Speaker 1: The Adventure of the Illustrious Client by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
It can't hurt now, was mister Sherlock Holmes's comment when
for a tenth time in as many years I asked
his leave to reveal the following narrative. So it was that,
at last I obtained permission to put on a record
what was, in some ways the supreme moment of my
friend's career. Both Holmes and I had a weakness for
a Turkish bath. It was over a cigarette and the
pleasant lassitude of a drawing room that I found him
less reticent and more human than anywhere else. On the
upper floor of a Northumberland Avenue establishment, there is an
isolated corner where two couches lie side by side, and
it was these that we lay upon September for nineteen
oh two, the day when my narrative begins. I had
asked him whether anything was stirring, and for answer he
had shot his long, thin, nervous arm out of the
sheets which enveloped him, and had drawn an envelope from
the inside pocket of the coach which hung beside him.
It's maybe some fussy, self important fool. It may be
a matter of life or death, said he as he
handed me the note. I know no more than this
message tells me. It was from the Carlton Club and
was dated the evening before. This is what I read.
Sir James Dammery presents his confidence to mister Sherlock Holmes
and will call upon him at four thirty tomorrow. Sir
James begs to say that the matter upon which he
desires to consult mister Holmes is very delicate and also
very important. He trusts therefore that mister Holmes will make
every effort to grant this interview, and that he will
confirm it over a telephone to the Carlton Club. I
need not say that I have confirmed it, Watson, said Holmes,
as I returned in the paper. Do you know anything
of this man Dammery, only that his name is a
household word in society. Well, I can tell you a
little more than that. He has rather a reputation for
arranging delicate matters which are to be kept out of
the papers. You may remember his negotiations with Sir George
Lewis over the Hammerford wielcase. He is a man of
the world with a natural turn for diplomacy. I am
bound therefore to hope that it is not a false
scent that he has some real need for our assistance.
Our well. If he will be so good, Watson, I
shall be honored. Then you will have the hour for
thirty until then we can put the matter out of
our heads. I was living in my own rooms in
Queen Anne Street at the time, but I was round
at Bigger Street before the time named darp to the
half hour, Colonel Sir James Damery was announced. It is
hardly necessary to describe him, for many will remember of
a large, bluff honest personality, that broad, clean shaven face
above all, that pleasant mellow voice. Frankness shone from his
gray Irish eyes, and good humor played round his mobile,
smiling lips, his loosened top hat, his dark frock coat. Indeed,
every detail from the pearl pin in the black satin
kravat to the labdous bats over the varnished shoes spoke
of a meticulous care in dress for which he was famous.
The big, masterful aristocrat dominated the little room. Of course,
I was prepared to find doctor Watson, he remarked, with
a courteous bow. His collaboration may be very necessary, for
we are dealing on this occasion, mister Horne Holmes, with
a man to whom violence is familiar and who will
literally stick at nothing. I should say that there is
no more dangerous man in Europe. I have had several
opponents to whom that flattering term has been applied, said Holmes,
with a smile. Don't you smoke? Then you will excuse
me if I light my pipe. If your man is
more dangerous than the late Professor Moriarty or van a
living Colonel Sebastian Moran, then he is indeed worth meeting.
May I ask his name? Have you ever heard of
bearing Grunter? You mean the Austrian murderer Colonel Damery threw
up his kid gloved hands with a laugh. There is
no getting past you, mister Holmes. Wonderful, so you have
already sized him up as a murderer. It is my
business to follow the details of continental crime. Who could
possibly have read what happened at Prague and have any
doubts as to the man's guilt. It was a purely
technical legal point and the suspicious death of a witness
that saved him. I am as sure that he killed
his wife when a so called accident happened in the
splugan past, as if I had seen him do it.
