Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Reading by Robin Cotter, Toronto, Ontario,
Speaker 1: October two thousand six. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by
Speaker 1: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Adventure number three. A case of identity,
Speaker 1: My dear fellow, said Sherlock Holmes, as we sat on
Speaker 1: either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street.
Speaker 1: Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of
Speaker 1: man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the
Speaker 1: things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we
Speaker 1: could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover
Speaker 1: over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep
Speaker 1: in at the queer things which are going on, the
Speaker 1: strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross purposes, the wonderful chains
Speaker 1: of events working through generations and leading to the most
Speaker 1: utra results. It would make all fiction, with its conventionalities
Speaker 1: and foreseen conclusions, most stale and unprofitable. And yet I
Speaker 1: am not convinced of it. I answered. The cases which
Speaker 1: come to light in the papers are as a rule
Speaker 1: bald enough and vulgar enough. We have in our police
Speaker 1: reports realism pushed to its extreme limits. And yet the
Speaker 1: result is it must be confessed neither fascinating nor artistic.
Speaker 1: A certain selection and discretion must be used in producing
Speaker 1: a realistic effect. Remarked Holmes, this is wanting in the
Speaker 1: police report, where more stress is laid, perhaps upon the
Speaker 1: platitudes of the magistrate, than upon the details which to
Speaker 1: an observer contain the vital essence of the whole matter
Speaker 1: depend upon it. There is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.
Speaker 1: I smiled and shook my head. I can quite understand
Speaker 1: your thinking, so I said. Of course, in your position
Speaker 1: of unofficial adviser and helper to everybody who is absolutely
Speaker 1: puzzled throughout three continents, you are brought in contact with
Speaker 1: all that is strange and bizarre. But here I picked
Speaker 1: up the morning paper from the ground. Let us put
Speaker 1: it to a practical test. Here is the first heading
Speaker 1: upon which I come, A husband's cruelty to his wife.
Speaker 1: There is half a column of print, but I know
Speaker 1: without reading it that it is all perfectly familiar to me.
Speaker 1: There is, of course, the other woman, the drink, the push,
Speaker 1: the blow the bruise the sympathetic sister or landlady. The
Speaker 1: crudest of writers could invent nothing more crude. Indeed, your
Speaker 1: example is an unfortunate one for your argument, said Holmes,
Speaker 1: taking the paper and glancing his eye down it. This
Speaker 1: is the dundass separation case, and as it happens, I
Speaker 1: was engaged in clearing up some small points in connection
Speaker 1: with it. The husband was a teetotaler, and there was
Speaker 1: no other woman. And the conduct complained of was that
Speaker 1: he had drifted into the habit of winding up every
Speaker 1: meal by taking out his false teeth and hurling them
Speaker 1: at his wife, which you will allow is not an
Speaker 1: action likely to occur to the imagination of the average
Speaker 1: story teller. Take a pinch of snuff, doctor, and acknowledge
Speaker 1: that I have scored over you in your example. He
Speaker 1: held out his snuff box of old gold with a
Speaker 1: great amethyst in the center of the lid. Its splendor
Speaker 1: was in such contrast to his homely ways and simple
Speaker 1: life that I could not help commenting upon it, Ah
Speaker 1: said he. I forgot that I had not seen you
Speaker 1: for some weeks. It is a little souvenir from the
Speaker 1: King of Bohemia in return for my assistance in the
Speaker 1: case of the Irene Adler papers and the ring, I asked,
Speaker 1: glancing at a remarkable brilliant which sparkled upon his finger.
Speaker 1: It was from the reigning family of Holland. Though the
Speaker 1: matter in which I served them was of such delicacy
Speaker 1: that I cannot confide it even to you, who have
Speaker 1: been good enough to chronicle one or two of my
Speaker 1: little problems. And have you any on hand just now?
Speaker 1: I asked, with interest, some ten or twelve, but none
Speaker 1: which present any feature of interest. They are important, you understand,
Speaker 1: without being interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is
Speaker 1: usually in unimportant matters that there is a field for
Speaker 1: the observation and for the quick analysis of cause and effect,
Speaker 1: which gives the charm to an investigation. The larger crimes
Speaker 1: are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime,
Speaker 1: the more obvious. As a rule is the motive. In
Speaker 1: these cases. Save for one rather intricate matter, which has
Speaker 1: been referred to me from Marseilles, there is nothing which
Speaker 1: presents any features of interest. It is possible, however, that
Speaker 1: I may have something better before very many minutes are over,
Speaker 1: For this is one of my clients, or I am
Speaker 1: much mistaken. He had risen from his chair and was
Speaker 1: standing between the parted blinds, gazing down into the dull,
Speaker 1: neutral tinted London street. Looking over his shoulder, I saw
Speaker 1: that on the pavement opposite there stood a large woman
Speaker 1: with a heavy fur boa round her neck and a
Speaker 1: large curling red feather in a broad brimmed hat, which
Speaker 1: was tilted in a coquettish Duchess of Devonshire fashion over
Speaker 1: her ear. From under this great panoply, she peeped up
Speaker 1: in a nervous, hesitating fashion at our windows, while her
Speaker 1: body oscillated backward and forward, and her fingers fidgeted with
Speaker 1: her glove buttons. Suddenly, with a plunge, as of the
Speaker 1: swimmer who leaves the bank, she hurried across the road,
Speaker 1: and we heard the sharp clang of the bell. I
Speaker 1: have seen those symptoms before, said Holmes, throwing his cigarette
Speaker 1: into the fire. Oscillation upon the pavement always means an
Speaker 1: affair de cours. She would like advice, but she is
Speaker 1: not sure that the matter is not too delicate for communication.
