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- The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
-
- In recordinc from time to time some of the curious experiences and
- interesting recollections which I associate with my long and intimate
- friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have continually been faced by
- difficulties caused by his own aversion to publicity. To his sombre and
- cynical spirit all popular applause was always abhorrent, and nothing
- amused him more at the end of a successful case than to hand over the actual
- exposure to some orthodox official, and to listen with a mocking smile
- to the general chorus of misplaced congratulation. It was indeed this
- attitude upon the part of my friend and certainly not any lack of
- interesting material which has caused me of late years to lay very few of
- my records before the public. My participation in some of his adventures was
- always a privilege which entailed discretion and reticence upon me.
- It was, then, with considerable surprise that I received a telegram from
- Holmes last Tuesday -- he has never been known to write where a telegram
- would serve -- in the following terms:
-
- Why not tell them of the Cornish horror -- strangest case
- I have handled.
-
- I have no idea what backward sweep of memory had brought the matter
- fresh to his mind, or what freak had caused him to desire that I should
- recount it; but I hasten, before another cancelling telegram may arrive, to
- hunt out the notes which give me the exact details of the case and to lay the
- narrative before my readers.
- It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmes's iron constitution
- showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of constant hard work of a
- most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, by occasional indiscretions of his
- own. In March of that year Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street, whose dramatic
- introduction to Holmes I may some day recount, gave positive injunctions
- that the famous private agent lay aside all his cases and surrender himself to
- complete rest if he wished to avert an absolute breakdown. The state of his
- health was not a matter in which he himself took the faintest interest, for
- his mental detachment was absolute, but he was induced at last, on the threat
- of being permanently disqualified from work, to give himself a complete change
- of scene and air. Thus it was that in the early spring of that year we found
- ourselves together in a small cottage near Poldhu Bay, at the further
- extremity of the Cornish peninsula.
- It was a singular spot, and one peculiarly well suited to the grim humour of
- my patient. From the windows of our little whitewashed house, which stood
- high upon a grassy headland, we looked down upon the whole sinister
- semicircle of Mounts Bay, that old death trap of sailing vessels, with its
- fringe of black cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which innumerable seamen
- have met their end. With a northerly breeze it lies placid and sheltered,
- inviting the storm-tossed craft to tack into it for rest and protection.
- Then come the sudden swirl round of the wind, the blustering gale from
- the south-west, the dragging anchor, the lee shore, and the last battle in the
- creaming breakers. The wise mariner stands far out from that evil place.
- On the land side our surroundings were as sombre as on the sea. It was a
- country of rolling moors, lonely and dun-coloured, with an occasional church
- tower to mark the site of some oldworld village. In every direction upon
- these moors there were traces of some vanished race which had passed
- utterly away, and left as its sole record strange monuments of stone,
- irregular mounds which contained the burned ashes of the dead, and curious
- earthworks which hinted at prehistoric strife. The glamour and mystery of
- the place, with its sinister atmosphere of forgotten nations, appealed to the
- imagination of my friend, and he spent much of his time in long walks and
- solitary meditations upon the moor. The ancient Cornish language had also
- arrested his attention, and he had, I remember, conceived the idea that it
- was akin to the Chaldean, and had been largely derived from the Phoenician
- traders in tin. He had received a consignment of books upon philology and
- was settling down to develop this thesis when suddenly, to my sorrow and to
- his unfeigned delight, we found ourselves, even in that land of dreams,
- plunged into a problem at our very doors which was more intense, more
- engrossing, and infinitely more mysterious than any of those which had
- driven us from London. Our simple life and peaceful, healthy routine were
- violently interrupted, and we were precipitated into the midst of a series of
- events which caused the utmost excitement not only in Cornwall but
- throughout the whole west of England. Many of my readers may retain some
- recollection of what was called at the time "The Cornish Horror," though a
- most imperfect account of the matter reached the London press. Now, after
- thirteen years, I will give the true details of this inconceivable affair to
- the public.
- I have said that scattered towers marked the villages which dotted this part
- of Cornwall. The nearest of these was the hamlet of Tredannick Wollas, where
- the cottages of a couple of hundred inhabitants clustered round an ancient,
- moss-grown church. The vicar of the parish, Mr. Roundhay, was something of
- an archeologist, and as such Holmes had made his acquaintance. He was
- a middle-aged man, portly and affable, with a considerable fund of local lore.
- At his invitation we had taken tea at the vicarage and had come to know, also,
- Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, an independent gentleman, who increased the
- clergyman's scanty resources by taking rooms in his large, straggling house.
- The vicar, being a bachelor, was glad to come to such an arrangement, though
- he had little in common with his lodger, who was a thin, dark, spectacled man,
- with a stoop which gave the impression of actual, physical deformity. I
- remember that during our short visit we found the vicar garrulous, but his
- lodger strangely reticent, a sad-faced, introspective man, sitting with
- averted eyes, brooding apparently upon his own affairs.
- These were the two men who entered abruptly into our little sitting-room
- on Tuesday, March the 16th, shortly after our breakfast hour, as we were
- smoking together, preparatory to our daily excursion upon the moors.
- "Mr. Holmes," said the vicar in an agitated voice, "the most extraordinary
- and tragic affair has occurred during the night. It is the most unheard-of
- business. We can only regard it as a special Providence that you should
- chance to be here at the time, for in all England you are the one man we need."
- I glared at the intrusive vicar with no very friendly eyes; but Holmes took
- his pipe from his lips and sat up in his chair like an old hound who hears the
- view-halloa. He waved his hand to the sofa, and our palpitating visitor with
- his agitated companion sat side by side upon it. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis was
- more selfcontained than the clergyman, but the twitching of his thin hands
- and the brightness of his dark eyes showed that they shared a common
- emotion.
- "Shall I speak or you?" he asked of the vicar.