I knew also that he had come to England, and
I had a presentment that sooner or later he would
find me some work to do. Well, what has Baron
Grunner been up to? I presume it is not this
old tragedy which has come again. No, it is more
serious than that. To revenge crime is important, but to
prevent it is more so. It is a terrible thing
in mister Holmes, to see a dreadful event and atrocious
situation preparing itself before your eyes clearly, to understand whither
it will lead, and yet to be utterly unable to
avert it. Can a human being be placed in a
more trying position? Perhaps not? Then you will sympathize with
the client on whose interests I am acting. I did
not understand that you are merely an intermediary. Who is
the principal, Mister Holmes. I must beg you not to
press that question. It is important that I should be
able to assure him that his honored name has been
in no way dragged into the matter. His motives are
to the last degree, honorable and chivalrous, but he prefers
to remain unknown. I need not say that your fees
will be assured, and that you will be given a
perfectly free hand. Surely the actual name of your client
is immaterial. I am sorry, said Holmes. I am accustomed
to have mystery at one end of my cases, but
to have it at both ends is too confusing. I fear,
Sir James, that I must decline to act. Our visitor
was greatly disturbed his law. A large, sensitive face was
darkened with emotion and disappointment. You hardly realize the effect
of your own action, mister Holmes, said he You place
me in a most serious dilemma. For I am perfectly
certain that you would be proud to take over the
case if I could give you the facts, And yet
a promise forbids me from revealing them all. May I
at least lay all that I can before you by
all means, so long as it is understood that I
commit myself to nothing that is understood in the first place.
You have no doubt heard of General de Murville Demerval
of kyber fame. Yes, I have heard of him. He
has a daughter, Violet Demurville, young rich, beautiful, accomplished, a
wonderful woman in every way. It is this daughter, this lovely,
innocent girl, whom we are endeavoring to save from the
clutches of a fiend. Baron Grunner has some hold over her, then,
the strongest of all holds where a woman is concerned,
the hold of love. The fellow is, as he may
have heard, extraordinarily handsome, with a most fascinating manner, a
gentle voice, and that air of romance and mystery which
means so much to a woman. He is said to
have the whole sex at his mercy, and to have
multiple ample use of the fact. But how came such
a man to me, a lady of the standing of
Miss Violet de Merval. It was on a Mediterranean yachting voyage.
The company, though select paid their own passages. No doubt,
the promoters hardly realized the baron's true character until it
was too late. The villain attached himself to the lady,
and with such effect that he has completely and absolutely
won her heart. To say that she loves him hardly
expresses it. She dotes upon him. She is obsessed by him.
Outside of him, there is nothing on earth she will
not hear one word against him. Everything has been done
to cure her of her madness, but in vain to
sum up, she proposes to marry him next month. As
she is of age and has a will of iron,
it is hard to know how to prevent her. Does
she know about the Austrian episode? The coming devil has
told her every unsavory public scandal of his past life,
but always in such a way as to make himself
out to be an innocent martyr. She absolutely accepts his
version and will listen to no other. Dear me, but
surely you have inadvertently let out the name of your client.
It is no doubt. General de Murville, our visitor, fidgeted
in his chair. I could deceive you by saying no
of mister Holmes, but it would not be true. Demurville
is a broken man. The strong soldier has been utterly
demoralized by this incident. He has lost the nerve which
never failed him on the battlefield, and has become a weak,
doddering old man, utterly incapable of contending with a brilliant,
forceful rascal like the Austrian. My client, however, is an
old friend, one who has known the general intimately for
many years, and taken a paternal interest in this young
girl since she wore short frocks. You cannot see this
tragedy consummated without some attempt to stop it. There is
nothing in which Scotland Yard can act. It was his
own suggestion that you should be called in, but it was,
as I have said, on the express stipulation that he
should not be personally involved in the matter. I have
no doubt, mister Holmes, with your great powers, you could
easily trace my client back through me, but I must
ask you, as a point of honor, to refrain from
doing so, and not to break in. Upon his incognito,
Holmes gave a whimsical smile. I think I may safely
promise that said he. I may add that your problem
interests me and that I shall be prepared to look
into it. How shall I keep in touch with you?
The Carlton Club will find me, but in case of
emergency there is a private telephone call xx dot free one.
Holmes noted it down and sat still smiling, with the
open memorandum book upon his knee. The Baron's present address
please Vernon Lodge, near Kingston. It is a large house.
He has been fortunate in some rather shady speculations, and
is a rich man, which naturally makes him a more
dangerous antagonist. Is he home at present? Yes? Apart from
what you have told me, can you give me any
further information about the man? He has expensive tastes. He
is a horse fancier. For a short time he played
polo at Hurlingham, but then this prog affair got noised
about and he had to leave. He collects books and pictures.
He is a man with considerable artistic side to his nature.