Speaker 1: And yet even here we may discriminate. When a woman
Speaker 1: has been seriously wronged by a man. She no longer oscillates,
Speaker 1: and the usual symptom is a broken bell wire. Here
Speaker 1: we may take it that there is a love matter,
Speaker 1: but that the maiden is not so much angry as
Speaker 1: perplexed or grieved. But here she comes in person to
Speaker 1: resolve our doubts. As he spoke, there was a tap
Speaker 1: at the door, and the boy in buttons entered to
Speaker 1: announce miss Mary Sutherland, while the lady herself loomed behind
Speaker 1: his small black figure, like a full sailed merchantman behind
Speaker 1: a tiny pilot boat. Sherlock Holmes welcomed her with the
Speaker 1: easy courtesy for which he was remarkable, and having closed
Speaker 1: the door and bowed her into an arm chair, he
Speaker 1: looked her over in the minute and yet abstracted fashion
Speaker 1: which was peculiar to him. Do you not find? He said, that,
Speaker 1: with your short sight, it is a little trying to
Speaker 1: do so much typewriting. I did it first, she answered,
Speaker 1: but now I know where the letters are without looking. Then,
Speaker 1: suddenly realizing the full purport of his words, she gave
Speaker 1: a violent start and looked up with fear and astonishment
Speaker 1: upon her broad, good humored face. You've heard about me,
Speaker 1: mister Holmes, she cried, Else, how could you know all that?
Speaker 1: Never mind, said Holmes, laughing, it is my business to
Speaker 1: know things. Perhaps I have trained myself to see what
Speaker 1: others overlook. If not, why should you come to consult me?
Speaker 1: I came to you, sir, because I heard of you
Speaker 1: from missus Ethridge, whose husband you found so easy when
Speaker 1: the police and every one had given him up for dead. Oh,
Speaker 1: mister Holmes, I wish you would do as much for me.
Speaker 1: I'm not rich, but still I have a hundred a
Speaker 1: year in my own right, besides the little that I
Speaker 1: make by the machine, and I would give it all
Speaker 1: to know what has become of mister Hosmer Angel. Why
Speaker 1: did you come away to consult me in such a hurry,
Speaker 1: asked Sherlock Holmes, with his finger tips together and his
Speaker 1: eyes to the ceiling. Again, A startled look came over
Speaker 1: the somewhat vacuous face of miss Mary Sutherland. Yes, I
Speaker 1: did bang out of the house, she said, for it
Speaker 1: made me angry to see the easy way in which
Speaker 1: mister Windebank, that is, my father, took it all. He
Speaker 1: would not go to the police, and he would not
Speaker 1: go to you. And so at last, as he would
Speaker 1: do nothing and kept on saying that there was no
Speaker 1: harm done. It made me mad, and I just on
Speaker 1: with my things and came right away to you. Your father,
Speaker 1: said Holmes, your stepfather, surely since the name is different, Yes,
Speaker 1: my stepfather, I call him father, though it sounds funny too,
Speaker 1: for he is only five years and two months older
Speaker 1: than myself. And your mother is alive. Oh, yes, mother
Speaker 1: is alive and well. I wasn't best pleased mister Holmes
Speaker 1: when she married again so soon after father's death, and
Speaker 1: a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself.
Speaker 1: Father was a plumber in the Tottenham Court Road, and
Speaker 1: he left a tidy business behind him, which mother carried
Speaker 1: on with mister Hardy, the foreman. But when mister Windebank came,
Speaker 1: he made her sell the business, for he was very superior,
Speaker 1: being a traveler in wines. They got forty seven hundred
Speaker 1: pounds for the good will and interest, which wasn't near
Speaker 1: as much as father could have got if he had
Speaker 1: been alive. I had expected to see Sherlock Holmes impatient
Speaker 1: under this rambling and inconsequential narrative, but on the contrary,
Speaker 1: he had listened with the greatest concentration of attention. Your
Speaker 1: own little income, he asked, Does it come out of
Speaker 1: the business. Oh no, sir, it is quite separate and
Speaker 1: was left me by my uncle ned in Auckland. It
Speaker 1: is in New Zealand, stock paying four and a half percent.
Speaker 1: Two thousand, five hundred pounds was the amount. But I
Speaker 1: can only touch the interest. You interest me extremely, said Holmes.
Speaker 1: And since you draw so large a sum as a
Speaker 1: hundred a year with what you earn into the bargain,
Speaker 1: you no doubt travel a little and indulge yourself in
Speaker 1: every way. I believe that a single lady can get
Speaker 1: on very nicely upon an income of about sixty pounds.
Speaker 1: I could do with much less than that, mister Holmes.
