The Valley of Fear Part 7 (1/2)
Inspector MacDonald had been staring at the newcoreatest amazement ”Well, this fairly beats las of Birlstone Manor, then whose death have we been investigating for these two days, and where in the world have you sprung from now? You seemed to me to come out of the floor like a jack-in-a-box”
”Ah, Mr Mac,” said Holer, ”you would not read that excellent local co Charles People did not hide in those days without excellent hiding places, and the hiding place that has once been used ain I had persuaded las under this roof”
”And how long have you been playing this trick upon us, Mr Hol have you allowed us to waste ourselves upon a search that you knew to be an absurd one?”
”Not one instant, ht did I form my views of the case As they could not be put to the proof until this evening, I invited you and your colleague to take a holiday for the day Pray what more could I do? When I found the suit of clothes in the moat, it at once became apparent to me that the body we had found could not have been the body of Mr John Douglas at all, but e Wells No other conclusion was possible Therefore I had to deterlas himself could be, and the balance of probability was that with the connivance of his wife and his friend he was concealed in a house which had such conveniences for a fugitive, and awaiting quieter tiured it out about right,” said Douglas approvingly ”I thought I'd dodge your British law; for I was not sure how I stood under it, and also I saw my chance to throw these hounds once for all offto be ashae that for yourselves when I tell youme, Inspector: I' to begin at the beginning That's all there,” he indicated hty queer yarn you'll find it It all coood cause to hate otas I am alive and they are alive, there is no safety in this world for o to California, then they chased me out of America; but when I htto be peaceable
”I never explained to s were Why should I pull her into it? She would never have a quiettrouble I fancy she knew so, for I may have dropped a word here or a word there; but until yesterday, after you gentlehts of the matter She told you all she knew, and so did Barker here; for on the night when this thing happened there wasnow, and I would have been a wiser man if I had told her sooner But it was a hard question, dear,” he took her hand for an instant in his own, ”and I acted for the best
”Well, gentlee Wells, and I got a glilis, and I never doubted who it was It was the worst enery wolf after a caribou all these years I knew there was trouble coht through it all right on my own, my luck was a proverb in the States about '76 I never doubted that it would be with uard all that next day, and never went out into the park It's as well, or he'd have had the drop on un of his before ever I could draw on hie was up--e was up in the evenings--I put the thing clear out ofinto the house and waiting for own, as was my habit, I had no sooner entered the study than I scented danger I guess when a ers in his life--and I've had more than most in my ti I saw the signal clear enough, and yet I couldn't tell you why Next instant I spotted a boot under thecurtain, and then I sahy plain enough
”I'd just the one candle that was in h the open door I put down the candle and jumped for a ha at lint of a knife, and I lashed at hiot hied round the table as quick as an eel, and a un froot hold of it before he could fire I had it by the barrel, and restled for it all ends up for a rip
”He never lost his grip; but he got it butt doard for a er Maybe we just jolted it off between us Anyhow, he got both barrels in the face, and there I was, staring down at all that was left of Ted Baldwin I'd recognized hi for nize hih work; but I fairly turned sick at the sight of hi on the side of the table when Barker ca, and I ran to the door and stopped her It was no sight for a woman I promised I'd come to her soon I said a word or two to Barker--he took it all in at a glance--and aited for the rest to con of the, and that all that had happened was known only to ourselves
”It was at that instant that the idea came to me I was fairly dazzled by the brilliance of it The man's sleeve had slipped up and there was the branded e upon his forearlas turned up his own coat and cuff to show a brown triangle within a circle exactly like that which we had seen upon the dead ht of that which started lance There were his height and hair and figure, about the same as ht down this suit of clothes, and in a quarter of an hour Barker and I had put own on his into a bundle, and I weighted theh theThe card he hadbeside his own
”My rings were put on his finger; but when it ca,” he held out his muscular hand, ”you can see for yourselves that I had struck the limit I have not moved it since the day I was et it off I don't know, anyhow, that I should have cared to part with it; but if I had wanted to I couldn't So we just had to leave that detail to take care of itself On the other hand, I brought a bit of plaster down and put it where I a one myself at this instant You slipped up there, Mr Holmes, clever as you are; for if you had chanced to take off that plaster you would have found no cut underneath it
”Well, that was the situation If I could lie low for a while and then get ahere I could be joined byin peace for the rest of our lives These devils would give round; but if they saw in the papers that Baldwin had got his man, there would be an end of all my troubles I hadn't much time to make it all clear to Barker and to h to be able to helpplace, so did Ames; but it never entered his head to connect it with the matter I retired into it, and it was up to Barker to do the rest
”I guess you can fill in for yourselves what he did He opened theand ive an idea of how the e was up there was no other way Then, when everything was fixed, he rang the bell for all he orth What happened afterward you know And so, gentlemen, you can do what you please; but I've told you the truth and the whole truth, so help lish law?”