- "Well, as you seem to have made the discovery, whatever it may be, and the
- vicar to have had it second-hand, perhaps you had better do the speaking,"
- said Holmes.
- I glanced at the hastily clad clergyman, with the formally dressed lodger
- seated beside him, and was amused at the surprise which Holmes's simple
- deduction had brought to their faces.
- "Perhaps I had best say a few words first," said the vicar, "and then you
- can judge if you will listen to the details from Mr. Tregennis, or whether we
- should not hasten at once to the scene of this mysterious affair. I may
- explain, then, that our friend here spent last evening in the company of his
- two brothers, Owen and George, and of his sister Brenda, at their house of
- Tredannick Wartha, which is near the old stone cross upon the moor. He left
- them shortly after ten o'clock, playing cards round the dining-room table, in
- excellent health and spirits. This morning, being an early riser, he walked in
- that direction before breakfast and was overtaken by the carriage of Dr.
- Richards, who explained that he had just been sent for on a most urgent call
- to Tredannick Wartha. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis naturally went with him.
- When he arrived at Tredannick Wartha he found an extraordinary state of
- things. His two brothers and his sister were seated round the table exactly
- as he had left them, the cards still spread in front of them and the candles
- burned down to their sockets. The sister lay back stone-dead in her chair,
- while the two brothers sat on each side of her laughing, shouting, and
- singing, the senses stricken clean out of them. All three of them, the dead
- woman and the two demented men, retained upon their faces an expression
- of the utmost horror -- a convulsion of terror which was dreadful to look
- upon. There was no sign of the presence of anyone in the house, except Mrs.
- Porter, the old cook and housekeeper, who declared that she had slept
- deeply and heard no sound during the night. Nothing had been stolen or
- disarranged, and there is absolutely no explanation of what the horror can
- be which has frightened a woman to death and two strong men out of their
- senses. There is the situation, Mr. Holmes, in a nutshell, and if you can help
- us to clear it up you will have done a great work."
- I had hoped that in some way I could coax my companion back into the
- quiet which had been the object of our journey; but one glance at his intense
- face and contracted eyebrows told me how vain was now the expectation.
- He sat for some little time in silence, absorbed in the strange drama which
- had broken in upon our peace.
- "I will look into this matter," he said at last. "On the face of it, it
- would appear to be a case of a very exceptional nature. Have you been there
- yourself, Mr. Roundhay?"
- "No, Mr. Holmes. Mr. Tregennis brought back the account to the vicarage,
- and I at once hurried over with him to consult you."
- "How far is it to the house where this singular tragedy occurred?"
- "About a mile inland."
- "Then we shall walk over together. But before we start I must ask you a few
- questions, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis."
- The other had been silent all this time, but I had observed that his more
- controlled excitement was even greater than the obtrusive emotion of the
- clergyman. He sat with a pale, drawn face, his anxious gaze fixed opon Holmes,
- and his thin hands clasped convulsively together. His pale lips quivered as he
- listened to the dreadful experience which had befallen his family, and his
- dark eyes seemed to reflect something of the horror of the scene.
- "Ask what you like, Mr. Holmes," said he eagerly. "It is a bad thing to
- speak of, but I will answer you the truth."
- "Tell me about last night."
- "Well, Mr. Holmes, I supped there, as the vicar has said, and my elder
- brother George proposed a game of whist afterwards. We sat down about nine
- o'clock. It was a quarter-past ten when I moved to go. I left thern all
- round the table, as merry as could be."
- "Who let you out?"
- "Mrs. Porter had gone to bed, so I let myself out. I shut the hall door
- behind me. The window of the room in which they sat was closed, but the blind
- was not drawn down. There was no change in door or window this morning, nor
- any reason to think that any stranger had been to the house. Yet there they
- sat, driven clean mad with terror, and Brenda lying dead of fright, with her
- head hanging over the arm of the chair. I'll never get the sight of that room
- out of my mind so long as I live."
- "The facts, as you state them, are certainly most remarkable," said Holmes.
- "I take it that you have no theory yourself which can in any way account for
- them?"
- "It's devilish, Mr. Holmes, devilish!" cried Mortimer Tregennis. "It is not
- of this world. Something has come into that room which has dashed the light of
- reason from their minds. What human contrivance could do that?"
- "I fear," said Holmes~, "that if the matter is beyond humanity it is
- certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations before we
- fall back upon such a theory as this. As to yourself, Mr. Tregenrlis, I take
- it you were divided in some way from your family, since they lived together
- and you had rooms apart?"
- "That is so, Mr. Holmes, though the matter is past and done with. We were a
- family of tin-miners at Redruth, but we sold out our venture to a company,
- and so retired with enough to keep us. I won't deny that there was some
- feeling about the division of the money and it stood between us for a time,
- but it was all forgiven and forgotten, and we were the best of friends
- together."
- "Looking back at the evening which you spent together, does anything
- stand out in your memory as throwing any possible light upon the tragedy?
- Think carefully, Mr. Tregennis, for any clue which can help me."
- "There is nothing at all, sir."
- "Your people were in their usual spirits?"
- "Never better."
- "Were they nervous people? Did they ever show any apprehension of
- coming danger?"
- "Nothing of the kind."
- "You have nothing to add then, which could assist me?"
- Mortimer Tregennis considered earnestly for a moment.
- "There is one thing occurs to me," said he at last. "As we sat at the table
- my back was to the window, and my brother George, he being my partner at
- cards, was facing it. I saw him once look hard over my shoulder, so I turned
- round and looked also. The blind was up and the window shut, but I could
- just make out the bushes on the lawn, and it seemed to me for a moment
- that I saw something moving among them. I couldn't even say if it was man
- or animal, but I just thought there was something there. When I asked him
- what he was looking at, he told me that he had the same feeling. That is all
- that I can say."
- "Did you not investigate?"
