I looked at the clock. It was a quarter to twelve. This could not be a visitor at so late an hour. A patient evidently, and possibly an all-night sitting. With a wry3 face I went out into the hall and opened the door. To my astonishment4 it was Sherlock Holmes who stood upon my step.
“Ah, Watson,” said he, “I hoped that I might not be too late to catch you.”
“My dear fellow, pray come in.”
“You look surprised, and no wonder! Relieved, too, I fancy! Hum! You still smoke the Arcadia mixture of your bachelor days, then! There’s no mistaking that fluffy5 ash upon your coat. It‘s easy to tell that you have been accustomed to wear a uniform, Watson. You’ll never pass as a pure-bred civilian6 as long as you keep that habit of carrying your handkerchief in your sleeve. Could you put me up to-night?”
“With pleasure.”
“You told me that you had bachelor quarters for one, and I see that you have no gentleman visitor at present. Your hat-stand proclaims as much.”
“I shall be delighted if you will stay.”
“Thank you. I’ll fill the vacant peg7 then. Sorry to see that you’ve had the British workman in the house. He‘s a token of evil. Not the drains, I hope?”
“No, the gas.”
“Ah! He has left two nail-marks from his boot upon your linoleum8 just where the light strikes it. No, thank you, I had some supper at Waterloo, but I’ll smoke a pipe with you with pleasure.”
I handed him my pouch9, and he seated himself opposite to me and smoked for some time in silence. I was well aware that nothing but business of importance would have brought him to me at such an hour, so I waited patiently until he should come round to it.
“I see that you are professionally rather busy just now,” said he, glancing very keenly across at me.
“Yes, I’ve had a busy day,” I answered. “It may seem very foolish in your eyes,” I added, “but really I don’t know how you deduced it.”
Holmes chuckled10 to himself.
“I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson,” said he. “When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansom. As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify11 the hansom.”
“Excellent!” I cried.
“Elementary,” said he. “It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable12 to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction13. The same may be said, my dear fellow, for the effect of some of these little sketches15 of yours, which is entirely16 meretricious17, depending as it does upon your retaining in your own hands some factors in the problem which are never imparted to the reader. Now, at present I am in the position of these same readers, for I hold in this hand several threads of one of the strangest cases which ever perplexed19 a man’s brain, and yet I lack the one or two which are needful to complete my theory. But I’ll have them, Watson, I‘ll have them!” His eyes kindled20 and a slight flush sprang into his thin cheeks. For an instant the veil had lifted upon his keen, intense nature, but for an instant only. When I glanced again his face had resumed that red-Indian composure which had made so many regard him as a machine rather than a man.
“The problem presents features of interest,” said he. “I may even say exceptional features of interest. I have already looked into the matter, and have come, as I think, within sight of my solution. If you could accompany me in that last step you might be of considerable service to me.”
“I should be delighted.”
“Could you go as far as Aldershot to-morrow?”
“I have no doubt Jackson would take my practice.”
“Very good. I want to start by the 11:10 from Waterloo.”
“That would give me time.”
“Then, if you are not too sleepy, I will give you a sketch14 of what has happened, and of what remains21 to be done.”
“I was sleepy before you came. I am quite wakeful now.”
“I will compress the story as far as may be done without omitting anything vital to the case. It is conceivable that you may even have read some account of the matter. It is the supposed murder of Colonel Barclay, of the Royal Munsters, at Aldershot, which I am investigating.”
“I have heard nothing of it.”
“It has not excited much attention yet, except locally. The facts are only two days old. Briefly22 they are these:
“The Royal Munsters is, as you know, one of the most famous Irish regiments23 in the British Army. It did wonders both in the Crimea and the Mutiny, and has since that time distinguished25 itself upon every possible occasion. It was commanded up to Monday night by James Barclay, a gallant26 veteran, who started as a full private, was raised to commissioned rank for his bravery at the time of the Mutiny, and so lived to command the regiment24 in which he had once carried a musket27.