Speaker 1: But you understand that as long as I live at home,
Speaker 1: I don't wish to be a burden to them, and
Speaker 1: so they have the use of the money just while
Speaker 1: I am staying with them. Of course, that is only
Speaker 1: just for the time. Mister Windebank draws my interest every
Speaker 1: quarter and pays it over to mother. And I find
Speaker 1: that I can do pretty well with what I earn
Speaker 1: at type writing. It brings me twopence a sheet, and
Speaker 1: I can often do from fifteen to twenty sheets in
Speaker 1: a day. You have made your position very clear to me,
Speaker 1: said Holmes. This is my friend, doctor Watson, before whom
Speaker 1: you can speak as freely as before myself. Kindly tell
Speaker 1: us now all about your connection with mister Hosmer. Angel
Speaker 1: A flush stole over Miss Sutherland's face, and she picked
Speaker 1: nervously at the fringe of her jacket. I met him
Speaker 1: first at the gas Footer's ball. She said. They used
Speaker 1: to send Father tickets when he was alive, and then
Speaker 1: afterwards they remembered us and sent them to mother. Mister
Speaker 1: Windebank did not wish us to go. He never did
Speaker 1: wish us to go anywhere. He would get quite mad
Speaker 1: if I wanted so much as to join a Sunday
Speaker 1: school treat. But this time I was set on going,
Speaker 1: and I would go. For what right had he to prevent?
Speaker 1: He said the folk were not fit for us to
Speaker 1: know when all father's friends were to be there. And
Speaker 1: he said that I had nothing fit to wear when
Speaker 1: I had my purple plush, that I had never so
Speaker 1: much as taken out of the drawer. At last, when
Speaker 1: nothing else would do, he went off to France upon
Speaker 1: the business of the firm. But we went Mother and
Speaker 1: I with mister Hardy, who used to be our foreman,
Speaker 1: and it was there I met mister hosmer Angel. I suppose,
Speaker 1: said Holmes, that when mister Windebank came back from France,
Speaker 1: he was very annoyed at your having gone to the ball.
Speaker 1: Oh well, he was very good about it, he laughed,
Speaker 1: I remembered, and shrugged his shoulders and said there was
Speaker 1: no use denying anything to a woman, for she would
Speaker 1: have her way. I see, then at the Gasford's ball,
Speaker 1: you met, as I understand, a gentleman called mister hosmer Angel. Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: I met him that night, and he called next day
Speaker 1: to ask if we had got home all safe. And
Speaker 1: after that we had met him, that is to say,
Speaker 1: mister Holmes, I met him twice for walks. But after
Speaker 1: that Father came back again, and mister hosmer Angel could
Speaker 1: not come to the house any more. No, well, you
Speaker 1: know Father didn't like anything of the sort. He wouldn't
Speaker 1: have any visitors if he could help it. And he
Speaker 1: used to say that a woman should be happy in
Speaker 1: her own family circle. But then, as I used to
Speaker 1: say to Mother, a woman wants her own circle to
Speaker 1: begin with, and I had not got mine yet. But
Speaker 1: how about mister Hosmer Angel. Did he make no attempt
Speaker 1: to see you? Well? Father was going off to France
Speaker 1: again in a week, and Hosemer wrote and said that
Speaker 1: it would be safer and better not to see each
Speaker 1: other until he had gone. We could write in the meantime,
Speaker 1: and he used to write every day. I took the
Speaker 1: letters in in the morning, so there was no need
Speaker 1: for father to know. Were you engaged to the gentleman
Speaker 1: at this time? Oh, yes, mister Holmes, we were engaged
Speaker 1: after the first walk that we took, Holsmer. Mister Angel
Speaker 1: was a cashier in an office in Leadenhall Street. And
Speaker 1: what office? That's the worst of it, mister Holmes. I
Speaker 1: don't know where did he live? Then he slept on
Speaker 1: the premises, and you don't know his address, no, except
Speaker 1: that it was Leadenhall Street. Where did you address your letters?
Speaker 1: Then to the Leadenhall Street post office to be left
Speaker 1: till called for. He said that if they were sent
Speaker 1: to the office, he would be chafed by all the
Speaker 1: other clerks about having letters from a lady. So I
Speaker 1: offered to typewrite them like he did his, but he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have that, for he said that when I wrote
Speaker 1: them they seemed to come from me, but when they
Speaker 1: were typewritten, he always felt that the machine had come
Speaker 1: between us. That will just show you how fond he
Speaker 1: was of me, mister Holmes, and the little things that
Speaker 1: he would think of It was most suggestive, said Holmes.
Speaker 1: It has long been an axiom of mine that the
Speaker 1: little things are infinitely the most important. Can you remember
Speaker 1: any other little things about mister Hosmer Angel He was
Speaker 1: a very shy man, mister Holmes. He would rather walk
Speaker 1: with me in the evening than in the daylight, for
Speaker 1: he said that he hated to be conspicuous, very retiring
Speaker 1: and gentlemanly he was. Even his voice was gentle. He'd
Speaker 1: had the quinsy and swollen glands when he was young,
Speaker 1: he told me, and it had left him with a
Speaker 1: weak throat and a hesitating, whispering fashion of speech. He
Speaker 1: was always well dressed, very neat and plain, but his
Speaker 1: eyes were weak, just as mine are, and he wore
Speaker 1: tinted glasses against the glare. Well, and what happened when
Speaker 1: mister Wik your stepfather returned to France. Mister Hosmer Angel
Speaker 1: came to the house again and proposed that we should
Speaker 1: marry before Father came back. He was in dreadful earnest
Speaker 1: and made me swear with my hands on the testament
Speaker 1: that whatever happened, I would always be true to him.