He is I believe, a recognized authority upon Chinese pottery,
and has written a book upon the subject. A complex mind,
said Holmes. All great criminals have that. My old friend
Charlie Peace was a violin virtuoso. Wade Wright was no
mean artist. I could quote more. Well, Sir James, you
will inform your client that I am turning my mind
upon Baron Grunner. I can say no more. I have
some sources of information of my own, and I dare
say we may find some means of opening the matter up.
When our visitor had left us, Holmes sat solong in
deep thought that it seemed to me that he had
forgotten my presence. At last, however, he came briskly back
to earth Well Watson any views, he asked, I should
think you had better see the young lady herself, my
dear Watson. If her poor old broken father cannot move her,
how shall I, a stranger prevail? And yet there is
something in the suggestion if all else fails. But I
think we must begin from a different angle. I rather
fancy that Shinwell Johnson might be a help. I have
not had occasion to mention Shinwell Johnson in these memoirs
because I have seldom drawn my cases from the latter
phases of my friend's career. During the first years of
the century he became a valuable assistant. Johnson, I grieve
to say, made his name first as a very dangerous villain,
and served two terms at Parkhurst. Finally he repented and
allied himself with Holmes, acting as his agent in the
huge criminal underworld of London and obtaining information which often
proved to be of vital importance. Had Johnson been a
nark of the police, he would soon have been exposed.
But as he dealt with cases which never came directly
into the courts, his activities were never realized by his companions.
With the glamour of his two convictions upon him, he
had the entree of every nightclub, doss house and gambling
den in the town, and his quick observation and active
brain made him an ideal agent for gathering information. It
was to him that Sherlock Holmes now proposed to turn.
It was not possible for me to follow the immediate
steps taken by my friend, for I had some pressing
professional business of my own. But I met him by
a appointments that evening at Simpson's, where, sitting at a
small table in the front window, and looking down at
the rushing stream of life in the strand, he told
me something of what had passed. Johnson is on the prowl,
said he he may pick up some garbage in the
darker recesses of the underworld. For it is down there,
amid the black roots of crime, that we must hunt
for this man's secrets. But if the lady will not
accept what is already known, why should any fresh discovery
of yours turn her from her purpose? Who knows? Watson
Woman's heart and mind are insoluble puzzles to the mail
murder might be condoned or explained, and yet some smaller
offense might wrankle. Baron Grunnar remarks to me, He remarks
to you, Oh, to be sure I had not told
you of my plans? Well, Watson, I love to come
to close grips with my man. I like to meet
him eye to eye and read for myself the stuff
that he has made of. When I had given Johnson
his instructions, I took a cab out to Kingston and
found the Baron in a most affable mood. Did he
recognize you? There was no difficulty about that, for I
simply sent in my card. He is an excellent antagonist,
cool as ice, silky voiced and suthing as one of
your fashionable consultants, and poisonous as a cobra. He has
breed in him, a real aristocrat of crime, with a
superficial suggestion of afternoon tea and all the cruelty of
the grave behind it. Yes, I am glad to have
had my attention called to Baron Adambert Grunner. You say
he was affable, a perring cat who thinks he sees
prospective mice. Some people's affability is more deadly than the
violence of coarser souls. His greeting was characteristic. I rather
thought I should see you sooner or later. Mister Holmes
said he. You have been engaged, no doubt by General
Demurville to endeavor to stop my marriage with his daughter Violet.
That is so, is it not? I acquissessed? My dear man,
said he. You will only ruin your own well deserved reputation.
It is not a case in which you can possibly succeed.
You will have barn work, to say nothing of incurring
some danger. Let me very strongly advise you to draw
off at once. It is curious, I answered, but that
was the very advice which I had intended to give you.
I have a respect for your brains, Baron, and the
little which I have seen of your personality has not
lessened it. Let me put it to you as man
to man. No one wants to rake up your past
and make you unduly uncomfortable. It is over and you
are now in smooth waters. But if you persist in
this marriage, you will raise up a swarm of powerful
enemies who will never leave you alone until you have
made England too hot to hold you. It is the
game worth it. Surely you would be wiser if you
let the lady alone. It would not be pleasant for
you if these facts of your past were brought to her. Notice.
