The Return of Sherlock Holmes Part 23 (1/2)
”I'll chance it,” he cried ”I believe you are a man of your word, and a whiteI will say first So far as I a, and I would do it all again and be proud of the job damn the beast, if he had as many lives as a cat, he would owe them all to me! But it's the lady, Mary--Mary Fraser--for never will I call her by that accursed naiveone smile to her dear face, it's that that turns my soul into water And yet--and yet--what less could I do? I'll tell you entlemen, and then I'll ask you, as o back a bit You see, so I expect that you know that I er and I was first officer of the ROCK OF GIBRALTAR From the first day I e I loved her more, and many a tiht watch and kissed the deck of that shi+p because I knew her dear feet had trod it She was never engaged to me She treated me as fairly as ever a woman treated a man I have no coood comradeshi+p and friendshi+p on hers When we parted she was a free woain be a free man
”Next tie Well, why shouldn't she marry whom she liked? title and money--who could carry them better than she? She was born for all that is beautiful and dainty I didn't grieve over her e I was not such a selfish hound as that I just rejoiced that good luck had come her way, and that she had not thrown herself away on a penniless sailor That's how I loved Mary Fraser
”Well, I never thought to see her again, but last voyage I was promoted, and the new boat was not yet launched, so I had to wait for a couple of months with my people at Sydenhaht, her oldI tell you, gentlemen, it nearly drove me mad This drunken hound, that he should dare to raise his hand to her, whose boots he was not worthy to lick! I ain Then she would meet me no more But the other day I had a notice that I was to start on e within a week, and I determined that I would see her once before I left Theresa was always my friend, for she loved Mary and hated this villain almost as much as I did From her I learned the ways of the house Mary used to sit up reading in her own little rooht and scratched at theAt first she would not open to me, but in her heart I know that now she loves ht She whispered tofront , and I found it open before ain I heard froain I cursed this brute whowith her just inside the , in all innocence, as God is e, when he rushed like a madman into the room, called her the vilest name that a man could use to a woman, and welted her across the face with the stick he had in his hand I had sprung for the poker, and it was a fair fight between us See here, on my arm, where his first blow fell Then it was h him as if he had been a rotten pumpkin Do you think I was sorry? Not I! It was his life or mine, but far more than that, it was his life or hers, for how could I leave her in the power of this ? Well, then, ould either of you gentlemen have done, if you had been in my position?”
”She had screaht old Theresa down from the room above There was a bottle of wine on the sideboard, and I opened it and poured a little between Mary's lips, for she was half dead with shock Then I took a drop myself Theresa was as cool as ice, and it was her plot as lars had done the thing Theresa kept on repeating our story to her mistress, while I swarmed up and cut the rope of the bell Then I lashed her in her chair, and frayed out the end of the rope to make it look natural, else they would wonder how in the world a burglar could have got up there to cut it Then I gathered up a few plates and pots of silver, to carry out the idea of the robbery, and there I left theive the alarm when I had a quarter of an hour's start I dropped the silver into the pond, andthat for once in ht's work And that's the truth and the whole truth, Mr Holmes, if it costs me my neck”
Holmes smoked for some time in silence Then he crossed the room, and shook our visitor by the hand
”That's what I think,” said he ”I know that every word is true, for you have hardly said a hich I did not know No one but an acrobat or a sailor could have got up to that bell-rope from the bracket, and no one but a sailor could have made the knots hich the cord was fastened to the chair Only once had this lady been brought into contact with sailors, and that was on her voyage, and it was so hard to shi+eld hi that she loved him You see how easy it was for me to lay ht trail”
”I thought the police never could have seen through our dodge”
”And the police haven't, nor will they, to the best of my belief Now, look here, Captain Crocker, this is a very seriousto admit that you acted under the most extreme provocation to which any man could be subjected I am not sure that in defence of your own life your action will not be pronounced legitimate However, that is for a British jury to decide Meanwhile I have so much sympathy for you that, if you choose to disappear in the next twenty-four hours, I will promise you that no one will hinder you”
”And then it will all come out?”
”Certainly it will coer
”What sort of proposal is that to h of law to understand that Mary would be held as accomplice Do you think I would leave her alone to face the music while I slunk away? No, sir, let them do their worst upon me, but for heaven's sake, Mr Hol my poor Mary out of the courts”
Holmes for a second ti you, and you ring true every tireat responsibility that I take upon iven Hopkins an excellent hint and if he can't avail himself of it I can do no more See here, Captain Crocker, we'll do this in due form of law You are the prisoner Watson, you are a British jury, and I never met a man as entleman of the jury, you have heard the evidence Do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?”
