Part 54 (1/2)
”I trust you had no hed heartily ”We will come to that in its turn,” said he ”I will lay an account of the case before you in its due order, showing you the various points which guided me in my decision Pray interrupt me if there is any inference which is not perfectly clear to you
”It is of the highest inize, out of a number of facts, which are incidental and which vital Otherwise your energy and attentionconcentrated Now, in this case there was not the slightest doubt in my mind from the first that the key of the whole matter must be looked for in the scrap of paper in the deadinto this, I would draw your attention to the fact that, if Alec Cunningham's narrative was correct, and if the assailant, after shooting William Kirwan, had instantly instantly fled, then it obviously could not be he who tore the paper from the dead man's hand But if it was not he, it ham himself, for by the time that the old man had descended several servants were upon the scene The point is a simple one, but the inspector had overlooked it because he had started with the supposition that these countyto do with theany prejudices, and of following docilely wherever fact ation, I founda little askance at the part which had been played by Mr Alec Cunningham fled, then it obviously could not be he who tore the paper from the dead man's hand But if it was not he, it ham himself, for by the time that the old man had descended several servants were upon the scene The point is a simple one, but the inspector had overlooked it because he had started with the supposition that these countyto do with theany prejudices, and of following docilely wherever fact ation, I founda little askance at the part which had been played by Mr Alec Cunningham
”And now I made a very careful examination of the corner of paper which the inspector had submitted to us It was at once clear to me that it formed part of a very remarkable docuestive about it?”
”It has a very irregular look,” said the colonel
”My dear sir,” cried Holmes, ”there cannot be the least doubt in the world that it has been written by two persons doing alternate words When I draw your attention to the strong t t's of 'at' and 'to,' and ask you to compare them with the weak ones of 'quarter' and 'twelve,' you will instantly recognize the fact A very brief analysis of these four words would enable you to say with the utmost confidence that the 'learn' and the 'er hand, and the 'what' in the weaker”
”By Jove, it's as clear as day!” cried the colonel ”Why on earth should two men write a letter in such a fashi+on?”
”Obviously the business was a bad one, and one of the men who distrusted the other was determined that, whatever was done, each should have an equal hand in it Now, of the two men, it is clear that the one rote the 'at' and 'to' was the ringleader”
”How do you get at that?”
”We ht deduce it from the mere character of the one hand compared with the other But we haveit If you examine this scrap with attention you will coer hand wrote all his words first, leaving blanks for the other to fill up These blanks were not always sufficient, and you can see that the second man had a squeeze to fit his 'quarter' in between the 'at' and the 'to,' showing that the latter were already written The man rote all his words first is undoubtedly the man who planned the affair”
”Excellent!” cried Mr Acton
”But very superficial,” said Holmes ”We come noever, to a point which is of importance You e froht to considerable accuracy by experts In normal cases one can place a man in his true decade with tolerable confidence I say normal cases, because ill-health and physical weakness reproduce the signs of old age, even when the invalid is a youth In this case, looking at the bold, strong hand of the one, and the rather broken-backed appearance of the other, which still retains its legibility although the t t's have begun to lose their crossing, we can say that the one was a youngpositively decrepit”
”Excellent!” cried Mr Acton again
”There is a further point, however, which is subtler and of greater interest There is so to men who are blood-relatives It may be most obvious to you in the Greek e e's, but toI have no doubt at all that a fa I a results now of my examination of the paper There were twenty-three other deductions which would be of more interest to experts than to you They all tend to deepen the ihaot so far, my next step was, of course, to examine into the details of the crime, and to see how far they would help us I went up to the house with the inspector and saw all that was to be seen The wound upon the dead man was, as I was able to determine with absolute confidence, fired fro over four yards There was no powder-blackening on the clothes Evidently, therefore, Alec Cunningha when the shot was fired Again, both father and son agreed as to the place where the man escaped into the road At that point, however, as it happens, there is a broadish ditch, moist at the bottom As there were no indications of boot-marks about this ditch, I was absolutely sure not only that the Cunninghaain lied but that there had never been any unknown man upon the scene at all
