The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 19, 1905, Page 1

D) O] $ This is the twelfth of a series b4 Coman Doyle. 24 of stories by a. § dealing with the adventures of 3% the famous detective, Sherlock zz B olmes, up to the time of hin § memorable struggie for life % wpon the Switserland moun- . 3 tain path with the refoubtable These are the orig- Sherlock Holmes wstories, and the omes which made Dr. Doyle's fame. They are entire- Iy apart from the meries which § § recently appeared im the Sma- & day Call entitied “The Returs £ of Sherlock Holmes.” % LSS PSS NI SO S S S SOL IS SIS ght by A an Doyie and Har- & Brothers ften st at respect myself. The n Afghanistan, & natural Bohe- & medical mit, and 1s cigars 1 the 1s transfixed by of his give = held, be dis- when numors, e oppostt done in earance of our r h had a n positions he butter dlsh or in laces. But his pa- at Crux He had a ying documents, espe were comnected with 1 yet it was only once that he would.mus- and arrange them; ioned somewhere in emoirs, erent the outbursts energy. when performed e e feats wi which his a »d were followed by re- argy du his vielin which he would and his books, save from sofa te the th after month &is ‘pa- P until every corner of iked with buadles of s were on no account to hich could not be put eir owner. One winter's sat together by the fire, I suggest to him that, as he °d pasting extracts into his ook, he might employ- the in making our room a Iit- He could not deny the st, so with a rather off to his bedroom, h he returned presently pulling box behind him. This he he middle o the floor, and, atting down upon a stool in front of e threw back the 1id. I could ses t was already a third full of bundles s tied up with red tape into e packages “There are cases irned away save enough here, Wat- ", " sald he, looking at me with mis- ijevous eyes. “'I think that if you knew Irthat T had in this box you would ask me to pull some out instead of putting others in.” “These are the records of your early T then?” I adsked. “I have often boy, these were all done pre- madturely before my biographer had ‘come to glorify me.” He lifted bundle after‘bun- Adie In a tender, .caressing sort of ‘way. “They are not all siccesses, Watson,” said he. “But there are some pretty’ little problems among them. Here’s the record of the Terlton murders, and the case of Vamberry, the wine/ merchant, and the adventure of the old Russian woman, and the singular affair of the aluminum crutch, as weil as a full account of Rico- lett! of the clubfoot and his abeminable wife. And here—ah, this really is some- thing a little recherche.” He dived his arm down to the bottom of the chest and brought up a small wooden box with a ellding lid, such as children’s toys are kept in. From within he produced a crumpled plece of paper, an old-fashioned brass key, a peg of wood with & ball of string attached to it and three rusty old disks of metal. “Well, my boy, what do you make of this Jot?’ he asked, smiling at my ex- pression. “It is a curious collection.” “Very curious, and the story that hangs round it will strike yoU as being more cu- rlous still.” “These relics have a history, “80o much o that they are hi: “‘What do you mean by that?" Sherlock Holmes picked them up one by one and laid them along. the edge of the table. Then he reseated himself in his chair and locked them over with a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes. “These,” said he, “are all that I have left to remind me of the adventure of the Musgrave Ritual.” T had heard him mention the case more than once, though I had never been able to gather the details. *“I should be so glad,” said I, “if you would give me an account of it.” ““And leave the litter as it is?"” he cried, mischievously. “Your tidiness’ won't bear much strain after all, Watson. - But I should be glad that you ‘should add this to” your annals, for there are points in it which make it guite unique in theérim- inal records of this, or, I believe, of any other country. A collection of my trifling achievements would cerfainly be ‘incom- plete which contained no account of this very singular business. - “You may remember how the affair of the Gioria Scott and my conversation with the unhappy man whose fate I told you of first turned my attention in the direc- tion of the profession which has become my life’s work. You see me now when my name has become known far and wide, and when I am génerally recog- nized both by the public and by the offi- cial force as being a final court of appeal in doubtful cases. "Even whep you knew. me first, at the time of the affair which you have commemorated in ‘A Study In Scarlet,’ I had already established a con- sidefahle, though not a very lucrative, connection. You can hardly realize,"then, how-difficult I found it at first, and how long I.had to wait before I succeeded in making any headway. 