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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/2349-h.zip b/2349-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d72f6d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/2349-h.zip diff --git a/2349-h/2349-h.htm b/2349-h/2349-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b2278d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/2349-h/2349-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1860 @@ +<!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 Adventure of the Devil's Foot, 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> + +Project Gutenberg's The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, 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 Adventure of the Devil's Foot + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Posting Date: October 23, 2008 [EBook #2349] +Release Date: October, 2000 +[Last updated: December 24, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL'S FOOT *** + + + + +Produced by David Brannan. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +The Adventure of the Devil's Foot +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Sir Arthur Conan Doyle +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P> +In recording from time to time some of the curious experiences and +interesting recollections which I associate with my long and intimate +friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have continually been faced by +difficulties caused by his own aversion to publicity. To his sombre +and cynical spirit all popular applause was always abhorrent, and +nothing amused him more at the end of a successful case than to hand +over the actual exposure to some orthodox official, and to listen with +a mocking smile to the general chorus of misplaced congratulation. It +was indeed this attitude upon the part of my friend and certainly not +any lack of interesting material which has caused me of late years to +lay very few of my records before the public. My participation in some +of his adventures was always a privilege which entailed discretion and +reticence upon me. +</P> + +<P> +It was, then, with considerable surprise that I received a telegram +from Holmes last Tuesday--he has never been known to write where a +telegram would serve--in the following terms: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Why not tell them of the Cornish horror--strangest case I have handled. +</P> + +<P> +I have no idea what backward sweep of memory had brought the matter +fresh to his mind, or what freak had caused him to desire that I should +recount it; but I hasten, before another cancelling telegram may +arrive, to hunt out the notes which give me the exact details of the +case and to lay the narrative before my readers. +</P> + +<P> +It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmes's iron +constitution showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of constant +hard work of a most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, by occasional +indiscretions of his own. In March of that year Dr. Moore Agar, of +Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction to Holmes I may some day +recount, gave positive injunctions that the famous private agent lay +aside all his cases and surrender himself to complete rest if he wished +to avert an absolute breakdown. The state of his health was not a +matter in which he himself took the faintest interest, for his mental +detachment was absolute, but he was induced at last, on the threat of +being permanently disqualified from work, to give himself a complete +change of scene and air. Thus it was that in the early spring of that +year we found ourselves together in a small cottage near Poldhu Bay, at +the further extremity of the Cornish peninsula. +</P> + +<P> +It was a singular spot, and one peculiarly well suited to the grim +humour of my patient. From the windows of our little whitewashed +house, which stood high upon a grassy headland, we looked down upon the +whole sinister semicircle of Mounts Bay, that old death trap of sailing +vessels, with its fringe of black cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which +innumerable seamen have met their end. With a northerly breeze it lies +placid and sheltered, inviting the storm-tossed craft to tack into it +for rest and protection. +</P> + +<P> +Then come the sudden swirl round of the wind, the blistering gale from +the south-west, the dragging anchor, the lee shore, and the last battle +in the creaming breakers. The wise mariner stands far out from that +evil place. +</P> + +<P> +On the land side our surroundings were as sombre as on the sea. It was +a country of rolling moors, lonely and dun-colored, with an occasional +church tower to mark the site of some old-world village. In every +direction upon these moors there were traces of some vanished race +which had passed utterly away, and left as its sole record strange +monuments of stone, irregular mounds which contained the burned ashes +of the dead, and curious earthworks which hinted at prehistoric strife. +The glamour and mystery of the place, with its sinister atmosphere of +forgotten nations, appealed to the imagination of my friend, and he +spent much of his time in long walks and solitary meditations upon the +moor. The ancient Cornish language had also arrested his attention, and +he had, I remember, conceived the idea that it was akin to the +Chaldean, and had been largely derived from the Phoenician traders in +tin. He had received a consignment of books upon philology and was +settling down to develop this thesis when suddenly, to my sorrow and to +his unfeigned delight, we found ourselves, even in that land of dreams, +plunged into a problem at our very doors which was more intense, more +engrossing, and infinitely more mysterious than any of those which had +driven us from London. Our simple life and peaceful, healthy routine +were violently interrupted, and we were precipitated into the midst of +a series of events which caused the utmost excitement not only in +Cornwall but throughout the whole west of England. Many of my readers +may retain some recollection of what was called at the time "The +Cornish Horror," though a most imperfect account of the matter reached +the London press. Now, after thirteen years, I will give the true +details of this inconceivable affair to the public. +</P> + +<P> +I have said that scattered towers marked the villages which dotted this +part of Cornwall. The nearest of these was the hamlet of Tredannick +Wollas, where the cottages of a couple of hundred inhabitants clustered +round an ancient, moss-grown church. The vicar of the parish, Mr. +Roundhay, was something of an archaeologist, and as such Holmes had +made his acquaintance. He was a middle-aged man, portly and affable, +with a considerable fund of local lore. At his invitation we had taken +tea at the vicarage and had come to know, also, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, +an independent gentleman, who increased the clergyman's scanty +resources by taking rooms in his large, straggling house. The vicar, +being a bachelor, was glad to come to such an arrangement, though he +had little in common with his lodger, who was a thin, dark, spectacled +man, with a stoop which gave the impression of actual, physical +deformity. I remember that during our short visit we found the vicar +garrulous, but his lodger strangely reticent, a sad-faced, +introspective man, sitting with averted eyes, brooding apparently upon +his own affairs. +</P> + +<P> +These were the two men who entered abruptly into our little +sitting-room on Tuesday, March the 16th, shortly after our breakfast +hour, as we were smoking together, preparatory to our daily excursion +upon the moors. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Holmes," said the vicar in an agitated voice, "the most +extraordinary and tragic affair has occurred during the night. It is +the most unheard-of business. We can only regard it as a special +Providence that you should chance to be here at the time, for in all +England you are the one man we need." +</P> + +<P> +I glared at the intrusive vicar with no very friendly eyes; but Holmes +took his pipe from his lips and sat up in his chair like an old hound +who hears the view-halloa. He waved his hand to the sofa, and our +palpitating visitor with his agitated companion sat side by side upon +it. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis was more self-contained than the clergyman, +but the twitching of his thin hands and the brightness of his dark eyes +showed that they shared a common emotion. +</P> + +<P> +"Shall I speak or you?" he asked of the vicar. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, as you seem to have made the discovery, whatever it may be, and +the vicar to have had it second-hand, perhaps you had better do the +speaking," said Holmes. +</P> + +<P> +I glanced at the hastily clad clergyman, with the formally dressed +lodger seated beside him, and was amused at the surprise which Holmes's +simple deduction had brought to their faces. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps I had best say a few words first," said the vicar, "and then +you can judge if you will listen to the details from Mr. Tregennis, or +whether we should not hasten at once to the scene of this mysterious +affair. I may explain, then, that our friend here spent last evening +in the company of his two brothers, Owen and George, and of his sister +Brenda, at their house of Tredannick Wartha, which is near the old +stone cross upon the moor. He left them shortly after ten o'clock, +playing cards round the dining-room table, in excellent health and +spirits. This morning, being an early riser, he walked in that +direction before breakfast and was overtaken by the carriage of Dr. +Richards, who explained that he had just been sent for on a most urgent +call to Tredannick Wartha. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis naturally went with +him. When he arrived at Tredannick Wartha he found an extraordinary +state of things. His two brothers and his sister were seated round the +table exactly as he had left them, the cards still spread in front of +them and the candles burned down to their sockets. The sister lay back +stone-dead in her chair, while the two brothers sat on each side of her +laughing, shouting, and singing, the senses stricken clean out of them. +All three of them, the dead woman and the two demented men, retained +upon their faces an expression of the utmost horror--a convulsion of +terror which was dreadful to look upon. There was no sign of the +presence of anyone in the house, except Mrs. Porter, the old cook and +housekeeper, who declared that she had slept deeply and heard no sound +during the night. Nothing had been stolen or disarranged, and there is +absolutely no explanation of what the horror can be which has +frightened a woman to death and two strong men out of their senses. +There is the situation, Mr. Holmes, in a nutshell, and if you can help +us to clear it up you will have done a great work." +</P> + +<P> +I had hoped that in some way I could coax my companion back into the +quiet which had been the object of our journey; but one glance at his +intense face and contracted eyebrows told me how vain was now the +expectation. He sat for some little time in silence, absorbed in the +strange drama which had broken in upon our peace. +</P> + +<P> +"I will look into this matter," he said at last. "On the face of it, +it would appear to be a case of a very exceptional nature. Have you +been there yourself, Mr. Roundhay?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, Mr. Holmes. Mr. Tregennis brought back the account to the +vicarage, and I at once hurried over with him to consult you." +</P> + +<P> +"How far is it to the house where this singular tragedy occurred?" +</P> + +<P> +"About a mile inland." +</P> + +<P> +"Then we shall walk over together. But before we start I must ask you +a few questions, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis." +</P> + +<P> +The other had been silent all this time, but I had observed that his +more controlled excitement was even greater than the obtrusive emotion +of the clergyman. He sat with a pale, drawn face, his anxious gaze +fixed upon Holmes, and his thin hands clasped convulsively together. +His pale lips quivered as he listened to the dreadful experience which +had befallen his family, and his dark eyes seemed to reflect something +of the horror of the scene. +</P> + +<P> +"Ask what you like, Mr. Holmes," said he eagerly. "It is a bad thing +to speak of, but I will answer you the truth." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me about last night." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Mr. Holmes, I supped there, as the vicar has said, and my elder +brother George proposed a game of whist afterwards. We sat down about +nine o'clock. It was a quarter-past ten when I moved to go. I left +them all round the table, as merry as could be." +</P> + +<P> +"Who let you out?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Porter had gone to bed, so I let myself out. I shut the hall +door behind me. The window of the room in which they sat was closed, +but the blind was not drawn down. There was no change in door or +window this morning, or any reason to think that any stranger had been +to the house. Yet there they sat, driven clean mad with terror, and +Brenda lying dead of fright, with her head hanging over the arm of the +chair. I'll never get the sight of that room out of my mind so long as +I live." +</P> + +<P> +"The facts, as you state them, are certainly most remarkable," said +Holmes. "I take it that you have no theory yourself which can in any +way account for them?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's devilish, Mr. Holmes, devilish!" cried Mortimer Tregennis. "It is +not of this world. Something has come into that room which has dashed +the light of reason from their minds. What human contrivance could do +that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I fear," said Holmes, "that if the matter is beyond humanity it is +certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations +before we fall back upon such a theory as this. As to yourself, Mr. +Tregennis, I take it you were divided in some way from your family, +since they lived together and you had rooms apart?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is so, Mr. Holmes, though the matter is past and done with. We +were a family of tin-miners at Redruth, but we sold our venture to a +company, and so retired with enough to keep us. I won't deny that +there was some feeling about the division of the money and it stood +between us for a time, but it was all forgiven and forgotten, and we +were the best of friends together." +</P> + +<P> +"Looking back at the evening which you spent together, does anything +stand out in your memory as throwing any possible light upon the +tragedy? Think carefully, Mr. Tregennis, for any clue which can help +me." +</P> + +<P> +"There is nothing at all, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"Your people were in their usual spirits?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never better." +</P> + +<P> +"Were they nervous people? Did they ever show any apprehension of +coming danger?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing of the kind." +</P> + +<P> +"You have nothing to add then, which could assist me?" +</P> + +<P> +Mortimer Tregennis considered earnestly for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"There is one thing occurs to me," said he at last. "As we sat at the +table my back was to the window, and my brother George, he being my +partner at cards, was facing it. I saw him once look hard over my +shoulder, so I turned round and looked also. The blind was up and the +window shut, but I could just make out the bushes on the lawn, and it +seemed to me for a moment that I saw something moving among them. I +couldn't even say if it was man or animal, but I just thought there was +something there. When I asked him what he was looking at, he told me +that he had the same feeling. That is all that I can say." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you not investigate?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; the matter passed as unimportant." +</P> + +<P> +"You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?" +</P> + +<P> +"None at all." +</P> + +<P> +"I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"I am an early riser and generally take a walk before breakfast. This +morning I had hardly started when the doctor in his carriage overtook +me. He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down with an urgent +message. I sprang in beside him and we drove on. When we got there we +looked into that dreadful room. The candles and the fire must have +burned out hours before, and they had been sitting there in the dark +until dawn had broken. The doctor said Brenda must have been dead at +least six hours. There were no signs of violence. She just lay across +the arm of the chair with that look on her face. George and Owen were +singing snatches of songs and gibbering like two great apes. Oh, it +was awful to see! I couldn't stand it, and the doctor was as white as +a sheet. Indeed, he fell into a chair in a sort of faint, and we +nearly had him on our hands as well." +</P> + +<P> +"Remarkable--most remarkable!" said Holmes, rising and taking his hat. +"I think, perhaps, we had better go down to Tredannick Wartha without +further delay. I confess that I have seldom known a case which at +first sight presented a more singular problem." +</P> + +<p> </p> + +<P> +Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the +investigation. It was marked, however, at the outset by an incident +which left the most sinister impression upon my mind. The approach to +the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a narrow, winding, +country lane. While we made our way along it we heard the rattle of a +carriage coming towards us and stood aside to let it pass. As it drove +by us I caught a glimpse through the closed window of a horribly +contorted, grinning face glaring out at us. Those staring eyes and +gnashing teeth flashed past us like a dreadful vision. +</P> + +<P> +"My brothers!" cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips. "They are +taking them to Helston." +</P> + +<P> +We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering upon its way. +Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house in which they +had met their strange fate. +</P> + +<P> +It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a cottage, with +a considerable garden which was already, in that Cornish air, well +filled with spring flowers. Towards this garden the window of the +sitting-room fronted, and from it, according to Mortimer Tregennis, +must have come that thing of evil which had by sheer horror in a single +instant blasted their minds. Holmes walked slowly and thoughtfully +among the flower-plots and along the path before we entered the porch. +So absorbed was he in his thoughts, I remember, that he stumbled over +the watering-pot, upset its contents, and deluged both our feet and the +garden path. Inside the house we were met by the elderly Cornish +housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the aid of a young girl, looked +after the wants of the family. She readily answered all Holmes's +questions. She had heard nothing in the night. Her employers had all +been in excellent spirits lately, and she had never known them more +cheerful and prosperous. She had fainted with horror upon entering the +room in the morning and seeing that dreadful company round the table. +She had, when she recovered, thrown open the window to let the morning +air in, and had run down to the lane, whence she sent a farm-lad for +the doctor. The lady was on her bed upstairs if we cared to see her. +It took four strong men to get the brothers into the asylum carriage. +She would not herself stay in the house another day and was starting +that very afternoon to rejoin her family at St. Ives. +</P> + +<P> +We ascended the stairs and viewed the body. Miss Brenda Tregennis had +been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon middle age. Her +dark, clear-cut face was handsome, even in death, but there still +lingered upon it something of that convulsion of horror which had been +her last human emotion. From her bedroom we descended to the +sitting-room, where this strange tragedy had actually occurred. The +charred ashes of the overnight fire lay in the grate. On the table +were the four guttered and burned-out candles, with the cards scattered +over its surface. The chairs had been moved back against the walls, +but all else was as it had been the night before. Holmes paced with +light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various chairs, +drawing them up and reconstructing their positions. He tested how much +of the garden was visible; he examined the floor, the ceiling, and the +fireplace; but never once did I see that sudden brightening of his eyes +and tightening of his lips which would have told me that he saw some +gleam of light in this utter darkness. +</P> + +<P> +"Why a fire?" he asked once. "Had they always a fire in this small +room on a spring evening?" +</P> + +<P> +Mortimer Tregennis explained that the night was cold and damp. For that +reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit. "What are you going to do +now, Mr. Holmes?