“Some years ago—to be definite, in May, 1884—there came to Lee a gentleman, Neville St.Clair by name, who appeared to have plenty of money. He took a large villa,laid out the grounds very nicely, and lived generally in good style.By degrees he made friends in the neighbourhood,and in 1887 he married the daughter of a local brewer, by whom he now has two children.He had no occupation, but was interested in several companies and went into town as a rule in the morning,returning by the 5:14 from Cannon Street every night. Mr. St.Clair is now thirty-seven years of age, is a man of temperate habits, a good husband,a very affectionate father, and a man who is popular with all who know him.I may add that his whole debts at the present moment, as far as we have been able to ascertain,amount to £ 88 10_s_., while he has £ 220 standing to his credit in the Capital and Counties Bank.There is no reason, therefore, to think that money troubles have been weighing upon his mind.
“Last Monday Mr. Neville St. Clair went into town rather earlier than usual,remarking before he started that he had two important commissions to perform,and that he would bring his little boy home a box of bricks. Now, by the merest chance,his wife received a telegram upon this same Monday, very shortly after his departure,to the effect that a small parcel of considerable value which she had been expecting was waiting for her at the offices of the Aberdeen Shipping Company.Now, if you are well up in your London,you will know that the office of the company is in Fresno Street,which branches out of Upper Swandam Lane, where you found me to-night. Mrs. St.Clair had her lunch, started for the City, did some shopping, proceeded to the company’s office,got her packet, and found herself at exactly 4:35 walking through Swandam Lane on her way back to the station. Have you followed me so far?”
“It is very clear.”
“If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. Clair walked slowly,glancing about in the hope of seeing a cab,as she did not like the neighbourhood in which she found herself.While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly heard an ejaculation or cry,and was struck cold to see her husband looking down at her and, as it seemed to her,beckoning to her from a second-floor window. The window was open, and she distinctly saw his face,which she describes as being terribly agitated. He waved his hands frantically to her,and then vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind.One singular point which struck her quick feminine eye was that although he wore some dark coat,such as he had started to town in, he had on neither collar nor necktie.
“Convinced that something was amiss with him,she rushed down the steps—for the house was none other than the opium den in which you found me to-night—and running through the front room she attempted to ascend the stairs which led to the first floor. At the foot of the stairs, however, she met this Lascar scoundrel of whom I have spoken, who thrust her back and, aided by a Dane, who acts as assistant there, pushed her out into the street. Filled with the most maddening doubts and fears, she rushed down the lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of constables with an inspector, all on their way to their beat. The inspector and two men accompanied her back, and in spite of the continued resistance of the proprietor, they made their way to the room in which Mr. St. Clair had last been seen. There was no sign of him there. In fact, in the whole of that floor there was no one to be found save a crippled wretch of hideous aspect, who, it seems, made his home there. Both he and the Lascar stoutly swore that no one else had been in the front room during the afternoon. So determined was their denial that the inspector was staggered, and had almost come to believe that Mrs. St. Clair had been deluded when, with a cry, she sprang at a small deal box which lay upon the table and tore the lid from it. Out there fell a cascade of children’s bricks. It was the toy which he had promised to bring home.
“This discovery, and the evident confusion which the cripple showed,made the inspector realise that the matter was serious. The rooms were carefully examined,and results all pointed to an abominable crime.The front room was plainly furnished as a sitting-room and led into a small bedroom,which looked out upon the back of one of the wharves.Between the wharf and the bedroom window is a narrow strip,which is dry at low tide but is covered at high tide with at least four and a half feet of water.The bedroom window was a broad one and opened from below.On examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill,and several scattered drops were visible upon the wooden floor of the bedroom.Thrust away behind a curtain in the front room were all the clothes of Mr. Neville St. Clair,with the exception of his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch—all were there.There were no signs of violence upon any of these garments, and there were no other traces of Mr.Neville St. Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone for no other exit could be discovered,and the ominous bloodstains upon the sill gave little promise that he could save himself by swimming,for the tide was at its very highest at the moment of the tragedy.