- "No; the matter passed as unimportant."
- "You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?"
- "None at all."
- "I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this morning."
- "I am an early riser and generally take a walk before breakfast. This
- morning I had hardly started when the doctor in his carriage overtook me.
- He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down with an urgent
- message. I sprang in beside him and we drove on. When we got there we
- looked into that dreadful room. The candles and the fire must have burned
- out hours before, and they had been sitting there in the dark until dawn
- had broken. The doctor said Brenda must have been dead at least six hours.
- There were no signs of violence. She just lay across the arm of the chair
- with that look on her face. George and Owen were singing snatches of songs
- and gibbering like two great apes. Oh, it was awful to see! I couldn't stand
- it, and the doctor was as white as a sheet. Indeed, he fell into a chair in
- a sort of faint, and we nearly had him on our hands as well."
- "Remarkable -- most remarkable!" said Holmes, rising and taking his hat. "I
- think, perhaps, we had better go down to Tredannick Wartha without
- further delay. I confess that I have seldom known a case which at first sight
- presented a more singular problem."
-
- Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the
- investigation. It was marked, however, at the outset by an incident which
- left the most sinister impression upon my mind. The approach to the spot at
- which the tragedy occurred is down a narrow, winding, country lane. While we
- made our way along it we heard the raffle of a carriage coming towards us and
- stood aside to let it pass. As it drove by us I caught a glimpse through the
- closed window of a horribly contorted, grinning face glaring out at us. Those
- staring eyes and gnashing teeth flashed past us like a dreadful vision.
- "My brothers!" cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips. "They are taking
- them to Helston."
- We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering upon its way.
- Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house in which they had
- met their strange fate.
- It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a cottage, with a
- considerable garden which was already, in that Cornish air, well filled with
- spring flowers. Towards this garden the window of the sitting-room fronted,
- and from it, according to Mortimer Tregennis, must have come that thing of
- evil which had by sheer horror in a single instant blasted their minds.
- Holmes walked slowly and thoughtfully among the flower-plots and along
- the path before we entered the porch. So absorbed was he in his thoughts, I
- remember, that he stumbled over the watering-pot, upset its contents, and
- deluged both our feet and the garden path. Inside the house we were met
- by the e1derly Cornish housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the aid of a
- young girl, looked after the wants of the family. She readily answered all
- Holmes's questions. She had heard nothing in the night. Her employers had
- all been in excellent spirits lately, and she had never known them more
- cheerful and prosperous. She had fainted with horror upon entering the
- room in the morning and seeing that dreadful company round the table. She
- had, when she recovered, thrown open the window to let the morning air in and
- had run down to the lane, whence she sent a farm-lad for the doctor. The lady
- was on her bed upstairs if we cared to see her. It took four strong men to
- get the brothers into the asylum carriage. She would not herself stay in the
- house another day and was starting that very afternoon to rejoin her family
- at St. Ives.
- We ascended the stairs and viewed the body. Miss Brenda Tregennis had
- been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon middle age. Her dark,
- clear-cut face was handsome, even in death, but there still lingered upon it
- something of that convulsion of horror which had been her last human
- emotion. From her bedroom we descended to the sitting-room, where this
- strange tragedy had actually occurred. The charred ashes of the overnight fire
- lay in the grate. On the table were the four guttered and burned-out candles,
- with the cards scattered over its surface. The chairs had been moved back
- against the walls, but all else was as it had been the night before. Holmes
- paced with light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various chairs,
- drawing them up and reconstructing their positions. He tested how much of
- the garden was visible; he examined the floor, the ceiling, and the fireplace;
- but never once did I see that sudden brightening of his eyes and tightening of
- his lips which would have told me that he saw some gleam of light in this
- utter darkness.
- "Why a fire?" he asked once. "Had they always a fire in this small room on a
- spring evening?"
- Mortimer Tregennis explained that the night was cold and damp. For that
- reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit. "What are you going to do now,
- Mr. Holmes?" he asked.
- My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm. "I think, Watson, that I
- shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning which you have so often and so
- justly condemned," said he. "With your permission, gentlemen, we will now
- return to our cottage, for I am not aware that any new factor is likely to
- come to our notice here. I will turn the facts over in my mind, Mr. Tregennis,
- and should anything occur to me I will certainly communicate with you and
- the vicar. In the meantime I wish you both good-morning."
- It was not until long after we were back in Poldhu Cottage that Holmes broke
- his complete and absorbed silence. He sat coiled in his armchair, his haggard
- and ascetic face hardly visible amid the blue swirl of his tobacco smoke, his
- black brows drawn down, his forehead contracted, his eyes vacant and far
- away. Finally he laid down his pipe and sprang to his feet.
- "It won't do, Watson!" said he with a laugh. "Let us walk along the cliffs
- together and search for flint arrows. We are more likely to find them than
- clues to this problem. To let the brain work without sufficient material is
- like racing an engine. It racks itself to pieces. The sea air, sunshine, and
- patience, Watson -- all else will come.
- "Now, let us calmly define our position, Watson," he continued as we skirted
- the cliffs together. "Let us get a firm grip of the very little which we do
- know, so that when fresh facts arise we may be ready to fit them into their
- places. I take it, in the first place, that neither of us is prepared to admit
- diabolical intrusions into the affairs of men. Let us begin by ruling that
- entirely out of our minds. Very good. There remain three persons who have
- been grievously stricken by some conscious or unconscious human agency.
- That is firm ground. Now, when did this occur? Evidently, assuming his
- narrative to be true, it was immediately after Mr. Mortimer Tregennis had
- left the room. That is a very important point. The presumption is that it was
- within a few minutes afterwards. The cards still lay upon the table. It was
- already past their usual hour for bed. Yet they had not changed their position
- or pushed back their chairs. I repeat then, that the occurrence was
- immediately after his departure, and not later than eleven o'clock last night.