“Colonel Barclay had married at the time when he was a sergeant28, and his wife, whose maiden29 name was Miss Nancy Devoy, was the daughter of a former colour-sergeant in the same corps30. There was, therefore, as can be imagined, some little social friction31 when the young couple (for they were still young) found themselves in their new surroundings. They appear, however, to have quickly adapted themselves, and Mrs. Barclay has always, I understand, been as popular with the ladies of the regiment as her husband was with his brother officers. I may add that she was a woman of great beauty, and that even now, when she has been married for upward of thirty years, she is still of a striking and queenly appearance.
“Colonel Barclay’s family life appears to have been a uniformly happy one. Major Murphy, to whom I owe most of my facts, assures me that he has never heard of any misunderstanding between the pair. On the whole, he thinks that Barclay’s devotion to his wife was greater than his wife’s to Barclay. He was acutely uneasy if he were absent from her for a day. She, on the other hand, though devoted33 and faithful, was less obtrusively34 affectionate. But they were regarded in the regiment as the very model of a middle-aged35 couple. There was absolutely nothing in their mutual36 relations to prepare people for the tragedy which was to follow.
“Colonel Barclay himself seems to have had some singular traits in his character. He was a dashing, jovial37 old soldier in his usual mood, but there were occasions on which he seemed to show himself capable of considerable violence and vindictiveness38. This side of his nature, however, appears never to have been turned towards his wife. Another fact which had struck Major Murphy and three out of five of the other officers with whom I conversed39 was the singular sort of depression which came upon him at times. As the major expressed it, the smile has often been struck from his mouth, as if by some invisible hand, when he has been joining in the gaieties and chaff40 of the mess-table. For days on end, when the mood was on him, he has been sunk in the deepest gloom. This and a certain tinge41 of superstition42 were the only unusual traits in his character which his brother officers had observed. The latter peculiarity43 took the form of a dislike to being left alone, especially after dark. This puerile44 feature in a nature which was conspicuously45 manly46 had often given rise to comment and conjecture47.
“The first battalion48 of the Royal Munsters (which is the old One Hundred and Seventeenth) has been stationed at Aldershot for some years. The married officers live out of barracks, and the colonel has during all this time occupied a villa49 called ‘Lachine,’ about half a mile from the north camp. The house stands in its own grounds, but the west side of it is not more than thirty yards from the highroad. A coachman and two maids form the staff of servants. These with their master and mistress were the sole occupants of Lachine, for the Barclays had no children, nor was it usual for them to have resident visitors.
“Now for the events at Lachine between nine and ten on the evening of last Monday.
“Mrs. Barclay was, it appears, a member of the Roman Catholic Church and had interested herself very much in the establishment of the Guild50 of St. George, which was formed in connection with the Watt51 Street Chapel52 for the purpose of supplying the poor with cast-off clothing. A meeting of the Guild had been held that evening at eight, and Mrs. Barclay had hurried over her dinner in order to be present at it. When leaving the house she was heard by the coachman to make some commonplace remark to her husband, and to assure him that she would be back before very long. She then called for Miss Morrison, a young lady who lives in the next villa and the two went off together to their meeting. It lasted forty minutes, and at a quarter-past nine Mrs. Barclay returned home, having left Miss Morrison at her door as she passed.
“There is a room which is used as a morning-room at Lachine. This faces the road and opens by a large glass folding-door on to the lawn. The lawn is thirty yards across and is only divided from the highway by a low wall with an iron rail above it. It was into this room that Mrs. Barclay went upon her return. The blinds were not down, for the room was seldom used in the evening, but Mrs. Barclay herself lit the lamp and then rang the bell, asking Jane Stewart, the housemaid, to bring her a cup of tea, which was quite contrary to her usual habits. The colonel had been sitting in the dining-room, but, hearing that his wife had returned, he joined her in the morning-room. The coachman saw him cross the hall and enter it. He was never seen again alive.