“And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately implicated in the matter.The Lascar was known to be a man of the vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair’s story,he was known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few seconds of her husband’s appearance at the window,he could hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime.His defence was one of absolute ignorance,and he protested that he had no knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger,and that he could not account in any way for the presence of the missing gentleman’s clothes.
“So much for the Lascar manager. Now for the sinister cripple who lives upon the second floor of the opium den,and who was certainly the last human being whose eyes rested upon Neville St. Clair.His name is Hugh Boone, and his hideous face is one which is familiar to every man who goes much to the City.He is a professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas.Some little distance down Threadneedle Street, upon the left-hand side, there is,as you may have remarked, a small angle in the wall.Here it is that this creature takes his daily seat,cross-legged with his tiny stock of matches on his lap,and as he is a piteous spectacle a small rain of charity descends into the greasy leather cap which lies upon the pavement beside him.I have watched the fellow more than once before ever I thought of making his professional acquaintance,and I have been surprised at the harvest which he has reaped in a short time. His appearance,you see, is so remarkable that no one can pass him without observing him. A shock of orange hair,a pale face disfigured by a horrible scar, which, by its contraction,has turned up the outer edge of his upper lip, a bulldog chin,and a pair of very penetrating dark eyes,which present a singular contrast to the colour of his hair,all mark him out from amid the common crowd of mendicants and so, too, does his wit,for he is ever ready with a reply to any piece of chaff which may be thrown at him by the passers-by.This is the man whom we now learn to have been the lodger at the opium den,and to have been the last man to see the gentleman of whom we are in quest.”
“But a cripple!” said I. “What could he have done single-handed against a man in the prime of life?”
“He is a cripple in the sense that he walks with a limp;but in other respects he appears to be a powerful and well-nurtured man.Surely your medical experience would tell you, Watson,that weakness in one limb is often compensated for by exceptional strength in the others.”
“Pray continue your narrative.”
“Mrs. St. Clair had fainted at the sight of the blood upon the window,and she was escorted home in a cab by the police,as her presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. Inspector Barton,who had charge of the case, made a very careful examination of the premises,but without finding anything which threw any light upon the matter.One mistake had been made in not arresting Boone instantly,as he was allowed some few minutes during which he might have communicated with his friend the Lascar,but this fault was soon remedied, and he was seized and searched,without anything being found which could incriminate him. There were, it is true,some blood-stains upon his right shirt-sleeve, but he pointed to his ring-finger,which had been cut near the nail, and explained that the bleeding came from there,adding that he had been to the window not long before,and that the stains which had been observed there came doubtless from the same source.He denied strenuously having ever seen Mr. Neville St.Clair and swore that the presence of the clothes in his room was as much a mystery to him as to the police.As to Mrs. St. Clair’s assertion that she had actually seen her husband at the window,he declared that she must have been either mad or dreaming. He was removed, loudly protesting,to the police-station, while the inspector remained upon the premises in the hope that the ebbing tide might afford some fresh clue.
“And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they had feared to find.It was Neville St. Clair’s coat, and not Neville St. Clair,which lay uncovered as the tide receded. And what do you think they found in the pockets?”
“I cannot imagine.”
“No, I don’t think you would guess. Every pocket stuffed with pennies and half-pennies—421 pennies and 270 half-pennies.It was no wonder that it had not been swept away by the tide.But a human body is a different matter. There is a fierce eddy between the wharf and the house.It seemed likely enough that the weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked away into the river. ”
“But I understand that all the other clothes were found in the room.Would the body be dressed in a coat alone?”
