The Return of Sherlock Holmes Part 10 (1/2)
But Holmes smiled and shook his head
”I fear, your Grace, that ed so easily There is the death of this school of that You cannot hold him responsible for that It was the work of this brutal ruffian whom he had the misfortune to employ”
”I must take the view, your Grace, that when a uilty of any other cri froht But surely not in the eyes of the law A man cannot be condemned for a murder at which he was not present, and which he loathes and abhors as much as you do The instant that he heard of it he made a complete confession to me, so filled was he with horror and re entirely with the murderer Oh, Mr Holmes, you must save him--you must save him! I tell you that you must save him!” The Duke had dropped the last atte the roo in the air At last he mastered himself and sat down oncehere before you spoke to anyone else,” said he ”At least, we may take counsel how far we can minimize this hideous scandal”
”Exactly,” said Holmes ”I think, your Grace, that this can only be done by absolute frankness between us I am disposed to help your Grace to the best of my ability, but, in order to do so, I must understand to the last detail how the matter stands I realize that your words applied to Mr James Wilder, and that he is not the murderer”
”No, the murderer has escaped”
Sherlock Holmes smiled demurely
”Your Grace can hardly have heard of any sine that it is so easy to escape me Mr Reuben Hayes was arrested at Chesterfield, on ram from the head of the local police before I left the school this ”
The Duke leaned back in his chair and stared with amazement at my friend
”You seem to have powers that are hardly hulad to hear it, if it will not react upon the fate of James”
”Your secretary?”
”No, sir, my son”
It was Holmes's turn to look astonished
”I confess that this is entirely new toyou to be ree with you that complete frankness, however painful it may be to me, is the best policy in this desperate situation to which James's folly and jealousy have reduced us When I was a very young man, Mr Holmes, I loved with such a love as coe, but she refused it on the grounds that such a ht mar my career Had she lived, I would certainly never have married anyone else She died, and left this one child, whom for her sake I have cherished and cared for I could not acknowledge the paternity to the world, but I gave him the best of educations, and since he came to manhood I have kept him near my person He surprised my secret, and has presumed ever since upon the clai a scandal which would be abhorrent toto do with the unhappy issue of itimate heir from the first with a persistent hatred You may well ask me why, under these circumstances, I still kept James under my roof I answer that it was because I could see his mother's face in his, and that for her dear sake there was no end toAll her pretty ways too--there was not one of the back to my memory I COULD not send him away But I feared so much lest he should do Arthur--that is, Lord Saltire--a mischief, that I dispatched him for safety to Dr Huxtable's school
”James came into contact with this fellow Hayes, because the ent The felloas a rascal fro, but, in some extraordinary way, James became intimate with him He had always a taste for low company When James determined to kidnap Lord Saltire, it was of this man's service that he availed himself You remember that I wrote to Arthur upon that last day Well, Ja Arthur to ed Shahich is near to the school He used the duchess's na Ja you what he has himself confessed to me--and he told Arthur, whoed to see hi him on the ht he would find a man with a horse, ould take him to her Poor Arthur fell into the trap He came to the appointment, and found this fellow Hayes with a led pony Arthur h this James only heard yesterday--that they were pursued, that Hayes struck the pursuer with his stick, and that the ht Arthur to his public-house, the Fighting cock, where he was confined in an upper room, under the care of Mrs Hayes, who is a kindly woman, but entirely under the control of her brutal husband
”Well, Mr Holmes, that was the state of affairs when I first saw you two days ago I had no more idea of the truth than you You will asksuch a deed I answer that there was a great deal which was unreasoning and fanatical in the hatred which he bore my heir In his view he should himself have been heir of all my estates, and he deeply resented those social lahich made it impossible At the saer that I should break the entail, and he was of opinion that it lay in ain with me--to restore Arthur if I would break the entail, and so make it possible for the estate to be left to hily invoke the aid of the police against hiain to me, but he did not actually do so, for events moved too quickly for him, and he had not tiht all his wicked scheer's dead body James was seized with horror at the news It caether in this study Dr Huxtable had sent a telegraitation that my suspicions, which had never been entirely absent, rose instantly to a certainty, and I taxed him with the deed He made a complete voluntary confession Then he ier, so as to give his wretched accouilty life I yielded--as I have always yielded--to his prayers, and instantly Jaive hiht without provoking coht fell I hurried off to see my dear Arthur I found him safe and well, but horrified beyond expression by the dreadful deed he had witnessed In deference to ainst my will, I consented to leave hie of Mrs Hayes, since it was evident that it was i them also as the murderer, and I could not see how that murderer could be punished without ruin to my unfortunate James You asked for frankness, Mr Holmes, and I have taken you at your word, for I have now told you everything without an attempt at circumlocution or concealment Do you in turn be as frank with me”
