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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2348-h.zip b/2348-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..804e83d --- /dev/null +++ b/2348-h.zip diff --git a/2348-h/2348-h.htm b/2348-h/2348-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..143985e --- /dev/null +++ b/2348-h/2348-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1692 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Disappearance of Lady Frances Colfax, +by Arthur Conan Doyle +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, by +Arthur Conan Doyle + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Posting Date: October 23, 2008 [EBook #2348] +Release Date: October, 2000 +[Last updated: May 3, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY CARFAX *** + + + + +Produced by David Brannan. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Sir Arthur Conan Doyle +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P> +"But why Turkish?" asked Mr. Sherlock Holmes, gazing fixedly at my +boots. I was reclining in a cane-backed chair at the moment, and my +protruded feet had attracted his ever-active attention. +</P> + +<P> +"English," I answered in some surprise. "I got them at Latimer's, in +Oxford Street." +</P> + +<P> +Holmes smiled with an expression of weary patience. +</P> + +<P> +"The bath!" he said; "the bath! Why the relaxing and expensive Turkish +rather than the invigorating home-made article?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because for the last few days I have been feeling rheumatic and old. A +Turkish bath is what we call an alterative in medicine--a fresh +starting-point, a cleanser of the system. +</P> + +<P> +"By the way, Holmes," I added, "I have no doubt the connection between +my boots and a Turkish bath is a perfectly self-evident one to a +logical mind, and yet I should be obliged to you if you would indicate +it." +</P> + +<P> +"The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson," said Holmes with +a mischievous twinkle. "It belongs to the same elementary class of +deduction which I should illustrate if I were to ask you who shared +your cab in your drive this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't admit that a fresh illustration is an explanation," said I +with some asperity. +</P> + +<P> +"Bravo, Watson! A very dignified and logical remonstrance. Let me +see, what were the points? Take the last one first--the cab. You +observe that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulder of +your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you would probably +have had no splashes, and if you had they would certainly have been +symmetrical. Therefore it is clear that you sat at the side. +Therefore it is equally clear that you had a companion." +</P> + +<P> +"That is very evident." +</P> + +<P> +"Absurdly commonplace, is it not?" +</P> + +<P> +"But the boots and the bath?" +</P> + +<P> +"Equally childish. You are in the habit of doing up your boots in a +certain way. I see them on this occasion fastened with an elaborate +double bow, which is not your usual method of tying them. You have, +therefore, had them off. Who has tied them? A bootmaker--or the boy +at the bath. It is unlikely that it is the bootmaker, since your boots +are nearly new. Well, what remains? The bath. Absurd, is it not? +But, for all that, the Turkish bath has served a purpose." +</P> + +<P> +"What is that?" +</P> + +<P> +"You say that you have had it because you need a change. Let me +suggest that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dear +Watson--first-class tickets and all expenses paid on a princely scale?" +</P> + +<P> +"Splendid! But why?" +</P> + +<P> +Holmes leaned back in his armchair and took his notebook from his +pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"One of the most dangerous classes in the world," said he, "is the +drifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless and often the +most useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable inciter of crime in +others. She is helpless. She is migratory. She has sufficient means +to take her from country to country and from hotel to hotel. She is +lost, as often as not, in a maze of obscure pensions and +boardinghouses. She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes. When she +is gobbled up she is hardly missed. I much fear that some evil has come +to the Lady Frances Carfax." +</P> + +<P> +I was relieved at this sudden descent from the general to the +particular. Holmes consulted his notes. +</P> + +<P> +"Lady Frances," he continued, "is the sole survivor of the direct +family of the late Earl of Rufton. The estates went, as you may +remember, in the male line. She was left with limited means, but with +some very remarkable old Spanish jewellery of silver and curiously cut +diamonds to which she was fondly attached--too attached, for she +refused to leave them with her banker and always carried them about +with her. A rather pathetic figure, the Lady Frances, a beautiful +woman, still in fresh middle age, and yet, by a strange change, the +last derelict of what only twenty years ago was a goodly fleet." +</P> + +<P> +"What has happened to her, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, what has happened to the Lady Frances? Is she alive or dead? +There is our problem. She is a lady of precise habits, and for four +years it has been her invariable custom to write every second week to +Miss Dobney, her old governess, who has long retired and lives in +Camberwell. It is this Miss Dobney who has consulted me. Nearly five +weeks have passed without a word. The last letter was from the Hotel +National at Lausanne. Lady Frances seems to have left there and given +no address. The family are anxious, and as they are exceedingly +wealthy no sum will be spared if we can clear the matter up." +</P> + +<P> +"Is Miss Dobney the only source of information? Surely she had other +correspondents?" +</P> + +<P> +"There is one correspondent who is a sure draw, Watson. That is the +bank. Single ladies must live, and their passbooks are compressed +diaries. She banks at Silvester's. I have glanced over her account. +The last check but one paid her bill at Lausanne, but it was a large +one and probably left her with cash in hand. Only one check has been +drawn since." +</P> + +<P> +"To whom, and where?" +</P> + +<P> +"To Miss Marie Devine. There is nothing to show where the check was +drawn. It was cashed at the Credit Lyonnais at Montpellier less than +three weeks ago. The sum was fifty pounds." +</P> + +<P> +"And who is Miss Marie Devine?" +</P> + +<P> +"That also I have been able to discover. Miss Marie Devine was the +maid of Lady Frances Carfax. Why she should have paid her this check +we have not yet determined. I have no doubt, however, that your +researches will soon clear the matter up." +</P> + +<P> +"MY researches!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hence the health-giving expedition to Lausanne. You know that I +cannot possibly leave London while old Abrahams is in such mortal +terror of his life. Besides, on general principles it is best that I +should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, +and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes. Go, +then, my dear Watson, and if my humble counsel can ever be valued at so +extravagant a rate as two pence a word, it waits your disposal night +and day at the end of the Continental wire." +</P> + +<P> +Two days later found me at the Hotel National at Lausanne, where I +received every courtesy at the hands of M. Moser, the well-known +manager. Lady Frances, as he informed me, had stayed there for several +weeks. She had been much liked by all who met her. Her age was not +more than forty. She was still handsome and bore every sign of having +in her youth been a very lovely woman. M. Moser knew nothing of any +valuable jewellery, but it had been remarked by the servants that the +heavy trunk in the lady's bedroom was always scrupulously locked. +Marie Devine, the maid, was as popular as her mistress. She was +actually engaged to one of the head waiters in the hotel, and there was +no difficulty in getting her address. It was 11 Rue de Trajan, +Montpellier. All this I jotted down and felt that Holmes himself could +not have been more adroit in collecting his facts. +</P> + +<P> +Only one corner still remained in the shadow. No light which I +possessed could clear up the cause for the lady's sudden departure. +She was very happy at Lausanne. There was every reason to believe that +she intended to remain for the season in her luxurious rooms +overlooking the lake. And yet she had left at a single day's notice, +which involved her in the useless payment of a week's rent. Only Jules +Vibart, the lover of the maid, had any suggestion to offer. He +connected the sudden departure with the visit to the hotel a day or two +before of a tall, dark, bearded man. "Un sauvage--un veritable +sauvage!" cried Jules Vibart. The man had rooms somewhere in the town. +He had been seen talking earnestly to Madame on the promenade by the +lake. Then he had called. She had refused to see him. He was +English, but of his name there was no record. Madame had left the +place immediately afterwards. Jules Vibart, and, what was of more +importance, Jules Vibart's sweetheart, thought that this call and the +departure were cause and effect. Only one thing Jules would not +discuss. That was the reason why Marie had left her mistress. Of that +he could or would say nothing. If I wished to know, I must go to +Montpellier and ask her. +</P> + +<P> +So ended the first chapter of my inquiry. The second was devoted to +the place which Lady Frances Carfax had sought when she left Lausanne. +Concerning this there had been some secrecy, which confirmed the idea +that she had gone with the intention of throwing someone off her track. +Otherwise why should not her luggage have been openly labelled for +Baden? Both she and it reached the Rhenish spa by some circuitous +route. This much I gathered from the manager of Cook's local office. +So to Baden I went, after dispatching to Holmes an account of all my +proceedings and receiving in reply a telegram of half-humorous +commendation. +</P> + +<P> +At Baden the track was not difficult to follow. Lady Frances had +stayed at the Englischer Hof for a fortnight. While there she had made +the acquaintance of a Dr. Shlessinger and his wife, a missionary from +South America. Like most lonely ladies, Lady Frances found her comfort +and occupation in religion. Dr. Shlessinger's remarkable personality, +his whole hearted devotion, and the fact that he was recovering from a +disease contracted in the exercise of his apostolic duties affected her +deeply. She had helped Mrs. Shlessinger in the nursing of the +convalescent saint. He spent his day, as the manager described it to +me, upon a lounge-chair on the veranda, with an attendant lady upon +either side of him. He was preparing a map of the Holy Land, with +special reference to the kingdom of the Midianites, upon which he was +writing a monograph. Finally, having improved much in health, he and +his wife had returned to London, and Lady Frances had started thither +in their company. This was just three weeks before, and the manager +had heard nothing since. As to the maid, Marie, she had gone off some +days beforehand in floods of tears, after informing the other maids +that she was leaving service forever. Dr. Shlessinger had paid the +bill of the whole party before his departure. +</P> + +<P> +"By the way," said the landlord in conclusion, "you are not the only +friend of Lady Frances Carfax who is inquiring after her just now. +Only a week or so ago we had a man here upon the same errand." +</P> + +<P> +"Did he give a name?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"None; but he was an Englishman, though of an unusual type." +</P> + +<P> +"A savage?" said I, linking my facts after the fashion of my +illustrious friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. That describes him very well. He is a bulky, bearded, +sunburned fellow, who looks as if he would be more at home in a +farmers' inn than in a fashionable hotel. A hard, fierce man, I should +think, and one whom I should be sorry to offend." +</P> + +<P> +Already the mystery began to define itself, as figures grow clearer +with the lifting of a fog. Here was this good and pious lady pursued +from place to place by a sinister and unrelenting figure. She feared +him, or she would not have fled from Lausanne. He had still followed. +Sooner or later he would overtake her. Had he already overtaken her? +Was THAT the secret of her continued silence? Could the good people +who were her companions not screen her from his violence or his +blackmail? What horrible purpose, what deep design, lay behind this +long pursuit? There was the problem which I had to solve. +</P> + +<P> +To Holmes I wrote showing how rapidly and surely I had got down to the +roots of the matter. In reply I had a telegram asking for a +description of Dr. Shlessinger's left ear. Holmes's ideas of humour +are strange and occasionally offensive, so I took no notice of his +ill-timed jest--indeed, I had already reached Montpellier in my pursuit +of the maid, Marie, before his message came. +</P> + +<P> +I had no difficulty in finding the ex-servant and in learning all that +she could tell me. She was a devoted creature, who had only left her +mistress because she was sure that she was in good hands, and because +her own approaching marriage made a separation inevitable in any case. +Her mistress had, as she confessed with distress, shown some +irritability of temper towards her during their stay in Baden, and had +even questioned her once as if she had suspicions of her honesty, and +this had made the parting easier than it would otherwise have been. +Lady Frances had given her fifty pounds as a wedding-present. Like me, +Marie viewed with deep distrust the stranger who had driven her +mistress from Lausanne. With her own eyes she had seen him seize the +lady's wrist with great violence on the public promenade by the lake. +He was a fierce and terrible man. She believed that it was out of +dread of him that Lady Frances had accepted the escort of the +Shlessingers to London. She had never spoken to Marie about it, but +many little signs had convinced the maid that her mistress lived in a +state of continual nervous apprehension. So far she had got in her +narrative, when suddenly she sprang from her chair and her face was +convulsed with surprise and fear. "See!" she cried. "The miscreant +follows still! There is the very man of whom I speak." +</P> + +<P> +Through the open sitting-room window I saw a huge, swarthy man with a +bristling black beard walking slowly down the centre of the street and +staring eagerly at the numbers of the houses. It was clear that, like +myself, he was on the track of the maid. Acting upon the impulse of the +moment, I rushed out and accosted him. +</P> + +<P> +"You are an Englishman," I said. +</P> + +<P> +"What if I am?" he asked with a most villainous scowl. +</P> + +<P> +"May I ask what your name is?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, you may not," said he with decision. +</P> + +<P> +The situation was awkward, but the most direct way is often the best. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is the Lady Frances Carfax?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +He stared at me with amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"What have you done with her? Why have you pursued her? I insist upon +an answer!" said I. +</P> + +<P> +The fellow gave a bellow of anger and sprang upon me like a tiger. I +have held my own in many a struggle, but the man had a grip of iron and +the fury of a fiend. His hand was on my throat and my senses were +nearly gone before an unshaven French ouvrier in a blue blouse darted +out from a cabaret opposite, with a cudgel in his hand, and struck my +assailant a sharp crack over the forearm, which made him leave go his +hold. He stood for an instant fuming with rage and uncertain whether +he should not renew his attack. Then, with a snarl of anger, he left me +and entered the cottage from which I had just come. I turned to thank +my preserver, who stood beside me in the roadway. