,
for solution during the years of our intimacy, there were only two which I was
the means of introducing to his notice—that of Mr. Hatherley's thumb, and
that of Colonel Warburton's madness. Of these the latter may have afforded a finer
field for an acute and original observer, but the other was so strange in its
inception and so dramatic in its details that it may be the more worthy of being
placed upon record, even if it gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive
methods of reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story has,
I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, like all such narratives,
its effect is much less striking when set forth en bloc in a single half-column
of print than when the facts slowly evolve before your own eyes, and the mystery
clears gradually away as each new discovery furnishes a step which leads on to
the complete truth. At the time the circumstances made a deep impression upon
me, and the lapse of two years has hardly served to weaken the effect.
It was in the summer of '89, not long after my
marriage, that the events occurred which I am now about to summarize. I had returned
to civil practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Street rooms,
although I continually visited him and occasionally even persuaded him to forgo
his Bohemian habits so far as to come and visit us. My practice had steadily increased,
and as I happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington Station, I
got a few patients from among the officials. One of these, whom I had cured of
a painful and lingering disease, was never weary of advertising my virtues and
of endeavoring to send me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence.
One morning, at a little before seven o'clock,
I was awakened by the maid tapping at the door to announce that two men had come
from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I dressed hurriedly,
for I knew by experience that railway cases were seldom trivial, and hastened
downstairs. As I descended, my old ally, the guard, came out of the room and closed
the door tightly behind him.
"I've got him here," he whispered, jerking his
thumb over his shoulder; "he's all right."
"What is it, then?" I asked, for his manner suggested
that it was some strange creature which he had caged up in my room.
"It's a new patient," he whispered. "I thought
I'd bring him round myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe
and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the same as you." And
off he went, this trusty tout, without even giving me time to thank him.
I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman
seated by the table. He was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a
soft cloth cap which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of his hands he
had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all over with bloodstains. He was
young, not more than five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong, masculine face;
but he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who was suffering
from some strong agitation, which it took all his strength of mind to control.
"I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor,"
said he, "but I have had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by
train this morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I might find a
doctor, a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me here. I gave the maid a card,
but I see that she has left it upon the side-table." I took it up and glanced
at it.
"Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic engineer, 16A.
Victoria Street (3d floor)." That was the name, style, and abode of my morning
visitor.
"I regret that I have kept you waiting," said I,
sitting down in my library-chair. "You are fresh from a night journey, I understand,
which is in itself a monotonous occupation."
"Oh, my night could not be called monotonous,"
said he, and laughed. He laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, leaning
back in his chair and shaking his sides. All my medical instincts rose up against
that laugh.
"Stop it!" I cried; "pull yourself together!" and
I poured out some water from a carafe. It was useless, however. He was off in
one of those hysterical outbursts which come upon a strong nature when some great
crisis is over and gone.
Presently he came to himself once more, very weary
and pale-looking. "I have been making a fool of myself," he gasped.
"Not at all. Drink this." I dashed some brandy
into the water, and the color began to come back to his bloodless cheeks.
"That's better!" said he. "And now, Doctor, perhaps
you would kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb used
to be."
He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand.
It gave even my hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four protruding
fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the thumb should have been. It
had been hacked or torn right out from the roots.
"Good heavens!" I cried, "This is a terrible injury.
It must have bled considerably."
"Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I
think that I must have been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found
that it was still bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very tightly
round the wrist and braced it up with a twig."
"Excellent! You should have been a surgeon."
"It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came
within my own province."
"This has been done," said I, examining the wound,
"by a very heavy and sharp instrument."
"A thing like a cleaver," said he.
"An accident, I presume?"
"By no means."
"What! a murderous attack?"
"Very murderous indeed."
"You horrify me." I sponged the wound, cleaned
it, dressed it, and finally covered it over with cotton wadding and carbolized
bandages. He lay back without wincing, though he bit his lip from time to time.
"How is that?" I asked when I had finished.
"Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage,
I feel a new man. I was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through."
"Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter.
It is evidently trying to your nerves."
"Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale
to the police; but, between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing evidence
of this wound of mine, I should be surprised if they believed my statement, for
it is a very extraordinary one, and I have not much in the way of proof with which
to back it up; and, even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are
so vague that it is a question whether justice will be done."
"Ha!" cried I, "If it is anything in the nature
of a problem which you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you to
come to my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the official police."
"Oh, I have heard of that fellow," answered my
visitor, "And I should be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of
course I must use the official police as well. Would you give me an introduction
to him?"
"I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself."
"I should be immensely obliged to you."
"We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just
be in time to have a little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?"
"Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my
story."
"Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be
with you in an instant." I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my
wife, and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my new acquaintance
to Baker Street.
Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about
his sitting room in his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The Times and
smoking his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed of all the plugs and dottles
left from his smokes of the day before, all carefully dried and collected on the
corner of the mantelpiece. He received us in his quietly genial fashion, ordered
fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us in a hearty meal. When it was concluded
he settled our new acquaintance upon the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head,
and laid a glass of brandy and water within his reach.
"It is easy to see that your experience has been
no common one, Mr. Hatherley," said he. "Pray, lie down there and make yourself
absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are tired and keep
up your strength with a little stimulant."
"Thank you," said my patient, "but I have
felt another man since the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast
has completed the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable time as possible,
so I shall start at once upon my peculiar experiences."
Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary,
heavy-lidded expression which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat opposite
to him, and we listened in silence to the strange story which our visitor detailed
to us.
"You must know," said he, "That I am an orphan
and a bachelor, residing alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a hydraulic
engineer, and I have had considerable experience of my work during the seven years
that I was apprenticed to Venner & Matheson, the well-known firm, of Greenwich.
Two years ago, having served my time, and having also come into a fair sum of
money through my poor father's death, I determined to start in business for myself
and took professional chambers in Victoria Street.
"I suppose that everyone finds his first independent
start in business a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. During
two years I have had three consultations and one small job, and that is absolutely
all that my profession has brought me. My gross takings amount to 27 pounds 10s.
Every day, from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon, I waited in my
little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I came to believe that I
should never have any practice at all.
"Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of
leaving the office, my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who
wished to see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with the name of 'Colonel
Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at his heels came the colonel himself,
a man rather over the middle size, but of an exceeding thinness. I do not think
that I have ever seen so thin a man. His whole face sharpened away into nose and
chin, and the skin of his cheeks was drawn quite tense over his outstanding bones.
Yet this emaciation seemed to be his natural habit, and due to no disease, for
his eye was bright, his step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but
neatly dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than thirty.
"'Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a
German accent. 'You have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man
who is not only proficient in his profession but is also discreet and capable
of preserving a secret.'
"I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man
would at such an address. 'May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?'
"'Well, perhaps it is better that I should not
tell you that just at this moment. I have it from the same source that you are
both an orphan and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.'
"'That is quite correct,' I answered; 'but you
will excuse me if I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional
qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter that you wished
to speak to me?'
"'Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I
say is really to the point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute
secrecy is quite essential—absolute secrecy, you understand, and of course
we may expect that more from a man who is alone than from one who lives in the
bosom of his family.'
"'If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, 'you
may absolutely depend upon my doing so.'
"He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed
to me that I had never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye.
"'Do you promise, then?' said he at last.
"'Yes, I promise.'
"'Absolute and complete silence before, during,
and after? No reference to the matter at all, either in word or writing?'
"'I have already given you my word.'
"'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting
like lightning across the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was
empty.
"'That's all right,' said he, coming back. 'I know
the clerks are sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk
in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to stare at me again
with the same questioning and thoughtful look.
"A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin
to fear had begun to rise within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man.
Even my dread of losing a client could not restrain me from showing my impatience.
"'I beg that you will state your business, sir,'
said I; 'my time is of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the
words came to my lips.
"'How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit
you?' he asked.
"'Most admirably.'
"'I say a night's work, but an hour's would be
nearer the mark. I simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine
which has got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon set it right
ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as that?'
"'The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.'
"'Precisely so. We shall want you to come tonight
by the last train.'
"'Where to?' "'To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a
little place near the borders of Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading.
There is a train from Paddington which would bring you there at about 11:15.'
