LITMIR.BIZ

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if Holmes’s explanation were incorrect the true theory must be equally outré and startling.

      At three o’clock in the afternoon there was a loud peal at the bell, an authoritative voice in the hall, and, to my surprise, no less a person than Mr. Athelney Jones was shown up to me. Very different was he, however, from the brusque and masterful professor of common sense who had taken over the case so confidently at Upper Norwood. His expression was downcast, and his bearing meek and even apologetic.

      “Good-day, sir; good-day,” said he. “Mr. Sherlock Holmes is out, I understand.”

      “Yes, and I cannot be sure when he will be back. But perhaps you would care to wait. Take that chair and try one of these cigars.”

      “Thank you; I don’t mind if I do,” said he, mopping his face with a red bandanna handkerchief.

      “And a whiskey-and-soda?”

      “Well, half a glass. It is very hot for the time of year; and I have had a good deal to worry and try me. You know my theory about this Norwood case?”

      “I remember that you expressed one.”

      “Well, I have been obliged to reconsider it. I had my net drawn tightly round Mr. Sholto, sir, when pop he went through a hole in the middle of it. He was able to prove an alibi which could not be shaken. From the time that he left his brother’s room he was never out of sight of some one or other. So it could not be he who climbed over roofs and through trap-doors. It’s a very dark case, and my professional credit is at stake. I should be very glad of a little assistance.”

      “We all need help sometimes,” said I.

      “Your friend Mr. Sherlock Holmes is a wonderful man, sir,” said he, in a husky and confidential voice. “He’s a man who is not to be beat. I have known that young man go into a good many cases, but I never saw the case yet that he could not throw a light upon. He is irregular in his methods, and a little quick perhaps in jumping at theories, but, on the whole, I think he would have made a most promising officer, and I don’t care who knows it. I have had a wire from him this morning, by which I understand that he has got some clue to this Sholto business. Here is the message.”

      He took the telegram out of his pocket, and handed it to me. It was dated from Poplar at twelve o’clock.

      “Go to Baker Street at once,” it said. “If I have not returned, wait for me. I am close on the track of the Sholto gang. You can come with us tonight if you want to be in at the finish.”

      “This sounds well. He has evidently picked up the scent again,” said I.

      “Ah, then he has been at fault too,” exclaimed Jones, with evident satisfaction. “Even the best of us are thrown off sometimes. Of course this may prove to be a false alarm; but it is my duty as an officer of the law to allow no chance to slip. But there is some one at the door. Perhaps this is he.”

      A heavy step was heard ascending the stair, with a great wheezing and rattling as from a man who was sorely put to it for breath. Once or twice he stopped, as though the climb were too much for him, but at last he made his way to our door and entered. His appearance corresponded to the sounds which we had heard. He was an aged man, clad in seafaring garb, with an old pea-jacket buttoned up to his throat. His back was bowed, his knees were shaky, and his breathing was painfully asthmatic. As he leaned upon a thick oaken cudgel his shoulders heaved in the effort to draw the air into his lungs. He had a coloured scarf round his chin, and I could see little of his face save a pair of keen dark eyes, overhung by bushy white brows, and long grey side-whiskers. Altogether he gave me the impression of a respectable master mariner who had fallen into years and poverty.

      “What is it, my man?” I asked.

      He looked about him in the slow methodical fashion of old age.

      “Is Mr. Sherlock Holmes here?” said he.

      “No; but I am acting for him. You can tell me any message you have for him.”

      “It was to him himself I was to tell it,” said he.

      “But I tell you that I am acting for him. Was it about Mordecai Smith’s boat?”

      “Yes. I knows well where it is. An’ I knows where the men he is after are. An’ I knows where the treasure is. I knows all about it.”

      “Then tell me, and I shall let him know.”

      “It was to him I was to tell it,” he repeated, with the petulant obstinacy of a very old man.

      “Well, you must wait for him.”

      “No, no; I ain’t goin’ to lose a whole day to please no one. If Mr. Holmes ain’t here, then Mr. Holmes must find it all out for himself. I don’t care about the look of either of you, and I won’t tell a word.”

      He shuffled towards the door, but Athelney Jones got in front of him.

      “Wait a bit, my friend,” said he. “You have important information, and you must not walk off. We shall keep you, whether you like or not, until our friend returns.”

      The old man made a little run towards the door, but, as Athelney Jones put his broad back up against it, he recognised the uselessness of resistance.

      “Pretty sort o’ treatment this!” he cried, stamping his stick. “I come here to see a gentleman, and you two, who I never saw in my life, seize me and treat me in this fashion!”

      “You will be none the worse,” I said. “We shall recompense you for the loss of your time. Sit over here on the sofa, and you will not have long to wait.”

      He came across sullenly enough, and seated himself with his face resting on his hands. Jones and I resumed our cigars and our talk. Suddenly, however, Holmes’s voice broke in upon us.

      “I think that you might offer me a cigar too,” he said.

      We both started in our chairs. There was Holmes sitting close to us with an air of quiet amusement.

      “Holmes!” I exclaimed. “You here! But where is the old man?”

      “Here is the old man,” said he, holding out a heap of white hair. “Here he is,—wig, whiskers, eyebrows, and all. I thought my disguise was pretty good, but I hardly expected that it would stand that test.”

      “Ah, You rogue!” cried Jones, highly delighted. “You would have made an actor, and a rare one. You had the proper workhouse cough, and those weak legs of yours are worth ten pound a week. I thought I knew the glint of your eye, though. You didn’t get away from us so easily, You see.”

      “I have been working in that get-up all day,” said he, lighting his cigar. “You see, a good many of the criminal classes begin to know me, — especially since our friend here took to publishing some of my cases: so I can only go on the war-path under some simple disguise like this. You got my wire?”

      “Yes; that was what brought me here.”

      “How has your case prospered?”

      “It has all come to nothing. I have had to release two of my prisoners, and there is no evidence against the other two.”

      “Never mind. We shall give you two others in the place of them. But you must put yourself under my orders. You are welcome to all the official credit, but you must act on the line that I point out. Is that agreed?”

      “Entirely, if you will help me to the men.”

      “Well, then, in the first place I shall want a fast police-boat—a steam launch—to be at the Westminster Stairs at seven o’clock.”

      “That is easily managed. There is always one about there; but I can step across the road and telephone to make sure.”

      “Then I shall want two stanch men, in case of resistance.”

      “There

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