The Return of Sherlock Holmes Part 12 (1/2)
”Your name?” asked Holmes
”Patrick Cairns”
”Harpooner?”
”Yes, sir Twenty-six voyages”
”Dundee, I suppose?”
”Yes, sir”
”And ready to start with an exploring shi+p?”
”Yes, sir”
”What wages?”
”Eight pounds a et my kit”
”Have you your papers?”
”Yes, sir” He took a sheaf of worn and greasy forlanced over them and returned them
”You are just the reen it the whole matter will be settled”
The seaman lurched across the roon here?” he asked, stooping over the table
Holmes leaned over his shoulder and passed both hands over his neck
”This will do,” said he
I heard a click of steel and a bellow like an enraged bull The next instant Holether He was a th that, even with the handcuffs which Holmes had so deftly fastened upon his wrists, he would have very quickly overpowered my friend had Hopkins and I not rushed to his rescue Only when I pressed the cold muzzle of the revolver to his temple did he at last understand that resistance was vain We lashed his ankles with cord, and rose breathless froize, Hopkins,” said Sherlock Hols are cold However, you will enjoy the rest of your breakfast all the better, will you not, for the thought that you have brought your case to a triumphant conclusion”
Stanley Hopkins was speechless with amazement
”I don't knohat to say, Mr Holmes,” he blurted out at last, with a very red face ”It seeinning I understand nohat I should never have forgotten, that I am the pupil and you are the master Even now I see what you have done, but I don't kno you did it or what it signifies”
”Well, well,” said Holood-humouredly ”We all learn by experience, and your lesson this tiht of the alternative You were so absorbed in young Neligan that you could not spare a thought to Patrick Cairns, the true murderer of Peter Carey”
The hoarse voice of the seaman broke in on our conversation
”See here,man-handled in this fashi+on, but I would have you call things by their right names You say I murdered Peter Carey, I say I KILLED Peter Carey, and there's all the difference Maybe you don't believe what I say Maybe you think I a you a yarn”
”Not at all,” said Holmes ”Let us hear what you have to say”
”It's soon told, and, by the Lord, every word of it is truth I knew Black Peter, and when he pulled out his knife I whipped a harpoon through him sharp, for I knew that it was him or me That's how he died You can call it murder Anyhow, I'd as soon die with a rope round my neck as with Black Peter's knife in my heart”
”How came you there?” asked Hol Just sit me up a little, so as I can speak easy It was in '83 that it happened--August of that year Peter Carey was master of the SEA UNICORN, and I was spare harpooner We were co out of the ice-pack on our way hoale, e picked up a little craft that had been blown north There was one ht she would founder and had uess they were all drowned Well, we took hi talks in the cabin All the baggage we took off with him was one tin box So far as I know, the ht he disappeared as if he had never been It was given out that he had either thrown himself overboard or fallen overboard in the heavy weather that ere having Only one man knehat had happened to him, and that was me, for, with my own eyes, I saw the skipper tip up his heels and put hiht, two days before we sighted the Shetland Lights ”Well, I kept e to ot back to Scotland it was easily hushed up, and nobody asked any questions A stranger died by accident and it was nobody's business to inquire Shortly after Peter Carey gave up the sea, and it was long years before I could find where he was I guessed that he had done the deed for the sake of as in that tin box, and that he could afford now to payh a sailor man that had met hiht he was reasonable enough, and was ready to give me ould make hts later When I came, I found him three parts drunk and in a vile temper We sat down and we drank and we yarned about old times, but the more he drank the less I liked the look on his face I spotted that harpoon upon the wall, and I thought I h Then at last he broke out at reat clasp-knife in his hand He had not tih hiets betweenround me, and I waited for a bit, but all was quiet, so I took heart once more I looked round, and there was the tin box on the shelf I had as ht to it as Peter Carey, anyhow, so I took it with me and left the hut Like a fool I left my baccy-pouch upon the table
”Now I'll tell you the queerest part of the whole story I had hardly got outside the hut when I heard so along, went into the hut, gave a cry as if he had seen a ghost, and legged it as hard as he could run until he was out of sight Who he was or what he wanted is ot a train at Tunbridge Wells, and so reached London, and no one the wiser
”Well, when I came to exa but papers that I would not dare to sell I had lost my hold on Black Peter and was stranded in London without a shi+lling There was only my trade left I saw these advertisees, so I went to the shi+pping agents, and they sent ain that if I killed Black Peter, the law should give me thanks, for I saved them the rice of a he and lighting his pipe ”I think, Hopkins, that you should lose no ti your prisoner to a place of safety This room is not well adapted for a cell, and Mr Patrick Cairns occupies too large a proportion of our carpet”
”Mr Holratitude Even now I do not understand how you attained this result”
”Siht clue fro It is very possible if I had known about this notebook it hts, as it did yours But all I heard pointed in the one direction The ath, the skill in the use of the harpoon, the rum and water, the sealskin tobacco-pouch with the coarse tobacco--all these pointed to a seaman, and one who had been a whaler I was convinced that the initials `PC' upon the pouch were a coincidence, and not those of Peter Carey, since he seldom smoked, and no pipe was found in his cabin You remember that I asked whether whisky and brandy were in the cabin You said they were How et these other spirits? Yes, I was certain it was a seaman”
”And how did you find him?”
”My dear sir, the problem had become a very simple one If it were a seaman, it could only be a seaman who had been with him on the SEA UNICORN So far as I could learn he had sailed in no other shi+p I spent three days in wiring to Dundee, and at the end of that time I had ascertained the names of the crew of the SEA UNICORN in 1883 When I found Patrick Cairns aued that the man was probably in London, and that he would desire to leave the country for a time I therefore spent some days in the East End, devised an Arctic expedition, put forth te terms for harpooners ould serve under Captain Basil--and behold the result!”
”Wonderful!” cried Hopkins ”Wonderful!”
”You an as soon as possible,” said Holy The tin box must be returned to him, but, of course, the securities which Peter Carey has sold are lost forever There's the cab, Hopkins, and you can remove your man If you want me for the trial, my address and that of Watson will be somewhere in Norway--I'll send particulars later”
THE ADVENTURE OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON
It is years since the incidents of which I speak took place, and yet it is with diffidence that I allude to the time, even with the utmost discretion and reticence, it would have been impossible to make the facts public, but now the principal person concerned is beyond the reach of human law, and with due suppression the story may be told in such fashi+on as to injure no one It records an absolutely unique experience in the career both of Mr Sherlock Holmes and of myself The reader will excuse ht trace the actual occurrence
We had been out for one of our evening rambles, Holmes and I, and had returned about six o'clock on a cold, frosty winter's evening As Holht fell upon a card on the table He glanced at it, and then, with an ejaculation of disgust, threw it on the floor I picked it up and read: CHARLES AUGUSTUS MILVERTON, Appledore Towers, Haent
”Who is he?” I asked
”The worst man in London,” Hols before the fire ”Is anything on the back of the card?”
I turned it over
”Will call at 6:30--CAM,” I read
”Hu sensation, Watson, when you stand before the serpents in the Zoo, and see the slithery, gliding, venomous creatures, with their deadly eyes and wicked, flattened faces? Well, that's how Milverton impresses me I've had to do with fifty ave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow And yet I can't get out of doing business with him--indeed, he is here at my invitation”