回忆录系列《The naval treaty——海军协定(英文版)》(3)

'They are more visible from the road,' suggested Mr. Joseph Harrison.

'Ah, yes, of course. There is a door here which he might have attempted. What is itfor?'

'It is the side-entrance for tradespeople. Of course, it is locked at night.'

'Have you ever had an alarm like this before?'

'Never,' said our client.

'Do you keep plate in the house, or anything to attract burglars?'

'Nothing of value.'

Holmes strolled round the house with his hands in his pockets, and a negligent airwhich was unusual with him.

'By the way,' said he to Joseph Harrison, 'you found some place, I understand,where the fellow scaled the fence. Let us have a look at that.'

The young man led us to a spot where the top of one of the wooden rails had beencracked. A small fragment of the wood was hanging down. Holmes pulled it off andexamined it critically.

'Do you think that was done last night? It looks rather old, does it not?'

'Well, possibly so.'

'There are no marks of anyone jumping down upon the other side. No, I fancy weshall get no help here. Let us go back to the bedroom and talk the matter over.'

Percy Phelps was walking very slowly, leaning upon the arm of his futurebrother-in-law. Holmes walked swiftly across the lawn, and we were at the openwindow of the bedroom long before the others came up.

'Miss Harrison,' said Holmes, speaking with the utmost intensity of manner, 'youmust stay where you are all day. Let nothing prevent you from staying where you areall day. It is of most vital importance.'

'Certainly, if you wish it, Mr. Holmes,' said the girl, in astonishment.

'When you go to bed lock the door of this room on the outside and keep the key.Promise to do this.'

'But Percy?'

'He will come to London with us.'

'And I am to remain here?'

'It is for his sake. You can serve him! Quick! Promise!'

she gave a nod of assent just as the other two came up.

'Why do you sit moping there, Annie?' cried her brother. 'Come out into thesunshine!'

'No, thank you, Joseph. I have a slight headache, and this room is deliciously cooland soothing.'

'What do you propose now, Mr. Holmes?' asked out client.

'Well, in investigating this minor affair we must not lose sight of our main inquiry.It would be a very great help to me if you could come up to London with us.'

'At once?'

'Well, as soon as you conveniently can. Say in an hour.'

'I feel quite strong enough, if I can really be of any help.'

'The greatest possible.'

'Perhaps you would like me to stay there to-night.'

'I was just going to propose it.'

'Then if my friend of the night comes to revisit me, he will find the bird flown. Weare all in your hands, Mr. Holmes, and you must tell us exactly what you would likedone. Perhaps you would prefer that Joseph came with us, so as to look after me?'

'Oh, no; my friend Watson is a medical man, you know, and he'll look after you.We'll have our lunch here, if you will permit us, and then we shall all three set off fortown together.'

It was arranged as he suggested, though Miss Harrison excused herself fromleaving the bedroom, in accordance with Holmes's suggestion. What the object of myfriend's manoeuvres was I could not conceive, unless it were to keep the lady awayfrom Phelps, who, rejoiced by his returning health and by the prospect of action,lunched with us in the dinning-room. Holmes had a still more startling surprise for us,however, for after accompanying us down to the station and seeing us into ourcarriage, he calmly announced that he had no intention of leaving Woking.

'There are one or two small points which I should desire to clear up before I go,'said he. 'Your absence, Mr. Phelps, will in some ways rather assist me. Watson, whenyou reach London you would oblige me by driving at once to Baker Street with ourfriend here, and remaining with him until I see you again. It is fortunate that you areold schoolfellows, as you must have much to talk over. Mr. Phelps can have the sparebedroom to-night, and I shall be with you in time for breakfast, for there is a trainwhich will take me into Waterloo at eight.'

'But how about our investigation in London?' asked Phelps, ruefully.

'We can do that to-morrow. I think that just at present I can be of more immediateuse here.'

'You might tell them at Briarbrae that I hope to be back to-morrow night,' criedPhelps, as we began to move from the platform.

'I hardly expect to go back to Briarbrae,' answered Holmes, and waved his hand tous cheerily as we shot out from the station.

Phelps and I talked it over on our journey, but neither of us could devise asatisfactory reason for this new development.

'I suppose he wants to find out some clue as to the burglary last night, if a burglar itwas. For myself, I don't believe it was an ordinary thief.'

'What is your idea, then?'

'Upon my word, you may put it down to my weak nerves or not, but I believe thereis some deep political intrigue going on around me, and that, for some reason thatpasses my understanding, my life is aimed at by the conspirators. It soundshigh-flown and absurd, but consider the facts! Why should a thief try to break in at abedroom window, where there could be no hope of any plunder, and why should hecome with a long knife in his hand?'

