The Return of Sherlock Holmes Part 3 (2/2)
I looked with alyphics upon the paper
”Why, Hol,” I cried
”Oh, that's your idea!”
”What else should it be?”
”That is what Mr Hilton Cubitt, of Riding Thorpe Manor, Norfolk, is very anxious to know This little conundrum came by the first post, and he was to follow by the next train There's a ring at the bell, Watson I should not be very much surprised if this were he”
A heavy step was heard upon the stairs, and an instant later there entered a tall, ruddy, clean-shaven gentleman, whose clear eyes and florid cheeks told of a life led far fro a whiff of his strong, fresh, bracing, east-coast air with hi shaken hands with each of us, he was about to sit dohen his eye rested upon the paper with the curious s, which I had just examined and left upon the table
”Well, Mr Holmes, what do you make of these?” he cried ”They told me that you were fond of queer mysteries, and I don't think you can find a queerer one than that I sent the paper on ahead, so that you ht have time to study it before I came”
”It is certainly rather a curious production,” said Holht it would appear to be some childish prank It consists of a nu across the paper upon which they are drawn Why should you attribute any irotesque an object?”
”I never should, Mr Hol her to death She says nothing, but I can see terror in her eyes That's why I want to sift the matter to the bottoht shone full upon it It was a page torn fros were done in pencil, and ran in this way: GRAPHIC Hol it carefully up, he placed it in his pocketbook
”This pro and unusual case,” said he ”You gave me a few particulars in your letter, Mr Hilton Cubitt, but I should be very ain for the benefit of my friend, Dr Watson”
”I'm notand unclasping his great, strong hands ”You'll just ask in at the tie last year, but I want to say first of all that, though I' Thorpe for a matter of five centuries, and there is no better known family in the County of Norfolk Last year I ca-house in Russell Square, because Parker, the vicar of our parish, was staying in it There was an A lady there--Patrick was the name--Elsie Patrick In some e became friends, until before my month was up I was as istry office, and we returned to Norfolk a wedded couple You'll think it very ood old fa of her past or of her people, but if you saw her and knew her, it would help you to understand
”She was very straight about it, was Elsie I can't say that she did not giveout of it if I wished to do so `I have had soreeable associations in et all about them I would rather never allude to the past, for it is very painful to me If you takethat she need be personally ashamed of, but you will have to be content with my word for it, and to allow me to be silent as to all that passed up to the time when I becao back to Norfolk, and leave me to the lonely life in which you foundthat she said those very words to me I told her that I was content to take her on her own terood as my word
”Well we have been married now for a year, and very happy we have been But about a ns of trouble One day my wife received a letter from America I saw the American stamp She turned deadly white, read the letter, and threw it into the fire She made no allusion to it afterwards, and I made none, for a promise is a promise, but she has never known an easy hour from that moment There is always a look of fear upon her face--a look as if she aiting and expecting She would do better to trust me She would find that I was her best friend But until she speaks, I can say nothing Mind you, she is a truthful woman, Mr Holmes, and whatever trouble there may have been in her past life it has been no fault of hers I aland who ranks his fahly than I do She knows it well, and she kneell before sheany stain upon it--of that I am sure
”Well, now I coo--it was the Tuesday of last week--I found on one of the -sills a nuures like these upon the paper They were scraith chalk I thought that it was the stable-boy who had drawn the about it Anyhow, they had coht I had them washed out, and I only mentioned the matter to my wife afterwards To ed me if any more came to let her see the I found this paper lying on the sundial in the garden I showed it to Elsie, and down she dropped in a dead faint Since then she has looked like a wo in her eyes It was then that I wrote and sent the paper to you, Mr Hol that I could take to the police, for they would have laughed at me, but you will tell er threatening my little woman, I would spend my last copper to shi+eld her”
He was a fine creature, this entle, with his great, earnest blue eyes and broad, comely face His love for his wife and his trust in her shone in his features Holmes had listened to his story with the utht
”Don't you think, Mr Cubitt,” said he, at last, ”that your best plan would be to make a direct appeal to your wife, and to ask her to share her secret with you?”
