The evening world. Newspaper, March 4, 1905, Page 12

ind fall of the pa dotereatih associations, that it Was near there that we took Archie Stam- low, Miss Violet, what has happened to you, near Farn- @ borders of Surrey?” ung lady, with great clearness and composure, made the foilow- statement: at the old Imperial Theatre, My mother and I were left with- lon in the world except one uncle, Ralph Smith, who went to mity-flve years ago, and we have never had a word from him since. er died we were left very poor, but one day we were told that an advertisement ‘im the Times inquiring for our whereabouts. how excited we were, for we thought some one had left us went at once to the Jawyer whose name was given in the ‘we met two gentlemen, Mr, Carruthers and Mr. Woodley, who a visit from South Africa. They said that my uncle was a , that he had died some months before in great poverty in pg, and that he had asked them with his last breath to hunt up ‘and ace that they were in no want. It seemed strange to us @ Ralph, who took no notice of us when he was alive, should be so look after us when he was dead; but Mr. Carruthers explains d @ feason was that my uncle “heard of the death of his fF and so felt responsible for ib e me,” said Holmes; “when a interview?” December—four months ago.” proceed.” Yoodley seemed to be a most eon, He was forever mak- be at me—a coarse, puffy-faced, tached young man, with his llastered down on each side of 4, I thought that he was ly hateful—end I was sure that ld not wish me to know )) Cyril is his name!” said ) smiling. lady. blusbed = and , Holmes, Oyril Morton, an gi engineer, and we hope to at the end of the summer. did I get talking about 4 I wished to say was that y ‘was perfectly odious, { Mr. Carruthers, who was a 1 vman, ‘was more agree- 8 Mark, sallow, clean- , but he had po- $ and © pleasant smile, jhow owe lwere left, and, we wore very poor, he 1 should come and ie to his only daughter, sald bap I did not like (seni | gear, which was certainly pay. Govit ended by my ac- went down indy a> it home to my mother Miles Viclot Sesith, first flaw in my happiness was the arrival of the red-muateohed , He came for a visit of a week, and oh, it seemed three months “woe a dreadful person—a bully to every one else, but to me Infinitely worse, He made odious love to me, boasted of his id that if I married him I would have the finest diamonds in Lon- Gad finally, when I would have nothing to do with him, he seized me in a ‘one day after dinner—he was hideously strong—and he swore that jot let me go until I had kissed him, Mr, Carruthers came in and 4rom inc, on which he turned upon his own host, knocking him ‘outting his face open. That was the end of his visit, as you can ir. Oarruthers apologized to me the next day and assured me that ever be exposed to such an insult again, I have not seen Mr. since, mow, Mr. Holmes, | come at last to the special thing which has asic your advice to-day. You must know that every Saturday tide on my bicycle to Farnham station in order to get the 12.22 to toad from Chiltern Grange is a lonely one, and at one spot It is p0, for it les for over a mile between Oharlington Heath upon id the woods which lie round Charlington Hall upon the other, Hot find a more lonely tract of road anywhere; and it is quite rare juch @s & cart or a peasant until you reach the high road near ili. Two weeks ago I was passing this place when I chanced ‘over my shoulder, and about two hundred yards behind me 1 also 00 a bicycle, He seemed to be a middle-aged man With a ‘beard. 1 looked back before I reached Farnham, but the man T thought no more about it, But you can imagine how sur- as, Mr, Holmes, when, on my return on the Monday, I saw the same game stretch of road. My astonishment was increased when the ed again, exactly as before, on the following saturday and 2 always kept hig distance and did not molest me in any way, certainly was very odd. I mentioned it to Mr, Carruthers, who ; din what I said, and told me that he had ordered a horse 0 that in future I should not pass over these lonely roads without panion. horse and trap were to have come this week, but for some reason ‘Mot delivered, and again I had to cycle to the station, That was i. You can think that 1 looked out when I came to Charlington Way and there, sure enough, was the man, exactly as he had been the two hefo He always kept so far from me that 1 could not clearly see , but it was certainly some one whom | did not know. He was in a dark sult with a clothcap, The only thing about his face that V clearly gee was his dark beard, To-day I was not alarmed, but I was ith curiosity, and I determined to find out who he was and what he ‘ I slowed down my machine, but he slowed down his, Then I 4 Paltogether, but he stopped also, Then I laid a trap for him, There wurning of the road, and I pedalled very quickly around this and ped and waited. 