The baron has little wax tips of hair under his nose,
like the short antennae of an insect. These quivered with
amusement as he listened, and he finally broke into a
gentle chuckle. Excuse my amusement, mister Holmes, said he, but
it is really funny to see you trying to play
a hand with no cards in it. I don't think
anyone could do it better, but it is rather pathetic
all the same. Not a color card there, mister Holmes,
nothing but the smallest of the small so you think so,
I know. Let me make the thing clear to you,
for my own hand is so strong that I can
afford to show it. I have been fortunate enough to
win the entire affection of this lady. This was given
to me in spite of the fact that I told
her very clearly of certain unhappy incidents in my past life.
I also told her that certain wicked and designing persons
I hope you recognize yourself, would come to her and
tell her of these things. And I warned her how
to treat them. You have heard of post hypnotic suggestion,
mister Holmes, Well you will see how it works, for
a man of personality can use hypnotism without any vulgar
passes or tom foolery. So she is ready for you,
and I have no doubt would give you an appointment,
for she is quite amenable to her father's will, save
only in the one little matter. Well, Watson, there seemed
to be no more to say, so I took my
leave with as much cold dignity as I could summon.
But as I had my hand on the door handle,
he stopped me by the way. Mister Holmes said he
do you know lebron the friend? Yes, said I do
you know what befell him? I heard that he was
beaten by some apaches in the Montmarti district and crippled
for life. Quite true, mister Holmes. By a curious coincidence,
he had been inquiring into my affairs only a week before.
Don't do what, mister Holmes, It is not a lucky
thing to do. Several have found that out. My last
word to you is to go your own way and
let me go mine. Goodbye, So there you are, Watson.
You are up to date. Now the fellow seems dangerous,
mighty dangerous. I disregard the bluster, but this is the
sort of man who says rather less than he means.
Must you interfere? Does it really matter if he marries
the girl? Considering that he undoubtedly murdered his last wife?
I should say it mattered very much. Besides the clients, Well, well,
we need not discuss that. When you have finished coffee,
you had best come home with me, for obliged Shinwell
will be there with his report. We found him, sure enough,
a huge, coarse, red faced, scorbotic man, with a pair
of vivid black eyes, which were the only external sign
of the very cunning mind within. It seemed that he
had dived down into what was peculiarly his kingdom. And
beside him on the settee was a brand which he
had brought up in shape of a slim, flamelike young
woman with a pale, intense face, youthful and yet so
warm with sin and sorrow that one read the terrible
years which had left their leprous mark upon her. This
is miss Kitty Winter, said Shinwell Johnson, waving his fat
hand as an introduction. What she don't know, Well there
she'll speak for herself. Put my right hand on her,
mister Holmes. Within an hour of your message, I'm easy
to find, said the young woman us London gets me
every time Sam address for Porky Shinwell we're old mates, Porky,
you and I. What by cripes, there's another who ought
to be down in a lower hell than we if
there was any justice in the world. That is the
man your after, mister Holmes. Holmes smiled, I gather we
have your good wishes, Miss Winter. If I can help
you put him where he belongs, I'm yours to the rattle,
said our visitor, with fierce energy. There was an intensity
of hatred in her white set face and her blazing eyes,
such as woman seldom and man never can attain. You
needn't go into my past, mister Holmes. That's neither here
nor there. But what I am, Adelbert Grunner made me
if I could pull him down, She clutched frantically with
her hands into the air. Oh, if I could only
pull him into a pit where he has pushed so
many You know how the matter stands. Poor shinwell, hasn't
telling me he's actor from over poor fool, and wants
to marry her this time. You want to stop it, Well,
you surely know enough about this devil to prevent any
decent girl in her senses wanting to be in the
same parish with him. She is not in her senses.
She is madly in love. She hasn't told all about him,
She cares nothing told about the murder. Yes, my lord,
she must have a nerve. She puts them all down
as slanders. Couldn't you lay proofs before her silly eyes? Well?
Can you help us do so? Ain't I a proof myself?
If I stood before her and told her how he
used me? Would you do this? Would I? Would? I? Not? Well,
it might be worth trying. But he has told her
most of his sins and had pardon from her, and
I understand she will not reopen the question al lay.
He didn't tell her all, said, Miss Winter. I call
it a glo glimpse of one or two murders besides
the one that made such a fuss. He would speak
of someone in his velvet way, and then look at
me with a steady eye and say he died within
a month. It wasn't hot air either, but I took
little notice. You see, I loved him myself at that time.