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm. "I think, Watson, that +I shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning which you have so often +and so justly condemned," said he. "With your permission, gentlemen, +we will now return to our cottage, for I am not aware that any new +factor is likely to come to our notice here. I will turn the facts +over in my mind, Mr. Tregennis, and should anything occur to me I will +certainly communicate with you and the vicar. In the meantime I wish +you both good-morning." +</P> + +<P> +It was not until long after we were back in Poldhu Cottage that Holmes +broke his complete and absorbed silence. He sat coiled in his +armchair, his haggard and ascetic face hardly visible amid the blue +swirl of his tobacco smoke, his black brows drawn down, his forehead +contracted, his eyes vacant and far away. Finally he laid down his +pipe and sprang to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"It won't do, Watson!" said he with a laugh. "Let us walk along the +cliffs together and search for flint arrows. We are more likely to +find them than clues to this problem. To let the brain work without +sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to +pieces. The sea air, sunshine, and patience, Watson--all else will +come. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, let us calmly define our position, Watson," he continued as we +skirted the cliffs together. "Let us get a firm grip of the very +little which we DO know, so that when fresh facts arise we may be ready +to fit them into their places. I take it, in the first place, that +neither of us is prepared to admit diabolical intrusions into the +affairs of men. Let us begin by ruling that entirely out of our minds. +Very good. There remain three persons who have been grievously +stricken by some conscious or unconscious human agency. That is firm +ground. Now, when did this occur? Evidently, assuming his narrative +to be true, it was immediately after Mr. Mortimer Tregennis had left +the room. That is a very important point. The presumption is that it +was within a few minutes afterwards. The cards still lay upon the +table. It was already past their usual hour for bed. Yet they had not +changed their position or pushed back their chairs. I repeat, then, +that the occurrence was immediately after his departure, and not later +than eleven o'clock last night. +</P> + +<P> +"Our next obvious step is to check, so far as we can, the movements of +Mortimer Tregennis after he left the room. In this there is no +difficulty, and they seem to be above suspicion. Knowing my methods as +you do, you were, of course, conscious of the somewhat clumsy water-pot +expedient by which I obtained a clearer impress of his foot than might +otherwise have been possible. The wet, sandy path took it admirably. +Last night was also wet, you will remember, and it was not +difficult--having obtained a sample print--to pick out his track among +others and to follow his movements. He appears to have walked away +swiftly in the direction of the vicarage. +</P> + +<P> +"If, then, Mortimer Tregennis disappeared from the scene, and yet some +outside person affected the card-players, how can we reconstruct that +person, and how was such an impression of horror conveyed? Mrs. Porter +may be eliminated. She is evidently harmless. Is there any evidence +that someone crept up to the garden window and in some manner produced +so terrific an effect that he drove those who saw it out of their +senses? The only suggestion in this direction comes from Mortimer +Tregennis himself, who says that his brother spoke about some movement +in the garden. That is certainly remarkable, as the night was rainy, +cloudy, and dark. Anyone who had the design to alarm these people +would be compelled to place his very face against the glass before he +could be seen. There is a three-foot flower-border outside this +window, but no indication of a footmark. It is difficult to imagine, +then, how an outsider could have made so terrible an impression upon +the company, nor have we found any possible motive for so strange and +elaborate an attempt. You perceive our difficulties, Watson?" +</P> + +<P> +"They are only too clear," I answered with conviction. +</P> + +<P> +"And yet, with a little more material, we may prove that they are not +insurmountable," said Holmes. "I fancy that among your extensive +archives, Watson, you may find some which were nearly as obscure. +Meanwhile, we shall put the case aside until more accurate data are +available, and devote the rest of our morning to the pursuit of +neolithic man." +</P> + +<P> +I may have commented upon my friend's power of mental detachment, but +never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring morning in +Cornwall when for two hours he discoursed upon celts, arrowheads, and +shards, as lightly as if no sinister mystery were waiting for his +solution. It was not until we had returned in the afternoon to our +cottage that we found a visitor awaiting us, who soon brought our minds +back to the matter in hand. Neither of us needed to be told who that +visitor was. The huge body, the craggy and deeply seamed face with the +fierce eyes and hawk-like nose, the grizzled hair which nearly brushed +our cottage ceiling, the beard--golden at the fringes and white near +the lips, save for the nicotine stain from his perpetual cigar--all +these were as well known in London as in Africa, and could only be +associated with the tremendous personality of Dr. Leon Sterndale, the +great lion-hunter and explorer. +</P> + +<P> +We had heard of his presence in the district and had once or twice +caught sight of his tall figure upon the moorland paths. He made no +advances to us, however, nor would we have dreamed of doing so to him, +as it was well known that it was his love of seclusion which caused him +to spend the greater part of the intervals between his journeys in a +small bungalow buried in the lonely wood of Beauchamp Arriance. Here, +amid his books and his maps, he lived an absolutely lonely life, +attending to his own simple wants and paying little apparent heed to +the affairs of his neighbours. It was a surprise to me, therefore, to +hear him asking Holmes in an eager voice whether he had made any +advance in his reconstruction of this mysterious episode. "The county +police are utterly at fault," said he, "but perhaps your wider +experience has suggested some conceivable explanation. My only claim +to being taken into your confidence is that during my many residences +here I have come to know this family of Tregennis very well--indeed, +upon my Cornish mother's side I could call them cousins--and their +strange fate has naturally been a great shock to me. I may tell you +that I had got as far as Plymouth upon my way to Africa, but the news +reached me this morning, and I came straight back again to help in the +inquiry." +</P> + +<P> +Holmes raised his eyebrows. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you lose your boat through it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will take the next." +</P> + +<P> +"Dear me! that is friendship indeed." +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you they were relatives." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite so--cousins of your mother. Was your baggage aboard the ship?" +</P> + +<P> +"Some of it, but the main part at the hotel." +</P> + +<P> +"I see. But surely this event could not have found its way into the +Plymouth morning papers." +</P> + +<P> +"No, sir; I had a telegram." +</P> + +<P> +"Might I ask from whom?" +</P> + +<P> +A shadow passed over the gaunt face of the explorer. +</P> + +<P> +"You are very inquisitive, Mr. Holmes." +</P> + +<P> +"It is my business." +</P> + +<P> +With an effort Dr. Sterndale recovered his ruffled composure. +</P> + +<P> +"I have no objection to telling you," he said. "It was Mr. Roundhay, +the vicar, who sent me the telegram which recalled me." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," said Holmes. "I may say in answer to your original +question that I have not cleared my mind entirely on the subject of +this case, but that I have every hope of reaching some conclusion. It +would be premature to say more." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps you would not mind telling me if your suspicions point in any +particular direction?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I can hardly answer that." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I have wasted my time and need not prolong my visit." The famous +doctor strode out of our cottage in considerable ill-humour, and within +five minutes Holmes had followed him. I saw him no more until the +evening, when he returned with a slow step and haggard face which +assured me that he had made no great progress with his investigation. +He glanced at a telegram which awaited him and threw it into the grate. +</P> + +<P> +"From the Plymouth hotel, Watson," he said. "I learned the name of it +from the vicar, and I wired to make certain that Dr. Leon Sterndale's +account was true. It appears that he did indeed spend last night +there, and that he has actually allowed some of his baggage to go on to +Africa, while he returned to be present at this investigation. What do +you make of that, Watson?" +</P> + +<P> +"He is deeply interested." +</P> + +<P> +"Deeply interested--yes. There is a thread here which we had not yet +grasped and which might lead us through the tangle. Cheer up, Watson, +for I am very sure that our material has not yet all come to hand. +When it does we may soon leave our difficulties behind us." +</P> + +<P> +Little did I think how soon the words of Holmes would be realized, or +how strange and sinister would be that new development which opened up +an entirely fresh line of investigation. I was shaving at my window in +the morning when I heard the rattle of hoofs and, looking up, saw a +dog-cart coming at a gallop down the road. It pulled up at our door, +and our friend, the vicar, sprang from it and rushed up our garden +path. Holmes was already dressed, and we hastened down to meet him. +</P> + +<P> +Our visitor was so excited that he could hardly articulate, but at last +in gasps and bursts his tragic story came out of him. +</P> + +<P> +"We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes! My poor parish is devil-ridden!" he +cried. "Satan himself is loose in it! We are given over into his +hands!" He danced about in his agitation, a ludicrous object if it +were not for his ashy face and startled eyes. Finally he shot out his +terrible news. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Mortimer Tregennis died during the night, and with exactly the +same symptoms as the rest of his family." +</P> + +<P> +Holmes sprang to his feet, all energy in an instant. +</P> + +<P> +"Can you fit us both into your dog-cart?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I can." +</P> + +<P> +"Then, Watson, we will postpone our breakfast. Mr. Roundhay, we are +entirely at your disposal. Hurry--hurry, before things get +disarranged." +</P> + +<P> +The lodger occupied two rooms at the vicarage, which were in an angle +by themselves, the one above the other. Below was a large +sitting-room; above, his bedroom. They looked out upon a croquet lawn +which came up to the windows. We had arrived before the doctor or the +police, so that everything was absolutely undisturbed. Let me describe +exactly the scene as we saw it upon that misty March morning. It has +left an impression which can never be effaced from my mind. +</P> + +<P> +The atmosphere of the room was of a horrible and depressing stuffiness. +The servant who had first entered had thrown up the window, or it would +have been even more intolerable. This might partly be due to the fact +that a lamp stood flaring and smoking on the centre table. Beside it +sat the dead man, leaning back in his chair, his thin beard projecting, +his spectacles pushed up on to his forehead, and his lean dark face +turned towards the window and twisted into the same distortion of +terror which had marked the features of his dead sister. His limbs +were convulsed and his fingers contorted as though he had died in a +very paroxysm of fear. He was fully clothed, though there were signs +that his dressing had been done in a hurry. We had already learned +that his bed had been slept in, and that the tragic end had come to him +in the early morning. +</P> + +<P> +One realized the red-hot energy which underlay Holmes's phlegmatic +exterior when one saw the sudden change which came over him from the +moment that he entered the fatal apartment. In an instant he was tense +and alert, his eyes shining, his face set, his limbs quivering with +eager activity. He was out on the lawn, in through the window, round +the room, and up into the bedroom, for all the world like a dashing +foxhound drawing a cover. In the bedroom he made a rapid cast around +and ended by throwing open the window, which appeared to give him some +fresh cause for excitement, for he leaned out of it with loud +ejaculations of interest and delight. Then he rushed down the stair, +out through the open window, threw himself upon his face on the lawn, +sprang up and into the room once more, all with the energy of the +hunter who is at the very heels of his quarry. The lamp, which was an +ordinary standard, he examined with minute care, making certain +measurements upon its bowl. He carefully scrutinized with his lens the +talc shield which covered the top of the chimney and scraped off some +ashes which adhered to its upper surface, putting some of them into an +envelope, which he placed in his pocketbook. Finally, just as the +doctor and the official police put in an appearance, he beckoned to the +vicar and we all three went out upon the lawn. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely barren," +he remarked. "I cannot remain to discuss the matter with the police, +but I should be exceedingly obliged, Mr. Roundhay, if you would give +the inspector my compliments and direct his attention to the bedroom +window and to the sitting-room lamp. Each is suggestive, and together +they are almost conclusive. If the police would desire further +information I shall be happy to see any of them at the cottage. And +now, Watson, I think that, perhaps, we shall be better employed +elsewhere." +</P> + +<P> +It may be that the police resented the intrusion of an amateur, or that +they imagined themselves to be upon some hopeful line of investigation; +but it is certain that we heard nothing from them for the next two +days. During this time Holmes spent some of his time smoking and +dreaming in the cottage; but a greater portion in country walks which +he undertook alone, returning after many hours without remark as to +where he had been. One experiment served to show me the line of his +investigation. He had bought a lamp which was the duplicate of the one +which had burned in the room of Mortimer Tregennis on the morning of +the tragedy. This he filled with the same oil as that used at the +vicarage, and he carefully timed the period which it would take to be +exhausted. Another experiment which he made was of a more unpleasant +nature, and one which I am not likely ever to forget. +</P> + +<P> +"You will remember, Watson," he remarked one afternoon, "that there is +a single common point of resemblance in the varying reports which have +reached us. This concerns the effect of the atmosphere of the room in +each case upon those who had first entered it. You will recollect that +Mortimer Tregennis, in describing the episode of his last visit to his +brother's house, remarked that the doctor on entering the room fell +into a chair? You had forgotten? Well I can answer for it that it was +so. Now, you will remember also that Mrs. Porter, the housekeeper, told +us that she herself fainted upon entering the room and had afterwards +opened the window. In the second case--that of Mortimer Tregennis +himself--you cannot have forgotten the horrible stuffiness of the room +when we arrived, though the servant had thrown open the window. That +servant, I found upon inquiry, was so ill that she had gone to her bed. +You will admit, Watson, that these facts are very suggestive. In each +case there is evidence of a poisonous atmosphere. In each case, also, +there is combustion going on in the room--in the one case a fire, in +the other a lamp. The fire was needed, but the lamp was lit--as a +comparison of the oil consumed will show--long after it was broad +daylight. Why? Surely because there is some connection between three +things--the burning, the stuffy atmosphere, and, finally, the madness +or death of those unfortunate people. That is clear, is it not?" +</P> + +<P> +"It would appear so." +</P> + +<P> +"At least we may accept it as a working hypothesis. We will suppose, +then, that something was burned in each case which produced an +atmosphere causing strange toxic effects. Very good. In the first +instance--that of the Tregennis family--this substance was placed in +the fire. Now the window was shut, but the fire would naturally carry +fumes to some extent up the chimney. Hence one would expect the +effects of the poison to be less than in the second case, where there +was less escape for the vapour. The result seems to indicate that it +was so, since in the first case only the woman, who had presumably the +more sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting that +temporary or permanent lunacy which is evidently the first effect of +the drug. In the second case the result was complete. The facts, +therefore, seem to bear out the theory of a poison which worked by +combustion. +</P> + +<P> +"With this train of reasoning in my head I naturally looked about in +Mortimer Tregennis's room to find some remains of this substance. The +obvious place to look was the talc shelf or smoke-guard of the lamp. +There, sure enough, I perceived a number of flaky ashes, and round the +edges a fringe of brownish powder, which had not yet been consumed. +Half of this I took, as you saw, and I placed it in an envelope." +</P> + +<P> +"Why half, Holmes?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official +police force. I leave them all the evidence which I found. The poison +still remained upon the talc had they the wit to find it. Now, Watson, +we will light our lamp; we will, however, take the precaution to open +our window to avoid the premature decease of two deserving members of +society, and you will seat yourself near that open window in an +armchair unless, like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to +do with the affair. Oh, you will see it out, will you? I thought I +knew my Watson. This chair I will place opposite yours, so that we may +be the same distance from the poison and face to face. The door we +will leave ajar. Each is now in a position to watch the other and to +bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem alarming. Is +that all clear? Well, then, I take our powder--or what remains of +it--from the envelope, and I lay it above the burning lamp. So! Now, +Watson, let us sit down and await developments." +</P> + +<P> +They were not long in coming. I had hardly settled in my chair before +I was conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and nauseous. At the +very first whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all +control. A thick, black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told +me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, but about to spring out upon my +appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was +monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague shapes +swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning +of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the +threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing horror +took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, that my eyes +were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my tongue like leather. +The turmoil within my brain was such that something must surely snap. +I tried to scream and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was +my own voice, but distant and detached from myself. At the same moment, +in some effort of escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had +a glimpse of Holmes's face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror--the +very look which I had seen upon the features of the dead. It was that +vision which gave me an instant of sanity and of strength. I dashed +from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together we lurched +through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown ourselves down +upon the grass plot and were lying side by side, conscious only of the +glorious sunshine which was bursting its way through the hellish cloud +of terror which had girt us in. Slowly it rose from our souls like the +mists from a landscape until peace and reason had returned, and we were +sitting upon the grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking with +apprehension at each other to mark the last traces of that terrific +experience which we had undergone. +</P> + +<P> +"Upon my word, Watson!" said Holmes at last with an unsteady voice, "I +owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable +experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a friend. I am +really very sorry." +</P> + +<P> +"You know," I answered with some emotion, for I have never seen so much +of Holmes's heart before, "that it is my greatest joy and privilege to +help you." +</P> + +<P> +He relapsed at once into the half-humorous, half-cynical vein which was +his habitual attitude to those about him. "It would be superfluous to +drive us mad, my dear Watson," said he. "A candid observer would +certainly declare that we were so already before we embarked upon so +wild an experiment. I confess that I never imagined that the effect +could be so sudden and so severe." He dashed into the cottage, and, +reappearing with the burning lamp held at full arm's length, he threw +it among a bank of brambles. "We must give the room a little time to +clear. I take it, Watson, that you have no longer a shadow of a doubt +as to how these tragedies were produced?" +</P> + +<P> +"None whatever." +</P> + +<P> +"But the cause remains as obscure as before. Come into the arbour here +and let us discuss it together. That villainous stuff seems still to +linger round my throat. I think we must admit that all the evidence +points to this man, Mortimer Tregennis, having been the criminal in the +first tragedy, though he was the victim in the second one. We must +remember, in the first place, that there is some story of a family +quarrel, followed by a reconciliation. How bitter that quarrel may +have been, or how hollow the reconciliation we cannot tell. When I +think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face and the small shrewd, +beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom I should judge +to be of a particularly forgiving disposition. Well, in the next place, +you will remember that this idea of someone moving in the garden, which +took our attention for a moment from the real cause of the tragedy, +emanated from him. He had a motive in misleading us. Finally, if he +did not throw the substance into the fire at the moment of leaving the +room, who did do so? The affair happened immediately after his +departure. Had anyone else come in, the family would certainly have +risen from the table. Besides, in peaceful Cornwall, visitors did not +arrive after ten o'clock at night. We may take it, then, that all the +evidence points to Mortimer Tregennis as the culprit." +</P> + +<P> +"Then his own death was suicide!