"'Very good.'
"'I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.'
"'There is a drive, then?'
"'Yes, our little place is quite out in the country.
It is a good seven miles from Eyford Station.'
"'Then we can hardly get there before midnight.
I suppose there would be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop
the night.'
"'Yes, we could easily give you a shakedown.'
"'That is very awkward. Could I not come at some
more convenient hour?'
"'We have judged it best that you should come late.
It is to recompense you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a young
and unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the very heads of your
profession. Still, of course, if you would like to draw out of the business, there
is plenty of time to do so.'
"I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very
useful they would be to me. 'Not at all,' said I, 'I shall be very happy to accommodate
myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to understand a little more clearly
what it is that you wish me to do.'
"'Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge
of secrecy which we have exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity.
I have no wish to commit you to anything without your having it all laid before
you. I suppose that we are absolutely safe from eavesdroppers?'
"'Entirely.'
"'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably
aware that fuller's-earth is a valuable product, and that it is only found in
one or two places in England?'
"'I have heard so.'
"'Some little time ago I bought a small place—a
very small place—within ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to discover
that there was a deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my fields. On examining it,
however, I found that this deposit was a comparatively small one, and that it
formed a link between two very much larger ones upon the right and left—both
of them, however, in the grounds of my neighbors. These good people were absolutely
ignorant that their land contained that which was quite as valuable as a gold-mine.
Naturally, it was to my interest to buy their land before they discovered its
true value, but unfortunately I had no capital by which I could do this. I took
a few of my friends into the secret, however, and they suggested that we should
quietly and secretly work our own little deposit and that in this way we should
earn the money which would enable us to buy the neighboring fields. This we have
now been doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations we erected
a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already explained, has got out of order,
and we wish your advice upon the subject. We guard our secret very jealously,
however, and if it once became known that we had hydraulic engineers coming to
our little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts came out,
it would be good-bye to any chance of getting these fields and carrying out our
plans. That is why I have made you promise me that you will not tell a human being
that you are going to Eyford tonight I hope that I make it all plain?'
"'I quite follow you,' said I. 'The only point
which I could not quite understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic
press in excavating fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out like gravel
from a pit.'
"'Ah!' said he carelessly, 'we have our own process.
We compress the earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing what
they are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully into my confidence
now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I trust you.' He rose as he spoke.
'I shall expect you, then, at Eyford at 11:15.'
"'I shall certainly be there.'
"'And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with
a last long, questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank grasp,
he hurried from the room.
"Well, when I came to think it all over in cool
blood I was very much astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission
which had been entrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was glad, for the
fee was at least tenfold what I should have asked had I set a price upon my own
services, and it was possible that this order might lead to other ones. On the
other hand, the face and manner of my patron had made an unpleasant impression
upon me, and I could not think that his explanation of the fuller's-earth was
sufficient to explain the necessity for my coming at midnight, and his extreme
anxiety lest I should tell anyone of my errand. However, I threw all fears to
the winds, ate a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and started off, having obeyed
to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue.
"At Reading I had to change not only my carriage
but my station. However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I reached
the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the only passenger who
got out there, and there was no one upon the platform save a single sleepy porter
with a lantern. As I passed out through the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance
of the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a word he grasped
my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door of which was standing open. He
drew up the windows on either side, tapped on the woodwork, and away we went as
fast as the horse could go."
"One horse?" interjected Holmes.
"Yes, only one."
"Did you observe the color?"
"Yes, I saw it by the sidelights when I was stepping
into the carriage. It was a chestnut."
"Tired-looking or fresh?"
"Oh, fresh and glossy."
"Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you.
Pray continue your most interesting statement."
"Away we went then, and we drove for at least an
hour. Colonel Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I should
think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the time that we took, that
it must have been nearer twelve. He sat at my side in silence all the time, and
I was aware, more than once when I glanced in his direction, that he was looking
at me with great intensity. The country roads seem to be not very good in that
part of the world, for we lurched and jolted terribly. I tried to look out of
the windows to see something of where we were, but they were made of frosted glass,
and I could make out nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light.
Now and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the journey, but
the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the conversation soon flagged.