“The tea which had been ordered was brought up at the end of ten minutes; but the maid, as she approached the door, was surprised to hear the voices of her master and mistress in furious altercation53. She knocked without receiving any answer, and even turned the handle, but only to find that the door was locked upon the inside. Naturally enough she ran down to tell the cook, and the two women with the coachman came up into the hall and listened to the dispute which was still raging. They all agreed that only two voices were to be heard, those of Barclay and of his wife. Barclay’s remarks were subdued54 and abrupt55 so that none of them were audible to the listeners. The lady’s, on the other hand, were most bitter, and when she raised her voice could be plainly heard. ‘You coward!’ she repeated over and over again. ‘What can be done now? What can be done now? Give me back my life. I will never so much as breathe the same air with you again! You coward! You coward!’ Those were scraps56 of her conversation, ending in a sudden dreadful cry in the man’s voice, with a crash, and a piercing scream from the woman. Convinced that some tragedy had occurred, the coachman rushed to the door and strove to force it, while scream after scream issued from within. He was unable, however, to make his way in, and the maids were too distracted with fear to be of any assistance to him. A sudden thought struck him, however, and he ran through the hall door and round to the lawn upon which the long French windows open. One side of the window was open, which I understand was quite usual in the summertime, and he passed without difficulty into the room. His mistress had ceased to scream and was stretched insensible upon a couch, while with his feet tilted57 over the side of an armchair, and his head upon the ground near the corner of the fender, was lying the unfortunate soldier stone dead in a pool of his own blood.
“Naturally, the coachman’s first thought, on finding that he could do nothing for his master, was to open the door. But here an unexpected and singular difficulty presented itself. The key was not in the inner side of the door, nor could he find it anywhere in the room. He went out again, therefore, through the window, and, having obtained the help of a policeman and of a medical man, he returned. The lady, against whom naturally the strongest suspicion rested, was removed to her room, still in a state of insensibility. The colonel’s body was then placed upon the sofa and a careful examination made of the scene of the tragedy.
“The injury from which the unfortunate veteran was suffering was found to be a jagged cut some two inches long at the back part of his head, which had evidently been caused by a violent blow from a blunt weapon. Nor was it difficult to guess what that weapon may have been. Upon the floor, close to the body, was lying a singular club of hard carved wood with a bone handle. The colonel possessed58 a varied59 collection of weapons brought from the different countries in which he had fought, and it is conjectured60 by the police that this club was among his trophies61. The servants deny having seen it before, but among the numerous curiosities in the house it is possible that it may have been overlooked. Nothing else of importance was discovered in the room by the police, save the inexplicable62 fact that neither upon Mrs. Barclay’s person nor upon that of the victim nor in any part of the room was the missing key to be found. The door had eventually to be opened by a locksmith from Aldershot.
“That was the state of things, Watson, when upon the Tuesday morning I, at the request of Major Murphy, went down to Aldershot to supplement the efforts of the police. I think that you will acknowledge that the problem was already one of interest, but my observations soon made me realize that it was in truth much more extraordinary than would at first sight appear.
“Before examining the room I cross-questioned the servants, but only succeeded in eliciting63 the facts which I have already stated. One other detail of interest was remembered by Jane Stewart, the housemaid. You will remember that on hearing the sound of the quarrel she descended64 and returned with the other servants. On that first occasion, when she was alone, she says that the voices of her master and mistress were sunk so low that she could hardly hear anything, and judged by their tones rather than their words that they had fallen out. On my pressing her, however, she remembered that she heard the word David uttered twice by the lady. The point is of the utmost importance as guiding us towards the reason of the sudden quarrel. The colonel’s name, you remember, was James.
“There was one thing in the case which had made the deepest impression both upon the servants and the police. This was the contortion65 of the colonel’s face. It had set, according to their account, into the most dreadful expression of fear and horror which a human countenance66 is capable of assuming. More than one person fainted at the mere18 sight of him, so terrible was the effect. It was quite certain that he had foreseen his fate, and that it had caused him the utmost horror. This, of course, fitted in well enough with the police theory, if the colonel could have seen his wife making a murderous attack upon him. Nor was the fact of the wound being on the back of his head a fatal objection to this, as he might have turned to avoid the blow. No information could be got from the lady herself, who was temporarily insane from an acute attack of brain-fever.
“From the police I learned that Miss Morrison, who you remember went out that evening with Mrs. Barclay, denied having any knowledge of what it was which had caused the ill-humour in which her companion had returned.
