His Last Bow Part 4 (2/2)
”I don't understand that I should say that only a clean-shaven man could have smoked this Why, Watson, even your ed”
”A holder?” I suggested
”No, no; the end is matted I suppose there could not be two people in your rooms, Mrs Warren?”
”No, sir He eats so little that I often wonder it can keep life in one”
”Well, I think we must wait for a littleto complain of You have received your rent, and he is not a troublesoh he is certainly an unusual one He pays you well, and if he chooses to lie concealed it is no direct business of yours We have no excuse for an intrusion upon his privacy until we have souilty reason for it I've taken up thefresh occurs, and rely upon my assistance if it should be needed
”There are certainly some points of interest in this case, Watson,” he remarked when the landlady had left us ”It may, of course, be trivial--individual eccentricity; or it may be verythat strike one is the obvious possibility that the person now in the rooed them”
”Why should you think so?”
”Well, apart forestive that the only ti the rooms? He came back--or someone came back--when all witnesses were out of the way We have no proof that the person who caain, the lish well This other, however, prints 'ine that the as taken out of a dictionary, which would give the noun but not the plural The laconic style lish Yes, Watson, there are good reasons to suspect that there has been a substitution of lodgers”
”But for what possible end?”
”Ah! there lies our probleation” He took down the great book in which, day by day, he filed the agony columns of the various London journals ”Dear roans, cries, and bleatings! What a rag-bag of singular happenings! But surely the iven to a student of the unusual! This person is alone and cannot be approached by letter without a breach of that absolute secrecy which is desired How is any news or any e to reach hih a newspaper There seems no other way, and fortunately we need concern ourselves with the one paper only Here are the Daily Gazette extracts of the last fortnight 'Lady with a black boa at Prince's Skating Club'--that we may pass 'Surely Jimmy will not break his mother's heart'--that appears to be irrelevant 'If the lady who fainted on Brixton bus'--she does not interest ated bleat! Ah, this is a little more possible Listen to this: 'Be patient Will find some sure means of communications Meanwhile, this coluer arrived It sounds plausible, does it not? The lish, even if he could not print it Let us see if we can pick up the trace again Yes, here we are--three days later 'Aements Patience and prudence The clouds will pass G' Nothing for a week after that Then co If I find chance signal reed--One A, two B, and so on You will hear soon G' That was in yesterday's paper, and there is nothing in to-day's It's all very appropriate to Mrs Warren's lodger If ait a little, Watson, I don't doubt that the affair will growI foundwith his back to the fire and a smile of complete satisfaction upon his face
”How's this, Watson?” he cried, picking up the paper fros Third floor Secondleft After dusk G' That is definite enough I think after breakfast we hbourhood Ah, Mrs Warren! what news do you bring us this ?”
Our client had suddenly burst into the rooy which told of some new and momentous development
”It's a police matter, Mr Holmes!” she cried ”I'll have no e I would have gone straight up and told hiht it was but fair to you to take your opinion first But I'Mr Warren about?”
”Using hihly?”
”Ah! that's ant to know! It was this ht's, in Tottenham Court Road He has to be out of the house before seven Well, this one ten paces down the road when two men came up behind him, threw a coat over his head, and bundled him into a cab that was beside the curb They drove him an hour, and then opened the door and shot him out He lay in the roadway so shaken in his wits that he never sahat became of the cab When he picked himself up he found he was on Hampstead Heath; so he took a bus hoht round to tell you what had happened”
”Most interesting,” said Holmes ”Did he observe the appearance of these men--did he hear them talk?”
”No; he is clean dazed He just knows that he was lifted up as if by ic Two a least were in it, and maybe three”
”And you connect this attack with your lodger?”
”Well, we've lived there fifteen years and no such happenings ever ca I'll have him out of my house before the day is done”
”Wait a bit, Mrs Warren Do nothing rash I begin to think that this affair ht It is clear now that soer It is equally clear that his ene in wait for hiytheir mistake they released him What they would have done had it not been a mistake, we can only conjecture”
”Well, what areat fancy to see this lodger of yours, Mrs Warren”
”I don't see how that is to be ed, unless you break in the door I always hear hio down the stair after I leave the tray”
”He has to take the tray in Surely we could conceal ourselves and see hiht for a moment
”Well, sir, there's the box-roolass, maybe, and if you were behind the door--”
”Excellent!” said Holmes ”When does he lunch?”