At last, however, the bumping of the road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness
of a gravel-drive, and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang
out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly into a porch which gaped
in front of us. We stepped, as it were, right out of the carriage and into the
hall, so that I failed to catch the most fleeting glance of the front of the house.
The instant that I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us,
and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage drove away.
"It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel
fumbled about looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Suddenly a door
opened at the other end of the passage, and a long, golden bar of light shot out
in our direction. It grew broader, and a woman appeared with a lamp in her hand,
which she held above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at us. I could
see that she was pretty, and from the gloss with which the light shone upon her
dark dress I knew that it was a rich material. She spoke a few words in a foreign
tongue in a tone as though asking a question, and when my companion answered in
a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly fell from her
hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered something in her ear, and then,
pushing her back into the room from whence she had come, he walked towards me
again with the lamp in his hand.
"'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in
this room for a few minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a quiet,
little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the center, on which several
German books were scattered. Colonel Stark laid down the lamp on the top of a
harmonium beside the door. 'I shall not keep you waiting an instant,' said he,
and vanished into the darkness.
"I glanced at the books upon the table, and in
spite of my ignorance of German I could see that two of them were treatises on
science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked across to the window,
hoping that I might catch some glimpse of the countryside, but an oak shutter,
heavily barred, was folded across it. It was a wonderfully silent house. There
was an old clock ticking loudly somewhere in the passage, but otherwise everything
was deadly still. A vague feeling of uneasiness began to steal over me. Who were
these German people, and what were they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way
place? And where was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was all
I knew, but whether north, south, east, or west I had no idea. For that matter,
Reading, and possibly other large towns, were within that radius, so the place
might not be so secluded, after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute
stillness, that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room, humming
a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling that I was thoroughly
earning my fifty-guinea fee.
"Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the
midst of the utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman
was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind her, the yellow
light from my lamp beating upon her eager and beautiful face. I could see at a
glance that she was sick with fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart.
She held up one shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few whispered
words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back, like those of a frightened
horse, into the gloom behind her.
"'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed
to me, to speak calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no good
for you to do.'
"'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what
I came for. I cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.'
"'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went
on. 'You can pass through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled
and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and made a step forward,
with her hands wrung together. 'For the love of Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away
from here before it is too late!'
"But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the
more ready to engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I thought
of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the unpleasant night which
seemed to be before me. Was it all to go for nothing? Why should I slink away
without having carried out my commission, and without the payment which was my
due? This woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout bearing,
therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I cared to confess, I still
shook my head and declared my intention of remaining where I was. She was about
to renew her entreaties when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several
footsteps was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up her
hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and as noiselessly as
she had come.
"The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and
a short thick man with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double
chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson.
"'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel.
'By the way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just now. I
fear that you have felt the draught.'
"'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door
myself because I felt the room to be a little close.'
"He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps
we had better proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I will take
you up to see the machine.'
"'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.'
"'Oh, no, it is in the house.'
"'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?'
"'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But
never mind that. All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us
know what is wrong with it.'
"We went upstairs together, the colonel first with
the lamp, the fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house,
with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little low doors, the
thresholds of which were hollowed out by the generations who had crossed them.
There were no carpets and no signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while
the plaster was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in green,
unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an air as possible, but I
had not forgotten the warnings of the lady, even though I disregarded them, and
I kept a keen eye upon my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and
silent man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at least
a fellow-countryman.
"Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before
a low door, which he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three
of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, and the colonel
ushered me in.
"'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic
press, and it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were to
turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the end of the descending
piston, and it comes down with the force of many tons upon this metal floor. There
are small lateral columns of water outside which receive the force, and which
transmit and multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine goes
readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working of it, and it has lost
a little of its force. Perhaps you will have the goodness to look it over and
to show us how we can set it right.'