Speaker 1: Mother said he was quite right to make me swear,
Speaker 1: and that it was a sign of his passion. Mother
Speaker 1: was all in his favor from the first and was
Speaker 1: even fonder of him than I was. Then, when they
Speaker 1: talked of marrying within the week, I began to ask
Speaker 1: about Father, but they both said never to mind about Father,
Speaker 1: but just to tell him afterwards, and Mother said she
Speaker 1: would make it all right with him. I didn't quite
Speaker 1: like that, mister Holmes. It seemed funny that I should
Speaker 1: ask his leave, as he was only a few years
Speaker 1: older than me. But I didn't want to do anything
Speaker 1: on the sly, so I wrote to Father at Bordeaux,
Speaker 1: where the company has its French offices. But the letter
Speaker 1: came back to me on the very morning of the wedding.
Speaker 1: It missed him, then, yes, sir, for he had started
Speaker 1: to England just before it arrived. Huh, that was unfortunate.
Speaker 1: Your wedding was arranged then for the Friday, was it
Speaker 1: to be in church, Yes, sir, but very quietly it
Speaker 1: was to be at Saint Xavier's near King's Cross, and
Speaker 1: we were to have breakfast afterwards at the Saint Pancras hotel.
Speaker 1: Hosmer came for us in a hansom, but as there
Speaker 1: were two of us, he put us both into it
Speaker 1: and stepped himself into a four wheeler, which happened to
Speaker 1: be the only other cab in the street. We got
Speaker 1: to the church first, and when the four wheeler drove up,
Speaker 1: we waited for him to step out, but he never did,
Speaker 1: and when the cabman got down from the box and looked,
Speaker 1: there was no one there. The cabman said that he
Speaker 1: could not imagine what had become of him, for he
Speaker 1: had seen him get in with his own eyes. That
Speaker 1: was last Friday, mister Holmes, and I have never seen
Speaker 1: or heard anything since then to throw any light upon
Speaker 1: what became of him. It seems to me that you
Speaker 1: have been very shamefully treated, said Holmes. Oh no, sir,
Speaker 1: he was too good and kind to leave me. So
Speaker 1: why all the morning he was saying to me that
Speaker 1: whatever happened I was to be true, and that even
Speaker 1: if something quite unforeseen occurred to separate us. I was
Speaker 1: always to remember that I was pledged to him, and
Speaker 1: that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It
Speaker 1: seemed strange talk for a wedding morning, But what has
Speaker 1: happened since gives a meaning to it? Most certainly it does.
Speaker 1: Your own opinion is then, that some unforeseen catastrophe has
Speaker 1: occurred to him, Yes, sir, I believe that he foresaw
Speaker 1: some danger, or else he would not have talked so.
Speaker 1: And then I think that what he foresaw happened, But
Speaker 1: you have no notion as to what it could have been. None.
Speaker 1: One more question, how did your mother take the matter?
Speaker 1: She was angry and said that I was never to
Speaker 1: speak of the matter again. And your father? Did you
Speaker 1: tell him? Yes? And he seemed to think with me
Speaker 1: that something had happened, and that I should hear of
Speaker 1: Hosemer again, As he said, what interest could anyone have
Speaker 1: in bringing me to the doors of the church and
Speaker 1: then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my money,
Speaker 1: or if he had married me and got my money
Speaker 1: settled on him, there might be some reason. But Hosemer
Speaker 1: was very independent about money and never would look at
Speaker 1: a shilling of mine. And yet what could have happened?
Speaker 1: And why could he not write? Oh? It drives me
Speaker 1: half mad to think of it, and I can't sleep
Speaker 1: a wink at night. She pulled a little handkerchief out
Speaker 1: of her and began to sob heavily into it. I
Speaker 1: shall glance into the case for you, said Holmes, rising,
Speaker 1: and I have no doubt that we shall reach some
Speaker 1: definite result. Let the weight of the matter rest upon
Speaker 1: me now, and do not let your mind dwell upon it. Further,
Speaker 1: above all, try to let mister Hosmer Angel vanish from
Speaker 1: your memory as he has done from your life. Then
Speaker 1: you don't think I'll see him again? I fear not.
Speaker 1: Then what has happened to him? You will leave that
Speaker 1: question in my hands. I should like an accurate description
Speaker 1: of him, and any letters of his which you can spare.
Speaker 1: I advertised for him in last Saturday's chronicle, said she.
Speaker 1: Here is the slip, and here are four letters from him.
Speaker 1: Thank you, and your address thirty one Lyons Place, Camberwell,
Speaker 1: mister Angel's address you never had. I understand. Where is
Speaker 1: your father's place of business? He travels for west House
Speaker 1: and Marbank. The Great Claret Importers of Fenchurch Street. Thank you.
Speaker 1: You have made your statement very clearly. You will leave
Speaker 1: the papers here and remember the advice which I have
Speaker 1: given you. Let the whole incident be a sealed book,
Speaker 1: and do not allow it to affect your life. You
Speaker 1: are very kind, mister Holmes, but I cannot do that.