“No, sir, but the facts might be met speciously enough.Suppose that this man Boone had thrust Neville St. Clair through the window,there is no human eye which could have seen the deed. What would he do then?It would of course instantly strike him that he must get rid of the tell-tale garments.He would seize the coat, then, and be in the act of throwing it out,when it would occur to him that it would swim and not sink. He has little time,for he has heard the scuffle downstairs when the wife tried to force her way up,and perhaps he has already heard from his Lascar confederate that the police are hurrying up the street.There is not an instant to be lost. He rushes to some secret hoard,where he has accumulated the fruits of his beggary,and he stuffs all the coins upon which he can lay his hands into the pockets to make sure of the coat’s sinking.He throws it out, and would have done the same with the other garments had not he heard the rush of steps below,and only just had time to close the window when the police appeared.”
“It certainly sounds feasible.”
“Well, we will take it as a working hypothesis for want of a better. Boone, as I have told you,was arrested and taken to the station, but it could not be shown that there had ever before been anything against him.He had for years been known as a professional beggar,but his life appeared to have been a very quiet and innocent one.There the matter stands at present, and the questions which have to be solved—what Neville St.Clair was doing in the opium den, what happened to him when there, where is he now,and what Hugh Boone had to do with his disappearance—are all as far from a solution as ever.I confess that I cannot recall any case within my experience which looked at the first glance so simple and yet which presented such difficulties. ”
While Sherlock Holmes had been detailing this singular series of events,we had been whirling through the outskirts of the great town until the last straggling houses had been left behind,and we rattled along with a country hedge upon either side of us. Just as he finished, however,we drove through two scattered villages, where a few lights still glimmered in the windows.
“We are on the outskirts of Lee,” said my companion.“We have touched on three English counties in our short drive, starting in Middlesex,passing over an angle of Surrey, and ending in Kent. See that light among the trees?That is The Cedars, and beside that lamp sits a woman whose anxious ears have already,I have little doubt, caught the clink of our horse’s feet.”
“But why are you not conducting the case from Baker Street?” I asked.
“Because there are many inquiries which must be made out here. Mrs. St.Clair has most kindly put two rooms at my disposal,and you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for my friend and colleague.I hate to meet her, Watson, when I have no news of her husband. Here we are. Whoa, there, whoa!”
We had pulled up in front of a large villa which stood within its own grounds.A stable-boy had run out to the horse’s head, and springing down, I followed Holmes up the small,winding gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door flew open,and a little blonde woman stood in the opening, clad in some sort of light mousseline de soie,with a touch of fluffy pink chiffon at her neck and wrists.She stood with her figure outlined against the flood of light, one hand upon the door,one half-raised in her eagerness, her body slightly bent, her head and face protruded,with eager eyes and parted lips, a standing question.
“Well?” she cried, “well?” And then, seeing that there were two of us,she gave a cry of hope which sank into a groan as she saw that my companion shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
“No good news?”
“None.”
“No bad?”
“No.”
“Thank God for that. But come in. You must be weary, for you have had a long day.”
“This is my friend, Dr. Watson. He has been of most vital use to me in several of my cases,and a lucky chance has made it possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this investigation. ”
“I am delighted to see you,” said she, pressing my hand warmly. “You will, I am sure,forgive anything that may be wanting in our arrangements,when you consider the blow which has come so suddenly upon us.”
“My dear madam,” said I, “I am an old campaigner,and if I were not I can very well see that no apology is needed. If I can be of any assistance,either to you or to my friend here, I shall be indeed happy.”
“Now, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said the lady as we entered a well-lit dining-room,upon the table of which a cold supper had been laid out,“I should very much like to ask you one or two plain questions,to which I beg that you will give a plain answer.”
“Certainly, madam.”
“Do not trouble about my feelings. I am not hysterical, nor given to fainting.I simply wish to hear your real, real opinion.”
“Upon what point?”
“In your heart of hearts, do you think that Neville is alive?”
Sherlock Holmes seemed to be embarrassed by the question. “Frankly, now!” she repeated, standing upon the rug and looking keenly down at him as he leaned back in a basket-chair.
