The Return of Sherlock Holmes Part 22 (1/2)
The three glasses were grouped together, all of thes of beeswing The bottle stood near the, deeply stained cork Its appearance and the dust upon the bottle showed that it was no coe had come over Holain I saw an alert light of interest in his keen, deep-set eyes He raised the cork and examined it minutely
”How did they draw it?” he asked
Hopkins pointed to a half-opened drawer In it lay soe corkscrew
”Did Lady Brackenstall say that screas used?”
”No, you remember that she was senseless at the moment when the bottle was opened”
”Quite so As a matter of fact, that screas not used This bottle was opened by a pocket screw, probably contained in a knife, and notIf you will examine the top of the cork, you will observe that the screas driven in three times before the cork was extracted It has never been transfixed This long screould have transfixed it and drawn it up with a single pull When you catch this fellow, you will find that he has one of these multiplex knives in his possession”
”Excellent!” said Hopkins
”But these glasses do puzzle me, I confess Lady Brackenstall actually SAW the three , did she not?”
”Yes; she was clear about that”
”Then there is an end of it What lasses are very re remarkable? Well, well, let it pass Perhaps, when a e and special powers like es him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand Of course, it , Hopkins I don't see that I can be of any use to you, and you appear to have your case very clear You will let me knohen Randall is arrested, and any further developratulate you upon a successful conclusion Come, Watson, I fancy that weour return journey, I could see by Hol which he had observed Every now and then, by an effort, he would throw off the impression, and talk as if the matter were clear, but then his doubts would settle down upon hiain, and his knitted brows and abstracted eyes would show that his thoughts had gone back once e, in which this edy had been enacted At last, by a sudden i out of a suburban station, he sprang on to the platform and pulled me out after him
”Excuse es of our train disappearing round a curve, ”I am sorry to make you the victim of what may seem a mere whim, but on my life, Watson, I simply CAN'T leave that case in this condition Every instinct that I possess cries out against it It's wrong-- it's all wrong--I'll swear that it's wrong And yet the lady's story was complete, the maid's corroboration was sufficient, the detail was fairly exact What have I to put up against that? Three wine-glasses, that is all But if I had not taken things for granted, if I had exa with care which I should have shown had we approached the case DE NOVO and had no cut-and-dried story to warpo upon? Of course I should Sit down on this bench, Watson, until a train for Chiselhurst arrives, and allowyou in the first instance to dis which the maid or her mistresspersonality ment
”Surely there are details in her story which, if we looked at in cold blood, would excite our suspicion These burglars o Some account of them and of their appearance was in the papers, and would naturally occur to anyone ished to invent a story in which ilars who have done a good stroke of business are, as a rule, only too glad to enjoy the proceeds in peace and quiet without eain, it is unusual for burglars to operate at so early an hour, it is unusual for burglars to strike a lady to prevent her screaine that was the sure way to make her scream, it is unusual for them to commit murder when their numbers are sufficient to overpower one man, it is unusual for them to be content with a limited plunder when there was much more within their reach, and finally, I should say, that it was very unusual for such men to leave a bottle half empty How do all these unusuals strike you, Watson?”
”Their cumulative effect is certainly considerable, and yet each of the of all, as it seems to me, is that the lady should be tied to the chair”
”Well, I am not so clear about that, Watson, for it is evident that they must either kill her or else secure her in such a way that she could not give immediate notice of their escape But at any rate I have shown, have I not, that there is a certain element of improbability about the lady's story? And now, on the top of this, colasses”
”What about the wineglasses?”
”Can you see them in your mind's eye?”
”I see them clearly”
”We are told that three men drank from them Does that strike you as likely?”
”Why not? There ine in each glass”
”Exactly, but there was beeswing only in one glass You est to your lass filled would be ”
”Not at all The bottle was full of it, and it is inconceivable that the first two glasses were clear and the third heavily charged with it There are two possible explanations, and only two One is that after the second glass was filled the bottle was violently agitated, and so the third glass received the beeswing That does not appear probable No, no, I aht”
”What, then, do you suppose?”