Speaker 1: I shall be true to Hosmer. He shall find me
Speaker 1: ready when he comes back. For all the preposterous hat
Speaker 1: and the vacuous face, there was something noble in the
Speaker 1: simple faith of our visitor which compelled our respect. She
Speaker 1: laid her little bundle of papers upon the table and
Speaker 1: went her way, with a promise to come again whenever
Speaker 1: she might be summoned. Sherlock Holmes sat silent for a
Speaker 1: few minutes, with his finger tips still pressed together, his
Speaker 1: legs stretched out in front of him, and his gaze
Speaker 1: directed upward to the ceiling. Then he took down from
Speaker 1: the rack the old and oily clay pipe which was
Speaker 1: to him as a counselor, and having lit it, he
Speaker 1: leaned back in his chair, with the thick blue cloud
Speaker 1: wreathed spinning up from him, and a look of infinite
Speaker 1: languor upon his face. Quite an interesting study that maiden,
Speaker 1: he observed. I found her more interesting than her little problem,
Speaker 1: which by the way, is rather a trite one. You
Speaker 1: will find parallel cases if you consult my index in
Speaker 1: andover in seventy seven. And there was something of the
Speaker 1: sort at the Hague last year old, as is the idea. However,
Speaker 1: there were one or two details which were new to me.
Speaker 1: But the maiden herself was most instructive. You appeared to
Speaker 1: read a good deal upon her, which was quite invisible
Speaker 1: to me, I remarked, not invisible but unnoticed. Watson, you
Speaker 1: did not know where to look, and so you missed
Speaker 1: all that was important. I can never bring you to
Speaker 1: realize the importance of sleeves, the suggestiveness of thumb nails,
Speaker 1: or the great issues that may hang from a boot lace. Now,
Speaker 1: what did you gather from that woman's appearance? Describe it well?
Speaker 1: She had a slate colored, broad brimmed straw hat with
Speaker 1: a feather of a brickish red. Her jacket was black,
Speaker 1: with black beads sewn upon it and a fringe of
Speaker 1: little black jet ornaments. Her dress was brown, rather darker
Speaker 1: than coffee color, with a little purple plush at the neck.
Speaker 1: And sleeves. Her gloves were grayish and were worn through
Speaker 1: at the right forefinger. Her boots I didn't observe. She
Speaker 1: had small, round hanging gold earrings, and her general air
Speaker 1: of being fairly well to do in a vulgar, comfortable,
Speaker 1: easy going way. Sherlock Holmes clapped his hands softly together
Speaker 1: and chuckled. Upon my word, Watson, you are coming along wonderfully.
Speaker 1: You have really done very well. Indeed, it is true
Speaker 1: that you have missed everything of importance, but you have
Speaker 1: hit upon the method, and you have a quick eye
Speaker 1: for color. Never trust to general impressions, my boy, but
Speaker 1: concentrate yourself upon details. My first glance is always at
Speaker 1: a woman's sleeve. In a man, it is perhaps better
Speaker 1: first to take the knee of the trouser. As you observe.
Speaker 1: This woman had plushed upon her sleeves, which is a
Speaker 1: most useful material for showing traces. The double line a
Speaker 1: little above the wrist, where the typewritist presses against the
Speaker 1: table was beautifully defined. The sewing machine of the hand
Speaker 1: type leaves a similar mark, put only on the left
Speaker 1: arm and on the right of it farthest from the thumb.
Speaker 1: Instead of being right across the broadest part. As this was,
Speaker 1: I then glanced at her face, and, observing the dint
Speaker 1: of a pince nez at either side of her nose,
Speaker 1: I ventured a remark upon short sight and typewriting, which
Speaker 1: seemed to surprise her. It surprised me, but surely it
Speaker 1: was obvious. I was then much surprised and interested on
Speaker 1: glancing down to observe that, though the boots which she
Speaker 1: was wearing were not unlike each other, they were really
Speaker 1: odd ones, the one having a slightly decorated toe cap
Speaker 1: and the other a plain one. One was buttoned only
Speaker 1: in the two lower buttons out of five, and the
Speaker 1: other at the first, third and fifth. Now, when you
Speaker 1: see that a young lady, otherwise neatly dressed has come
Speaker 1: away from home with odd boots half buttoned, it is
Speaker 1: no great deduction to say that she came away in
Speaker 1: a hurry. And what else? I asked, keenly interested as
Speaker 1: I always was, by my friend's incisive reasoning, I noted
Speaker 1: in passing that she had written a note before leaving home.
Speaker 1: But after being fully dressed, you observed that her right
Speaker 1: glove was torn at the forefinger, But you did not
Speaker 1: apparently see that both glove and finger were stained with
Speaker 1: violet ink. She had written in a hurry and dipped
Speaker 1: her pen too deep. It must have been this morning,
Speaker 1: or the mark would not remain clear upon the finger.
Speaker 1: All this is amusing, though rather alimentary, But I must
Speaker 1: go back to business. Watson, would you mind reading me
Speaker 1: the advertised description of mister Hosmer Angel. I held the
Speaker 1: little printed slip to the light, missing it said, on
Speaker 1: the morning of the fourteenth a gentleman named Hosemer Angel,
Speaker 1: about five feet seven inches in height, strongly built, sallow complexion,
Speaker 1: black hair, a little bald in the center, bushy black side,
Speaker 1: whiskers and mustache, tinted glasses, slight infirmity of speech. Was
Speaker 1: dressed when last scene in black frock coat faced with silk,
Speaker 1: black waistcoat, gold Albert chain, and gray hairs, tweed trousers
Speaker 1: with brown gaiters over a last excited boots known to
Speaker 1: have been employed in an office in Leadenhall Street. Anybody
Speaker 1: bringing that will do, said Holmes. As to the letters,
Speaker 1: he continued, glancing over them. They are very commonplace, absolutely
Speaker 1: no clue in them to mister Angel say that he
Speaker 1: quotes Balzac once There is a remarkable point, however, which
Speaker 1: will no doubt strike you. They are typewritten. I remarked.