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Watson," said he, "a very pretty hash you have made of it! I +rather think you had better come back with me to London by the night +express." +</P> + +<P> +An hour afterwards, Sherlock Holmes, in his usual garb and style, was +seated in my private room at the hotel. His explanation of his sudden +and opportune appearance was simplicity itself, for, finding that he +could get away from London, he determined to head me off at the next +obvious point of my travels. In the disguise of a workingman he had +sat in the cabaret waiting for my appearance. +</P> + +<P> +"And a singularly consistent investigation you have made, my dear +Watson," said he. "I cannot at the moment recall any possible blunder +which you have omitted. The total effect of your proceeding has been +to give the alarm everywhere and yet to discover nothing." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps you would have done no better," I answered bitterly. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no 'perhaps' about it. I HAVE done better. Here is the Hon. +Philip Green, who is a fellow-lodger with you in this hotel, and we may +find him the starting-point for a more successful investigation." +</P> + +<P> +A card had come up on a salver, and it was followed by the same bearded +ruffian who had attacked me in the street. He started when he saw me. +</P> + +<P> +"What is this, Mr. Holmes?" he asked. "I had your note and I have +come. But what has this man to do with the matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"This is my old friend and associate, Dr. Watson, who is helping us in +this affair." +</P> + +<P> +The stranger held out a huge, sunburned hand, with a few words of +apology. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I didn't harm you. When you accused me of hurting her I lost +my grip of myself. Indeed, I'm not responsible in these days. My +nerves are like live wires. But this situation is beyond me. What I +want to know, in the first place, Mr. Holmes, is, how in the world you +came to hear of my existence at all." +</P> + +<P> +"I am in touch with Miss Dobney, Lady Frances's governess." +</P> + +<P> +"Old Susan Dobney with the mob cap! I remember her well." +</P> + +<P> +"And she remembers you. It was in the days before--before you found it +better to go to South Africa." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, I see you know my whole story. I need hide nothing from you. I +swear to you, Mr. Holmes, that there never was in this world a man who +loved a woman with a more wholehearted love than I had for Frances. I +was a wild youngster, I know--not worse than others of my class. But +her mind was pure as snow. She could not bear a shadow of coarseness. +So, when she came to hear of things that I had done, she would have no +more to say to me. And yet she loved me--that is the wonder of +it!--loved me well enough to remain single all her sainted days just +for my sake alone. When the years had passed and I had made my money +at Barberton I thought perhaps I could seek her out and soften her. I +had heard that she was still unmarried, I found her at Lausanne and +tried all I knew. She weakened, I think, but her will was strong, and +when next I called she had left the town. I traced her to Baden, and +then after a time heard that her maid was here. I'm a rough fellow, +fresh from a rough life, and when Dr. Watson spoke to me as he did I +lost hold of myself for a moment. But for God's sake tell me what has +become of the Lady Frances." +</P> + +<P> +"That is for us to find out," said Sherlock Holmes with peculiar +gravity. "What is your London address, Mr. Green?" +</P> + +<P> +"The Langham Hotel will find me." +</P> + +<P> +"Then may I recommend that you return there and be on hand in case I +should want you? I have no desire to encourage false hopes, but you +may rest assured that all that can be done will be done for the safety +of Lady Frances. I can say no more for the instant. I will leave you +this card so that you may be able to keep in touch with us. Now, +Watson, if you will pack your bag I will cable to Mrs. Hudson to make +one of her best efforts for two hungry travellers at 7:30 to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +</P> + +<P> +A telegram was awaiting us when we reached our Baker Street rooms, +which Holmes read with an exclamation of interest and threw across to +me. "Jagged or torn," was the message, and the place of origin, Baden. +</P> + +<P> +"What is this?" I asked. +</P> + +<P> +"It is everything," Holmes answered. "You may remember my seemingly +irrelevant question as to this clerical gentleman's left ear. You did +not answer it." +</P> + +<P> +"I had left Baden and could not inquire." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly. For this reason I sent a duplicate to the manager of the +Englischer Hof, whose answer lies here." +</P> + +<P> +"What does it show?" +</P> + +<P> +"It shows, my dear Watson, that we are dealing with an exceptionally +astute and dangerous man. The Rev. Dr. Shlessinger, missionary from +South America, is none other than Holy Peters, one of the most +unscrupulous rascals that Australia has ever evolved--and for a young +country it has turned out some very finished types. His particular +specialty is the beguiling of lonely ladies by playing upon their +religious feelings, and his so-called wife, an Englishwoman named +Fraser, is a worthy helpmate. The nature of his tactics suggested his +identity to me, and this physical peculiarity--he was badly bitten in a +saloon-fight at Adelaide in '89--confirmed my suspicion. This poor +lady is in the hands of a most infernal couple, who will stick at +nothing, Watson. That she is already dead is a very likely +supposition. If not, she is undoubtedly in some sort of confinement +and unable to write to Miss Dobney or her other friends. It is always +possible that she never reached London, or that she has passed through +it, but the former is improbable, as, with their system of +registration, it is not easy for foreigners to play tricks with the +Continental police; and the latter is also unlikely, as these rouges +could not hope to find any other place where it would be as easy to +keep a person under restraint. All my instincts tell me that she is in +London, but as we have at present no possible means of telling where, +we can only take the obvious steps, eat our dinner, and possess our +souls in patience. Later in the evening I will stroll down and have a +word with friend Lestrade at Scotland Yard." +</P> + +<P> +But neither the official police nor Holmes's own small but very +efficient organization sufficed to clear away the mystery. Amid the +crowded millions of London the three persons we sought were as +completely obliterated as if they had never lived. Advertisements were +tried, and failed. Clues were followed, and led to nothing. Every +criminal resort which Shlessinger might frequent was drawn in vain. +His old associates were watched, but they kept clear of him. And then +suddenly, after a week of helpless suspense there came a flash of +light. A silver-and-brilliant pendant of old Spanish design had been +pawned at Bovington's, in Westminster Road. The pawner was a large, +clean-shaven man of clerical appearance. His name and address were +demonstrably false. The ear had escaped notice, but the description +was surely that of Shlessinger. +</P> + +<P> +Three times had our bearded friend from the Langham called for +news--the third time within an hour of this fresh development. His +clothes were getting looser on his great body. He seemed to be wilting +away in his anxiety. "If you will only give me something to do!" was +his constant wail. At last Holmes could oblige him. +</P> + +<P> +"He has begun to pawn the jewels. We should get him now." +</P> + +<P> +"But does this mean that any harm has befallen the Lady Frances?" +</P> + +<P> +Holmes shook his head very gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Supposing that they have held her prisoner up to now, it is clear that +they cannot let her loose without their own destruction. We must +prepare for the worst." +</P> + +<P> +"What can I do?" +</P> + +<P> +"These people do not know you by sight?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"It is possible that he will go to some other pawnbroker in the future. +In that case, we must begin again. On the other hand, he has had a +fair price and no questions asked, so if he is in need of ready-money +he will probably come back to Bovington's. I will give you a note to +them, and they will let you wait in the shop. If the fellow comes you +will follow him home. But no indiscretion, and, above all, no +violence. I put you on your honour that you will take no step without +my knowledge and consent." +</P> + +<P> +For two days the Hon. Philip Green (he was, I may mention, the son of +the famous admiral of that name who commanded the Sea of Azof fleet in +the Crimean War) brought us no news. On the evening of the third he +rushed into our sitting-room, pale, trembling, with every muscle of his +powerful frame quivering with excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"We have him! We have him!" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +He was incoherent in his agitation. Holmes soothed him with a few +words and thrust him into an armchair. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, now, give us the order of events," said he. +</P> + +<P> +"She came only an hour ago. It was the wife, this time, but the +pendant she brought was the fellow of the other. She is a tall, pale +woman, with ferret eyes." +</P> + +<P> +"That is the lady," said Holmes. +</P> + +<P> +"She left the office and I followed her. She walked up the Kennington +Road, and I kept behind her. Presently she went into a shop. Mr. +Holmes, it was an undertaker's." +</P> + +<P> +My companion started. "Well?" he asked in that vibrant voice which +told of the fiery soul behind the cold gray face. +</P> + +<P> +"She was talking to the woman behind the counter. I entered as well. +'It is late,' I heard her say, or words to that effect. The woman was +excusing herself. 'It should be there before now,' she answered. 'It +took longer, being out of the ordinary.' They both stopped and looked +at me, so I asked some questions and then left the shop." +</P> + +<P> +"You did excellently well. What happened next?" +</P> + +<P> +"The woman came out, but I had hid myself in a doorway. Her suspicions +had been aroused, I think, for she looked round her. Then she called a +cab and got in. I was lucky enough to get another and so to follow +her. She got down at last at No. 36, Poultney Square, Brixton. I +drove past, left my cab at the corner of the square, and watched the +house." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you see anyone?" +</P> + +<P> +"The windows were all in darkness save one on the lower floor. The +blind was down, and I could not see in. I was standing there, +wondering what I should do next, when a covered van drove up with two +men in it. They descended, took something out of the van, and carried +it up the steps to the hall door. Mr. Holmes, it was a coffin." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" +</P> + +<P> +"For an instant I was on the point of rushing in. The door had been +opened to admit the men and their burden. It was the woman who had +opened it. But as I stood there she caught a glimpse of me, and I +think that she recognized me. I saw her start, and she hastily closed +the door. I remembered my promise to you, and here I am." +</P> + +<P> +"You have done excellent work," said Holmes, scribbling a few words +upon a half-sheet of paper. "We can do nothing legal without a +warrant, and you can serve the cause best by taking this note down to +the authorities and getting one. There may be some difficulty, but I +should think that the sale of the jewellery should be sufficient. +Lestrade will see to all details." +</P> + +<P> +"But they may murder her in the meanwhile. What could the coffin mean, +and for whom could it be but for her?" +</P> + +<P> +"We will do all that can be done, Mr. Green. Not a moment will be +lost. Leave it in our hands. Now Watson," he added as our client +hurried away, "he will set the regular forces on the move. We are, as +usual, the irregulars, and we must take our own line of action. The +situation strikes me as so desperate that the most extreme measures are +justified. Not a moment is to be lost in getting to Poultney Square. +</P> + +<P> +"Let us try to reconstruct the situation," said he as we drove swiftly +past the Houses of Parliament and over Westminster Bridge. "These +villains have coaxed this unhappy lady to London, after first +alienating her from her faithful maid. If she has written any letters +they have been intercepted. Through some confederate they have engaged +a furnished house. Once inside it, they have made her a prisoner, and +they have become possessed of the valuable jewellery which has been +their object from the first. Already they have begun to sell part of +it, which seems safe enough to them, since they have no reason to think +that anyone is interested in the lady's fate. When she is released she +will, of course, denounce them. Therefore, she must not be released. +But they cannot keep her under lock and key forever. So murder is their +only solution." +</P> + +<P> +"That seems very clear." +</P> + +<P> +"Now we will take another line of reasoning. When you follow two +separate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of +intersection which should approximate to the truth. We will start now, +not from the lady but from the coffin and argue backward. That +incident proves, I fear, beyond all doubt that the lady is dead. It +points also to an orthodox burial with proper accompaniment of medical +certificate and official sanction. Had the lady been obviously +murdered, they would have buried her in a hole in the back garden. But +here all is open and regular. What does this mean? Surely that they +have done her to death in some way which has deceived the doctor and +simulated a natural end--poisoning, perhaps. And yet how strange that +they should ever let a doctor approach her unless he were a +confederate, which is hardly a credible proposition." +</P> + +<P> +"Could they have forged a medical certificate?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dangerous, Watson, very dangerous. No, I hardly see them doing that. +Pull up, cabby! This is evidently the undertaker's, for we have just +passed the pawnbroker's. Would you go in, Watson? Your appearance +inspires confidence. Ask what hour the Poultney Square funeral takes +place to-morrow." +</P> + +<P> +The woman in the shop answered me without hesitation that it was to be +at eight o'clock in the morning. "You see, Watson, no mystery; +everything above-board! In some way the legal forms have undoubtedly +been complied with, and they think that they have little to fear. +Well, there's nothing for it now but a direct frontal attack. Are you +armed?" +</P> + +<P> +"My stick!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, well, we shall be strong enough. 'Thrice is he armed who hath +his quarrel just.' We simply can't afford to wait for the police or to +keep within the four corners of the law. You can drive off, cabby. +Now, Watson, we'll just take our luck together, as we have occasionally +in the past." +</P> + +<P> +He had rung loudly at the door of a great dark house in the centre of +Poultney Square. It was opened immediately, and the figure of a tall +woman was outlined against the dim-lit hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what do you want?" she asked sharply, peering at us through the +darkness. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to speak to Dr. Shlessinger," said Holmes. +</P> + +<P> +"There is no such person here," she answered, and tried to close the +door, but Holmes had jammed it with his foot. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I want to see the man who lives here, whatever he may call +himself," said Holmes firmly. +</P> + +<P> +She hesitated. Then she threw open the door. "Well, come in!" said +she. "My husband is not afraid to face any man in the world." She +closed the door behind us and showed us into a sitting-room on the +right side of the hall, turning up the gas as she left us. "Mr. Peters +will be with you in an instant," she said. +</P> + +<P> +Her words were literally true, for we had hardly time to look around +the dusty and moth-eaten apartment in which we found ourselves before +the door opened and a big, clean-shaven bald-headed man stepped lightly +into the room. He had a large red face, with pendulous cheeks, and a +general air of superficial benevolence which was marred by a cruel, +vicious mouth. +</P> + +<P> +"There is surely some mistake here, gentlemen," he said in an unctuous, +make-everything-easy voice. "I fancy that you have been misdirected. +Possibly if you tried farther down the street--" +</P> + +<P> +"That will do; we have no time to waste," said my companion firmly. +"You are Henry Peters, of Adelaide, late the Rev. Dr. Shlessinger, of +Baden and South America. I am as sure of that as that my own name is +Sherlock Holmes." +</P> + +<P> +Peters, as I will now call him, started and stared hard at his +formidable pursuer. "I guess your name does not frighten me, Mr. +Holmes," said he coolly. "When a man's conscience is easy you can't +rattle him. What is your business in my house?