The Sign of the Four Part 3 (1/2)
”Fastened; but there are steps on the sill”
”Well, well, if it was fastened the steps could have nothing to do with the ht have died in a fit; but then the jewels areHa! I have a theory These flashes coeant, 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 ot 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 one 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 ains 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?”
”Confirms it in every respect,” said the fat detective, poht 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 i that he had found the trap-door
”He can find so his shoulders ”He has occasional glis 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 confir 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 sho our gentlee
”Ask Mr Sholto to step this way--Mr Sholto, it iswhich you ainst you I arrest you in the queen's na concerned in the death of your brother”
”There, now! Didn't I tell you!” cried the poor littlefrom one to the other of us
”Don't trouble yourself about it, Mr Sholto,” said Hole”
”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 ere in this rooht His name, I have every reason to believe, is Jonathan Sht 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 ed 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 skinfrom the palm of his hand The other man--”
”Ah! the othervoice, 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 Hol to be able to introduce you to the pair of them--A ith you, Watson”
He led me out to the head of the stair ”This unexpected occurrence,” 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 Morstan 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 ait 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 knowof the rough side of life, but I give you ht has shaken my nerve coh 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 Morstan I wish you to go on to No 3 Pinchin Lane, down near the water's edge at Laht-hand side is a bird-stuffer's: Sher rabbit in theKnock old Sherman up, and tell him, withToby back in the cab with you”
”A dog, I suppose”
”Yes,--a queerpower of scent I would rather have Toby's help than that of the whole detective force of London”
”I shall bring hiht 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 reat Jones's methods and listen to his not too delicate sarcasewohnt das die Menschen verhoehnen was sie nicht verstehen' 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 Morstan back to her hoelic fashi+on of wo 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 ht uessed the struggle within my breast, or the effort of self-restraint which held me back My sympathies and arden I felt that years of the conventionalities 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 eak and helpless, shaken in e 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 honorable, that a half-pay surgeon should take such advantage of an intiht she not look upon ar fortune-seeker? I could not bear to risk that such a thought should cross her ra treasure intervened like an impassable barrier between us
It was nearly two o'clock e reached Mrs Cecil Forrester's The servants had retired hours ago, but Mrs Forrester had been so interested by the strange e which Miss Morstan had received that she had sat up in the hope of her return She opened the door herself, a ave me joy to see how tenderly her arm stole round the other's waist and how reeted her She was clearly no mere paid dependant, but an honored friend I was introduced, and Mrs Forrester earnestly begged me to step in and tell her our adventures I explained, however, the importance of ress which we lance back, and I still seeraceful, clinging figures, the half-opened door, the hall light shi+ning through stained glass, the baro to catch even that passing glilish home in the midst of the wild, dark business which had absorbed us
And the ht 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 Morstan, the sending of the pearls, the advertiseht upon all those events They had only led us, however, to a deeper and far icMorstan's baggage, the strange scene at Major Sholto's death, the rediscovery of the treasure immediately followed by the ular accompaniments to the crime, the footsteps, the re with those upon Captain Morstan's chart,--here was indeed a labyrinth in which a ht 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 lint of a candle behind the blind, and a face looked out at the upper
”Go on, you drunken vagabone,” said the face ”If you kick up any s upon you”
”If you'll let one out it's just what I have come for,” said I
”Go on!” yelled the voice ”So help , 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 Sheroes the wiper”
”Mr Sherlock Holical effect, for theinstantly slammed down, and within a minute the door was unbarred and open Mr Sher shoulders, a stringy neck, and blue-tinted glasses
”A friend of Mr Sherlock is alelcoer; 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 s, so I gives it the run o' the room, for it keeps the beetles down You must not uyed 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 Hol of yours”
”Ah! that would be Toby”
”Yes, Toby was the name”
”Toby lives at No 7 on the left here” Hethe queer aniathered round hiht I could see di down at us from every cranny and corner Even the rafters above our heads were lined by sole to the other as our voices disturbed their slu-haired, lop-eared creature, half spaniel and half lurcher, brown-and-white in color, with a very cluait It accepted after soar which the old naturalist handed tothus sealed an alliance, it followedme It had just struck three on the Palace clock when I found hter McMurdo had, I found, been arrested as an accessory, and both he and Mr Sholto had been uarded the narrow gate, but they allowedthe detective's na on the door-step, with his hands in his pockets, s his pipe
”Ah, you have hione We have had an iy 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 up-stairs Leave the dog here, and come up”
We tied Toby to the hall table, and reascended the stairs The room was as he had left it, save that a sheet had been draped over the central figure A weary-looking police-sergeant reclined in the corner