His Last Bow Part 4 (1/2)
”Well, Mrs Warren, I cannot see that you have any particular cause for uneasiness, nor do I understand why I, whose time is of some value, should interfere in the e reat scrapbook in which he was arranging and indexing some of his recent material
But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of her sex She held her ground firer of mine last year,” she said--”Mr Fairdale Hobbs”
”Ah, yes--a si of it--your kindness, sir, and the way in which you brought light into the darkness I remembered his words when I was in doubt and darkness myself I know you could if you only would”
Holmes was accessible upon the side of flattery, and also, to do him justice, upon the side of kindliness The two forces nation and push back his chair
”Well, well, Mrs Warren, let us hear about it, then You don't object to tobacco, I take it? Thank you, Watson--the matches! You are uneasy, as I understand, because your new lodger remains in his rooms and you cannot see hier you often would not see me for weeks on end”
”No doubt, sir; but this is different It frightens ht To hear his quick step ht, and yet never to catch so limpse of him--it's more than I can stand My husband is as nervous over it as I aet no rest fro for? What has he done? Except for the girl, I am all alone in the house with him, and it's more than my nerves can stand”
Holers upon the wo when he wished The scared look faded froitated features smoothed into their usual commonplace She sat down in the chair which he had indicated
”If I take it up I must understand every detail,” said he ”Take time to consider The smallest point may be the o and paid you for a fortnight's board and lodging?”
”He asked s a week There is a s-room and bedroom, and all complete, at the top of the house”
”Well?”
”He said, 'I'll pay you five pounds a week if I can have it on my own terms' I'm a poor woman, sir, and Mr Warren earns little, and the money meant much to me He took out a ten-pound note, and he held it out to ht for a long time to come if you keep the terms,' he said 'If not, I'll have no more to do with you'
”What were the terms?”
”Well, sir, they were that he was to have a key of the house That was all right Lodgers often have them Also, that he was to be left entirely to himself and never, upon any excuse, to be disturbed”
”Nothing wonderful in that, surely?”
”Not in reason, sir But this is out of all reason He has been there for ten days, and neither Mr Warren, nor I, nor the girl has once set eyes upon hi up and down, up and down, night, ht he had never once gone out of the house”
”Oh, he went out the first night, did he?”
”Yes, sir, and returned very late--after ere all in bed He told me after he had taken the rooms that he would do so and asked me not to bar the door I heard hiht”
”But his meals?”
”It was his particular direction that we should always, when he rang, leave his ain when he has finished, and we take it down fro else he prints it on a slip of paper and leaves it”
”Prints it?”
”Yes, sir; prints it in pencil Just the word, nothing ht to show you--soap Here's another-- azette I leave that paper with his breakfast every reat curiosity at the slips of foolscap which the landlady had handed to him, ”this is certainly a little unusual Seclusion I can understand; but why print? Printing is a cluest, Watson?”
”That he desired to conceal his handwriting”
”But why? What can it matter to hi? Still, it es?”
”I cannot ient speculation The words are written with a broad-pointed, violet-tinted pencil of a not unusual pattern You will observe that the paper is torn away at the side here after the printing was done, so that the 's' of 'soap' is partly gone Suggestive, Watson, is it not?”
”Of caution?”
”Exactly There was evidently soive a clue to the person's identity Now Mrs Warren, you say that the e would he be?”
”Youngish, sir--not over thirty”
”Well, can you give lish, sir, and yet I thought he was a foreigner by his accent”
”And he ell dressed?”
”Very sentleave no name?”
”No, sir”
”And has had no letters or callers?”
”None”
”But surely you or the girl enter his roo?”
”No, sir; he looks after himself entirely”
”Dear e?”
”He had one big brown bag with hi else”
”Well, we don't see has co?”
The landlady drew an envelope froarette-end upon the table
”They were on his tray this ht thes out of sed his shoulders
”There is nothing here,” said he ”The arettes That is obvious from the shortness of the burnt end Half the ar But, dear entleman was bearded and moustached, you say?”
”Yes, sir”