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want to know what you have done with the Lady Frances Carfax, whom +you brought away with you from Baden." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd be very glad if you could tell me where that lady may be," Peters +answered coolly. "I've a bill against her for nearly a hundred +pounds, and nothing to show for it but a couple of trumpery pendants +that the dealer would hardly look at. She attached herself to Mrs. +Peters and me at Baden--it is a fact that I was using another name at +the time--and she stuck on to us until we came to London. I paid her +bill and her ticket. Once in London, she gave us the slip, and, as I +say, left these out-of-date jewels to pay her bills. You find her, Mr. +Holmes, and I'm your debtor." +</P> + +<P> +"I MEAN to find her," said Sherlock Holmes. "I'm going through this +house till I do find her." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is your warrant?" +</P> + +<P> +Holmes half drew a revolver from his pocket. "This will have to serve +till a better one comes." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you're a common burglar." +</P> + +<P> +"So you might describe me," said Holmes cheerfully. "My companion is +also a dangerous ruffian. And together we are going through your +house." +</P> + +<P> +Our opponent opened the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Fetch a policeman, Annie!" said he. There was a whisk of feminine +skirts down the passage, and the hall door was opened and shut. +</P> + +<P> +"Our time is limited, Watson," said Holmes. "If you try to stop us, +Peters, you will most certainly get hurt. Where is that coffin which +was brought into your house?" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you want with the coffin? It is in use. There is a body in +it." +</P> + +<P> +"I must see the body." +</P> + +<P> +"Never with my consent." +</P> + +<P> +"Then without it." With a quick movement Holmes pushed the fellow to +one side and passed into the hall. A door half opened stood +immediately before us. We entered. It was the dining-room. On the +table, under a half-lit chandelier, the coffin was lying. Holmes +turned up the gas and raised the lid. Deep down in the recesses of the +coffin lay an emaciated figure. The glare from the lights above beat +down upon an aged and withered face. By no possible process of cruelty, +starvation, or disease could this worn-out wreck be the still beautiful +Lady Frances. Holmes's face showed his amazement, and also his relief. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God!" he muttered. "It's someone else." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, you've blundered badly for once, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said +Peters, who had followed us into the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is the dead woman?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if you really must know, she is an old nurse of my wife's, Rose +Spender by name, whom we found in the Brixton Workhouse Infirmary. We +brought her round here, called in Dr. Horsom, of 13 Firbank +Villas--mind you take the address, Mr. Holmes--and had her carefully +tended, as Christian folk should. On the third day she +died--certificate says senile decay--but that's only the doctor's +opinion, and of course you know better. We ordered her funeral to be +carried out by Stimson and Co., of the Kennington Road, who will bury +her at eight o'clock to-morrow morning. Can you pick any hole in that, +Mr. Holmes? You've made a silly blunder, and you may as well own up to +it. I'd give something for a photograph of your gaping, staring face +when you pulled aside that lid expecting to see the Lady Frances Carfax +and only found a poor old woman of ninety." +</P> + +<P> +Holmes's expression was as impassive as ever under the jeers of his +antagonist, but his clenched hands betrayed his acute annoyance. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going through your house," said he. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you, though!" cried Peters as a woman's voice and heavy steps +sounded in the passage. "We'll soon see about that. This way, +officers, if you please. These men have forced their way into my +house, and I cannot get rid of them. Help me to put them out." +</P> + +<P> +A sergeant and a constable stood in the doorway. Holmes drew his card +from his case. +</P> + +<P> +"This is my name and address. This is my friend, Dr. Watson." +</P> + +<P> +"Bless you, sir, we know you very well," said the sergeant, "but you +can't stay here without a warrant." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not. I quite understand that." +</P> + +<P> +"Arrest him!" cried Peters. +</P> + +<P> +"We know where to lay our hands on this gentleman if he is wanted," +said the sergeant majestically, "but you'll have to go, Mr. Holmes." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Watson, we shall have to go." +</P> + +<P> +A minute later we were in the street once more. Holmes was as cool as +ever, but I was hot with anger and humiliation. The sergeant had +followed us. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry, Mr. Holmes, but that's the law." +</P> + +<P> +"Exactly, Sergeant, you could not do otherwise." +</P> + +<P> +"I expect there was good reason for your presence there. If there is +anything I can do--" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a missing lady, Sergeant, and we think she is in that house. I +expect a warrant presently." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'll keep my eye on the parties, Mr. Holmes. If anything comes +along, I will surely let you know." +</P> + +<P> +It was only nine o'clock, and we were off full cry upon the trail at +once. First we drove to Brixton Workhouse Infirmary, where we found +that it was indeed the truth that a charitable couple had called some +days before, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former +servant, and that they had obtained permission to take her away with +them. No surprise was expressed at the news that she had since died. +</P> + +<P> +The doctor was our next goal. He had been called in, had found the +woman dying of pure senility, had actually seen her pass away, and had +signed the certificate in due form. "I assure you that everything was +perfectly normal and there was no room for foul play in the matter," +said he. Nothing in the house had struck him as suspicious save that +for people of their class it was remarkable that they should have no +servant. So far and no further went the doctor. +</P> + +<P> +Finally we found our way to Scotland Yard. There had been difficulties +of procedure in regard to the warrant. Some delay was inevitable. The +magistrate's signature might not be obtained until next morning. If +Holmes would call about nine he could go down with Lestrade and see it +acted upon. So ended the day, save that near midnight our friend, the +sergeant, called to say that he had seen flickering lights here and +there in the windows of the great dark house, but that no one had left +it and none had entered. We could but pray for patience and wait for +the morrow. +</P> + +<P> +Sherlock Holmes was too irritable for conversation and too restless for +sleep. I left him smoking hard, with his heavy, dark brows knotted +together, and his long, nervous fingers tapping upon the arms of his +chair, as he turned over in his mind every possible solution of the +mystery. Several times in the course of the night I heard him prowling +about the house. Finally, just after I had been called in the morning, +he rushed into my room. He was in his dressing-gown, but his pale, +hollow-eyed face told me that his night had been a sleepless one. +</P> + +<P> +"What time was the funeral? Eight, was it not?" he asked eagerly. +"Well, it is 7:20 now. Good heavens, Watson, what has become of any +brains that God has given me? Quick, man, quick! It's life or death--a +hundred chances on death to one on life. I'll never forgive myself, +never, if we are too late!" +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes had not passed before we were flying in a hansom down +Baker Street. But even so it was twenty-five to eight as we passed Big +Ben, and eight struck as we tore down the Brixton Road. But others +were late as well as we. Ten minutes after the hour the hearse was +still standing at the door of the house, and even as our foaming horse +came to a halt the coffin, supported by three men, appeared on the +threshold. Holmes darted forward and barred their way. +</P> + +<P> +"Take it back!" he cried, laying his hand on the breast of the +foremost. "Take it back this instant!" +</P> + +<P> +"What the devil do you mean? Once again I ask you, where is your +warrant?" shouted the furious Peters, his big red face glaring over the +farther end of the coffin. +</P> + +<P> +"The warrant is on its way. The coffin shall remain in the house until +it comes." +</P> + +<P> +The authority in Holmes's voice had its effect upon the bearers. Peters +had suddenly vanished into the house, and they obeyed these new orders. +"Quick, Watson, quick! Here is a screw-driver!" he shouted as the +coffin was replaced upon the table. "Here's one for you, my man! A +sovereign if the lid comes off in a minute! Ask no questions--work +away! That's good! Another! And another! Now pull all together! +It's giving! It's giving! Ah, that does it at last." +</P> + +<P> +With a united effort we tore off the coffin-lid. As we did so there +came from the inside a stupefying and overpowering smell of chloroform. +A body lay within, its head all wreathed in cotton-wool, which had been +soaked in the narcotic. Holmes plucked it off and disclosed the +statuesque face of a handsome and spiritual woman of middle age. In an +instant he had passed his arm round the figure and raised her to a +sitting position. +</P> + +<P> +"Is she gone, Watson? Is there a spark left? Surely we are not too +late!" +</P> + +<P> +For half an hour it seemed that we were. What with actual suffocation, +and what with the poisonous fumes of the chloroform, the Lady Frances +seemed to have passed the last point of recall. And then, at last, with +artificial respiration, with injected ether, and with every device that +science could suggest, some flutter of life, some quiver of the +eyelids, some dimming of a mirror, spoke of the slowly returning life. +A cab had driven up, and Holmes, parting the blind, looked out at it. +"Here is Lestrade with his warrant," said he. "He will find that his +birds have flown. And here," he added as a heavy step hurried along +the passage, "is someone who has a better right to nurse this lady than +we have. Good morning, Mr. Green; I think that the sooner we can move +the Lady Frances the better. Meanwhile, the funeral may proceed, and +the poor old woman who still lies in that coffin may go to her last +resting-place alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Should you care to add the case to your annals, my dear Watson," said +Holmes that evening, "it can only be as an example of that temporary +eclipse to which even the best-balanced mind may be exposed. Such +slips are common to all mortals, and the greatest is he who can +recognize and repair them. To this modified credit I may, perhaps, +make some claim. My night was haunted by the thought that somewhere a +clue, a strange sentence, a curious observation, had come under my +notice and had been too easily dismissed. Then, suddenly, in the gray +of the morning, the words came back to me. It was the remark of the +undertaker's wife, as reported by Philip Green. She had said, 'It +should be there before now. It took longer, being out of the +ordinary.' It was the coffin of which she spoke. It had been out of +the ordinary. That could only mean that it had been made to some +special measurement. But why? Why? Then in an instant I remembered +the deep sides, and the little wasted figure at the bottom. Why so +large a coffin for so small a body? To leave room for another body. +Both would be buried under the one certificate. It had all been so +clear, if only my own sight had not been dimmed. At eight the Lady +Frances would be buried. Our one chance was to stop the coffin before +it left the house. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a desperate chance that we might find her alive, but it WAS a +chance, as the result showed. These people had never, to my knowledge, +done a murder. They might shrink from actual violence at the last. +The could bury her with no sign of how she met her end, and even if she +were exhumed there was a chance for them. I hoped that such +considerations might prevail with them. You can reconstruct the scene +well enough. You saw the horrible den upstairs, where the poor lady +had been kept so long. They rushed in and overpowered her with their +chloroform, carried her down, poured more into the coffin to insure +against her waking, and then screwed down the lid. A clever device, +Watson. It is new to me in the annals of crime. If our ex-missionary +friends escape the clutches of Lestrade, I shall expect to hear of some +brilliant incidents in their future career." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Disappearance of Lady Frances +Carfax, by Arthur Conan Doyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY CARFAX *** + +***** This file should be named 2348-h.htm or 2348-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/4/2348/ + +Produced by David Brannan. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Posting Date: October 23, 2008 [EBook #2348] +Release Date: October, 2000 +[Last updated: May 3, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY CARFAX *** + + + + +Produced by David Brannan. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax + + +By + +Sir Arthur Conan Doyle + + + + +"But why Turkish?" asked Mr. Sherlock Holmes, gazing fixedly at my +boots. I was reclining in a cane-backed chair at the moment, and my +protruded feet had attracted his ever-active attention. + +"English," I answered in some surprise. "I got them at Latimer's, in +Oxford Street." + +Holmes smiled with an expression of weary patience. + +"The bath!" he said; "the bath! Why the relaxing and expensive Turkish +rather than the invigorating home-made article?" + +"Because for the last few days I have been feeling rheumatic and old. A +Turkish bath is what we call an alterative in medicine--a fresh +starting-point, a cleanser of the system. + +"By the way, Holmes," I added, "I have no doubt the connection between +my boots and a Turkish bath is a perfectly self-evident one to a +logical mind, and yet I should be obliged to you if you would indicate +it." + +"The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson," said Holmes with +a mischievous twinkle. "It belongs to the same elementary class of +deduction which I should illustrate if I were to ask you who shared +your cab in your drive this morning." + +"I don't admit that a fresh illustration is an explanation," said I +with some asperity. + +"Bravo, Watson! A very dignified and logical remonstrance. Let me +see, what were the points? Take the last one first--the cab. You +observe that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulder of +your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you would probably +have had no splashes, and if you had they would certainly have been +symmetrical. Therefore it is clear that you sat at the side. +Therefore it is equally clear that you had a companion." + +"That is very evident." + +"Absurdly commonplace, is it not?" + +"But the boots and the bath?" + +"Equally childish. You are in the habit of doing up your boots in a +certain way. I see them on this occasion fastened with an elaborate +double bow, which is not your usual method of tying them. You have, +therefore, had them off. Who has tied them? A bootmaker--or the boy +at the bath. It is unlikely that it is the bootmaker, since your boots +are nearly new. Well, what remains? The bath. Absurd, is it not? +But, for all that, the Turkish bath has served a purpose." + +"What is that?" + +"You say that you have had it because you need a change. Let me +suggest that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dear +Watson--first-class tickets and all expenses paid on a princely scale?" + +"Splendid! But why?" + +Holmes leaned back in his armchair and took his notebook from his +pocket. + +"One of the most dangerous classes in the world," said he, "is the +drifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless and often the +most useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable inciter of crime in +others. She is helpless. She is migratory. She has sufficient means +to take her from country to country and from hotel to hotel. She is +lost, as often as not, in a maze of obscure pensions and +boardinghouses. She is a stray chicken in a world of foxes. When she +is gobbled up she is hardly missed. I much fear that some evil has come +to the Lady Frances Carfax." + +I was relieved at this sudden descent from the general to the +particular. Holmes consulted his notes. + +"Lady Frances," he continued, "is the sole survivor of the direct +family of the late Earl of Rufton. The estates went, as you may +remember, in the male line. She was left with limited means, but with +some very remarkable old Spanish jewellery of silver and curiously cut +diamonds to which she was fondly attached--too attached, for she +refused to leave them with her banker and always carried them about +with her. A rather pathetic figure, the Lady Frances, a beautiful +woman, still in fresh middle age, and yet, by a strange change, the +last derelict of what only twenty years ago was a goodly fleet." + +"What has happened to her, then?" + +"Ah, what has happened to the Lady Frances? Is she alive or dead? +There is our problem. She is a lady of precise habits, and for four +years it has been her invariable custom to write every second week to +Miss Dobney, her old governess, who has long retired and lives in +Camberwell. It is this Miss Dobney who has consulted me. Nearly five +weeks have passed without a word. The last letter was from the Hotel +National at Lausanne. Lady Frances seems to have left there and given +no address. The family are anxious, and as they are exceedingly +wealthy no sum will be spared if we can clear the matter up." + +"Is Miss Dobney the only source of information? Surely she had other +correspondents?" + +"There is one correspondent who is a sure draw, Watson. That is the +bank. Single ladies must live, and their passbooks are compressed +diaries. She banks at Silvester's. I have glanced over her account. +The last check but one paid her bill at Lausanne, but it was a large +one and probably left her with cash in hand. Only one check has been +drawn since." + +"To whom, and where?" + +"To Miss Marie Devine. There is nothing to show where the check was +drawn. It was cashed at the Credit Lyonnais at Montpellier less than +three weeks ago. The sum was fifty pounds." + +"And who is Miss Marie Devine?" + +"That also I have been able to discover. Miss Marie Devine was the +maid of Lady Frances Carfax. Why she should have paid her this check +we have not yet determined. I have no doubt, however, that your +researches will soon clear the matter up." + +"MY researches!" + +"Hence the health-giving expedition to Lausanne. You know that I +cannot possibly leave London while old Abrahams is in such mortal +terror of his life. Besides, on general principles it is best that I +should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, +and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes. Go, +then, my dear Watson, and if my humble counsel can ever be valued at so +extravagant a rate as two pence a word, it waits your disposal night +and day at the end of the Continental wire." + +Two days later found me at the Hotel National at Lausanne, where I +received every courtesy at the hands of M. Moser, the well-known +manager. Lady Frances, as he informed me, had stayed there for several +weeks. She had been much liked by all who met her. Her age was not +more than forty. She was still handsome and bore every sign of having +in her youth been a very lovely woman. M. Moser knew nothing of any +valuable jewellery, but it had been remarked by the servants that the +heavy trunk in the lady's bedroom was always scrupulously locked. +Marie Devine, the maid, was as popular as her mistress. She was +actually engaged to one of the head waiters in the hotel, and there was +no difficulty in getting her address. It was 11 Rue de Trajan, +Montpellier. All this I jotted down and felt that Holmes himself could +not have been more adroit in collecting his facts. + +Only one corner still remained in the shadow. No light which I +possessed could clear up the cause for the lady's sudden departure. +She was very happy at Lausanne. There was every reason to believe that +she intended to remain for the season in her luxurious rooms +overlooking the lake. And yet she had left at a single day's notice, +which involved her in the useless payment of a week's rent. Only Jules +Vibart, the lover of the maid, had any suggestion to offer. He +connected the sudden departure with the visit to the hotel a day or two +before of a tall, dark, bearded man. "Un sauvage--un veritable +sauvage!" cried Jules Vibart. The man had rooms somewhere in the town. +He had been seen talking earnestly to Madame on the promenade by the +lake. Then he had called. She had refused to see him. He was +English, but of his name there was no record. Madame had left the +place immediately afterwards. Jules Vibart, and, what was of more +importance, Jules Vibart's sweetheart, thought that this call and the +departure were cause and effect. Only one thing Jules would not +discuss. That was the reason why Marie had left her mistress. Of that +he could or would say nothing. If I wished to know, I must go to +Montpellier and ask her. + +So ended the first chapter of my inquiry. The second was devoted to +the place which Lady Frances Carfax had sought when she left Lausanne. +Concerning this there had been some secrecy, which confirmed the idea +that she had gone with the intention of throwing someone off her track. +Otherwise why should not her luggage have been openly labelled for +Baden? Both she and it reached the Rhenish spa by some circuitous +route. This much I gathered from the manager of Cook's local office. +So to Baden I went, after dispatching to Holmes an account of all my +proceedings and receiving in reply a telegram of half-humorous +commendation. + +At Baden the track was not difficult to follow. Lady Frances had +stayed at the Englischer Hof for a fortnight. While there she had made +the acquaintance of a Dr. Shlessinger and his wife, a missionary from +South America. Like most lonely ladies, Lady Frances found her comfort +and occupation in religion. Dr. Shlessinger's remarkable personality, +his whole hearted devotion, and the fact that he was recovering from a +disease contracted in the exercise of his apostolic duties affected her +deeply. She had helped Mrs. Shlessinger in the nursing of the +convalescent saint. He spent his day, as the manager described it to +me, upon a lounge-chair on the veranda, with an attendant lady upon +either side of him. He was preparing a map of the Holy Land, with +special reference to the kingdom of the Midianites, upon which he was +writing a monograph. Finally, having improved much in health, he and +his wife had returned to London, and Lady Frances had started thither +in their company. This was just three weeks before, and the manager +had heard nothing since. As to the maid, Marie, she had gone off some +days beforehand in floods of tears, after informing the other maids +that she was leaving service forever. Dr. Shlessinger had paid the +bill of the whole party before his departure. + +"By the way," said the landlord in conclusion, "you are not the only +friend of Lady Frances Carfax who is inquiring after her just now. +Only a week or so ago we had a man here upon the same errand." + +"Did he give a name?" I asked. + +"None; but he was an Englishman, though of an unusual type." + +"A savage?" said I, linking my facts after the fashion of my +illustrious friend. + +"Exactly. That describes him very well. He is a bulky, bearded, +sunburned fellow, who looks as if he would be more at home in a +farmers' inn than in a fashionable hotel. A hard, fierce man, I should +think, and one whom I should be sorry to offend." + +Already the mystery began to define itself, as figures grow clearer +with the lifting of a fog. Here was this good and pious lady pursued +from place to place by a sinister and unrelenting figure. She feared +him, or she would not have fled from Lausanne. He had still followed. +Sooner or later he would overtake her. Had he already overtaken her? +Was THAT the secret of her continued silence? Could the good people +who were her companions not screen her from his violence or his +blackmail? What horrible purpose, what deep design, lay behind this +long pursuit? There was the problem which I had to solve. + +To Holmes I wrote showing how rapidly and surely I had got down to the +roots of the matter. In reply I had a telegram asking for a +description of Dr. Shlessinger's left ear. Holmes's ideas of humour +are strange and occasionally offensive, so I took no notice of his +ill-timed jest--indeed, I had already reached Montpellier in my pursuit +of the maid, Marie, before his message came. + +I had no difficulty in finding the ex-servant and in learning all that +she could tell me. She was a devoted creature, who had only left her +mistress because she was sure that she was in good hands, and because +her own approaching marriage made a separation inevitable in any case. +Her mistress had, as she confessed with distress, shown some +irritability of temper towards her during their stay in Baden, and had +even questioned her once as if she had suspicions of her honesty, and +this had made the parting easier than it would otherwise have been. +Lady Frances had given her fifty pounds as a wedding-present. Like me, +Marie viewed with deep distrust the stranger who had driven her +mistress from Lausanne. With her own eyes she had seen him seize the +lady's wrist with great violence on the public promenade by the lake. +He was a fierce and terrible man. She believed that it was out of +dread of him that Lady Frances had accepted the escort of the +Shlessingers to London. She had never spoken to Marie about it, but +many little signs had convinced the maid that her mistress lived in a +state of continual nervous apprehension. So far she had got in her +narrative, when suddenly she sprang from her chair and her face was +convulsed with surprise and fear. "See!" she cried. "The miscreant +follows still! There is the very man of whom I speak." + +Through the open sitting-room window I saw a huge, swarthy man with a +bristling black beard walking slowly down the centre of the street and +staring eagerly at the numbers of the houses. It was clear that, like +myself, he was on the track of the maid. Acting upon the impulse of the +moment, I rushed out and accosted him. + +"You are an Englishman," I said. + +"What if I am?" he asked with a most villainous scowl. + +"May I ask what your name is?" + +"No, you may not," said he with decision. + +The situation was awkward, but the most direct way is often the best. + +"Where is the Lady Frances Carfax?" I asked. + +He stared at me with amazement. + +"What have you done with her? Why have you pursued her? I insist upon +an answer!" said I. + +The fellow gave a bellow of anger and sprang upon me like a tiger. I +have held my own in many a struggle, but the man had a grip of iron and +the fury of a fiend. His hand was on my throat and my senses were +nearly gone before an unshaven French ouvrier in a blue blouse darted +out from a cabaret opposite, with a cudgel in his hand, and struck my +assailant a sharp crack over the forearm, which made him leave go his +hold. He stood for an instant fuming with rage and uncertain whether +he should not renew his attack. Then, with a snarl of anger, he left me +and entered the cottage from which I had just come. I turned to thank +my preserver, who stood beside me in the roadway. + +"Well, Watson," said he, "a very pretty hash you have made of it! I +rather think you had better come back with me to London by the night +express." + +An hour afterwards, Sherlock Holmes, in his usual garb and style, was +seated in my private room at the hotel. His explanation of his sudden +and opportune appearance was simplicity itself, for, finding that he +could get away from London, he determined to head me off at the next +obvious point of my travels. In the disguise of a workingman he had +sat in the cabaret waiting for my appearance. + +"And a singularly consistent investigation you have made, my dear +Watson," said he. "I cannot at the moment recall any possible blunder +which you have omitted. The total effect of your proceeding has been +to give the alarm everywhere and yet to discover nothing." + +"Perhaps you would have done no better," I answered bitterly. + +"There is no 'perhaps' about it. I HAVE done better. Here is the Hon. +Philip Green, who is a fellow-lodger with you in this hotel, and we may +find him the starting-point for a more successful investigation." + +A card had come up on a salver, and it was followed by the same bearded +ruffian who had attacked me in the street. He started when he saw me. + +"What is this, Mr. Holmes?" he asked. "I had your note and I have +come. But what has this man to do with the matter?" + +"This is my old friend and associate, Dr. Watson, who is helping us in +this affair." + +The stranger held out a huge, sunburned hand, with a few words of +apology. + +"I hope I didn't harm you. When you accused me of hurting her I lost +my grip of myself. Indeed, I'm not responsible in these days. My +nerves are like live wires. But this situation is beyond me. What I +want to know, in the first place, Mr. Holmes, is, how in the world you +came to hear of my existence at all." + +"I am in touch with Miss Dobney, Lady Frances's governess." + +"Old Susan Dobney with the mob cap! I remember her well." + +"And she remembers you. It was in the days before--before you found it +better to go to South Africa." + +"Ah, I see you know my whole story. I need hide nothing from you. I +swear to you, Mr. Holmes, that there never was in this world a man who +loved a woman with a more wholehearted love than I had for Frances. I +was a wild youngster, I know--not worse than others of my class. But +her mind was pure as snow. She could not bear a shadow of coarseness. +So, when she came to hear of things that I had done, she would have no +more to say to me. And yet she loved me--that is the wonder of +it!