The Sign of the Four Part 6 (2/2)
It ell that we had so clear a view of hi 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 arh fell sideways into the strea eyes amid the white swirl of the waters At the saed man threw himself upon the rudder and put it hard down, so that his boat ht 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 linant 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 stuth into the sodden soil In vain he struggled and writhed Not one step could he possibly take either forwards or backwards He yelled in ie, and kicked frantically into the les only bored his wooden pin the deeper into the sticky bank When we brought our launch alongside he was so fir the end of a rope over his shoulders that ere able to haul hi him, like some evil fish, over our side The two Smiths, father and son, sat sullenly in their launch, but cah when commanded The Aurora herself we hauled off and made fast to our stern A solid iron chest of Indian workmanshi+p 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 considerable weight, so we transferred it carefully to our own little cabin As we steaht in every direction, but there was no sign of the Islander Somewhere in the dark ooze at the bottoe visitor to our shores
”See here,” said Hol 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 kneell It must have whizzed between us at the instant that we fired Holed his shoulders in his easy fashi+on, 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 ain He was a sunburned, reckless-eyed felloith a net-work of lines and wrinkles all over his any features, which told of a hard, open-air life There was a singular prominence about his bearded chin which marked a e may have been fifty or thereabouts, for his black, curly hair was thickly shot with gray 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 er He sat noith 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 seeid and contained countenance Once he looked up atlike humor in his eyes
”Well, Jonathan Sar, ”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 ainst Mr Sholto It was that little hell-hound Tonga who shot one of his cursed darts into hirieved 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 hi 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 had been the old ht heart I would have thought no ar But it's cursed hard that I should be lagged over this young Sholto, hoe 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 rooot such a turn inat h theIt fairly shook a 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 h how you kept on it is ainst you for it But it does see,” he added, with a bitter sh upon half a million ofa breakwater in the Anda drains at Dartmoor It was an evil day for me when first I clapped eyes upon the ra treasure, which never brought anything but a curse yet upon the ht uilt, 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, Holratulate 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 ht 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 hi 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 co ourto notice how the consequential Jones was already beginning to give hiht smile which played over Sherlock Holmes's face, I could see that the speech had not been lost upon hie presently,” said Jones, ”and shall land you, Dr Watson, with the treasure-box I need hardly tell you that I a this It is reement 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 S 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 enial inspector as ht 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 Morstan, however, was in the drawing-roo the obliging inspector in the cab
She was seated by the open , 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 absorbingto her feet, however, and a bright flush of surprise and of pleasure colored her pale cheeks
”I heard a cab drive up,” she said ”I thought that Mrs Forrester had coht be you What news have you broughtbetter than news,” said I, putting down the box upon the table and speaking jovially and boisterously, thoughwhich is worth all the news in the world I have brought you a fortune”
She glanced at 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 ht, and that she detected a hollow ring in ratulations, 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 Sherlock 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 e 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 Tha 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 soain 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 hter There is the treasure What could be brighter than that? I got leave to bring it withthat it would interest you to be the first to see it”
”It would be of the greatest interest to erness in her voice, however It had struck her, doubtless, that it racious upon her part to be indifferent to a prize which had cost soover it ”This is Indian work, I suppose?”
”Yes; it is Benaresto 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 i 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 tre in astonishment The box was empty!
No wonder that it was heavy The iron-o-thirds of an inch thick all round It was massive, well reat 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 Morstan, calmly
As I listened to the words and realized what they reat shadow seera treasure had weighed me down, until now that it was finally re, but I could realize nothing save that the golden barrier was gone from between us ”Thank God!” I ejaculated from my very heart
She looked atsmile ”Why do you say that?” she asked
”Because you are withinher 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 one 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 ht that I had gained one