1 expected him to shoot around and pass me be- Gould stop. But he never appeared, 1 then went back and looked the corner, i could see a mile of road, but he was not on It. To the more extraordinary, there was no side road at this point down could have gone,” les chuckled and rubbed his hands, “This case certainly presents atures of its own,” said he. “How much time elapsed between your | the corner and your discovery that the road was clear?” or three minutes.” he cold not have retreated down the road, and you say there are a SEC ae ee q i ¢ i, ati. 2s FORLD: 1 BATUE “None! , / “Then he certainly took a footpath on one side or the other.” “Tt could not have been on the slide of the heath, or I should have seen him.” 4 “So, by the process of exclusion, we arrive at the fa way toward Charlington Hall, which, as I understand, Is 3 grounds on one side of the road, Anything else?” “Nothing, Mr, Holmes, save that I was so perplexed that I felt I should not be happy until I had seen you and had your advice,” Holmes sat in silence for some little time. “Where is the gentleman to whom you are engaged?” he asked at last, “He is in the Midland Electrical Company, at Coventry.” “He would not pay you a surprise visit?” “Oh, Mr. Holmes! As if I should not know him!” “Have you had any other admirers?” he made his jated in {ts own “Several before I knew Cyril.” 4 ‘And since?” “There was this dreadful man, Woodley, if you can call him an admirer,” “No one else?” Our fair client seemer a little confused, “Who was he?” asked Holmes, “Oh, it may be a mere fancy of mine; hut it had seemed tome sometimes that my employer, Mr, Carruthers, takes @ great deal of interest in me, We are thrown rather together, I play his accompaniments in the even- ing. He has never said anything. He is a perfect gentleman. But a gir) always knows.” “Ha!” Holmes looked grave. “What does he do for a living?” “He is a rich man.” “No carriages or horses?” - “Well, at least he is fairly well-to- do, But he goes into the city two or three times a week. He is deeply in- terested in South shares,” “You will let me know any fresh ‘development, Miss Smith. I am very busy just now, but I will find time to make some inquiries into your case, In the mean time take no step with- out letting me know. Good-by, and Istrust that we shall have nothing but good news from you.” “Tt is part of the settled order of nature that such a gil should have followers,” said Holmes, as he pulled at his meditative pipe, “but for choice not on bicycles in lonely country roads, Some secretive lover, beyond ail doubt, But there are curious and suggestive details about the case, Watson.” “What he should appear only at that point?” “Bxactly, Our first effort must be to find who are the tenants of Char- lington Hall. Thon, again, how about the connection between Car- ruthers and Woodley, since they ap- pear to be men of such a different type? How came they both to be so keen upon looking up Ralph Smith's relations? One more point. What sort of a menage is It that pays dou- ble the market price for a governess, but does not. keep a horse, although six miles from the station? Odd, Watson—very odd!" “You will go down?” down. This may be some trifling in- trigue, and I cannot breal my other i rtant research for the sake of Teacher of Music, nagar Monday you will arrive early at Farnham; you will conceal yourself near Charlington Heath; you will ob- serve these facts for yourself, and act as your own judgment advises, Then, having inquired as to the occupants of the Hall, you will come back to me and report, And now, Watson, not another word of the matter until we have a few solid stepping-stones on which we may hope to get across to, our solution.” We had ascertained from the lady that she went down upon the Moncay by the train which leayes Waterloo at 9.50 o'clock, go I started early and caught the 9.18, At Farnham Station I had no difficulty in being directed to Charlington Heath, It was impossible to mistake the acene of the young Jady’s adventure, for the road runs between the open heath on one side and an old yew hedge upon the other, surrounding a park which is studded with magnificent trees, There was a main gateway of lichen-studded stone, each side pillar surmounted by moldering heraldic emblems; but besides this central carriage drive | observed several points where there were gaps In the hedge, and paths leading through them. The house was invisible from the road, but the aurroundings all apoke of gloom and decay. The heath was covered with golden patches of flowering gorse, gleam- ing magiticently in the light of the bright spring sunshine, Behind one of these clumps I took up my position, so as to command both the gateway of the Hall and a long stretchy of the road upon either side, It had been de- serted when I left it, but now I saw a‘eyclist riding down it from the op- posite direction