His Last Bow Part 6 (1/2)
”I did not know you quite so well in those days One has to be discreet when one talks of highthat he under the British governht in a sense if you said that occasionally he IS the British governht surprise you Mycroft draws four hundred and fifty pounds a year, remains a subordinate, has no ambitions of any kind, will receive neither honour nor title, but remains the most indispensable man in the country”
”But how?”
”Well, his position is unique He haslike it before, nor will be again He has the tidiest andfacts, of any reat pohich I have turned to the detection of crime he has used for this particular business The conclusions of every departe, the clearinghouse, which makes out the balance All other men are specialists, but his specialism is omniscience We will suppose that a minister needs information as to a point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the biet his separate advices from various departments upon each, but only Mycroft can focus them all, and say offhand how each factor would affect the other They began by using him as a short-cut, a convenience; now he has reat brain of his everything is pigeon-holed and can be handed out in an instant Again and again his word has decided the national policy He lives in it He thinks of nothing else save when, as an intellectual exercise, he unbends if I call upon him and ask him to adviseto-day What on earth can it an West, and what is he to Mycroft?”
”I have it,” I cried, and plunged a the litter of papers upon the sofa ”Yes, yes, here he is, sure enough! Cadogen West was the young ”
Holmes sat up at attention, his pipe halfway to his lips
”This must be serious, Watson A death which has caused my brother to alter his habits can be no ordinary one What in the world can he have to do with it? The case was featureless as I re man had apparently fallen out of the train and killed himself He had not been robbed, and there was no particular reason to suspect violence Is that not so?”
”There has been an inquest,” said I, ”and a good many fresh facts have come out Looked at more closely, I should certainly say that it was a curious case”
”Judging by its effect upon my brother, I should think it led down in his armchair ”Now, Watson, let us have the facts”
”The an West He enty-seven years of age, unmarried, and a clerk at Woolwich arsenal”
”Government employ Behold the link with Brother Mycroft!”
”He left Woolwich suddenly on Monday night Was last seen by his fiancee, Miss Violet Westbury, who There was no quarrel between the heard of him hen his dead body was discovered by a plate-layer naround system in London”
”When?”
”The body was found at six on Tuesdaywide of the oes eastward, at a point close to the station, where the line ees from the tunnel in which it runs The head was badly crushed--an injury which ht well have been caused by a fall from the train The body could only have come on the line in that way Had it been carried down fro street, it must have passed the station barriers, where a collector is always standing This point seeood The case is definite enough The man, dead or alive, either fell or was precipitated from a train So much is clear to me Continue”
”The trains which traverse the lines of rail beside which the body was found are those which run fro purely Metropolitan, and so junctions It can be stated for certain that this youngin this direction at soht, but at what point he entered the train it is impossible to state”
”His ticket, of course, would show that”
”There was no ticket in his pockets”
”No ticket! Dearto my experience it is not possible to reach the platfor one's ticket Presu man had one Was it taken from him in order to conceal the station from which he cae? That is also possible But the point is of curious interest I understand that there was no sign of robbery?”
”Apparently not There is a list here of his possessions His purse contained two pounds fifteen He had also a check-book on the Woolwich branch of the Capital and Counties Bank Through this his identity was established There were also two dress- circle tickets for the Woolwich Theatre, dated for that very evening Also a save an exclamation of satisfaction
”There we have it at last, Watson! British government--Woolwich arsenal--technical papers--Brother Mycroft, the chain is complete But here he comes, if I am not mistaken, to speak for himself”
A moment later the tall and portly form of Mycroft Holmes was ushered into the rooestion of uncouth physical inertia in the figure, but above this unwieldy frame there was perched a head so ray, deep-set eyes, so firm in its lips, and so subtle in its play of expression, that after the first glance one forgot the gross body and remembered only the dominant mind
At his heels came our old friend Lestrade, of Scotland Yard--thin and austere The gravity of both their faces foretold sohty quest The detective shook hands without a word Mycroft Holled out of his overcoat and subsided into an ar business, Sherlock,” said he ”I extre my habits, but the powers that be would take no denial In the present state of Siam it is most aard that I should be away from the office But it is a real crisis I have never seen the Pri like an overturned bee-hive Have you read up the case?”
”We have just done so What were the technical papers?”
”Ah, there's the point! Fortunately, it has not come out The press would be furious if it did The papers which this wretched youth had in his pocket were the plans of the Bruce-Partington submarine”
Mycroft Holmes spoke with a solemnity which showed his sense of the importance of the subject His brother and I sat expectant
”Surely you have heard of it? I thought everyone had heard of it”
”Only as a naerated It has been the overnment secrets You may take it fro the radius of a Bruce-Partington's operation Two years ago a very large suh the Esti a monopoly of the invention Every effort has been ly intricate, co so of the whole, are kept in an elaborate safe in a confidential office adjoining the arsenal, with burglar-proof doors and s Under no conceivable circumstances were the plans to be taken from the office If the chief constructor of the Navy desired to consult theo to the Woolwich office for the purpose And yet here we find them in the pocket of a dead junior clerk in the heart of London From an official point of view it's simply awful”
”But you have recovered them?”
”No, Sherlock, no! That's the pinch We have not Ten papers were taken froan West The three one--stolen, vanished You , Sherlock Never mind your usual petty puzzles of the police-court It's a vital international problean West take the papers, where are theones, how did he die, how caht? Find an answer to all these questions, and you will have done good service for your country”
”Why do you not solve it yourself, Mycroft? You can see as far as I”
”Possibly, Sherlock But it is a question of getting details Give me your details, and from an armchair I will return you an excellent expert opinion But to run here and run there, to cross-question railway guards, and lie on my face with a lens to my eye--it is not my metier No, you are the one man who can clear the matter up If you have a fancy to see your name in the next honours list--”
My friend same's own sake,” said he ”But the problem certainly presents some points of interest, and I shall be very pleased to look into it Some more facts, please”
”I have jotted down the ether with a few addresses which you will find of service The actual official guardian of the papers is the faovernment expert, Sir James Walter, whose decorations and sub-titles fill two lines of a book of reference He has grown gray in the service, is a gentleuest in the most exalted houses, and, above all, a man whose patriotism is beyond suspicion He is one of tho have a key of the safe Iworking hours on Monday, and that Sir Ja his key with him He was at the house of Ad the whole of the evening when this incident occurred”
”Has the fact been verified?”
”Yes; his brother, Colonel Valentine Walter, has testified to his departure from Woolwich, and Admiral Sinclair to his arrival in London; so Sir Jaer a direct factor in the problem”
”Who was the other htsman, Mr Sidney Johnson He is a man of forty, married, with five children He is a silent, morose man, but he has, on the whole, an excellent record in the public service He is unpopular with his colleagues, but a hard worker According to his own account, corroborated only by the word of his wife, he was at ho after office hours, and his key has never left the watch-chain upon which it hangs”
”Tell us about Cadogan West”
”He has been ten years in the service and has done good work He has the reputation of being hot-headed and iainst hiht him into daily, personal contact with the plans No one else had the handling of theht?”
”Mr Sidney Johnson, the senior clerk”
”Well, it is surely perfectly clear who took them away They are actually found upon the person of this junior clerk, Cadogan West That seems final, does it not?”
”It does, Sherlock, and yet it leaves so much unexplained In the first place, why did he take them?”