The evening world. Newspaper, February 25, 1905, Page 13

the bullet which has ao obviously struck the edge of the window!” ‘ @n inch above tho bottom. “By George!” cried tle Inspector, “How ever did you wee that?” > “Because I looked for it.” ’ away?” remarked that the point was an‘extremely {mportant one?” “Yes, sir; but I confess I did not quite follow you,” time, however,” “How do you prove that?” “Because the candle was not guttered,” “Capital!” cried the Inspector, “Cnpital!” “Feeling sure that the window had heen open at the time of the tragedy, T conceived that there might have been a third person in the affair, who stood outside this opening and fred through it. Any shot directed at this pee might hit the sash, I looked, and there, sure enough, was the bullet mark!" “But how came the window to be shut and fastened?” “The woman's first instinct would be to shut and fasten the window, But, halloa! what is this?” “Tt was a lady's hand-bag Which stood upon the study table—a trim little hand-bag of crocodile-skin and silver, Holmes opened it and turned the contents out. There were twenty fifty-pound notes of the Bank of England, ‘held together by an {ndia-rubher band—nothing else “This must be preserved, for it will figure in the trial,” sald Holmes, as he handed the bag with its contents to the Inspector, “It is now neces« sary that we should try to throw some ight pon this third bullet, whioh has clearly, from the splintering of the wood, been fired from inside the toom, I should like to see Mrs, King, the cook, again, You said, Mrs, King, that you were awakened by a loud explosion. When you said that, did you mean that it seemed to you to be louder than the second one?” “Well, sir, it wakened me from my sleep, and 80 {t is hard to judge. But it did seem very loud.” \» “You don't think that it might have been two shots fired almost at the same instant?” “I am sure I couldn't say, sir,” “T believe that it was undoubtedly 80, I rather think, Inspector Martin, kindly step round with me, we shall see what fresh evidence the garden has to offer.” A flower bed extended up to the study window, and we all broke into an exclamation as-we approached it, The flowers were trampled down ond the soft soil was imprinted all over with footmarks, Large, masculine feet they were, with pecullarly long, sharp toes. Holmes hunted about among the grass and leaves Jike a retriever after a wounded bird. Then, with’a cry of satisfaction, he bent forward and picked up a little brageh cylinder, “I thought so,” sald he; “the revolver had an ejector, and here’ is the third cartridge. 1 really think, Inspector Martin, that our case is almost complete.” ‘ ‘The country inspector's face had shown his intense amazement at the rapid and masterful progress of Holmes’s investigation. At first he had shown some disposition to assert his own position; but now he was over- come with admiration and ready to follow without question wherever Holmes led. 4 “Whom do you suspect?” he esked, “Tl go Into that later, There are several points in this problem which I haye not been able to explain to yon yet. Now that I have got so fat, 4 had best proceed on my own Hines and then clear the whole matter up once and for all.” “Just as you wish, Mr. Holmes, so long as we get our man.” “'T have no desire to make mysteries, but {t 1s {impossible at the moment of action to enter into long and complex explanations. I have the threads of this affair all in my hand, Even if this Indy should never recover con- selousness, we can still reconstruct the events of last night and insure that Justice be done. First of all, I wich to know whether there fs an inn in this neighborhood known as ‘Hirige’s'?” The servants were cross-questioned, hut none of them had heard of such a place. The stable-boy threw a light upon the matter by remember- fhe that a farmer of that name Hved some miles off in the direction of East Ruston, “Ts it a lonely farm?” “Very lonely, sir.” “Perhaps, they have not heard yet of all that happened here during the night?” “Maybe not, sir,!’ Holmes thought for a little, and then a curious emile played over his face, “Saddle a horse, my Jad,” sald he, to Elrige’s farm.” e He took from his pociet the various slips of the dancing men With these in front of him he worked for some time at the study table, Finally he handed a uote to the hoy, with directions to put it into the hands of the person to whom ft was addressed, and espectally to answer no questions of any sort which might be put to him. T saw the outside of the note, addressed in straggling, Irregular characters, very unlike Holmes's usual precise hand, It was consigned to Mr. Abe Slaney, Elrige’s Farm, Hast Ruston, Norfolk. “1 think, Inspector,” Holmes remarked, “that you would do well to telegraph for an escort, as, If my calculations prove to be correct, you may have a particularly dangerous prigoner to convey to the county jail. The boy who takes this note could no doubt forward your telegram, If there ig an afternoon train to town, Watson, I think we should do well to take It, . as 1 have a chemical analysis of some interest to finish, and this investl- gation draws rapidly to a close.” When the youth had been despatched with the note, Sherlock Holmes gave his instructions to the servants, If any visitor were to call asking for Mrs. Hilton Cubitt no information should he given as to her condition, but he was to be shown at once into the drawing-room, He impressed these points upon them with the utmost earnestness, Finally he led the way into the drawing-room, wifi the remark that the business was now out of our hands, and that we must while away the time as best we might until we could see what was in store for us, The doctor had departed to nis patients, and only the Inspector and myself remained. “) think that I can help you to pass an honr in an interesting and profitable manner,” said Holmes, drawing this chair up to the table and spreading out in front of him the varlous papers upon which were recorded the antics of the dancing men. “As to you, friend Watson, I owe you every atonement for having allowed your natural curiosity to remain so long “T shall wish you to take a note ‘ unsatisfied, To you, Inspector, the whole incident may appeal as a remark- able professional stu2y. I must tell you, first of all, the Interesting clreum- stances connected with the previous consuTtations which Mr, Hilton Cubitt Lag had with me in Baker street.” He then shortly recapitulated the facts which have already been recorded, “IT have here in front of me these sin- gular productions, at which one might smile, Tad”they not proved them- selyes to be the forerunners of so terrible a tragedy, I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and am myself the author of a trifing monograph upon the subject, in which I analyze 160 separate ciphers; but I confess that this Is entirely new to me. The object of those who invented the system has apparently been to conceal that these characters convey a message and to give the idea that they are the mere random sketohes of children, “Having once recognized, however, that the symbols stood for letters, iM “Tt suggested that at the time of thé firing the window as well as the Engl door of the room had been open, Otherwise the fumes of powder could, not wh: have been blown so rapidly through the house, A draught th the room was as necessary for that, Both door and window were only open for @ very short are the numerical order in which letters occur: but T, A, O and I are very nearly abreast of each other, and it would be an endless task to try each that we have now exhausted all that this room can teach us, If you will fidence, that the symbol most common letter in the Hnglish alphabet, and it predominates to so “Wonderful!” said the country doctor, “You are certainly right, air, Marked an extent that even in a short sentence one would expect to find it Then a third shot has been fired, and therefore a third person must have Most often, Ont of fifteen symbols in the first message four were the same; been present, But who could that have been, and how could he have got 80 {t was reasonable to set this down aa B | It {9 true that in some cases the figure was bearing a flag, and in some enses not; but it was probable, “That 1s the problem which we are now about to solve,” sald Sherlock ffm the way in which the flags were distributed that they were used to Holmes, “You remember, Inspector Martin, when thé servants sald that Dreax fhe sentence up into words. I accepted this as a hypothesis, and on leaving thelr room they wére at once consclous of a smell of powder I ; noted that E was répresented by \ “But now came the real difficulty of the inquiry. The order of the ligh lett#rs after Eis by no means well marked, and any preponderance {ch may be shown in an average of a printed sheet may be reverséd in (ingle short sentence, Speaking roughly, T, A, 0, I, N, 8, H, R, D and L thas THE WORLD; SATURDAY EVENING, F th RR A tan rennet St "Bo it would seem,” said Holmes, “Perhaps you can account also for and having applfed the rules which guide us in all forms of secret writings, the solution was ensy enough. The first message submitted to me was 80 Ho had turned suddenly, and his long thin finger was pointing to a short that it was impossible for me to do more than