to that in which 1 had come. He was clad in a dark suit, and I saw that he had a black beard, On reaching the end of the Charling- ton grounds he sprang from his machine and led it through a gap in the hedge, disappearing from my view. A quarter of an hour passed and then a second cyclist appeared, This time it was the young lady coming from the station, I saw her look about her as she came to the Charlington hedge, An instant later the mau emerged from his hiding-place, sprang upon his cycle and followed her, In nil the broad | pe those were the only moving figures, the graceful girl sitting very straight upon her machine, and the man behind her bend- ing low over his handle-bar with a curiously furtive suggestion In every movement, She looked back at him and slowed her pace, He slowed also, She stopped. He at once stopped, too, keeping two hundred yards behind her, Her next movement was as unexpected as it was spirited. She sud- denly whisked her wheel round and dashed straight at him! He was as quick as she, however, and darted off in desperate flight. Presently she came back up the road again, her head haughtily in the air, not deigning to take any further notice of her silent attendant. He had turned also and still kept his distance until the curve of the road hid them from my sight. I remained in my hiding place, and {t was well that I did so, for pres- entiy the man reappeared, cycling slowly back, He turned In at the Hall gates and dismounted from his machine. For some minutes f could see him staudiny among the trees, His hands were raised and he seemed to be ret- tilng hic necktie, Tnen he mounted his cycle and rode away from me down the drive toward the Hall, IT ran across the heath and peered through the treee Har away | could catch glimpses of the old gray building with its bristl'ng Tudor chimneys, but the drive ran through a dense shrubbery und I saw no more of my man. However, it seemed to me that I had done a fairly good morning’s work, and 1 walked back in high spirits to Farnham, The local house agent could tell me nothing about Charlington Hall, and referred me to a well- i] firm in Pall Mall, There I halted on my way home and met with courtesy fron. the representative. No, I could not have Charlington Hall for the summer. I wae just too late, It had been let about a month ago. Mr. Williamson was the namb of the tenant. He was a respectable, elderly gen- tleman. The polite agent was afraid he could say no more, as the affairs of his clients were not matters which he could discuss African gold ~ “No, my dear fellow, you will go‘ Mr, Gherlock Holmes ietoned ‘with attention to the long report which I was able to present ¢> him that evening; but it did not elicit that word of curt praise which I had hoped for and should have valued, On the contrary, * his austere face was even more severe than usual as he commented upon the things I had done and the things that I had not. “Your hiding place, my dear Watson, was very faulty. You should bave been behind the hedge; then you would have had a close view of this inter- esting person, As ft is, you were some hundreds of yards away and can tell me even less than Miss Smith. She thinks she does not know the man; I am convinced she does, Why, otherwise, should he be so desperatély anx- fous that she should not get so near him as to see his features? You de- serivo him as bending over the handle-bar, Concealment again, you see! You really have done remarkably badly. He returns to the house, and you want to find out who he is, You come to a London house agent!” “What should I have done?” I cried, with some heat. “Gone to the nearest public-house, That is the centre of country govsip. They would have told you every name, from the master to the scullery-maid. Williamson! It conveys nothing to my mind. If he is an elderly man he is not this active cyclist who sprints away from that athletic young lady's pursuit, What have we gained by your expedition? The’ knowledge that the girl’s story is true, I never doubted it. That there js a connection between the cyclist and the Hall. I never doubted that either. ‘That the hall is tenanted by Williamson. Who's tho better for that? Well, well, my dear sir, don’t look so depressed, We can do little nore until next Saturday, and in the mean time I may make one or two in- quiries myself.” Next morning we had a note from Miss Smith, recounting shortly and accurately the very incidents which I had seen; but the pith of the letter lay in the postscript: “T gm sure that you will respect my confidence, Mr. Holmes, when I ‘tell you that my place here has become difficult, owing to the fact that my employer has proposed marriage to me, I am convinced that his feel- ings are most deep and tiost honorable, At the same time, my promise is ot course given, He took my refusal very seriously, but also very gently. You can understand, however, that the