Part 18 (2/2)
I asked the man a few other questions, but he was unable to tellof use to the case We briefly discussed his eht the world of his wife) and Mrs Felloho he clai pleasantries), but he could suggest no person who ht have carried out the assault on Miss Williams I thanked hi by the tied I could return to Baker Street and a well-deserved dinner courtesy of the redoubtable Mrs Hudson, which was undeniably a teht But it was only a short walk to Leyton station, and the guard, Nicholas, had suggested returning at six to interview the e on Miss Williams' train
So it was that I found myself once more at the entryway to Leyton station No less than earlier, the platfor past with heads down,so much as a river in full spate It seemed a hopeless task to identify one man in such an asse as I stood irresolutely at the edge of this tide of London life
”Dr Watson,” the guard cried as he e He explained that he was finished for the day, but would be delighted to point out theoff for ho the front of the crowd for a moment or two, then cut across them in determined fashi+on, an old hand in suchfirst to one side then the other, as our path disturbed the passage of coers to coed froestured at atowards us His chin was held low and tucked into the top of a substantial scarf As he also wore a somewhat shapeless brown hat, pulled down over his eyes, it was difficult to see anything of his features until he was almost upon us
”Excusea hand on the man's arm He stopped at once and looked up at us, expectantly Now exposed, I could see that thechin, thin lips and a long, straight nose His eyes, however, were his most prominent feature They were pale blue and sparkled with such evident delight in life that I foundto the man before he had said a word When he did speak, in response to Tyler's introductions and e a few days previously, his voice was a match for his face, a rich baritone with a hint of the florid about it He had a tendency to speak at length with no apparent pause for breath
”Why yes indeed! I remember it most vividly! It was very peculiar all round, in point of fact But first! My nahted to make your acquaintance, Dr Watson” He handedup to date with the activities of Mr Sherlock Hol most of all, of course, but the clever way that Mr Holmes comes to his conclusions are worthy of praise indeed!
”But letas Gloucester in a production of Lear-in fact I have just returned from the theatre-but I was not required for rehearsals that day so had been pottering here and there Little antique shops, sellers of bric-a-brac, you know the sort of thing, I' in its way, and so I had a spot of tea in a little cafeteria not far fro a friend in town I arrived at the station, saw that a train was shortly to leave and made nation as he recalled the events of that day ”The first carriage I atte lady,” he continued ”I made to move within but I had no sooner put a foot inside when the foolish woh I were Franz Muller hientlemen I have no wish to be another innocentalone in a carriage with a vaporous woination!” The man's voice had risen to a near-shout by now, and in erously flushed, which , to say the least ”But never mind, eh?” he boomed ”Never stay where you're not wanted is ood one for other areas of life too
”In any case, findingon the platfor withoutopen the door - and e of abuse that, were I not a peacefulthe thrashi+ng of his life 'Blackguard' was the very least of the epithets cast in my direction, Doctor, but I decided discretion was the better part of valour and closed the door on the dreadful e, where a very friendly couple - from Grimsby, would you believe! - were happy to welco little abode We wiled away the journey hted to listen to a selection of my speeches from the Bard So all's well that ends well, eh?”
He beamed at us fro else hich I can help you, gentle for the vocal cords, and my voice is h tier before he offered his hand and his business card, and with a hearty ”Good day!” ed up by the crohich even yet ebbed and flowed through the station
I offered the same farewell to Tyler and, content in a day's ell done, made my way to the street outside, where I hailed a hanso down to the train track on foot proved to beonceand the fog and steady evening rain safely outside
Hol man's clothes but covered in mud and dirt He had immediately disappeared into his bathroo a soft aria to hih the door When he returned to his chair by the fire he was once again Mr Sherlock Hol tobacco, I regaled hi with Bill Fraser, before he in his turn described his activities that afternoon
”The bank is fairly steep, and the late rain has caused it to becoerous underfoot It was all I could do to slide down to the gravel path, and even so I adlad not to be in finer dress, Watson, I can tell you To discover then that there was no easy access to the tunnel froht have stuether had it not been for the lucky happenstance of our old friend, Archibald Aberdeen, seeing what I was up to and co each side of the tunnel runs a ay for railway staff After exae, it wasone of these ays and thereby effect athe wilderness at the side of the tracks for the past teeks Unfortunately, this particular station has locked gates barring just such access-to prevent the poor froe, I believe-and the entire ay is enclosed in iron bars, creating a for foolishly in the drizzle, had not Mr Aberdeen fortuitously appeared at my shoulder”
At this point, Holmes leaned forward and pointed at ed that , it seenised me fro our on-going investigation Secondly, and more importantly, he had approached me at the tunnel mouth in order to explain the circuhanistan”
From his unifor of a native lady, dressed in the full cereirl of whose ed to be married to a local man, and he of course was a soldier in Her Majesty's Army; more even than Romeo and Juliet, theirs was a love which was dooer to them both
And yetan hour together when they could, always a single misstep froirl to land as his wife, but each tih she must have known that their secret liaison could not last forever Sure enough, one day Aberdeen had gone to the abandoned teirl's fiance standing over her unle her still in his hands Aberdeen had broken down at this point in his tale and Hol eer to be done with it In short, Aberdeen irl's death - surely a hollow coround by a passing patrol and taken into custody Luckily, the ared that the native he killed had boasted of his intention to slay the woman who had dishonoured him
”Whoever our killer is,” Holmes concluded, ”I a to his narrative,the tunnel and bid Holloo the narrow path,” Hol to a steady pace, so diround underfoot In fact, I al of vital importance because of it At one point, I felt my foot slip on what I fancied was a daainst the tunnel wall Had Aberdeen not taken the tiht never have bothered to exarief”
In his hand he held a crunisably the double of that Lestrade had described One of the three pearls on the back of the glove was held in place by but a single thread and the stitching had come away a little at the junction of the thu garlanced at my friend's face as he held it out to ht on the case, it was impossible to tell His broas furrowed and his lips thinned in what I would have called barely repressed anger, had it been any other man
”So it was ht mind would board a train and then allove, nevera fatal heart incident I said as iven an opportunity to demonstrate his intellectual powers, he shook his foul h I could see fro
”Murder it was, Watson,” he agreed, ”and this glove tells us so the act itself Do you re the body?”
