A Study In Scarlet Part 5 (1/2)
”Good boy,” said Holmes, blandly ”Why don't you introduce this pattern at Scotland Yard?” he continued, taking a pair of steel handcuffs fro works They fasten in an instant”
”The old pattern is good enough,” remarked Lestrade, ”if we can only find the ood,” said Hol ”The cabman may as well help ins”
I was surprised to find h he were about to set out on a journey, since he had not said anything to me about it There was a san to strap He was busily engaged at it when the cabiveover his task, and never turning his head
The fellow came forith a somewhat sullen, defiant air, and put down his hands to assist At that instant there was a sharp click, the jangling of ain
”Gentle eyes, ”let me introduce you to Mr Jefferson Hope, the erson”
The whole thing occurred in a moment -- so quickly that I had no time to realize it I have a vivid recollection of that instant, of Hol of his voice, of the cab handcuffs, which had appeared as if by ht have been a group of statues Then, with an inarticulate roar of fury, the prisoner wrenched hih theWoodwork and glass gave way before hison, Lestrade, and Holed back into the room, and then commenced a terrific conflict So powerful and so fierce was he, that the four of us were shaken off again and again He appeared to have the convulsive strength of a led by his passage through the glass, but loss of blood had no effect in di his resistance It was not until Lestrade succeeded in getting his hand inside his neckcloth and half-strangling hiles were of no avail; and even then we felt no security until we had pinioned his feet as well as his hands That done, we rose to our feet breathless and panting
”We have his cab,” said Sherlock Holentlemen,” he continued, with a pleasant smile, ”we have reached the end of our little mystery You are very welcome to put any questions that you like to er that I will refuse to answer them”
PART II
The Country of the Saints
CHAPTER I
ON THE GREAT ALKALI PLAIN
IN the central portion of the great North American Continent there lies an arid and repulsive desert, which for ainst the advance of civilisation From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from the Yellowstone River in the north to the Colorado upon the south, is a region of desolation and silence Nor is Nature always in one rim district It colooh jagged canons; {18} and there are enormous plains, which in winter are white with snow, and in surey with the saline alkali dust They all preserve, however, the common characteristics of barrenness, inhospitality, and misery
There are no inhabitants of this land of despair A band of pawnees or of Blackfeet rounds, but the hardiest of the braves are glad to lose sight of those awesome plains, and to find the the scrub, the buzzard flaps heavily through the air, and the cluh the dark ravines, and picks up such sustenance as it can ast the rocks These are the sole dwellers in the wilderness
In the whole world there can be no more dreary view than that from the northern slope of the Sierra Blanco As far as the eye can reach stretches the great flat plain-land, all dusted over with patches of alkali, and intersected by clue of the horizon lie a long chain of ed sureat stretch of country there is no sign of life, nor of anything appertaining to life There is no bird in the steel-blue heaven, no rey earth -- above all, there is absolute silence Listen as one hty wilderness; nothing but silence -- co silence
It has been said there is nothing appertaining to life upon the broad plain That is hardly true Looking down from the Sierra Blanco, one sees a pathway traced out across the desert, which winds away and is lost in the extreme distance It is rutted heels and trodden down by the feet of many adventurers Here and there there are scattered white objects which glisten in the sun, and stand out against the dull deposit of alkali Approach, and exae and coarse, others sed to oxen, and the latter to hastly caravan route by these scattered re down on this very scene, there stood upon the fourth of May, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, a solitary traveller His appearance was such that he ion An observer would have found it difficult to say whether he was nearer to forty or to sixty His face was lean and haggard, and the brown parch bones; his long, brown hair and beard were all flecked and dashed hite; his eyes were sunken in his head, and burned with an unnatural lustre; while the hand which grasped his rifle was hardly more fleshy than that of a skeleton As he stood, he leaned upon his weapon for support, and yet his tall figure and the orous constitution His gaunt face, however, and his clothes, which hung so baggily over his shrivelled liave hi -- dying froer and from thirst
He had toiled painfully down the ravine, and on to this little elevation, in the vain hope of seeing soreat salt plain stretched before his eyes, and the distant belt of savage ht indicate the presence of leam of hope North, and east, and west he looked ild questioning eyes, and then he realised that his wanderings had co, he was about to die ”Why not here, as well as in a feather bed, twenty years hence,” he muttered, as he seated hi down, he had deposited upon the ground his useless rifle, and also a large bundle tied up in a grey shahich he had carried slung over his right shoulder It appeared to be so it, it caround with sorey parcel a littlecry, and froht brown eyes, and two little speckled, dimpled fists
”You've hurt h,” the o for to do it” As he spoke he unwrapped the grey shawl and extricated a pretty little girl of about five years of age, whose dainty shoes and smart pink frock with its little linen apron all bespoke a mother's care The child was pale and wan, but her healthy ars showed that she had suffered less than her companion
”How is it now?” he answered anxiously, for she was still rubbing the towsy golden curls which covered the back of her head
”Kiss it and{19} the injured part up to him ”That's what uess you'll see her before long”
”Gone, eh!” said the little girl ”Funny, she didn't say good-bye; she 'oin' over to Auntie's for tea, and now she's been away three days Say, it's awful dry, ain't it? Ain't there no water, nor nothing to eat?”
”No, there ain't nothing, dearie You'll just need to be patient awhile, and then you'll be all right Put your head up agin me like that, and then you'll feel bullier It ain't easy to talk when your lips is like leather, but I guess I'd best let you kno the cards lie What's that you've got?”
”Pretty things! fine things!” cried the little girl enthusiastically, holding up two glittering fragive thes than them soon,” said theto tell you though -- you remember e left the river?”
”Oh, yes”
”Well, we reckoned we'd strike another river soon, d'ye see But there was so; compasses, or map, or somethin', and it didn't turn up Water ran out Just except a little drop for the likes of you and -- and ----”
”And you couldn't wash yourself,” interrupted his coe
”No, nor drink And Mr Bender, he was the fust to go, and then Indian Pete, and then Mrs McGregor, and then Johnny Hones, and then, dearie, your mother”
”Thenher face in her pinafore and sobbing bitterly
”Yes, they all went except you and ht there was some chance of water in this direction, so I heaved you over h we've ihty s to die too?” asked the child, checking her sobs, and raising her tear-stained face
”I guess that's about the size of it”
”Why didn't you say so before?” she said, laughing gleefully ”You gaveas we die we'll be with ain”
”Yes, you will, dearie”
”And you too I'll tell her hoful good you've been I'll bet shepitcher of water, and a lot of buckwheat cakes, hot, and toasted on both sides, like Bob andwill it be first?”
”I don't know -- not very long” The man's eyes were fixed upon the northern horizon In the blue vault of the heaven there had appeared three little specks which increased in size every moment, so rapidly did they approach They speedily resolved thee brown birds, which circled over the heads of the tanderers, and then settled upon some rocks which overlooked the is the forerunner of death
”cocks and hens,” cried the little girl gleefully, pointing at their ill-o her hands to make them rise ”Say, did God make this country?”
”In course He did,” said her companion, rather startled by this unexpected question
”He made the country down in Illinois, and He uess somebody else made the country in these parts It's not nearly so well done They forgot the water and the trees”
”What would ye think of offering up prayer?” the ht yet,” she answered