me what was James's motive in doing such a deed. I answer that there
was a great deal which was unreasoning and fanatical in the hatred
which he bore my heir. In his view he should himself have been heir
of all my estates, and he deeply resented those social laws which
made it impossible. At the same time he had a definite motive also.
He was eager that I should break the entail, and he was of opinion
that it lay in my power to do so. He intended to make a bargain with
me--to restore Arthur if I would break the entail, and so make it
possible for the estate to be left to him by will. He knew well that
I should never willingly invoke the aid of the police against him. I
say that he would have proposed such a bargain to me, but he did not
actually do so, for events moved too quickly for him, and he had not
time to put his plans into practice.
"What brought all his wicked scheme to wreck was your discovery of
this man Heidegger's dead body. James was seized with horror at the
news. It came to us yesterday as we sat together in this study. Dr.
Huxtable had sent a telegram. James was so overwhelmed with grief and
agitation that my suspicions, which had never been entirely absent,
rose instantly to a certainty, and I taxed him with the deed. He made
a complete voluntary confession. Then he implored me to keep his
secret for three days longer, so as to give his wretched accomplice a
chance of saving his guilty life. I yielded--as I have always
yielded--to his prayers, and instantly James hurried off to the
Fighting Cock to warn Hayes and give him the means of flight. I could
not go there by daylight without provoking comment, but as soon as
night fell I hurried off to see my dear Arthur. I found him safe and
well, but horrified beyond expression by the dreadful deed he had
witnessed. In deference to my promise, and much against my will, I
consented to leave him there for three days under the charge of Mrs.
Hayes, since it was evident that it was impossible to inform the
police where he was without telling them also who was the murderer,
and I could not see how that murderer could be punished without ruin
to my unfortunate James. You asked for frankness, Mr. Holmes, and I
have taken you at your word, for I have now told you everything
without an attempt at circumlocution or concealment. Do you in turn
be as frank with me."
"I will," said Holmes. "In the first place, your Grace, I am bound to
tell you that you have placed yourself in a most serious position in
the eyes of the law. You have condoned a felony and you have aided
the escape of a murderer; for I cannot doubt that any money which was
taken by James Wilder to aid his accomplice in his flight came from
your Grace's purse."
The Duke bowed his assent.
"This is indeed a most serious matter. Even more culpable in my
opinion, your Grace, is your attitude towards your younger son. You
leave him in this den for three days."
"Under solemn promises--"
"What are promises to such people as these? You have no guarantee
that he will not be spirited away again. To humour your guilty elder
son you have exposed your innocent younger son to imminent and
unnecessary danger. It was a most unjustifiable action."
The proud lord of Holdernesse was not accustomed to be so rated in
his own ducal hall. The blood flushed into his high forehead, but his
conscience held him dumb.
"I will help you, but on one condition only. It is that you ring for
the footman and let me give such orders as I like."
Without a word the Duke pressed the electric bell. A servant entered.
"You will be glad to hear," said Holmes, "that your young master is
found. It is the Duke's desire that the carriage shall go at once to
the Fighting Cock Inn to bring Lord Saltire home.
"Now," said Holmes, when the rejoicing lackey had disappeared,
"having secured the future, we can afford to be more lenient with the
past. I am not in an official position, and there is no reason, so
long as the ends of justice are served, why I should disclose all
that I know. As to Hayes I say nothing. The gallows awaits him, and I
would do nothing to save him from it. What he will divulge I cannot
tell, but I have no doubt that your Grace could make him understand
that it is to his interest to be silent. From the police point of
view he will have kidnapped the boy for the purpose of ransom. If
they do not themselves find it out I see no reason why I should
prompt them to take a broader point of view. I would warn your Grace,
however, that the continued presence of Mr. James Wilder in your
household can only lead to misfortune."
"I understand that, Mr. Holmes, and it is already settled that he
shall leave me for ever and go to seek his fortune in Australia."
"In that case, your Grace, since you have yourself stated that any
unhappiness in your married life was caused by his presence, I would
suggest that you make such amends as you can to the Duchess, and that
you try to resume those relations which have been so unhappily
interrupted."
"That also I have arranged, Mr. Holmes. I wrote to the Duchess this
morning."
"In that case," said Holmes, rising, "I think that my friend and I
can congratulate ourselves upon several most happy results from our
little visit to the North. There is one other small point upon which
I desire some light. This fellow Hayes had shod his horses with shoes
which counterfeited the tracks of cows. Was it from Mr. Wilder that
he learned so extraordinary a device?"
The Duke stood in thought for a moment, with a look of intense
surprise on his face. Then he opened a door and showed us into a
large room furnished as a museum. He led the way to a glass case in a
corner, and pointed to the inscription.
"These shoes," it ran, "were dug up in the moat of Holdernesse Hall.
They are for the use of horses; but they are shaped below with a
cloven foot of iron, so as to throw pursuers off the track. They are
supposed to have belonged to some of the marauding Barons of
Holdernesse in the Middle Ages."
Holmes opened the case, and moistening his finger he passed it along
the shoe. A thin film of recent mud was left upon his skin.
"Thank you," said he, as he replaced the glass. "It is the second
most interesting object that I have seen in the North."
"And the first?"
Holmes folded up his cheque and placed it carefully in his note-book.