'You are sure it was not a housebreaker's jemmy?'

'Oh, no; it was a knife. I saw the flash of the blade quite distinctly.'

'But why on earth should you be pursued with such animosity?'

'Ah! That is the question.'

'Well, if Holmes takes the same view, that would account for his action, would itnot? Presuming that your theory is correct, if he can lay his hands upon the man whothreatened you last night, he will have gone a long way towards finding who took thenaval treaty. It is absurd to suppose that you have two enemies, one of whom robs youwhile the other threatens your life.'

'But Mr. Holmes said that he was not going to Briarbrae.'

'I have known him for some time,' said I, 'but I never knew him do anything yetwithout a very good reason,' and with that our conversation drifted off into othertopics.

But it was a weary day for me. Phelps was still weak after his long illness, and hismisfortunes made him querulous and nervous. In vain I endeavoured to interest him inAfghanistan, in India, in social questions, in anything which might take his mind outof the groove. He would always come back to his lost treaty; wondering, guessing,speculating, as to what Holmes was doing, what steps lord Holdhurst was taking, whatnews we should have in the morning. As the evening wore on his excitement becamequite painful.

'You have implicit faith in Holmes?' he asked.

'I have seen him do some remarkable things.'

'But he never brought light into anything quite so dark as this?'

'Oh, yes; I have known him solve questions which presented fewer clues thanyours.'

'But not where such large interests are at stake?'

'I don't know that. To my certain knowledge he has acted on behalf of three of thereigning Houses of Europe in very vital matters.'

'But you know him well, Watson. He is such an inscrutable fellow, that I neverquite know what to make of him. Do you think he is hopeful? Do you think he expectsto make a success of it?'

'He has said nothing.'

'That is a bad sign.'

'On the contrary, I have noticed that when he is off the trail he generally says so. Itis when he is on a scent, and is not quite absolutely sure yet that it is the right one,that he is most taciturn. Now, my dear fellow, we can't help matters by makingourselves nervous about them, so let me implore you to go to bed, and so be fresh forwhatever may await us to-morrow.

I was able at last to persuade my companion to take my advice, though I knew fromhis excited manner that there was not much hope of sleep for him. Indeed, his moodwas infectious, for I lay tossing half the night myself, brooding over this strangeproblem, and inventing a hundred theories, each of which was more impossible thanthe last. Why had Holmes remained at Woking? Why had he asked Miss Harrison tostay in the sick-room all day? Why had he been so careful not to inform the people atBriarbrae that he intended to remain near them? I cudgelled my brains until I fellasleep in the endeavour to find some explanation which would cover all these facts.

It was seven o'clock when I awoke, and I set off at once for Phelps' room, to findhim haggard and spent after a sleepless night. His first question was whether Holmeshad arrived yet.

'He'll be here when he promised,' said I, 'and not an instant sooner or later.'

And my words were true, for shortly after eight a hansom dashed up to the door andour friend got out of it. Standing in the window, we saw that his left hand wasswathed in a bandage and that his face was very grim and pale. He entered the house,but it was some little time before he came upstairs.

'He looks like a beaten man,' cried Phelps.

I was forced to confess that he was right. 'After all,' said I, 'the clue of the matterlies probably here in town.'

Phelps gave a groan.

'I don't know how it is,' said he, 'but I had hoped for so much from his return. Butsurely his hand was not tied up like that yesterday? What can be the matter?'

'You are not wounded, Holmes?' I asked, as my friend entered the room.

'Tut, it is only a scratch through my own clumsiness,' he answered, nodding hisgood morning to us. 'This case of yours, Mr. Phelps, is certainly one of the darkestwhich I have ever investigated.'

'I feared that you would find it beyond you.'

'It has been a most remarkable experience.'

'That bandage tells of adventures,' said I. 'Won't you tell us what has happened?'

'After breakfast, my dear Watson. Remember that I have breathed thirty miles ofSurrey air this morning. I suppose there has been no answer to my cabmanadvertisement? Well, well, we cannot expect to score every time.'

The table was all laid, and, just as I was about to ring, Mrs. Hudson entered withthe tea and coffee. A few minutes later she brought in the covers, and we all drew upto the table, Holmes ravenous, I curious, and Phelps in the gloomiest state ofdepression.

'Mrs. Hudson has risen to the occasion,' said Holmes, uncovering a dish of curriedchicken. 'Her cuisine is a little limited, but she has as good an idea of breakfast as aScotchwoman. What have you there, Watson?'