to say, with some con- hole which had been drilled right through the lower window-sash, about i stood for H. As you are aware, B is the EBRUARY 25, 1905, and supposing that the name was that of some house or inn at which the not trying to scate tie over this, writer was staying.” Inspector Martin and I had listened with the utmost interest to the full and clear account of how my friend had produced results which had led to 60 complete @ command over our difficulties. “What did you do then, sir?” asked the Inspector. “T had every reason ito suppose that this Abe Sliney was an American, since Abe is an American contraction, and since a letter from America had Ween the starting point of all the trouble. I had also every cause to think that there was some criminal secret in the matter. The lady’s allusions to her past, and her refusal to take her husband into her confidence, both pointed in that direction. I thorefore cabled to my friend, Wilson Har- greave, of the New York Police Sureau, who has more than once made use of my knowledge of Londen crime, I asked him whether the name of Abe Sluaney was known to him. Here {s his reply; ‘The most dangerous crook in Chicago.’ On the vory evening upon which T had his answer Hilton Cubitt sent me the last mescage from Slaney, Working with known letters, {t took this form: ’ ALSIE .RE.ARE TO MMT THY GO. The addition of a P and a D completed a message which showed me that the rascal wag proceeding from persunsion to threats, and my knowledge combination until a meaning was arrived at. I therefore waited for fresh of the crooks of (hicago prepared me to find that he might very rapidly “Well, gentlemen, you have the drop on me this time.” material, In my second interview with Mr. Hilton Cubitt he was able to give me two other short sentences and one message, which appeared—since there was no flag—to he a single word. Here are the symbols. Now, In the single word I have already got the two H's coming second and fourth in a word of five letters, It might be ‘sever,’ or ‘lever,’ or ‘never,’ There can be no question that the Intter as a reply to an appeal js far the most Lrobable, and the circumstances pointed to its belng a reply written by the lady, Accepting it as correct, we are now able to say that the symbols s fe respectively for N, V and R, “Ryen now I was in considerable difficulty, but a happy thought put me in possession of several other letters, It occurred to me that if these appeals came, as I expected, from some one who had been intimate with the lady in her early Hfe. a combination which contained two B's With three letters between might very well stand for the name ‘HLSIB,’ On examination I found that such a combination formed the termination of the megsage which was three times repeated, It was certainly same eppeal to ‘Elsie,’ In this way I had got my L, 8 and I. But what appeal could it be? There were only four letters in the word which ‘preceded ‘Hste,’ and it ended in B, Surely the word must be ‘COMB,’ I tried all cther four letters ending {n E, but could find none to fit the case. So now I was in possession of C, O and ‘NY, and I was ina position to attack the first message once more, Ctyiding It Into words and putting dots for each symbol which was still unknown So treated, It worked ont in this fashion: \ -M . BRE ,.@ SL. NB, “Now, tho tirst letter can only be 4) which is a most useful discovery, since {t occurs no fewer thun three times in this short sentence, and the H js also apparent In the second word, Now it becomes: AM HERE A.E SLANE, Or, filling in the obvious vacancies in the name: AM HPRE ABR SLANEY, 1 had so many letters now that I could proceed with considerable confidence to the second message, which worked out in this fashion: ~ A, BLRI. BS. Here I could only make sense by putting T and G for the missing letters, MAA Saturday, March 4—The Mystery of the Solitary Cyclist. Saturday, March 11—The Adventure of the Priory School, Saturday, March 48—The Mystery of Black Peter, Saturday, March 25—The Mystery of Charles Augustus Milverton, Saturday, April 1—The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, aol ak ht Uc tk a AA le el bec ll ite bland The Return of Sherlock Holmes. The securing of this new series of Sherlock Holmes stories is a striking example of modern newspaper enterprise, It gives THE EVENING WORLD readers the complete series of thirteen stories, never before in anewspaper. They will be published one every Saturday. The first story, “The Mystery of the House,” appeared on Saturday, Feb, 11th; the second, “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder,” on Satu: last; the third story you have here to-day. The other ten will appear in THE EVENING WORLD as follows: Saturday, May 6~—The Adventure of the Second Stain, \ put his words into action. 