"I am a poor man," said he, as he patted it affectionately and thrust
it into the depths of his inner pocket.
THE ADVENTURE OF BLACK PETER
I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and
physical, than in the year '95. His increasing fame had brought with
it an immense practice, and I should be guilty of an indiscretion if
I were even to hint at the identity of some of the illustrious
clients who crossed our humble threshold in Baker Street. Holmes,
however, like all great artists, lived for his art's sake, and, save
in the case of the Duke of Holdernesse, I have seldom known him claim
any large reward for his inestimable services. So unworldly was
he--or so capricious--that he frequently refused his help to the
powerful and wealthy where the problem made no appeal to his
sympathies, while he would devote weeks of most intense application
to the affairs of some humble client whose case presented those
strange and dramatic qualities which appealed to his imagination and
challenged his ingenuity.
In this memorable year '95 a curious and incongruous succession of
cases had engaged his attention, ranging from his famous
investigation of the sudden death of Cardinal Tosca--an inquiry which
was carried out by him at the express desire of His Holiness the
Pope--down to his arrest of Wilson, the notorious canary-trainer,
which removed a plague-spot from the East-End of London. Close on the
heels of these two famous cases came the tragedy of Woodman's Lee,
and the very obscure circumstances which surrounded the death of
Captain Peter Carey. No record of the doings of Mr. Sherlock Holmes
would be complete which did not include some account of this very
unusual affair.
During the first week of July my friend had been absent so often and
so long from our lodgings that I knew he had something on hand. The
fact that several rough-looking men called during that time and
inquired for Captain Basil made me understand that Holmes was working
somewhere under one of the numerous disguises and names with which he
concealed his own formidable identity. He had at least five small
refuges in different parts of London in which he was able to change
his personality. He said nothing of his business to me, and it was
not my habit to force a confidence. The first positive sign which he
gave me of the direction which his investigation was taking was an
extraordinary one. He had gone out before breakfast, and I had sat
down to mine, when he strode into the room, his hat upon his head and
a huge barbed-headed spear tucked like an umbrella under his arm.
"Good gracious, Holmes!" I cried. "You don't mean to say that you
have been walking about London with that thing?"
"I drove to the butcher's and back."
"The butcher's?"
"And I return with an excellent appetite. There can be no question,
my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast. But I am
prepared to bet that you will not guess the form that my exercise has
taken."
"I will not attempt it."
He chuckled as he poured out the coffee.
"If you could have looked into Allardyce's back shop you would have
seen a dead pig swung from a hook in the ceiling, and a gentleman in
his shirt-sleeves furiously stabbing at it with this weapon. I was
that energetic person, and I have satisfied myself that by no
exertion of my strength can I transfix the pig with a single blow.
Perhaps you would care to try?"
"Not for worlds. But why were you doing this?"
"Because it seemed to me to have an indirect bearing upon the mystery
of Woodman's Lee. Ah, Hopkins, I got your wire last night, and I have
been expecting you. Come and join us."
Our visitor was an exceedingly alert man, thirty years of age,
dressed in a quiet tweed suit, but retaining the erect bearing of one
who was accustomed to official uniform. I recognised him at once as
Stanley Hopkins, a young police inspector for whose future Holmes had
high hopes, while he in turn professed the admiration and respect of
a pupil for the scientific methods of the famous amateur. Hopkins's
brow was clouded, and he sat down with an air of deep dejection.
"No, thank you, sir. I breakfasted before I came round. I spent the
night in town, for I came up yesterday to report."
"And what had you to report?"
"Failure, sir; absolute failure."
"You have made no progress?"
"None."
"Dear me! I must have a look at the matter."
"I wish to heavens that you would, Mr. Holmes. It's my first big
chance, and I am at my wit's end. For goodness' sake come down and
lend me a hand."
"Well, well, it just happens that I have already read all the
available evidence, including the report of the inquest, with some
care. By the way, what do you make of that tobacco-pouch found on the
scene of the crime? Is there no clue there?"
Hopkins looked surprised.
"It was the man's own pouch, sir. His initials were inside it. And it
was of seal-skin--and he an old sealer."
"But he had no pipe."
"No, sir, we could find no pipe; indeed, he smoked very little. And
yet he might have kept some tobacco for his friends."
"No doubt. I only mention it because if I had been handling the case
I should have been inclined to make that the starting-point of my
investigation. However, my friend Dr. Watson knows nothing of this
matter, and I should be none the worse for hearing the sequence of
events once more. Just give us some short sketch of the essentials."
Stanley Hopkins drew a slip of paper from his pocket.
"I have a few dates here which will give you the career of the dead
man, Captain Peter Carey. He was born in '45--fifty years of age. He
was a most daring and successful seal and whale fisher. In 1883 he
commanded the steam sealer Sea Unicorn, of Dundee. He had then had
several successful voyages in succession, and in the following year,
1884, he retired. After that he travelled for some years, and finally
he bought a small place called Woodman's Lee, near Forest Row, in
Sussex. There he has lived for six years, and there he died just a
week ago to-day.
"There were some most singular points about the man. In ordinary life
he was a strict Puritan--a silent, gloomy fellow. His household
consisted of his wife, his daughter, aged twenty, and two female