--loved me well enough to remain single all her sainted days just +for my sake alone. When the years had passed and I had made my money +at Barberton I thought perhaps I could seek her out and soften her. I +had heard that she was still unmarried, I found her at Lausanne and +tried all I knew. She weakened, I think, but her will was strong, and +when next I called she had left the town. I traced her to Baden, and +then after a time heard that her maid was here. I'm a rough fellow, +fresh from a rough life, and when Dr. Watson spoke to me as he did I +lost hold of myself for a moment. But for God's sake tell me what has +become of the Lady Frances." + +"That is for us to find out," said Sherlock Holmes with peculiar +gravity. "What is your London address, Mr. Green?" + +"The Langham Hotel will find me." + +"Then may I recommend that you return there and be on hand in case I +should want you? I have no desire to encourage false hopes, but you +may rest assured that all that can be done will be done for the safety +of Lady Frances. I can say no more for the instant. I will leave you +this card so that you may be able to keep in touch with us. Now, +Watson, if you will pack your bag I will cable to Mrs. Hudson to make +one of her best efforts for two hungry travellers at 7:30 to-morrow." + + +A telegram was awaiting us when we reached our Baker Street rooms, +which Holmes read with an exclamation of interest and threw across to +me. "Jagged or torn," was the message, and the place of origin, Baden. + +"What is this?" I asked. + +"It is everything," Holmes answered. "You may remember my seemingly +irrelevant question as to this clerical gentleman's left ear. You did +not answer it." + +"I had left Baden and could not inquire." + +"Exactly. For this reason I sent a duplicate to the manager of the +Englischer Hof, whose answer lies here." + +"What does it show?" + +"It shows, my dear Watson, that we are dealing with an exceptionally +astute and dangerous man. The Rev. Dr. Shlessinger, missionary from +South America, is none other than Holy Peters, one of the most +unscrupulous rascals that Australia has ever evolved--and for a young +country it has turned out some very finished types. His particular +specialty is the beguiling of lonely ladies by playing upon their +religious feelings, and his so-called wife, an Englishwoman named +Fraser, is a worthy helpmate. The nature of his tactics suggested his +identity to me, and this physical peculiarity--he was badly bitten in a +saloon-fight at Adelaide in '89--confirmed my suspicion. This poor +lady is in the hands of a most infernal couple, who will stick at +nothing, Watson. That she is already dead is a very likely +supposition. If not, she is undoubtedly in some sort of confinement +and unable to write to Miss Dobney or her other friends. It is always +possible that she never reached London, or that she has passed through +it, but the former is improbable, as, with their system of +registration, it is not easy for foreigners to play tricks with the +Continental police; and the latter is also unlikely, as these rouges +could not hope to find any other place where it would be as easy to +keep a person under restraint. All my instincts tell me that she is in +London, but as we have at present no possible means of telling where, +we can only take the obvious steps, eat our dinner, and possess our +souls in patience. Later in the evening I will stroll down and have a +word with friend Lestrade at Scotland Yard." + +But neither the official police nor Holmes's own small but very +efficient organization sufficed to clear away the mystery. Amid the +crowded millions of London the three persons we sought were as +completely obliterated as if they had never lived. Advertisements were +tried, and failed. Clues were followed, and led to nothing. Every +criminal resort which Shlessinger might frequent was drawn in vain. +His old associates were watched, but they kept clear of him. And then +suddenly, after a week of helpless suspense there came a flash of +light. A silver-and-brilliant pendant of old Spanish design had been +pawned at Bovington's, in Westminster Road. The pawner was a large, +clean-shaven man of clerical appearance. His name and address were +demonstrably false. The ear had escaped notice, but the description +was surely that of Shlessinger. + +Three times had our bearded friend from the Langham called for +news--the third time within an hour of this fresh development. His +clothes were getting looser on his great body. He seemed to be wilting +away in his anxiety. "If you will only give me something to do!" was +his constant wail. At last Holmes could oblige him. + +"He has begun to pawn the jewels. We should get him now." + +"But does this mean that any harm has befallen the Lady Frances?" + +Holmes shook his head very gravely. + +"Supposing that they have held her prisoner up to now, it is clear that +they cannot let her loose without their own destruction. We must +prepare for the worst." + +"What can I do?" + +"These people do not know you by sight?" + +"No." + +"It is possible that he will go to some other pawnbroker in the future. +In that case, we must begin again. On the other hand, he has had a +fair price and no questions asked, so if he is in need of ready-money +he will probably come back to Bovington's. I will give you a note to +them, and they will let you wait in the shop. If the fellow comes you +will follow him home. But no indiscretion, and, above all, no +violence. I put you on your honour that you will take no step without +my knowledge and consent." + +For two days the Hon. Philip Green (he was, I may mention, the son of +the famous admiral of that name who commanded the Sea of Azof fleet in +the Crimean War) brought us no news. On the evening of the third he +rushed into our sitting-room, pale, trembling, with every muscle of his +powerful frame quivering with excitement. + +"We have him! We have him!" he cried. + +He was incoherent in his agitation. Holmes soothed him with a few +words and thrust him into an armchair. + +"Come, now, give us the order of events," said he. + +"She came only an hour ago. It was the wife, this time, but the +pendant she brought was the fellow of the other. She is a tall, pale +woman, with ferret eyes." + +"That is the lady," said Holmes. + +"She left the office and I followed her. She walked up the Kennington +Road, and I kept behind her. Presently she went into a shop. Mr. +Holmes, it was an undertaker's." + +My companion started. "Well?" he asked in that vibrant voice which +told of the fiery soul behind the cold gray face. + +"She was talking to the woman behind the counter. I entered as well. +'It is late,' I heard her say, or words to that effect. The woman was +excusing herself. 'It should be there before now,' she answered. 'It +took longer, being out of the ordinary.' They both stopped and looked +at me, so I asked some questions and then left the shop." + +"You did excellently well. What happened next?" + +"The woman came out, but I had hid myself in a doorway. Her suspicions +had been aroused, I think, for she looked round her. Then she called a +cab and got in. I was lucky enough to get another and so to follow +her. She got down at last at No. 36, Poultney Square, Brixton. I +drove past, left my cab at the corner of the square, and watched the +house." + +"Did you see anyone?" + +"The windows were all in darkness save one on the lower floor. The +blind was down, and I could not see in. I was standing there, +wondering what I should do next, when a covered van drove up with two +men in it. They descended, took something out of the van, and carried +it up the steps to the hall door. Mr. Holmes, it was a coffin." + +"Ah!" + +"For an instant I was on the point of rushing in. The door had been +opened to admit the men and their burden. It was the woman who had +opened it. But as I stood there she caught a glimpse of me, and I +think that she recognized me. I saw her start, and she hastily closed +the door. I remembered my promise to you, and here I am." + +"You have done excellent work," said Holmes, scribbling a few words +upon a half-sheet of paper. "We can do nothing legal without a +warrant, and you can serve the cause best by taking this note down to +the authorities and getting one. There may be some difficulty, but I +should think that the sale of the jewellery should be sufficient. +Lestrade will see to all details." + +"But they may murder her in the meanwhile. What could the coffin mean, +and for whom could it be but for her?" + +"We will do all that can be done, Mr. Green. Not a moment will be +lost. Leave it in our hands. Now Watson," he added as our client +hurried away, "he will set the regular forces on the move. We are, as +usual, the irregulars, and we must take our own line of action. The +situation strikes me as so desperate that the most extreme measures are +justified. Not a moment is to be lost in getting to Poultney Square. + +"Let us try to reconstruct the situation," said he as we drove swiftly +past the Houses of Parliament and over Westminster Bridge. "These +villains have coaxed this unhappy lady to London, after first +alienating her from her faithful maid. If she has written any letters +they have been intercepted. Through some confederate they have engaged +a furnished house. Once inside it, they have made her a prisoner, and +they have become possessed of the valuable jewellery which has been +their object from the first. Already they have begun to sell part of +it, which seems safe enough to them, since they have no reason to think +that anyone is interested in the lady's fate. When she is released she +will, of course, denounce them. Therefore, she must not be released. +But they cannot keep her under lock and key forever. So murder is their +only solution." + +"That seems very clear." + +"Now we will take another line of reasoning. When you follow two +separate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of +intersection which should approximate to the truth. We will start now, +not from the lady but from the coffin and argue backward. That +incident proves, I fear, beyond all doubt that the lady is dead. It +points also to an orthodox burial with proper accompaniment of medical +certificate and official sanction. Had the lady been obviously +murdered, they would have buried her in a hole in the back garden. But +here all is open and regular. What does this mean? Surely that they +have done her to death in some way which has deceived the doctor and +simulated a natural end--poisoning, perhaps. And yet how strange that +they should ever let a doctor approach her unless he were a +confederate, which is hardly a credible proposition." + +"Could they have forged a medical certificate?" + +"Dangerous, Watson, very dangerous. No, I hardly see them doing that. +Pull up, cabby! This is evidently the undertaker's, for we have just +passed the pawnbroker's. Would you go in, Watson? Your appearance +inspires confidence. Ask what hour the Poultney Square funeral takes +place to-morrow." + +The woman in the shop answered me without hesitation that it was to be +at eight o'clock in the morning. "You see, Watson, no mystery; +everything above-board! In some way the legal forms have undoubtedly +been complied with, and they think that they have little to fear. +Well, there's nothing for it now but a direct frontal attack. Are you +armed?" + +"My stick!" + +"Well, well, we shall be strong enough. 'Thrice is he armed who hath +his quarrel just.' We simply can't afford to wait for the police or to +keep within the four corners of the law. You can drive off, cabby. +Now, Watson, we'll just take our luck together, as we have occasionally +in the past." + +He had rung loudly at the door of a great dark house in the centre of +Poultney Square. It was opened immediately, and the figure of a tall +woman was outlined against the dim-lit hall. + +"Well, what do you want?" she asked sharply, peering at us through the +darkness. + +"I want to speak to Dr. Shlessinger," said Holmes. + +"There is no such person here," she answered, and tried to close the +door, but Holmes had jammed it with his foot. + +"Well, I want to see the man who lives here, whatever he may call +himself," said Holmes firmly. + +She hesitated. Then she threw open the door. "Well, come in!" said +she. "My husband is not afraid to face any man in the world." She +closed the door behind us and showed us into a sitting-room on the +right side of the hall, turning up the gas as she left us. "Mr. Peters +will be with you in an instant," she said. + +Her words were literally true, for we had hardly time to look around +the dusty and moth-eaten apartment in which we found ourselves before +the door opened and a big, clean-shaven bald-headed man stepped lightly +into the room. He had a large red face, with pendulous cheeks, and a +general air of superficial benevolence which was marred by a cruel, +vicious mouth. + +"There is surely some mistake here, gentlemen," he said in an unctuous, +make-everything-easy voice. "I fancy that you have been misdirected. +Possibly if you tried farther down the street--" + +"That will do; we have no time to waste," said my companion firmly. +"You are Henry Peters, of Adelaide, late the Rev. Dr. Shlessinger, of +Baden and South America. I am as sure of that as that my own name is +Sherlock Holmes." + +Peters, as I will now call him, started and stared hard at his +formidable pursuer. "I guess your name does not frighten me, Mr. +Holmes," said he coolly. "When a man's conscience is easy you can't +rattle him. What is your business in my house?" + +"I want to know what you have done with the Lady Frances Carfax, whom +you brought away with you from Baden." + +"I'd be very glad if you could tell me where that lady may be," Peters +answered coolly. "I've a bill against her for nearly a hundred +pounds, and nothing to show for it but a couple of trumpery pendants +that the dealer would hardly look at. She attached herself to Mrs. +Peters and me at Baden--it is a fact that I was using another name at +the time--and she stuck on to us until we came to London. I paid her +bill and her ticket. Once in London, she gave us the slip, and, as I +say, left these out-of-date jewels to pay her bills. You find her, Mr. +Holmes, and I'm your debtor." + +"I MEAN to find her," said Sherlock Holmes. "I'm going through this +house till I do find her." + +"Where is your warrant?" + +Holmes half drew a revolver from his pocket. "This will have to serve +till a better one comes." + +"Why, you're a common burglar." + +"So you might describe me," said Holmes cheerfully. "My companion is +also a dangerous ruffian. And together we are going through your +house." + +Our opponent opened the door. + +"Fetch a policeman, Annie!" said he. There was a whisk of feminine +skirts down the passage, and the hall door was opened and shut. + +"Our time is limited, Watson," said Holmes. "If you try to stop us, +Peters, you will most certainly get hurt. Where is that coffin which +was brought into your house?" + +"What do you want with the coffin? It is in use. There is a body in +it." + +"I must see the body." + +"Never with my consent." + +"Then without it." With a quick movement Holmes pushed the fellow to +one side and passed into the hall. A door half opened stood +immediately before us. We entered. It was the dining-room. On the +table, under a half-lit chandelier, the coffin was lying. Holmes +turned up the gas and raised the lid. Deep down in the recesses of the +coffin lay an emaciated figure. The glare from the lights above beat +down upon an aged and withered face. By no possible process of cruelty, +starvation, or disease could this worn-out wreck be the still beautiful +Lady Frances. Holmes's face showed his amazement, and also his relief. + +"Thank God!" he muttered. "It's someone else." + +"Ah, you've blundered badly for once, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said +Peters, who had followed us into the room. + +"Who is the dead woman?" + +"Well, if you really must know, she is an old nurse of my wife's, Rose +Spender by name, whom we found in the Brixton Workhouse Infirmary. We +brought her round here, called in Dr. Horsom, of 13 Firbank +Villas--mind you take the address, Mr. Holmes--and had her carefully +tended, as Christian folk should. On the third day she +died--certificate says senile decay--but that's only the doctor's +opinion, and of course you know better. We ordered her funeral to be +carried out by Stimson and Co., of the Kennington Road, who will bury +her at eight o'clock to-morrow morning. Can you pick any hole in that, +Mr. Holmes? You've made a silly blunder, and you may as well own up to +it. I'd give something for a photograph of your gaping, staring face +when you pulled aside that lid expecting to see the Lady Frances Carfax +and only found a poor old woman of ninety." + +Holmes's expression was as impassive as ever under the jeers of his +antagonist, but his clenched hands betrayed his acute annoyance. + +"I am going through your house," said he. + +"Are you, though!" cried Peters as a woman's voice and heavy steps +sounded in the passage. "We'll soon see about that. This way, +officers, if you please. These men have forced their way into my +house, and I cannot get rid of them. Help me to put them out." + +A sergeant and a constable stood in the doorway. Holmes drew his card +from his case. + +"This is my name and address. This is my friend, Dr. Watson." + +"Bless you, sir, we know you very well," said the sergeant, "but you +can't stay here without a warrant." + +"Of course not. I quite understand that." + +"Arrest him!" cried Peters. + +"We know where to lay our hands on this gentleman if he is wanted," +said the sergeant majestically, "but you'll have to go, Mr. Holmes." + +"Yes, Watson, we shall have to go." + +A minute later we were in the street once more. Holmes was as cool as +ever, but I was hot with anger and humiliation. The sergeant had +followed us. + +"Sorry, Mr. Holmes, but that's the law." + +"Exactly, Sergeant, you could not do otherwise." + +"I expect there was good reason for your presence there. If there is +anything I can do--" + +"It's a missing lady, Sergeant, and we think she is in that house. I +expect a warrant presently." + +"Then I'll keep my eye on the parties, Mr. Holmes. If anything comes +along, I will surely let you know." + +It was only nine o'clock, and we were off full cry upon the trail at +once. First we drove to Brixton Workhouse Infirmary, where we found +that it was indeed the truth that a charitable couple had called some +days before, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former +servant, and that they had obtained permission to take her away with +them. No surprise was expressed at the news that she had