第 43 页

" 'I was foolish enough to go into the empty wing,' I an-

swered. 'But it is so lonely and eerie in this dim light that I was

frightened and ran out again. Oh, it is so dreadfully still in

there!'

" 'Only that?' said he, looking at me keenly.

" 'Why, what did you think?' I asked.

" 'Why do you think that I lock this door?'

" 'I am sure that I do not know.'

" 'It is to keep people out who have no business there. Do

you see?' He was still smiling in the most amiable manner.

" 'I am sure if I had known

" 'Well, then, you know now. And if you ever put your foot

over that threshold again' -- here in an instant the smile hardened

into a grin of rage, and he glared down at me with the face of a

demon -- 'I'll throw you to the mastiff.'

"I was so terrified that I do not know what I did. I suppose

that I must have rushed past him into my room. I remember

nothing until I found myself lying on my bed trembling all over.

Then I thought of you, Mr. Holmes. I could not live there longer

without some advice. I was frightened of the house, of the man

of the woman, of the servants, even of the child. They were ali

horrible to me. If I could only bring you down all would be well.

Of course I might have fled from the house, but my curiosity

was almost as strong as my fears. My mind was soon made up. I

would send you a wire. I put on my hat and cloak, went down to

the office, which is about half a mile from the house, and then

returned, feeling very much easier. A horrible doubt came into my

mind as I approached the door lest the dog might be loose, but I

remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of insensi-

bility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one in the

household who had any influence with the savage creature, or

who would venture to set him free. I slipped in in safety and lay

awake half the night in my joy at the thought of seeing you. I

had no difficulty in getting leave to come into Winchester this

morning, but I must be back before three o'clock, for Mr. and

Mrs. Rucastle are going on a visit, and will be away all the

evening, so that I must look after the child. Now I have told you

all my adventures, Mr. Holmes, and I should be very glad if you

could tell me what it all means, and, above all, what I should

do."

Holmes and I had listened spellbound to this extraordinary

story. My friend rose now and paced up and down the room, his

hands in his pockets, and an expression of the most profound

gravity upon his face.

"Is Toller still drunk?" he asked.

"Yes. I heard his wife tell Mrs. Rucastle that she could do

nothing with him."

"That is well. And the Rucastles go out to-night?"

"Yes."

"Is there a cellar with a good strong lock?"

"Yes, the wine-cellar."

"You seem to me to have acted all through this matter like a

very brave and sensible girl, Miss Hunter. Do you think that you

could perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did

not think you a quite exceptional woman."

"I will try. What is it?"

"We shall be at the Copper Beeches by seven o'clock, my

friend and I. The Rucastles will be gone by that time, and Toller

will, we hope, be incapable. There only remains Mrs. Toller,

who might give the alarm. If you could send her into the cellar

on some errand, and then turn the key upon her, you would

facilitate matters immensely."

"I will do it."

"Excellent! We shall then look thoroughly into the affair. Of

course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been

brought there to personate someone, and the real person is

imprisoned in this chamber. That is obvious. As to who this

prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice

Rucastle, if I remember right, who was said to have gone to

America. You were chosen, doubtless, as resembling her in

height, figure, and the colour of your hair. Hers had been cut

off, very possibly in some illness through which she has passed,

and so, of course, yours had to be sacrificed also. By a curious

chance you came upon her tresses. The man in the road was

undoubtedly some friend of hers -- possibly her fiance -- and no

doubt, as you wore the girl's dress and were so like her, he was

convinced from your laughter, whenever he saw you, and after-

wards from your gesture, that Miss Rucastle was perfectly happy,

and that she no longer desired his attentions. The dog is let loose

at night to prevent him from endeavouring to communicate with

her. So much is fairly clear. The most serious point in the case is

the disposition of the child."

"What on earth has that to do with it?" I ejaculated.

"My dear Watson, you as a medical man are continually

gaining light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the

parents. Don't you see that the converse is equally valid. I have

frequently gained my first real insight into the character of

parents by studying their children. This child's disposition is

abnormally cruel, merely for cruelty's sake, and whether he

derives this from his smiling father, as I should suspect, or from

his mother, it bodes evil for the poor girl who is in their

power."

"I am sure that you are right, Mr. Holmes," cried our client.

"A thousand things come back to me which make me certain

that you have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing

help to this poor creature."

"We must be circumspect, for we are dealing with a very

cunning man. We can do nothing until seven o'clock. At that

hour we shall be with you, and it will not be long before we solve

the mystery."

We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we

reached the Copper Beeches, having put up our trap at a wayside

public-house. The group of trees, with their dark leaves shining

like burnished metal in the light of the setting sun, were suffi-

cient to mark the house even had Miss Hunter not been standing

smiling on the door-step.

"Have you managed it?" asked Holmes.

A loud thudding noise came from somewhere downstairs.

"That is Mrs. Toller in the cellar," said she. "Her husband lies

snoring on the kitchen rug. Here are his keys, which are the

duplicates of Mr. Rucastle's."

"You have done well indeed!" cried Holmes with enthusi-

asm. "Now lead the way, and we shall soon see the end of this

black business."

We passed up the stair, unlocked the door, followed on down

a passage, and found ourselves in front of the barricade which

Miss Hunter had described. Holmes cut the cord and removed

the transverse bar. Then he tried the various keys in the lock, but

without success. No sound came from within, and at the silence

Holmes's face clouded over.