'Ham and eggs,' I answered.

'Good! What are you going to take, Mr. Phelps: curried fowl, eggs, or will you helpyourself?'

'Thank you, I can eat nothing,' said Phelps.

'Oh, come! Try the dish before you.'

'Thank you, I would really rather not.'

'Well, then,' said Holmes, with a mischievous twinkle, 'I suppose that you have noobjection to helping me?'

Phelps raised the cover, and as he did so he uttered a scream, and sat there staringwith a face as white as the plate upon which he looked. Across the centre of it waslying a little cylinder of blue-grey paper. He caught it up, devoured it with his eyes,and then danced madly about the room, pressing it to his bosom and shrieking out inhis delight. Then he fell back into an arm-chair, so limp and exhausted with his ownemotions that we had to pour brandy down his throat to keep him from fainting.

'There! There!' said Holmes, soothingly, patting him upon the shoulder. 'It was toobad to spring it on you like this; but Watson here will tell you that I never can resist atouch of the dramatic.'

Phelps seized his hand and kissed it. 'God bless you!' he cried; 'you have saved myhonour.'

'Well, my own was at stake, you know,' said Holmes. 'I assure you, it is just ashateful to me to fail in a case as it can be to you to blunder over a commission.'

Phelps thrust away the precious document into the innermost pocket of his coat.

'I have not the heart to interrupt your breakfast any further, and yet I am dying toknow how you got it and where it was.'

Sherlock Holmes swallowed a cup of coffee and turned his attention to the ham andeggs. Then he rose, lit his pipe, and settled himself down into his chair.

'I'll tell you what I did first, and how I came to do it afterwards,' said he. 'Afterleaving you at the station I went for a charming walk through some admirable Surreyscenery to a pretty little village called Ripley, where I had my tea at an inn, and tookthe precaution of filling my flask and of putting a paper of sandwiches in my pocket.There I remained until evening, when I set off for Woking again and found myself inthe high-road outside Briarbrae just after sunset.

'Well, I waited until the road was clear—it is never a very frequented one at anytime, I fancy—and then I clambered over the fence into the grounds.'

'Surely the gate was open?' ejaculated Phelps.

'Yes; but I have a peculiar taste in these matters. I chose the place where the threefir trees stand, and behind their screen I got over without the least chance of anyone inthe house being able to see me. I crouched down among the bushes on the other side,and crawled from one to the other—witness the disreputable state of my trouserknees—until I had reached the clump of rhododendrons just opposite to your bedroomwindow. There I squatted down and awaited developments.

'The blind was not down in your room, and I could see Miss Harrison sitting therereading by the table. It was a quarter past ten when she closed her book, fastened theshutters, and retired. I heard her shut the door, and felt quite sure that she had turnedthe key in the lock.'

'The key?' ejaculated Phelps.

'Yes, I had given Miss Harrison instructions to lock the door on the outside andtake the key with her when she went to bed. She carried out every one of myinjunctions to the letter, and certainly without her co-operation you would not havethat paper in your coat pocket. She departed then, the lights went out, and I was leftsquatting in the rhododendron bush.

'The night was fine, but still it was a very weary vigil. Of course, it has the sort ofexcitement about it that the sportsman feels when he lies beside the watercourse andwaits for the big game. It was very long, though—almost as long, Watson, as whenyou and I waited in that deadly room when we looked into the little problem of the

Speckled Band.quarters, and I thought more than once that it had stopped. At last, however, about twoin the morning, I suddenly heard the gentle sound of a bolt being pushed back, and thecreaking of a key. A moment later the servants' door was opened and Mr. JosephHarrison stepped out into the moonlight.'

'Joseph!' ejaculated Phelps.

'He was bare-headed, but he had a black cloak thrown over his shoulder, so that hecould conceal his face in an instant if there were any alarm. He walked on tiptoeunder the shadow of the wall, and when he reached the window, he worked along-bladed knife through the sash and pushed back the catch. Then he flung open thewindow and, putting his knife through the crack in the shutters, he thrust the bar upand swung them open.

'From where I lay I had a perfect view of the inside of the room and of every one ofhis movements. He lit the two candles which stand upon the mantelpiece, and then heproceeded to turn back the corner of the carpet in the neighbourhood of the door.Presently he stooped and picked out a square piece of board, such as is usually left toenable plumbers to get at the joints of the gas pipes. This one covered, as a matter offact, the T-joint which gives off the pipe which supplies the kitchen underneath. Outof this hiding-place he drew that little cylinder of paper, pushed down the board,rearranged the carpet, blew out the candles, and walked straight into my arms as Istood waiting for him outside the window.