since died. + +The doctor was our next goal. He had been called in, had found the +woman dying of pure senility, had actually seen her pass away, and had +signed the certificate in due form. "I assure you that everything was +perfectly normal and there was no room for foul play in the matter," +said he. Nothing in the house had struck him as suspicious save that +for people of their class it was remarkable that they should have no +servant. So far and no further went the doctor. + +Finally we found our way to Scotland Yard. There had been difficulties +of procedure in regard to the warrant. Some delay was inevitable. The +magistrate's signature might not be obtained until next morning. If +Holmes would call about nine he could go down with Lestrade and see it +acted upon. So ended the day, save that near midnight our friend, the +sergeant, called to say that he had seen flickering lights here and +there in the windows of the great dark house, but that no one had left +it and none had entered. We could but pray for patience and wait for +the morrow. + +Sherlock Holmes was too irritable for conversation and too restless for +sleep. I left him smoking hard, with his heavy, dark brows knotted +together, and his long, nervous fingers tapping upon the arms of his +chair, as he turned over in his mind every possible solution of the +mystery. Several times in the course of the night I heard him prowling +about the house. Finally, just after I had been called in the morning, +he rushed into my room. He was in his dressing-gown, but his pale, +hollow-eyed face told me that his night had been a sleepless one. + +"What time was the funeral? Eight, was it not?" he asked eagerly. +"Well, it is 7:20 now. Good heavens, Watson, what has become of any +brains that God has given me? Quick, man, quick! It's life or death--a +hundred chances on death to one on life. I'll never forgive myself, +never, if we are too late!" + +Five minutes had not passed before we were flying in a hansom down +Baker Street. But even so it was twenty-five to eight as we passed Big +Ben, and eight struck as we tore down the Brixton Road. But others +were late as well as we. Ten minutes after the hour the hearse was +still standing at the door of the house, and even as our foaming horse +came to a halt the coffin, supported by three men, appeared on the +threshold. Holmes darted forward and barred their way. + +"Take it back!" he cried, laying his hand on the breast of the +foremost. "Take it back this instant!" + +"What the devil do you mean? Once again I ask you, where is your +warrant?" shouted the furious Peters, his big red face glaring over the +farther end of the coffin. + +"The warrant is on its way. The coffin shall remain in the house until +it comes." + +The authority in Holmes's voice had its effect upon the bearers. Peters +had suddenly vanished into the house, and they obeyed these new orders. +"Quick, Watson, quick! Here is a screw-driver!" he shouted as the +coffin was replaced upon the table. "Here's one for you, my man! A +sovereign if the lid comes off in a minute! Ask no questions--work +away! That's good! Another! And another! Now pull all together! +It's giving! It's giving! Ah, that does it at last." + +With a united effort we tore off the coffin-lid. As we did so there +came from the inside a stupefying and overpowering smell of chloroform. +A body lay within, its head all wreathed in cotton-wool, which had been +soaked in the narcotic. Holmes plucked it off and disclosed the +statuesque face of a handsome and spiritual woman of middle age. In an +instant he had passed his arm round the figure and raised her to a +sitting position. + +"Is she gone, Watson? Is there a spark left? Surely we are not too +late!" + +For half an hour it seemed that we were. What with actual suffocation, +and what with the poisonous fumes of the chloroform, the Lady Frances +seemed to have passed the last point of recall. And then, at last, with +artificial respiration, with injected ether, and with every device that +science could suggest, some flutter of life, some quiver of the +eyelids, some dimming of a mirror, spoke of the slowly returning life. +A cab had driven up, and Holmes, parting the blind, looked out at it. +"Here is Lestrade with his warrant," said he. "He will find that his +birds have flown. And here," he added as a heavy step hurried along +the passage, "is someone who has a better right to nurse this lady than +we have. Good morning, Mr. Green; I think that the sooner we can move +the Lady Frances the better. Meanwhile, the funeral may proceed, and +the poor old woman who still lies in that coffin may go to her last +resting-place alone." + +"Should you care to add the case to your annals, my dear Watson," said +Holmes that evening, "it can only be as an example of that temporary +eclipse to which even the best-balanced mind may be exposed. Such +slips are common to all mortals, and the greatest is he who can +recognize and repair them. To this modified credit I may, perhaps, +make some claim. My night was haunted by the thought that somewhere a +clue, a strange sentence, a curious observation, had come under my +notice and had been too easily dismissed. Then, suddenly, in the gray +of the morning, the words came back to me. It was the remark of the +undertaker's wife, as reported by Philip Green. She had said, 'It +should be there before now. It took longer, being out of the +ordinary.' It was the coffin of which she spoke. It had been out of +the ordinary. That could only mean that it had been made to some +special measurement. But why? Why? Then in an instant I remembered +the deep sides, and the little wasted figure at the bottom. Why so +large a coffin for so small a body? To leave room for another body. +Both would be buried under the one certificate. It had all been so +clear, if only my own sight had not been dimmed. At eight the Lady +Frances would be buried. Our one chance was to stop the coffin before +it left the house. + +"It was a desperate chance that we might find her alive, but it WAS a +chance, as the result showed. These people had never, to my knowledge, +done a murder. They might shrink from actual violence at the last. +The could bury her with no sign of how she met her end, and even if she +were exhumed there was a chance for them. I hoped that such +considerations might prevail with them. You can reconstruct the scene +well enough. You saw the horrible den upstairs, where the poor lady +had been kept so long. They rushed in and overpowered her with their +chloroform, carried her down, poured more into the coffin to insure +against her waking, and then screwed down the lid. A clever device, +Watson. It is new to me in the annals of crime. If our ex-missionary +friends escape the clutches of Lestrade, I shall expect to hear of some +brilliant incidents in their future career." + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Disappearance of Lady Frances +Carfax, by Arthur Conan Doyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DISAPPEARANCE OF LADY CARFAX *** + +***** This file should be named 2348.txt or 2348.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/4/2348/ + +Produced by David Brannan. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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I was reclining in a cane-backed chair at the moment, +and my protruded feet had attracted his ever-active attention. + +"English," I answered in some surprise. "I got them at +Latimer's, in Oxford Street." + +Holmes smiled with an expression of weary patience. + +"The bath!" he said; "the bath! Why the relaxing and expensive +Turkish rather than the invigorating home-made article?" + +"Because for the last few days I have been feeling rheumatic and +old. A Turkish bath is what we call an alterative in medicine--a +fresh starting-point, a cleanser of the system. + +"By the way, Holmes," I added, "I have no doubt the connection +between my boots and a Turkish bath is a perfectly self-evident +one to a logical mind, and yet I should be obliged to you if you +would indicate it." + +"The train of reasoning is not very obscure, Watson," said Holmes +with a mischievous twinkle. "It belongs to the same elementary +class of deduction which I should illustrate if I were to ask you +who shared your cab in your drive this morning." + +"I don't admit that a fresh illustration is an explanation," said +I with some asperity. + +"Bravo, Watson! A very dignified and logical remonstrance. Let +me see, what were the points? Take the last one first--the cab. +You observe that you have some splashes on the left sleeve and +shoulder of your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you +would probably have had no splashes, and if you had they would +certainly have been symmetrical. Therefore it is clear that you +sat at the side. Therefore it is equally clear that you had a +companion." + +"That is very evident." + +"Absurdly commonplace, is it not?" + +"But the boots and the bath?" + +"Equally childish. You are in the habit of doing up your boots +in a certain way. I see them on this occasion fastened with an +elaborate double bow, which is not your usual method of tying +them. You have, therefore, had them off. Who has tied them? A +bootmaker--or the boy at the bath. It is unlikely that it is the +bootmaker, since your boots are nearly new. Well, what remains? +The bath. Absurd, is it not? But, for all that, the Turkish +bath has served a purpose." + +"What is that?" + +"You say that you have had it because you need a change. Let me +suggest that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dear +Watson--first-class tickets and all expenses paid on a princely +scale?" + +"Splendid! But why?" + +Holmes leaned back in his armchair and took his notebook from his +pocket. + +"One of the most dangerous classes in the world," said he, "is +the drifting and friendless woman. She is the most harmless and +often the most useful of mortals, but she is the inevitable +inciter of crime in others. She is helpless. She is migratory. +She has sufficient means to take her from country to country and +from hotel to hotel. She is lost, as often as not, in a maze of +obscure pensions and boardinghouses. She is a stray chicken in a +world of foxes. When she is gobbled up she is hardly missed. I +much fear that some evil has come to the Lady Frances Carfax." + +I was relieved at this sudden descent from the general to the +particular. Holmes consulted his notes. + +"Lady Frances," he continued, "is the sole survivor of the direct +family of the late Earl of Rufton. The estates went, as you may +remember, in the male line. She was left with limited means, but +with some very remarkable old Spanish jewellery of silver and +curiously cut diamonds to which she was fondly attached--too +attached, for she refused to leave them with her banker and +always carried them about with her. A rather pathetic figure, +the Lady Frances, a beautiful woman, still in fresh middle age, +and yet, by a strange change, the last derelict of what only +twenty years ago was a goodly fleet." + +"What has happened to her, then?" + +"Ah, what has happened to the Lady Frances? Is she alive or +dead? There is our problem. She is a lady of precise habits, +and for four years it has been her invariable custom to write +every second week to Miss Dobney, her old governess, who has long +retired and lives in Camberwell. It is this Miss Dobney who has +consulted me. Nearly five weeks have passed without a word. The +last letter was from the Hotel National at Lausanne. Lady Frances +seems to have left there and given no address. The family are +anxious, and as they are exceedingly wealthy no sum will be +spared if we can clear the matter up." + +"Is Miss Dobney the only source of information? Surely she had +other correspondents?" + +"There is one correspondent who is a sure draw, Watson. That is +the bank. Single ladies must live, and their passbooks are +compressed diaries. She banks at Silvester's. I have glanced +over her account. The last check but one paid her bill at +Lausanne, but it was a large one and probably left her with cash +in hand. Only one check has been drawn since." + +"To whom, and where?" + +"To Miss Marie Devine. There is nothing to show where the check +was drawn. It was cashed at the Credit Lyonnais at Montpellier +less than three weeks ago. The sum was fifty pounds." + +"And who is Miss Marie Devine?" + +"That also I have been able to discover. Miss Marie Devine was +the maid of Lady Frances Carfax. Why she should have paid her +this check we have not yet determined. I have no doubt, however, +that your researches will soon clear the matter up." + +"MY researches!" + +"Hence the health-giving expedition to Lausanne. You know that I +cannot possibly leave London while old Abrahams is in such mortal +terror of his life. Besides, on general principles it is best +that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely +without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the +criminal classes. Go, then, my dear Watson, and if my humble +counsel can ever be valued at so extravagant a rate as two pence +a word, it waits your disposal night and day at the end of the +Continental wire." + +Two days later found me at the Hotel National at Lausanne, where +I received every courtesy at the hands of M. Moser, the well- +known manager. Lady Frances, as he informed me, had stayed there +for several weeks. She had been much liked by all who met her. +Her age was not more than forty. She was still handsome and bore +every sign of having in her youth been a very lovely woman. M. +Moser knew nothing of any valuable jewellery, but it had been +remarked by the servants that the heavy trunk in the lady's +bedroom was always scrupulously locked. Marie Devine, the maid, +was as popular as her mistress. She was actually engaged to one +of the head waiters in the hotel, and there was no difficulty in +getting her address. It was 11 Rue de Trajan, Montpellier. All +this I jotted down and felt that Holmes himself could not have +been more adroit in collecting his facts. + +Only one corner still remained in the shadow. No light which I +possessed could clear up the cause for the lady's sudden +departure. She was very happy at Lausanne. There was every +reason to believe that she intended to remain for the season in +her luxurious rooms overlooking the lake. And yet she had left +at a single day's notice, which involved her in the useless +payment of a week's rent. Only Jules Vibart, the lover of the +maid, had any suggestion to offer. He connected the sudden +departure with the visit to the hotel a day or two before of a +tall, dark, bearded man. "Un sauvage--un veritable sauvage!" +cried Jules Vibart. The man had rooms somewhere in the town. He +had been seen talking earnestly to Madame on the promenade by the +lake. Then he had called. She had refused to see him. He was +English, but of his name there was no record. Madame had left +the place immediately afterwards. Jules Vibart, and, what was of +more importance, Jules Vibart's sweetheart, thought that this +call and the departure were cause and effect. Only one thing +Jules would not discuss. That was the reason why Marie had left +her mistress. Of that he could or would say nothing. If I +wished to know, I must go to Montpellier and ask her. + +So ended the first chapter of my inquiry. The second was devoted +to the place which Lady Frances Carfax had sought when she left +Lausanne. Concerning this there had been some secrecy, which +confirmed the idea that she had gone with the intention of +throwing someone off her track. Otherwise why should not her +luggage have been openly labelled for Baden? Both she and it +reached the Rhenish spa by some circuitous route. This much I +gathered from the manager of Cook's local office. So to Baden I +went, after dispatching to Holmes an account of all my +proceedings and receiving in reply a telegram of half-humorous +commendation. + +At Baden the track was not difficult to follow. Lady Frances had +stayed at the Englischer Hof for a fortnight. While there she +had made the acquaintance of a Dr. Shlessinger and his wife, a +missionary from South America. Like most lonely ladies, Lady +Frances found her comfort and occupation in religion. Dr. +Shlessinger's remarkable personality, his whole hearted devotion, +and the fact that he was recovering from a disease contracted in +the exercise of his apostolic duties affected her deeply. She +had helped Mrs. Shlessinger in the nursing of the convalescent +saint. He spent his day, as the manager described it to me, upon +a lounge-chair on the veranda, with an attendant lady upon either +side of him. He was preparing a map of the Holy