"I trust that we are not too late," said he. "I think, Miss

Hunter, that we had better go in without you. Now, Watson, put

your shoulder to it, and we shall see whether we cannot make

our way in."

It was an old rickety door and gave at once before our united

strength. Together we rushed into the room. It was empty. There

was no furniture save a little pallet bed, a small table, and a

basketful of linen. The skylight above was open, and the pris-

oner gone.

"There has been some villainy here," said Holmes; "this

beauty has guessed Miss Hunter's intentions and has carried his

victim off."

"But how?"

"Through the skylight. We shall soon see how he managed

it." He swung himself up onto the roof. "Ah, yes," he cried,

"here's the end of a long light ladder against the eaves. That is

how he did it."

"But it is impossible," said Miss Hunter; "the ladder was not

there when the Rucastles went away."

"He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever

and dangerous man. I should not be very much surprised if this

were he whose step I hear now upon the stair. I think, Watson,

that it would be as well for you to have your pistol ready."

The words were hardly out of his mouth before a man ap-

peared at the door of the room, a very fat and burly man, with a

heavy stick in his hand. Miss Hunter screamed and shrunk

against the wall at the sight of him, but Sherlock Holmes sprang

forward and confronted him.

"You villain!" said he, "where's your daughter?"

The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open

skylight.

"It is for me to ask you that," he shrieked, "you thieves!

Spies and thieves! I have caught you, have l? You are in my

power. I'll serve you!" He turned and clattered down the stairs

as hard as he could go.

"He's gone for the dog!" cried Miss Hunter.

"I have my revolver," said I.

"Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all

rushed down the stairs together. We had hardly reached the hall

when we heard the baying of a hound, and then a scream of

agony, with a horrible worrying sound which it was dreadful to

listen to. An elderly man with a red face and shaking limbs came

staggering out at a side door.

"My God!" he cried. "Someone has loosed the dog. It's not

been fed for two days. Quick, quick, or it'll be too late!"

Holmes and I rushed out and round the angle of the house,

with Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished

brute, its black muzzle buried in Rucastle's throat, while he

writhed and screamed upon the ground. Running up, I blew its

brains out, and it fell over with its keen white teeth still meeting

in the great creases of his neck. With much labour we separated

them and carried him, living but horribly mangled, into the

house. We laid him upon the drawing-room sofa, and having

dispatched the sobered Toller to bear the news to his wife, I did

what I could to relieve his pain. We were all assembled round

him when the door opened, and a tall, gaunt woman entered the

room.

"Mrs. Toller!" cried Miss Hunter.

"Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back

before he went up to you. Ah, miss, it is a pity you didn't let me

know what you were planning, for I would have told you that

your pains were wasted."

"Ha!" said Holmes, looking keenly at her. "It is clear that

Mrs. Toller knows more about this matter than anyone else."

"Yes, sir, I do, and I am ready enough to tell what I know."

"Then, pray, sit down, and let us hear it for there are several

points on which I must confess that I am still in the dark."

"I will soon make it clear to you," said she; "and I'd have

done so before now if I could ha' got out from the cellar. If

there's police-court business over this, you'll remember that I

was the one that stood your friend, and that I was Miss Alice's

friend too.

"She was never happy at home, Miss Alice wasn't, from the

time that her father married again. She was slighted like and had

no say in anything, but it never really became bad for her until

after she met Mr. Fowler at a friend's house. As well as I could

learn, Miss Alice had rights of her own by will, but she was so

quiet and patient, she was, that she never said a word about them

but just left everything in Mr. Rucastle's hands. He knew he was

safe with her; but when there was a chance of a husband coming

forward, who would ask for all that the law would give him,

then her father thought it time to put a stop on it. He wanted her

to sign a paper, so that whether she married or not, he could use

her money. When she wouldn't do it, he kept on worrying her

until she got brain-fever, and for six weeks was at death's door.

Then she got better at last, all worn to a shadow, and with her

beautiful hair cut off; but that didn't make no change in her

young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be."

"Ah," said Holmes, "I think that what you have been good

enough to tell us makes the matter fairly clear, and that I can

deduce all that remains. Mr. Rucastle then, I presume, took to

this system of imprisonment?"

"Yes, sir."

"And brought Miss Hunter down from London in order to get

rid of the disagreeable persistence of Mr. Fowler."

"That was it, sir."

"But Mr. Fowler being a persevering man, as a good seaman

should be, blockaded the house, and having met you succeeded

by certain arguments, metallic or otherwise, in convincing you

that your interests were the same as his."

"Mr. Fowler was a very kind-spoken, free-handed gentle-

man," said Mrs. Toller serenely.

"And in this way he managed that your good man should have

no want of drink, and that a ladder should be ready at the

moment when your master had gone out."

"You have it, sir, just as it happened."

"I am sure we owe you an apology, Mrs. Toller," said

Holmes, "for you have certainly cleared up everything which

puzzled us. And here comes the country surgeon and Mrs.

Rucastle, so I think. Watson, that we had best escort Miss

Hunter back to Winchester, as it seems to me that our locus

standi now is rather a questionable one."

And thus was solved the mystery of the sinister house with the

copper beeches in front of the door. Mr. Rucastle survived, but

was always a broken man, kept alive solely through the care of

his devoted wife. They still live with their old servants, who

probably know so mUch of Rucastle's past life that he finds it

difficult to part from them. Mr. Fowler and Miss Rucastle were

married, by special license, in Southampton the day after their