”Not guilty, my lord,” said I
”VOX POPULI, VOX DEI You are acquitted, Captain Crocker So long as the law does not find some other victim you are safe from me Come back to this lady in a year, and ht!”
THE ADVENTURE OF THE SECOND STAIN
I had intended ”The Adventure of the Abbey Grange” to be the last of those exploits of my friend, Mr Sherlock Holmes, which I should ever communicate to the public This resolution of mine was not due to any lack of material, since I have notes of many hundreds of cases to which I have never alluded, nor was it caused by any waning interest on the part of ular personality and unique methods of this remarkable man The real reason lay in the reluctance which Mr Holmes has shown to the continued publication of his experiences So long as he was in actual professional practice the records of his successes were of some practical value to him, but since he has definitely retired fro on the Sussex Downs, notoriety has become hateful to him, and he has peremptorily requested that his wishes in this matter should be strictly observed It was only upon iven a promise that ”The Adventure of the Second Stain” should be published when the ti out to hi series of episodes should culminate in the most important international case which he has ever been called upon to handle, that I at last succeeded in obtaining his consent that a carefully guarded account of the incident should at last be laid before the public If in telling the story I seeue in certain details, the public will readily understand that there is an excellent reason for my reticence
It was, then, in a year, and even in a decade, that shall be na in autumn we found two visitors of European fame within the walls of our hule-eyed, and doer, twice Preant, hardly yet of e, and endoith every beauty of body and of ht Honourable Trelawney Hope, Secretary for European Affairs, and thestatesman in the country They sat side by side upon our paper-littered settee, and it was easy to see from their worn and anxious faces that it was business of the ht thehtly over the ivory head of his uloomily from Holmes to me The European Secretary pulled nervously at his eted with the seals of his watch-chain
”When I discovered , I at once inforestion that we have both come to you”
”Have you informed the police?”
”No, sir,” said the Prime Minister, with the quick, decisive manner for which he was famous ”We have not done so, nor is it possible that we should do so To infor run, mean to inform the public This is e particularly desire to avoid”
”And why, sir?”
”Because the document in question is of such iht very easily--I ht almost say probably--lead to European complications of the utmostupon the issue Unless its recovery can be attended with the utmost secrecy, then it may as well not be recovered at all, for all that is aimed at by those who have taken it is that its contents should be generally known”
”I understand Now, Mr Trelawney Hope, I should be ed if you would tell me exactly the circumstances under which this document disappeared”
”That can be done in a very feords, Mr Holn potentate--was received six days ago It was of such importance that I have never left it into my house in Whitehall Terrace, and kept it in ht Of that I a for dinner and saw the docuone The despatch-box had stood beside the glass upon ht sleeper, and so is my wife We are both prepared to swear that no one could have entered the rooone”
”What ti was it before you went to bed?”
”My wife had gone to the theatre I waited up for her It was half-past eleven before ent to our roouarded?”
”No one is ever per, andthe rest of the day They are both trusty servants who have been with us for some time Besides, neither of the more valuable than the ordinary departmental papers in my despatch-box”
”Who did know of the existence of that letter?”
”No one in the house”
”Surely your wife knew?”
”No, sir I had said nothing to ”
The Pre known, sir, how high is your sense of public duty,” said he ”I am convinced that in the case of a secret of this importance it would rise superior to the most intimate domestic ties
The European Secretary bowed
”You doI have never breathed one word to uessed?”
”No, Mr Holuessed”
”Have you lost any doculand who did know of the existence of this letter?”
”Each member of the Cabinet was infore of secrecy which attends every Cabinet iven by the Prime Minister Good heavens, to think that within a few hours I should myself have lost it!” His handsome face was distorted with a spasm of despair, and his hands tore at his hair For a limpse of the natural man, impulsive, ardent, keenly sensitive The next the aristocratic entle voice had returned ”Besides the members of the Cabinet there are two, or possibly three, departland, Mr Holmes, I assure you”
”But abroad?”
”I believe that no one abroad has seen it save the man rote it I am well convinced that his Ministers--that the usual official channels have not been employed”
Holmes considered for some little time