- "Our next obvious step is to check, so far as we can, the movements of
- Mortimer Tregennis after he left the room. In this there is no difficulty, and
- they seem to be above suspicion. Knowing my methods as you do, you were,
- of course, conscious of the somewhat clumsy water-pot expedient by which I
- obtained a clearer impress of his foot than might otherwise have been
- possible. The wet, sandy path took it admirably. Last night was also wet, you
- will remember, and it was not difficult -- having obtained a sample print --
- to pick out his track among others and to follow his movements. He appears to
- have walked away swiftly in the direction of the vicarage.
- "If, then, Mortimer Tregennis disappeared from the scene, and yet some
- outside person affected the cardplayers, how can we reconstruct that person,
- and how was such an impression of horror conveyed? Mrs. Porter may be
- eliminated. She is evidently harmless. Is there any evidence that someone
- crept up to the garden window and in some manner produced so terrific an
- effect that he drove those who saw it out of their senses? The only
- suggestion in this direction comes from Mortimer Tregennis himself, who
- says that his brother spoke about some movement in the garden. That is
- certainly remarkable, as the night was rainy, cloudy, and dark. Anyone who
- had the design to alarm these people would be compelled to place his very
- face against the glass before he could be seen. There is a three-foot
- flowerborder outside this window, but no indication of a footmark. It is
- difficult to imagine, then, how an outsider could have made so terrible an
- impression upon the company, nor have we found any possible motive for
- so strange and elaborate an attempt. You perceive our difficulties, Watson?"
- "They are only too clear," I answered with conviction.
- "And yet, with a little more material, we may prove that they are not
- insurmountable," said Holrnes. "I fancy that among your extensive archives,
- Watson, you may find some which were nearly as obscure. Meanwhile, we
- shall put the case aside until more accurate data are available, and devote
- the rest of our morning to the pursuit of neolithic man."
- I may have commented upon my friend's power of mental detachment, but
- never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring morning in
- Cornwall when for two hours he discoursed upon Celts, arrowheads, and
- shards, as lightly as if no sinister mystery were waiting for his solution. It
- was not until we had returned in the afternoon to our cottlge that we found
- a visitor awaiting us, who soon brought our minds back to the matter in
- hand. Neither of us needed to be told who that visitor was. The huge body,
- the craggy and deeply seamed face with the fierce eyes and hawk-like nose,
- the grizzled hair which nearly brushed our cottage ceiling, the beard --
- golden at the fringes and white near the lips, save for the nicotin stain
- from his perpetual cigar -- all these were as well known in London as in
- Africa, and could only be associated with the tremendous personality of Dr.
- Leon Sterndale, the great lion-hunter and explorer.
- We had heard of his presence in the district and had once or twice caught
- sight of his tall figure upon the moorland paths. He made no advances to us,
- however, nor would we have dreamed of doing so to him, as it was well
- known that it was his love of seclusion which caused him to spend the
- greater part of the intervals between his journeys in a small bungalow
- buried in the lonely wood of Beauchamp Arriance. Here, amid his books
- and his maps, he lived an absolutely lonely life, attending to his own
- simple wants and paying little apparent heed to the affairs of his
- neighbours. It was a surprise to me, therefore, to hear him asking Holmes in
- an eager voice whether he had made any advance in his reconstruction of
- this mysterious episode. "The county police are utterly at fault," said he,
- "but perhaps your wider experience has suggested some conceivable
- explanation. My only claim to being taken into your confidence is that
- during my many residences here I have come to know this family of
- Tregennis very well -- indeed, upon my Cornish mother's side I could call
- them cousins -- and their strange fate has naturally been a great shock to me.
- I may tell you that I had got as far as Plymouth upon my way to Africa, but
- the news reached me this morning, and I came straight back again to help
- in the inquiry."
- Holmes raised his eyebrows.
- "Did you lose your boat through it?"
- "I will take the next."
- "Dear me! that is friendship indeed."
- "I tell you they were relatives."
- "Quite so -- cousins of your mother. Was your baggage aboard the ship?"
- "Some of it, but the main part at the hotel."
- "I see. But surely this event could not have found its way into the Plymouth
- morning papers."
- "No, sir; I had a telegram."
- "Might I ask from whom?"
- A shadow passed over the gaunt face of the explorer.
- "You are very inquisitive, Mr. Holmes."
- "It is my business."
- With an effort Dr. Sterndale recovered his ruffled composure.
- "I have no objection to telling you," he said. "It was Mr. Roundhay, the
- vicar, who sent me the telegram which recalled me."
- "Thank you," said Holmes. "I may say in answer to your original question
- that I have not cleared my mind entirely on the subject of this case, but
- that I have every hope of reaching some conclusion. It would be premature
- to say more."
- "Perhaps you would not mind telling me if your suspicions point in any
- particular direction?"
- "No, I can hardly answer that."
- "Then I have wasted my time and need not prolong my visit." The famous
- doctor strode out of our cottage in considerable ill-humour, and within five
- minutes Holmes had followed him. I saw him no more until the evening, when he
- returned with a slow step and haggard face which assured me that he had made
- no great progress with his investigation. He glanced at a telegram which
- awaited him and threw it into the grate.
- "From the Plymouth hotel, Watson," he said. "I learned the name of it
- from the vicar, and I wired to make certain that Dr. Leon Stemdale's
- account was true. It appears that he did indeed spend last night there, and
- that he has actually allowed some of his baggage to go on to Africa, while
- he returned to be present at this investigation. What do you make of that,
- Watson?"
- "He is deeply interested."
- "Deeply interested -- yes. There is a thread here which we have not yet
- grasped and which might lead us through the tangle. Cheer up, Watson, for
- I am very sure that our material has not yet all come to hand. When it
- does we may soon leave our difficulties behind us."