1 at once came to Norfolk with my friend and colleague, Dr, Watson, but, unhap- pily, only in time to find that the vorst had already occurred,” “It 1s a privilege to be associated with you in the handling of 4 case,” said the Inspector warmly. “You will excuse me, however, if I speak frank- ly to you; You are only answerable to yourself, but I have to answer to my superiors, If this Abe Slaney, living at Hlrige’s, is indeed the mur- derer, and if he has made his escape while I am seated here, I should cér- tainly get {nto serious trouble.” “You weed not be uneasy. He will not try to escape.” “How do you know?” “To fly would be a confession of guilt.” “Then let us go to arrest hin.” “T expect him here every instant,” “But why should he come?” “Because I have written and asked him.” “But this ts incredible, Mr, Homes! Why should he come becatise you have asked him? Would pot such a request rather rouse his suspicions and catise him to fly?” “f thihk I have known how to frame the letter,” sald Sherlock Holmes, “tn fact, {f 1 am not very Much mistaken, here is the gentle- man himself coming up the drive.’ A man was striding up the path which led to the door, He was a tall, handsome, swarthy fellow, clad in a suit of gray flannel, with a Panama hat, ‘a bristling black beard and a great, aggressive hooked nose, and flourishing a cane as he walked. He pwaggered up the path as if the place belonged to him, and we heard his loud, confident peal at the bell, “I think, gentlemen,” sald Holmes quietly, “that we had best take up our position behind the door, Hvery precaution is necessary when dealing with such @ fellow, You will need your handeuffe, Inspector, You can leave the talking to me,” ‘We walted in silence for a minute one of thowe mintites Which one can never forget. Then the door opened and the man stepped in. In an in- stant Holines clapped a pistol to his head and Martin slipped the hand- cuffs over his wrists. 1+ was all done 80 swiftly and deftly that the fellow was helpless before he knew that he was attacked. He glared from one to the other of us with a palr of blaring tack eyes, Then he burst into a bitter laugh, “Well, gentlemen, you have the drop on me this timé, I seem to-have knocked up against something hard. But I came here in answer to a letter from Mrs, Hilton Cubitt. Don't tell me that she 18 in this? Don’t tell me that she helped to set a trap for me?” “Mrs. Hilton Cubitt was serfously inj‘ ed and is at death's door.” The man gave @ hoarse ory of grief Which rang through the house. “You're crazy!” he cried fiercely. “It was he that was hutt, not whe, Who would have hurt little Hlsie? I may have threatened her, God forgive me! but I would not have touched a hair of her pretty head. Take it back— you! Say that she fs not hurt!” “She was found badly wounded by thé side of her dead husband,” He’ sank with a deep groan on to tha settee and butted his face tn his manacled hands, For five minutes he was silent. Then he raised his face once more and spbke with the cold composure of despair. “I-thave nothing to hide from you, gentlemen,” said he, “If I shot the man, he had hits shot at me, and there’s no murder in that. But {f you think I could have hurt that woman, then you don’t know elther me or her, I tell you, there was never a man {n this world loved a woman more than Tloved her, I had a right to her, She was pledged to me years ago. Who was this Englishman that he should come between us? 1 tell you that [ had the first right to her, and thut I was only claiming my own,” “She broke away from your influence when she found the man that you are,” said Holmes sternly. ‘She fled from America to avold you, and she married an honorable gentleman in England. You dogged her and followed Ker afd made her life a misery to her in order to Induce her to abandon the husband whom she toved and respected in order to fly with you, whom she feared and hated. You have ended by bringing about the death of a noble man and driving his wife to suicide, That is your record {n this business, Mr, Abe Slaney, and you will answer for it to the law,” “It Elste dies, t care nothing what becomes of me,” satd the American. He opened one of his hands and looked at a note crumpled up in his palm, “See here, mister,” he cried, with a gleam of euspicion in his eyes, “you're tinted Empty Saturday, April 8—The Mystery of the Three Students, Saturday, April 145—The Adventure of the Gold Pince-Nez, Saturday, April22—The Myslery of the Missing Three-Quarter, Saturday, April 29—The Mystery of