woman has led a most quiet and respectable life at Penge and here for
the last twenty years. She has hardly been away from her home for a
day during that time. Why on earth, then, should any criminal send
her the proofs of his guilt, especially as, unless she is a most
consummate actress, she understands quite as little of the matter as
we do?"
"That is the problem which we have to solve," Holmes answered, "and
for my part I shall set about it by presuming that my reasoning is
correct, and that a double murder has been committed. One of these
ears is a woman's, small, finely formed, and pierced for an earring.
The other is a man's, sun-burned, discoloured, and also pierced for
an earring. These two people are presumably dead, or we should have
heard their story before now. To-day is Friday. The packet was posted
on Thursday morning. The tragedy, then, occurred on Wednesday or
Tuesday, or earlier. If the two people were murdered, who but their
murderer would have sent this sign of his work to Miss Cushing? We
may take it that the sender of the packet is the man whom we want.
But he must have some strong reason for sending Miss Cushing this
packet. What reason then? It must have been to tell her that the deed
was done! or to pain her, perhaps. But in that case she knows who it
is. Does she know? I doubt it. If she knew, why should she call the
police in? She might have buried the ears, and no one would have been
the wiser. That is what she would have done if she had wished to
shield the criminal. But if she does not wish to shield him she would
give his name. There is a tangle here which needs straightening to."
He had been talking in a high, quick voice, staring blankly up over
the garden fence, but now he sprang briskly to his feet and walked
towards the house.
"I have a few questions to ask Miss Cushing," said he.
"In that case I may leave you here," said Lestrade, "for I have
another small business on hand. I think that I have nothing further
to learn from Miss Cushing. You will find me at the police-station."
"We shall look in on our way to the train," answered Holmes. A moment
later he and I were back in the front room, where the impassive lady
was still quietly working away at her antimacassar. She put it down
on her lap as we entered and looked at us with her frank, searching
blue eyes.
"I am convinced, sir," she said, "that this matter is a mistake, and
that the parcel was never meant for me at all. I have said this
several times to the gentlemen from Scotland Yard, but he simply
laughs at me. I have not an enemy in the world, as far as I know, so
why should anyone play me such a trick?"
"I am coming to be of the same opinion, Miss Cushing," said Holmes,
taking a seat beside her. "I think that it is more than probable--"
He paused, and I was surprised, on glancing round to see that he was
staring with singular intentness at the lady's profile. Surprise and
satisfaction were both for an instant to be read upon his eager face,
though when she glanced round to find out the cause of his silence he
had become as demure as ever. I stared hard myself at her flat,
grizzled hair, her trim cap, her little gilt earrings, her placid
features; but I could see nothing which could account for my
companion's evident excitement.
"There were one or two questions--"
"Oh, I am weary of questions!" cried Miss Cushing impatiently.
"You have two sisters, I believe."
"How could you know that?"
"I observed the very instant that I entered the room that you have a
portrait group of three ladies upon the mantelpiece, one of whom is
undoubtedly yourself, while the others are so exceedingly like you
that there could be no doubt of the relationship."
"Yes, you are quite right. Those are my sisters, Sarah and Mary."
"And here at my elbow is another portrait, taken at Liverpool, of
your younger sister, in the company of a man who appears to be a
steward by his uniform. I observe that she was unmarried at the
time."
"You are very quick at observing."
"That is my trade."
"Well, you are quite right. But she was married to Mr. Browner a few
days afterwards. He was on the South American line when that was
taken, but he was so fond of her that he couldn't abide to leave her
for so long, and he got into the Liverpool and London boats."
"Ah, the Conqueror, perhaps?"
"No, the May Day, when last I heard. Jim came down here to see me
once. That was before he broke the pledge; but afterwards he would
always take drink when he was ashore, and a little drink would send
him stark, staring mad. Ah! it was a bad day that ever he took a
glass in his hand again. First he dropped me, then he quarrelled with
Sarah, and now that Mary has stopped writing we don't know how things
are going with them."
It was evident that Miss Cushing had come upon a subject on which she
felt very deeply. Like most people who lead a lonely life, she was
shy at first, but ended by becoming extremely communicative. She told
us many details about her brother-in-law the steward, and then
wandering off on the subject of her former lodgers, the medical
students, she gave us a long account of their delinquencies, with
their names and those of their hospitals. Holmes listened attentively
to everything, throwing in a question from time to time.
"About your second sister, Sarah," said he. "I wonder, since you are
both maiden ladies, that you do not keep house together."
"Ah! you don't know Sarah's temper or you would wonder no more. I
tried it when I came to Croydon, and we kept on until about two
months ago, when we had to part. I don't want to say a word against
my own sister, but she was always meddlesome and hard to please, was
Sarah."
"You say that she quarrelled with your Liverpool relations."
"Yes, and they were the best of friends at one time. Why, she went up
there to live in order to be near them. And now she has no word hard
enough for Jim Browner. The last six months that she was here she
would speak of nothing but his drinking and his ways. He had caught
her meddling, I suspect, and given her a bit of his mind, and that
was the start of it."
"Thank you, Miss Cushing," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Your
sister Sarah lives, I think you said, at New Street, Wallington?
