thanking me on the one side and the lady on the other, while the
clergyman beamed on me in front. It was the most preposterous
position in which I ever found myself in my life, and it was the
thought of it that started me laughing just now. It seems that there
had been some informality about their license, that the clergyman
absolutely refused to marry them without a witness of some sort, and
that my lucky appearance saved the bridegroom from having to sally
out into the streets in search of a best man. The bride gave me a
sovereign, and I mean to wear it on my watch-chain in memory of the
occasion."
"This is a very unexpected turn of affairs," said I; "and what then?"
"Well, I found my plans very seriously menaced. It looked as if the
pair might take an immediate departure, and so necessitate very
prompt and energetic measures on my part. At the church door,
however, they separated, he driving back to the Temple, and she to
her own house. 'I shall drive out in the park at five as usual,' she
said as she left him. I heard no more. They drove away in different
directions, and I went off to make my own arrangements."
"Which are?"
"Some cold beef and a glass of beer," he answered, ringing the bell.
"I have been too busy to think of food, and I am likely to be busier
still this evening. By the way, Doctor, I shall want your
co-operation."
"I shall be delighted."
"You don't mind breaking the law?"
"Not in the least."
"Nor running a chance of arrest?"
"Not in a good cause."
"Oh, the cause is excellent!"
"Then I am your man."
"I was sure that I might rely on you."
"But what is it you wish?"
"When Mrs. Turner has brought in the tray I will make it clear to
you. Now," he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that our
landlady had provided, "I must discuss it while I eat, for I have not
much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours we must be on the
scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, returns from her
drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her."
"And what then?"
"You must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to occur.
There is only one point on which I must insist. You must not
interfere, come what may. You understand?"
"I am to be neutral?"
"To do nothing whatever. There will probably be some small
unpleasantness. Do not join in it. It will end in my being conveyed
into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the sitting-room
window will open. You are to station yourself close to that open
window."
"Yes."
"You are to watch me, for I will be visible to you."
"Yes."
"And when I raise my hand--so--you will throw into the room what I
give you to throw, and will, at the same time, raise the cry of fire.
You quite follow me?"
"Entirely."
"It is nothing very formidable," he said, taking a long cigar-shaped
roll from his pocket. "It is an ordinary plumber's smoke-rocket,
fitted with a cap at either end to make it self-lighting. Your task
is confined to that. When you raise your cry of fire, it will be
taken up by quite a number of people. You may then walk to the end of
the street, and I will rejoin you in ten minutes. I hope that I have
made myself clear?"
"I am to remain neutral, to get near the window, to watch you, and at
the signal to throw in this object, then to raise the cry of fire,
and to wait you at the corner of the street."
"Precisely."
"Then you may entirely rely on me."
"That is excellent. I think, perhaps, it is almost time that I
prepare for the new role I have to play."
He disappeared into his bedroom and returned in a few minutes in the
character of an amiable and simple-minded Nonconformist clergyman.
His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white tie, his
sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and benevolent
curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have equalled. It
was not merely that Holmes changed his costume. His expression, his
manner, his very soul seemed to vary with every fresh part that he
assumed. The stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost an acute
reasoner, when he became a specialist in crime.
It was a quarter past six when we left Baker Street, and it still
wanted ten minutes to the hour when we found ourselves in Serpentine
Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps were just being lighted as
we paced up and down in front of Briony Lodge, waiting for the coming
of its occupant. The house was just such as I had pictured it from
Sherlock Holmes' succinct description, but the locality appeared to
be less private than I expected. On the contrary, for a small street
in a quiet neighbourhood, it was remarkably animated. There was a
group of shabbily dressed men smoking and laughing in a corner, a
scissors-grinder with his wheel, two guardsmen who were flirting with
a nurse-girl, and several well-dressed young men who were lounging up
and down with cigars in their mouths.
"You see," remarked Holmes, as we paced to and fro in front of the
house, "this marriage rather simplifies matters. The photograph
becomes a double-edged weapon now. The chances are that she would be
as averse to its being seen by Mr. Godfrey Norton, as our client is
to its coming to the eyes of his princess. Now the question is, Where
are we to find the photograph?"
"Where, indeed?"
"It is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. It is
cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's dress.
She knows that the King is capable of having her waylaid and
searched. Two attempts of the sort have already been made. We may
take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her."
"Where, then?"
"Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But I am
inclined to think neither. Women are naturally secretive, and they
like to do their own secreting. Why should she hand it over to anyone
else? She could trust her own guardianship, but she could not tell
what indirect or political influence might be brought to bear upon a
business man. Besides, remember that she had resolved to use it
within a few days. It must be where she can lay her hands upon it. It
must be in her own house."
"But it has twice been burgled."
"Pshaw! They did not know how to look."
"But how will you look?"
"I will not look."
"What then?"
"I will get her to show me."
"But she will refuse."
"She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is her
carriage. Now carry out my orders to the letter."
As he spoke the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round the
curve of the avenue. It was a smart little landau which rattled up to
the door of Briony Lodge. As it pulled up, one of the loafing men at
the corner dashed forward to open the door in the hope of earning a
copper, but was elbowed away by another loafer, who had rushed up
with the same intention. A fierce quarrel broke out, which was
increased by the two guardsmen, who took sides with one of the
loungers, and by the scissors-grinder, who was equally hot upon the
other side. A blow was struck, and in an instant the lady, who had
stepped from her carriage, was the centre of a little knot of flushed
and struggling men, who struck savagely at each other with their
fists and sticks. Holmes dashed into the crowd to protect the lady;
but just as he reached her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground,
with the blood running freely down his face. At his fall the
guardsmen took to their heels in one direction and the loungers in
the other, while a number of better-dressed people, who had watched
the scuffle without taking part in it, crowded in to help the lady
and to attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call
her, had hurried up the steps; but she stood at the top with her
superb figure outlined against the lights of the hall, looking back
into the street.
"Is the poor gentleman much hurt?" she asked.
"He is dead," cried several voices.
"No, no, there's life in him!" shouted another. "But he'll be gone
before you can get him to hospital."
"He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the lady's
purse and watch if it hadn't been for him. They were a gang, and a
rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now."
"He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?"
"Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable
sofa. This way, please!"
Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out in
the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings from my
post by the window. The lamps had been lit, but the blinds had not
been drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he lay upon the couch. I do
not know whether he was seized with compunction at that moment for
the part he was playing, but I know that I never felt more heartily
ashamed of myself in my life than when I saw the beautiful creature
against whom I was conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which
she waited upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest
treachery to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he had
intrusted to me. I hardened my heart, and took the smoke-rocket from
under my ulster. After all, I thought, we are not injuring her. We
are but preventing her from injuring another.
Holmes had sat up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man who
is in need of air. A maid rushed across and threw open the window. At
the same instant I saw him raise his hand and at the signal I tossed
my rocket into the room with a cry of "Fire!" The word was no sooner
out of my mouth than the whole crowd of spectators, well dressed and
ill--gentlemen, ostlers, and servant-maids--joined in a general
shriek of "Fire!" Thick clouds of smoke curled through the room and
out at the open window. I caught a glimpse of rushing figures, and a
moment later the voice of Holmes from within assuring them that it
was a false alarm. Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way
to the corner of the street, and in ten minutes was rejoiced to find
my friend's arm in mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. He
walked swiftly and in silence for some few minutes until we had
turned down one of the quiet streets which lead towards the Edgeware
Road.
"You did it very nicely, Doctor," he remarked. "Nothing could have
been better. It is all right."
"You have the photograph?"
"I know where it is."
"And how did you find out?"
"She showed me, as I told you she would."
"I am still in the dark."
"I do not wish to make a mystery," said he, laughing. "The matter was
perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the street was
an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening."
"I guessed as much."
"Then, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the
palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand to my
face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick."
"That also I could fathom."
"Then they carried me in. She was bound to have me in. What else
could she do? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room
which I suspected. It lay between that and her bedroom, and I was
determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for air,
they were compelled to open the window, and you had your chance."
"How did that help you?"
"It was all-important. When a woman thinks that her house is on fire,
her instinct is at once to rush to the thing which she values most.
It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have more than once
taken advantage of it. In the case of the Darlington substitution
scandal it was of use to me, and also in the Arnsworth Castle
business. A married woman grabs at her baby; an unmarried one reaches
for her jewel-box. Now it was clear to me that our lady of to-day had
nothing in the house more precious to her than what we are in quest
of. She would rush to secure it. The alarm of fire was admirably
done. The smoke and shouting were enough to shake nerves of steel.
She responded beautifully. The photograph is in a recess behind a
sliding panel just above the right bell-pull. She was there in an
instant, and I caught a glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I
cried out that it was a false alarm, she replaced it, glanced at the
rocket, rushed from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose,
and, making my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether
to attempt to secure the photograph at once; but the coachman had
