aware that you went down to the office in the fog on Monday night,
but that you were seen and followed by young Cadogan West, who had
probably some previous reason to suspect you. He saw your theft, but
could not give the alarm, as it was just possible that you were
taking the papers to your brother in London. Leaving all his private
concerns, like the good citizen that he was, he followed you closely
in the fog and kept at your heels until you reached this very house.
There he intervened, and then it was, Colonel Walter, that to treason
you added the more terrible crime of murder."
"I did not! I did not! Before God I swear that I did not!" cried our
wretched prisoner.
"Tell us, then, how Cadogan West met his end before you laid him upon
the roof of a railway carriage."
"I will. I swear to you that I will. I did the rest. I confess it. It
was just as you say. A Stock Exchange debt had to be paid. I needed
the money badly. Oberstein offered me five thousand. It was to save
myself from ruin. But as to murder, I am as innocent as you."
"What happened, then?"
"He had his suspicions before, and he followed me as you describe. I
never knew it until I was at the very door. It was thick fog, and one
could not see three yards. I had given two taps and Oberstein had
come to the door. The young man rushed up and demanded to know what
we were about to do with the papers. Oberstein had a short
life-preserver. He always carried it with him. As West forced his way
after us into the house Oberstein struck him on the head. The blow
was a fatal one. He was dead within five minutes. There he lay in the
hall, and we were at our wit's end what to do. Then Oberstein had
this idea about the trains which halted under his back window. But
first he examined the papers which I had brought. He said that three
of them were essential, and that he must keep them. 'You cannot keep
them,' said I. 'There will be a dreadful row at Woolwich if they are
not returned.' 'I must keep them,' said he, 'for they are so
technical that it is impossible in the time to make copies.' 'Then
they must all go back together to-night,' said I. He thought for a
little, and then he cried out that he had it. 'Three I will keep,'
said he. 'The others we will stuff into the pocket of this young man.
When he is found the whole business will assuredly be put to his
account.' I could see no other way out of it, so we did as he
suggested. We waited half an hour at the window before a train
stopped. It was so thick that nothing could be seen, and we had no
difficulty in lowering West's body on to the train. That was the end
of the matter so far as I was concerned."
"And your brother?"
"He said nothing, but he had caught me once with his keys, and I
think that he suspected. I read in his eyes that he suspected. As you
know, he never held up his head again."
There was silence in the room. It was broken by Mycroft Holmes.
"Can you not make reparation? It would ease your conscience, and
possibly your punishment."
"What reparation can I make?"
"Where is Oberstein with the papers?"
"I do not know."
"Did he give you no address?"
"He said that letters to the H魌el du Louvre, Paris, would eventually
reach him."
"Then reparation is still within your power," said Sherlock Holmes.
"I will do anything I can. I owe this fellow no particular good-will.
He has been my ruin and my downfall."
"Here are paper and pen. Sit at this desk and write to my dictation.
Direct the envelope to the address given. That is right. Now the
letter:
"Dear Sir:
"With regard to our transaction, you will no doubt have observed by
now that one essential detail is missing. I have a tracing which will
make it complete. This has involved me in extra trouble, however, and
I must ask you for a further advance of five hundred pounds. I will
not trust it to the post, nor will I take anything but gold or notes.
I would come to you abroad, but it would excite remark if I left the
country at present. Therefore I shall expect to meet you in the
smoking-room of the Charing Cross Hotel at noon on Saturday. Remember
that only English notes, or gold, will be taken.
"That will do very well. I shall be very much surprised if it does
not fetch our man."
And it did! It is a matter of history--that secret history of a
nation which is often so much more intimate and interesting than its
public chronicles--that Oberstein, eager to complete the coup of his
lifetime, came to the lure and was safely engulfed for fifteen years
in a British prison. In his trunk were found the invaluable
Bruce-Partington plans, which he had put up for auction in all the
naval centres of Europe.
Colonel Walter died in prison towards the end of the second year of
his sentence. As to Holmes, he returned refreshed to his monograph
upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus, which has since been printed
for private circulation, and is said by experts to be the last word
upon the subject. Some weeks afterwards I learned incidentally that
my friend spent a day at Windsor, whence be returned with a
remarkably fine emerald tie-pin. When I asked him if he had bought
it, he answered that it was a present from a certain gracious lady in
whose interests he had once been fortunate enough to carry out a
small commission. He said no more; but I fancy that I could guess at
that lady's august name, and I have little doubt that the emerald pin
will forever recall to my friend's memory the adventure of the
Bruce-Partington plans.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE DYING DETECTIVE
Mrs. Hudson, the landlady of Sherlock Holmes, was a long-suffering
woman. Not only was her first-floor flat invaded at all hours by
throngs of singular and often undesirable characters but her
remarkable lodger showed an eccentricity and irregularity in his life
which must have sorely tried her patience. His incredible untidiness,
his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver
practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific
experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung
around him made him the very worst tenant in London. On the other
hand, his payments were princely. I have no doubt that the house
might have been purchased at the price which Holmes paid for his
rooms during the years that I was with him.
The landlady stood in the deepest awe of him and never dared to
interfere with him, however outrageous his proceedings might seem.