“Having gathered these facts, Watson, I smoked several pipes over them, trying to separate those which were crucial from others which were merely incidental. There could be no question that the most distinctive67 and suggestive point in the case was the singular disappearance68 of the door-key. A most careful search had failed to discover it in the room. Therefore it must have been taken from it. But neither the colonel nor the colonel’s wife could have taken it. That was perfectly69 clear. Therefore a third person must have entered the room. And that third person could only have come in through the window. It seemed to me that a careful examination of the room and the lawn might possibly reveal some traces of this mysterious individual. You know my methods, Watson. There was not one of them which I did not apply to the inquiry70. And it ended by my discovering traces, but very different ones from those which I had expected. There had been a man in the room, and he had crossed the lawn coming from the road. I was able to obtain five very clear impressions of his footmarks: one in the roadway itself, at the point where he had climbed the low wall, two on the lawn, and two very faint ones upon the stained boards near the window where he had entered. He had apparently71 rushed across the lawn, for his toe-marks were much deeper than his heels. But it was not the man who surprised me. It was his companion.”
“His companion!”
Holmes pulled a large sheet of tissue-paper out of his pocket and carefully unfolded it upon his knee.
“What do you make of that?” he asked.
The paper was covered with the tracings of the footmarks of some small animal. It had five well-marked footpads, an indication of long nails, and the whole print might be nearly as large as a dessert-spoon.
“It’s a dog,” said I.
“Did you ever hear of a dog running up a curtain? I found distinct traces that this creature had done so.”
“A monkey, then?”
“But it is not the print of a monkey.”
“What can it be, then?”
“Neither dog nor cat nor monkey nor any creature that we are familiar with. I have tried to reconstruct it from the measurements. Here are four prints where the beast has been standing32 motionless. You see that it is no less than fifteen inches from fore-foot to hind72. Add to that the length of neck and head, and you get a creature not much less than two feet long — probably more if there is any tail. But now observe this other measurement. The animal has been moving, and we have the length of its stride. In each case it is only about three inches. You have an indication, you see, of a long body with very short legs attached to it. It has not been considerate enough to leave any of its hair behind it. But its general shape must be what I have indicated, and it can run up a curtain, and it is carnivorous.”
“How do you deduce that?”
“Because it ran up the curtain. A canary’s cage was hanging in the window, and its aim seems to have been to get at the bird.”
“Then what was the beast?”
“Ah, if I could give it a name it might go a long way towards solving the case. On the whole, it was probably some creature of the weasel and stoat tribe — and yet it is larger than any of these that I have seen.”
“But what had it to do with the crime?”
“That, also, is still obscure. But we have learned a good deal, you perceive. We know that a man stood in the road looking at the quarrel between the Barclays — the blinds were up and the room lighted. We know, also, that he ran across the lawn, entered the room, accompanied by a strange animal, and that he either struck the colonel or, as is equally possible, that the colonel fell down from sheer fright at the sight of him, and cut his head on the corner of the fender. Finally we have the curious fact that the intruder carried away the key with him when he left.”
“Your discoveries seem to have left the business more obscure than it was before,” said I.
“Quite so. They undoubtedly73 showed that the affair was much deeper than was at first conjectured. I thought the matter over, and I came to the conclusion that I must approach the case from another aspect. But really, Watson, I am keeping you up, and I might just as well tell you all this on our way to Aldershot to-morrow.”
“Thank you, you have gone rather too far to stop.”
“It is quite certain that when Mrs. Barclay left the house at half-past seven she was on good terms with her husband. She was never, as I think I have said, ostentatiously affectionate, but she was heard by the coachman chatting with the colonel in a friendly fashion. Now, it was equally certain that, immediately on her return, she had gone to the room in which she was least likely to see her husband, had flown to tea as an agitated74 woman will, and finally, on his coming in to her, had broken into violent recriminations. Therefore something had occurred between seven-thirty and nine o’clock which had completely altered her feelings towards him. But Miss Morrison had been with her during the whole of that hour and a half. It was absolutely certain, therefore, in spite of her denial, that she must know something of the matter.
