think that his explanation of the fuller's-earth was sufficient to
explain the necessity for my coming at midnight, and his extreme
anxiety lest I should tell anyone of my errand. However, I threw all
fears to the winds, ate a hearty supper, drove to Paddington, and
started off, having obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding
my tongue.
"At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station.
However, I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I reached
the little dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the only
passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the platform
save a single sleepy porter with a lantern. As I passed out through
the wicket gate, however, I found my acquaintance of the morning
waiting in the shadow upon the other side. Without a word he grasped
my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the door of which was standing
open. He drew up the windows on either side, tapped on the wood-work,
and away we went as fast as the horse could go."
"One horse?" interjected Holmes.
"Yes, only one."
"Did you observe the colour?"
"Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the
carriage. It was a chestnut."
"Tired-looking or fresh?"
"Oh, fresh and glossy."
"Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue your
most interesting statement."
"Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel
Lysander Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I should
think, from the rate that we seemed to go, and from the time that we
took, that it must have been nearer twelve. He sat at my side in
silence all the time, and I was aware, more than once when I glanced
in his direction, that he was looking at me with great intensity. The
country roads seem to be not very good in that part of the world, for
we lurched and jolted terribly. I tried to look out of the windows to
see something of where we were, but they were made of frosted glass,
and I could make out nothing save the occasional bright blur of a
passing light. Now and then I hazarded some remark to break the
monotony of the journey, but the colonel answered only in
monosyllables, and the conversation soon flagged. At last, however,
the bumping of the road was exchanged for the crisp smoothness of a
gravel-drive, and the carriage came to a stand. Colonel Lysander
Stark sprang out, and, as I followed after him, pulled me swiftly
into a porch which gaped in front of us. We stepped, as it were,
right out of the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed to
catch the most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant
that I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us,
and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage drove
away.
"It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled about
looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Suddenly a door
opened at the other end of the passage, and a long, golden bar of
light shot out in our direction. It grew broader, and a woman
appeared with a lamp in her hand, which she held above her head,
pushing her face forward and peering at us. I could see that she was
pretty, and from the gloss with which the light shone upon her dark
dress I knew that it was a rich material. She spoke a few words in a
foreign tongue in a tone as though asking a question, and when my
companion answered in a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that
the lamp nearly fell from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her,
whispered something in her ear, and then, pushing her back into the
room from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the
lamp in his hand.
"'Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a few
minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a quiet,
little, plainly furnished room, with a round table in the centre, on
which several German books were scattered. Colonel Stark laid down
the lamp on the top of a harmonium beside the door. 'I shall not keep
you waiting an instant,' said he, and vanished into the darkness.
"I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my ignorance
of German I could see that two of them were treatises on science, the
others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked across to the window,
hoping that I might catch some glimpse of the country-side, but an
oak shutter, heavily barred, was folded across it. It was a
wonderfully silent house. There was an old clock ticking loudly
somewhere in the passage, but otherwise everything was deadly still.
A vague feeling of uneasiness began to steal over me. Who were these
German people, and what were they doing living in this strange,
out-of-the-way place? And where was the place? I was ten miles or so
from Eyford, that was all I knew, but whether north, south, east, or
west I had no idea. For that matter, Reading, and possibly other
large towns, were within that radius, so the place might not be so
secluded, after all. Yet it was quite certain, from the absolute
stillness, that we were in the country. I paced up and down the room,
humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and feeling that
I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee.
"Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the utter
stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman was
standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind her, the
yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and beautiful face.
I could see at a glance that she was sick with fear, and the sight
sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one shaking finger to warn
me to be silent, and she shot a few whispered words of broken English
at me, her eyes glancing back, like those of a frightened horse, into
the gloom behind her.
"'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to speak
calmly; 'I would go. I should not stay here. There is no good for you
to do.'
"'But, madam,' said I, 'I have not yet done what I came for. I cannot
possibly leave until I have seen the machine.'
"'It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. 'You can pass
through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled and
shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and made a
step forward, with her hands wrung together. 'For the love of
Heaven!' she whispered, 'get away from here before it is too late!'
"But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to engage
in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I thought of my
fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the unpleasant
night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to go for nothing? Why
should I slink away without having carried out my commission, and
without the payment which was my due? This woman might, for all I
knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout bearing, therefore, though her
manner had shaken me more than I cared to confess, I still shook my
head and declared my intention of remaining where I was. She was
about to renew her entreaties when a door slammed overhead, and the
sound of several footsteps was heard upon the stairs. She listened
for an instant, threw up her hands with a despairing gesture, and
vanished as suddenly and as noiselessly as she had come.
"The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man with
a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double chin, who
was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson.
"'This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. 'By the way, I
was under the impression that I left this door shut just now. I fear
that you have felt the draught.'
"'On the contrary,' said I, 'I opened the door myself because I felt
the room to be a little close.'
"He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. 'Perhaps we had better
proceed to business, then,' said he. 'Mr. Ferguson and I will take
you up to see the machine.'
"'I had better put my hat on, I suppose.'
"'Oh, no, it is in the house.'
"'What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?'
"'No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. All
we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us know what
is wrong with it.'
"We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the fat
manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, with
corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little low doors,
the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the generations who had
crossed them. There were no carpets and no signs of any furniture
above the ground floor, while the plaster was peeling off the walls,
and the damp was breaking through in green, unhealthy blotches. I
tried to put on as unconcerned an air as possible, but I had not
forgotten the warnings of the lady, even though I disregarded them,
and I kept a keen eye upon my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be
a morose and silent man, but I could see from the little that he said
that he was at least a fellow-countryman.
"Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which he
unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three of us
could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, and the
colonel ushered me in.
"'We are now,' said he, 'actually within the hydraulic press, and it
would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were to
turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the end of
the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of many tons
upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns of water
outside which receive the force, and which transmit and multiply it
in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine goes readily
enough, but there is some stiffness in the working of it, and it has
lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will have the goodness to
look it over and to show us how we can set it right.'
"I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very
thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of exercising
enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and pressed down
the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by the whishing sound
that there was a slight leakage, which allowed a regurgitation of
water through one of the side cylinders. An examination showed that
one of the india-rubber bands which was round the head of a
driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to fill the socket along which
it worked. This was clearly the cause of the loss of power, and I
pointed it out to my companions, who followed my remarks very
carefully and asked several practical questions as to how they should
proceed to set it right. When I had made it clear to them, I returned
to the main chamber of the machine and took a good look at it to
satisfy my own curiosity. It was obvious at a glance that the story
of the fuller's-earth was the merest fabrication, for it would be
absurd to suppose that so powerful an engine could be designed for so
inadequate a purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted
of a large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a
crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was scraping
at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a muttered
exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the colonel
looking down at me.
"'What are you doing there?' he asked.
"I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as that
which he had told me. 'I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' said I;
'I think that I should be better able to advise you as to your
machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it was used.'
"The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of my
speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in his grey
eyes.
"'Very well,' said he, 'you shall know all about the machine.' He
took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key in
the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it was
quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and shoves.
'Hullo!' I yelled. 'Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!'
"And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my heart
into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish of the
leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp still stood
upon the floor where I had placed it when examining the trough. By
its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming down upon me,
slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than myself, with a force
which must within a minute grind me to a shapeless pulp. I threw
myself, screaming, against the door, and dragged with my nails at the
lock. I implored the colonel to let me out, but the remorseless
clanking of the levers drowned my cries. The ceiling was only a foot
or two above my head, and with my hand upraised I could feel its