Good-bye, and I am very sorry that you should have been troubled over
a case with which, as you say, you have nothing whatever to do."
There was a cab passing as we came out, and Holmes hailed it.
"How far to Wallington?" he asked.
"Only about a mile, sir."
"Very good. Jump in, Watson. We must strike while the iron is hot.
Simple as the case is, there have been one or two very instructive
details in connection with it. Just pull up at a telegraph office as
you pass, cabby."
Holmes sent off a short wire and for the rest of the drive lay back
in the cab, with his hat tilted over his nose to keep the sun from
his face. Our drive pulled up at a house which was not unlike the one
which we had just quitted. My companion ordered him to wait, and had
his hand upon the knocker, when the door opened and a grave young
gentleman in black, with a very shiny hat, appeared on the step.
"Is Miss Cushing at home?" asked Holmes.
"Miss Sarah Cushing is extremely ill," said he. "She has been
suffering since yesterday from brain symptoms of great severity. As
her medical adviser, I cannot possibly take the responsibility of
allowing anyone to see her. I should recommend you to call again in
ten days." He drew on his gloves, closed the door, and marched off
down the street.
"Well, if we can't we can't," said Holmes, cheerfully.
"Perhaps she could not or would not have told you much."
"I did not wish her to tell me anything. I only wanted to look at
her. However, I think that I have got all that I want. Drive us to
some decent hotel, cabby, where we may have some lunch, and
afterwards we shall drop down upon friend Lestrade at the
police-station."
We had a pleasant little meal together, during which Holmes would
talk about nothing but violins, narrating with great exultation how
he had purchased his own Stradivarius, which was worth at least five
hundred guineas, at a Jew broker's in Tottenham Court Road for
fifty-five shillings. This led him to Paganini, and we sat for an
hour over a bottle of claret while he told me anecdote after anecdote
of that extraordinary man. The afternoon was far advanced and the hot
glare had softened into a mellow glow before we found ourselves at
the police-station. Lestrade was waiting for us at the door.
"A telegram for you, Mr. Holmes," said he.
"Ha! It is the answer!" He tore it open, glanced his eyes over it,
and crumpled it into his pocket. "That's all right," said he.
"Have you found out anything?"
"I have found out everything!"
"What!" Lestrade stared at him in amazement. "You are joking."
"I was never more serious in my life. A shocking crime has been
committed, and I think I have now laid bare every detail of it."
"And the criminal?"
Holmes scribbled a few words upon the back of one of his visiting
cards and threw it over to Lestrade.
"That is the name," he said. "You cannot effect an arrest until
to-morrow night at the earliest. I should prefer that you do not
mention my name at all in connection with the case, as I choose to be
only associated with those crimes which present some difficulty in
their solution. Come on, Watson." We strode off together to the
station, leaving Lestrade still staring with a delighted face at the
card which Holmes had thrown him.
"The case," said Sherlock Holmes as we chatted over or cigars that
night in our rooms at Baker Street, "is one where, as in the
investigations which you have chronicled under the names of 'A Study
in Scarlet' and of 'The Sign of Four,' we have been compelled to
reason backward from effects to causes. I have written to Lestrade
asking him to supply us with the details which are now wanting, and
which he will only get after he had secured his man. That he may be
safely trusted to do, for although he is absolutely devoid of reason,
he is as tenacious as a bulldog when he once understands what he has
to do, and indeed, it is just this tenacity which has brought him to
the top at Scotland Yard."
"Your case is not complete, then?" I asked.
"It is fairly complete in essentials. We know who the author of the
revolting business is, although one of the victims still escapes us.
Of course, you have formed your own conclusions."
"I presume that this Jim Browner, the steward of a Liverpool boat, is
the man whom you suspect?"
"Oh! it is more than a suspicion."
"And yet I cannot see anything save very vague indications."
"On the contrary, to my mind nothing could be more clear. Let me run
over the principal steps. We approached the case, you remember, with
an absolutely blank mind, which is always an advantage. We had formed
no theories. We were simply there to observe and to draw inferences
from our observations. What did we see first? A very placid and
respectable lady, who seemed quite innocent of any secret, and a
portrait which showed me that she had two younger sisters. It
instantly flashed across my mind that the box might have been meant
for one of these. I set the idea aside as one which could be
disproved or confirmed at our leisure. Then we went to the garden, as
you remember, and we saw the very singular contents of the little
yellow box.
"The string was of the quality which is used by sail-makers aboard
ship, and at once a whiff of the sea was perceptible in our
investigation. When I observed that the knot was one which is popular
with sailors, that the parcel had been posted at a port, and that the
male ear was pierced for an earring which is so much more common
among sailors than landsmen, I was quite certain that all the actors
in the tragedy were to be found among our seafaring classes.
"When I came to examine the address of the packet I observed that it
was to Miss S. Cushing. Now, the oldest sister would, of course, be
Miss Cushing, and although her initial was 'S' it might belong to one
of the others as well. In that case we should have to commence our
investigation from a fresh basis altogether. I therefore went into
the house with the intention of clearing up this point. I was about
to assure Miss Cushing that I was convinced that a mistake had been
made when you may remember that I came suddenly to a stop. The fact
was that I had just seen something which filled me with surprise and
at the same time narrowed the field of our inquiry immensely.