Speaker 1: Not only that, but the signature is typewritten. Look at
Speaker 1: the neat little Hosmer Angel at the bottom there is
Speaker 1: a date you see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street,
Speaker 1: which is rather vague. The point about the signature is
Speaker 1: very suggestive. In fact, we may call it conclusive of what,
Speaker 1: my dear fellow, is it possible you do not see
Speaker 1: how strongly it bears upon the case. I cannot say
Speaker 1: that I do unless it were that he wished to
Speaker 1: be able to deny his signature if an action for
Speaker 1: breach of promise were instituted. No, that was not the point. However,
Speaker 1: I shall write two letters which should settle the matter.
Speaker 1: One is to affirm in the city. The other is
Speaker 1: to the young lady's stepfather, mister Windebank, asking him whether
Speaker 1: he can meet us here at six o'clock to morrow evening.
Speaker 1: It is just as well that we should do business
Speaker 1: with the male relatives, and now, doctor, we can do
Speaker 1: nothing until the answers to those letters come, so we
Speaker 1: may put our little problem upon the shelf for the interim.
Speaker 1: I had had so many reasons to believe in my
Speaker 1: friends subtle powers of reasoning and extraordinary energy and action,
Speaker 1: that I felt that he must have some solid grounds
Speaker 1: for the assured and easy demeanor with which he treated
Speaker 1: the singular mystery which he had been called upon to fathom.
Speaker 1: Once only had I known him to fail in the
Speaker 1: case of the King of Bohemia and of the Irene
Speaker 1: Adler photograph. But when I looked back to the weird
Speaker 1: business of the sign of four, and the extraordinary circumstances
Speaker 1: connected with the study and scarlet, I felt that it
Speaker 1: would be a strange tangle, indeed, which he could not unravel.
Speaker 1: I left him then, still puffing at his black clay pipe,
Speaker 1: with the conviction that when I came again on the
Speaker 1: next evening, I would find that he held in his
Speaker 1: hands all the clues which would lead up to the
Speaker 1: identity of the disappearing bridegroom of Miss Mary Sutherland. A
Speaker 1: professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention
Speaker 1: at the time, and the whole of next day I
Speaker 1: was busy at the bedside of the sufferer. It was
Speaker 1: not until close upon six o'clock that I found myself
Speaker 1: free and was able to spring into a hansom and
Speaker 1: drive to Baker Street, half afraid that I might be
Speaker 1: too late to assist. At the denoument of the little mystery.
Speaker 1: I found Sherlock Holmes alone, however, half asleep, with his long,
Speaker 1: thin form curled up in the recesses of his arm chair.
Speaker 1: A formidable array of bottles and test tubes with the pungent,
Speaker 1: cleanly smell of hydrochloric acid. Told me that he had
Speaker 1: spent his day in the chemical work which was so
Speaker 1: dear to him. Well have you solved it, I asked
Speaker 1: as I entered. Yes, it was the bisulfate of burita. No, no,
Speaker 1: the mystery, I cried, Oh that I thought of the
Speaker 1: salt that I have been working upon. There was never
Speaker 1: any mystery in the matter, though, as I said yesterday,
Speaker 1: some of the details are of interest. The only drawback
Speaker 1: is that there is no law I fear that can
Speaker 1: touch the scoundrel. Who was he then, and what was
Speaker 1: his object in deserting Miss Sutherland? The question was hardly
Speaker 1: out of my mouth, and Holmes had not yet opened
Speaker 1: his lips to reply when we heard a heavy footfall
Speaker 1: in the passage and a tap at the door. This
Speaker 1: is the girl's stepfather, mister James Windebank, said Holmes, he
Speaker 1: has written to me to say that he would be
Speaker 1: here at six. Come in. The man who entered was
Speaker 1: a sturdy, middle sized fellow, some thirty years of age,
Speaker 1: clean shaven and sallow skin, with a bland insinuating manner,
Speaker 1: and a pair of wonderfully sharp and penetrating gray eyes.
Speaker 1: He shot a questioning glance at each of us, placed
Speaker 1: his shiny top hat upon the sideboard, and with a
Speaker 1: slight bow, sidled down into the nearest chair. Good evening,
Speaker 1: mister James Windebank said Holmes, I think that this typewritten
Speaker 1: letter is from you, in which you made an appointment
Speaker 1: with me for six o'clock. Yes, sir, I am afraid
Speaker 1: that I am a little late, but I am not
Speaker 1: quite my own master, you know. I am sorry that
Speaker 1: Miss Sutherland has troubled you about this little matter, for
Speaker 1: I think it is far better not to wash lidden
Speaker 1: of the sort in public. It was quite against my
Speaker 1: wishes that she came, but she is a very excitable,
Speaker 1: impulsive girl, as you may have noticed, and she is
Speaker 1: not easily controlled when she has made up her mind.
Speaker 1: On a point of course, I did not mind you
Speaker 1: so much as you are not connected with the official police.