Land, with +special reference to the kingdom of the Midianites, upon which he +was writing a monograph. Finally, having improved much in +health, he and his wife had returned to London, and Lady Frances +had started thither in their company. This was just three weeks +before, and the manager had heard nothing since. As to the maid, +Marie, she had gone off some days beforehand in floods of tears, +after informing the other maids that she was leaving service +forever. Dr. Shlessinger had paid the bill of the whole party +before his departure. + +"By the way," said the landlord in conclusion, "you are not the +only friend of Lady Frances Carfax who is inquiring after her +just now. Only a week or so ago we had a man here upon the same +errand." + +"Did he give a name?" I asked. + +"None; but he was an Englishman, though of an unusual type." + +"A savage?" said I, linking my facts after the fashion of my +illustrious friend. + +"Exactly. That describes him very well. He is a bulky, bearded, +sunburned fellow, who looks as if he would be more at home in a +farmers' inn than in a fashionable hotel. A hard, fierce man, I +should think, and one whom I should be sorry to offend." + +Already the mystery began to define itself, as figures grow +clearer with the lifting of a fog. Here was this good and pious +lady pursued from place to place by a sinister and unrelenting +figure. She feared him, or she would not have fled from +Lausanne. He had still followed. Sooner or later he would +overtake her. Had he already overtaken her? Was THAT the secret +of her continued silence? Could the good people who were her +companions not screen her from his violence or his blackmail? +What horrible purpose, what deep design, lay behind this long +pursuit? There was the problem which I had to solve. + +To Holmes I wrote showing how rapidly and surely I had got down +to the roots of the matter. In reply I had a telegram asking for +a description of Dr. Shlessinger's left ear. Holmes's ideas of +humour are strange and occasionally offensive, so I took no +notice of his ill-timed jest--indeed, I had already reached +Montpellier in my pursuit of the maid, Marie, before his message +came. + +I had no difficulty in finding the ex-servant and in learning all +that she could tell me. She was a devoted creature, who had only +left her mistress because she was sure that she was in good +hands, and because her own approaching marriage made a separation +inevitable in any case. Her mistress had, as she confessed with +distress, shown some irritability of temper towards her during +their stay in Baden, and had even questioned her once as if she +had suspicions of her honesty, and this had made the parting +easier than it would otherwise have been. Lady Frances had given +her fifty pounds as a wedding-present. Like me, Marie viewed +with deep distrust the stranger who had driven her mistress from +Lausanne. With her own eyes she had seen him seize the lady's +wrist with great violence on the public promenade by the lake. +He was a fierce and terrible man. She believed that it was out +of dread of him that Lady Frances had accepted the escort of the +Shlessingers to London. She had never spoken to Marie about it, +but many little signs had convinced the maid that her mistress +lived in a state of continual nervous apprehension. So far she +had got in her narrative, when suddenly she sprang from her chair +and her face was convulsed with surprise and fear. "See!" she +cried. "The miscreant follows still! There is the very man of +whom I speak." + +Through the open sitting-room window I saw a huge, swarthy man +with a bristling black beard walking slowly down the centre of +the street and staring eagerly at he numbers of the houses. It +was clear that, like myself, he was on the track of the maid. +Acting upon the impulse of the moment, I rushed out and accosted +him. + +"You are an Englishman," I said. + +"What if I am?" he asked with a most villainous scowl. + +"May I ask what your name is?" + +"No, you may not," said he with decision. + +The situation was awkward, but the most direct way is often the +best. + +"Where is the Lady Frances Carfax?" I asked. + +He stared at me with amazement. + +"What have you done with her? Why have you pursued her? I +insist upon an answer!" said I. + +The fellow gave a below of anger and sprang upon me like a tiger. +I have held my own in many a struggle, but the man had a grip of +iron and the fury of a fiend. His hand was on my throat and my +senses were nearly gone before an unshaven French ouvrier in a +blue blouse darted out from a cabaret opposite, with a cudgel in +his hand, and struck my assailant a sharp crack over the forearm, +which made him leave go his hold. He stood for an instant fuming +with rage and uncertain whether he should not renew his attack. +Then, with a snarl of anger, he left me and entered the cottage +from which I had just come. I turned to thank my preserver, who +stood beside me in the roadway. + +"Well, Watson," said he, "a very pretty hash you have made of it! +I rather think you had better come back with me to London by the +night express." + +An hour afterwards, Sherlock Holmes, in his usual garb and style, +was seated in my private room at the hotel. His explanation of +his sudden and opportune appearance was simplicity itself, for, +finding that he could get away from London, he determined to head +me off at the next obvious point of my travels. In the disguise +of a workingman he had sat in the cabaret waiting for my +appearance. + +"And a singularly consistent investigation you have made, my dear +Watson," said he. "I cannot at the moment recall any possible +blunder which you have omitted. The total effect of your +proceeding has been to give the alarm everywhere and yet to +discover nothing." + +"Perhaps you would have done no better," I answered bitterly. + +"There is no 'perhaps' about it. I HAVE done better. Here is +the Hon. Philip Green, who is a fellow-lodger with you in this +hotel, and we may find him the starting-point for a more +successful investigation." + +A card had come up on a salver, and it was followed by the same +bearded ruffian who had attacked me in the street. He started +when he saw me. + +"What is this, Mr. Holmes?" he asked. "I had your note and I +have come. But what has this man to do with the matter?" + +"This is my old friend and associate, Dr. Watson, who is helping +us in this affair." + +The stranger held out a huge, sunburned hand, with a few words of +apology. + +"I hope I didn't harm you. When you accused me of hurting her I +lost my grip of myself. Indeed, I'm not responsible in these +days. My nerves are like live wires. But this situation is +beyond me. What I want to know, in the first place, Mr. Holmes, +is, how in the world you came to hear of my existence at all." + +"I am in touch with Miss Dobney, Lady Frances's governess." + +"Old Susan Dobney with the mob cap! I remember her well." + +"And she remembers you. It was in the days before--before you +found it better to go to South Africa." + +"Ah, I see you know my whole story. I need hide nothing from +you. I swear to you, Mr. Holmes, that there never was in this +world a man who loved a woman with a more wholehearted love than +I had for Frances. I was a wild youngster, I know--not worse +than others of my class. But her mind was pure as snow. She +could not bear a shadow of coarseness. So, when she came to hear +of things that I had done, she would have no more to say to me. +And yet she loved me--that is the wonder of it!--loved me well +enough to remain single all her sainted days just for my sake +alone. When the years had passed and I had made my money at +Barberton I thought perhaps I could seek her out and soften her. +I had heard that she was still unmarried, I found her at Lausanne +and tried all I knew. She weakened, I think, but her will was +strong, and when next I called she had left the town. I traced +her to Baden, and then after a time heard that her maid was here. +I'm a rough fellow, fresh from a rough life, and when Dr. Watson +spoke to me as he did I lost hold of myself for a moment. But +for God's sake tell me what has become of the Lady Frances." + +"That is for us to find out," said Sherlock Holmes with peculiar +gravity. "What is your London address, Mr. Green?" + +"The Langham Hotel will find me." + +"Then may I recommend that you return there and be on hand in +case I should want you? I have no desire to encourage false +hopes, but you may rest assured that all that can be done will be +done for the safety of Lady Frances. I can say no more for the +instant. I will leave you this card so that you may be able to +keep in touch with us. Now, Watson, if you will pack your bag I +will cable to Mrs. Hudson to make one of her best efforts for two +hungry travellers at 7:30 to-morrow." + + +A telegram was awaiting us when we reached our Baker Street +rooms, which Holmes read with an exclamation of interest and +threw across to me. "Jagged or torn," was the message, and the +place of origin, Baden. + +"What is this?" I asked. + +"It is everything," Holmes answered. "You may remember my +seemingly irrelevant question as to this clerical gentleman's +left ear. You did not answer it." + +"I had left Baden and could not inquire." + +"Exactly. For this reason I sent a duplicate to the manager of +the Englischer Hof, whose answer lies here." + +"What does it show?" + +"It shows, my dear Watson, that we are dealing with an +exceptionally astute and dangerous man. The Rev. Dr. +Shlessinger, missionary from South America, is none other than +Holy Peters, one of the most unscrupulous rascals that Australia +has ever evolved--and for a young country it has turned out some +very finished types. His particular specialty is the beguiling +of lonely ladies by playing upon their religious feelings, and +his so-called wife, an Englishwoman named Fraser, is a worthy +helpmate. The nature of his tactics suggested his identity to +me, and this physical peculiarity--he was badly bitten in a +saloon-fight at Adelaide in '89--confirmed my suspicion. This +poor lady is in the hands of a most infernal couple, who will +stick at nothing, Watson. That she is already dead is a very +likely supposition. If not, she is undoubtedly in some sort of +confinement and unable to write to Miss Dobney or her other +friends. It is always possible that she never reached London, or +that she has passed through it, but the former is improbable, as, +with their system of registration, it is not easy for foreigners +to play tricks with the Continental police; and the latter is +also unlikely, as these rouges could not hope to find any other +place where it would be as easy to keep a person under restraint. +All my instincts tell me that she is in London, but as we have at +present no possible means of telling where, we can only take the +obvious steps, eat our dinner, and possess our souls in patience. +Later in the evening I will stroll down and have a word with +friend Lestrade at Scotland Yard." + +But neither the official police nor Holmes's own small but very +efficient organization sufficed to clear away the mystery. Amid +the crowded millions of London the three persons we sought were +as completely obliterated as if they had never lived. +Advertisements were tried, and failed. Clues were followed, and +led to nothing. Every criminal resort which Shlessinger might +frequent was drawn in vain. His old associates were watched, but +they kept clear of him. And then suddenly, after a week of +helpless suspense there came a flash of light. A silver-and- +brilliant pendant of old Spanish design had been pawned at +Bovington's, in Westminster Road. The pawner was a large, clean- +shaven man of clerical appearance. His name and address were +demonstrably false. The ear had escaped notice, but the +description was surely that of Shlessinger. + +Three times had our bearded friend from the Langham called for +news--the third time within an hour of this fresh development. +His clothes were getting looser on his great body. He seemed to +be wilting away in his anxiety. "If you will only give me +something to do!" was his constant wail. At last Holmes could +oblige him. + +"He has begun to pawn the jewels. We should get him now." + +"But does this mean that any harm has befallen the Lady Frances?" + +Holmes shook his head very gravely. + +"Supposing that they have held her prisoner up to now, it is +clear that they cannot let her loose without their own +destruction. We must prepare for the worst." + +"What can I do?" + +"These people do not know you by sight?" + +"No." + +"It is possible that he will go to some other pawnbroker in the +future. in that case, we must begin again. On the other hand, +he has had a fair price and no questions asked, so if he is in +need of ready-money he will probably come back to Bovington's. I +will give you a note to them, and they will let you wait in the +shop. If the fellow comes you will follow him home. But no +indiscretion, and, above all, no violence. I put you on your +honour that you will take no step without my knowledge and +consent." + +For two days the Hon. Philip Green (he was, I may mention, the +son of the famous admiral of that name who commanded the Sea of +Azof fleet in the Crimean War) brought us no news. On the +evening of the third he rushed into our sitting-room, pale, +trembling, with every muscle of his powerful frame quivering with +excitement. + +"We have him! We have him!" he cried. + +He was incoherent in his agitation. Holmes soothed him with a +few words and thrust him into an armchair. + +"Come, now, give us the order of events," said he. + +"She came only an hour ago. It was the wife, this time, but the +pendant she brought was the fellow of the other. She is a tall, +pale woman, with ferret eyes." + +"That is the lady," said Holmes. + +"She left the office and I followed her. She walked up the +Kennington Road, and I kept behind her. Presently she went into +a shop. Mr. Holmes, it was an undertaker's." + +My companion started. "Well?" he asked in that vibrant voice +which told of the fiery soul behind the cold gray face. + +"She was talking to the woman behind the counter. I entered as +well. 'It is late,' I heard her say, or words to that effect. +The woman was excusing herself. 'It should be there before now,' +she answered. 'It took longer, being out of the ordinary.' They +both stopped and looked at me, so I asked some questions and then +left the shop." + +"You did excellently well. What happened next?" + +"The woman came out, but I had hid myself in a doorway. Her +suspicions had been aroused, I think, for she looked round her. +Then she called a cab and got in. I was lucky enough to get +another and so to follow her. She got down at last at No. 36, +Poultney Square, Brixton. I drove past, left my cab at the +corner of the square, and watched the house." + +"Did you see anyone?" + +"The windows were all in darkness save one on the lower floor. +The blind was down, and I could not see in. I was standing +there, wondering what I should do next, when a covered van drove +up with two men in it. They descended, took something out of the +van, and carried it up the steps to the hall door. Mr. Holmes, +it was a coffin." + +"Ah!" + +"For an instant I was on the point of rushing in. The door had +been opened to admit the men and their burden. It was the woman +who had opened it. But as I stood there she caught a glimpse of +me, and I think that she recognized me. I saw her start, and she +hastily closed the door. I remembered my promise to you, and here +I am." + +"You have done excellent work," said Holmes, scribbling a few +words upon a half-sheet of paper. "We can do nothing legal +without a warrant, and you can serve the cause best by taking +this note down to the authorities and getting one. There may be +some difficulty, but I should think that the sale of the +jewellery should be sufficient. Lestrade will see to all +details." + +"But they may murder her in the meanwhile. What could the coffin +mean, and for whom could it be but for her?" + +"We will do all that can be done, Mr. Green. Not a moment will +be lost. Leave it in our hands. Now Watson," he added as our +client hurried away, "he will set the regular forces on the move. +We are, as usual, the irregulars, and we must take our own line +of action. The situation strikes me as so desperate that the +most extreme measures are justified. Not a moment is to be lost +in getting to Poultney Square. + +"Let us try to reconstruct the situation," said he as we drove +swiftly past the Houses of Parliament and over Westminster +Bridge. "These villains have coaxed this unhappy lady to London, +after first alienating her from her faithful maid. If she has +written any letters they have been intercepted. Through some +confederate they have engaged a furnished house. Once inside it, +they have made her a prisoner, and they have become possessed of +the valuable jewellery which has been their object from the +first. Already they have begun to sell part of it, which seems +safe enough to them, since they have no reason to think that +anyone is interested in the lady's fate. When she is released +she will, of course, denounce them. Therefore, she must not be +released. But they cannot keep her under lock and key forever. +So murder is their only solution." + +"That seems very clear." + +"Now we will take another line of reasoning. When you follow two +deparate chains of thought, Watson, you will find some point of +intersection which should approximate to the truth. We will +start now, not from the lady but from the coffin and argue +backward. That incident proves, I fear, beyond all doubt that +the lady is dead. It points also to an orthodox burial with +proper accompaniment of medical certificate and official +sanction. Had the lady been obviously murdered, they would have +buried her in a hole in the back garden. But here all is open +and regular. What does this mean? Surely that they have done +her to death in some way which has deceived the doctor and +simulated a natural end--poisoning, perhaps. And yet how strange +that they should ever let a doctor approach her unless he were a +confederate, which is hardly a credible proposition." + +"Could they have forged a medical certificate?" + +"Dangerous, Watson, very dangerous. No, I hardly see them doing +that. Pull up, cabby! This is evidently the undertaker's, for +we have just passed the pawnbroker's. Would go in, Watson? Your +appearance inspires confidence. Ask what hour the Poultney +Square funeral takes place to-morrow." + +The woman in the shop answered me without hesitation that it was +to be at eight o'clock in the morning. "You see, Watson, no +mystery; everything above-board! In some way the legal forms +have undoubtedly been complied with, and they think that they +have little to fear. Well, there's nothing for it now but a +direct frontal attack. Are you armed?" + +"My stick!" + +"Well, well, we shall be strong enough. 