- Little did I think how soon the words of Holmes would be realized, or how
- strange and sinister would be that new development which opened up an
- entirely fresh line of investigation. I was shaving at my window in the
- morning when I heard the rattle of hoofs and, looking up, saw a dog-cart
- coming at a gallop down the road. It pulled up at our door, and our friend,
- the vicar, sprang from it and rushed up our garden path. Holmes was
- already dressed, and we hastened down to meet him.
- Our visitor was so excited that he could hardly articulate, but at last in
- gasps and bursts his tragic story came out of him.
- "We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes! My poor parish is devilridden!" he cried.
- "Satan himself is loose in it! We are given over into his hands!" He danced
- about in his agitation, a ludicrous object if it were not for his ashy face
- and startled eyes. Finally he shot out his terrible news.
- "Mr. Mortimer Tregennis died during the night, and with exactly the same
- symptoms as the rest of his family."
- Holmes sprang to his feet, all energy in an instant.
- "Can you fit us both into your dog-cart?"
- "Yes, I can."
- "Then, Watson, we will postpone our breakfast. Mr. Roundhay, we are
- entirely at your disposal. Hurry -- hurry, before things get disarranged. "
- The lodger occupied two rooms at the vicarage, which were in an angle by
- themselves, the one above the other. Below was a large sitting-room;
- above, his bedroom. They looked out upon a croquet lawn which came up to the
- windows. We had arrived before the doctor or the police, so that everything
- was absolutely undisturbed. Let me describe exactly the scene as we saw it
- upon that misty March morning. It has left an impression which can never be
- effaced from my mind.
- The atmosphere of the room was of a horrible and depressing stuffiness.
- The servant who had first entered had thrown up the window, or it would
- have been even more intolerable. This might partly be due to the fact that a
- lamp stood flaring and smoking on the centre table. Beside it sat the dead
- man, leaning back in his chair, his thin beard projecting, his spectacles
- pushed up on to his forehead, and his lean dark face turned towards the
- window and twisted into the same distortion of terror which had marked the
- features of his dead sister. His limbs were convulsed and his fingers
- contorted as though he had died in a very paroxysm of fear. He was fully
- clothed, though there were signs that his dressing had been done in a hurry.
- We had already learned that his bed had been slept in, and that the tragic
- end had come to him in the early morning.
- One realized the red-hot energy which underlay Holmes's phlegmatic exterior
- when one saw the sudden change which came over him from the moment
- that he entered the fatal apartment. In an instant he was tense and alert, his
- eyes shining, his face set, his limbs quivering with eager activity. He was
- out on the lawn, in through the window, round the room, and up into the
- bedroom, for all the world like a dashing foxhound drawing a cover. In the
- bedroom he made a rapid cast around and ended by throwing open the
- window, which appeared to give him some fresh cause for excitement, for he
- leaned out of it with loud ejaculations of interest and delight. Then he
- rushed down the stair, out through the open window, threw himself upon his
- face on the lawn, sprang up and into the room once more, all with the energy
- of the hunter who is at the very heels of his quarry. The lamp, which was an
- ordinaly standard, he examined with minute care, making certain
- measurements upon its bowl. He carefully scrutinized with his lens the tale
- shield which covered the top of the chimney and scraped off some ashes
- which adhered to its upper surface, putting some of them into an envelope,
- which he placed in his pocketbook. Finally, just as the doctor and the
- official police put in an appearance, he beckoned to the vicar and we all
- three went out upon the lawn.
- "I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely barren," he
- remarked. "I cannot remain to discuss the matter with the police, but I
- should be exceedingly obliged, Mr. Roundhay, if you would give the inspector
- my compliments and direct his attention to the bedroom window and to the
- sittingroom lamp. Each is suggestive, and together they are almost conclusive.
- If the police would desire further information I shall be happy to see any of
- them at the conage. And now, Watson, I think that, perhaps, we shall be
- better employed elsewhere."
- It may be that the police resented the intrusion of an amateur, or that they
- imagined themselves to be upon some hopeful line of investigation; but it is
- certain that we heard nothing from them for the next two days. During this
- time Holmes spent some of his time smoking and dreaming in the cottage; but
- a greater portion in country walks which he undertook alone, returning after
- many hours without remark as to where he had been. One experiment
- served to show me the line of his investigation. He had bought a lamp which
- was the duplicate of the one which had burned in the room of Mortimer
- Tregennis on the morning of the tragedy. This he filled with the same oil as
- that used at the vicarage, and he carefully timed the period which it would
- take to be exhausted. Another experiment which he made was of a more
- unpleasant nature, and one which I am not likely ever to forget.
- "You will remember, Watson," he remarked one afternoon, "that there is a
- single common point of resemblance in the varying reports which have
- reached us. This concerns the effect of the atmosphere of the room in each
- case upon those who had first entered it. You will recollect that Mortimer
- Tregennis, in describing the episode of his last visit to his brother's house,
- remarked that the doctor on entering the room fell into a chair? You had
- forgotten? Well, I can answer for it that it was so. Now, you will remember
- also that Mrs. Porter, the housekeeper, told us that she herself fainted upon
- entering the room and had afterwards opened the window. In the second
- case -- that of Mortimer Tregennis himself -- you cannot have forgotten the
- horrible stuffiness of the room when we arrived. though the servant had
- thrown open the window. That servant, I found upon inquiry, was so ill that
- she had gone to her bed. You will admit, Watson, that these facts are very
- suggestive. In each case there is evidence of a poisonous atmosphere. In each
- case, also, there is combustion going on in the room -- in the one case a
- fire, in the other a lamp. The fire was needed, but the lamp was lit -- as a
- comparison of the oil consumed will show -- long after it was broad daylight.
- Why? Surely because there is some connection between three things -- the
- burning, the stuffy atmosphere, and, finally, the madness or death of those
- unfortunate people. That is clear, is it not?"