2 “When 1 first came up to London I had rooms in Montague street, just around the corner of the British Museum, and there I waited, filling in.my too-abundant lelsute time by studying all those branches of science which might maké me more efficient. Now and again cases came in my way, princlpally through the in- i troduction of old feHow-students, for during ‘'my last years &t the university there was a good deal ofitalk there about myself?and my methods. - The third of these cases was that of the Musgrave Ritual, and it is to the interest which was aroused by that singular chain of events and the large issues which proved to be at stake that I trace my first stride toward the position which'I now hold. " “Reginald Musgrave had been in the same college as myself, and I had some slight acquaintance with him. He was _that what was i really an attempt to cover extreme nat- ural diffidence. In appearance he was a man of an exceedingly arlstocratic type, thin, high-nosed and large-eyed. 'with la: @ and yet courtly manners, He was indeéed a sclon of one of the very oldest families - in the kingdom, though his branch was a cadet one which had sep- arated from the northern Musgraves some time in the sixteenth century, and had established itself in Western Sussex, where. the' Manor House of Hurlstone is perhaps the oldest inhabited building in the country. Something of his birthplace seemed to ecling to the man, and I never looked at his pale, keen face or the poise of his head without assoclating him with gray archways and mullioned windows and all the venerable wreckage of & feu- dal keep. Once or twice we drifted into talk, and I can remember that more than once he expressed a keen interest In my methods: of observation and infegence. “For four years I had seen nothing of him until one morning he walked into my room in Montague street. He had changed little, was dressed like a young man of fashion—he was always a bit of a dandy—and preserved the same quiet, suave manner which had formerly . dis- tinguished. him. * ‘How has all gone with you, Mus- grave? I'asked, after we had cordially shaken hands. \ ‘““You probably heard of my poor fath- er's death, said he; ‘he was carried off about two years ago. Since them I bave of course had the Hurlstone estates to manage, and as I am member for my dis- trict as well, my life has been a busy one, But I understand, Holmes, that you are turning to practical ends those pow- ers with which you used to amaze us? ““Yes 'gsald I, ‘I have taken to Mving by my wi P L § del(lh%ed to hear it, for your advice at present would be exceedingly valuable to me.. We haye had some very . strange doings at H tone, and the po- lice have been abl throw no light upon the matter. really the most extra- ordinary ai explicable business.” “You casi imagine with what eagerness 1 lstened to lim, Watson, for the very ‘chance for which I had been panting dur- ing all those months of inaction seemed to have come within my reach. In my the lengths to which this woulllt him, untl the merest sceident $ my eyes to it 4. 1 have sald that the house is & ramb- ling- one. ‘One day last week—on Thurs- day night, to be more exact—I found that I could not sleep, having foolishly taken a cup of strong cafe noir after my dinner. After struggling against it until twe In § the morning, I felt that it was quite hope- : less, so I rose and lit the candle with the intention of continuing a novel which I was reading. The book, however, had been left in the billlard-room, so I pulled on my dressing gown and started off to et 1t. * “In_order to reach the billlard-room [ had to descend a fight of stairs and then to eross the head of a passage which led {to_the library and the gun-room. You can imagine my surprise when, as I looked down _this corzidor, I saw a glimmer of light coming from the open door of the library. I had myself extinguished the lamp’ and closed the door before coming to bed., Naturally my first thought was of burglars. The corridors at Hurlstone have their walls largely decorated with trophies of old weapons. From one of these I picked a battle-axe, and then, leaving my candle behind me. I crept on tiptoe down the passage and peeped in at the open door. ‘““Brunton, the butler, was in the l- brary. He was sitting, fully dressed, in an easy chair, with a siip of paper which looked like a map upon his knée.and his forehead sunk forward upon his hands in deep thought. I stood dumb with aston- ishment, watching him from the darkness. A small taper on the edge of the table shed a feeble light, which sufficed to show tnmost heart I believed that'I“eould suc- Me that he was fully dressed. Suddenly. ceed where others failed, and now I had 28 I looked, he rose from his chair and e Lekod sl o g s o walking over to bureau at the side he “ ‘Pray, let me have the