She was fond of him, too, for he had a remarkable gentleness and
courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the
sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent. Knowing how genuine was
her regard for him, I listened earnestly to her story when she came
to my rooms in the second year of my married life and told me of the
sad condition to which my poor friend was reduced.
"He's dying, Dr. Watson," said she. "For three days he has been
sinking, and I doubt if he will last the day. He would not let me get
a doctor. This morning when I saw his bones sticking out of his face
and his great bright eyes looking at me I could stand no more of it.
'With your leave or without it, Mr. Holmes, I am going for a doctor
this very hour,' said I. 'Let it be Watson, then,' said he. I
wouldn't waste an hour in coming to him, sir, or you may not see him
alive."
I was horrified for I had heard nothing of his illness. I need not
say that I rushed for my coat and my hat. As we drove back I asked
for the details.
"There is little I can tell you, sir. He has been working at a case
down at Rotherhithe, in an alley near the river, and he has brought
this illness back with him. He took to his bed on Wednesday afternoon
and has never moved since. For these three days neither food nor
drink has passed his lips."
"Good God! Why did you not call in a doctor?"
"He wouldn't have it, sir. You know how masterful he is. I didn't
dare to disobey him. But he's not long for this world, as you'll see
for yourself the moment that you set eyes on him."
He was indeed a deplorable spectacle. In the dim light of a foggy
November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt,
wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my
heart. His eyes had the brightness of fever, there was a hectic flush
upon either cheek, and dark crusts clung to his lips; the thin hands
upon the coverlet twitched incessantly, his voice was croaking and
spasmodic. He lay listlessly as I entered the room, but the sight of
me brought a gleam of recognition to his eyes.
"Well, Watson, we seem to have fallen upon evil days," said he in a
feeble voice, but with something of his old carelessness of manner.
"My dear fellow!" I cried, approaching him.
"Stand back! Stand right back!" said he with the sharp imperiousness
which I had associated only with moments of crisis. "If you approach
me, Watson, I shall order you out of the house."
"But why?"
"Because it is my desire. Is that not enough?"
Yes, Mrs. Hudson was right. He was more masterful than ever. It was
pitiful, however, to see his exhaustion.
"I only wished to help," I explained.
"Exactly! You will help best by doing what you are told."
"Certainly, Holmes."
He relaxed the austerity of his manner.
"You are not angry?" he asked, gasping for breath.
Poor devil, how could I be angry when I saw him lying in such a
plight before me?
"It's for your own sake, Watson," he croaked.
"For my sake?"
"I know what is the matter with me. It is a coolie disease from
Sumatra--a thing that the Dutch know more about than we, though they
have made little of it up to date. One thing only is certain. It is
infallibly deadly, and it is horribly contagious."
He spoke now with a feverish energy, the long hands twitching and
jerking as he motioned me away.
"Contagious by touch, Watson--that's it, by touch. Keep your distance
and all is well."
"Good heavens, Holmes! Do you suppose that such a consideration
weighs with me of an instant? It would not affect me in the case of a
stranger. Do you imagine it would prevent me from doing my duty to so
old a friend?"
Again I advanced, but he repulsed me with a look of furious anger.
"If you will stand there I will talk. If you do not you must leave
the room."
I have so deep a respect for the extraordinary qualities of Holmes
that I have always deferred to his wishes, even when I least
understood them. But now all my professional instincts were aroused.
Let him be my master elsewhere, I at least was his in a sick room.
"Holmes," said I, "you are not yourself. A sick man is but a child,
and so I will treat you. Whether you like it or not, I will examine
your symptoms and treat you for them."
He looked at me with venomous eyes.
"If I am to have a doctor whether I will or not, let me at least have
someone in whom I have confidence," said he.
"Then you have none in me?"
"In your friendship, certainly. But facts are facts, Watson, and,
after all, you are only a general practitioner with very limited
experience and mediocre qualifications. It is painful to have to say
these things, but you leave me no choice."
I was bitterly hurt.
"Such a remark is unworthy of you, Holmes. It shows me very clearly
the state of your own nerves. But if you have no confidence in me I
would not intrude my services. Let me bring Sir Jasper Meek or
Penrose Fisher, or any of the best men in London. But someone you
must have, and that is final. If you think that I am going to stand
here and see you die without either helping you myself or bringing
anyone else to help you, then you have mistaken your man."
"You mean well, Watson," said the sick man with something between a
sob and a groan. "Shall I demonstrate your own ignorance? What do you
know, pray, of Tapanuli fever? What do you know of the black Formosa
corruption?"
"I have never heard of either."
"There are many problems of disease, many strange pathological
possibilities, in the East, Watson." He paused after each sentence to
collect his failing strength. "I have learned so much during some
recent researches which have a medico-criminal aspect. It was in the
course of them that I contracted this complaint. You can do nothing."
"Possibly not. But I happen to know that Dr. Ainstree, the greatest
living authority upon tropical disease, is now in London. All
remonstrance is useless, Holmes, I am going this instant to fetch
him." I turned resolutely to the door.
Never have I had such a shock! In an instant, with a tiger-spring,
