The Valley of Fear Part 2 (2/2)
”Then theyou call the nugget ring, then the wedding ring, and afterwards put the nugget ring back again”
”That is so!”
The worthy country policeet London on to this case the better,” said he ”White Mason is a smart man No local job has ever been toonow before he is here to help us But I expect we'll have to look to London before we are through Anyhow, I'm not ashamed to say that it is a deal too thick for the likes of me”
Chapter 4
--Darkness
At three in the ent call froeant Wilson of Birlstone, arrived fro-cart behind a breathless trotter By the five-forty train in the e to Scotland Yard, and he was at the Birlstone station at twelve o'clock to welco person in a loose tweed suit, with a clean-shaved, ruddy face, a stoutish body, and powerful bandy legs adorned with gaiters, looking like a s upon earth except a very favourable speciht snorter, Mr MacDonald!” he kept repeating ”We'll have the press ill get our work done before they get poking their noses into it andlike this that I can remember There are some bits that will come home to you, Mr Holmes, or I am mistaken And you also, Dr Watson; for the medicos will have a word to say before we finish Your room is at the Westville Arood The entleenial person, this Sussex detective In ten minutes we had all found our quarters In tentreated to a rapid sketch of those events which have been outlined in the previous chapter MacDonald made an occasional note; while Holmes sat absorbed, with the expression of surprised and reverent admiration hich the botanist surveys the rare and precious bloom
”Remarkable!” he said, when the story was unfolded, ”most remarkable! I can hardly recall any case where the features have been ht you would say so, Mr Holht ”We're well up with the times in Sussex I've told you no eant Wilson between three and four this o! But I need not have been in such a hurry, as it turned out; for there was nothing ieant Wilson had all the facts I checked them and considered them and maybe added a few of erly
”Well, I first had the hammer exans of violence upon it I was hoping that if Mr Douglas defended hiht have left his mark upon the murderer before he dropped it on the mat But there was no stain”
”That, of course, proves nothing at all,” remarked Inspector MacDonald ”There has been many a hammer murder and no trace on the hammer”
”Quite so It doesn't prove it wasn't used But there ht have been stains, and that would have helped us As a un They were buckshot cartridges, and, as Sergeant Wilson pointed out, the triggers ired together so that, if you pulled on the hinder one, both barrels were discharged Whoever fixed that up hadto take no chances of --one could carry it easily under one's coat There was no complete maker's na between the barrels, and the rest of the na P with a flourish above it, E and N smaller?” asked Holmes
”Exactly”
”Pennsylvania Small Arms Company--well-known Aazed at e practitioner looks at the Harley Street specialist who by a word can solve the difficulties that perplex him
”That is very helpful, Mr Holht Wonderful! Wonderful! Do you carry the naun makers in the world in your memory?”
Holmes dismissed the subject with a wave
”No doubt it is an Aun,” White Mason continued ”I seeun is a weapon used in some parts of America Apart from the name upon the barrel, the idea had occurred to me There is some evidence then, that this man who entered the house and killed its master was an American”
MacDonald shook his head ”Man, you are surely travelling overfast,” said he ”I have heard no evidence yet that any stranger was ever in the house at all”
”The open , the blood on the sill, the queer card, thethere that could not have been arranged Mr Douglas was an A in America So had Mr Barker You don't need to import an As”
”Ames, the butler--”
”What about him? Is he reliable?”
”Ten years with Sir Charles Chandos--as solid as a rock He has been with Douglas ever since he took the Manor House five years ago He has never seen a gun of this sort in the house”
”The gun was made to conceal That's why the barrels were sawed It would fit into any box How could he swear there was no such gun in the house?”
”Well, anyhow, he had never seen one”
MacDonald shook his obstinate Scotch head ”I'm not convinced yet that there was ever anyone in the house,” said he ”I' you to conseedar” (his accent becau you to conseedar what it involves if you suppose that this gun was ever brought into the house, and that all these strange things were done by a person froainst co it by e have heard”
”Well, state your case, Mr Mac,” said Hollar, supposing that he ever existed The ring business and the card point to preood Here is a man who slips into a house with the deliberate intention of co, that he will have a deeficulty inhis escape, as the house is surrounded ater What weapon would he choose? You would say the most silent in the world Then he could hope when the deed was done to slip quickly froet away at his leisure That's understandable But is it understandable that he should go out of his way to bring with hi well that it will fetch every hu in the house to the spot as quick as they can run, and that it is all odds that he will be seen before he can get across the moat? Is that credible, Mr Holly,” ood deal of justification May I ask, Mr White Mason, whether you examined the farther side of theclins, Mr Hole, and one could hardly expect them”
”No tracks or marks?”
”None”
”Ha! Would there be any objection, Mr White Mason, to our going down to the house at once? There estive”
”I was going to propose it, Mr Holht it well to put you in touch with all the facts before we go I suppose if anything should strike you--” White Mason looked doubtfully at the amateur
”I have worked with Mr Holaao into a case to help the ends of justice and the work of the police If I have ever separated myself from the official force, it is because they have first separated themselves from me I have no wish ever to score at their expense At the saht to work in ive es”
”I am sure we are honoured by your presence and to show you all we know,” said White Mason cordially ”Co, Dr Watson, and when the time comes we'll all hope for a place in your book”
We walked down the quaint village street with a row of pollarded elms on each side of it Just beyond were two ancient stone pillars, weather-stained and lichen-blotched, bearing upon their su which had once been the ra the winding drive with such sward and oaks around it as one only sees in rural England, then a sudden turn, and the long, low Jacobean house of dingy, liver-coloured brick lay before us, with an old-fashi+oned garden of cut yews on each side of it As we approached it, there was the wooden drawbridge and the beautiful broad moat as still and luminous as quicksilver in the cold, winter sunshi+ne
Three centuries had flowed past the old Manor House, centuries of births and of hos of fox hunters Strange that now in its old age this dark business should have cast its shadow upon the venerable walls! And yet those strange, peaked roofs and quaint, overhung gables were a fitting covering to griue As I looked at the deep-set s and the long sweep of the dull-coloured, water-lapped front, I felt that no edy
”That's the ,” said White Mason, ”that one on the ie It's open just as it was found last night”
”It looks rather narrow for a man to pass”
”Well, it wasn't a fat man, anyhow We don't need your deductions, Mr Holh all right”
Hole of the e and the grass border beyond it