the Abbey Grange, renal servitude in consideration of mitigating circumstances and tainty that Hilton Cubitt had fired the first shot, Of Mrs, Ailton Oui only know that I have heard she reovered entirely and that she the administration of her husband's estate. you say, who was it that wrote this mote the table. ; “I wrote it, to bring you here.” } “You wrote it? There was no one on earth outside the Joint the sacrct of the dancing men, How came you to write it?” “What one man can invent another can discover,” said Holt is a cab coming to convey you to Norwich, Mr. Blaney. But, im you have timé to make somo amall reparation for the injury youll wrought, Are you-aware that Mrs. Hilton Cubitt hes herself ial Wi grave suspicion of the mumer of her husband, and that it was only presence here and the knowledge which I happened to posiess 9 mel her fram the accusation? The least that you owe her is ban clear to the whole world that oife was in no responsible for his tragic end,” i edith. “I ask nothing better,” said the American, I can make for myself is the absolute naked trut “It ig my duty to warn you that it will be used against the Inspector, with the magnificent fair play of the British erin Glaney shrugged his shoulders, “TH chance that,” said he. “First of all, Understand that I have known this Nady since she was 4 child, 4s seven of us in a gang in CHTMigo, and Riste's father was the ‘s Joint, He was a clever man, waa old Patrick, It was he who. writing, which would pass as a child’s scrawls utiles you just have the key to ft, Well, Blale learned some of our ways; but gl Stand the business, and she had a bit of honest money of her Gave us all the slip"and got away to London, She had been en and she would have married me, I believe, if I had taken over tesslon; but she would have nothing to do with anything on the was only after her marriage to this Englishman that 1 was able where she was, I wrote to her, but got no answer, After that I and, as letters were no uae, I put my messages where ehe could “Well, I have been here a month now. I lived on thet had a room down helow, and could get in and out every night, a { Ube wiser, I tried all I could to onax Blste/away. 1 kuow that aha the messages, for once she wrote an answer under one of them. temper got the better of me, and I began to threaten her, She letter then, imploring me to go away and saying that it wouM bi heart if any scandal should come tipon her husband, She sald. would come down when her hutband was aleeep at 8 in the mo speak with me through the end window if I would go away r leave her in peace. She came down and brought money oa to bribe mé to go, This made me mad, and I caught her a pull her through the window, ‘At that moment in rushed the ‘his revolver in bis hand, Hlsle bad sunk down upon the floor, were face to face. I was heeled also, and I hell wp my gun 0 off and let me get away, He fired and missed me, I pulled 6 the same instant, and down he dropped, 1 made alway actos and as I went I heard the window shut Sehind me, That's gentlemen, every word of ft; and I heard no more about it | came riding up with a note which made me walk in here, fit give myself into your hands,” \ i A cab had driven up while the American had been & uniformed policemen sat inside, Inspector Martin rose prisoner on the shoulder ‘ “It {a time-for us to go,” “Can I see her first?” \ “No, she 18 not consclous, Mr, Sherlock Holmes, I “I guess.the very, » I want you 4 / > Mj nwa , x The Composure of Despatr, ] ever again I have an {tportant case I shall have the good fortm you by my side,” i We stood at thé window and watched the cab drive away, Aa back my eye caught the pellet of paner which the prisones had the table, Tt was the Rote with Which Holmes had decoyed hit, “See if you can read it, Watson,” said he with a smile " It contained no word, but this little Ime of dancing ment SY SKIXERRTS “Tt you tee the code which 1 have explained,” said Ho find that it simply means ‘Come here at once,’ I was convii was an Invitation which he would not refuse, since he could net : that It could come from any one bit the lady. Aiid so, my dear # we have ended by turning the dancing men to good when often been tie agents of evil, and I thinly that I have fwiflféd my: c@ giving you something unusual for your note-boole, Thiee-t train, and I fancy we should be back in Baker street for dinner, Only one word of epilogue, The American, Alle Slaney, was oo to death at the winter assizes at Norwich; Sut "his penalty was el remains a widow, devoting her whole life to the care of the poor and € (The End.) NEXT SATURDAY The Mystery of the Solitary ¢; The fourth Adventure of this