“My first conjecture was that possibly there had been some passages between this young lady and the old soldier, which the former had now confessed to the wife. That would account for the angry return, and also for the girl’s denial that anything had occurred. Nor would it be entirely incompatible75 with most of the words overheard. But there was the reference to David, and there was the known affection of the colonel for his wife to weigh against it, to say nothing of the tragic76 intrusion of this other man, which might, of course, be entirely disconnected with what had gone before. It was not easy to pick one’s steps, but, on the whole, I was inclined to dismiss the idea that there had been anything between the colonel and Miss Morrison, but more than ever convinced that the young lady held the clue as to what it was which had turned Mrs. Barclay to hatred77 of her husband. I took the obvious course, therefore, of calling upon Miss M., of explaining to her that I was perfectly certain that she held the facts in her possession, and of assuring her that her friend, Mrs. Barclay, might find herself in the dock upon a capital charge unless the matter were cleared up.
“Miss Morrison is a little ethereal slip of a girl, with timid eyes and blond hair, but I found her by no means wanting in shrewdness and common sense. She sat thinking for some time after I had spoken, and then, turning to me with a brisk air of resolution, she broke into a remarkable statement which I will condense for your benefit.
“‘I promised my friend that I would say nothing of the matter, and a promise is a promise,’ said she; ‘but if I can really help her when so serious a charge is laid against her, and when her own mouth, poor darling, is closed by illness, then I think I am absolved79 from my promise. I will tell you exactly what happened upon Monday evening.
“‘We were returning from the Watt Street Mission about a quarter to nine o’clock. On our way we had to pass through Hudson Street, which is a very quiet thoroughfare. There is only one lamp in it, upon the left-hand side, and as we approached this lamp I saw a man coming towards us with his back very bent80, and something like a box slung81 over one of his shoulders. He appeared to be deformed82, for he carried his head low and walked with his knees bent. We were passing him when he raised his face to look at us in the circle of light thrown by the lamp, and as he did so he stopped and screamed out in a dreadful voice, “My God, it’s Nancy!” Mrs. Barclay turned as white as death and would have fallen down had the dreadful-looking creature not caught hold of her. I was going to call for the police, but she, to my surprise, spoke78 quite civilly to the fellow.
“‘“I thought you had been dead this thirty years, Henry,” said she in a shaking voice.
“‘“So I have,” said he, and it was awful to hear the tones that he said it in. He had a very dark, fearsome face, and a gleam in his eyes that comes back to me in my dreams. His hair and whiskers were shot with gray, and his face was all crinkled and puckered83 like a withered84 apple.
“‘“Just walk on a little way, dear,” said Mrs. Barclay; “I want to have a word with this man. There is nothing to be afraid of.” She tried to speak boldly, but she was still deadly pale and could hardly get her words out for the trembling of her lips.
“‘I did as she asked me, and they talked together for a few minutes. Then she came down the street with her eyes blazing, and I saw the crippled wretch85 standing by the lamp-post and shaking his clenched86 fists in the air as if he were mad with rage. She never said a word until we were at the door here, when she took me by the hand and begged me to tell no one what had happened.
“‘“It’s an old acquaintance of mine who has come down in the world,” said she. When I promised her I would say nothing she kissed me, and I have never seen her since. I have told you now the whole truth, and if I withheld87 it from the police it is because I did not realize then the danger in which my dear friend stood. I know that it can only be to her advantage that everything should be known.’
“There was her statement, Watson, and to me, as you can imagine, it was like a light on a dark night. Everything which had been disconnected before began at once to assume its true place, and I had a shadowy presentiment88 of the whole sequence of events. My next step obviously was to find the man who had produced such a remarkable impression upon Mrs. Barclay. If he were still in Aldershot it should not be a very difficult matter. There are not such a very great number of civilians89, and a deformed man was sure to have attracted attention. I spent a day in the search, and by evening — this very evening, Watson — I had run him down. The man’s name is Henry Wood, and he lives in lodgings90 in this same street in which the ladies met him. He has only been five days in the place. In the character of a registration-agent I had a most interesting gossip with his landlady91. The man is by trade a conjurer and performer, going round the canteens after nightfall, and giving a little entertainment at each. He carries some creature about with him in that box, about which the landlady seemed to be in considerable trepidation92, for she had never seen an animal like it. He uses it in some of his tricks according to her account. So much the woman was able to tell me, and also that it was a wonder the man lived, seeing how twisted he was, and that he spoke in a strange tongue sometimes, and that for the last two nights she had heard him groaning93 and weeping in his bedroom. He was all right, as far as money went, but in his deposit he had given her what looked like a bad florin. She showed it to me, Watson, and it was an Indian rupee.