“Frankly, then, madam, I do not.”
“You think that he is dead?”
“I do.”
“Murdered?”
“I don’t say that. Perhaps.”
“And on what day did he meet his death?”
“On Monday.”
“Then perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you will be good enough to explain how it is that I have received a letter from him to-day. ”
Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been galvanised.
“What!” he roared.
“Yes, to-day.” She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of paper in the air.
“May I see it?”
“Certainly.”
He snatched it from her in his eagerness,and smoothing it out upon the table he drew over the lamp and examined it intently.I had left my chair and was gazing at it over his shoulder.The envelope was a very coarse one and was stamped with the Gravesend postmark and with the date of that very day,or rather of the day before, for it was considerably after midnight.
“Coarse writing,” murmured Holmes. “Surely this is not your husband’s writing, madam.”
“No, but the enclosure is.”
“I perceive also that whoever addressed the envelope had to go and inquire as to the address.”
“How can you tell that?”
“The name, you see, is in perfectly black ink, which has dried itself.The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that blotting-paper has been used.If it had been written straight off, and then blotted, none would be of a deep black shade.This man has written the name, and there has then been a pause before he wrote the address,which can only mean that he was not familiar with it. It is, of course, a trifle,but there is nothing so important as trifles. Let us now see the letter. Ha!there has been an enclosure here!”
“Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring.”
“And you are sure that this is your husband’s hand?”
“One of his hands.”
“One?”
“His hand when he wrote hurriedly. It is very unlike his usual writing, and yet I know it well.”
“‘Dearest do not be frightened. All will come well.There is a huge error which it may take some little time to rectify. Wait in patience.—NEVILLE.’ Written in pencil upon the fly-leaf of a book, octavo size, no water-mark. Hum!Posted to-day in Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha!And the flap has been gummed, if I am not very much in error,by a person who had been chewing tobacco. And you have no doubt that it is your husband’s hand, madam?”
“None. Neville wrote those words.”
“And they were posted to-day at Gravesend. Well, Mrs. St. Clair, the clouds lighten,though I should not venture to say that the danger is over.”
“But he must be alive, Mr. Holmes.”
“Unless this is a clever forgery to put us on the wrong scent. The ring, after all, proves nothing. It may have been taken from him.”
“No, no; it is, it is his very own writing!”
“Very well. It may, however, have been written on Monday and only posted to-day.”
“That is possible.”
“If so, much may have happened between.”
“Oh, you must not discourage me, Mr. Holmes. I know that all is well with him.There is so keen a sympathy between us that I should know if evil came upon him.On the very day that I saw him last he cut himself in the bedroom,and yet I in the dining-room rushed upstairs instantly with the utmost certainty that something had happened.Do you think that I would respond to such a trifle and yet be ignorant of his death?”
“I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner.And in this letter you certainly have a very strong piece of evidence to corroborate your view.But if your husband is alive and able to write letters, why should he remain away from you?”
“I cannot imagine. It is unthinkable.”
“And on Monday he made no remarks before leaving you?”
“No.”
“And you were surprised to see him in Swandam Lane?”
“Very much so.”
“Was the window open?”
“Yes.”
“Then he might have called to you?”
“He might.”
“He only, as I understand, gave an inarticulate cry?”
“Yes.”
“A call for help, you thought?”
“Yes. He waved his hands.”
“But it might have been a cry of surprise.Astonishment at the unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?”
“It is possible.”
“And you thought he was pulled back?”
“He disappeared so suddenly.”
“He might have leaped back. You did not see anyone else in the room?”
“No, but this horrible man confessed to having been there,and the Lascar was at the foot of the stairs.”
“Quite so. Your husband, as far as you could see, had his ordinary clothes on?”
“But without his collar or tie. I distinctly saw his bare throat.”
“Had he ever spoken of Swandam Lane?”
“Never.”
“Had he ever showed any signs of having taken opium?”