Whatever he did went with me, same as with this
poor fool. There was just one thing that shook me. Yes,
by cripes, if it had not been for his poisonous
lying tongue, that explains ensues I'd had left him that
very night. It's a book. He has a brown liver
book with a lock and his arms in gold on
the outside. I think he was a bit drunk that night,
or he would not have shown it to me. What
was it? Then? I tell you, mister Holmes, this man
collects women and takes a pride in his collection, as
some men collect moths or butterflies. He has it all
in that book, snapshots, photographs, names, details, everything about them.
It was a beastly book. A book no man, even
if he had come from the Gunner, could have put
the gun. But it was Albert Gunner's book all the
same souls I have ruined. He could have put that
on the outside if he have been so minded. However,
that's neither here nor there. For the book would not
serve you, and if it would, you can't get it.
Where is it? How can I tell you where it
is now? It's more than a year since I left him.
I know where he kept it. Then he's a precise,
tidy cat of a man in many of his ways.
So maybe it is still on the pigeonhole of the
old bureau in the inner study. Do you know his house?
I have been in the study, said Holmes, Have you though?
You haven't been slow in the job? If you only
started this morning, Maybe dear Albert has met his match
this time. The outer study is the one with the
Chinese crockery in it, big glass cupboard between the windows.
Then behind his desk is the door that leads to
the inner study, a small room where he keeps papers
in things? Is he not afraid of burglars? Adlbert is
no coward. His worst enemy couldn't say that of him.
He can look after himself. There's a burglar alarm at night. Besides,
what is there for burglar unless they got away with
all this fancy crockery. No good, said Shimwal Johnson, with
the decided voice of the expert. No fence wants stuff
of that sort that you can neither melt nor sell.
Quite so, said Holmes. Well, now, miss Winter, if you
would call here tomorrow evening at five, I would consider
in the meanwhile whether your suggestion of seeing this lady
personally may not be arranged. I am exceedingly obliged to
you for your cooperation. I need not say that my
clients will consider liberally. None of that, mister Holmes, cried
the young woman. I am not out for money. Let
me see this man in the mud, and I've got
all I've worked for in the mud of my foot
on his cursed face. That's my price. I'm with you
tomorrow or any other day, so long as you are
on his track. Porky here can tell you always where
to find me. I did not see Holmes again until
the following evening, when we dined once more at our
Strand restaurant. He shrugged his shoulders when I asked him
what luck he had in his interview. Then he told
the story, which I would repeat in this way. His hard,
dry savement needs some little editing to soften it into
the terms of real life. There was no difficulty at
all about the appointment, said Holmes, for a girl Glory's,
and showing abject filial obedience and all secondary things in
an attempt to atone for her flagrant breach of it
in her engagement. The general phone that all was ready,
and the firey miss w turned up according to schedule,
so that at half past five a cab deposited us
outside one of four Berkeley Square, where the old Soldier resides,
one of those awful gray London castles which would make
a church seem frivolous. A footman showed us into a
great yellow curtain drawing room, and there was the lady
awaiting us, de mirror pale, self contained, as inflexible and
remote as a snow image on the mountain. I don't
quite know how to make her clear to you, Watson.
Perhaps you may meet her before we are through, and
you can use your own gift of words. She is beautiful,
but with the infernal, overworld beauty of some fanatic whose
thoughts are set on high. I have seen such faces
in the pictures of old masters of the Middle Ages.
How a beast man could have laid his vile pause
upon such a being of the beyond, I cannot imagine.
You may have noticed how extreme call to each other,
the spiritual to the animal, the caveman to the angel.
She knew what we had come for. Of course, that
villain had lost no time in poisoning her mind against me.
Miss Winter's advant rather amazed her, I think, But she
waved us into our respective chairs, like a reverend abbess
receiving two rather leprous mendicants. If your head is inclined
to swell, my dear Watson, take a course of Miss
Violet de Merville. Well, sir, said she, in a voice
like the wind from an iceberg. Your name is familiar
to me. You have called, as I understand, to Milan
my fiance, Baron Grunner. It is only by my father's
request that I see you at all, And I warned
you in advance that anything you can say could not
possibly have the slightest effect on my mind. I was
sorry for her, Watson. I thought of her for the
moment as I would have thought of a daughter of
my own. I am not oft an eloquence. I use
my head, not my heart. But I really did plead
with her with all the warmth and words I could
find in my nature. I pictured to her of the
awful position of the woman who only wakes to a
man's character after she is his wife, a woman who
has to submit to be caressed by buddy hands and
lectrous lips. I spared her nothing, the shame, the fear,
the agony, the hopelessness of it all. All my hot
words couldnot bring one tinge of color to those ivory cheeks,
nor one gleam of emotion to those abstracted eyes. I
thought of what the rascal I said about a postigmatic influence.