situation is a little strained.” “Our young friend seems to be getting into deep waters,” said Holmes, thoughtfully, as be finished the letter. “The case certainly presents more features of interest and more possibility 6f development than J had originally thought, I should be none the worse for a quiet, peaceful day in the country, and I am inclined to run down this afternoon and test one cr two theories which I have formed.” Holmes's quiet day in the country had a singular termination; for he arrived at Baker street late in the evening with a cut lip and a discolored lump upon his forehead, besides a general air of dissipation which would have made his own porson the fitting object of a Scotland Yard investigation ‘He was immensely tickled by his own adventures, and laughed heartily as he recounted them, “I get so little active exercise that It is always a treat,’’ said he. “You are aware that I have some proficiency in the good old British sport of boxing. Occasionally it is of service; to-day, for example; 1 should haye come to very ignominious grief without it.” I begged him to tell me what had occurred. “T found that country pub which I had already recommended to your att was a straight left against a slogging ruffian,” notice, and there I made my discreet inquiries. | was in the bar, and a gar- rulous landlord was giving me all that | wanted, Williamson fs a white- bearded man, and he lives alone with a small staff of servants at the Hall, There ome rumor that he is or has been a clergymaa; but one or two incidents of bis short residen the Hall struck me as peculiarly unec- tical, 1 have already made some inquiries at a clerical agency, and they tell me t a tan of that name in orders whose career has been a singularly dark one, The landlord further informed me that there are usually week-qnd visitor ‘a warm lot, sir'—at the Mall, and especially one gentleman with a red mustache, Mr, Woodley by name, who was always We had got aa far as this, when who should walk in but the ge’ ntle who had been drinking his beer in the tap-room and had Who was 1? What did | want?) What ? He had a fine flow of language, and He ended a string of abuse by a vicious V1 fw 0 The next few minutes were delicious, It w straight left against a slogging rufilan, : emerged as you see me. Mr, Woodley went home in a cart. So ended my country trip; and {t must be confessed that, however enjoyable, my day on the Surrey border has not been mich imore profitable than your own.” The Thursday brought us another letter from our client. “You will not be surprised, Mr, Holines,” sald she, “to hear that f am cle at there was there man himself, heard the whole conversation, did T mean by esking question his adjective sre yery vigorous. I hander ¥ entirely avoid WORE yh sine ast i i oe at leaving My. nt. Biven the high pay cailnot reconcile ‘employment, me to the discomforts of my situation, On Saturday T come up to town, and I do not intend to return. Mr. Carruthers has got a trap, and 80 the dangers of the lonely road, if there ever were any dangers, are now over. i “As to the special cause of my leaving, it is not merely the strained situation with Mr, Carruthers, but it is the reappearance of that odious nian, Mr, Woodley. He was always hideous, but he looks more awful than ever now, for he appears to have had an accident, and he is much dis- figured, I saw him out of the window, but 1 am glad to say I did not meet him, He had a long talk with Mr. Carrwthors, who seemed much excited afterward. Woodley must be staying in the neighborhood, for he did not sleep here; and yet I caught a glimpse of him again this morning, glinking about in the shrubbery, I would gooner have a savage wild animal loose about the~place. I loathe and fear him more than I can say, How can Mr. Carruthers endure such a creature for a moment? However, all my troubles will be over on Saturday.” “Bo I trust, Watson; so I trust,” said Holmes, gravely. “There {s some deep intrigue going on round that little woman, and it is our duty to see that no one moleste her upon that last journey. I think, Watson, that we must spare time to run down together on Saturday morning, and make sure phat this curious and Inclusive investigation has no untoward ending.” 