“I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy,” said Holmes. “Have you an order to see him in prison?”
“Yes, but only for you and me.”
“Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out.We have still time to take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?”
“Ample.”
“Then let us do so. Watson,I fear that you will find it very slow,but I shall only be away a couple of hours.”
I walked down to the station with them,and then wandered through the streets of the little town,finally returning to the hotel,where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were groping, and I found my attention wander so continually from the action to the fact, that I at last flung it across the room and gave myself up entirely to a consideration of the events of the day. Supposing that this unhappy young man’s story were absolutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between the time when he parted from his father, and the moment when, drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade?It was something terrible and deadly. What could it be?Might not the nature of the injuries reveal something to my medical instincts?I rang the bell and called for the weekly county paper,which contained a verbatim account of the inquest.In the surgeon’s deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left parietal bone and the left half of the occipital bone had been shattered by a heavy blow from a blunt weapon. I marked the spot upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must have been struck from behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, as when seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it did not go for very much, for the older man might have turned his back before the blow fell. Still, it might be worth while to call Holmes’ attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying reference to a rat. What could that mean?It could not be delirium.A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become delirious.No, it was more likely to be an attempt to explain how he met his fate.But what could it indicate?I cudgelled my brains to find some possible explanation.And then the incident of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy.If that were true the murderer must have dropped some part of his dress,presumably his overcoat, in his flight,and must have had the hardihood to return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was kneeling with his back turned not a dozen paces off. What a tissue of mysteries and improbabilities the whole thing was!I did not wonder at Lestrade’s opinion,and yet I had so much faith in Sherlock Holmes’ insight that I could not lose hope as long as every fresh fact seemed to strengthen his conviction of young McCarthy’s innocence.
It was late before Sherlock Holmes returned.He came back alone,for Lestrade was staying in lodgings in the town.
“The glass still keeps very high,” he remarked as he sat down.“It is of importance that it should not rain before we are able to go over the ground. On the other hand, a man should be at his very best and keenest for such nice work as that, and I did not wish to do it when fagged by a long journey. I have seen young McCarthy.”
“And what did you learn from him?”
“Nothing.”
“Could he throw no light?”
“None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew who had done it and was screening him or her, but I am convinced now that he is as puzzled as everyone else. He is not a very quick-witted youth, though comely to look at and, I should think, sound at heart.”
“I cannot admire his taste,” I remarked,“if it is indeed a fact that he was averse to a marriage with so charming a young lady as this Miss Turner.”
“Ah, thereby hangs a rather painful tale.This fellow is madly, insanely, in love with her,but some two years ago, when he was only a lad,and before he really knew her,for she had been away five years at a boarding-school,what does the idiot do but get into the clutches of a barmaid in Bristol and marry her at a registry office?No one knows a word of the matter,but you can imagine how maddening it must be to him to be upbraided for not doing what he would give his very eyes to do, but what he knows to be absolutely impossible. It was sheer frenzy of this sort which made him throw his hands up into the air when his father, at their last interview, was goading him on to propose to Miss Turner. On the other hand, he had no means of supporting himself, and his father, who was by all accounts a very hard man, would have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with his barmaid wife that he had spent the last three days in Bristol, and his father did not know where he was. Mark that point. It is of importance. Good has come out of evil, however, for the barmaid, finding from the papers that he is in serious trouble and likely to be hanged, has thrown him over utterly and has written to him to say that she has a husband already in the Bermuda Dockyard, so that there is really no tie between them. I think that that bit of news has consoled young McCarthy for all that he has suffered.”
“But if he is innocent, who has done it?”
“Ah!who?I would call your attention very particularly to two points.One is that the murdered man had an appointment with someone at the pool,and that the someone could not have been his son,for his son was away,and he did not know when he would return.The second is that the murdered man was heard to cry ‘Cooee!’ before he knew that his son had returned.Those are the crucial points upon which the case depends.And now let us talk about George Meredith,if you please, and we shall leave all minor matters until to-morrow. ”
There was no rain, as Holmes had foretold,and the morning broke bright and cloudless.At nine o’clock Lestrade called for us with the carriage,and we set off for Hatherley Farm and the Boscombe Pool.
“There is serious news this morning,” Lestrade observed.“It is said that Mr. Turner, of the Hall,is so ill that his life is despaired of.”
“An elderly man, I presume?” said Holmes.
“About sixty; but his constitution has been shattered by his life abroad,and he has been in failing health for some time.This business has had a very bad effect upon him.He was an old friend of McCarthy’s, and, I may add,a great benefactor to him,for I have learned that he gave him Hatherley Farm rent free. ”
“Indeed!That is interesting,” said Holmes.
“Oh, yes!In a hundred other ways he has helped him.Everybody about here speaks of his kindness to him.”
“Really!Does it not strike you as a little singular that this McCarthy,who appears to have had little of his own,and to have been under such obligations to Turner,should still talk of marrying his son to Turner’s daughter,who is, presumably, heiress to the estate,and that in such a very cocksure manner,as if it were merely a case of a proposal and all else would follow?It is the more strange,since we know that Turner himself was averse to the idea.The daughter told us as much.Do you not deduce something from that?”
“We have got to the deductions and the inferences,” said Lestrade, winking at me.“I find it hard enough to tackle facts, Holmes,without flying away after theories and fancies.”
“You are right,” said Holmes demurely;“you do find it very hard to tackle the facts.”
“Anyhow, I have grasped one fact which you seem to find it difficult to get hold of,” replied Lestrade with some warmth.
“And that is—”
“That McCarthy senior met his death from McCarthy junior and that all theories to the contrary are the merest moonshine.”
“Well, moonshine is a brighter thing than fog,” said Holmes, laughing.“But I am very much mistaken if this is not Hatherley Farm upon the left. ”