"How so, sir?"
"By supposing that your hired bullies could frighten me from my work.
Surely no man would take up my profession if it were not that danger
attracts him. It was you, then, who forced me to examine the case of
young Maberley."
"I have no idea what you are talking about. What have I to do with
hired bullies?"
Holmes turned away wearily.
"Yes, I have underrated your intelligence. Well, good-afternoon!"
"Stop! Where are you going?"
"To Scotland Yard."
We had not got halfway to the door before she had overtaken us and
was holding his arm. She had turned in a moment from steel to velvet.
"Come and sit down, gentlemen. Let us talk this matter over. I feel
that I may be frank with you, Mr. Holmes. You have the feelings of a
gentleman. How quick a woman's instinct is to find it out. I will
treat you as a friend."
"I cannot promise to reciprocate, madame. I am not the law, but I
represent justice so far as my feeble powers go. I am ready to
listen, and then I will tell you how I will act."
"No doubt it was foolish of me to threaten a brave man like
yourself."
"What was really foolish, madame, is that you have placed yourself in
the power of a band of rascals who may blackmail or give you away."
"No, no! I am not so simple. Since I have promised to be frank, I may
say that no one, save Barney Stockdale and Susan, his wife, have the
least idea who their employer is. As to them, well, it is not the
first--" She smiled and nodded with a charming coquettish intimacy.
"I see. You've tested them before."
"They are good hounds who run silent."
"Such hounds have a way sooner or later of biting the hand that feeds
them. They will be arrested for this burglary. The police are already
after them."
"They will take what comes to them. That is what they are paid for. I
shall not appear in the matter."
"Unless I bring you into it."
"No, no, you would not. You are a gentleman. It is a woman's secret."
"In the first place, you must give back this manuscript."
She broke into a ripple of laughter and walked to the fireplace.
There was a calcined mass which she broke up with the poker. "Shall I
give this back?" she asked. So roguish and exquisite did she look as
she stood before us with a challenging smile that I felt of all
Holmes's criminals this was the one whom he would find it hardest to
face. However, he was immune from sentiment.
"That seals your fate," he said coldly. "You are very prompt in your
actions, madame, but you have overdone it on this occasion."
She threw the poker down with a clatter.
"How hard you are!" she cried. "May I tell you the whole story?"
"I fancy I could tell it to you."
"But you must look at it with my eyes, Mr. Holmes. You must realize
it from the point of view of a woman who sees all her life's ambition
about to be ruined at the last moment. Is such a woman to be blamed
if she protects herself?"
"The original sin was yours."
"Yes, yes! I admit it. He was a dear boy, Douglas, but it so chanced
that he could not fit into my plans. He wanted marriage--marriage,
Mr. Holmes--with a penniless commoner. Nothing less would serve him.
Then he became pertinacious. Because I had given he seemed to think
that I still must give, and to him only. It was intolerable. At last
I had to make him realize it."
"By hiring ruffians to beat him under your own window."
"You do indeed seem to know everything. Well, it is true. Barney and
the boys drove him away, and were, I admit, a little rough in doing
so. But what did he do then? Could I have believed that a gentleman
would do such an act? He wrote a book in which he described his own
story. I, of course, was the wolf; he the lamb. It was all there,
under different names, of course; but who in all London would have
failed to recognize it? What do you say to that, Mr. Holmes?"
"Well, he was within his rights."
"It was as if the air of Italy had got into his blood and brought
with it the old cruel Italian spirit. He wrote to me and sent me a
copy of his book that I might have the torture of anticipation. There
were two copies, he said--one for me, one for his publisher."
"How did you know the publisher's had not reached him?"
"I knew who his publisher was. It is not his only novel, you know. I
found out that he had not heard from Italy. Then came Douglas's
sudden death. So long as that other manuscript was in the world there
was no safety for me. Of course, it must be among his effects, and
these would be returned to his mother. I set the gang at work. One of
them got into the house as servant. I wanted to do the thing
honestly. I really and truly did. I was ready to buy the house and
everything in it. I offered any price she cared to ask. I only tried
the other way when everything else had failed. Now, Mr. Holmes,
granting that I was too hard on Douglas--and, God knows, I am sorry
for it!--what else could I do with my whole future at stake?"
Sherlock Holmes shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, well," said he, "I suppose I shall have to compound a felony
as usual. How much does it cost to go round the world in first-class
style?"
The lady stared in amazement.
"Could it be done on five thousand pounds?"
"Well, I should think so, indeed!"
"Very good. I think you will sign me a check for that, and I will see
that it comes to Mrs. Maberley. You owe her a little change of air.
Meantime, lady"--he wagged a cautionary forefinger--"have a care!
Have a care! You can't play with edged tools forever without cutting
those dainty hands."
THE ADVENTURE OF THE SUSSEX VAMPIRE
Holmes had read carefully a note which the last post had brought him.
Then, with the dry chuckle which was his nearest approach to a
laugh, he tossed it over to me.
"For a mixture of the modern and the mediaeval, of the practical and
of the wildly fanciful, I think this is surely the limit," said he.
"What do you make of it, Watson?"
I read as follows:
46, Old Jewry,
Nov. 19th.