"I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine
very thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of exercising enormous
pressure. When I passed outside, however, and pressed down the levers which controlled
it, I knew at once by the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which
allowed a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An examination
showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was round the head of a driving-rod
had shrunk so as not quite to fill the socket along which it worked. This was
clearly the cause of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions,
who followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical questions as
to how they should proceed to set it right. When I had made it clear to them,
I returned to the main chamber of the machine and took a good look at it to satisfy
my own curiosity. It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller's-earth
was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose that so powerful
an engine could be designed for so inadequate a purpose. The walls were of wood,
but the floor consisted of a large iron trough, and when I came to examine it
I could see a crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was scraping
at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a muttered exclamation in German
and saw the cadaverous face of the colonel looking down at me.
"'What are you doing there?' he asked.
"I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate
a story as that which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' said
I; 'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to your machine if I
knew what the exact purpose was for which it was used.'
"The instant that I uttered the words I regretted
the rashness of my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in
his gray eyes.
"'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about
the machine.' He took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the
key in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it was quite
secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and shoves. 'Hello!' I yelled.
'Hello! Colonel! Let me out!'
"And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound
which sent my heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish
of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp still stood upon
the floor where I had placed it when examining the trough. By its light I saw
that the black ceiling was coming down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none
knew better than myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a
shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and dragged with
my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let me out, but the remorseless
clanking of the levers drowned my cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above
my head, and with my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then
it flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend very much upon
the position in which I met it. If I lay on my face the weight would come upon
my spine, and I shuddered to think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way,
perhaps; and yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black shadow
wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand erect, when my eye caught
something which brought a gush of hope back to my heart.
"I have said that though the floor and ceiling
were of iron, the walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around,
I saw a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which broadened and
broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For an instant I could hardly
believe that here was indeed a door which led away from death. The next instant
I threw myself through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had
closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few moments afterwards
the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me how narrow had been my escape.
"I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking
at my wrist, and I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor,
while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, while she held
a candle in her right. It was the same good friend whose warning I had so foolishly
rejected.
"'Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. 'They will
be here in a moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste the
so-precious time, but come!'
"This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice.
I staggered to my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding
stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we reached it we heard
the sound of running feet and the shouting of two voices, one answering the other
from the floor on which we were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and
looked about her like one who is at her wit's end. Then she threw open a door
which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon was shining brightly.
"'It is your only chance,' said she. 'It is high,
but it may be that you can jump it.'
"As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further
end of the passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark rushing
forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a butcher's cleaver in the
other. I rushed across the bedroom, flung open the window, and looked out. How
quiet and sweet and wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could
not be more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I hesitated
to jump until I should have heard what passed between my savior and the ruffian
who pursued me. If she were ill-used, then at any risks I was determined to go
back to her assistance. The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before
he was at the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round him
and tried to hold him back.
"'Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, 'remember
your promise after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be
silent! Oh, he will be silent!'
"'You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to
break away from her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me
pass, I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the window, cut at me
with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and was hanging by the hands to the
sill, when his blow fell. I was conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and
I fell into the garden below.
"I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked
myself up and rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I understood
that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, however, as I ran, a deadly
dizziness and sickness came over me. I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing
painfully, and then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and
that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavored to tie my handkerchief
round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my ears, and next moment I fell in
a dead faint among the rosebushes.
"How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell.
It must have been a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning
was breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with dew, and my
coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded thumb. The smarting of it
recalled in an instant all the particulars of my night's adventure, and I sprang
to my feet with the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers.
But to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house nor garden
were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the hedge close by the highroad,
and just a little lower down was a long building, which proved, upon my approaching
it, to be the very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were
it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed during those dreadful
hours might have been an evil dream.
"Half dazed, I went into the station and asked
about the morning train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The
same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I arrived. I inquired
of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Lysander Stark. The name was strange
to him. Had he observed a carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had
not. Was there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three miles
off.
"It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I
was. I determined to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to
the police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first to have my
wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to bring me along here. I put
the case into your hands and shall do exactly what you advise." We both sat in
silence for some little time after listening to this extraordinary narrative.
Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace
books in which he placed his cuttings.
"Here is an advertisement which will interest you,"
said he. "It appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: 'Lost,
on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer.
Left his lodgings at ten o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was
dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that the colonel needed
to have his machine overhauled, I fancy."
"Good heavens!" cried my patient. "Then that explains
what the girl said."
"Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel
was a cool and desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should
stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out pirates who will leave
no survivor from a captured ship. Well, every moment now is precious, so if you
feel equal to it we shall go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to
starting for Eyford."
Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in
the train together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. There
were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector Bradstreet, of Scotland
Yard, a plainclothes man, and myself. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of
the county out upon the seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle
with Eyford for its center.
"There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn
at a radius of ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere
near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir."
"It was an hour's good drive."
"And you think that they brought you back all that
way when you were unconscious?"
"They must have done so. I have a confused memory,
too, of having been lifted and conveyed somewhere."
"What I cannot understand," said I, "Is why they
should have spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Perhaps
the villain was softened by the woman's entreaties."
"I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more
inexorable face in my life."
"Oh, we shall soon clear up all that," said Bradstreet.
"Well, I have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon it the
folk that we are in search of are to be found."
"I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes
quietly.
"Really, now!" cried the inspector, "You have formed
your opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is south,
for the country is more deserted there."
"And I say east," said my patient.
"I am for west," remarked the plainclothes man.
"There are several quiet little villages up there."
"And I am for north," said I, "because there are
no hills there, and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up
any."
"Come," cried the inspector, laughing; "It's a
very pretty diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do you
give your casting vote to?"
"You are all wrong."
"But we can't all be."
"Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed
his finger in the center of the circle. "This is where we shall find them."
"But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley.
"Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say
yourself that the horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be
that if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?"
"Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed
Bradstreet thoughtfully. "Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature of
this gang."
"None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on
a large scale, and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the
place of silver."
"We have known for some time that a clever gang
was at work," said the inspector.
"They have been turning out half-crowns by the
thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could get no farther, for
they had covered their traces in a way that showed that they were very old hands.
But now, thanks to this lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough."
But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals
were not destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into Eyford
Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed up from behind a small
clump of trees in the neighborhood and hung like an immense ostrich feather over
the landscape.
"A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the train
steamed off again on its way.
"Yes, sir!" said the stationmaster.
"When did it break out?"
"I hear that it was during the night, sir, but
it has got worse, and the whole place is in a blaze."
"Whose house is it?"
"Dr. Becher's."
"Tell me," broke in the engineer,
"Is Dr. Becher a German, very thin, with a long,
sharp nose?"
The stationmaster. laughed heartily. "No, sir,
Dr. Becher is an Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a better-lined
waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, a patient, as I understand,
who is a foreigner, and he looks as if a little good Berkshire beef would do him
no harm."
The stationmaster. had not finished his speech
before we were all hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low
hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in front of us, spouting
fire at every chink and window, while in the garden in front three fire-engines
were vainly striving to keep the flames under.
"That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement.
"There is the gravel-drive, and there are the rosebushes. where I lay. That second
window is the one that I jumped from."
"Well, at least," said Holmes, "You have had your
revenge upon them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, when
it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, though no doubt they
were too excited in the chase after you to observe it at the time. Now keep your
eyes open in this crowd for your friends of last night, though I very much fear
that they are a good hundred miles off by now."
And Holmes's fears came to be realized, for from
that day to this no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the
sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a peasant had met
a cart containing several people and some very bulky boxes driving rapidly in
the direction of Reading, but there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and
even Holmes's ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their whereabouts.
The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange
arrangements which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a newly
severed human thumb upon a windowsill of the second floor. About sunset, however,
their efforts were at last successful, and they subdued the flames, but not before
the roof had fallen in, and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin
that, save some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of the
machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so dearly. Large masses
of nickel and of tin were discovered stored in an outhouse, but no coins were
to be found, which may have explained the presence of those bulky boxes which
have been already referred to.
How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from
the garden to the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained forever
a mystery were it not for the soft mold, which told us a very plain tale. He had
evidently been carried down by two persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet
and the other unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the
silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his companion, had assisted
the woman to bear the unconscious man out of the way of danger.
"Well," said our engineer ruefully as we took our
seats to return once more to London,
"It has been a pretty business for me! I have lost
my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what have I gained?"
"Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly
it may be of value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the reputation
of being excellent company for the remainder of your existence."