- "It would appear so."
- "At least we may accept it as a working hypothesis. We will suppose, then,
- that something was burned in each case which produced an atmosphere
- causing strange toxic effects. Very good. In the first instance -- that of the
- Tregennis family -- this substance was placed in the fire. Now the window was
- shut, but the fire would naturally carry fumes to some extent up the chimney.
- Hence one would expect the effects of the poison to be less than in the second
- case, where there was less escape for the vapour. The result seems to indicate
- that it was so, since in the first case only the woman, who had presumably the
- more sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting that temporary or
- permanent lunacy which is evidently the first effect of the drug. In the
- second case the result was complete. The facts, therefore, seem to bear out
- the theory of a poison which worked by combustion.
- "With this train of reasoning in my head I naturally looked about in
- Mortimer Tregennis's room to find some remains of this substance. The obvious
- place to look was the talc shield or smoke-guard of the lamp. There, sure
- enough, I perceived a number of flaky ashes, and round the edges a fringe of
- brownish powder, which had not yet been consumed. Half of this I took, as you
- saw, and I placed it in an envelope."
- "Why half, Holmes?"
- "It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official
- police force. I leave them all the evidence which I found. The poison still
- remained upon the talc had they the wit to find it. Now, Watson, we will
- light our lamp; we will, however, take the precaution to open our window to
- avoid the premature decease of two deserving members of society, and you will
- seat yourself near that open window in an armchair unless, like a sensible
- man, you determine to have nothing to do with the affair. Oh, you will see it
- out, will you? I thought I knew my Watson. This chair I will place opposite
- yours, so that we may be the same distance from the poison and face to face.
- The door we will leave ajar. Each is now in a position to watch the other
- and to bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem alarming.
- Is that all clear? Well, then, I take our powder -- or what remains of it --
- from the envelope, and I lay it above the burning lamp. So! Now, Watson, let
- us sit down and await developments."
- They were not long in coming. I had hardlv settled in my chair before I was
- conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and nauseous. At the very first
- whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all control. A thick, black
- cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told me that in this cloud, unseen
- as yet, but about to spring out upon my appalled senses, lurked all that
- was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the
- universe. Vague shapes swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a
- menace and a warning of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable
- dweller upon the threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing
- horror took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, that my eyes
- were protruding, that my mouth wag opened, and my tongue like leather. The
- turmoil within my brain was such that something must surely snap. I tried to
- scream and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was my own voice, but
- distant and detached from myself. At the same moment, in some effort of
- escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had a glimpse of Holmes's
- face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror -- the very look which I had seen
- upon the features of the dead. It was that vision which gave me an instant of
- sanity and of strength. I dashed from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes,
- and together we lurched through the door, and an instant afterwards had
- thrown ourselves down upon the grass plot and were lying side by side,
- conscious only of the glorious sunshine which was bursting its way through
- the hellish cloud of terror which had girt us in. Slowly it rose from our
- souls like the mists from a landscape until peace and reason had returned,
- and we were sitting upon the grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking
- with apprehension at each other to mark the last traces of that terrific
- experience which we had undergone.
- "Upon my word, Watson!" said Holmes at last with an unsteady voice, "I owe
- you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable experiment even
- for one's self, and doubly so for a friend. I am really very sorry."
- "You know," I answered with some emotion, for I had never seen so much of
- Holmes's heart before, "that it is my greatest joy and privilege to help you."
- He relapsed at once into the half-humorous, half-cynical vein which was
- his habitual attitude to those about him. "It would be superfluous to drive
- us mad, my dear Watson," said he. "A candid observer would celtainly
- declare that we were so already before we embarked upon so wild an
- experiment. I confess that I never imagined that the effect could be so
- sudden and so severe." He dashed into the cottage, and, reappearing with
- the burning lamp held at full arm's length, he threw it among a bank of
- brambles. "We must give the room a little time to clear. I take it, Watson,
- that you have no longer a shadow of a doubt as to how these tragedies were
- produced?"
- "None whatever."
- "But the cause remains as obscure as before. Come into the arbour here and
- let us discuss it together. That villainous stuff seems still to linger round
- my throat. I think we must admit that all the evidence points to this man,
- Mortimer Tregennis, having been the criminal in the first tragedy, though he
- was the victim in the second one. We must remember, in the first place, that
- there is some story of a family quarrel, followed by a reconciliation. How
- bitter that quarrel may have been, or how hollow the reconciliation we
- cannot tell. When I think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face and the
- small shrewd, beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom I
- should judge to be of a particularly forgiving disposition. Well, in the next
- place, you will remember that this idea of someone moving in the garden,
- which took our attention for a moment from the real cause of the tragedy,
- emanated from him. He had a motive in misleading us. Finally, if he did not
- throw this substance into the fire at the moment of leaving the room, who
- did do so? The affair happened immediately after his departure. Had anyone
- else come in, the family would certainly have risen from the table. Besides,
- in peaceful Cornwall, visitors do not arrive after ten o'clock at night. We
- may take it, then, that all the evidence points to Mortimer Tregennis as the
- culprit."
- "Then his own death was suicide!"
- "Well, Watson, it is on the face of it a not impossible supposition. The man
- who had the guilt upon his soul of having brought such a fate upon his
- own family might well be driven by remorse to inflict it upon himself.
- There are, however, some cogent reasons against it. Forturlately, there is one
- man in England who knows all about it, and I have made arrangements by which
- we shall hear the facts this afternoon from his own lips. Ah! he is a little
- before his time. Perhaps you would kindly step this way, Dr. Leon Sterndale.
- We have been conducting a chemical experiment indoors which has left our
- little room hardly fit for the reception of so distinguished a visitor."