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, Watson, it is on the face of it a not impossible supposition. +The man who had the guilt upon his soul of having brought such a fate +upon his own family might well be driven by remorse to inflict it upon +himself. There are, however, some cogent reasons against it. +Fortunately, there is one man in England who knows all about it, and I +have made arrangements by which we shall hear the facts this afternoon +from his own lips. Ah! he is a little before his time. Perhaps you +would kindly step this way, Dr. Leon Sterndale. We have been conducing +a chemical experiment indoors which has left our little room hardly fit +for the reception of so distinguished a visitor." +</P> + +<P> +I had heard the click of the garden gate, and now the majestic figure +of the great African explorer appeared upon the path. He turned in +some surprise towards the rustic arbour in which we sat. +</P> + +<P> +"You sent for me, Mr. Holmes. I had your note about an hour ago, and I +have come, though I really do not know why I should obey your summons." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps we can clear the point up before we separate," said Holmes. +"Meanwhile, I am much obliged to you for your courteous acquiescence. +You will excuse this informal reception in the open air, but my friend +Watson and I have nearly furnished an additional chapter to what the +papers call the Cornish Horror, and we prefer a clear atmosphere for +the present. Perhaps, since the matters which we have to discuss will +affect you personally in a very intimate fashion, it is as well that we +should talk where there can be no eavesdropping." +</P> + +<P> +The explorer took his cigar from his lips and gazed sternly at my +companion. +</P> + +<P> +"I am at a loss to know, sir," he said, "what you can have to speak +about which affects me personally in a very intimate fashion." +</P> + +<P> +"The killing of Mortimer Tregennis," said Holmes. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment I wished that I were armed. Sterndale's fierce face +turned to a dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted, passionate +veins started out in his forehead, while he sprang forward with +clenched hands towards my companion. Then he stopped, and with a +violent effort he resumed a cold, rigid calmness, which was, perhaps, +more suggestive of danger than his hot-headed outburst. +</P> + +<P> +"I have lived so long among savages and beyond the law," said he, "that +I have got into the way of being a law to myself. You would do well, +Mr. Holmes, not to forget it, for I have no desire to do you an injury." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor have I any desire to do you an injury, Dr. Sterndale. Surely the +clearest proof of it is that, knowing what I know, I have sent for you +and not for the police." +</P> + +<P> +Sterndale sat down with a gasp, overawed for, perhaps, the first time +in his adventurous life. There was a calm assurance of power in +Holmes's manner which could not be withstood. Our visitor stammered +for a moment, his great hands opening and shutting in his agitation. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" he asked at last. "If this is bluff upon your +part, Mr. Holmes, you have chosen a bad man for your experiment. Let us +have no more beating about the bush. What DO you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I will tell you," said Holmes, "and the reason why I tell you is that +I hope frankness may beget frankness. What my next step may be will +depend entirely upon the nature of your own defence." +</P> + +<P> +"My defence?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, sir." +</P> + +<P> +"My defence against what?" +</P> + +<P> +"Against the charge of killing Mortimer Tregennis." +</P> + +<P> +Sterndale mopped his forehead with his handkerchief. "Upon my word, +you are getting on," said he. "Do all your successes depend upon this +prodigious power of bluff?" +</P> + +<P> +"The bluff," said Holmes sternly, "is upon your side, Dr. Leon +Sterndale, and not upon mine. As a proof I will tell you some of the +facts upon which my conclusions are based. Of your return from +Plymouth, allowing much of your property to go on to Africa, I will say +nothing save that it first informed me that you were one of the factors +which had to be taken into account in reconstructing this drama--" +</P> + +<P> +"I came back--" +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard your reasons and regard them as unconvincing and +inadequate. We will pass that. You came down here to ask me whom I +suspected. I refused to answer you. You then went to the vicarage, +waited outside it for some time, and finally returned to your cottage." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know that?" +</P> + +<P> +"I followed you." +</P> + +<P> +"I saw no one." +</P> + +<P> +"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you. You spent a +restless night at your cottage, and you formed certain plans, which in +the early morning you proceeded to put into execution. Leaving your +door just as day was breaking, you filled your pocket with some reddish +gravel that was lying heaped beside your gate." +</P> + +<P> +Sterndale gave a violent start and looked at Holmes in amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"You then walked swiftly for the mile which separated you from the +vicarage. You were wearing, I may remark, the same pair of ribbed +tennis shoes which are at the present moment upon your feet. At the +vicarage you passed through the orchard and the side hedge, coming out +under the window of the lodger Tregennis. It was now daylight, but the +household was not yet stirring. You drew some of the gravel from your +pocket, and you threw it up at the window above you." +</P> + +<P> +Sterndale sprang to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe that you are the devil himself!" he cried. +</P> + +<P> +Holmes smiled at the compliment. "It took two, or possibly three, +handfuls before the lodger came to the window. You beckoned him to +come down. He dressed hurriedly and descended to his sitting-room. +You entered by the window. There was an interview--a short one--during +which you walked up and down the room. Then you passed out and closed +the window, standing on the lawn outside smoking a cigar and watching +what occurred. Finally, after the death of Tregennis, you withdrew as +you had come. Now, Dr. Sterndale, how do you justify such conduct, and +what were the motives for your actions? If you prevaricate or trifle +with me, I give you my assurance that the matter will pass out of my +hands forever." +</P> + +<P> +Our visitor's face had turned ashen gray as he listened to the words of +his accuser. Now he sat for some time in thought with his face sunk in +his hands. Then with a sudden impulsive gesture he plucked a +photograph from his breast-pocket and threw it on the rustic table +before us. +</P> + +<P> +"That is why I have done it," said he. +</P> + +<P> +It showed the bust and face of a very beautiful woman. Holmes stooped +over it. +</P> + +<P> +"Brenda Tregennis," said he. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Brenda Tregennis," repeated our visitor. "For years I have loved +her. For years she has loved me. There is the secret of that Cornish +seclusion which people have marvelled at. It has brought me close to +the one thing on earth that was dear to me. I could not marry her, for +I have a wife who has left me for years and yet whom, by the deplorable +laws of England, I could not divorce. For years Brenda waited. For +years I waited. And this is what we have waited for." A terrible sob +shook his great frame, and he clutched his throat under his brindled +beard. Then with an effort he mastered himself and spoke on: +</P> + +<P> +"The vicar knew. He was in our confidence. He would tell you that she +was an angel upon earth. That was why he telegraphed to me and I +returned. What was my baggage or Africa to me when I learned that such +a fate had come upon my darling? There you have the missing clue to my +action, Mr. Holmes." +</P> + +<P> +"Proceed," said my friend. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Sterndale drew from his pocket a paper packet and laid it upon the +table. On the outside was written "Radix pedis diaboli" with a red +poison label beneath it. He pushed it towards me. "I understand that +you are a doctor, sir. Have you ever heard of this preparation?" +</P> + +<P> +"Devil's-foot root! No, I have never heard of it." +</P> + +<P> +"It is no reflection upon your professional knowledge," said he, "for I +believe that, save for one sample in a laboratory at Buda, there is no +other specimen in Europe. It has not yet found its way either into the +pharmacopoeia or into the literature of toxicology. The root is shaped +like a foot, half human, half goatlike; hence the fanciful name given +by a botanical missionary. It is used as an ordeal poison by the +medicine-men in certain districts of West Africa and is kept as a +secret among them. This particular specimen I obtained under very +extraordinary circumstances in the Ubangi country." He opened the +paper as he spoke and disclosed a heap of reddish-brown, snuff-like +powder. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, sir?" asked Holmes sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"I am about to tell you, Mr. Holmes, all that actually occurred, for +you already know so much that it is clearly to my interest that you +should know all. I have already explained the relationship in which I +stood to the Tregennis family. For the sake of the sister I was +friendly with the brothers. There was a family quarrel about money +which estranged this man Mortimer, but it was supposed to be made up, +and I afterwards met him as I did the others. He was a sly, subtle, +scheming man, and several things arose which gave me a suspicion of +him, but I had no cause for any positive quarrel. +</P> + +<P> +"One day, only a couple of weeks ago, he came down to my cottage and I +showed him some of my African curiosities. Among other things I +exhibited this powder, and I told him of its strange properties, how it +stimulates those brain centres which control the emotion of fear, and +how either madness or death is the fate of the unhappy native who is +subjected to the ordeal by the priest of his tribe. I told him also +how powerless European science would be to detect it. How he took it I +cannot say, for I never left the room, but there is no doubt that it +was then, while I was opening cabinets and stooping to boxes, that he +managed to abstract some of the devil's-foot root. I well remember how +he plied me with questions as to the amount and the time that was +needed for its effect, but I little dreamed that he could have a +personal reason for asking. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought no more of the matter until the vicar's telegram reached me +at Plymouth. This villain had thought that I would be at sea before +the news could reach me, and that I should be lost for years in Africa. +But I returned at once. Of course, I could not listen to the details +without feeling assured that my poison had been used. I came round to +see you on the chance that some other explanation had suggested itself +to you. But there could be none. I was convinced that Mortimer +Tregennis was the murderer; that for the sake of money, and with the +idea, perhaps, that if the other members of his family were all insane +he would be the sole guardian of their joint property, he had used the +devil's-foot powder upon them, driven two of them out of their senses, +and killed his sister Brenda, the one human being whom I have ever +loved or who has ever loved me. There was his crime; what was to be +his punishment? +</P> + +<P> +"Should I appeal to the law? Where were my proofs? I knew that the +facts were true, but could I help to make a jury of countrymen believe +so fantastic a story? I might or I might not. But I could not afford +to fail. My soul cried out for revenge. I have said to you once +before, Mr. Holmes, that I have spent much of my life outside the law, +and that I have come at last to be a law to myself. So it was even +now. I determined that the fate which he had given to others should be +shared by himself. Either that or I would do justice upon him with my +own hand. In all England there can be no man who sets less value upon +his own life than I do at the present moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Now I have told you all. You have yourself supplied the rest. I did, +as you say, after a restless night, set off early from my cottage. I +foresaw the difficulty of arousing him, so I gathered some gravel from +the pile which you have mentioned, and I used it to throw up to his +window. He came down and admitted me through the window of the +sitting-room. I laid his offence before him. I told him that I had +come both as judge and executioner. The wretch sank into a chair, +paralyzed at the sight of my revolver. I lit the lamp, put the powder +above it, and stood outside the window, ready to carry out my threat to +shoot him should he try to leave the room. In five minutes he died. +My God! how he died! But my heart was flint, for he endured nothing +which my innocent darling had not felt before him. There is my story, +Mr. Holmes. Perhaps, if you loved a woman, you would have done as much +yourself. At any rate, I am in your hands. You can take what steps +you like. As I have already said, there is no man living who can fear +death less than I do." +</P> + +<P> +Holmes sat for some little time in silence. +</P> + +<P> +"What were your plans?" he asked at last. +</P> + +<P> +"I had intended to bury myself in central Africa. My work there is but +half finished." +</P> + +<P> +"Go and do the other half," said Holmes. "I, at least, am not prepared +to prevent you." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Sterndale raised his giant figure, bowed gravely, and walked from +the arbour. Holmes lit his pipe and handed me his pouch. +</P> + +<P> +"Some fumes which are not poisonous would be a welcome change," said +he. "I think you must agree, Watson, that it is not a case in which we +are called upon to interfere. Our investigation has been independent, +and our action shall be so also. You would not denounce the man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not," I answered. +</P> + +<P> +"I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I loved had +met such an end, I might act even as our lawless lion-hunter has done. +Who knows? Well, Watson, I will not offend your intelligence by +explaining what is obvious. The gravel upon the window-sill was, of +course, the starting-point of my research. It was unlike anything in +the vicarage garden. Only when my attention had been drawn to Dr. +Sterndale and his cottage did I find its counterpart. The lamp shining +in broad daylight and the remains of powder upon the shield were +successive links in a fairly obvious chain. And now, my dear Watson, I +think we may dismiss the matter from our mind and go back with a clear +conscience to the study of those Chaldean roots which are surely to be +traced in the Cornish branch of the great Celtic speech." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, by +Arthur Conan Doyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL'S FOOT *** + +***** This file should be named 2349-h.htm or 2349-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/4/2349/ + +Produced by David Brannan. 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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 Adventure of the Devil's Foot + +Author: Arthur Conan Doyle + +Posting Date: October 23, 2008 [EBook #2349] +Release Date: October, 2000 +[Last updated: December 24, 2011] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL'S FOOT *** + + + + +Produced by David Brannan. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +The Adventure of the Devil's Foot + + +By + +Sir Arthur Conan Doyle + + + + +In recording from time to time some of the curious experiences and +interesting recollections which I associate with my long and intimate +friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have continually been faced by +difficulties caused by his own aversion to publicity. To his sombre +and cynical spirit all popular applause was always abhorrent, and +nothing amused him more at the end of a successful case than to hand +over the actual exposure to some orthodox official, and to listen with +a mocking smile to the general chorus of misplaced congratulation. It +was indeed this attitude upon the part of my friend and certainly not +any lack of interesting material which has caused me of late years to +lay very few of my records before the public. My participation in some +of his adventures was always a privilege which entailed discretion and +reticence upon me. + +It was, then, with considerable surprise that I received a telegram +from Holmes last Tuesday--he has never been known to write where a +telegram would serve--in the following terms: + +Why not tell them of the Cornish horror--strangest case I have handled. + +I have no idea what backward sweep of memory had brought the matter +fresh to his mind, or what freak had caused him to desire that I should +recount it; but I hasten, before another cancelling telegram may +arrive, to hunt out the notes which give me the exact details of the +case and to lay the narrative before my readers. + +It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmes's iron +constitution showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of constant +hard work of a most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, by occasional +indiscretions of his own. In March of that year Dr. Moore Agar, of +Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction to Holmes I may some day +recount, gave positive injunctions that the famous private agent lay +aside all his cases and surrender himself to complete rest if he wished +to avert an absolute breakdown. The state of his health was not a +matter in which he himself took the faintest interest, for his mental +detachment was absolute, but he was induced at last, on the threat of +being permanently disqualified from work, to give himself a complete +change of scene and air. Thus it was that in the early spring of that +year we found ourselves together in a small cottage near Poldhu Bay, at +the further extremity of the Cornish peninsula. + +It was a singular spot, and one peculiarly well suited to the grim +humour of my patient. From the windows of our little whitewashed +house, which stood high upon a grassy headland, we looked down upon the +whole sinister semicircle of Mounts Bay, that old death trap of sailing +vessels, with its fringe of black cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which +innumerable seamen have met their end. With a northerly breeze it lies +placid and sheltered, inviting the storm-tossed craft to tack into it +for rest and protection. + +Then come the sudden swirl round of the wind, the blistering gale from +the south-west, the dragging anchor, the lee shore, and the last battle +in the creaming breakers. The wise mariner stands far out from that +evil place. + +On the land side our surroundings were as sombre as on the sea. It was +a country of rolling moors, lonely and dun-colored, with an occasional +church tower to mark the site of some old-world village. In every +direction upon these moors there were traces of some vanished race +which had passed utterly away, and left as its sole record strange +monuments of stone, irregular mounds which contained the burned ashes +of the dead, and curious earthworks which hinted at prehistoric strife. +The glamour and mystery of the place, with its sinister atmosphere of +forgotten nations, appealed to the imagination of my friend, and he +spent much of his time in long walks and solitary meditations upon the +moor. The ancient Cornish language had also arrested his attention, and +he had, I remember, conceived the idea that it was akin to the +Chaldean, and had been largely derived from the Phoenician traders in +tin. He had received a consignment of books upon philology and was +settling down to develop this thesis when suddenly, to my sorrow and to +his unfeigned delight, we found ourselves, even in that land of dreams, +plunged into a problem at our very doors which was more intense, more +engrossing, and infinitely more mysterious than any of those which had +driven us from London. Our simple life and peaceful, healthy routine +were violently interrupted, and we were precipitated into the midst of +a series of events which caused the utmost excitement not only in +Cornwall but throughout the whole west of England. Many of my readers +may retain some recollection of what was called at the time "The +Cornish Horror," though a most imperfect account of the matter reached +the London press. Now, after thirteen years, I will give the true +details of this inconceivable affair to the public. + +I have said that scattered towers marked the villages which dotted this +part of Cornwall. The nearest of these was the hamlet of Tredannick +Wollas, where the cottages of a couple of hundred inhabitants clustered +round an ancient, moss-grown church. The vicar of the parish, Mr. +Roundhay, was something of an archaeologist, and as such Holmes had +made his acquaintance. He was a middle-aged man, portly and affable, +with a considerable fund of local lore. At his invitation we had taken +tea at the vicarage and had come to know, also, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, +an independent gentleman, who increased the clergyman's scanty +resources by taking rooms in his large, straggling house. The vicar, +being a bachelor, was glad to come to such an arrangement, though he +had little in common with his lodger, who was a thin, dark, spectacled +man, with a stoop which gave the impression of actual, physical +deformity. I remember that during our short visit we found the vicar +garrulous, but his lodger strangely reticent, a sad-faced, +introspective man, sitting with averted eyes, brooding apparently upon +his own affairs. + +These were the two men who entered abruptly into our little +sitting-room on Tuesday, March the 16th, shortly after our breakfast +hour, as we were smoking together, preparatory to our daily excursion +upon the moors. + +"Mr. Holmes," said the vicar in an agitated voice, "the most +extraordinary and tragic affair has occurred during the night. It is +the most unheard-of business. We can only regard it as a special +Providence that you should chance to be here at the time, for in all +England you are the one man we need." + +I glared at the intrusive vicar with no very friendly eyes; but Holmes +took his pipe from his lips and sat up in his chair like an old hound +who hears the view-halloa. He waved his hand to the sofa, and our +palpitating visitor with his agitated companion sat side by side upon +it. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis was more self-contained than the clergyman, +but the twitching of his thin hands and the brightness of his dark eyes +showed that they shared a common emotion. + +"Shall I speak or you?" he asked of the vicar. + +"Well, as you seem to have made the discovery, whatever it may be, and +the vicar to have had it second-hand, perhaps you had better do the +speaking," said Holmes. + +I glanced at the hastily clad clergyman, with the formally dressed +lodger seated beside him, and was amused at the surprise which Holmes's +simple deduction had brought to their faces. + +"Perhaps I had best say a few words first," said the vicar, "and then +you can judge if you will listen to the details from Mr. Tregennis, or +whether we should not hasten at once to the scene of this mysterious +affair. I may explain, then, that our friend here spent last evening +in the company of his two brothers, Owen and George, and of his sister +Brenda, at their house of Tredannick Wartha, which is near the old +stone cross upon the moor. He left them shortly after ten o'clock, +playing cards round the dining-room table, in excellent health and +spirits. This morning, being an early riser, he walked in that +direction before breakfast and was overtaken by the carriage of Dr. +Richards, who explained that he had just been sent for on a most urgent +call to Tredannick Wartha. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis naturally went with +him. When he arrived at Tredannick Wartha he found an extraordinary +state of things. His two brothers and his sister were seated round the +table exactly as he had left them, the cards still spread in front of +them and the candles burned down to their sockets. The sister lay back +stone-dead in her chair, while the two brothers sat on each side of her +laughing, shouting, and singing, the senses stricken clean out of them. +All three of them, the dead woman and the two demented men, retained +upon their faces an expression of the utmost horror--a convulsion of +terror which was dreadful to look upon. There was no sign of the +presence of anyone in the house, except Mrs. Porter, the old cook and +housekeeper, who declared that she had slept deeply and heard no sound +during the night. Nothing had been stolen or disarranged, and there is +absolutely no explanation of what the horror can be which has +frightened a woman to death and two strong men out of their senses. +There is the situation, Mr. Holmes, in a nutshell, and if you can help +us to clear it up you will have done a great work." + +I had hoped that in some way I could coax my companion back into the +quiet which had been the object of our journey; but one glance at his +intense face and contracted eyebrows told me how vain was now the +expectation. He sat for some little time in silence, absorbed in the +strange drama which had broken in upon our peace. + +"I will look into this matter," he said at last. "On the face of it, +it would appear to be a case of a very exceptional nature. Have you +been there yourself, Mr. Roundhay?" + +"No, Mr. Holmes. Mr. Tregennis brought back the account to the +vicarage, and I at once hurried over with him to consult you." + +"How far is it to the house where this singular tragedy occurred?" + +"About a mile inland." + +"Then we shall walk over together. But before we start I must ask you +a few questions, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis." + +The other had been silent all this time, but I had observed that his +more controlled excitement was even greater than the obtrusive emotion +of the clergyman. He sat with a pale, drawn face, his anxious gaze +fixed upon Holmes, and his thin hands clasped convulsively together. +His pale lips quivered as he listened to the dreadful experience which +had befallen his family, and his dark eyes seemed to reflect something +of the horror of the scene. + +"Ask what you like, Mr. Holmes," said he eagerly. "It is a bad thing +to speak of, but I will answer you the truth." + +"Tell me about last night." + +"Well, Mr. Holmes, I supped there, as the vicar has said, and my elder +brother George proposed a game of whist afterwards. We sat down about +nine o'clock. It was a quarter-past ten when I moved to go. I left +them all round the table, as merry as could be." + +"Who let you out?" + +"Mrs. Porter had gone to bed, so I let myself out. I shut the hall +door behind me. The window of the room in which they sat was closed, +but the blind was not drawn down. There was no change in door or +window this morning, or any reason to think that any stranger had been +to the house. Yet there they sat, driven clean mad with terror, and +Brenda lying dead of fright, with her head hanging over the arm of the +chair. I'll never get the sight of that room out of my mind so long as +I live." + +"The facts, as you state them, are certainly most remarkable," said +Holmes. "I take it that you have no theory yourself which can in any +way account for them?" + +"It's devilish, Mr. Holmes, devilish!" cried Mortimer Tregennis. "It is +not of this world. Something has come into that room which has dashed +the light of reason from their minds. What human contrivance could do +that?" + +"I fear," said Holmes, "that if the matter is beyond humanity it is +certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations +before we fall back upon such a theory as this. As to yourself, Mr. +Tregennis, I take it you were divided in some way from your family, +since they lived together and you had rooms apart?" + +"That is so, Mr. Holmes, though the matter is past and done with. We +were a family of tin-miners at Redruth, but we sold our venture to a +company, and so retired with enough to keep us. I won't deny that +there was some feeling about the division of the money and it stood +between us for a time, but it was all forgiven and forgotten, and we +were the best of friends together." + +"Looking back at the evening which you spent together, does anything +stand out in your memory as throwing any possible light upon the +tragedy? Think carefully, Mr. Tregennis, for any clue which can help +me." + +"There is nothing at all, sir." + +"Your people were in their usual spirits?" + +"Never better." + +"Were they nervous people? Did they ever show any apprehension of +coming danger?" + +"Nothing of the kind." + +"You have nothing to add then, which could assist me?" + +Mortimer Tregennis considered earnestly for a moment. + +"There is one thing occurs to me," said he at last. "As we sat at the +table my back was to the window, and my brother George, he being my +partner at cards, was facing it. I saw him once look hard over my +shoulder, so I turned round and looked also. The blind was up and the +window shut, but I could just make out the bushes on the lawn, and it +seemed to me for a moment that I saw something moving among them. I +couldn't even say if it was man or animal, but I just thought there was +something there. When I asked him what he was looking at, he told me +that he had the same feeling. That is all that I can say." + +"Did you not investigate?" + +"No; the matter passed as unimportant." + +"You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?" + +"None at all." + +"I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this morning." + +"I am an early riser and generally take a walk before breakfast. This +morning I had hardly started when the doctor in his carriage overtook +me. He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down with an urgent +message. I sprang in beside him and we drove on. When we got there we +looked into that dreadful room. The candles and the fire must have +burned out hours before, and they had been sitting there in the dark +until dawn had broken. The doctor said Brenda must have been dead at +least six hours. There were no signs of violence. She just lay across +the arm of the chair with that look on her face. George and Owen were +singing snatches of songs and gibbering like two great apes. Oh, it +was awful to see! I couldn't stand it, and the doctor was as white as +a sheet. Indeed, he fell into a chair in a sort of faint, and we +nearly had him on our hands as well." + +"Remarkable--most remarkable!" said Holmes, rising and taking his hat. +"I think, perhaps, we had better go down to Tredannick Wartha without +further delay. I confess that I have seldom known a case which at +first sight presented a more singular problem." + + +Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the +investigation. It was marked, however, at the outset by an incident +which left the most sinister impression upon my mind. The approach to +the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a narrow, winding, +country lane. While we made our way along it we heard the rattle of a +carriage coming towards us and stood aside to let it pass. As it drove +by us I caught a glimpse through the closed window of a horribly +contorted, grinning face glaring out at us. Those staring eyes and +gnashing teeth flashed past us like a dreadful vision. + +"My brothers!" cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips. "They are +taking them to Helston." + +We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering upon its way. +Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house in which they +had met their strange fate. + +It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a cottage, with +a considerable garden which was already, in that Cornish air, well +filled with spring flowers. Towards this garden the window of the +sitting-room fronted, and from it, according to Mortimer Tregennis, +must have come that thing of evil which had by sheer horror in a single +instant blasted their minds. Holmes walked slowly and thoughtfully +among the flower-plots and along the path before we entered the porch. +So absorbed was he in his thoughts, I remember, that he stumbled over +the watering-pot, upset its contents, and deluged both our feet and the +garden path. Inside the house we were met by the elderly Cornish +housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the aid of a young girl, looked +after the wants of the family. She readily answered all Holmes's +questions. She had heard nothing in the night. Her employers had all +been in excellent spirits lately, and she had never known them more +cheerful and prosperous. She had fainted with horror upon entering the +room in the morning and seeing that dreadful company round the table. +She had, when she recovered, thrown open the window to let the morning +air in, and had run down to the lane, whence she sent a farm-lad for +the doctor. The lady was on her bed upstairs if we cared to see her. +It took four strong men to get the brothers into the asylum carriage. +She would not herself stay in the house another day and was starting +that very afternoon to rejoin her family at St. Ives. + +We ascended the stairs and viewed the body. Miss Brenda Tregennis had +been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon middle age. Her +dark, clear-cut face was handsome, even in death, but there still +lingered upon it something of that convulsion of horror which had been +her last human emotion. From her bedroom we descended to the +sitting-room, where this strange tragedy had actually occurred. The +charred ashes of the overnight fire lay in the grate. On the table +were the four guttered and burned-out candles, with the cards scattered +over its surface. The chairs had been moved back against the walls, +but all else was as it had been the night before. Holmes paced with +light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various chairs, +drawing them up and reconstructing their positions. He tested how much +of the garden was visible; he examined the floor, the ceiling, and the +fireplace; but never once did I see that sudden brightening of his eyes +and tightening of his lips which would have told me that he saw some +gleam of light in this utter darkness. + +"Why a fire?" he asked once. "Had they always a fire in this small +room on a spring evening?" + +Mortimer Tregennis explained that the night was cold and damp. For that +reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit. "What are you going to do +now, Mr. Holmes?" he asked. + +My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm. "I think, Watson, that +I shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning which you have so often +and so justly condemned," said he. "With your permission, gentlemen, +we will now return to our cottage, for I am not aware that any new +factor is likely to come to our notice here. I will turn the facts +over in my mind, Mr. Tregennis, and should anything occur to me I will +certainly communicate with you and the vicar. In the meantime I wish +you both good-morning." + +It was not until long after we were back in Poldhu Cottage that Holmes +broke his complete and absorbed silence. He sat coiled in his +armchair, his haggard and ascetic face hardly visible amid the blue +swirl of his tobacco smoke, his black brows drawn down, his forehead +contracted, his eyes vacant and far away. Finally he laid down his +pipe and sprang to his feet. + +"It won't do, Watson!" said he with a laugh. "Let us walk along the +cliffs together and search for flint arrows. We are more likely to +find them than clues to this problem. To let the brain work without +sufficient material is like racing an engine. It racks itself to +pieces. The sea air, sunshine, and patience, Watson--all else will +come. + +"Now, let us calmly define our position, Watson," he continued as we +skirted the cliffs together. "Let us get a firm grip of the very +little which we DO know, so that when fresh facts arise we may be ready +to fit them into their places. I take it, in the first place, that +neither of us is prepared to admit diabolical intrusions into the +affairs of men. Let us begin by ruling that entirely out of our minds. +Very good. There remain three persons who have been grievously +stricken by some conscious or unconscious human agency. That is firm +ground. Now, when did this occur? Evidently, assuming his narrative +to be true, it was immediately after Mr. Mortimer Tregennis had left +the room. That is a very important point. The presumption is that it +was within a few minutes afterwards. The cards still lay upon the +table. It was already past their usual hour for bed. Yet they had not +changed their position or pushed back their chairs. I repeat, then, +that the occurrence was immediately after his departure, and not later +than eleven o'clock last night. + +"Our next obvious step is to check, so far as we can, the movements of +Mortimer Tregennis after he left the room. In this there is no +difficulty, and they seem to be above suspicion. Knowing my methods as +you do, you were, of course, conscious of the somewhat clumsy water-pot +expedient by which I obtained a clearer impress of his foot than might +otherwise have been possible. The wet, sandy path took it admirably. +Last night was also wet, you will remember, and it was not +difficult--having obtained a sample print--to pick out his track among +others and to follow his movements. He appears to have walked away +swiftly in the direction of the vicarage. + +"If, then, Mortimer Tregennis disappeared from the scene, and yet some +outside person affected the card-players, how can we reconstruct that +person, and how was such an impression of horror conveyed? Mrs. Porter +may be eliminated. She is evidently harmless. Is there any evidence +that someone crept up to the garden window and in some manner produced +so terrific an effect that he drove those who saw it out of their +senses? The only suggestion in this direction comes from Mortimer +Tregennis himself, who says that his brother spoke about some movement +in the garden. That is certainly remarkable, as the night was rainy, +cloudy, and dark. Anyone who had the design to alarm these people +would be compelled to place his very face against the glass before he +could be seen. There is a three-foot flower-border outside this +window, but no indication of a footmark. It is difficult to imagine, +then, how an outsider could have made so terrible an impression upon +the company, nor have we found any possible motive for so strange and +elaborate an attempt. You perceive our difficulties, Watson?" + +"They are only too clear," I answered with conviction. + +"And yet, with a little more material, we may prove that they are not +insurmountable," said Holmes. "I fancy that among your extensive +archives, Watson, you may find some which were nearly as obscure. +Meanwhile, we shall put the case aside until more accurate data are +available, and devote the rest of our morning to the pursuit of +neolithic man." + +I may have commented upon my friend's power of mental detachment, but +never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring morning in +Cornwall when for two hours he discoursed upon celts, arrowheads, and +shards, as lightly as if no sinister mystery were waiting for his +solution. It was not until we had returned in the afternoon to our +cottage that we found a visitor awaiting us, who soon brought our minds +back to the matter in hand. Neither of us needed to be told who that +visitor was. The huge body, the craggy and deeply seamed face with the +fierce eyes and hawk-like nose, the grizzled hair which nearly brushed +our cottage ceiling, the beard--golden at the fringes and white near +the lips, save for the nicotine stain from his perpetual cigar--all +these were as well known in London as in Africa, and could only be +associated with the tremendous personality of Dr. Leon Sterndale, the +great lion-hunter and explorer. + +We had heard of his presence in the district and had once or twice +caught sight of his tall figure upon the moorland paths. He made no +advances to us, however, nor would we have dreamed of doing so to him, +as it was well known that it was his love of seclusion which caused him +to spend the greater part of the intervals between his journeys in a +small bungalow buried in the lonely wood of Beauchamp Arriance. Here, +amid his books and his maps, he lived an absolutely lonely life, +attending to his own simple wants and paying little apparent heed to +the affairs of his neighbours. It was a surprise to me, therefore, to +hear him asking Holmes in an eager voice whether he had made any +advance in his reconstruction of this mysterious episode. "The county +police are utterly at fault," said he, "but perhaps your wider +experience has suggested some conceivable explanation. My only claim +to being taken into your confidence is that during my many residences +here I have come to know this family of Tregennis very well--indeed, +upon my Cornish mother's side I could call them cousins--and their +strange fate has naturally been a great shock to me. I may tell you +that I had got as far as Plymouth upon my way to Africa, but the news +reached me this morning, and I came straight back again to help in the +inquiry." + +Holmes raised his eyebrows. + +"Did you lose your boat through it?" + +"I will take the next." + +"Dear me! that is friendship indeed." + +"I tell you they were relatives." + +"Quite so--cousins of your mother. Was your baggage aboard the ship?" + +"Some of it, but the main part at the hotel." + +"I see. But surely this event could not have found its way into the +Plymouth morning papers." + +"No, sir; I had a telegram." + +"Might I ask from whom?" + +A shadow passed over the gaunt face of the explorer. + +"You are very inquisitive, Mr. Holmes." + +"It is my business." + +With an effort Dr. Sterndale recovered his ruffled composure. + +"I have no objection to telling you," he said. "It was Mr. Roundhay, +the vicar, who sent me the telegram which recalled me." + +"Thank you," said Holmes. "I may say in answer to your original +question that I have not cleared my mind entirely on the subject of +this case, but that I have every hope of reaching some conclusion. It +would be premature to say more." + +"Perhaps you would not mind telling me if your suspicions point in any +particular direction?" + +"No, I can hardly answer that." + +"Then I have wasted my time and need not prolong my visit." The famous +doctor strode out of our cottage in considerable ill-humour, and within +five minutes Holmes had followed him. I saw him no more until the +evening, when he returned with a slow step and haggard face which +assured me that he had made no great progress with his investigation. +He glanced at a telegram which awaited him and threw it into the grate. + +"From the Plymouth hotel, Watson," he said. "I learned the name of it +from the vicar, and I wired to make certain that Dr. Leon Sterndale's +account was true. It appears that he did indeed spend last night +there, and that he has actually allowed some of his baggage to go on to +Africa, while he returned to be present at this investigation. What do +you make of that, Watson?" + +"He is deeply interested." + +"Deeply interested--yes. There is a thread here which we had not yet +grasped and which might lead us through the tangle. Cheer up, Watson, +for I am very sure that our material has not yet all come to hand. +When it does we may soon leave our difficulties behind us." + +Little did I think how soon the words of Holmes would be realized, or +how strange and sinister would be that new development which opened up +an entirely fresh line of investigation. I was shaving at my window in +the morning when I heard the rattle of hoofs and, looking up, saw a +dog-cart coming at a gallop down the road. It pulled up at our door, +and our friend, the vicar, sprang from it and rushed up our garden +path. Holmes was already dressed, and we hastened down to meet him. + +Our visitor was so excited that he could hardly articulate, but at last +in gasps and bursts his tragic story came out of him. + +"We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes! My poor parish is devil-ridden!" he +cried. "Satan himself is loose in it! We are given over into his +hands!" He danced about in his agitation, a ludicrous object if it +were not for his ashy face and startled eyes. Finally he shot out his +terrible news. + +"Mr. Mortimer Tregennis died during the night, and with exactly the +same symptoms as the rest of his family." + +Holmes sprang to his feet, all energy in an instant. + +"Can you fit us both into your dog-cart?" + +"Yes, I can." + +"Then, Watson, we will postpone our breakfast. Mr. Roundhay, we are +entirely at your disposal. Hurry--hurry, before things get +disarranged." + +The lodger occupied two rooms at the vicarage, which were in an angle +by themselves, the one above the other. Below was a large +sitting-room; above, his bedroom. They looked out upon a croquet lawn +which came up to the windows. We had arrived before the doctor or the +police, so that everything was absolutely undisturbed. Let me describe +exactly the scene as we saw it upon that misty March morning. It has +left an impression which can never be effaced from my mind. + +The atmosphere of the room was of a horrible and depressing stuffiness. +The servant who had first entered had thrown up the window, or it would +have been even more intolerable. This might partly be due to the fact +that a lamp stood flaring and smoking on the centre table. Beside it +sat the dead man, leaning back in his chair, his thin beard projecting, +his spectacles pushed up on to his forehead, and his lean dark face +turned towards the window and twisted into the same distortion of +terror which had marked the features of his dead sister. His limbs +were convulsed and his fingers contorted as though he had died in a +very paroxysm of fear. He was fully clothed, though there were signs +that his dressing had been done in a hurry. We had already learned +that his bed had been slept in, and that the tragic end had come to him +in the early morning. + +One realized the red-hot energy which underlay Holmes's phlegmatic +exterior when one saw the sudden change which came over him from the +moment that he entered the fatal apartment. In an instant he was tense +and alert, his eyes shining, his face set, his limbs quivering with +eager activity. He was out on the lawn, in through the window, round +the room, and up into the bedroom, for all the world like a dashing +foxhound drawing a cover. In the bedroom he made a rapid cast around +and ended by throwing open the window, which appeared to give him some +fresh cause for excitement, for he leaned out of it with loud +ejaculations of interest and delight. Then he rushed down the stair, +out through the open window, threw himself upon his face on the lawn, +sprang up and into the room once more, all with the energy of the +hunter who is at the very heels of his quarry. The lamp, which was an +ordinary standard, he examined with minute care, making certain +measurements upon its bowl. He carefully scrutinized with his lens the +talc shield which covered the top of the chimney and scraped off some +ashes which adhered to its upper surface, putting some of them into an +envelope, which he placed in his pocketbook. Finally, just as the +doctor and the official police put in an appearance, he beckoned to the +vicar and we all three went out upon the lawn. + +"I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely barren," +he remarked. "I cannot remain to discuss the matter with the police, +but I should be exceedingly obliged, Mr. Roundhay, if you would give +the inspector my compliments and direct his attention to the bedroom +window and to the sitting-room lamp. Each is suggestive, and together +they are almost conclusive. If the police would desire further +information I shall be happy to see any of them at the cottage. And +now, Watson, I think that, perhaps, we shall be better employed +elsewhere." + +It may be that the police resented the intrusion of an amateur, or that +they imagined themselves to be upon some hopeful line of investigation; +but it is certain that we heard nothing from them for the next two +days. During this time Holmes spent some of his time smoking and +dreaming in the cottage; but a greater portion in country walks which +he undertook alone, returning after many hours without remark as to +where he had been. One experiment served to show me the line of his +investigation. He had bought a lamp which was the duplicate of the one +which had burned in the room of Mortimer Tregennis on the morning of +the tragedy. This he filled with the same oil as that used at the +vicarage, and he carefully timed the period which it would take to be +exhausted. Another experiment which he made was of a more unpleasant +nature, and one which I am not likely ever to forget. + +"You will remember, Watson," he remarked one afternoon, "that there is +a single common point of resemblance in the varying reports which have +reached us. This concerns the effect of the atmosphere of the room in +each case upon those who had first entered it. You will recollect that +Mortimer Tregennis, in describing the episode of his last visit to his +brother's house, remarked that the doctor on entering the room fell +into a chair? You had forgotten? Well I can answer for it that it was +so. Now, you will remember also that Mrs. Porter, the housekeeper, told +us that she herself fainted upon entering the room and had afterwards +opened the window. In the second case--that of Mortimer Tregennis +himself--you cannot have forgotten the horrible stuffiness of the room +when we arrived, though the servant had thrown open the window. That +servant, I found upon inquiry, was so ill that she had gone to her bed. +You will admit, Watson, that these facts are very suggestive. In each +case there is evidence of a poisonous atmosphere. In each case, also, +there is combustion going on in the room--in the one case a fire, in +the other a lamp. The fire was needed, but the lamp was lit--as a +comparison of the oil consumed will show--long after it was broad +daylight. Why? Surely because there is some connection between three +things--the burning, the stuffy atmosphere, and, finally, the madness +or death of those unfortunate people. That is clear, is it not?" + +"It would appear so." + +"At least we may accept it as a working hypothesis. We will suppose, +then, that something was burned in each case which produced an +atmosphere causing strange toxic effects. Very good. In the first +instance--that of the Tregennis family--this substance was placed in +the fire. Now the window was shut, but the fire would naturally carry +fumes to some extent up the chimney. Hence one would expect the +effects of the poison to be less than in the second case, where there +was less escape for the vapour. The result seems to indicate that it +was so, since in the first case only the woman, who had presumably the +more sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting that +temporary or permanent lunacy which is evidently the first effect of +the drug. In the second case the result was complete. The facts, +therefore, seem to bear out the theory of a poison which worked by +combustion. + +"With this train of reasoning in my head I naturally looked about in +Mortimer Tregennis's room to find some remains of this substance. The +obvious place to look was the talc shelf or smoke-guard of the lamp. +There, sure enough, I perceived a number of flaky ashes, and round the +edges a fringe of brownish powder, which had not yet been consumed. +Half of this I took, as you saw, and I placed it in an envelope." + +"Why half, Holmes?" + +"It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the official +police force. I leave them all the evidence which I found. The poison +still remained upon the talc had they the wit to find it. Now, Watson, +we will light our lamp; we will, however, take the precaution to open +our window to avoid the premature decease of two deserving members of +society, and you will seat yourself near that open window in an +armchair unless, like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to +do with the affair. Oh, you will see it out, will you? I thought I +knew my Watson. This chair I will place opposite yours, so that we may +be the same distance from the poison and face to face. The door we +will leave ajar. Each is now in a position to watch the other and to +bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem alarming. Is +that all clear? Well, then, I take our powder--or what remains of +it--from the envelope, and I lay it above the burning lamp. So! Now, +Watson, let us sit down and await developments." + +They were not long in coming. I had hardly settled in my chair before +I was conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and nauseous. At the +very first whiff of it my brain and my imagination were beyond all +control. A thick, black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told +me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, but about to spring out upon my +appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was +monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague shapes +swirled and swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning +of something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the +threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing horror +took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, that my eyes +were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my tongue like leather. +The turmoil within my brain was such that something must surely snap. +I tried to scream and was vaguely aware of some hoarse croak which was +my own voice, but distant and detached from myself. At the same moment, +in some effort of escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had +a glimpse of Holmes's face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror--the +very look which I had seen upon the features of the dead. It was that +vision which gave me an instant of sanity and of strength. I dashed +from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together we lurched +through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown ourselves down +upon the grass plot and were lying side by side, conscious only of the +glorious sunshine which was bursting its way through the hellish cloud +of terror which had girt us in. Slowly it rose from our souls like the +mists from a landscape until peace and reason had returned, and we were +sitting upon the grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking with +apprehension at each other to mark the last traces of that terrific +experience which we had undergone. + +"Upon my word, Watson!" said Holmes at last with an unsteady voice, "I +owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an unjustifiable +experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a friend. I am +really very sorry." + +"You know," I answered with some emotion, for I have never seen so much +of Holmes's heart before, "that it is my greatest joy and privilege to +help you." + +He relapsed at once into the half-humorous, half-cynical vein which was +his habitual attitude to those about him. "It would be superfluous to +drive us mad, my dear Watson," said he. "A candid observer would +certainly declare that we were so already before we embarked upon so +wild an experiment. I confess that I never imagined that the effect +could be so sudden and so severe." He dashed into the cottage, and, +reappearing with the burning lamp held at full arm's length, he threw +it among a bank of brambles. "We must give the room a little time to +clear. I take it, Watson, that you have no longer a shadow of a doubt +as to how these tragedies were produced?" + +"None whatever." + +"But the cause remains as obscure as before. Come into the arbour here +and let us discuss it together. That villainous stuff seems still to +linger round my throat. I think we must admit that all the evidence +points to this man, Mortimer Tregennis, having been the criminal in the +first tragedy, though he was the victim in the second one. We must +remember, in the first place, that there is some story of a family +quarrel, followed by a reconciliation. How bitter that quarrel may +have been, or how hollow the reconciliation we cannot tell. When I +think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face and the small shrewd, +beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom I should judge +to be of a particularly forgiving disposition. Well, in the next place, +you will remember that this idea of someone moving in the garden, which +took our attention for a moment from the real cause of the tragedy, +emanated from him. He had a motive in misleading us. Finally, if he +did not throw the substance into the fire at the moment of leaving the +room, who did do so? The affair happened immediately after his +departure. Had anyone else come in, the family would certainly have +risen from the table. Besides, in peaceful Cornwall, visitors did not +arrive after ten o'clock at night. We may take it, then, that all the +evidence points to Mortimer Tregennis as the culprit." + +"Then his own death was suicide!" + +"Well, Watson, it is on the face of it a not impossible supposition. +The man who had the guilt upon his soul of having brought such a fate +upon his own family might well be driven by remorse to inflict it upon +himself. There are, however, some cogent reasons against it. +Fortunately, there is one man in England who knows all about it, and I +have made arrangements by which we shall hear the facts this afternoon +from his own lips. Ah! he is a little before his time. Perhaps you +would kindly step this way, Dr. Leon Sterndale. We have been conducing +a chemical experiment indoors which has left our little room hardly fit +for the reception of so distinguished a visitor." + +I had heard the click of the garden gate, and now the majestic figure +of the great African explorer appeared upon the path. He turned in +some surprise towards the rustic arbour in which we sat. + +"You sent for me, Mr. Holmes. I had your note about an hour ago, and I +have come, though I really do not know why I should obey your summons." + +"Perhaps we can clear the point up before we separate," said Holmes. +"Meanwhile, I am much obliged to you for your courteous acquiescence. +You will excuse this informal reception in the open air, but my friend +Watson and I have nearly furnished an additional chapter to what the +papers call the Cornish Horror, and we prefer a clear atmosphere for +the present. Perhaps, since the matters which we have to discuss will +affect you personally in a very intimate fashion, it is as well that we +should talk where there can be no eavesdropping." + +The explorer took his cigar from his lips and gazed sternly at my +companion. + +"I am at a loss to know, sir," he said, "what you can have to speak +about which affects me personally in a very intimate fashion." + +"The killing of Mortimer Tregennis," said Holmes. + +For a moment I wished that I were armed. Sterndale's fierce face +turned to a dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted, passionate +veins started out in his forehead, while he sprang forward with +clenched hands towards my companion. Then he stopped, and with a +violent effort he resumed a cold, rigid calmness, which was, perhaps, +more suggestive of danger than his hot-headed outburst. + +"I have lived so long among savages and beyond the law," said he, "that +I have got into the way of being a law to myself. You would do well, +Mr. Holmes, not to forget it, for I have no desire to do you an injury." + +"Nor have I any desire to do you an injury, Dr. Sterndale. Surely the +clearest proof of it is that, knowing what I know, I have sent for you +and not for the police." + +Sterndale sat down with a gasp, overawed for, perhaps, the first time +in his adventurous life. There was a calm assurance of power in +Holmes's manner which could not be withstood. Our visitor stammered +for a moment, his great hands opening and shutting in his agitation. + +"What do you mean?" he asked at last. "If this is bluff upon your +part, Mr. Holmes, you have chosen a bad man for your experiment. Let us +have no more beating about the bush. What DO you mean?" + +"I will tell you," said Holmes, "and the reason why I tell you is that +I hope frankness may beget frankness. What my next step may be will +depend entirely upon the nature of your own defence." + +"My defence?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"My defence against what?" + +"Against the charge of killing Mortimer Tregennis." + +Sterndale mopped his forehead with his handkerchief. "Upon my word, +you are getting on," said he. "Do all your successes depend upon this +prodigious power of bluff?" + +"The bluff," said Holmes sternly, "is upon your side, Dr. Leon +Sterndale, and not upon mine. As a proof I will tell you some of the +facts upon which my conclusions are based. Of your return from +Plymouth, allowing much of your property to go on to Africa, I will say +nothing save that it first informed me that you were one of the factors +which had to be taken into account in reconstructing this drama--" + +"I came back--" + +"I have heard your reasons and regard them as unconvincing and +inadequate. We will pass that. You came down here to ask me whom I +suspected. I refused to answer you. You then went to the vicarage, +waited outside it for some time, and finally returned to your cottage." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I followed you." + +"I saw no one." + +"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you. You spent a +restless night at your cottage, and you formed certain plans, which in +the early morning you proceeded to put into execution. Leaving your +door just as day was breaking, you filled your pocket with some reddish +gravel that was lying heaped beside your gate." + +Sterndale gave a violent start and looked at Holmes in amazement. + +"You then walked swiftly for the mile which separated you from the +vicarage. You were wearing, I may remark, the same pair of ribbed +tennis shoes which are at the present moment upon your feet. At the +vicarage you passed through the orchard and the side hedge, coming out +under the window of the lodger Tregennis. It was now daylight, but the +household was not yet stirring. You drew some of the gravel from your +pocket, and you threw it up at the window above you." + +Sterndale sprang to his feet. + +"I believe that you are the devil himself!" he cried. + +Holmes smiled at the compliment. "It took two, or possibly three, +handfuls before the lodger came to the window. You beckoned him to +come down. He dressed hurriedly and descended to his sitting-room. +You entered by the window. There was an interview--a short one--during +which you walked up and down the room. Then you passed out and closed +the window, standing on the lawn outside smoking a cigar and watching +what occurred. Finally, after the death of Tregennis, you withdrew as +you had come. Now, Dr. Sterndale, how do you justify such conduct, and +what were the motives for your actions? If you prevaricate or trifle +with me, I give you my assurance that the matter will pass out of my +hands forever." + +Our visitor's face had turned ashen gray as he listened to the words of +his accuser. Now he sat for some time in thought with his face sunk in +his hands. Then with a sudden impulsive gesture he plucked a +photograph from his breast-pocket and threw it on the rustic table +before us. + +"That is why I have done it," said he. + +It showed the bust and face of a very beautiful woman. Holmes stooped +over it. + +"Brenda Tregennis," said he. + +"Yes, Brenda Tregennis," repeated our visitor. "For years I have loved +her. For years she has loved me. There is the secret of that Cornish +seclusion which people have marvelled at. It has brought me close to +the one thing on earth that was dear to me. I could not marry her, for +I have a wife who has left me for years and yet whom, by the deplorable +laws of England, I could not divorce. For years Brenda waited. For +years I waited. And this is what we have waited for." A terrible sob +shook his great frame, and he clutched his throat under his brindled +beard. Then with an effort he mastered himself and spoke on: + +"The vicar knew. He was in our confidence. He would tell you that she +was an angel upon earth. That was why he telegraphed to me and I +returned. What was my baggage or Africa to me when I learned that such +a fate had come upon my darling? There you have the missing clue to my +action, Mr. Holmes." + +"Proceed," said my friend. + +Dr. Sterndale drew from his pocket a paper packet and laid it upon the +table. On the outside was written "Radix pedis diaboli" with a red +poison label beneath it. He pushed it towards me. "I understand that +you are a doctor, sir. Have you ever heard of this preparation?" + +"Devil's-foot root! No, I have never heard of it." + +"It is no reflection upon your professional knowledge," said he, "for I +believe that, save for one sample in a laboratory at Buda, there is no +other specimen in Europe. It has not yet found its way either into the +pharmacopoeia or into the literature of toxicology. The root is shaped +like a foot, half human, half goatlike; hence the fanciful name given +by a botanical missionary. It is used as an ordeal poison by the +medicine-men in certain districts of West Africa and is kept as a +secret among them. This particular specimen I obtained under very +extraordinary circumstances in the Ubangi country." He opened the +paper as he spoke and disclosed a heap of reddish-brown, snuff-like +powder. + +"Well, sir?" asked Holmes sternly. + +"I am about to tell you, Mr. Holmes, all that actually occurred, for +you already know so much that it is clearly to my interest that you +should know all. I have already explained the relationship in which I +stood to the Tregennis family. For the sake of the sister I was +friendly with the brothers. There was a family quarrel about money +which estranged this man Mortimer, but it was supposed to be made up, +and I afterwards met him as I did the others. He was a sly, subtle, +scheming man, and several things arose which gave me a suspicion of +him, but I had no cause for any positive quarrel. + +"One day, only a couple of weeks ago, he came down to my cottage and I +showed him some of my African curiosities. Among other things I +exhibited this powder, and I told him of its strange properties, how it +stimulates those brain centres which control the emotion of fear, and +how either madness or death is the fate of the unhappy native who is +subjected to the ordeal by the priest of his tribe. I told him also +how powerless European science would be to detect it. How he took it I +cannot say, for I never left the room, but there is no doubt that it +was then, while I was opening cabinets and stooping to boxes, that he +managed to abstract some of the devil's-foot root. I well remember how +he plied me with questions as to the amount and the time that was +needed for its effect, but I little dreamed that he could have a +personal reason for asking. + +"I thought no more of the matter until the vicar's telegram reached me +at Plymouth. This villain had thought that I would be at sea before +the news could reach me, and that I should be lost for years in Africa. +But I returned at once. Of course, I could not listen to the details +without feeling assured that my poison had been used. I came round to +see you on the chance that some other explanation had suggested itself +to you. But there could be none. I was convinced that Mortimer +Tregennis was the murderer; that for the sake of money, and with the +idea, perhaps, that if the other members of his family were all insane +he would be the sole guardian of their joint property, he had used the +devil's-foot powder upon them, driven two of them out of their senses, +and killed his sister Brenda, the one human being whom I have ever +loved or who has ever loved me. There was his crime; what was to be +his punishment? + +"Should I appeal to the law? Where were my proofs? I knew that the +facts were true, but could I help to make a jury of countrymen believe +so fantastic a story? I might or I might not. But I could not afford +to fail. My soul cried out for revenge. I have said to you once +before, Mr. Holmes, that I have spent much of my life outside the law, +and that I have come at last to be a law to myself. So it was even +now. I determined that the fate which he had given to others should be +shared by himself. Either that or I would do justice upon him with my +own hand. In all England there can be no man who sets less value upon +his own life than I do at the present moment. + +"Now I have told you all. You have yourself supplied the rest. I did, +as you say, after a restless night, set off early from my cottage. I +foresaw the difficulty of arousing him, so I gathered some gravel from +the pile which you have mentioned, and I used it to throw up to his +window. He came down and admitted me through the window of the +sitting-room. I laid his offence before him. I told him that I had +come both as judge and executioner. The wretch sank into a chair, +paralyzed at the sight of my revolver. I lit the lamp, put the powder +above it, and stood outside the window, ready to carry out my threat to +shoot him should he try to leave the room. In five minutes he died. +My God! how he died! But my heart was flint, for he endured nothing +which my innocent darling had not felt before him. There is my story, +Mr. Holmes. Perhaps, if you loved a woman, you would have done as much +yourself. At any rate, I am in your hands. You can take what steps +you like. As I have already said, there is no man living who can fear +death less than I do." + +Holmes sat for some little time in silence. + +"What were your plans?" he asked at last. + +"I had intended to bury myself in central Africa. My work there is but +half finished." + +"Go and do the other half," said Holmes. "I, at least, am not prepared +to prevent you." + +Dr. Sterndale raised his giant figure, bowed gravely, and walked from +the arbour. Holmes lit his pipe and handed me his pouch. + +"Some fumes which are not poisonous would be a welcome change," said +he. "I think you must agree, Watson, that it is not a case in which we +are called upon to interfere. Our investigation has been independent, +and our action shall be so also. You would not denounce the man?" + +"Certainly not," I answered. + +"I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I loved had +met such an end, I might act even as our lawless lion-hunter has done. +Who knows? Well, Watson, I will not offend your intelligence by +explaining what is obvious. The gravel upon the window-sill was, of +course, the starting-point of my research. It was unlike anything in +the vicarage garden. Only when my attention had been drawn to Dr. +Sterndale and his cottage did I find its counterpart. The lamp shining +in broad daylight and the remains of powder upon the shield were +successive links in a fairly obvious chain. And now, my dear Watson, I +think we may dismiss the matter from our mind and go back with a clear +conscience to the study of those Chaldean roots which are surely to be +traced in the Cornish branch of the great Celtic speech." + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventure of the Devil's Foot, by +Arthur Conan Doyle + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL'S FOOT *** + +***** This file should be named 2349.txt or 2349.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/4/2349/ + +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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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by David Brannan of Woodbridge, Virginia. + + + + + +The Adventure of the Devil's Foot + +By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle + + + +In recording from time to time some of the curious experiences +and interesting recollections which I associate with my long and +intimate friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I have continually +been faced by difficulties caused by his own aversion to +publicity. To his sombre and cynical spirit all popular applause +was always abhorrent, and nothing amused him more at the end of a +successful case than to hand over the actual exposure to some +orthodox official, and to listen with a mocking smile to the +general chorus of misplaced congratulation. It was indeed this +attitude upon the part of my friend and certainly not any lack of +interesting material which has caused me of late years to lay +very few of my records before the public. My participation in +some if his adventures was always a privilege which entailed +discretion and reticence upon me. + +It was, then, with considerable surprise that I received a +telegram from Homes last Tuesday--he has never been known to +write where a telegram would serve--in the following terms: + +Why not tell them of the Cornish horror--strangest case I have +handled. + +I have no idea what backward sweep of memory had brought the +matter fresh to his mind, or what freak had caused him to desire +that I should recount it; but I hasten, before another cancelling +telegram may arrive, to hunt out the notes which give me the +exact details of the case and to lay the narrative before my +readers. + +It was, then, in the spring of the year 1897 that Holmes's iron +constitution showed some symptoms of giving way in the face of +constant hard work of a most exacting kind, aggravated, perhaps, +by occasional indiscretions of his own. In March of that year +Dr. Moore Agar, of Harley Street, whose dramatic introduction to +Holmes I may some day recount, gave positive injunctions that the +famous private agent lay aside all his cases and surrender +himself to complete rest if he wished to avert an absolute +breakdown. The state of his health was not a matter in which he +himself took the faintest interest, for his mental detachment was +absolute, but he was induced at last, on the threat of being +permanently disqualified from work, to give himself a complete +change of scene and air. Thus it was that in the early spring of +that year we found ourselves together in a small cottage near +Poldhu Bay, at the further extremity of the Cornish peninsula. + +It was a singular spot, and one peculiarly well suited to the +grim humour of my patient. From the windows of our little +whitewashed house, which stood high upon a grassy headland, we +looked down upon the whole sinister semicircle of Mounts Bay, +that old death trap of sailing vessels, with its fringe of black +cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which innumerable seamen have met +their end. With a northerly breeze it lies placid and sheltered, +inviting the storm-tossed craft to tack into it for rest and +protection. + +Then come the sudden swirl round of the wind, the blistering gale +from the south-west, the dragging anchor, the lee shore, and the +last battle in the creaming breakers. The wise mariner stands +far out from that evil place. + +On the land side our surroundings were as sombre as on the sea. +It was a country of rolling moors, lonely and dun-colored, with +an occasional church tower to mark the site of some old-world +village. In every direction upon these moors there were traces +of some vanished race which had passed utterly away, and left as +it sole record strange monuments of stone, irregular mounds which +contained the burned ashes of the dead, and curious earthworks +which hinted at prehistoric strife. The glamour and mystery of +the place, with its sinister atmosphere of forgotten nations, +appealed to the imagination of my friend, and he spent much of +his time in long walks and solitary meditations upon the moor. +The ancient Cornish language had also arrested his attention, and +he had, I remember, conceived the idea that it was akin to the +Chaldean, and had been largely derived from the Phoenician +traders in tin. He had received a consignment of books upon +philology and was settling down to develop this thesis when +suddenly, to my sorrow and to his unfeigned delight, we found +ourselves, even in that land of dreams, plunged into a problem at +our very doors which was more intense, more engrossing, and +infinitely more mysterious than any of those which had driven us +from London. Our simple life and peaceful, healthy routine were +violently interrupted, and we were precipitated into the midst of +a series of events which caused the utmost excitement not only in +Cornwall but throughout the whole west of England. Many of my +readers may retain some recollection of what was called at the +time "The Cornish Horror," though a most imperfect account of the +matter reached the London press. Now, after thirteen years, I +will give the true details of this inconceivable affair to the +public. + +I have said that scattered towers marked the villages which +dotted this part of Cornwall. The nearest of these was the +hamlet of Tredannick Wollas, where the cottages of a couple of +hundred inhabitants clustered round an ancient, moss-grown +church. The vicar of the parish, Mr. Roundhay, was something of +an archaeologist, and as such Holmes had made his acquaintance. +He was a middle-aged man, portly and affable, with a considerable +fund of local lore. At his invitation we had taken tea at the +vicarage and had come to know, also, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis, an +independent gentleman, who increased the clergyman's scanty +resources by taking rooms in his large, straggling house. The +vicar, being a bachelor, was glad to come to such an arrangement, +though he had little in common with his lodger, who was a thin, +dark, spectacled man, with a stoop which gave the impression of +actual, physical deformity. I remember that during our short +visit we found the vicar garrulous, but his lodger strangely +reticent, a sad-faced, introspective man, sitting with averted +eyes, brooding apparently upon his own affairs. + +These were the two men who entered abruptly into our little +sitting-room on Tuesday, March the 16th, shortly after our +breakfast hour, as we were smoking together, preparatory to our +daily excursion upon the moors. + +"Mr. Holmes," said the vicar in an agitated voice, "the most +extraordinary and tragic affair has occurred during the night. +It is the most unheard-of business. We can only regard it as a +special Providence that you should chance to be here at the time, +for in all England you are the one man we need." + +I glared at the intrusive vicar with no very friendly eyes; but +Holmes took his pipe from his lips and sat up in his chair like +an old hound who hears the view-halloa. He waved his hand to the +sofa, and our palpitating visitor with his agitated companion sat +side by side upon it. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis was more self- +contained than the clergyman, but the twitching of his thin hands +and the brightness of his dark eyes showed that they shared a +common emotion. + +"Shall I speak or you?" he asked of the vicar. + +"Well, as you seem to have made the discovery, whatever it may +be, and the vicar to have had it second-hand, perhaps you had +better do the speaking," said Holmes. + +I glanced at the hastily clad clergyman, with the formally +dressed lodger seated beside him, and was amused at the surprise +which Holmes's simple deduction had brought to their faces. + +"Perhaps I had best say a few words first," said the vicar, "and +then you can judge if you will listen to the details from Mr. +Tregennis, or whether we should not hasten at once to the scene +of this mysterious affair. I may explain, then, that our friend +here spent last evening in the company of his two brothers, Owen +and George, and of his sister Brenda, at their house of +Tredannick Wartha, which is near the old stone cross upon the +moor. He left them shortly after ten o'clock, playing cards +round the dining-room table, in excellent health and spirits. +This morning, being an early riser, he walked in that direction +before breakfast and was overtaken by the carriage of Dr. +Richards, who explained that he had just been sent for on a most +urgent call to Tredannick Wartha. Mr. Mortimer Tregennis +naturally went with him. When he arrived at Tredannick Wartha he +found an extraordinary state of things. His two brothers and his +sister were seated round the table exactly as he had left them, +the cards still spread in front of them and the candles burned +down to their sockets. The sister lay back stone-dead in her +chair, while the two brothers sat on each side of her laughing, +shouting, and singing, the senses stricken clean out of them. +All three of them, the dead woman and the two demented men, +retained upon their faces an expression of the utmost horror--a +convulsion of terror which was dreadful to look upon. There was +no sign of the presence of anyone in the house, except Mrs. +Porter, the old cook and housekeeper, who declared that she had +slept deeply and heard no sound during the night. Nothing had +been stolen or disarranged, and there is absolutely no +explanation of what the horror can be which has frightened a +woman to death and two strong men out of their senses. There is +the situation, Mr. Holmes, in a nutshell, and if you can help us +to clear it up you will have done a great work." + +I had hoped that in some way I could coax my companion back into +the quiet which had been the object of our journey; but one +glance at his intense face and contracted eyebrows told me how +vain was now the expectation. He sat for some little time in +silence, absorbed in the strange drama which had broken in upon +our peace. + +"I will look into this matter," he said at last. "On the face of +it, it would appear to be a case of a very exceptional nature. +Have you been there yourself, Mr. Roundhay?" + +"No, Mr. Holmes. Mr. Tregennis brought back the account to the +vicarage, and I at once hurried over with him to consult you." + +"How far is it to the house where this singular tragedy +occurred?" + +"About a mile inland." + +"Then we shall walk over together. But before we start I must +ask you a few questions, Mr. Mortimer Tregennis." + +The other had been silent all this time, but I had observed that +his more controlled excitement was even greater than the +obtrusive emotion of the clergyman. He sat with a pale, drawn +face, his anxious gaze fixed upon Holmes, and his thin hands +clasped convulsively together. His pale lips quivered as he +listened to the dreadful experience which had befallen his +family, and his dark eyes seemed to reflect something of the +horror of the scene. + +"Ask what you like, Mr. Holmes," said he eagerly. "It is a bad +thing to speak of, but I will answer you the truth." + +"Tell me about last night." + +"Well, Mr. Holmes, I supped there, as the vicar has said, and my +elder brother George proposed a game of whist afterwards. We sat +down about nine o'clock. It was a quarter-past ten when I moved +to go. I left them all round the table, as merry as could be." + +"Who let you out?" + +"Mrs. Porter had gone to bed, so I let myself out. I shut the +hall door behind me. The window of the room in which they sat +was closed, but the blind was not drawn down. There was no +change in door or window this morning, or any reason to think +that any stranger had been to the house. Yet there they sat, +driven clean mad with terror, and Brenda lying dead of fright, +with her head hanging over the arm of the chair. I'll never get +the sight of that room out of my mind so long as I live." + +"The facts, as you state them, are certainly most remarkable," +said Holmes. "I take it that you have no theory yourself which +can in any way account for them?" + +"It's devilish, Mr. Holmes, devilish!" cried Mortimer Tregennis. +"It is not of this world. Something has come into that room +which has dashed the light of reason from their minds. What +human contrivance could do that?" + +"I fear," said Holmes, "that if the matter is beyond humanity it +is certainly beyond me. Yet we must exhaust all natural +explanations before we fall back upon such a theory as this. As +to yourself, Mr. Tregennis, I take it you were divided in some +way from your family, since they lived together and you had rooms +apart?" + +"That is so, Mr. Holmes, though the matter is past and done with. +We were a family of tin-miners at Redruth, but we sold our +venture to a company, and so retired with enough to