There was a silence which was broken by Sherlock Hollish law is in the et no worse than your deserts frolas But I would ask you how did this et into your house, or where to hide to get you?”
”I know nothing of this”
Holrave ”The story is not over yet, I fear,” said he ”You lish law, or even than your enelas You'll take -suffering readers, I will ask you to come aith me for a time, far from the Sussex Manor House of Birlstone, and far also frorace in which we e story of the las I wish you to journey back some twenty years in time, and ard some thousands of ular and terrible narrative--so singular and so terrible that you may find it hard to believe that even as I tell it, even so did it occur
Do not think that I intrude one story before another is finished As you read on you will find that this is not so And when I have detailed those distant events and you have solved this mystery of the past, we shall meet once more in those rooms on Baker Street, where this, like so s, will find its end
Part 2--The Scowrers
Chapter 1
--The Man
It was the fourth of February in the year 1875 It had been a severe winter, and the snow lay deep in the gorges of the Gilhs had, however, kept the railroad open, and the evening train which connects the long line of coal- its way up the steep gradients which lead froville on the plain to Vermissa, the central townshi+p which lies at the head of Vermissa Valley Fro, Helricultural county of Merton It was a single track railroad; but at every siding--and they were nu lines of trucks piled with coal and iron ore told of the hidden wealth which had brought a rude population and a bustling life to this most desolate corner of the United States of America
For desolate it was! Little could the first pioneer who had traversed it have ever iined that the fairest prairies and the looled forest Above the dark and often scarcely penetrable woods upon their flanks, the high, bare crowns of the ed rock towered upon each flank, leaving a long, winding, tortuous valley in the centre Up this the little train was slowly crawling
The oil la, bare carriage in which soreater nu from their day's toil in the lower part of the valley At least a dozen, by their grimed faces and the safety lanterns which they carried, proclairoup and conversed in low voices, glancing occasionally at two es showed the class and one or two travellers who ht have been small local storekeepers made up the rest of the co man in a corner by hiood look at him; for he is worth it
He is a fresh-couess, froray eyes which twinkle inquiringly froh his spectacles at the people about him It is easy to see that he is of a sociable and possibly simple disposition, anxious to be friendly to all arious in his habits and communicative in his nature, with a quick wit and a ready sht discern a certain firhtness about the lips which would warn him that there were depths beyond, and that this pleasant, brown-haired young Irishood or evil upon any society to which he was introduced
Having made one or two tentative reruff replies, the traveller resigned hilandscape
It was not a cheering prospect Through the growing gloolow of the furnaces on the sides of the hills Great heaps of slag and duh shafts of the collieries towering above theroups ofto outline the the line, and the frequent halting places were croith their swarthy inhabitants
The iron and coal valleys of the Vermissa district were no resorts for the leisured or the cultured Everywhere there were stern signs of the crudest battle of life, the rude work to be done, and the rude, strong workers who did it
The young traveller gazed out into this disled repulsion and interest, which showed that the scene was new to him At intervals he drew from his pocket a bulky letter to which he referred, and on the ins of which he scribbled some notes Once fro which one would hardly have expected to find in the possession of so est size As he turned it slantwise to the light, the glint upon the rims of the copper shells within the drum showed that it was fully loaded He quickly restored it to his secret pocket, but not before it had been observed by a workingbench
”Hullo,man smiled with an air of embarrassment
”Yes,” said he, ”we need them sometimes in the place I come froo”
”A stranger in these parts?”
”Yes”
”You may find you need it here,” said the work s hereabouts?”
”Nothing out of the way”
”Why, I thought the country was full of it You'll hear quick enough What made you co man”
”Are you a et your job, I guess Have you any friends?”
”Not yet; but I have thethem”