“So now, my dear fellow, you see exactly how we stand and why it is I want you. It is perfectly plain that after the ladies parted from this man he followed them at a distance, that he saw the quarrel between husband and wife through the window, that he rushed in, and that the creature which he carried in his box got loose. That is all very certain. But he is the only person in this world who can tell us exactly what happened in that room.”
“And you intend to ask him?”
“Most certainly — but in the presence of a witness.”
“And I am the witness?”
“If you will be so good. If he can clear the matter up, well and good. If he refuses, we have no alternative but to apply for a warrant.”
“But how do you know he’ll be there when we return?”
“You may be sure that I took some precautions. I have one of my Baker94 Street boys mounting guard over him who would stick to him like a burr, go where he might. We shall find him in Hudson Street to-morrow, Watson, and meanwhile I should be the criminal myself if I kept you out of bed any longer.”
It was midday when we found ourselves at the scene of the tragedy, and, under my companion’s guidance, we made our way at once to Hudson Street. In spite of his capacity for concealing95 his emotions, I could easily see that Holmes was in a state of suppressed excitement, while I was myself tingling96 with that half-sporting, half-intellectual pleasure which I invariably experienced when I associated myself with him in his investigations97.
“This is the street,” said he as we turned into a short thoroughfare lined with plain two-storied brick houses. “Ah, here is Simpson to report.”
“He’s in all right, Mr. Holmes,” cried a small street Arab, running up to us.
“Good, Simpson!” said Holmes, patting him on the head. “Come along, Watson. This is the house.” He sent in his card with a message that he had come on important business, and a moment later we were face to face with the man whom we had come to see. In spite of the warm weather he was crouching98 over a fire, and the little room was like an oven. The man sat all twisted and huddled99 in his chair in a way which gave an indescribable impression of deformity; but the face which he turned towards us, though worn and swarthy, must at some time have been remarkable for its beauty. He looked suspiciously at us now out of yellow-shot, bilious100 eyes, and, without speaking or rising, he waved towards two chairs.
“Mr. Henry Wood, late of India, I believe,” said Holmes affably. “I’ve come over this little matter of Colonel Barclay‘s death.”
“What should I know about that?”
“That’s what I want to ascertain101. You know, I suppose, that unless the matter is cleared up, Mrs. Barclay, who is an old friend of yours, will in all probability be tried for murder.”
The man gave a violent start.
“I don’t know who you are,” he cried, “nor how you come to know what you do know, but will you swear that this is true that you tell me?”
“Why, they are only waiting for her to come to her senses to arrest her.”
“My God! Are you in the police yourself?”
“No.”
“What business is it of yours, then?”
“It’s every man‘s business to see justice done.”
“You can take my word that she is innocent.”
“Then you are guilty.”
“No, I am not.”
“Who killed Colonel James Barclay, then?”
“It was a just Providence102 that killed him. But, mind you this, that if I had knocked his brains out, as it was in my heart to do, he would have had no more than his due from my hands. If his own guilty conscience had not struck him down it is likely enough that I might have had his blood upon my soul. You want me to tell the story. Well, I don’t know why I shouldn‘t, for there’s no cause for me to be ashamed of it.
“It was in this way, sir. You see me now with my back like a camel and my ribs103 all awry104, but there was a time when Corporal Henry Wood was the smartest man in the One Hundred and Seventeenth foot. We were in India, then, in cantonments, at a place we’ll call Bhurtee. Barclay, who died the other day, was sergeant in the same company as myself, and the belle105 of the regiment, ay, and the finest girl that ever had the breath of life between her lips, was Nancy Devoy, the daughter of the colour-sergeant. There were two men that loved her, and one that she loved, and you’ll smile when you look at this poor thing huddled before the fire and hear me say that it was for my good looks that she loved me.
“Well, though I had her heart, her father was set upon her marrying Barclay. I was a harum-scarum, reckless lad, and he had had an education and was already marked for the sword-belt. But the girl held true to me, and it seemed that I would have had her when the Mutiny broke out, and all hell was loose in the country.
