the premises? Never dare to show your damned face here again. If you
enter again without my leave I shall be within my rights if I use
violence. I'll shoot you, sir! By God, I will! As to you, sir,"
turning upon me, "I extend the same warning to you. I am familiar
with your ignoble profession, but you must take your reputed talents
to some other field. There is no opening for them here."
"I cannot leave here," said my client firmly, "until I hear from
Godfrey's own lips that he is under no restraint."
Our involuntary host rang the bell.
"Ralph," he said, "telephone down to the county police and ask the
inspector to send up two constables. Tell him there are burglars in
the house."
"One moment," said I. "You must be aware, Mr. Dodd, that Colonel
Emsworth is within his rights and that we have no legal status within
his house. On the other hand, he should recognize that your action is
prompted entirely by solicitude for his son. I venture to hope that
if I were allowed to have five minutes' conversation with Colonel
Emsworth I could certainly alter his view of the matter."
"I am not so easily altered," said the old soldier. "Ralph, do what I
have told you. What the devil are you waiting for? Ring up the
police!"
"Nothing of the sort," I said, putting my back to the door. "Any
police interference would bring about the very catastrophe which you
dread." I took out my notebook and scribbled one word upon a loose
sheet. "That," said I as I handed it to Colonel Emsworth, "is what
has brought us here."
He stared at the writing with a face from which every expression save
amazement had vanished.
"How do you know?" he gasped, sitting down heavily in his chair.
"It is my business to know things. That is my trade."
He sat in deep thought, his gaunt hand tugging at his straggling
beard. Then he made a gesture of resignation.
"Well, if you wish to see Godfrey, you shall. It is no doing of mine,
but you have forced my hand. Ralph, tell Mr. Godfrey and Mr. Kent
that in five minutes we shall be with them."
At the end of that time we passed down the garden path and found
ourselves in front of the mystery house at the end. A small bearded
man stood at the door with a look of considerable astonishment upon
his face.
"This is very sudden, Colonel Emsworth," said he. "This will
disarrange all our plans."
"I can't help it, Mr. Kent. Our hands have been forced. Can Mr.
Godfrey see us?"
"Yes, he is waiting inside." He turned and led us into a large,
plainly furnished front room. A man was standing with his back to the
fire, and at the sight of him my client sprang forward with
outstretched hand.
"Why, Godfrey, old man, this is fine!"
But the other waved him back.
"Don't touch me, Jimmie. Keep your distance. Yes, you may well stare!
I don't quite look the smart Lance-Corporal Emsworth, of B Squadron,
do I?"
His appearance was certainly extraordinary. One could see that he had
indeed been a handsome man with clear-cut features sunburned by an
African sun, but mottled in patches over this darker surface were
curious whitish patches which had bleached his skin.
"That's why I don't court visitors," said he. "I don't mind you,
Jimmie, but I could have done without your friend. I suppose there is
some good reason for it, but you have me at a disadvantage."
"I wanted to be sure that all was well with you, Godfrey. I saw you
that night when you looked into my window, and I could not let the
matter rest till I had cleared things up."
"Old Ralph told me you were there, and I couldn't help taking a peep
at you. I hoped you would not have seen me, and I had to run to my
burrow when I heard the window go up."
"But what in heaven's name is the matter?"
"Well, it's not a long story to tell," said he, lighting a cigarette.
"You remember that morning fight at Buffelsspruit, outside Pretoria,
on the Eastern railway line? You heard I was hit?"
"Yes, I heard that, but I never got particulars."
"Three of us got separated from the others. It was very broken
country, you may remember. There was Simpson--the fellow we called
Baldy Simpson-- and Anderson, and I. We were clearing brother Boer,
but he lay low and got the three of us. The other two were killed. I
got an elephant bullet through my shoulder. I stuck on to my horse,
however, and he galloped several miles before I fainted and rolled
off the saddle.
"When I came to myself it was nightfall, and I raised myself up,
feeling very weak and ill. To my surprise there was a house close
beside me, a fairly large house with a broad stoep and many windows.
It was deadly cold. You remember the kind of numb cold which used to
come at evening, a deadly, sickening sort of cold, very different
from a crisp healthy frost. Well, I was chilled to the bone, and my
only hope seemed to lie in reaching that house. I staggered to my
feet and dragged myself along, hardly conscious of what I did. I have
a dim memory of slowly ascending the steps, entering a wide-opened
door, passing into a large room which contained several beds, and
throwing myself down with a gasp of satisfaction upon one of them. It
was unmade, but that troubled me not at all. I drew the clothes over
my shivering body and in a moment I was in a deep sleep.
"It was morning when I wakened, and it seemed to me that instead of
coming out into a world of sanity I had emerged into some
extraordinary nightmare. The African sun flooded through the big,
curtainless windows, and every detail of the great, bare, whitewashed
dormitory stood out hard and clear. In front of me was standing a
small, dwarf-like man with a huge, bulbous head, who was jabbering
excitedly in Dutch, waving two horrible hands which looked to me like
brown sponges. Behind him stood a group of people who seemed to be
intensely amused by the situation, but a chill came over me as I
looked at them. Not one of them was a normal human being. Every one
was twisted or swollen or disfigured in some strange way. The
laughter of these strange monstrosities was a dreadful thing to hear.