Speaker 1: But it is not pleasant to have a family misfortune
Speaker 1: like this noised abroad. Besides, it is a useless expense,
Speaker 1: for how could you possibly find this Hosemer Angel. On
Speaker 1: the contrary, said Holmes quietly, I have every reason to
Speaker 1: believe that I will succeed in discovering mister Hosemer Angel.
Speaker 1: Mister Windebank gave a violent start and dropped his gloves.
Speaker 1: I am delighted to hear it, he said. It is
Speaker 1: a curious thing, remarked Holmes, that a typewriter has really
Speaker 1: quite as much individuality as a man's handwriting, unless they
Speaker 1: are quite new. No two of them write exactly alike.
Speaker 1: Some letters get more warn than others, and somewhere only
Speaker 1: on one side. Now you remark in this note of yours,
Speaker 1: mister Windebank, that in every case there is some little
Speaker 1: slurring over of the e and a slight defect in
Speaker 1: the tale of the R. There are fourteen other characteristics,
Speaker 1: but those are the most obvious. We do all our
Speaker 1: correspondence with this machine at the office, and no doubt
Speaker 1: it is is a little worn. Our visitor answered, glancing
Speaker 1: keenly at Holmes with his bright little eyes. And now
Speaker 1: I will show you what is really a very interesting study,
Speaker 1: mister Windebank. Holmes continued, I think of writing another little
Speaker 1: monograph some of these days. And the typewriter and its
Speaker 1: relation to crime. It is a subject to which I
Speaker 1: have devoted some little attention. I have here four letters
Speaker 1: which purpet to come from the missing man. They are
Speaker 1: all typewritten. In each case not only are the ease
Speaker 1: slurred and the rs taless. But you will observe, if
Speaker 1: you care to use my magnifying lens, that the other
Speaker 1: fourteen characteristics to which I have alluded are there as well.
Speaker 1: Mister Windebank sprang out of his chair and picked up
Speaker 1: his hat. I cannot waste time over this sort of
Speaker 1: fantastic talk, mister Holmes, he said. If you can catch
Speaker 1: the man, catch him and let me know when you
Speaker 1: have done it. Certainly, said Holmes, stepping over and turning
Speaker 1: the key in the door. I let you know then
Speaker 1: that I have caught him. What where? Shouted mister Windebank,
Speaker 1: turning white to his lips and glancing about him like
Speaker 1: a rat in a trap. Oh it won't do, really,
Speaker 1: it won't, said Holmes suavely. There is no possible getting
Speaker 1: out of it. Mister Windebank. It is quite too transparent.
Speaker 1: And it was a very bad compliment when you said
Speaker 1: that it was impossible for me to solve so simple
Speaker 1: a question. That's right, sit down and let us talk
Speaker 1: it over. Our visitor collapsed into a chair with a
Speaker 1: ghastly face and a glitter of moisture on his brow.
Speaker 1: It's it's not actionable, he stammered. I am very much
Speaker 1: afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, Windebank, it
Speaker 1: was as cruel and selfish and heartless a trick in
Speaker 1: a petty way as ever came before me. Now let
Speaker 1: me just run over the course of events, and you
Speaker 1: will contradict me if I go wrong. The man sat
Speaker 1: huddled up in his chair with his head sunk upon
Speaker 1: his breast, like one who was utterly crushed. Holmes stuck
Speaker 1: his feet up on the corner of the mantelpiece, and,
Speaker 1: leaning back, with his hands in his pockets, began talking
Speaker 1: rather to himself, as it seemed, than to us. The
Speaker 1: man married a woman very much older than himself for
Speaker 1: her money, said he, and he enjoyed the use of
Speaker 1: the money of the daughter as long as she lived
Speaker 1: with them. It was a considerable sum for people in
Speaker 1: their position, and the loss of it would have made
Speaker 1: a serious difference. It was worth an effort to preserve it.
Speaker 1: The daughter was of a good, amiable disposition, but affectionate
Speaker 1: and warm hearted in her ways, so that it was
Speaker 1: evident that, with her fair personal advantages and her little income,
Speaker 1: she would not be allowed to remain single long. Now
Speaker 1: her marriage would mean, of course, the loss of a
Speaker 1: hundred a year. So what does her stepfather do to
Speaker 1: prevent it? He takes the obvious course of keeping her
Speaker 1: at home and forbidding her to seek the company of
Speaker 1: people her own age. But soon he found that that
Speaker 1: would not answer. For ever, she became restive, insisted upon
Speaker 1: her rights, and finally announced her positive intention of going
Speaker 1: to a certain ball. What does her clever stepfather do? Then,
Speaker 1: he conceives an idea more creditable to his head than
Speaker 1: to his heart. With the connivance and assistance of his wife,
Speaker 1: he disguised himself, covered those keen eyes with tinted glasses,
Speaker 1: masked the face with a mustache, and a pair of
Speaker 1: bushy whiskers, sunk that clear voice into an insinuating whisper,
Speaker 1: and doubly secure. On account of the girl's short sight,
Speaker 1: he appears as mister Hosmer Angel and keeps off other
Speaker 1: lovers by making love himself. It was only a joke
Speaker 1: at first, groaned our visitor. We never thought that she
Speaker 1: would have been so carried away. Very likely not, however,
Speaker 1: that may be. The young lady was very decidedly carried away,
Speaker 1: and having quite made up her mind that her stepfather
Speaker 1: was in France, the suspicion of treachery never for an
Speaker 1: instant entered her mind. She was flattered by the gentleman's attentions,
Speaker 1: and the effect was increased by the loudly expressed admiration
Speaker 1: of her mother. Then mister Angel began to call for
Speaker 1: It was obvious that the matter should be pushed as
Speaker 1: far as it would go if a real effect were
Speaker 1: to be produced. There were meetings and an engagement which
Speaker 1: would finally secure the girl's affections from turning towards any
Speaker 1: one else. But the deception could not be kept up forever.