keep us. I +won't deny that there was some feeling about the division of the +money and it stood between us for a time, but it was all forgiven +and forgotten, and we were the best of friends together." + +"Looking back at the evening which you spent together, does +anything stand out in your memory as throwing any possible light +upon the tragedy? Think carefully, Mr. Tregennis, for any clue +which can help me." + +"There is nothing at all, sir." + +"Your people were in their usual spirits?" + +"Never better." + +"Were they nervous people? Did they ever show any apprehension +of coming danger?" + +"Nothing of the kind." + +"You have nothing to add then, which could assist me?" + +Mortimer Tregennis considered earnestly for a moment. + +"There is one thing occurs to me," said he at last. "As we sat +at the table my back was to the window, and my brother George, he +being my partner at cards, was facing it. I saw him once look +hard over my shoulder, so I turned round and looked also. The +blind was up and the window shut, but I could just make out the +bushes on the lawn, and it seemed to me for a moment that I saw +something moving among them. I couldn't even say if it was man +or animal, but I just thought there was something there. When I +asked him what he was looking at, he told me that he had the same +feeling. That is all that I can say." + +"Did you not investigate?" + +"No; the matter passed as unimportant." + +"You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?" + +"None at all." + +"I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this +morning." + +"I am an early riser and generally take a walk before breakfast. +This morning I had hardly started when the doctor in his carriage +overtook me. He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down +with an urgent message. I sprang in beside him and we drove on. +When we got there we looked into that dreadful room. The candles +and the fire must have burned out hours before, and they had been +sitting there in the dark until dawn had broken. The doctor said +Brenda must have been dead at least six hours. There were no +signs of violence. She just lay across the arm of the chair with +that look on her face. George and Owen were singing snatches of +songs and gibbering like two great apes. Oh, it was awful to +see! I couldn't stand it, and the doctor was as white as a +sheet. Indeed, he fell into a chair in a sort of faint, and we +nearly had him on our hands as well." + +"Remarkable--most remarkable!" said Holmes, rising and taking his +hat. "I think, perhaps, we had better go down to Tredannick +Wartha without further delay. I confess that I have seldom known +a case which at first sight presented a more singular problem." + + +Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the +investigation. It was marked, however, at the outset by an +incident which left the most sinister impression upon my mind. +The approach to the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a +narrow, winding, country lane. While we made our way along it we +heard the rattle of a carriage coming towards us and stood aside +to let it pass. As it drove by us I caught a glimpse through the +closed window of a horribly contorted, grinning face glaring out +at us. Those staring eyes and gnashing teeth flashed past us +like a dreadful vision. + +"My brothers!" cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips. +"They are taking them to Helston." + +We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering upon +its way. Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house +in which they had met their strange fate. + +It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a +cottage, with a considerable garden which was already, in that +Cornish air, well filled with spring flowers. Towards this +garden the window of the sitting-room fronted, and from it, +according to Mortimer Tregennis, must have come that thing of +evil which had by sheer horror in a single instant blasted their +minds. Holmes walked slowly and thoughtfully among the flower- +plots and along the path before we entered the porch. So +absorbed was he in his thoughts, I remember, that he stumbled +over the watering-pot, upset its contents, and deluged both our +feet and the garden path. Inside the house we were met by the +elderly Cornish housekeeper, Mrs. Porter, who, with the aid of a +young girl, looked after the wants of the family. She readily +answered all Holmes's questions. She had heard nothing in the +night. Her employers had all been in excellent spirits lately, +and she had never known them more cheerful and prosperous. She +had fainted with horror upon entering the room in the morning and +seeing that dreadful company round the table. She had, when she +recovered, thrown open the window to let the morning air in, and +had run down to the lane, whence she sent a farm-lad for the +doctor. The lady was on her bed upstairs if we cared to see her. +It took four strong men to get the brothers into the asylum +carriage. She would not herself stay in the house another day +and was starting that very afternoon to rejoin her family at St. +Ives. + +We ascended the stairs and viewed the body. Miss Brenda +Tregennis had been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon +middle age. Her dark, clear-cut face was handsome, even in +death, but there still lingered upon it something of that +convulsion of horror which had been her last human emotion. From +her bedroom we descended to the sitting-room, where this strange +tragedy had actually occurred. The charred ashes of the +overnight fire lay in the grate. On the table were the four +guttered and burned-out candles, with the cards scattered over +its surface. The chairs had been moved back against the walls, +but all else was as it had been the night before. Holmes paced +with light, swift steps about the room; he sat in the various +chairs, drawing them up and reconstructing their positions. He +tested how much of the garden was visible; he examined the floor, +the ceiling, and the fireplace; but never once did I see that +sudden brightening of his eyes and tightening of his lips which +would have told me that he saw some gleam of light in this utter +darkness. + +"Why a fire?" he asked once. "Had they always a fire in this +small room on a spring evening?" + +Mortimer Tregennis explained that the night was cold and damp. +For that reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit. "What are +you going to do now, Mr. Holmes?" he asked. + +My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm. "I think, +Watson, that I shall resume that course of tobacco-poisoning +which you have so often and so justly condemned," said he. "With +your permission, gentlemen, we will now return to our cottage, +for I am not aware that any new factor is likely to come to our +notice here. I will turn the facts over in my mid, Mr, +Tregennis, and should anything occur to me I will certainly +ommunicate with you and the vicar. In the meantime I wish you +both good-morning." + +It was not until long after we were back in Poldhu Cottage that +Holmes broke his complete and absorbed silence. He sat coiled in +his armchair, his haggard and ascetic face hardly visible amid +the blue swirl of his tobacco smoke, his black brows drawn down, +his forehead contracted, his eyes vacant and far away. Finally +he laid down his pipe and sprang to his feet. + +"It won't do, Watson!" said he with a laugh. "Let us walk along +the cliffs together and search for flint arrows. We are more +likely to find them than clues to this problem. To let the brain +work without sufficient material is like racing an engine. It +racks itself to pieces. The sea air, sunshine, and patience, +Watson--all else will come. + +"Now, let us calmly define our position, Watson," he continued as +we skirted the cliffs together. "Let us get a firm grip of the +very little which we DO know, so that when fresh facts arise we +may be ready to fit them into their places. I take it, in the +first place, that neither of us is prepared to admit diabolical +intrusions into the affairs of men. Let us begin by ruling that +entirely out of our minds. Very good. There remain three +persons who have been grievously stricken by some conscious or +unconscious human agency. That is firm ground. Now, when did +this occur? Evidently, assuming his narrative to be true, it was +immediately after Mr. Mortimer Tregennis had left the room. That +is a very important point. The presumption is that it was within +a few minutes afterwards. The cards still lay upon the table. +It was already past their usual hour for bed. Yet they had not +changed their position or pushed back their chairs. I repeat, +then, that the occurrence was immediately after his departure, +and not later than eleven o'clock last night. + +"Our next obvious step is to check, so far as we can, the +movements of Mortimer Tregennis after he left the room. In this +there is no difficulty, and they seem to be above suspicion. +Knowing my methods as you do, you were, of course, conscious of +the somewhat clumsy water-pot expedient by which I obtained a +clearer impress of his foot than might otherwise have been +possible. The wet, sandy path took it admirably. Last night was +also wet, you will remember, and it was not difficult--having +obtained a sample print--to pick out his track among others and +to follow his movements. He appears to have walked away swiftly +in the direction of the vicarage. + +"If, then, Mortimer Tregennis disappeared from the scene, and yet +some outside person affected the card-players, how can we +reconstruct that person, and how was such an impression of horror +conveyed? Mrs. Porter may be eliminated. She is evidently +harmless. Is there any evidence that someone crept up to the +garden window and in some manner produced so terrific an effect +that he drove those who saw it out of their senses? The only +suggestion in this direction comes from Mortimer Tregennis +himself, who says that his brother spoke about some movement in +the garden. That is certainly remarkable, as the night was +rainy, cloudy, and dark. Anyone who had the design to alarm +these people would be compelled to place his very face against +the glass before he could be seen. There is a three-foot flower- +border outside this window, but no indication of a footmark. It +is difficult to imagine, then, how an outsider could have made so +terrible an impression upon the company, nor have we found any +possible motive for so strange and elaborate an attempt. You +perceive our difficulties, Watson?" + +"They are only too clear," I answered with conviction. + +"And yet, with a little more material, we may prove that they are +not insurmountable," said Holmes. "I fancy that among your +extensive archives, Watson, you may find some which were nearly +as obscure. Meanwhile, we shall put the case aside until more +accurate data are available, and devote the rest of our morning +to the pursuit of neolithic man." + +I may have commented upon my friend's power of mental detachment, +but never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring +morning in Cornwall when for two hours he discoursed upon celts, +arrowheads, and shards, as lightly as if no sinister mystery were +waiting for his solution. It was not until we had returned in +the afternoon to our cottage that we found a visitor awaiting us, +who soon brought our minds back to the matter in hand. Neither +of us needed to be told who that visitor was. The huge body, the +craggy and deeply seamed face with the fierce eyes and hawk-like +nose, the grizzled hair which nearly brushed our cottage ceiling, +the beard--golden at the fringes and white near the lips, save +for the nicotine stain from his perpetual cigar--all these were +as well known in London as in Africa, and could only be +associated with the tremendous personality of Dr. Leon Sterndale, +the great lion-hunter and explorer. + +We had heard of his presence in the district and had once or +twice caught sight of his tall figure upon the moorland paths. +He made no advances to us, however, nor would we have dreamed of +doing so to him, as it was well known that it was his love of +seclusion which caused him to spend the greater part of the +intervals between his journeys in a small bungalow buried in the +lonely wood of Beauchamp Arriance. Here, amid his books and his +maps, he lived an absolutely lonely life, attending to his own +simple wants and paying little apparent heed to the affairs of +his neighbours. It was a surprise to me, therefore, to hear him +asking Holmes in an eager voice whether he had made any advance +in his reconstruction of this mysterious episode. "The county +police are utterly at fault," said he, "but perhaps your wider +experience has suggested some conceivable explanation. My only +claim to being taken into your confidence is that during my many +residences here I have come to know this family of Tregennis very +well--indeed, upon my Cornish mother's side I could call them +cousins--and their strange fate has naturally been a great shock +to me. I may tell you that I had got as far as Plymouth upon my +way to Africa, but the news reached me this morning, and I came +straight back again to help in the inquiry." + +Holmes raised his eyebrows. + +"Did you lose your boat through it?" + +"I will take the next." + +"Dear me! that is friendship indeed." + +"I tell you they were relatives." + +"Quite so--cousins of your mother. Was your baggage aboard the +ship?" + +"Some of it, but the main part at the hotel." + +"I see. But surely this event could not have found its way into +the Plymouth morning papers." + +"No, sir; I had a telegram." + +"Might I ask from whom?" + +A shadow passed over the gaunt face of the explorer. + +"You are very inquisitive, Mr. Holmes." + +"It is my business." + +With an effort Dr. Sterndale recovered his ruffled composure. + +"I have no objection to telling you," he said. "It was Mr. +Roundhay, the vicar, who sent me the telegram which recalled me." + +"Thank you," said Holmes. "I may say in answer to your original +question that I have not cleared my mind entirely on the subject +of this case, but that I have every hope of reaching some +conclusion. It would be premature to say more." + +"Perhaps you would not mind telling me if your suspicions point +in any particular direction?" + +"No, I can hardly answer that." + +"Then I have wasted my time and need not prolong my visit." The +famous doctor strode out of our cottage in considerable ill- +humour, and within five minutes Holmes had followed him. I saw +him no more until the evening, when he returned with a slow step +and haggard face which assured me that he had made no great +progress with his investigation. He glanced at a telegram which +awaited him and threw it into the grate. + +"From the Plymouth hotel, Watson," he said. "I learned the name +of it from the vicar, and I wired to make certain that Dr. Leon +Sterndale's account was true. It appears that he did indeed +spend last night there, and that he has actually allowed some of +his baggage to go on to Africa, while he returned to be present +at this investigation. What do you make of that, Watson?" + +"He is deeply interested." + +"Deeply interested--yes. There is a thread here which we had not +yet grasped and which might lead us through the tangle. Cheer +up, Watson, for I am very sure that our material has not yet all +come to hand. When it does we may soon leave our difficulties +behind us." + +Little did I think how soon the words of Holmes would be +realized, or how strange and sinister would be that new +development which opened up an entirely fresh line of +investigation. I was shaving at my window in the morning when I +heard the rattle of hoofs and, looking up, saw a dog-cart coming +at a gallop down the road. It pulled up at our door, and our +friend, the vicar, sprang from it and rushed up our garden path. +Holmes was already dressed, and we hastened down to meet him. + +Our visitor was so excited that he could hardly articulate, but +at last in gasps and bursts his tragic story came out of him. + +"We are devil-ridden, Mr. Holmes! My poor parish is devil- +ridden!" he cried. "Satan himself is loose in it! We are given +over into his hands!" He danced about in his agitation, a +ludicrous object if it were not for his ashy face and startled +eyes. Finally he shot out his terrible news. + +"Mr. Mortimer Tregennis died during the night, and with exactly +the same symptoms as the rest of his family." + +Holmes sprang to his feet, all energy in an instant. + +"Can you fit us both into your dog-cart?" + +"Yes, I can." + +"Then, Watson, we will postpone our breakfast. Mr. Roundhay, we +are entirely at your disposal. Hurry--hurry, before things get +disarranged." + +The lodger occupied two rooms at the vicarage, which were in an +angle by themselves, the one above the other. Below was a large +sitting-room; above, his bedroom. They looked out upon a croquet +lawn which came up to the windows. We had arrived before the +doctor or the police, so that everything was absolutely +undisturbed. Let me describe exactly the scene as we saw it upon +that misty March morning. It has left an impression which can +never be effaced from my mind. + +The atmosphere of the room was of a horrible and depressing +stuffiness. The servant had first entered had thrown up the +window, or it would have been even more intolerable. This might +partly be due to the fact that a lamp stood flaring and smoking +on the centre table. Beside it sat the dead man, leaning back in +his chair, his thin beard projecting, his spectacles pushed up +on to his forehead, and his lean dark face turned towards the +window and twisted into the same distortion of terror which had +marked the features of his dead sister. His limbs were convulsed +and his fingers contorted as though he had died in a very +paroxysm of fear. He was fully clothed, though there were signs +that his dressing had been done in a hurry. We had already +learned that his bed had been slept in, and that the tragic end +had come to him in the early morning. + +One realized the red-hot energy which underlay Holmes's +phlegmatic exterior when one saw the sudden change which came +over him from the moment that he entered the fatal apartment. In +an instant he was tense and alert, his eyes shining, his face +set, his limbs quivering with eager activity. He was out on the +lawn, in through the window, round the room, and up into the +bedroom, for all the world like a dashing foxhound drawing a +cover. In the bedroom he made a rapid cast around and ended by +throwing open the window, which appeared to give him some fresh +cause for excitement, for he leaned out of it with loud +ejaculations of interest and delight. Then he rushed down the +stair, out through the open window, threw himself upon his face +on the lawn, sprang up and into the room once more, all with the +energy of the hunter who is at the very heels of his quarry. The +lamp, which was an ordinary standard, he examined with minute +care, making certain measurements upon its bowl. He carefully +scrutinized with his lens the talc shield which covered the top +of the chimney and scraped off some ashes which adhered to its +upper surface, putting some of them into an envelope, which he +placed in his pocketbook. Finally, just as the doctor and the +official police put in an appearance, he beckoned to the vicar +and we all three went out upon the lawn. + +"I am glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely +barren," he remarked. "I cannot remain to discuss the matter +with the police, but I should be exceedingly obliged, Mr. +Roundhay, if you would give the inspector my compliments and +direct his attention to the bedroom window and to the sitting- +room lamp. Each is suggestive, and together they are almost +conclusive. If the police would desire further information I +shall be happy to see any of them at the cottage. And now, +Watson, I think that, perhaps, we shall be better employed +elsewhere." + +It may be that the police resented the intrusion of an amateur, +or that they imagined themselves to be upon some hopeful line of +investigation; but it is certain that we heard nothing from them +for the next two days. During this time Holmes spent some of his +time smoking and dreaming in the cottage; but a greater portion +in country walks which he undertook alone, returning after many +hours without remark as to where he had been. One experiment +served to show me the line of his investigation. He had bought a +lamp which was the duplicate of the one which had burned in the +room of Mortimer Tregennis on the morning of the tragedy. This +he filled with the same oil as that used at the vicarage, and he +carefully timed the period which it would take to be exhausted. +Another experiment which he made was of a more unpleasant nature, +and one which I am not likely ever to forget. + +"You will remember, Watson," he remarked one afternoon, "that +there is a single common point of resemblance in the varying +reports which have reached us. This concerns the effect of the +atmosphere of the room in each case upon those who had first +entered it. You will recollect that Mortimer Tregennis, in +describing the episode of his last visit to his brother's house, +remarked that the doctor on entering the room fell into a chair? +You had forgotten? Well I can answer for it that it was so. +Now, you will remember also that Mrs. Porter, the housekeeper, +told us that she herself fainted upon entering the room and had +afterwards opened the window. In the second case--that of +Mortimer Tregennis himself--you cannot have forgotten the +horrible stuffiness of the room when we arrived, though the +servant had thrown open the window. That servant, I found upon +inquiry, was so ill