I nodded ”That the lady was sitting very properly in her seat, with her bag in her lap and her hands folded before her”
”And that the door and ere closed, Watson Miss Willialove, and then closed it again More likely, I would say, that she was at the open hen solove fro was, it closed theafterwards”
”So train in broad daylight? Are you suggesting that soreatest respect for the intellect of Sherlock Holmes, but there have been times when I have found sohts of fancy This idea of a flying killer seemed to me to be one such theory
”No, Watson! It-or rather he-did not fly into the carriage, he cli tunnel just after leaving the station, the h the , and then swung himself inside Perhaps Miss Williams saw hi the door closed, or perhaps there was a struggle in which theremained open Either way, in the love was dropped out of the train and ended up in the weeds and dirt at the side of the track
”I checked the carriage before returning ho, and I believe there is space on top for a man to have hidden and then carefully lowered hiht by the railway tunnel There are footprints on the outside of the door, immediately below theRather an oddity One or two footprints as our killer swings hiains his balance and reaches down to the door handle - that I can accept But this is a collection of prints, one over the other, sainst the door for some time Which cannot be correct, for surely Miss Williams would have spotted hi!” I interrupted with excitement I explained to Hol ejected froes
My friend was instantly alive with exhilaration Leaping from his chair, he cried, ”We have hihted, though I was unclear just how much it helped to know that the murderer had come from the side rather than the top of the train ”Or very nearly,” he a
”But wait - I have so a second object froe he carefully handed to ed beyond any chance of future use, the needle snapped off and the plungerI sniffed the end cautiously and was rewarded with an unpleasant though unfa the tiny amount of liquid still in the barrel
Holmes nodded ”I have,” he said, ”and it is undoubtedly the poison aconite: a product, as you know, of a coarden plant and available still from chemists across the land”
I inhaled deeply in shock Aconite poisoning was not a pleasant death, though it could be a quick one The unfortunate victim would immediately have experienced nu, followed by a severe burning sensation there and along each of her li sensation would have been accohtened coldness in her extremities A complete loss of control over her lian to dull and her hearing fade away Death could take place in less than five n) if no help was available And where was the poor woman to obtain help, locked as she was in a se, with no exit and only her ine hi not so much as a hand in aid as she left this world in pain and terror and despair
Seldom have I felt so nauseated or so revolted by et this, Hol the inalthe trackside My intention had been to ask whether they had noticed anything as the train went past, but though they often wave, the speed of the train is such as to make any detailed observation ireater help with the second part of my mission They had found a wild assortrowth-old tins and discarded newspapers st their erly in your hand It could not have been lying in the weeds for long, for it had caught in the upperrasses and not yet fallen to the ground below Once we find the e fro, then we shall have our killer”
He fell silent for ainto the fire ”How did your actor describe the man who so rudely lambasted hi coat with a turned-up collar Which could be anyone”
I was painfully aware of the poverty of this description and fully expected Holmes to dismiss it offhand, but instead he seized on it avidly ”Perhaps so, but this man has seen the killer close to andYou have his card still?” I pulled the card frolanced at it then reached for his coat ”In any case, it is too good a lead to ignore Coht to speak to Mr Clarendon!”
Clarendon's room was exactly as I would have expected fro: unconventional, noisoer than life It was do of one of the Christian martyrs displayed above an off-white plaster fireplace; the ascetic in the ie was pierced with arrows and slumped forward from the tree to which he was tied Open copies of the theatrical periodical, The Stage, were scattered on every available flat surface, alongside pencil-daubed scripts, pages of handwritten notes and, to Holmes' amusement, a much-thumbed copy of Mr Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone It was cold in the rooht one, instead contenting hi an ar my friend to sit I forestalled any si I was happy to stand
I was surprised to see that Clarendon was grinning from ear to ear Apparently unable to stand still, our host paced up and down before the cold fire saying nothing but s constantly, until Holmes broke the silence He had barely uttered a word, however, when Clarendon burst into a more extreme version of the constant stream of chatter I had remarked on earlier that day
”May I stop you there, Mr Holmes, and make a few introductory remarks myself? Listen toin my very home! Wait until I tell people about this! In any event, Mr Holreat interest in you and your cases, and consider you the pree the likes of Hewitt and that foreign chap Dupin”
With that he strode forward and extended a hand to Holmes, ith a little trepidation, took it in his own and submitted himself to a hearty shake
”I thank you, Mr Clarendon,” he said, ”though eree with you that Miss Clarissa McCarthy does not have the gravitas required to play Cordelia, and extend my hope that your financial fortunes will soon return to their previous even keel I am sure that you will be able to obtain a new role very soon”
For a second Clarendon's face fell in alrin which had already threatened to split his face in two extended a further few inches as the hter ”I hesitate to utter the cliche, Mr Holuffaws ”-but how did you know all that?”