The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Part 14 (2/2)
When I rose froone
”'Do you mean that it disappeared before you went for help?'
”'Yes, it was gone'
”'You cannot say what it was?'
”'No, I had a feeling so was there'
”'How far from the body?'
”'A dozen yards or so'
”'And how far froe of the wood?'
”'About the same'
”'Then if it was removed it hile you ithin a dozen yards of it?'
”'Yes, but with my back towards it'
”This concluded the exalanced down the colu re McCarthy
He calls attention, and with reason, to the discrepancy about his father having signalled to hiive details of his conversation with his father, and his singular account of his father's dying words They are all, as he rehed softly to himself and stretched himself out upon the cushi+oned seat ”Both you and the coroner have been at soest points in the young ive hiination and too little? Too little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would give him the sympathy of the jury; tooso outre as a dying reference to a rat, and the incident of the vanishi+ng cloth No, sir, I shall approach this case fro man says is true, and we shall see whither that hypothesis will lead us And now here is my pocket Petrarch, and not another word shall I say of this case until we are on the scene of action We lunch at Swindon, and I see that we shall be there in twenty minutes”
It was nearly four o'clock e at last, after passing through the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad glea Severn, found ourselves at the pretty little country-town of Ross A lean, ferret-likefor us upon the platfors which he wore in deference to his rustic surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Scotland Yard With him we drove to the Hereford Ared for us
”I have ordered a carriage,” said Lestrade as we sat over a cup of tea ”I knew your energetic nature, and that you would not be happy until you had been on the scene of the crime”
”It was very nice and complimentary of you,” Holmes answered ”It is entirely a question of barometric pressure”
Lestrade looked startled ”I do not quite follow,” he said
”How is the glass? Twenty-nine, I see No wind, and not a cloud in the sky I have a caseful of cigarettes here which need s, and the sofa is very much superior to the usual country hotel abomination I do not think that it is probable that I shall use the carriage to-night”
Lestrade laughed indulgently ”You have, no doubt, already formed your conclusions from the newspapers,” he said ”The case is as plain as a pikestaff, and the oes into it the plainer it becomes Still, of course, one can't refuse a lady, and such a very positive one, too She has heard of you, and would have your opinion, though I repeatedly told her that there was nothing which you could do which I had not already done Why, bless e at the door”
He had hardly spoken before there rushed into the roo women that I have ever seen in , her lips parted, a pink flush upon her cheeks, all thought of her natural reserve lost in her overpowering excitement and concern
”Oh, Mr Sherlock Hol from one to the other of us, and finally, with a wolad that you have come I have driven down to tell you so I know that James didn't do it
I know it, and I want you to start upon your work knowing it, too Never let yourself doubt upon that point We have known each other since ere little children, and I know his faults as no one else does; but he is too tender-hearted to hurt a fly Such a charge is absurd to anyone who really knows him”
”I hope we may clear him, Miss Turner,” said Sherlock Holmes