The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Part 51 (2/2)
”Just look up the trains in Bradshaw,” said he, and turned back to his cheent one
”Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday to-morrow,” it said ”Do come! I am at my wit's end HUNTER”
”Will you co up
”I should wish to”
”Just look it up, then”
”There is a train at half-past nine,” said I, glancing over my Bradshaw ”It is due at Winchester at 11:30”
”That will do very nicely Then perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the acetones, as we ”
By eleven o'clock the next day ell upon our way to the old English capital Hol papers all the way down, but after we had passed the Haan to adht blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across frohtly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to ahills around Aldershot, the little red and grey roofs of the farreen of the new foliage
”Are they not fresh and beautiful?” I cried with all the enthusiass of Baker Street
But Holravely
”Do you know, Watson,” said he, ”that it is one of the curses of awith reference to my own special subject You look at these scattered houses, and you are iht which co of their isolation and of the impunity hich crime may be committed there”
”Good heavens!” I cried ”Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?”
”They always fill me with a certain horror It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present aand beautiful countryside”
”You horrify me!”
”But the reason is very obvious The pressure of public opinion can do in the tohat the law cannot accomplish There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget syhbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of co, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the norant folk who know little of the law Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which o on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for her It is the five er Still, it is clear that she is not personally threatened”
”No If she can coet away”
”Quite so She has her freedoest no explanation?”
”I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would cover the facts as far as we know them But which of these is correct can only be determined by the fresh infor for us Well, there is the tower of the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Miss Hunter has to tell”
The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no distance fro for us She had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch awaited us upon the table
”I ahted that you have come,” she said earnestly ”It is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not knohat I should do Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me”
”Pray tell us what has happened to you”