that she had gone to her bed. You will +admit, Watson, that these facts are very suggestive. In each +case there is evidence of a poisonous atmosphere. In each case, +also, there is combustion going on in the room--in the one case a +fire, in the other a lamp. The fire was needed, but the lamp was +lit--as a comparison of the oil consumed will show--long after it +was broad daylight. Why? Surely because there is some +connection between three things--the burning, the stuffy +atmosphere, and, finally, the madness or death of those +unfortunate people. That is clear, is it not?" + +"It would appear so." + +"At least we may accept it as a working hypothesis. We will +suppose, then, that something was burned in each case which +produced an atmosphere causing strange toxic effects. Very good. +In the first instance--that of the Tregennis family--this +substance was placed in the fire. Now the window was shut, but +the fire would naturally carry fumes to some extent up the +chimney. Hence one would expect the effects of the poison to be +less than in the second case, where there was less escape for the +vapour. The result seems to indicate that it was so, since in +the first case only the woman, who had presumably the more +sensitive organism, was killed, the others exhibiting that +temporary or permanent lunacy which is evidently the first effect +of the drug. In the second case the result was complete. The +facts, therefore, seem to bear out the theory of a poison which +worked by combustion. + +"With this train of reasoning in my head I naturally looked about +in Mortimer Tregennis's room to find some remains of this +substance. The obvious place to look was the talc shelf or +smoke-guard of the lamp. There, sure enough, I perceived a number +of flaky ashes, and round the edges a fringe of brownish powder, +which had not yet been consumed. Half of this I took, as you +saw, and I placed it in an envelope." + +"Why half, Holmes?" + +"It is not for me, my dear Watson, to stand in the way of the +official police force. I leave them all the evidence which I +found. The poison still remained upon the talc had they the wit +to find it. Now, Watson, we will light our lamp; we will, +however, take the precaution to open our window to avoid the +premature decease of two deserving members of society, and you +will seat yourself near that open window in an armchair unless, +like a sensible man, you determine to have nothing to do with the +affair. Oh, you will see it out, will you? I thought I knew my +Watson. This chair I will place opposite yours, so that we may +be the same distance from the poison and face to face. The door +we will leave ajar. Each is now in a position to watch the other +and to bring the experiment to an end should the symptoms seem +alarming. Is that all clear? Well, then, I take our powder--or +what remains of it--from the envelope, and I lay it above the +burning lamp. So! Now, Watson, let us sit down and await +developments." + +They were not long in coming. I had hardly settled in my chair +before I was conscious of a thick, musky odour, subtle and +nauseous. At the very first whiff of it my brain and my +imagination were beyond all control. A thick, black cloud +swirled before my eyes, and my mind told me that in this cloud, +unseen as yet, but about to spring out upon my appalled senses, +lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and +inconceivably wicked in the universe. Vague shapes swirled and +swam amid the dark cloud-bank, each a menace and a warning of +something coming, the advent of some unspeakable dweller upon the +threshold, whose very shadow would blast my soul. A freezing +horror took possession of me. I felt that my hair was rising, +that my eyes were protruding, that my mouth was opened, and my +tongue like leather. The turmoil within my brain was such that +something must surely snap. I tried to scream and was vaguely +aware of some hoarse croak which was my own voice, but distant +and detached from myself At the same moment, in some effort of +escape, I broke through that cloud of despair and had a glimpse +of Holmes's face, white, rigid, and drawn with horror--the very +look which I had seen upon the features of the dead. It was that +vision which gave me an instant of sanity and of strength. I +dashed from my chair, threw my arms round Holmes, and together we +lurched through the door, and an instant afterwards had thrown +ourselves down upon the grass plot and were lying side by side, +conscious only of the glorious sunshine which was bursting its +way through the hellish cloud of terror which had girt us in. +Slowly it rose from our souls like the mists from a landscape +until peace and reason had returned, and we were sitting upon the +grass, wiping our clammy foreheads, and looking with apprehension +at each other to mark the last traces of that terrific experience +which we had undergone. + +"Upon my word, Watson!" said Holmes at last with an unsteady +voice, "I owe you both my thanks and an apology. It was an +unjustifiable experiment even for one's self, and doubly so for a +friend. I am really very sorry." + +"You know," I answered with some emotion, for I have never seen +so much of Holmes's heart before, "that it is my greatest joy and +privilege to help you." + +He relapsed at once into the half-humorous, half-cynical vein +which was his habitual attitude to those about him. "It would be +superfluous to drive us mad, my dear Watson," said he. "A candid +observer would certainly declare that we were so already before +we embarked upon so wild an experiment. I confess that I never +imagined that the effect could be so sudden and so severe." He +dashed into the cottage, and, reappearing with the burning lamp +held at full arm's length, he threw it among a bank of brambles. +"We must give the room a little time to clear. I take it, +Watson, that you have no longer a shadow of a doubt as to how +these tragedies were produced?" + +"None whatever." + +"But the cause remains as obscure as before. Come into the +arbour here and let us discuss it together. That villainous +stuff seems still to linger round my throat. I think we must +admit that all the evidence points to this man, Mortimer +Tregennis, having been the criminal in the first tragedy, though +he was the victim in the second one. We must remember, in the +first place, that there is some story of a family quarrel, +followed by a reconciliation. How bitter that quarrel may have +been, or how hollow the reconciliation we cannot tell. When I +think of Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face and the small +shrewd, beady eyes behind the spectacles, he is not a man whom I +should judge to be of a particularly forgiving disposition. +Well, in the next place, you will remember that this idea of +someone moving in the garden, which took our attention for a +moment from the real cause of the tragedy, emanated from him. He +had a motive in misleading us. Finally, if he did not throw the +substance into the fire at the moment of leaving the room, who +did do so? The affair happened immediately after his departure. +Had anyone else come in, the family would certainly have risen +from the table. Besides, in peaceful Cornwall, visitors did not +arrive after ten o'clock at night. We may take it, then, that +all the evidence points to Mortimer Tregennis as the culprit." + +"Then his own death was suicide!" + +"Well, Watson, it is on the face of it a not impossible +supposition. The man who had the guilt upon his soul of having +brought such a fate upon his own family might well be driven by +remorse to inflict it upon himself. There are, however, some +cogent reasons against it. Fortunately, there is one man in +England who knows all about it, and I have made arrangements by +which we shall hear the facts this afternoon from his own lips. +Ah! he is a little before his time. Perhaps you would kindly +step this way, Dr. Leon Sterndale. We have been conducing a +chemical experiment indoors which has left our little room hardly +fit for the reception of so distinguished a visitor." + +I had heard the click of the garden gate, and now the majestic +figure of the great African explorer appeared upon the path. He +turned in some surprise towards the rustic arbour in which we +sat. + +"You sent for me, Mr. Holmes. I had your note about an hour ago, +and I have come, though I really do not know why I should obey +your summons." + +"Perhaps we can clear the point up before we separate," said +Holmes. "Meanwhile, I am much obliged to you for your courteous +acquiescence. You will excuse this informal reception in the +open air, but my friend Watson and I have nearly furnished an +additional chapter to what the papers call the Cornish Horror, +and we prefer a clear atmosphere for the present. Perhaps, since +the matters which we have to discuss will affect you personally +in a very intimate fashion, it is as well that we should talk +where there can be no eavesdropping." + +The explorer took his cigar from his lips and gazed sternly at my +companion. + +"I am at a loss to know, sir," he said, "what you can have to +speak about which affects me personally in a very intimate +fashion." + +"The killing of Mortimer Tregennis," said Holmes. + +For a moment I wished that I were armed. Sterndale's fierce face +turned to a dusky red, his eyes glared, and the knotted, +passionate veins started out in his forehead, while he sprang +forward with clenched hands towards my companion. Then he +stopped, and with a violent effort he resumed a cold, rigid +calmness, which was, perhaps, more suggestive of danger than his +hot-headed outburst. + +"I have lived so long among savages and beyond the law," said he, +"that I have got into the way of being a law to myself. You +would do well, Mr. Holmes, not to forget it, for I have no desire +to do you an injury." + +"Nor have I any desire to do you an injury, Dr. Sterndale. +Surely the clearest proof of it is that, knowing what I know, I +have sent for you and not for the police." + +Sterndale sat down with a gasp, overawed for, perhaps, the first +time in his adventurous life. There was a calm assurance of +power in Holmes's manner which could not be withstood. Our +visitor stammered for a moment, his great hands opening and +shutting in his agitation. + +"What do you mean?" he asked at last. "If this is bluff upon +your part, Mr. Holmes, you have chosen a bad man for your +experiment. Let us have no more beating about the bush. What DO +you mean?" + +"I will tell you," said Holmes, "and the reason why I tell you is +that I hope frankness may beget frankness. What my next step may +be will depend entirely upon the nature of your own defence." + +"My defence?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"My defence against what?" + +"Against the charge of killing Mortimer Tregennis." + +Sterndale mopped his forehead with his handkerchief. "Upon my +word, you are getting on," said he. "Do all your successes +depend upon this prodigious power of bluff?" + +"The bluff," said Holmes sternly, "is upon your side, Dr. Leon +Sterndale, and not upon mine. As a proof I will tell you some of +the facts upon which my conclusions are based. Of your return +from Plymouth, allowing much of your property to go on to Africa, +I will say nothing save that it first informed me that you were +one of the factors which had to be taken into account in +reconstructing this drama--" + +"I came back--" + +"I have heard your reasons and regard them as unconvincing and +inadequate. We will pass that. You came down here to ask me +whom I suspected. I refused to answer you. You then went to the +vicarage, waited outside it for some time, and finally returned +to your cottage." + +"How do you know that?" + +"I followed you." + +"I saw no one." + +"That is what you may expect to see when I follow you. You spent +a restless night at your cottage, and you formed certain plans, +which in the early morning you proceeded to put into execution. +Leaving your door just as day was breaking, you filled your +pocket with some reddish gravel that was lying heaped beside your +gate." + +Sterndale gave a violent start and looked at Holmes in amazement. + +"You then walked swiftly for the mile which separated you from +the vicarage. You were wearing, I may remark, the same pair of +ribbed tennis shoes which are at the present moment upon your +feet. At the vicarage you passed through the orchard and the +side hedge, coming out under the window of the lodger Tregennis. +It was now daylight, but the household was not yet stirring. You +drew some of the gravel from your pocket, and you threw it up at +the window above you." + +Sterndale sprang to his feet. + +"I believe that you are the devil himself!" he cried. + +Holmes smiled at the compliment. "It took two, or possibly +three, handfuls before the lodger came to the window. You +beckoned him to come down. He dressed hurriedly and descended to +his sitting-room. You entered by the window. There was an +interview--a short one--during which you walked up and down the +room. Then you passed out and closed the window, standing on the +lawn outside smoking a cigar and watching what occurred. +Finally, after the death of Tregennis, you withdrew as you had +come. Now, Dr. Sterndale, how do you justify such conduct, and +what were the motives for your actions? If you prevaricate or +trifle with me, I give you my assurance that the matter will pass +out of my hands forever." + +Our visitor's face had turned ashen gray as he listened to the +words of his accuser. Now he sat for some time in thought with +his face sunk in his hands. Then with a sudden impulsive gesture +he plucked a photograph from his breast-pocket and threw it on +the rustic table before us. + +"That is why I have done it," said he. + +It showed the bust and face of a very beautiful woman. Holmes +stooped over it. + +"Brenda Tregennis," said he. + +"Yes, Brenda Tregennis," repeated our visitor. "For years I have +loved her. For years she has loved me. There is the secret of +that Cornish seclusion which people have marvelled at. It has +brought me close to the one thing on earth that was dear to me. +I could not marry her, for I have a wife who has left me for +years and yet whom, by the deplorable laws of England, I could +not divorce. For years Brenda waited. For years I waited. And +this is what we have waited for." A terrible sob shook his great +frame, and he clutched his throat under his brindled beard. Then +with an effort he mastered himself and spoke on: + +"The vicar knew. He was in our confidence. He would tell you +that she was an angel upon earth. That was why he telegraphed to +me and I returned. What was my baggage or Africa to me when I +learned that such a fate had come upon my darling? There you +have the missing clue to my action, Mr. Holmes." + +"Proceed," said my friend. + +Dr. Sterndale drew from his pocket a paper packet and laid it +upon the table. On the outside was written "Radix pedis diaboli" +with a red poison label beneath it. He pushed it towards me. "I +understand that you are a doctor, sir. Have you ever heard of +this preparation?" + +"Devil's-foot root! No, I have never heard of it." + +"It is no reflection upon your professional knowledge," said he, +"for I believe that, save for one sample in a laboratory at Buda, +there is no other specimen in Europe. It has not yet found its +way either into the pharmacopoeia or into the literature of +toxicology. The root is shaped like a foot, half human, half +goatlike; hence the fanciful name given by a botanical +missionary. It is used as an ordeal poison by the medicine-men +in certain districts of West Africa and is kept as a secret among +them. This particular specimen I obtained under very +extraordinary circumstances in the Ubangi country." He opened +the paper as he spoke and disclosed a heap of reddish-brown, +snuff-like powder. + +"Well, sir?" asked Holmes sternly. + +"I am about to tell you, Mr. Holmes, all that actually occurred, +for you already know so much that it is clearly to my interest +that you should know all. I have already explained the +relationship in which I stood to the Tregennis family. For the +sake of the sister I was friendly with the brothers. There was a +family quarrel about money which estranged this man Mortimer, but +it was supposed to be made up, and I afterwards met him as I did +the others. He was a sly, subtle, scheming man, and several +things arose which gave me a suspicion of him, but I had no cause +for any positive quarrel. + +"One day, only a couple of weeks ago, he came down to my cottage +and I showed him some of my African curiosities. Among other +things I exhibited this powder, and I told him of its strange +properties, how it stimulates those brain centres which control +the emotion of fear, and how either madness or death is the fate +of the unhappy native who is subjected to the ordeal by the +priest of his tribe. I told him also how powerless European +science would be to detect it. How he took it I cannot say, for +I never left the room, but there is no doubt that it was then, +while I was opening cabinets and stooping to boxes, that he +managed to abstract some of the devil's-foot root. I well +remember how he plied me with questions as to the amount and the +time that was needed for its effect, but I little dreamed that he +could have a personal reason for asking. + +"I thought no more of the matter until the vicar's telegram +reached me at Plymouth. This villain had thought that I would be +at sea before the news could reach me, and that I should be lost +for years in Africa. But I returned at once. Of course, I could +not listen to the details without feeling assured that my poison +had been used. I came round to see you on the chance that some +other explanation had suggested itself to you. But there could +be none. I was convinced that Mortimer Tregennis was the +murderer; that for the sake of money, and with the idea, perhaps, +that if the other members of his family were all insane he would +be the sole guardian of their joint property, he had used the +devil's-foot powder upon them, driven two of them out of their +senses, and killed his sister Brenda, the one human being whom I +have ever loved or who has ever loved me. There was his crime; +what was to be his punishment? + +"Should I appeal to the law? Where were my proofs? I knew that +the facts were true, but could I help to make a jury of +countrymen believe so fantastic a story? I might or I might not. +But I could not afford to fail. My soul cried out for revenge. +I have said to you once before, Mr. Holmes, that I have spent +much of my life outside the law, and that I have come at last to +be a law to myself. So it was even now. I determined that the +fate which he had given to others should be shared by himself. +Either that or I would do justice upon him with my own hand. In +all England there can be no man who sets less value upon his own +life than I do at the present moment. + +"Now I have told you all. You have yourself supplied the rest. +I did, as you say, after a restless night, set off early from my +cottage. I foresaw the difficulty of arousing him, so I gathered +some gravel from the pile which you have mentioned, and I used it +to throw up to his window. He came down and admitted me through +the window of the sitting-room. I laid his offence before him. +I told him that I had come both as judge and executioner. The +wretch sank into a chair, paralyzed at the sight of my revolver. +I lit the lamp, put the powder above it, and stood outside the +window, ready to carry out my threat to shoot him should he try +to leave the room. In five minutes he died. My God! how he +died! But my heart was flint, for he endured nothing which my +innocent darling had not felt before him. There is my story, Mr. +Holmes. Perhaps, if you loved a woman, you would have done as +much yourself. At any rate, I am in your hands. You can take +what steps you like. As I have already said, there is no man +living who can fear death less than I do." + +Holmes sat for some little time in silence. + +"What were your plans?" he asked at last. + +"I had intended to bury myself in central Africa. My work there +is but half finished." + +"Go and do the other half," said Holmes. "I, at least, am not +prepared to prevent you." + +Dr. Sterndale raised his giant figure, bowed gravely, and walked +from the arbour. Holmes lit his pipe and handed me his pouch. + +"Some fumes which are not poisonous would be a welcome change," +said he. "I think you must agree, Watson, that it is not a case +in which we are called upon to interfere. Our investigation has +been independent, and our action shall be so also. You would not +denounce the man?" + +"Certainly not," I answered. + +"I have never loved, Watson, but if I did and if the woman I +loved had met such an end, I might act even as our lawless lion- +hunter has done. Who knows? Well, Watson, I will not offend +your intelligence by explaining what is obvious. The gravel upon +the window-sill was, of course, the starting-point of my +research. It was unlike anything in the vicarage garden. Only +when my attention had been drawn to Dr. Sterndale and his cottage +did I find its counterpart. The lamp shining in broad daylight +and the remains of powder upon the shield were successive links +in a fairly obvious chain. And now, my dear Watson, I think we +may dismiss the matter from our mind and go back with a clear +conscience to the study of those Chaldean roots which are surely +to be traced in the Cornish branch of the great Celtic speech." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Adventure of the Devil's Foot + diff --git a/old/dvlft10.zip b/old/dvlft10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0414188 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/dvlft10.zip |