- I had heard the click of the garden gate, and now the majestic figure of the
- great African explorer appeared upon the path. He turned in some surprise
- towards the rustic arbour in which we sat.
- "You sent for me, Mr. Holmes. I had your note about an hour ago, and I have
- come, though I really do not know why I should obey your summons."
- "Perhaps we can clear the point up before we separate," said Holmes.
- "Meanwhile, I am much obliged to you for your courteous acquiescence. You
- will excuse this informal reception in the open air, but my friend Watson and
- I have nearly furnished an additional chapter to what the papers call the
- Cornish Horror, and we prefer a clear atmosphere for the present. Perhaps,
- since the matters which we have to discuss will affect you personally in a
- very intimate fashion, it is as well that we should talk where there can be no
- eavesdropping."
- The explorer took his cigar from his lips and gazed sternly at my companlon.
- "I am at a loss to know, sir," he said, "what you can have to speak about
- which affects me personally in a very intimate fashion."
- "The killing of Mortimer Tregennis," said Holmes.
- For a moment I wished that I were armed. Stemdale's fierce face turned to a
- dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted, passionate veins started out in
- his forehead, while he sprang forward with clenched hands towards my
- companion. Then he stopped, and with a violent effort he resumed a cold,
- rigid calmness, which was, perhaps, more suggestive of danger than his hot-
- headed outburst.
- "I have lived so long among savages and beyond the law," said he, "that I
- have got into the way of being a law to myself. You would do well, Mr.
- Holmes, not to forget it, for I have no desire to do you an injury."
- "Nor have I any desire to do you an injury, Dr. Sterndale. Surely the
- clearest proof of it is that, knowing what I know, I have sent for you and
- not for the police."
- Sterndale sat down with a gasp, overawed for, perhaps, the first time in
- his adventurous life. There was a calm assurance of power in Holmes's
- manner which could not be withstood. Our visitor stammered for a
- moment, his great hands opening and shutting in his agitation.
- "What do you mean?" he asked at last. "If this is bluff upon your part, Mr.
- Holmes, you have chosen a bad man for your experiment. Let us have no
- more beating about the bush. What do you mean?"
- "I will tell you," said Holmes, "and the reason why I tell you is that I
- hope frankness may beget frankness. What my next step may be will depend
- entirely upon the nature of your own defence."
- "My defence?"
- "Yes, sir."
- "My defence against what?"
- "Against the charge of killing Mortimer Tregennis."
- Sterndale mopped his forehead with his handkerchief. "Upon my word, you
- are getting on," said he. "Do all your successes depend upon this prodigious
- power of bluff?"
- "The bluff," said Holmes sternly, "is upon your side, Dr. Leon Sterndale,
- and not upon mine. As a proof I will tell you some of the facts upon which my
- conclusions are based. Of your return from Plymouth, allowing much of
- your property to go on to Africa, I will say nothing save that it first
- informed me that you were one of the factors which had to be taken into
- account in reconstructing this drama --"
- "I came back --"
- "I have heard your reasons and regard them as unconvincing and
- inadequate. We will pass that. You came down here to ask me whom I
- suspected. I refused to answer you. You then went to the vicarage, waited
- outside it for some time, and finally returned to your cottage."
- "How do you know that?"
- "I followed you."
- "I saw no one."
- "That is what you may expect to see when I follow you. You spent a
- restless night at your cottage, and you formed certain plans, which in the
- early morning you proceeded to put into execution. Leaving your door just
- as day was breaking, you filled your pocket with some reddish gravel that
- was lying heaped beside your gate."
- Sterndale gave a violent start and looked at Holmes in amazement.
- "You then walked swiftly for the mile which separated you from the
- vicarage. You were wearing, I may remark, the same pair of ribbed tennis
- shoes which are at the present moment upon your feet. At the vicarage
- you passed through the orchard and the side hedge, coming out under the
- window of the lodger Tregennis. It was now daylight, but the household was
- not yet stirring. You drew some of the gravel from your pocket, and you
- threw it up at the window above you."
- Sterndale sprang to his feet.
- "I believe that you are the devil himself!" he cried.
- Holmes smiled at the compliment. "It took two, or possibly three, handfuls
- before the lodger came to the window. You beckoned him to come down. He
- dressed hurriedly and descended to his sitting-room. You entered by the
- window. There was an interview -- a short one -- during which you walked up
- and down the room. Then you passed out and closed the window, standing
- on the lawn outside smoking a cigar and watching what occurred. Finally,
- after the death of Tregennis, you withdrew as you had come. Now, Dr.
- Sterndale, how do you justify such conduct, and what were the motives for
- your actions? If you prevaricate or trifle with me, I give you my assurance
- that the matter will pass out ol my hands forever."
- Our visitor's face had turned ashen gray as he listened to the words of his
- accuser. Now he sat for some time in thought with his face sunk in his
- hands. Then with a sudden impulsive gesture he plucked a photograph
- from his breast-pocket and threw it on the rustic table before us.
- "That is why I have done it," said he.
- It showed the bust and face of a very beautiful woman. Holmes stooped
- over it.
- "Brenda Tregennis," said he.
- "Yes, Brenda Tregennis," repeated our visitor. "For years I have loved her.
- For years she has loved me. There is the secret of that Cornish seclusion
- which people have marvelled at. It has brought me close to the one thing
- on earth that was dear to me. I could not marry her, for I have a wife who
- has left me for years and yet whom, by the deplorable laws of England, I
- could not divorce. For years Brenda waited. For years I waited. And this is
- what we have waited for." A terrible sob shook his great frame, and he
- clutched his throat under his brindled beard. Then with an effort he
- mastered himself and spoke on:
- "The vicar knew. He was in our confidence. He would tell you that she was
- an angel upon earth. That was why he telegraphed to me and I returned.
- What was my baggage or Africa to me when I learned that such a fate had
- come upon my darling? There you have the missing clue to my action, Mr.