Hilton Cubitt shook his massive head
”A promise is a promise, Mr Holmes If Elsie wished to tell me she would If not, it is not formy own line--and I will”
”Then I will help you with all ers being seen in your neighbourhood?”
”No”
”I presume that it is a very quiet place Any fresh face would cause cohbourhood, yes But we have several s-places not very far away And the farlyphics have evidently aIf it is a purely arbitrary one, it may be impossible for us to solve it If, on the other hand, it is systeet to the bottom of it But this particular sa, and the facts which you have brought ation I would suggest that you return to Norfolk, that you keep a keen lookout, and that you take an exact copy of any fresh dancing men which may appear It is a thousand pities that we have not a reproduction of those which were done in chalk upon the -sill Make a discreet inquiry also as to any strangers in the neighbourhood When you have collected soain That is the best advice which I can give you, Mr Hilton Cubitt If there are any pressing fresh developments, I shall be always ready to run down and see you in your Norfolk hohtful, and several times in the next few days I saw hi and earnestly at the curious figures inscribed upon it He made no allusion to the affair, however, until one afternoon a fortnight or so later I was going out when he called me back
”You had better stay here, Watson”
”Why?”
”Because I had a wire fro You re men? He was to reach Liverpool Street at one-twenty He ather from his wire that there have been so to wait, for our Norfolk squire ca hi worried and depressed, with tired eyes and a lined forehead
”It's getting on my nerves, this business, Mr Holmes,” said he, as he sank, like a wearied h to feel that you are surrounded by unseen, unknown folk, who have son upon you, but when, in addition to that, you know that it is just killing your wife by inches, then it beco away under it--just wearing away beforeyet?”
”No, Mr Holmes, she has not And yet there have been tiirl has wanted to speak, and yet could not quite bring herself to take the plunge I have tried to help her, but I daresay I did it clumsily, and scared her from it She has spoken about my old family, and our reputation in the county, and our pride in our unsullied honour, and I always felt it was leading to the point, but soot there”
”But you have found out soood deal, Mr Hol-men pictures for you to examine, and, what is more important, I have seen the fellow”
”What, the man who draws them?”
”Yes, I saw hi in order When I got back afterwas a fresh crop of dancing men They had been drawn in chalk upon the black wooden door of the tool-house, which stands beside the lawn in full view of the front s I took an exact copy, and here it is” He unfolded a paper and laid it upon the table Here is a copy of the hieroglyphics: GRAPHIC ”Excellent!” said Holmes ”Excellent! Pray continue”
”When I had taken the copy, I rubbed out the s later, a fresh inscription had appeared I have a copy of it here”: GRAPHIC Holht
”Our ,” said he
”Three days later a e was left scrawled upon paper, and placed under a pebble upon the sundial Here it is The characters are, as you see, exactly the same as the last one After that I deterot out my revolver and I sat up in arden About two in thedark save for the ht outside, when I heard steps behind own She implored me to come to bed I told her frankly that I wished to see who it ho played such absurd tricks upon us She answered that it was some senseless practical joke, and that I should not take any notice of it
”`If it really annoys you, Hilton, we o and travel, you and I, and so avoid this nuisance'
”`What, be driven out of our own house by a practical joker?' said I `Why, we should have the whole county laughing at us'
”`Well, co'
”Suddenly, as she spoke, I saw her white face grohiter yet in thewasfigure which crawled round the corner and squatted in front of the door Seizingout, when my wife threw her arth I tried to throw her off, but she clung to ot clear, but by the time I had opened the door and reached the house the creature was gone He had left a trace of his presence, however, for there on the door was the very sa men which had already twice appeared, and which I have copied on that paper There was no other sign of the fellohere, though I ran all over the grounds And yet the a is that he must have been there all the ti, he had scrawled some more of his pictures under the line which I had already seen”
”Have you that fresh drawing?”
”Yes, it is very short, but I made a copy of it, and here it is”