”That only two glasses were used, and that the dregs of both were poured into a third glass, so as to give the false impression that three people had been here In that way all the beesould be in the last glass, would it not? Yes, I am convinced that this is so But if I have hit upon the true explanation of this one small phenomenon, then in an instant the case rises froly remarkable, for it can only mean that Lady Brackenstall and her maid have deliberately lied to us, that not one word of their story is to be believed, that they have so the real criminal, and that we must construct our case for ourselves without any help from them That is the mission which now lies before us, and here, Watson, is the Sydenhae werethat Stanley Hopkins had gone off to report to headquarters, took possession of the dining-room, locked the door upon the inside, and devoted himself for two hours to one of those ations which form the solid basis on which his brilliant edifices of deduction were reared Seated in a corner like an interested student who observes the demonstration of his professor, I followed every step of that remarkable research The , the curtains, the carpet, the chair, the rope--each in turn was minutely examined and duly pondered The body of the unfortunate baronet had been re Finally, to my astonishment, Holmes climbed up on to thethe few inches of red cord which were still attached to the wire For a long tiet nearer to it he rested his knee upon a wooden bracket on the wall This brought his hand within a few inches of the broken end of the rope, but it was not this so e his attention Finally, he sprang doith an ejaculation of satisfaction
”It's all right, Watson,” said he ”We have got our case--one of the most remarkable in our collection But, dear me, hoitted I have been, and how nearly I have committed the blunder oflinks, ot your men?”
”Man, Watson,as a lion--witness the blow that bent that poker! Six foot three in height, active as a squirrel, dexterous with his fingers, finally, reenious story is of his concoction Yes, Watson, we have come upon the handiwork of a very reiven us a clue which should not have left us a doubt”
”Where was the clue?”
”Well, if you were to pull down a bell-rope, Watson, where would you expect it to break? Surely at the spot where it is attached to the wire Why should it break three inches from the top, as this one has done?”
”Because it is frayed there?”
”Exactly This end, which we can exah to do that with his knife But the other end is not frayed You could not observe that from here, but if you were on the mantelpiece you would see that it is cut clean off without anywhatever You can reconstruct what occurred The iving the alar up on the mantelpiece, could not quite reach it, put his knee on the bracket--you will see the iot his knife to bear upon the cord I could not reach the place by at least three inches--froer man than I Look at that mark upon the seat of the oaken chair! What is it?”
”Blood”
”Undoubtedly it is blood This alone puts the lady's story out of court If she were seated on the chair when the crime was done, how comes that mark? No, no, she was placed in the chair AFTER the death of her husband I'll wager that the black dress shows a corresponding mark to this We have not yet ins in defeat and ends in victory I should like now to have a feords with the nurse, Theresa We et the infor person, this stern Australian nurse-- taciturn, suspicious, ungracious, it took some time before Holmes's pleasant manner and frank acceptance of all that she said thawed her into a corresponding amiability She did not attempt to conceal her hatred for her late employer
”Yes, sir, it is true that he threw the decanter at me I heard him call my mistress a name, and I told him that he would not dare to speak so if her brother had been there Then it was that he threw it at ht have thrown a dozen if he had but lefther, and she too proud to complain She will not even tell me all that he has done to her She never told , but I know very well that they coive me that I should speak of him so, now that he is dead! But a devil he was, if ever one walked the earth He was all honey when first we o, and we both feel as if it were eighteen years She had only just arrived in London Yes, it was her first voyage--she had never been from home before He won her with his title and his money and his false London ways If she made a mistake she has paid for it, if ever a woman did What month did we meet him? Well, I tell you it was just after we arrived We arrived in June, and it was July They were married in January of last year Yes, she is down in the ain, and I have no doubt she will see you, but you h all that flesh and blood will stand”
Lady Brackenstall was reclining on the sahter than before The an once more to foment the bruise upon her mistress's brow
”I hope,” said the lady, ”that you have not coain?”
”No,” Holentlest voice, ”I will not cause you any unnecessary trouble, Lady Brackenstall, and s easy for you, for I am convinced that you are a much-tried woman If you will treat me as a friend and trust me, you may find that I will justify your trust”
”What do you want me to do?”
”To tell me the truth”
”Mr Holmes!”
”No, no, Lady Brackenstall--it is no use You may have heard of any little reputation which I possess I will stake it all on the fact that your story is an absolute fabrication”
Mistress and htened eyes
”You are an impudent fellow!” cried Theresa ”Do you mean to say that my mistress has told a lie?”