”About one, sir”
”Then Dr Watson and I will coood-bye”
At half-past twelve we found ourselves upon the steps of Mrs Warren's house--a high, thin, yellow-brick edifice in Great Orhfare at the northeast side of the British Museu as it does near the corner of the street, it commands a viee Street, with its ore pretentious houses Holmes pointed with a chuckle to one of these, a row of residential flats, which projected so that they could not fail to catch the eye
”See, Watson!” said he ”'High red house with stone facings' There is the signal station all right We know the place, and we know the code; so surely our task should be simple There's a 'to let' card in thatIt is evidently an empty flat to which the confederate has access Well, Mrs Warren, what now?”
”I have it all ready for you If you will both co, I'll put you there now”
It was an excellent hiding-plate which she had arranged The mirror was so placed that, seated in the dark, we could very plainly see the door opposite We had hardly settled down in it, and Mrs Warren left us, when a distant tinkle announced that ourPresently the landlady appeared with the tray, laid it down upon a chair beside the closed door, and then, treading heavily, departed Crouching together in the angle of the door, we kept our eyes fixed upon the mirror Suddenly, as the landlady's footsteps died away, there was the creak of a turning key, the handle revolved, and two thin hands darted out and lifted the tray form the chair An instant later it was hurriedly replaced, and I caught a gli at the narrow opening of the box-room Then the door crashed to, the key turned once ether we stole down the stair
”I will call again in the evening,” said he to the expectant landlady ”I think, Watson, we can discuss this business better in our own quarters”
”My sur from the depths of his easy-chair ”There has been a substitution of lodgers What I did not foresee is that we should find a woman, and no ordinary woman, Watson”
”She saw us”
”Well, she saw soeneral sequence of events is pretty clear, is it not? A couple seek refuge in London froer is the rigour of their precautions The man, who has some hich he must do, desires to leave the woman in absolute safety while he does it It is not an easy probleinal fashi+on, and so effectively that her presence was not even known to the landlady who supplies her with food The printeddiscovered by her writing The uide their enemies to her Since he cannot coony column of a paper So far all is clear”
”But what is at the root of it?”
”Ah, yes, Watson--severely practical, as usual! What is at the root of it all? Mrs Warren's whies somewhat and assumes a more sinister aspect as we proceed This much we can say: that it is no ordinary love escapade You saw the woer We have heard, too, of the attack upon the landlord, which was undoubtedly er These alarue that the matter is one of life or death The attack upon Mr Warren further shows that the enemy, whoever they are, are theer for the male It is very curious and coo further in it? What have you to gain from it?”
”What, indeed? It is art for art's sake, Watson I suppose when you doctored you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?”
”For my education, Holmes”
”Education never ends, Watson It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last This is an instructive case There is neither money nor credit in it, and yet one would wish to tidy it up When dusk coe advanced in our investigation”
When we returned to Mrs Warren's roo had thickened into one gray curtain, a dead monotone of colour, broken only by the sharp yellow squares of the s and the blurred haloes of the gas-laing-house, one h the obscurity
”Soaunt and eager face thrust forward to the -pane ”Yes, I can see his shadow There he is again! He has a candle in his hand Now he is peering across He wants to be sure that she is on the lookout Now he begins to flash Take the le flash--that is A, surely Now, then How many did you make it? Twenty Do did In That should h Another T Surely this is the beginning of a second word Now, then--TENTA Dead stop That can't be all, Watson? ATTENTA gives no sense Nor is it any better as three words AT, TEN, TA, unless T A are a person's initials There it goes again! What's that? ATTE--why, it is the saain Curious, Watson, very curious Now he is off onceit for the third time ATTENTA three times! How often will he repeat it? No, that seems to be the finish He has withdrawn form theWhat do you e, Holmes”