'Well, he has rather more viciousness than I gave him credit for, has Master Joseph.He flew at me with his knife, and I had to grass him twice, and got a cut over theknuckles, before I had the upper hand of him. He looked "murder" out of the only eyehe could see with when we had finished, but he listened to reason and gave up thepapers. Having got them I let my man go, but I wired full particulars to Forbes thismorning. If he is quick enough to catch his bird, well and good! But if, as I shrewdlysuspect, he finds the nest empty before he gets there, why, all the better for theGovernment. I fancy that Lord Holdhurst, for one, and Mr. Percy Phelps, for another,would very much rather that the affair never got so far as a police-court.'

'My God!' gasped our client. 'Do you tell me that during these long ten weeks ofagony, the stolen papers were within the very room with me all the time?'

'So it was.'

'And Joseph! Joseph a villain and a thief!'

'Hum! I am afraid Joseph's character is a rather deeper and more dangerous onethan one might judge from his appearance. From what I have heard from him thismorning, I gather that he has lost heavily in dabbling with stocks, and that he is readyto do anything on earth to better his fortunes. Being an absolutely selfish man, when achance presented itself he did not allow either his sister's happiness or your reputationto hold his hand.'

Percy Phelps sank back in his chair. 'My head whirls,' said he; 'your words havedazed me.'

'The principal difficulty in your case,' remarked Holmes, in his didactic fashion,'lay in the fact of there being too much evidence. What was vital was overlaid andhidden by what was irrelevant. Of all the facts which were presented to us, we had topick just those which we deemed to be essential, and then piece them together in theirorder, so as to reconstruct this very remarkable chain of events. I had already begun tosuspect Joseph, from the fact that you had intended to travel home with him that night,and that therefore it was a likely enough thing that he should call for you—knowingthe Foreign Office well—upon his way. When I heard that someone had been soanxious to get into the bedroom, in which no one but Joseph could have concealedanything—you told us in your narrative how you had turned Joseph out when youarrived with the doctor—my suspicions all changed to certainties, especially as theattempt was made on the first night upon which the nurse was absent, showing thatthe intruder was well acquainted with the ways of the house.'

'How blind I have been!'

'The facts of the case, as far as I have worked them out, are these: This JosephHarrison entered the office through the Charles Street door, and knowing his way hewalked straight into your room the instant after you left it. Finding no one there hepromptly rang the bell, and at the instant that he did so his eyes caught the paper uponthe table. A glance showed him that chance had put in his way a State document ofimmense value, and in a flash he had thrust it into his pocket and was gone. A fewminutes elapsed, as you remember, before the sleepy commissionaire drew yourattention to the bell, and those were just enough to give the thief time to make hisescape.

'He made his way to Woking by the first train, and, having examined his booty, andassured himself that it really was of immense value, he concealed it in what hethought was a very safe place, with the intention of taking it out again in a day or two,and carrying it to the French Embassy, or wherever he thought that a long piece wasto be had. Then came your sudden return. He, without a moment's warning, wasbundled out of his room, and from that time onwards there were always at least two ofyou there to prevent him from regaining his treasure. The situation to him must havebeen a maddening one. But at last he thought he saw his chance. He tired to steal in,but was baffled by your wakefulness. You may remember that you did not take yourusual draught that night.'

'I remember.'

'I fancy that he had taken steps to make that draught efficacious, and that he quiterelied upon your being unconscious. Of course, I understood that he would repeat theattempt whenever it could be done with safety. Your leaving the room gave him thechance he wanted. I kept Miss Harrison in it all day, so that he might not anticipate us.Then, having given him the idea that the coast was clear, I kept guard as I havedescribed. I already knew that the papers were probably in the room, but I had nodesire to rip up all the planking and skirting in search of them. I let him take them,therefore, from the hiding-place, and so saved myself an infinity of trouble. Is thereany other point which I can make clear?'

'Why did he try the window on the first occasion,' I asked, 'when he might haveentered by the door?'

'In reaching the door he would have to pass seven bedrooms. On the other hand, hecould get out on to the lawn with ease. Anything else?'

'You do not think,' asked Phelps, 'that he had any murderous intention? The knifewas only meant as a tool.'

'It may be so,' answered Holmes, shrugging his shoulders. 'I can only say forcertain that Mr. Joseph Harrison is a gentleman to whose mercy I should be extremelyunwilling to trust.'

THE END