- Holmes."
- "Proceed," said my friend.
- Dr. Sterndale drew from his pocket a paper packet and laid it upon the
- table. On the outside was written "Radix pedis diaboli" with a red poison
- label beneath it. He pushed it towards me. "I understand that you are a
- doctor, sir. Have you ever heard of this preparation?"
- "Devil's-foot root! No, I have never heard of it."
- "It is no reflection upon your professional knowledge," said he, "for I
- believe that, save for one sample in a laboratory at Buda, there is no other
- specimen in Europe. It has not yet found its way either into the pharmacopceia
- or into the literature of toxicology. The root is shaped like a foot, half
- human, half goatlike; hence the fanciful name given by a botanical missionary.
- It is used as an ordeal poison by the medicine-men in certain districts of
- West Africa and is kept as a secret among them. This particular specimen I
- obtained under very extraordinary circumstances in the Ubangi country." He
- opened the paper as he spoke and disclosed a heap of reddish-brown, snuff-like
- powder.
- "Well, sir?" asked Holmes sternly.
- "I am about to tell you, Mr. Holmes, all that actually occurred, for you
- already know so much that it is clearly to my interest that you should know
- all. I have already explained the relationship in which I stood to the
- Tregennis family. For the sake of the sister I was friendly with the brothers.
- There was a family quarrel about money which estranged this man Mortimer, but
- it was supposed to be made up, and I afterwards met him as I did the others.
- He was a sly, subtle, scheming man, and several things arose which gave me a
- suspicion of him, but I had no cause for any positive quarrel.
- "One day, only a couple of weeks ago, he came down to my cottage and I
- showed him some of my African curiosities. Among other things I exhibited
- this powder, and I told him of its strange properties, how it stimulates those
- brain centres which control the emotion of fear, and how either madness or
- death is the fate of the unhappy native who is subjected to the ordeal by the
- priest of his tribe. I told him also how powerless European science would be
- to detect it. How hi took it I cannot say, for I never left the room, but
- there is no doubt that it was then, while I was opening cabinets and stooping
- to boxes, that he managed to abstract some of the devil's-foot root. I well
- remember how he plied me with questions as to the amount and the time that
- was needed for its effect, but I little dreamed that he could have a personal
- reason for asking.
- "I thought no more of the matter until the vicar's telegram reached me at
- Plymouth. This villain had thought that I would be at sea before the news
- could reach me, and that I should be lost for years in Africa. But I returned
- at once. Of course, I could not listen to the details without feeling assured
- that my poison had been used. I came round to see you on the chance tbat some
- other explanation had suggesteid itself to you. But there could be none. I was
- convinced that Mortimer Tregennis was the murderer; that for the sake of
- money, and with the idea, perhaps, that if the other members of his family
- were all insane he would be the sole guardian of their joint property, he had
- used the devil's-foot powder upon them, driven two of them out of their
- senses, and killed his sister Brenda, the one human being whom I have ever
- loved or who has ever loved me. There was his crime; what was to be his
- punishment?
- "Should I appeal to the law? Where were my proofs? I knew that the facts
- were true, but could I help to make a jury of countrymen believe so fantastic
- a story? I might or I might not. But I could not afford to fail. My soul
- cried out for revenge. I have said to you once before, Mr. Holmes, that I
- have spent much of my life outside the law, and that I have come at last to
- be a law to myself. So it was now. I determined that the fate which he had
- given to others should be shared by himself. Either that or I would do
- justice upon him with my own hand. In all England there can be no man who
- sets less value upon his own life than I do at the present moment.
- "Now I have told you all. You have yourself supplied the rest. I did, as
- you say, after a restless night, set off early from my cottage. I foresaw the
- difficulty of arousing him, so I gathered some gravel from the pile which you
- have mentioned, and I used it to throw up to his window. He came down and
- admitted me through the window of the sitting-room. I laid his offence before
- him. I told him that I had come both as judge and executioner. The wretch sank
- into a chair, paralyzed at the sight of my revolver. I lit the lamp, put the
- powder above it, and stood outside the window, ready to carry out my
- threat to shoot him should he try to leave the room. In five minutes he died.
- My God! how he died! But my heart was flint, for he endured nothing which
- my innocent darling had not felt before him. There is my story, Mr. Holmes.
- Perhaps, if you loved a woman, you would have done as much yourself. At
- any rate, I am in your hands. You can take what steps you like. As I have
- already said, there is no man living who can fear death less than I do. "
- Holmes sat for some little time in silence.
- "What were your plans?" he asked at last.
- "I had intended to bury myself in central Africa. My work there is but
- half finished."
- "Go and do the other half," said Holmes. "I, at least, am not prepared to
- prevent you."
- Dr. Sterndale raised his giant figure, bowed gravely, and waliked from the
- arbour. Holmes lit his pipe and handed me his pouch.
- "Some fumes which are not poisonous would be a welcome change," said he.
- "I think you must agree, Watson, that it is not a case in which we are called
- upon to interfere. Our investigation has been independent, and our action
- shall be so also. You would not denounce the man?"
- "Certainly not," I answered.
- "I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I loved had met
- such an end, I might act even as our lawless lion-hunter has done. Who
- knows? Well, Watson, I will not offend your intelligence by explaining what
- is obvious. The gravel upon the window-sill was, of course, the starting-
- point of my research. It was unlike anything in the vicarage garden. Only
- when my attention had been drawn to Dr. Sterndale and his cottage did I
- find its counterpart. The lamp shining in broad daylight and the remains of
- powder upon the shield were successive links in a fairly obvious chain. And
- now, my dear Watson, I think we may dismiss the matter from our mind
- and go back with a clear conscience to the study of those Chaldean roots
- which are surely to be traced in the Cornish branch of the great Celtic
- speech."
-
-