”And now I have to consider the et at this, I endeavoured first of all to solve the reason of the original burglary at Mr Acton's I understood, fro which the colonel told us, that a lawsuit had been going on between you, Mr Acton, and the Cunninghams Of course, it instantly occurred to me that they had broken into your library with the intention of getting at soht be of importance in the case”
”Precisely so,” said Mr Acton ”There can be no possible doubt as to their intentions I have the clearest claim upon half of their present estate, and if they could have found a single paper-which, fortunately, was in the strong-box of my solicitors-they would undoubtedly have crippled our case”
”There you are,” said Holerous, reckless atte Alec Having found nothing, they tried to divert suspicion by lary, to which end they carried off whatever they could lay their hands upon That is all clear enough, but there was much that was still obscure What I wanted, above all, was to get thepart of that note I was certain that Alec had torn it out of the dead man's hand, and almost certain that he own Where else could he have put it? The only question hether it was still there It orth an effort to find out, and for that object we all went up to the house
”The Cunninghams joined us, as you doubtless remember, outside the kitchen door It was, of course, of the very first importance that they should not be reminded of the existence of this paper, otherwise they would naturally destroy it without delay The inspector was about to tell them the importance which we attached to it when, by the luckiest chance in the world, I tued the conversation”
”Good heavens!” cried the colonel, laughing, ”do you mean to say all our sy professionally, it was ad in a me with some new phase of his astuteness
”It is an art which is often useful,” said he ”When I recovered I ed, by a device which had perhaps sohaht compare it with the 'twelve' upon the paper”
”Oh, what an ass I have been!” I exclai”I was sorry to cause you the sympathetic pain which I know that you felt We then went upstairs together, and, having entered the roo up behind the door, I contrived, by upsetting a table, to engage their attention for the ot the paper, however-which was, as I had expected, in one of thehams were on me, and would, I verily believe, have murdered me then and there but for your prorip on my throat now, and the father has twisted et the paper out of my hand They saw that I e from absolute security to coe]
”I had a little talk with old Cunningham afterwards as to the h his son was a perfect demon, ready to blow out his own or anybody else's brains if he could have got to his revolver When Cunningha he lost all heart andIt seems that Williaht when they ot them into his power, proceeded, under threats of exposure, to levy blackerous aenius on his part to see in the burglary scare which was convulsing the countryside an opportunity of plausibly getting rid of the man whom he feared Williaot the whole of the note and paid a little more attention to detail in their accessories, it is very possible that suspicion ht never have been aroused”
”And the note?” I asked
Sherlock Holmes placed the subjoined paper before us
”It is verythat I expected,” said he ”Of course, we do not yet knohat the relations ham, William Kirwan, and Annie Morrison The result shows that the trap was skilfully baited I ahted with the traces of heredity shown in the p p's and in the tails of the g g's The absence of the i i-dots in the oldis also most characteristic Watson, I think our quiet rest in the country has been a distinct success, and I shall certainly return orated to Baker Street to-ht, a few e, I was seated byover a novel, forone My wife had already gone upstairs, and the sound of the locking of the hall door some time before told me that the servants had also retired I had risen fro out the ashes ofof the bell
I looked at the clock It was a quarter to twelve This could not be a visitor at so late an hour A patient evidently, and possibly an all-night sitting With a wry face I went out into the hall and opened the door To my astonishment it was Sherlock Holmes who stood upon ht not be too late to catch you”
”My dear fellow, pray come in”
”You look surprised, and no wonder! Relieved, too, I fancy! Hum! You still smoke the Arcadiathat fluffy ash upon your coat It's easy to tell that you have been accustomed to wear a unifor as you keep that habit of carrying your handkerchief in your sleeve Could you put ht?”
”With pleasure”
”You told me that you had bachelor quarters for one, and I see that you have no gentleman visitor at present Your hat-stand proclaihted if you will stay”
”Thank you I'll fill the vacant peg then Sorry to see that you've had the British workman in the house He's a token of evil Not the drains, I hope?”
”No, the gas”
”Ah! He has left two nail-ht strikes it No, thank you, I had some supper at Waterloo, but I'll smoke a pipe with you with pleasure”
I handed him my pouch, and he seated himself opposite to me and s but business of iht him to me at such an hour, so I waited patiently until he should come round to it
”I see that you are professionally rather busy just now,” said he, glancing very keenly across at me
”Yes, I've had a busy day,” I answered ”It may seem very foolish in your eyes,” I added, ”but really I don't kno you deduced it”
Hole of knowing your habits, my dear Watson,” said he ”When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansoh used, are by no h to justify the hansom”
”Excellent!” I cried