“We were shut up in Bhurtee, the regiment of us with half a battery of artillery106, a company of Sikhs, and a lot of civilians and women-folk. There were ten thousand rebels round us, and they were as keen as a set of terriers round a rat-cage. About the second week of it our water gave out, and it was a question whether we could communicate with General Neill’s column, which was moving up-country. It was our only chance, for we could not hope to fight our way out with all the women and children, so I volunteered to go out and to warn General Neill of our danger. My offer was accepted, and I talked it over with Sergeant Barclay, who was supposed to know the ground better than any other man, and who drew up a route by which I might get through the rebel lines. At ten o’clock the same night I started off upon my journey. There were a thousand lives to save, but it was of only one that I was thinking when I dropped over the wall that night.
“My way ran down a dried-up watercourse, which we hoped would screen me from the enemy’s sentries107; but as I crept round the corner of it I walked right into six of them, who were crouching down in the dark waiting for me. In an instant I was stunned108 with a blow and bound hand and foot. But the real blow was to my heart and not to my head, for as I came to and listened to as much as I could understand of their talk, I heard enough to tell me that my comrade, the very man who had arranged the way I was to take, had betrayed me by means of a native servant into the hands of the enemy.
“Well, there’s no need for me to dwell on that part of it. You know now what James Barclay was capable of. Bhurtee was relieved by Neill next day, but the rebels took me away with them in their retreat, and it was many a long year before ever I saw a white face again. I was tortured and tried to get away, and was captured and tortured again. You can see for yourselves the state in which I was left. Some of them that fled into Nepal took me with them, and then afterwards I was up past Darjeeling. The hill-folk up there murdered the rebels who had me, and I became their slave for a time until I escaped; but instead of going south I had to go north, until I found myself among the Afghans. There I wandered about for many a year, and at last came back to the Punjab, where I lived mostly among the natives and picked up a living by the conjuring109 tricks that I had learned. What use was it for me, a wretched cripple, to go back to England or to make myself known to my old comrades? Even my wish for revenge would not make me do that. I had rather that Nancy and my old pals110 should think of Harry111 Wood as having died with a straight back, than see him living and crawling with a stick like a chimpanzee. They never doubted that I was dead, and I meant that they never should. I heard that Barclay had married Nancy, and that he was rising rapidly in the regiment, but even that did not make me speak.
“But when one gets old one has a longing112 for home. For years I’ve been dreaming of the bright green fields and the hedges of England. At last I determined113 to see them before I died. I saved enough to bring me across, and then I came here where the soldiers are, for I know their ways and how to amuse them and so earn enough to keep me.”
“Your narrative114 is most interesting,” said Sherlock Holmes. “I have already heard of your meeting with Mrs. Barclay, and your mutual recognition. You then, as I understand, followed her home and saw through the window an altercation between her husband and her, in which she doubtless cast his conduct to you in his teeth. Your own feelings overcame you, and you ran across the lawn and broke in upon them.”
“I did, sir, and at the sight of me he looked as I have never seen a man look before, and over he went with his head on the fender. But he was dead before he fell. I read death on his face as plain as I can read that text over the fire. The bare sight of me was like a bullet through his guilty heart.”
“And then?”
“Then Nancy fainted, and I caught up the key of the door from her hand, intending to unlock it and get help. But as I was doing it it seemed to me better to leave it alone and get away, for the thing might look black against me, and anyway my secret would be out if I were taken. In my haste I thrust the key into my pocket, and dropped my stick while I was chasing Teddy, who had run up the curtain. When I got him into his box, from which he had slipped, I was off as fast as I could run.”
“Who’s Teddy?” asked Holmes.
The man leaned over and pulled up the front of a kind of hutch in the corner. In an instant out there slipped a beautiful reddish-brown creature, thin and lithe115, with the legs of a stoat, a long, thin nose, and a pair of the finest red eyes that ever I saw in an animal’s head.
“It’s a mongoose,” I cried.
“Well, some call them that, and some call them ichneumon,” said the man. “Snake-catcher is what I call them, and Teddy is amazing quick on cobras. I have one here without the fangs116, and Teddy catches it every night to please the folk in the canteen.
“Any other point, sir?”