details,” I crfed. Unlocked it and drew out one of the “Reginald Musgrave sat down opposite drawers. . From this he took a paper, %0 me, and. lit the cigarette which I push- and returning to his seat he flattened It b3 phely out beside the taper on the edge of the “‘You must know, sald ‘he, ‘that table and began to study it'with minute, though I am a bachelor, I have to keep attention. My indignation at this calm up a considerable staff.of servants at ©Xamination of our family décuments Hurlstone, for it is a rambling old place, Overcame me so far that I took a step and takes a good deal of looking after, I forward, and Brunton, looking up, saw preserve, too, and fn the pheasant months Mo standing In the doorway. He sprang 1 usually have a house party, so that it#to his feet, his face turmed livid with would not do to.be short-handed. Alto- fear, and he thrust into his breast the gether there dre eight maids, the cook, chart-like paper which he bad been orig- the butler, two footmen and.a boy. The inally studying. garden’ and'the stables, of course, have a _“*‘“So!” sald I “This is hqw you repay b gk the trust which we have reposed in you. ““Of these servants, the ome who had You will leave my service to-morrow.” been longest in our service w#® Brunton * ‘He bowed with the lookyof a man the butler. ‘He was a young schoolmaster Who is utterly crushed and slunk past me out of place when he was first taken up Without a word. The taper was still on by my father, but he was a man of great the table, and by its light I glanced to energy and character, and he soon be- See what the paper was which Brunton came quite invaluable in the household. had taken from the bureau. To my sur- He was a well-grown, handsome man,* prise, it was nothing of any Importance with a splendid forehead; and though he at all, but simply a copy of the questions has been with us twenty years he cannot and answers in the singular observance be more than forty now. With his per- called the Musgrave Ritual It is a sort sonal advantages .nd his extraordinary of ceremony peculiar to our family, which gifts—for he can speak several languages each Musgrave for centurfes past has and play nearly every musical instrument gone through on his coming of age—a —it is wonderful that he should have been thing of private interest, and perhaps of satisfied so long in such a pesition, but I some.little importance to the archaeolo- suppose that he was. comfortable, and - gist, ltke our own blazonings and charges, lacked energy to make any change. The but of no practical use whatever.” butler of Hurlstone {& always a thing that “ ‘We had better come back to the pa- is remembered by all who visit us. per afterward.” sald L ** ‘But this paragon has one fault. He “‘If you think it really necessary,’ he is @ bit of & Don Juan, and you can imag- answered, with some hesitation. “To com- ine that for a man like him it is not a tinue my statement. however: I relocked very difficult part to plag in a quiet coun- the bureau, using the key which Brunton try district. Whe arried it was had left, and I had turned to o when 1 all right, but sine s been a widower was surprised to find that the butler had we have had ne end of trouble with him. returned and was standing before me. A few montlis’ago we were in hopes that «+e¥r. Musgrave, sir”” he ecried, in he was about to settle down again, for'he a volce which was hoarse with emotion, became engaged to Rachel Howells, our “I can’t bear disgrace, sir. Ive always second housemaid: but he has thrown her been proud above my station in Hfe, over since then and taken up with Janet and disgrace would kill me. My blood Tgegallls, the daughter of the head game- will be on your head, sir—it will, In- keeper. Rachel—who is a very good girl, deed—If you drive me to despalr. If but of an excitable Welsh temperament you cannot keep me after what has —had a sharp touch of brain fever, and passed, then for God's sake let me give goes about the house now—or did until you nofice and leave in 2 mouth, as if yesterday—like a black-eyed shadow of of my own free will. I could stand her former seif. That was our first that, Mr. Musgrave, but not fo be cast drama- at Hurlstone; but a second one out before all the folk that I know so came to drive it from our minds, and it well.” was prefaced by the disgrace and dis- - “‘“You don't deserve much con- missal of butler Brunton. sideration, Brunton,” I answered. “ “Fhis was how it came about. I have “Your conduct has been most infamous. sald that the man was Intelligent, and However, *as you have been a long il this very jntelligence has caused his ruin, time in the family, I have no wish for it to have led to an Insatiable to bring public upon you. curiosity about things which did not in A month, however, is too long. the least concern him. I had no idea of Take yourself away in & week and