Speaker 1: These pretended journeys to frays Ants were rather cumbrous. The
Speaker 1: thing to do was clearly to bring the business to
Speaker 1: an end in such a dramatic manner that it would
Speaker 1: leave a permanent impression upon the young lady's mind and
Speaker 1: prevent her from looking upon any other suitor for some
Speaker 1: time to come. Hence those vows of fidelity exacted upon
Speaker 1: a testament, and hence also the allusions to a possibility
Speaker 1: of something happening on the very morning of the wedding.
Speaker 1: James Windebank wished miss Sutherland to be so bound to
Speaker 1: Hosmer Angel, and so uncertain as to his fate, that
Speaker 1: for ten years to come, at any rate, she would
Speaker 1: not listen to another man. As far as the church
Speaker 1: door he brought her, and then as he could go
Speaker 1: no farther he conveniently vanished away by the old trick
Speaker 1: of stepping in at one door of a four wheeler
Speaker 1: and out at the other. I think that was the
Speaker 1: chain of events. Mister Windebank, our visitor had recovered something
Speaker 1: of his assurance while Holmes had been talking, and he
Speaker 1: rose from his chair now with a cold sneer upon
Speaker 1: his pale face. It may be so, or it may not,
Speaker 1: mister Holmes, said he. But if you are so very sharp,
Speaker 1: you ought to be sharp enough to know that it
Speaker 1: is you who are breaking the law now, and not me.
Speaker 1: I have done nothing actionable from the first. But as
Speaker 1: long as you keep that door locked, you lay yourself
Speaker 1: open to an action for assault and illegal constraint. The
Speaker 1: law cannot, as you say, touch you, said Holmes, unlocking
Speaker 1: and throwing open the door. Yet there never was a
Speaker 1: man who deserved punishment more. If the young lady has
Speaker 1: a brother or a friend, he ought to lay a
Speaker 1: whip across your shoulders. By jove, he continued, flushing up
Speaker 1: at the sight of the bitter sneer upon the man's face.
Speaker 1: It is not part of my duties to my client,
Speaker 1: but here's a hunting crop handy, and I think I
Speaker 1: shall just treat myself to He took two swift steps
Speaker 1: to the whip, but before he could grasp it, there
Speaker 1: was a wild clatter of steps upon the stairs. The
Speaker 1: heavy hall door banged, and from the window we could
Speaker 1: see mister James Windebank running at the top of his
Speaker 1: speed down the road. There's a cold blooded scoundrel, said Holmes,
Speaker 1: laughing as he threw himself down into his chair once more.
Speaker 1: That fellow will rise from crime to crime until he
Speaker 1: does something very bad and ends on a gallows. The
Speaker 1: case has in some respects been not entirely devoid of interest.
Speaker 1: I cannot now entirely see all the steps of your reasoning,
Speaker 1: I remarked, well, of course, it was obvious from the
Speaker 1: first that this mister hosmer Angel must have some strong
Speaker 1: object for his curious conduct, And it was equally clear
Speaker 1: that the only man who really profited by the incident,
Speaker 1: as far as we could see, was the stepfather. Then,
Speaker 1: the fact that the two men were never together, but
Speaker 1: that the one always appeared when the other was away,
Speaker 1: was suggestive. So were the tinted spectacles and the curious voice,
Speaker 1: which both hinted at a disguise, as did the bushy whiskers.
Speaker 1: My suspicions were all confirmed by his peculiar action in
Speaker 1: typewriting his signature, which of course inferred that his handwriting
Speaker 1: was so familiar to her that she would recognize even
Speaker 1: the smallest sample of it. You see, all these isolated facts,
Speaker 1: together with many minor ones, all pointed in the same direction,
Speaker 1: And how did you verify them? Having once spotted my man,
Speaker 1: it was easy to get corroboration. I knew the firm
Speaker 1: for which this man worked, having taken the printed description,
Speaker 1: I eliminated everything from it which could be the result
Speaker 1: of disguise, the whiskers, the glasses, the voice, and I
Speaker 1: sent it to the firm with a request that they
Speaker 1: would inform me whether it answered to the description of
Speaker 1: any of their travelers. I had already noticed the peculiarities
Speaker 1: of the typewriter, and I wrote to the man himself
Speaker 1: at his business address, asking him if he would come
Speaker 1: here as I expected. His reply was typewritten and revealed
Speaker 1: the same trivial but characteristic defects. The same post brought
Speaker 1: me a letter from Westhouse and Marbank of Fenchurch Street,
Speaker 1: to say that the description tallied in every respect with
Speaker 1: that of their employee, James Windebank. Voila tout, and miss Sutherland,
Speaker 1: if I tell her, she will not believe me. You
Speaker 1: may remember the old Persian saying there is danger for
Speaker 1: him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for
Speaker 1: who so snatches a delusion from a woman. There is
Speaker 1: as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as
Speaker 1: much knowledge of the world. End of Adventure three