“Well, we may have to apply to you again if Mrs. Barclay should prove to be in serious trouble.”
“In that case, of course, I’d come forward.”
“But if not, there is no object in raking up this scandal against a dead man, foully117 as he has acted. You have at least the satisfaction of knowing that for thirty years of his life his conscience bitterly reproached him for his wicked deed. Ah, there goes Major Murphy on the other side of the street. Good-bye, Wood. I want to learn if anything has happened since yesterday.”
We were in time to overtake the major before he reached the corner.
“Ah, Holmes,” he said, “I suppose you have heard that all this fuss has come to nothing?”
“What then?”
“The inquest is just over. The medical evidence showed conclusively118 that death was due to apoplexy. You see it was quite a simple case, after all.”
“Oh, remarkably119 superficial,” said Holmes, smiling. “Come, Watson, I don’t think we shall be wanted in Aldershot any more.”
“There’s one thing,” said I as we walked down to the station. “If the husband’s name was James, and the other was Henry, what was this talk about David?”
“That one word, my dear Watson, should have told me the whole story had I been the ideal reasoner which you are so fond of depicting120. It was evidently a term of reproach.”
“Of reproach?”
“Yes; David strayed a little occasionally, you know, and on one occasion in the same direction as Sergeant James Barclay. You remember the small affair of Uriah and Bathsheba? My Biblical knowledge is a trifle rusty121, I fear, but you will find the story in the first or second of Samuel.”
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1
hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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wry
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| adj.讽刺的；扭曲的 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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linoleum
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| n.油布，油毯 | |
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pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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chuckled
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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meretricious
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| adj.华而不实的，俗艳的 | |
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18
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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19
perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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musket
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| n.滑膛枪 | |
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sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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31
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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32
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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obtrusively
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| adv.冒失地，莽撞地 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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36
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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jovial
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| adj.快乐的，好交际的 | |
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38
vindictiveness
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| 恶毒；怀恨在心 | |
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conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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40
chaff
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| v.取笑，嘲笑；n.谷壳 | |
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41
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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42
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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43
peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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44
puerile
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| adj.幼稚的，儿童的 | |
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45
conspicuously
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| ad.明显地，惹人注目地 | |
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46
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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47
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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48
battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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49
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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50
guild
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| n.行会，同业公会，协会 | |
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51
watt
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| n.瓦，瓦特 | |
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52
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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53
altercation
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| n.争吵，争论 | |
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54
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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55
abrupt
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| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
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56
scraps
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| 油渣 | |
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57
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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58
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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59
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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conjectured
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| 推测，猜测，猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
trophies
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| n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖 | |
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62
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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63
eliciting
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| n. 诱发, 引出 动词elicit的现在分词形式 | |
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64
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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65
contortion
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| n.扭弯，扭歪，曲解 | |
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66
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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67
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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68
disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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69
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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70
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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71
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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72
hind
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| adj.后面的，后部的 | |
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73
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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74
agitated
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| adj.被鼓动的，不安的 | |
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75
incompatible
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| adj.不相容的，不协调的，不相配的 | |
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76
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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78
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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absolved
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| 宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责） | |
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80
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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81
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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82
deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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83
puckered
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| v.（使某物）起褶子或皱纹( pucker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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84
withered
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| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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85
wretch
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| n.可怜的人，不幸的人；卑鄙的人 | |
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86
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87
withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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88
presentiment
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| n.预感，预觉 | |
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89
civilians
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| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
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lodgings
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| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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91
landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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92
trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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93
groaning
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| adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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94
baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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95
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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96
tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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97
investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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98
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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99
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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100
bilious
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| adj.胆汁过多的；易怒的 | |
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101
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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102
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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103
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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104
awry
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| adj.扭曲的，错的 | |
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105
belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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106
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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107
sentries
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| 哨兵，步兵( sentry的名词复数 ) | |
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108
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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109
conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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110
pals
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| n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙 | |
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111
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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112
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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113
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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114
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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115
lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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116
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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117
foully
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| ad.卑鄙地 | |
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118
conclusively
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| adv.令人信服地，确凿地 | |
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119
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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120
depicting
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| 描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述 | |
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rusty
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| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
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