defiant eyes, and then, suddenly recognizing me, an
expression of absolute astonishment came over her
face.
"'Why, if it isn't Mr. Phelps, of the office!' she
cried.
"'Come, come, who did you think we were when you ran
away from us?' asked my companion.
"'I thought you were the brokers,' said she, 'we have
had some trouble with a tradesman.'
"'That's not quite good enough,' answered Forbes. 'We
have reason to believe that you have taken a paper of
importance fro the Foreign Office, and that you ran in
here to dispose of it. You must come back with us to
Scotland Yard to be searched.'
"It was in vain that she protested and resisted. A
four-wheeler was brought, and we all three drove back
in it. We had first made an examination of the
kitchen, and especially of the kitchen fire, to see
whether she might have made away with the papers
during the instant that she was alone. There were no
signs, however, of any ashes or scraps. When we
reached Scotland Yard she was handed over at once to
the female searcher. I waited in an agony of suspense
until she came back with her report. There were no
signs of the papers.
"Then for the first time the horror of my situation
came in its full force. Hitherto I had been acting,
and action had numbed thought. I had been so
confident of regaining the treaty at once that I had
not dared to think of what would be the consequence if
I failed to do so. But now there was nothing more to
be done, and I had leisure to realize my position. It
was horrible. Watson there would tell you that I was
a nervous, sensitive boy at school. It is my nature.
I thought of my uncle and of his colleagues in the
Cabinet, of the shame which I had brought upon him,
upon myself, upon every one connected with me. What
though I was the victim of an extraordinary accident?
No allowance is made for accidents where diplomatic
interests are at stake. I was ruined, shamefully,
hopelessly ruined. I don't know what I did. I fancy
I must have made a scene. I have a dim recollection
of a group of officials who crowded round me,
endeavoring to soothe me. One of them drove down with
me to Waterloo, and saw me into the Woking train. I
believe that he would have come all the way had it not
been that Dr. Ferrier, who lives near me, was going
down by that very train. The doctor most kindly took
charge of me, and it was well he did so, for I had a
fit in the station, and before we reached home I was
practically a raving maniac.
"You can imagine the state of things here when they
were roused from their beds by the doctor's ringing
and found me in this condition. Poor Annie here and
my mother were broken-hearted. Dr. Ferrier had just
heard enough from the detective at the station to be
able to give an idea of what had happened, and his
story did not mend matters. It was evident to all
that I was in for a long illness, so Joseph was
bundled out of this cheery bedroom, and it was turned
into a sick-room for me. Here I have lain, Mr.
Holmes, for over nine weeks, unconscious, and raving
with brain-fever. If it had not been for Miss
Harrison here and for the doctor's care I should not
be speaking to you now. She has nursed me by day and
a hired nurse has looked after me by night, for in my
mad fits I was capable of anything. Slowly my reason
has cleared, but it is only during the last three days
that my memory has quite returned. Sometimes I wish
that it never had. The first thing that I did was to
wire to Mr. Forbes, who had the case in hand. He came
out, and assures me that, though everything has been
done, no trace of a clue has been discovered. The
commissionnaire and his wife have been examined in
every way without any light being thrown upon the
matter. The suspicions of the police then rested upon
young Gorot, who, as you may remember, stayed over
time in the office that night. His remaining behind
and is French name were really the only two points
which could suggest suspicion; but, as a matter of
fact, I did not begin work until he had gone, and his
people are of Huguenot extraction, but as English in
sympathy and tradition as you and I are. Nothing was
found to implicate him in any way, and there the
matter dropped. I turn to you, Mr. Holmes, as
absolutely my last hope. If you fail me, then my
honor as well as my position are forever forfeited."
The invalid sank back upon his cushions, tired out by
this long recital, while his nurse poured him out a
glass of some stimulating medicine. Holmes sat
silently, with his head thrown back and his eyes
closed, in an attitude which might seem listless to a
stranger, but which I knew betokened the most intense
self-absorption.
"You statement has been so explicit," said he at last,
"that you have really left me very few questions to
ask. There is one of the very utmost importance,
however. Did you tell any one that you had this
special task to perform?"
"No one."
"Not Miss Harrison here, for example?"
"No. I had not been back to Woking between getting
the order and executing the commission."
"And none of your people had by chance been to see
you?"
"None."
"Did any of them know their way about in the office?"
"Oh, yes, all of them had been shown over it."
"Still, of course, if you said nothing to any one
about the treaty these inquiries are irrelevant."
"I said nothing."
"Do you know anything of the commissionnaire?"
"Nothing except that he is an old soldier."
"What regiment?"
"Oh, I have heard--Coldstream Guards."