“Never.”
“Thank you, Mrs. St. Clair. Those are the principal points about which I wished to be absolutely clear.We shall now have a little supper and then retire, for we may have a very busy day to-morrow.”
A large and comfortable double-bedded room had been placed at our disposal,and I was quickly between the sheets, for I was weary after my night of adventure.Sherlock Holmes was a man, however, who, when he had an unsolved problem upon his mind,would go for days, and even for a week, without rest, turning it over, rearranging his facts,looking at it from every point of view until he had either fathomed it or convinced himself that his data were insufficient.It was soon evident to me that he was now preparing for an all-night sitting.He took off his coat and waistcoat, put on a large blue dressing-gown,and then wandered about the room collecting pillows from his bed and cushions from the sofa and armchairs.With these he constructed a sort of Eastern divan, upon which he perched himself cross-legged,with an ounce of shag tobacco and a box of matches laid out in front of him.In the dim light of the lamp I saw him sitting there, an old briar pipe between his lips,his eyes fixed vacantly upon the corner of the ceiling, the blue smoke curling up from him, silent,motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set aquiline features.So he sat as I dropped off to sleep, and so he sat when a sudden ejaculation caused me to wake up,and I found the summer sun shining into the apartment. The pipe was still between his lips,the smoke still curled upward, and the room was full of a dense tobacco haze,but nothing remained of the heap of shag which I had seen upon the previous night.
“Awake, Watson?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Game for a morning drive?”
“Certainly.”
“Then dress. No one is stirring yet, but I know where the stable-boy sleeps,and we shall soon have the trap out.” He chuckled to himself as he spoke, his eyes twinkled,and he seemed a different man to the sombre thinker of the previous night.
As I dressed I glanced at my watch. It was no wonder that no one was stirring.It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly finished when Holmes returned with the news that the boy was putting in the horse.
“I want to test a little theory of mine,” said he, pulling on his boots. “I think, Watson,that you are now standing in the presence of one of the most absolute fools in Europe.I deserve to be kicked from here to Charing Cross. But I think I have the key of the affair now.”
“And where is it?” I asked, smiling.
“In the bathroom,” he answered. “Oh, yes, I am not joking,” he continued,seeing my look of incredulity. “I have just been there, and I have taken it out,and I have got it in this Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy,and we shall see whether it will not fit the lock.”
We made our way downstairs as quietly as possible, and out into the bright morning sunshine.In the road stood our horse and trap, with the half-clad stable-boy waiting at the head.We both sprang in, and away we dashed down the London Road. A few country carts were stirring,bearing in vegetables to the metropolis,but the lines of villas on either side were as silent and lifeless as some city in a dream.
“It has been in some points a singular case,” said Holmes, flicking the horse on into a gallop.“I confess that I have been as blind as a mole,but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.”
In town the earliest risers were just beginning to look sleepily from their windows as we drove through the streets of the Surrey side.Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the river,and dashing up Wellington Street wheeled sharply to the right and found ourselves in Bow Street.Sherlock Holmes was well known to the force, and the two constables at the door saluted him.One of them held the horse’s head while the other led us in.
“Who is on duty?” asked Holmes.
“Inspector Bradstreet, sir.”
“Ah, Bradstreet, how are you?” A tall, stout official had come down the stone-flagged passage,in a peaked cap and frogged jacket. “I wish to have a quiet word with you, Bradstreet.”
“Certainly, Mr. Holmes. Step into my room here.”
It was a small, office-like room, with a huge ledger upon the table,and a telephone projecting from the wall. The inspector sat down at his desk.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Holmes?”
“I called about that beggarman, Boone—the one who was charged with being concerned in the disappearance of Mr. Neville St. Clair, of Lee.”
“Yes. He was brought up and remanded for further inquiries.”
“So I heard. You have him here?”
“In the cells.”
“Is he quiet?”
“Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel.”
“Dirty?”
“Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his face is as black as a tinker’s. Well,when once his case has been settled, he will have a regular prison bath; and I think,if you saw him, you would agree with me that he needed it.”
“I should like to see him very much.”
“Would you?That is easily done. Come this way. You can leave your bag.”
“No, I think that I’ll take it.”
“Very good. Come this way, if you please.” He led us down a passage, opened a barred door,passed down a winding stair, and brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each side.
“The third on the right is his,” said the inspector. “Here it is!” He quietly shot back a panel in the upper part of the door and glanced through.
“He is asleep,” said he. “You can see him very well.”
We both put our eyes to the grating. The prisoner lay with his face towards us,in a very deep sleep, breathing slowly and heavily. He was a middle-sized man,coarsely clad as became his calling, with a coloured shirt protruding through the rent in his tattered coat.He was, as the inspector had said, extremely dirty,but the grime which covered his face could not conceal its repulsive ugliness.A broad wheal from an old scar ran right across it from eye to chin,and by its contraction had turned up one side of the upper lip,so that three teeth were exposed in a perpetual snarl.A shock of very bright red hair grew low over his eyes and forehead.
“He’s a beauty, isn’t he?” said the inspector.
“He certainly needs a wash,” remarked Holmes. “I had an idea that he might,and I took the liberty of bringing the tools with me.” He opened the Gladstone bag as he spoke,and took out, to my astonishment, a very large bath-sponge.
“He!he!You are a funny one,” chuckled the inspector.
“Now, if you will have the great goodness to open that door very quietly,we will soon make him cut a much more respectable figure.”
“Well, I don’t know why not,” said the inspector. “He doesn’t look a credit to the Bow Street cells, does he?” He slipped his key into the lock, and we all very quietly entered the cell.The sleeper half turned, and then settled down once more into a deep slumber.Holmes stooped to the water-jug, moistened his sponge,and then rubbed it twice vigorously across and down the prisoner’s face.
“Let me introduce you,” he shouted, “to Mr. Neville St. Clair, of Lee, in the county of Kent.”
Never in my life have I seen such a sight.The man’s face peeled off under the sponge like the bark from a tree. Gone was the coarse brown tint!Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had seamed it across,and the twisted lip which had given the repulsive sneer to the face!A twitch brought away the tangled red hair, and there, sitting up in his bed, was a pale, sad-faced,refined-looking man, black-haired and smooth-skinned,rubbing his eyes and staring about him with sleepy bewilderment.Then suddenly realising the exposure, he broke into a scream and threw himself down with his face to the pillow.
“Great heavens!” cried the inspector, “it is, indeed, the missing man. I know him from the photograph.”
The prisoner turned with the reckless air of a man who abandons himself to his destiny. “Be it so,” said he. “And pray what am I charged with?”
“With making away with Mr. Neville St.— Oh, come,you can’t be charged with that unless they make a case of attempted suicide of it,” said the inspector with a grin. “Well, I have been twenty-seven years in the force, but this really takes the cake.”
“If I am Mr. Neville St. Clair, then it is obvious that no crime has been committed, and that, therefore, I am illegally detained.”
“No crime, but a very great error has been committed,” said Holmes.“You would have done better to have trusted your wife.”
“It was not the wife; it was the children,” groaned the prisoner. “God help me,I would not have them ashamed of their father. My God!What an exposure!What can I do?”
Sherlock Holmes sat down beside him on the couch and patted him kindly on the shoulder.
“If you leave it to a court of law to clear the matter up,” said he,“of course you can hardly avoid publicity. On the other hand,if you convince the police authorities that there is no possible case against you,I do not know that there is any reason that the details should find their way into the papers.Inspector Bradstreet would, I am sure, make notes upon anything which you might tell us and submit it to the proper authorities.The case would then never go into court at all.”
“God bless you!” cried the prisoner passionately. “I would have endured imprisonment, ay, even execution,rather than have left my miserable secret as a family blot to my children.