The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Part 23 (1/2)

While she alking in this way doandam Lane, she suddenly heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her husband looking down at her and, as it see to her from a second-floorThe as open, and she distinctly saw his face, which she describes as being terribly agitated He waved his hands frantically to her, and then vanished from theso suddenly that it seemed to her that he had been plucked back by soular point which struck her quick feh he wore some dark coat, such as he had started to town in, he had on neither collar nor necktie

”Convinced that so was amiss with him, she rushed down the steps--for the house was none other than the opiuh the front room she attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor At the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street Filled with thedoubts and fears, she rushed down the lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat The inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to the roon of him there In fact, in the whole of that floor there was no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, it seems, made his home there Both he and the Lascar stoutly swore that no one else had been in the front roo the afternoon So deterered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs St Clair had been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it Out there fell a cascade of children's bricks It was the toy which he had pro home

”This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple showed, made the inspector realise that the matter was serious

The rooms were carefully examined, and results all pointed to an abominable cri-room and led into a small bedroom, which looked out upon the back of one of the wharves Between the wharf and the bedroomis a narrow strip, which is dry at low tide but is covered at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water The bedroom as a broad one and opened from below On examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the sill, and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of the bedroom Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were all the clothes of Mr Neville St Clair, with the exception of his coat His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were there There were no signs of violence upon any of these garments, and there were no other traces of Mr Neville St

Clair Out of thehe one for no other exit could be discovered, and the oave little pro, for the tide was at its very highest at the edy

”And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately implicated in the matter The Lascar was known to be a man of the vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs St Clair's story, he was known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few seconds of her husband's appearance at the , he could hardly have been more than an accessory to the crinorance, and he protested that he had no knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he could not account in any way for the presence of the entleer Now for the sinister cripple who lives upon the second floor of the opiu whose eyes rested upon Neville St

Clair His nah Boone, and his hideous face is one which is faoes h in order to avoid the police regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas Some little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand side, there is, as you le in the wall Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat, cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap, and as he is a piteous spectacle a sreasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him I have watched the fellowhis professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time His appearance, you see, is so re hiured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction, has turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin, and a pair of very penetrating dark eyes, which present a singular contrast to the colour of his hair, all mark him out from amid the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit, for he is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be thrown at him by the passers-by This is the er at the opiuentleman of e are in quest”

”But a cripple!” said I ”What could he have done single-handed against a man in the prime of life?”

”He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp; but in other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man

Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson, that weakness in one lith in the others”

”Pray continue your narrative”

”Mrs St Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the , and she was escorted home in a cab by the police, as her presence could be of no help to theations

Inspector Barton, who had charge of the case, made a very careful exa which threw any light upon theBoone instantly, as he was allowed soht have communicated with his friend the Lascar, but this fault was soon re found which could incriminate hiht shi+rt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger, which had been cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding ca before, and that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless fro ever seen Mr

Neville St Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police As to Mrs St Clair's assertion that she had actually seen her husband at the , he declared that sheHe was re, to the police-station, while the inspector reht afford soh they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they had feared to find It was Neville St Clair's coat, and not Neville St Clair, which lay uncovered as the tide receded And what do you think they found in the pockets?”

”I cannot iuess Every pocket stuffed with pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies It was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide But a human body is a different matter There is a fierce eddy between the wharf and the house It seehted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked away into the river”

”But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the room Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?”

”No, sir, but the facts h Suppose that this h the , there is no human eye which could have seen the deed

What would he do then? It would of course instantly strike hiarments He would seize the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out, when it would occur to him that it would swim and not sink He has little time, for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried to force her way up, and perhaps he has already heard fro up the street

There is not an instant to be lost He rushes to some secret hoard, where he has accuary, and he stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the pockets toHe throws it out, and would have done the saarments had not he heard the rush of steps below, and only just had time to close the hen the police appeared”

”It certainly sounds feasible”

”Well, ill take it as a working hypothesis for want of a better Boone, as I have told you, was arrested and taken to the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before been anything against hiar, but his life appeared to have been a very quiet and innocent one There the matter stands at present, and the questions which have to be solved--what Neville St Clair was doing in the opium den, what happened to hih Boone had to do with his disappearance--are all as far from a solution as ever I confess that I cannot recall any case within lance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties”

While Sherlock Holular series of events, we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great town until the last straggling houses had been left behind, and we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us

Just as he finished, however, we drove through two scattered villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the s

”We are on the outskirts of Lee,” said lish counties in our short drive, starting in Middlesex, passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent

See that light a the trees? That is The Cedars, and beside that lamp sits a woht the clink of our horse's feet”

”But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?” I asked