'Thrice is he armed who +hath his quarrel just.' We simply can't afford to wait for the +police or to keep within the four corners of the law. You can +drive off, cabby. Now, Watson, we'll just take our luck +together, as we have occasionally in the past." + +He had rung loudly at the door of a great dark house in the +centre of Poultney Square. It was opened immediately, and the +figure of a tall woman was outlined against the dim-lit hall. + +"Well, what do you want?" she asked sharply, peering at us +through the darkness. + +"I want to speak to Dr. Shlessinger," said Holmes. + +"There is no such person here," she answered, and tried to close +the door, but Holmes had jammed it with his foot. + +"Well, I want to see the man who lives here, whatever he may call +himself," said Holmes firmly. + +She hesitated. Then she threw open the door. "Well, come in!" +said she. "My husband is not afraid to face any man in the +world." She closed the door behind us and showed us into a +sitting-room on the right side of the hall, turning up the gas as +she left us. "Mr. Peters will be with you in an instant," she +said. + +Her words were literally true, for we had hardly time to look +around the dusty and moth-eaten apartment in which we found +ourselves before the door opened and a big, clean-shaven bald- +headed man stepped lightly into the room. He had a large red +face, with pendulous cheeks, and a general air of superficial +benevolence which was marred by a cruel, vicious mouth. + +"There is surely some mistake here, gentlemen," he said in an +unctuous, make-everything-easy voice. "I fancy that you have +been misdirected. Possibly if you tried farther down the street- +-" + +"That will do; we have no time to waste," said my companion +firmly. "You are Henry Peters, of Adelaide, late the Rev. Dr. +Shlessinger, of Baden and South America. I am as sure of that as +that my own name is Sherlock Holmes." + +Peters, as I will now call him, started and stared hard at his +formidable pursuer. "I guess your name does not frighten me, Mr. +Holmes," said he coolly. "When a man's conscience is easy you +can't rattle him. What is your business in my house?" + +"I want to know what you have done with the Lady Frances Carfax, +whom you brought away with you from Baden." + +"I'd be very glad if you could tell me where that lady may be," +Peters answered coolly. "I've a bill against her for a nearly a +hundred pounds, and nothing to show for it but a couple of +trumpery pendants that the dealer would hardly look at. She +attached herself to Mrs. Peters and me at Baden--it is a fact +that I was using another name at the time--and she stuck on to us +until we came to London. I paid her bill and her ticket. Once +in London, she gave us the slip, and, as I say, left these out- +of-date jewels to pay her bills. You find her, Mr. Holmes, and +I'm your debtor." + +In MEAN to find her," said Sherlock Holmes. "I'm going through +this house till I do find her." + +"Where is your warrant?" + +Holmes half drew a revolver from his pocket. "This will have to +serve till a better one comes." + +"Why, you're a common burglar." + +"So you might describe me," said Holmes cheerfully. "My +companion is also a dangerous ruffian. And together we are going +through your house." + +Our opponent opened the door. + +"Fetch a policeman, Annie!" said he. There was a whisk of +feminine skirts down the passage, and the hall door was opened +and shut. + +"Our time is limited, Watson," said Holmes. "If you try to stop +us, Peters, you will most certainly get hurt. Where is that +coffin which was brought into your house?" + +"What do you want with the coffin? It is in use. There is a +body in it." + +"I must see the body." + +"Never with my consent." + +"Then without it." With a quick movement Holmes pushed the +fellow to one side and passed into the hall. A door half opened +stood immediately before us. We entered. It was the dining- +room. On the table, under a half-lit chandelier, the coffin was +lying. Holmes turned up the gas and raised the lid. Deep down +in the recesses of the coffin lay an emaciated figure. The glare +from the lights above beat down upon an aged and withered face. +By no possible process of cruelty, starvation, or disease could +this wornout wreck be the still beautiful Lady Frances. Holmes's +face showed his amazement, and also his relief. + +"Thank God!" he muttered. "It's someone else." + +"Ah, you've blundered badly for once, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said +Peters, who had followed us into the room. + +"Who is the dead woman?" + +"Well, if you really must know, she is an old nurse of my wife's, +Rose Spender by name, whom we found in the Brixton Workhouse +Infirmary. We brought her round here, called in Dr. Horsom, of +13 Firbank Villas--mind you take the address, Mr. Holmes--and had +her carefully tended, as Christian folk should. On the third day +she died--certificate says senile decay--but that's only the +doctor's opinion, and of course you know better. We ordered her +funeral to be carried out by Stimson and Co., of the Kennington +Road, who will bury her at eight o'clock to-morrow morning. Can +you pick any hole in that, Mr. Holmes? You've made a silly +blunder, and you may as well own up to it. I'd give something +for a photograph of your gaping, staring face when you pulled +aside that lid expecting to see the Lady Frances Carfax and only +found a poor old woman of ninety." + +Holmes's expression was as impassive as ever under the jeers of +his antagonist, but his clenched hands betrayed his acute +annoyance. + +"I am going through your house," said he. + +"Are you, though!" cried Peters as a woman's voice and heavy +steps sounded in the passage. "We'll soon see about that. This +way, officers, if you please. These men have forced their way +into my house, and I cannot get rid of them. Help me to put them +out." + +A sergeant and a constable stood in the doorway. Holmes drew his +card from his case. + +"This is my name and address. This is my friend, Dr. Watson." + +"Bless you, sir, we know you very well," said the sergeant, "but +you can't stay here without a warrant." + +"Of course not. I quite understand that." + +"Arrest him!" cried Peters. + +"We know where to lay our hands on this gentleman if he is +wanted," said the sergeant majestically, "but you'll have to go, +Mr. Holmes." + +"Yes, Watson, we shall have to go." + +A minute later we were in the street once more. Holmes was as +cool as ever, but I was hot with anger and humiliation. The +sergeant had followed us. + +"Sorry, Mr. Holmes, but that's the law." + +"Exactly, Sergeant, you could not do otherwise." + +"I expect there was good reason for your presence there. If +there is anything I can do--" + +"It's a missing lady, Sergeant, and we think she is in that +house. I expect a warrant presently." + +"Then I'll keep my eye on the parties, Mr. Holmes. If anything +comes along, I will surely let you know." + +It was only nine o'clock, and we were off full cry upon the trail +at once. First we drove to Brixton Workhoused Infirmary, where +we found that it was indeed the truth that a charitable couple +had called some days before, that they had claimed an imbecile +old woman as a former servant, and that they had obtained +permission to take her away with them. No surprise was expressed +at the news that she had since died. + +The doctor was our next goal. He had been called in, had found +the woman dying of pure senility, had actually seen her pass +away, and had signed the certificate in due form. "I assure you +that everything was perfectly normal and there was no room for +foul play in the matter," said he. Nothing in the house had +struck him as suspicious save that for people of their class it +was remarkable that they should have no servant. So far and no +further went the doctor. + +Finally we found our way to Scotland Yard. There had been +difficulties of procedure in regard to the warrant. Some delay +was inevitable. The magistrate's signature might not be obtained +until next morning. If Holmes would call about nine he could go +down with Lestrade and see it acted upon. So ended the day, save +that near midnight our friend, the sergeant, called to say that +he had seen flickering lights here and there in the windows of +the great dark house, but that no one had left it and none had +entered. We could but pray for patience and wait for the morrow. + +Sherlock Holmes was too irritable for conversation and too +restless for sleep. I left him smoking hard, with his heavy, +dark brows knotted together, and his long, nervous fingers +tapping upon the arms of his chair, as he turned over in his mind +every possible solution of the mystery. Several times in the +course of the night I heard him prowling about the house. +Finally, just after I had been called in the morning, he rushed +into my room. He was in his dressing-gown, but his pale, hollow- +eyed face told me that his night had been a sleepless one. + +"What time was the funeral? Eight, was it not?" he asked +eagerly. "Well, it is 7:20 now. Good heavens, Watson, what has +become of any brains that God has given me? Quick, man, quick! +It's life or death--a hundred chances on death to one on life. +I'll never forgive myself, never, if we are too late!" + +Five minutes had not passed before we were flying in a hansom +down Baker Street. But even so it was twenty-five to eight as we +passed Big Ben, and eight struck as we tore down the Brixton +Road. But others were late as well as we. Ten minutes after the +hour the hearse was still standing at the door of the house, and +even as our foaming horse came to a halt the coffin, supported by +three men, appeared on the threshold. Holmes darted forward and +barred their way. + +"Take it back!" he cried, laying his hand on the breast of the +foremost. "Take it back this instant!" + +"What the devil do you mean? Once again I ask you, where is your +warrant?" shouted the furious Peters, his big red face glaring +over the farther end of the coffin. + +"The warrant is on its way. The coffin shall remain in the house +until it comes." + +The authority in Holmes's voice had its effect upon the bearers. +Peters had suddenly vanished into the house, and they obeyed +these new orders. "Quick, Watson, quick! Here is a screw- +driver!" he shouted as the coffin was replaced upon the table. +"Here's one for you, my man! A sovreign if the lid comes off in +a minute! Ask no questions--work away! That's good! Another! +And another! Now pull all together! It's giving! It's giving! +Ah, that does it at last." + +With a united effort we tore off the coffin-lid. As we did so +there came from the inside a stupefying and overpowering smell of +chloroform. A body lay within, its head all wreathed in cotton- +wool, which had been soaked in the narcotic. Holmes plucked it +off and disclosed the statuesque face of a handsome and spiritual +woman of middle age. In an instant he had passed his arm round +the figure and raised her to a sitting position. + +"Is she gone, Watson? Is there a spark left? Surely we are not +too late!" + +For half an hour it seemed that we were. What with actual +suffocation, and what with the poisonous fumes of the chloroform, +the Lady Frances seemed to have passed the last point of recall. +And then, at last, with artificial respiration, with injected +ether, and with every device that science could suggest, some +flutter of life, some quiver of the eyelids, some dimming of a +mirror, spoke of the slowly returning life. A cab had driven up, +and Holmes, parting the blind, looked out at it. "Here is +Lestrade with his warrant," said he. "He will find that his +birds have flown. And here," he added as a heavy step hurried +along the passage, "is someone who has a better right to nurse +this lady than we have. Good morning, Mr. Green; I think that +the sooner we can move the Lady Frances the better. Meanwhile, +the funeral may proceed, and the poor old woman who still lies in +that coffin may go to her last resting-place alone." + +"Should you care to add the case to your annals, my dear Watson," +said Holmes that evening, "it can only be as an example of that +temporary eclipse to which even the best-balanced mind may be +exposed. Such slips are common to all mortals, and the greatest +is he who can recognize and repair them. To this modified credit +I may, perhaps, make some claim. My night was haunted by the +thought that somewhere a clue, a strange sentence, a curious +observation, had come under my notice and had been too easily +dismissed. Then, suddenly, in the gray of the morning, the words +came back to me. It was the remark of the undertaker's wife, as +reported by Philip Green. She had said, 'It should be there +before now. It took longer, being out of the ordinary.' It was +the coffin of which she spoke. It had been out of the ordinary. +That could only mean that it had been made to some special +measurement. But why? Why? Then in an instant I remembered the +deep sides, and the little wasted figure at the bottom. Why so +large a coffin for so small a body? To leave room for another +body. Both would be buried under the one certificate. It had all +been so clear, if only my own sight had not been dimmed. At +eight the Lady Frances would be buried. Our one chance was to +stop the coffin before it left the house. + +"It was a desperate chance that we might find her alive, but it +WAS a chance, as the result showed. These people had never, to +my knowledge, done a murder. They might shrink from actual +violence at the last. The could bury her with no sign of how she +met her end, and even if she were exhumed there was a chance for +them. I hoped that such considerations might prevail with them. +You can reconstruct the scene well enough. You saw the horrible +den upstairs, where the poor lady had been kept so long. They +rushed in and overpowered her with their chloroform, carried her +down, poured more into the coffin to insure against her waking, +and then screwed down the lid. A clever device, Watson. It is +new to me in the annals of crime. If our ex-missionary friends +escape the clutches of Lestrade, I shall expect to hear of some +brilliant incidents in their future career." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax + diff --git a/old/lcrfx10.zip b/old/lcrfx10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4c1267 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lcrfx10.zip |