The Return of Sherlock Holmes Part 8 (1/2)
”Did you post that letter yourself?”
The nobleman's reply was interrupted by his secretary, who broke in with so letters himself,” said he ”This letter was laid with others upon the study table, and I ”
”You are sure this one was a them?”
”Yes, I observed it”
”How many letters did your Grace write that day?”
”Twenty or thirty I have a large correspondence But surely this is somewhat irrelevant?”
”Not entirely,” said Holmes
”For my own part,” the Duke continued, ”I have advised the police to turn their attention to the south of France I have already said that I do not believe that the duchess would encourage so -headed opinions, and it is possible that he may have fled to her, aided and abetted by this German I think, Dr Huxtable, that ill now return to the Hall”
I could see that there were other questions which Holmes would have wished to put, but the nobleman's abrupt manner showed that the intervieas at an end It was evident that to his intensely aristocratic nature this discussion of his intier was most abhorrent, and that he feared lest every fresh question would throw a fiercer light into the discreetly shadowed corners of his ducal history
When the noble hiation
The boy's cha save the absolute conviction that it was only through thethat he could have escaped The Gerave no further clue In his case a trailer of ivy had given way under his weight, andby the light of a lantern the mark on the lahere his heels had corass was the only ht
Sherlock Holmes left the house alone, and only returned after eleven He had obtained a large ordnance ht intobalanced the laan to smoke over it, and occasionally to point out objects of interest with the reeking arows upon me, Watson,” said he ”There are decidedly some points of interest in connection with it In this early stage, I want you to realize those geographical features which ation
”Look at this map This dark square is the Priory School I'll put a pin in it Now, this line is the main road You see that it runs east and west past the school, and you see also that there is no side road for a mile either way If these two folk passed away by road, it was THIS road”
GRAPHIC ”Exactly”
”By a singular and happy chance, we are able to so the night in question At this point, where , a county constable was on duty from twelve to six It is, as you perceive, the first cross-road on the east side This man declares that he was not absent from his post for an instant, and he is positive that neither boy nor one that way unseen I have spoken with this policeht and he appears to me to be a perfectly reliable person That blocks this end We have now to deal with the other There is an inn here, the Red Bull, the landlady of which was ill She had sent to Mackleton for a doctor, but he did not arrive untilabsent at another case The people at the inn were alert all night, awaiting his co, and one or other of them seems to have continually had an eye upon the road They declare that no one passed If their evidence is good, then we are fortunate enough to be able to block the west, and also to be able to say that the fugitives did NOT use the road at all”
”But the bicycle?” I objected
”Quite so We will co: if these people did not go by the road, they must have traversed the country to the north of the house or to the south of the house That is certain Let us weigh the one against the other On the south of the house is, as you perceive, a large district of arable land, cut up into small fields, with stone walls between them There, I admit that a bicycle is impossible We can dismiss the idea We turn to the country on the north Here there lies a grove of trees, ed Shaw,' and on the farther side stretches a great rolling radually upward Here, at one side of this wilderness, is Holdernesse Hall, ten miles by road, but only six across the moor It is a peculiarly desolate plain A few s, where they rear sheep and cattle Except these, the plover and the curlew are the only inhabitants until you coh road There is a church there, you see, a few cottages, and an inn Beyond that the hills become precipitous Surely it is here to the north that our quest must lie”
”But the bicycle?” I persisted
”Well, well!” said Holh road The moor is intersected with paths, and the moon was at the full Halloa! what is this?”
There was an agitated knock at the door, and an instant afterwards Dr Huxtable was in the room In his hand he held a blue cricket-cap with a white chevron on the peak
”At last we have a clue!” he cried ”Thank heaven! at last we are on the dear boy's track! It is his cap”
”Where was it found?”
”In the van of the gipsies who camped on the moor They left on Tuesday To-day the police traced them down and examined their caravan This was found”
”How do they account for it?”
”They shuffled and lied--said that they found it on theThey knohere he is, the rascals! Thank goodness, they are all safe under lock and key Either the fear of the law or the Duke's purse will certainly get out of theood,” said Holmes, when the doctor had at last left the room ”It at least bears out the theory that it is on the side of the Lower Gill Moor that welocally, save the arrest of these gipsies Look here, Watson! There is a watercourse across the moor You see it marked here in the map In some parts it widens into a ion between Holdernesse Hall and the school It is vain to look elsewhere for tracks in this dry weather, but at THAT point there is certainly a chance of so, and you and I will try if we can throw soht upon thewhen I woke to find the long, thin form of Holmes by my bedside He was fully dressed, and had apparently already been out
”I have done the lawn and the bicycle shed,” said, he ”I have also had a rued Sha, Watson, there is cocoa ready in the next rooreat day before us”
His eyes shone, and his cheek was flushed with the exhilaration of the master workman who sees his work lie ready before him A very different Holmes, this active, alert man, from the introspective and pallid dreaure, alive with nervous energy, that it was indeed a strenuous day that awaited us
And yet it opened in the blackest disappointh hopes we struck across the peaty, russet moor, intersected with a thousand sheep paths, until we careen belt which marked the morass between us and Holdernesse Certainly, if the lad had gone homeward, he must have passed this, and he could not pass it without leaving his traces But no sign of hi face erly observant of every muddy stain upon the mossy surface Sheep-marks there were in profusion, and at one place, so loo expanse of the moor ”There is another morass down yonder, and a narrow neck between Halloa! halloa! halloa! what have we here?”
We had come on a small black ribbon of pathway In the middle of it, clearly marked on the sodden soil, was the track of a bicycle
”Hurrah!” I cried ”We have it”
But Hol his head, and his face was puzzled and expectant rather than joyous
”A bicycle, certainly, but not THE bicycle,” said he ”I am familiar with forty-two different impressions left by tires This, as you perceive, is a Dunlop, with a patch upon the outer cover Heidegger's tires were Pal, the mathematical er's track”
”The boy's, then?”
”Possibly, if we could prove a bicycle to have been in his possession But this we have utterly failed to do This track, as you perceive, wasfrom the direction of the school”
”Or towards it?”
”No, no, my dear Watson The more deeply sunk iht rests You perceive several places where it has passed across and obliterated theaway from the school It may or may not be connected with our inquiry, but ill follow it backwards before we go any farther”
We did so, and at the end of a few hundred yards lost the tracks as we e the path backwards, we picked out another spot, where a spring trickled across it Here, once again, was the h nearly obliterated by the hoofs of cows After that there was no sign, but the path ran right on into Ragged Shaw, the hich backed on to the school Froed Holmes sat down on a boulder and rested his chin in his hands I had sarettes before he moved
”Well, well,” said he, at last ”It is, of course, possible that a cunning e the tires of his bicycle in order to leave unfaht is a man whom I should be proud to do business with We will leave this question undecided and hark back to our ood deal unexplored”
We continued our systee of the sodden portion of the ht across the lower part of the bog lay a ht as he approached it An iraph wires ran down the centre of it It was the Palh!” cried Hol seeratulate you”
”But we have a long way still to go Kindly walk clear of the path Now let us follow the trail I fear that it will not lead very far”
We found, however, as we advanced that this portion of the h we frequently lost sight of the track, ays succeeded in picking it up once more
”Do you observe,” said Hol the pace? There can be no doubt of it Look at this iet both tires clear The one is as deep as the other That can only ht on to the handle-bar, as aBy Jove! he has had a fall”
There was a broad, irregular s some yards of the track Then there were a few footmarks, and the tire reappeared once ested