The Return of Sherlock Holmes Part 10 (2/2)
”I will not attempt it”
He chuckled as he poured out the coffee
”If you could have looked into Allardyce's back shop, you would have seen a dead pig swung froentle at it with this weapon I was that energetic person, and I have satisfied th can I transfix the pig with a single blow Perhaps you would care to try?”
”Not for worlds But ere you doing this?”
”Because it see upon the ot your wire last night, and I have been expecting you Coly alert e, dressed in a quiet tweed suit, but retaining the erect bearing of one as accustonized hi police inspector, for whose future Holh hopes, while he in turn professed the admiration and respect of a pupil for the scientific methods of the famous amateur Hopkins's broas clouded, and he sat doith an air of deep dejection
”No, thank you, sir I breakfasted before I caht in town, for I came up yesterday to report”
”And what had you to report?”
”Failure, sir, absolute failure”
”You have ress?”
”None”
”Dear me! I must have a look at the matter”
”I wish to heavens that you would, Mr Holoodness' sake, come down and lend me a hand”
”Well, well, it just happens that I have already read all the available evidence, including the report of the inquest, with some care By the hat do you make of that tobacco pouch, found on the scene of the crime? Is there no clue there?”
Hopkins looked surprised
”It was the man's own pouch, sir His initials were inside it And it was of sealskin,--and he was an old sealer”
”But he had no pipe”
”No, sir, we could find no pipe Indeed, he sht have kept some tobacco for his friends”
”No doubt I onlythe case, I should have been inclined to ation However,of thisthe sequence of events once ive us some short sketches of the essentials”
Stanley Hopkins drew a slip of paper froive you the career of the dead man, Captain Peter Carey He was born in '45--fifty years of age He was aand successful seal and whale fisher In 1883 he commanded the steam sealer SEA UNICORN, of Dundee He had then had several successful voyages in succession, and in the following year, 1884, he retired After that he travelled for soht a small place called Woodman's Lee, near Forest Row, in Sussex There he has lived for six years, and there he died just a week ago to-day
”There were soular points about the loohter, aged twenty, and two fe, for it was never a very cheery situation, and so The man was an intermittent drunkard, and when he had the fit on him he was a perfect fiend He has been known to drive his wife and daughter out of doors in the h the park until the whole village outside the gates was aroused by their screae assault upon the old vicar, who had called upon him to remonstrate with hio far before you found a erous man than Peter Carey, and I have heard that he bore the same character when he commanded his shi+p He was known in the trade as Black Peter, and the naiven him, not only on account of his swarthy features and the colour of his huge beard, but for the humours which were the terror of all around him I need not say that he was loathed and avoided by every one of his neighbours, and that I have not heard one single word of sorrow about his terrible end
”You must have read in the account of the inquest about the man's cabin, Mr Holmes, but perhaps your friend here has not heard of it He had built himself a wooden outhouse--he always called it the `cabin'--a few hundred yards froht It was a little, single-roomed hut, sixteen feet by ten He kept the key in his pocket, made his own bed, cleaned it himself, and allowed no other foot to cross the threshold There are small s on each side, which were covered by curtains and never opened One of these as turned towards the high road, and when the light burned in it at night the folk used to point it out to each other and wonder what Black Peter was doing in there That's the , Mr Holave us one of the few bits of positive evidence that came out at the inquest
”You re fro--two days before the rounds and looked at the square of light still shi+ning a the trees He swears that the shadow of a man's head turned sideas clearly visible on the blind, and that this shadoas certainly not that of Peter Carey, whom he kneell It was that of a bearded man, but the beard was short and bristled forward in a way very different from that of the captain So he says, but he had been two hours in the public-house, and it is some distance from the road to theBesides, this refers to the Monday, and the crime was done upon the Wednesday
”On the Tuesday, Peter Carey was in one of his blackest erous wild beast He roamed about the house, and the wo, he went down to his own hut About two o'clock the following hter, who slept with heropen, heard a most fearful yell fro for him to bawl and shout when he was in drink, so no notice was taken On rising at seven, one of the reat was the terror which the man caused that it was midday before anyone would venture down to see what had becoht which sent thee Within an hour, I was on the spot and had taken over the case
”Well, I have fairly steady nerves, as you know, Mr Holot a shake when I putlike a harmonium with the flies and bluebottles, and the floor and walls were like a slaughter-house He had called it a cabin, and a cabin it was, sure enough, for you would have thought that you were in a shi+p There was a bunk at one end, a sea-chest, books on a shelf, all exactly as one would expect to find it in a captain's room And there, in the middle of it, was the man hireat brindled beard stuck upward in his agony Right through his broad breast a steel harpoon had been driven, and it had sunk deep into the wood of the wall behind him He was pinned like a beetle on a card Of course, he was quite dead, and had been so froony
”I know yourto be round outside, and also the floor of the roo that you saw none?”
”I assure you, sir, that there were none”
”My good Hopkins, I have investigated many crimes, but I have never yet seen one which was co as the cridisplacement which can be detected by the scientific searcher It is incredible that this blood-bespattered room contained no trace which could have aided us I understand, however, from the inquest that there were so inspector winced at my companion's ironical comments
”I was a fool not to call you in at the ti for now Yes, there were several objects in the room which called for special attention One was the harpoon hich the deed was committed It had been snatched down from a rack on the wall Two others remained there, and there was a vacant place for the third On the stock was engraved `SS SEA UNICORN, Dundee' This seemed to establish that the crime had been done in a moment of fury, and that the murderer had seized the first weapon which came in his way The fact that the cri, and yet Peter Carey was fully dressed, suggested that he had an appointment with the murderer, which is borne out by the fact that a bottle of rulasses stood upon the table”
”Yes,” said Holmes; ”I think that both inferences are permissible Was there any other spirit but ru brandy and whisky on the sea-chest It is of no importance to us, however, since the decanters were full, and it had therefore not been used”
”For all that, its presence has sonificance,” said Holmes ”However, let us hear some more about the objects which do seem to you to bear upon the case”
”There was this tobacco-pouch upon the table”
”What part of the table?”
”It lay in the ht-haired skin, with a leather thong to bind it Inside was `PC' on the flap There was half an ounce of strong shi+p's tobacco in it”
”Excellent! What more?”
Stanley Hopkins drew froh and worn, the leaves discoloured On the first page ritten the initials ”JHN” and the date ”1883” Holmes laid it on the table and exaazed over each shoulder On the second page were the printed letters ”CPR,” and then caentine,” another ”Costa Rica,” and another ”San Paulo,” each with pages of signs and figures after it
”What do you make of these?” asked Hole securities I thought that `JHN' were the initials of a broker, and that `CPR' may have been his client”
”Try Canadian Pacific Railway,” said Holmes
Stanley Hopkins swore between his teeth, and struck his thigh with his clenched hand
”What a fool I have been!” he cried ”Of course, it is as you say Then `JHN' are the only initials we have to solve I have already exae lists, and I can find no one in 1883, either in the house or a the outside brokers, whose initials correspond with these Yet I feel that the clue is the most important one that I hold You will admit, Mr Holmes, that there is a possibility that these initials are those of the second person as present--in other words, of the e that the introduction into the case of a docuives us for the first time some indication of a motive for the crihly taken aback by this new development
”I must admit both your points,” said he ”I confess that this notebook, which did not appear at the inquest, modifies any viehich I may have formed I had come to a theory of the crime in which I can find no place for this Have you endeavoured to trace any of the securities here mentioned?”