”I will,” said Holmes ”In the first place, your Grace, I am bound to tell you that you have placed yourself in a most serious position in the eyes of the law You have condoned a felony, and you have aided the escape of a murderer, for I cannot doubt that any money which was taken by Jaht came from your Grace's purse”
The Duke bowed his assent
”This is, indeed, a most serious matter Even more culpable in er son You leave him in this den for three days”
”Under solemn promises----”
”What are prouarantee that he will not be spirited away again To huuilty elder son, you have exposed your innocent younger son to ier It was a most unjustifiable action”
The proud lord of Holdernesse was not accustomed to be so rated in his own ducal hall The blood flushed into his high forehead, but his conscience held him dumb
”I will help you, but on one condition only It is that you ring for the footive such orders as I like”
Without a word, the Duke pressed the electric bell A servant entered
”You will be glad to hear,” said Hol e shall go at once to the Fighting cock Inn to bring Lord Saltire ho lackey had disappeared, ”having secured the future, we can afford to be more lenient with the past I a as the ends of justice are served, why I should disclose all that I know As to Hayes, I say nothing The galloaits hi to save hie I cannot tell, but I have no doubt that your Grace could make him understand that it is to his interest to be silent From the police point of vieill have kidnapped the boy for the purpose of ransom If they do not themselves find it out, I see no reason why I should prompt them to take a broader point of vieould warn your Grace, however, that the continued presence of Mr James Wilder in your household can only lead to misfortune”
”I understand that, Mr Holmes, and it is already settled that he shall leave o to seek his fortune in Australia”
”In that case, your Grace, since you have yourself stated that any unhappiness in your est that you make such amends as you can to the duchess, and that you try to resume those relations which have been so unhappily interrupted”
”That also I have arranged, Mr Hol”
”In that case,” said Holratulate ourselves upon several most happy results from our little visit to the North There is one other sht This fellow Hayes had shod his horses with shoes which counterfeited the tracks of cows Was it from Mr Wilder that he learned so extraordinary a device?”
The Duke stood in thought for a moment, with a look of intense surprise on his face Then he opened a door and showed us into a large roolass case in a corner, and pointed to the inscription
”These shoes,” it ran, ”were dug up in the moat of Holdernesse Hall They are for the use of horses, but they are shaped beloith a cloven foot of iron, so as to throw pursuers off the track They are supposed to have belonged to soes”
Holer he passed it along the shoe A thin film of recent mud was left upon his skin
”Thank you,” said he, as he replaced the glass ”It is the secondobject that I have seen in the North”
”And the first?”
Holmes folded up his check and placed it carefully in his notebook ”I am a poor man,” said he, as he patted it affectionately, and thrust it into the depths of his inner pocket
THE ADVENTURE OF BLACK PETER
I have never known my friend to be in better form, bothfauilty of an indiscretion if I were even to hint at the identity of some of the illustrious clients who crossed our hureat artists, lived for his art's sake, and, save in the case of the Duke of Holdernesse, I have seldoe reward for his inestimable services So unworldly was he--or so capricious-- that he frequently refused his help to the powerful and wealthy where the problem made no appeal to his sympathies, while he would devote weeks of most intense application to the affairs of soe and draed his ingenuity
In this ruous succession of cases had engaged his attention, ranging froation of the sudden death of Cardinal Tosca--an inquiry which was carried out by him at the express desire of His Holiness the Pope--down to his arrest of Wilson, the notorious canary-trainer, which reue-spot from the East End of London Close on the heels of these two faedy of Woodman's Lee, and the very obscure circumstances which surrounded the death of Captain Peter Carey No record of the doings of Mr Sherlock Holmes would be complete which did not include so the first week of July, ings that I knew he had sothat time and inquired for Captain Basilsouises and names hich he concealed his own fores in different parts of London, in which he was able to change his personality He said nothing of his business to me, and it was not n which he gavewas an extraordinary one He had gone out before breakfast, and I had sat down to mine when he strode into the rooe barbed-headed spear tucked like an uracious, Holmes!” I cried ”You don'tabout London with that thing?”
”I drove to the butcher's and back”
”The butcher's?”
”And I return with an excellent appetite There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast But I auess the form that my exercise has taken”