"Thank you. I have no doubt I can get details from
Forbes. The authorities are excellent at amassing
facts, though they do not always use them to
advantage. What a lovely thing a rose is!"
He walked past the couch to the open window, and held
up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at
the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new
phase of his character to me, for I had never before
seen him show any keen interest in natural objects.
"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary
as in religion," said he, leaning with his back
against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact
science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the
goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the
flowers. All other things, our powers our desires,
our food, are all really necessary for our existence
in the first instance. But this rose is an extra.
Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life,
not a condition of it. It is only goodness which
r /> gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to
hope from the flowers.
Percy Phelps and his nurse looked at Holmes during
this demonstration with surprise and a good deal of
disappointment written upon their faces. He had
fallen into a reverie, with the moss-rose between his
fingers. It had lasted some minutes before the young
lady broke in upon it.
"Do you see any prospect of solving this mystery, Mr.
Holmes?" she asked, with a touch of asperity in her
voice.
"Oh, the mystery!" he answered, coming back with a
start to the realities of life. "Well, it would be
absurd to deny that the case is a very abstruse and
complicated one, but I can promise you that I will
look into the matter and let you know any points which
may strike me."
"Do you see any clue?"
"You have furnished me with seven, but, of course, I
must test them before I can pronounce upon their
value."
"You suspect some one?"
"I suspect myself."
"What!"
"Of coming to conclusions to rapidly."
"Then go to London and test your conclusions."
"Your advice is very excellent, Miss Harrison," said
Holmes, rising. "I think, Watson, we cannot do
better. Do not allow yourself to indulge in false
hopes, Mr. Phelps. The affair is a very tangled one."
"I shall be in a fever until I see you again," cried
the diplomatist.
"Well, I'll come out be the same train to-morrow,
though it's more than likely that my report will be a
negative one."
"God bless you for promising to come," cried our
client. "It gives me fresh life to know that
something is being done. By the way, I have had a
letter from Lord Holdhurst."
"Ha! What did he say?"
"He was cold, but not harsh. I dare say my severe
illness prevented him from being that. He repeated
that the matter was of the utmost importance, and
added that no steps would be taken about my future--by
which he means, of course, my dismissal--until my
health was restored and I had an opportunity of
repairing my misfortune."
"Well, that was reasonable and considerate," said
Holmes. "Come, Watson, for we have a goody day's work
before us in town."
Mr. Joseph Harrison drove us down to the station, and
we were soon whirling up in a Portsmouth train.
Holmes was sunk in profound thought, and hardly opened
his mouth until we had passed Clapham Junction.
"It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any
of these lines which run high, and allow you to look
down upon the houses like this."
I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid
enough, but he soon explained himself.
"Look at those big, isolated clumps of building rising
up above the slates, like brick islands in a
lead-colored sea."
"The board-schools."
"Light-houses, my boy! Beacons of the future!
Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each,
out of which will spring the wise, better England of
the future. I suppose that man Phelps does not
drink?"
"I should not think so."
"Nor should I, but we are bound to take every
possibility into account. The poor devil has
certainly got himself into very deep water, and it's a
question whether we shall ever be able to get him
ashore. What did you think of Miss Harrison?"
"A girl of strong character."
"Yes, but she is a good sort, or I am mistaken. She
and her brother are the only children of an
iron-master somewhere up Northumberland way. He got
engaged to her when traveling last winter, and she
came down to be introduced to his people, with her
brother as escort. Then came the smash, and she
stayed on to nurse her lover, while brother Joseph,
finding himself pretty snug, stayed on too. I've been
making a few independent inquiries, you see. But
to-day must be a day of inquiries."
"My practice--" I began.
"Oh, if you find your own cases more interesting than
mine--" said Holmes, with some asperity.
"I was going to say that my practice could get along
very well for a day or two, since it is the slackest
time in the year."
"Excellent," said he, recovering his good-humor.
"Then we'll look into this matter together. I think
that we should begin be seeing Forbes. He can
probably tell us all the details we want until we know
from what side the case is to be approached.
"You said you had a clue?"
"Well, we have several, but we can only test their
value by further inquiry. The most difficult crime to
track is the one which is purposeless. Now this is
not purposeless. Who is it who profits by it? There
is the French ambassador, there is the Russian, there
is who-ever might sell it to either of these, and
there is Lord Holdhurst."
"Lord Holdhurst!"
"Well, it is just conceivable that a statesman might
find himself in a position where he was not sorry to
have such a document accidentally destroyed."
"Not a statesman wit the honorable record of Lord
Holdhurst?"