1 confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious viow of the ease, which had seemed to me rather grotesque and bizarre than dangerous, ‘Phat a man should lie in wait for and follow a very handsome woman 1s no unheard-of thing; and if he hag so little audacity that he not only dared not address her, but even fled from her approach, he was not a very formide able assatlant, The ruffian Woodley was,a very different person, but, except on one occasion, he ‘had not molested our client, and now he visited the house of Carruthers without intruding upon her presence. The man on the bicycle was doubtless a member of those week-end parties at the Hall of which the publican had spoken, but who he was, or what he wanted, was as obscure as ever. It was the severity of Holmos’s manner, and the fact that he slipped a revolver into his pocket before leaving our roéms, which impressed me with the feeling that tragedy might prove to lurk behind this curious train of events. A rainy night had been followed by a glorious morning, and the heath- covered country-side, with the glowing clump of flowering gorse, scemad all the mote beautiful to eyes which were weary of the duns and drabs and slate-grays of London. Holmes and I walked along the broad, sandy road inhaling the fresh morning air and rejoicing in the musie of the birds and the fresh breath of the spring. From a rise of the road on the shoulder of Crooksbury Hill we could see the grim Hall bristling out from amid the ancient oaks, which, old as they were, were still younger than the building which they surrounded, Holmes pointed down the long tract of road which wound, a reddish yellow band, between the brown of the heath and the budding green of the woods. Far away, a black dot, we could gee a vehicle moving in our direction, Holmes gave an exclamation of impatience, “I have given @ margin of half an hour,” said he. “If that is her trap, she must be making for the earlier train. I fear, Watson, that she will be past Charlington before we can possibly meet her,” From the instant that we passed the rise we could no longer gee the vehicle, but: we hastened onward at euch a pace that my sedentary lite he gan to tell upon me, and I Was compelled to fall behind. Holmes, how= ever, was always in training, for he had inexhaustible stores of nervoug energy upon which to draw, His springy step never slowed until sud- denly, when he was a hundred yards in front of me, he halted, and I saw him throw up his hands with a ges> ture of grief and despair, At the same instant an empty dog-cart, the horse cantering, the reins trailing, appeared round the curve of the road and rattled swiftly-toward us, “Too late, Watson; too late!” orled Holmes, as I rap panting to his side, “Fool that T was not to allow for that earlier train! It’s abduv- tion, Watson —adbuction! Murder! God knows what! Block the road! Stop the horse! That's right. Now, Jump In, and let us see if I can repair the consequences of my own blunder,” We had sprung into the dog-cart, and Holmes, after turning the horse, gave ft a sharp cut with the whip, and we flew back along the road. As we turned the curve the whole stretch of road between the Hall and the heath was Opened up. I grasped Holmes’s arm, “That's the man!" I gasped, A solitary cyclist was coming to- wan us, His head was down and his shoulders rounded, as he put every ounce of energy that he possessed on to the pedals. He was flying like a racer. Suddenly he raised his bearded face, saw us close to him and pulled up, springing from his machine, That coal-black beard was in singular contrast to the pallor of his face, and his eyes were as bright as if he bad @ fever, He stared at us and at the dog-cart. Then a look of amazement came over his face, “Halloa! Stop there!" he shouted, holding his bicycle to block our road, “Where did you get that dug-cart? Pull up, man!” he yelled, drawing a pistol from his side-pocket, ‘Pull up, I say, or, by George, I'll put a bullet into your hore.” Holmes threw the reins into my lap and sprang down from the cart, “You're the man we want to see, Where is Miss Violet Smith?” he said in his quick, clear way. “That's what I'm You're in her dog-car't \know where she Is.” “We met the dog-can on the road. There was no one In it, We drove back to help the young lady.” "Good Lord! Good Lord! What shall I do?" cried the stranger in an ecstasy of despair, “They've got her, thot holl-hound Woodley and the blackguard parson, Come, man, come! if you really are her friend, Stand by me and we'll save her, if I haye to leave my carcass In ( harlingion Wood," He ran distraclediy, bis pistol in his hand, toward a gap in the hedge. Holmes followed him, and 1, leaving the horse grazing beside the road, fol- lowed Holmes asking you. You ought to “This 18 where they came through,” said he, pointing to the marks of several feet upon the muddy path. “Halloa! Stop a minute! Who's this in the bush?" It was a young fellow about seventeen, Jeather cords and gaiters, He lay upon his back, bis knees drawn up, @ terrible cut upon his head, He was insensible, but alive. A glance at his wound told me that it had not penetrated the bone, dressed like an ostler, with hat'’s Peter, the groom,” have pulled him off and clubbed him. any good, but we may save her woman.” cried the stranger. “He dyoye hoy The Let him lie; we can't do him from the worst fate that can befall s We ran frantically down the path which wound among the trees, We had reached the shrubbery which surrounded the house when Holmes pulled up. ,