"It seemed that none of them could speak English, but the situation
wanted clearing up, for the creature with the big head was growing
furiously angry, and, uttering wild-beast cries, he had laid his
deformed hands upon me and was dragging me out of bed, regardless of
the fresh flow of blood from my wound. The little monster was as
strong as a bull, and I don't know what he might have done to me had
not an elderly man who was clearly in authority been attracted to the
room by the hubbub. He said a few stern words in Dutch, and my
persecutor shrank away. Then he turned upon me, gazing at me in the
utmost amazement.
"'How in the world did you come here?' he asked in amazement. 'Wait a
bit! I see that you are tired out and that wounded shoulder of yours
wants looking after. I am a doctor, and I'll soon have you tied up.
But, man alive! you are in far greater danger here than ever you were
on the battlefield. You are in the Leper Hospital, and you have slept
in a leper's bed.'
"Need I tell you more, Jimmie? It seems that in view of the
approaching battle all these poor creatures had been evacuated the
day before. Then, as the British advanced, they had been brought back
by this, their medical superintendent, who assured me that, though he
believed he was immune to the disease, he would none the less never
have dared to do what I had done. He put me in a private room,
treated me kindly, and within a week or so I was removed to the
general hospital at Pretoria.
"So there you have my tragedy. I hoped against hope, but it was not
until I had reached home that the terrible signs which you see upon
my face told me that I had not escaped. What was I to do? I was in
this lonely house. We had two servants whom we could utterly trust.
There was a house where I could live. Under pledge of secrecy, Mr.
Kent, who is a surgeon, was prepared to stay with me. It seemed
simple enough on those lines. The alternative was a dreadful
one--segregation for life among strangers with never a hope of
release. But absolute secrecy was necessary, or even in this quiet
countryside there would have been an outcry, and I should have been
dragged to my horrible doom. Even you, Jimmie--even you had to be
kept in the dark. Why my father has relented I cannot imagine."
Colonel Emsworth pointed to me.
"This is the gentleman who forced my hand." He unfolded the scrap of
paper on which I had written the word "Leprosy." "It seemed to me
that if he knew so much as that it was safer that he should know
all."
"And so it was," said I. "Who knows but good may come of it? I
understand that only Mr. Kent has seen the patient. May I ask, sir,
if you are an authority on such complaints, which are, I understand,
tropical or semi-tropical in their nature?"
"I have the ordinary knowledge of the educated medical man," he
observed with some stiffness.
"I have no doubt, sir, that you are fully competent, but I am sure
that you will agree that in such a case a second opinion is valuable.
You have avoided this, I understand, for fear that pressure should be
put upon you to segregate the patient."
"That is so," said Colonel Emsworth.
"I foresaw this situation," I explained, "and I have brought with me
a friend whose discretion may absolutely be trusted. I was able once
to do him a professional service, and he is ready to advise as a
friend rather than as a specialist. His name is Sir James Saunders."
The prospect of an interview with Lord Roberts would not have excited
greater wonder and pleasure in a raw subaltern than was now reflected
upon the face of Mr. Kent.
"I shall indeed be proud," he murmured.
"Then I will ask Sir James to step this way. He is at present in the
carriage outside the door. Meanwhile, Colonel Emsworth, we may
perhaps assemble in your study, where I could give the necessary
explanations."
And here it is that I miss my Watson. By cunning questions and
ejaculations of wonder he could elevate my simple art, which is but
systematized common sense, into a prodigy. When I tell my own story I
have no such aid. And yet I will give my process of thought even as I
gave it to my small audience, which included Godfrey's mother in the
study of Colonel Emsworth.
"That process," said I, "starts upon the supposition that when you
have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth. It may well be that several
explanations remain, in which case one tries test after test until
one or other of them has a convincing amount of support. We will now
apply this principle to the case in point. As it was first presented
to me, there were three possible explanations of the seclusion or
incarceration of this gentleman in an outhouse of his father's
mansion. There was the explanation that he was in hiding for a crime,
or that he was mad and that they wished to avoid an asylum, or that
he had some disease which caused his segregation. I could think of no
other adequate solutions. These, then, had to be sifted and balanced
against each other.
"The criminal solution would not bear inspection. No unsolved crime
had been reported from that district. I was sure of that. If it were
some crime not yet discovered, then clearly it would be to the
interest of the family to get rid of the delinquent and send him
abroad rather than keep him concealed at home. I could see no
explanation for such a line of conduct.
"Insanity was more plausible. The presence of the second person in
the outhouse suggested a keeper. The fact that he locked the door
when he came out strengthened the supposition and gave the idea of
constraint. On the other hand, this constraint could not be severe or
the young man could not have got loose and come down to have a look
at his friend. You will remember, Mr. Dodd, that I felt round for
points, asking you, for example, about the paper which Mr. Kent was
reading. Had it been the Lancet or the British Medical Journal it
would have helped me. It is not illegal, however, to keep a lunatic
upon private premises so long as there is a qualified person in
attendance and that the authorities have been duly notified. Why,
then, all this desperate desire for secrecy? Once again I could not
get the theory to fit the facts.
"There remained the third possibility, into which, rare and unlikely
as it was, everything seemed to fit. Leprosy is not uncommon in South
Africa. By some extraordinary chance this youth might have contracted
it. His people would be placed in a very dreadful position, since