"It is a possibility and we cannot afford to disregard
it. We shall see the noble lord to-day and find out
if he can tell us anything. Meanwhile I have already
set inquiries on foot."
"Already?"
"Yes, I sent wires from Woking station to every
evening paper in London. This advertisement will
appear in each of them."
He handed over a sheet torn from a note-book. On it
was scribbled in pencil: "L10 reward. The number of
the cab which dropped a fare at or about the door of
the Foreign Office in Charles Street at quarter to ten
in the evening of May 23d. Apply 221 B, Baker
Street."
"You are confident that the thief came in a cab?"
"If not, there is no harm done. But if Mr. Phelps is
correct in stating that there is no hiding-place
either in the room or the corridors, then the person
must have come from outside. If he came from outside
on so wet a night, and yet left no trace of damp upon
the linoleum, which was examined within a few minutes
of his passing, then it is exceeding probably that he
came in a cab. Yes, I think that we may safely deduce
a cab."
"It sounds plausible."
"That is one of the clues of which I spoke. It may
lead us to something. And then, of course, there is
the bell--which is the most distinctive feature of the
case. Why should the bell ring? Was it the thief who
did it out of bravado? Or was it some one who was
with the thief who did it in order to prevent the
crime? Or was it an accident? Or was it--?" He sank
back into the state of intense and silent thought from
which he had emerged; but it seemed to me, accustomed
as I was to his every mood, that some new possibility
had dawned suddenly upon him.
It was twenty past three when we reached our terminus,
and after a hasty luncheon at the buffet we pushed on
at once to Scotland Yard. Holmes had already wired to
Forbes, and we found him waiting to receive us--a
small, foxy man with a sharp but by no means amiable
expression. He was decidedly frigid in his manner to
us, especially when he heard the errand upon which we
had come.
"I've heard of your methods before now, Mr. Holmes,"
said he, tartly. "You are ready enough to use all the
information that the police can lay at your disposal,
and then you try to finish the case yourself and bring
discredit on them."
"On the contrary," said Holmes, "out of my last
fifty-three cases my name has only appeared in four,
and the police have had all the credit in forty-nine.
I don't blame you for not knowing this, for you are
young and inexperienced, but if you wish to get on in
your new duties you will work with me and not against
me."
"I'd be very glad of a hint or two," said the
detective, changing his manner. "I've certainly had
no credit from the case so far."
"What steps have you taken?"
"Tangey, the commissionnaire, has been shadowed. He
left the Guards with a good character and we can find
nothing against him. His wife is a bad lot, though.
I fancy she knows more about this than appears."
"Have you shadowed her?"
"We have set one of our women on to her. Mrs. Tangey
drinks, and our woman has been with her twice when she
was well on, but she could get nothing out of her."
"I understand that they have had brokers in the
house?"
"Yes, but they were paid off."
"Where did the money come from?"
"That was all right. His pension was due. They have
not shown any sign of being in funds."
"What explanation did she give of having answered the
bell when Mr. Phelps rang for the coffee?"
"She said that he husband was very tired and she
wished to relieve him."
"Well, certainly that would agree with his being found
a little later asleep in his chair. There is nothing
against them then but the woman's character. Did you
ask her why she hurried away that night? Her haste
attracted the attention of the police constable."
"She was later than usual and wanted to get home."
"Did you point out to her that you and Mr. Phelps, who
started at least twenty minutes after he, got home
before her?"
"She explains that by the difference between a 'bus
and a hansom."
"Did she make it clear why, on reaching her house, she
ran into the back kitchen?"
"Because she had the money there with which to pay off
the brokers."
"She has at least an answer for everything. Did you
ask her whether in leaving she met any one or saw any
one loitering about Charles Street?"
"She saw no one but the constable."
"Well, you seem to have cross-examined her pretty
thoroughly. What else have you done?"
"The clerk Gorot has been shadowed all these nine
weeks, but without result. We can show nothing
against him."
"Anything else?"
"Well, we have nothing else to go upon--no evidence of
any kind."
"Have you formed a theory about how that bell rang?"
"Well, I must confess that it beats me. It was a cool
hand, whoever it was, to go and give the alarm like
that."
"Yes, it was queer thing to do. Many thanks to you
for what you have told me. If I can put the man into
your hands you shall hear from me. Come along,
Watson."
"Where are we going to now?" I asked, as we left the
office.
"We are now going to interview Lord Holdhurst, the
cabinet minister and future premier of England."
We were fortunate in finding that Lord Holdhurst was
still in his chambers in Downing Street, and on Holmes
sending in his card we were instantly shown up. The
statesman received us with that old-fashioned courtesy
for which he is remarkable, and seated us on the two