Re Vampires
Sir:
Our client, Mr. Robert Ferguson, of Ferguson and Muirhead, tea
brokers, of Mincing Lane, has made some inquiry from us in a
communication of even date concerning vampires. As our firm
specializes entirely upon the assessment of machinery the matter
hardly comes within our purview, and we have therefore recommended
Mr. Ferguson to call upon you and lay the matter before you. We have
not forgotten your successful action in the case of Matilda Briggs.
We are, sir,
Faithfully yours,
Morrison, Morrison, and Dodd.
per E. J. C.
"Matilda Briggs was not the name of a young woman, Watson," said
Holmes in a reminiscent voice. "It was a ship which is associated
with the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet
prepared. But what do we know about vampires? Does it come within our
purview either? Anything is better than stagnation, but really we
seem to have been switched on to a Grimms' fairy tale. Make a long
arm, Watson, and see what V has to say."
I leaned back and took down the great index volume to which he
referred. Holmes balanced it on his knee, and his eyes moved slowly
and lovingly over the record of old cases, mixed with the accumulated
information of a lifetime.
"Voyage of the Gloria Scott," he read. "That was a bad business. I
have some recollection that you made a record of it, Watson, though I
was unable to congratulate you upon the result. Victor Lynch, the
forger. Venomous lizard or gila. Remarkable case, that! Vittoria,
the circus belle. Vanderbilt and the Yeggman. Vipers. Vigor, the
Hammersmith wonder. Hullo! Hullo! Good old index. You can't beat it.
Listen to this, Watson. Vampirism in Hungary. And again, Vampires in
Transylvania." He turned over the pages with eagerness, but after a
short intent perusal he threw down the great book with a snarl of
disappointment.
"Rubbish, Watson, rubbish! What have we to do with walking corpses
who can only be held in their grave by stakes driven through their
hearts? It's pure lunacy."
"But surely," said I, "the vampire was not necessarily a dead man? A
living person might have the habit. I have read, for example, of the
old sucking the blood of the young in order to retain their youth."
"You are right, Watson. It mentions the legend in one of these
references. But are we to give serious attention to such things? This
agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain.
The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply. I fear that we
cannot take Mr. Robert Ferguson very seriously. Possibly this note
may be from him and may throw some light upon what is worrying him."
He took up a second letter which had lain unnoticed upon the table
while he had been absorbed with the first. This he began to read with
a smile of amusement upon his face which gradually faded away into an
expression of intense interest and concentration. When he had
finished he sat for some little time lost in thought with the letter
dangling from his fingers. Finally, with a start, he aroused himself
from his reverie.
"Cheeseman's, Lamberley. Where is Lamberley, Watson?"
"It is in Sussex, south of Horsham."
"Not very far, eh? And Cheeseman's?"
"I know that country, Holmes. It is full of old houses which are
named after the men who built them centuries ago. You get Odley's and
Harvey's and Carriton's--the folk are forgotten but their names live
in their houses.
"Precisely," said Holmes coldly. It was one of the peculiarities of
his proud, self-contained nature that though he docketed any fresh
information very quietly and accurately in his brain, he seldom made
any acknowledgment to the giver. "I rather fancy we shall know a good
deal more about Cheeseman's, Lamberley, before we are through. The
letter is, as I had hoped, from Robert Ferguson. By the way, he
claims acquaintance with you."
"With me!"
"You had better read it."
He handed the letter across. It was headed with the address quoted.
Dear Mr. Holmes [it said]:
I have been recommended to you by my lawyers, but indeed the matter
is so extraordinarily delicate that it is most difficult to discuss.
It concerns a friend for whom I am acting. This gentleman married
some five years ago a Peruvian lady, the daughter of a Peruvian
merchant, whom he had met in connection with the importation of
nitrates. The lady was very beautiful, but the fact of her foreign
birth and of her alien religion always caused a separation of
interests and of feelings between husband and wife, so that after a
time his love may have cooled towards her and he may have come to
regard their union as a mistake. He felt there were sides of her
character which he could never explore or understand. This was the
more painful as she was as loving a wife as a man could have--to all
appearance absolutely devoted.
Now for the point which I will make more plain when we meet. Indeed,
this note is merely to give you a general idea of the situation and
to ascertain whether you would care to interest yourself in the
matter. The lady began to show some curious traits quite alien to her
ordinarily sweet and gentle disposition. The gentleman had been
married twice and he had one son by the first wife. This boy was now
fifteen, a very charming and affectionate youth, though unhappily
injured through an accident in childhood. Twice the wife was caught
in the act of assaulting this poor lad in the most unprovoked way.
Once she struck him with a stick and left a great weal on his arm.
This was a small matter, however, compared with her conduct to her
own child, a dear boy just under one year of age. On one occasion
about a month ago this child had been left by its nurse for a few
minutes. A loud cry from the baby, as of pain, called the nurse back.
As she ran into the room she saw her employer, the lady, leaning over
the baby and apparently biting his neck. There was a small wound in
the neck from which a stream of blood had escaped. The nurse was so
horrified that she wished to call the husband, but the lady implored
her not to do so and actually gave her five pounds as a price for her
silence. No explanation was ever given, and for the moment the matter
was passed over.
It left, however, a terrible impression upon the nurse's mind, and
from that time she began to watch her mistress closely and to keep a
closer guard upon the baby, whom she tenderly loved. It seemed to her
that even as she watched the mother, so the mother watched her, and