One could really believe that she was living above the
earth in some mestatic dream. Yet there was nothing indefinite
in her applies. I've listened to you with patience, mister Holmes,
said she. The effect upon my mind is exactly as predicted.
I am aware that, Adalbert, that my fiance has had
a stormy life in which he has incurred bitter hatreds
and most unjust aspirations. You are only the last of
the series who have brought their slanders before me. Possibly
you mean well, though I learned that you are a
paid agent who would have been equally willing to act
for the Baron as against him. But in any case,
I wish you to understand once and for all that
I love him, that he loves me, and that the
opinion of all the world is no more to me
than twitter of those birds outside the window. If his
noble nature has ever for an instant fallen, it may
be that I have been specially sent to raise it
to its true and lofty level. I am not clear here.
She turned her eyes upon my companion. Who this young
lady may be? I was about to answer, when the
girl broke in like a whirlwind. If ever he saw
flam and ice face the face, it was those two women.
I'll tell you who I am, she cried, springing out
her chair, her mouth all twisted with passion. I am
his last mistress. I am one of a hundred that
he has tempted and used, and ruined and thrown into
the refuse heap as he will you. Also, your refuse
heap is more likely to be a grave. And maybe
that's the best. I tell you, you, foolish women, if
you marry this man, he'll be the death of you.
It may be a broken heart, or it may be
a broken neck, but he'll have you one way or
the other. It's not out of love for you. I'm speaking.
I don't care a tiger's curse. Whenever you live or die,
it's out of hate for him and despite him, and
to get back at him for what he did to me.
But it's all the same. And you needn't look at
me like that, my fine lady, for you may be
lower than I am before you are free with it.
I should prefer not to discuss such matters, said mister
Murville coldly. Let me say once and for all that
I am aware of free passages in my fiance's life
in which he became entangled with designing women, and that
I am assured of his hearty repentance for any evil
that he may have done three passages, screamed my companion.
You fool, you unutterable fool, mister Holmes. I beg that
you will bring us interview to an end, said the
icy voice. I have obeyed my father's wish in seeing you,
but I am not compelled to listen to the ravings
of this person with an oath. Miss Winter darted forward,
and if I had not caught her wrists, she would
have clutched this maddening woman by the hair. I dragged
her toward the door and was lucky to get her
back into the cab without a public scene, for she
was beside herself with rage in a cold way. I
felt pretty furious myself, Watson, for if there was something
indescribably annoying in the calm aloofness and supreme self complaisance
of the woman whom we are trying to save. So
now once again you know exactly how we stand, and
it is clear that I must plan some fresh opening
move for this gambit won't work. I'll keep in touch
with you, Watson, for it it is more than likely
that you will have your part of the play. Though
it is just possible that the next move may lie
with them rather than with us. And it did their
blow fell or his blow rapper, For never could I
believe that the lady was privy to it. I think
I could show you the very paving stone upon which
I stood with my eyes fell upon a placard, and
a pang of horror passed through my very soul. It
was between the Grand Hotel and Charing Cross Station, where
a one leged newsvendor displayed his evening papers. The date
was just two days after the last conversation. There, black
upon yellow was the terrible news sheet murderous attack upon
Sherlock Holmes. I think I stood stunned for some moments.
Then I have a confused recollection of snatching out a
paper of the remonstrance of a man whom I had
not paid, and finally of standing in the doorway of
a chemist's shop while I turned up the fateful paragraph.
This is how it ran. We learned with regret that
mister Sherlock Holmes, the well known private detective, was the
victim this morning of a murderous assault which has left
him in a precarious position. There are no exact details
to hand, but the event seems to have occurred about
twelve o'clock in Regent Street, outside the Cafe Royal. The
attack was made by two men armed with sticks, and
mister Holmes was beaten above the head and body, receiving
injuries which the doctors described as most serious. He was
carried to Charing Cross Hospital and afterward insisted upon being
taken to his rooms in Baker Street. The miscreant who
attacked him appeared to have been respectfully dressed men who
escaped from the biastaders by passing through the Kafa Rael
and out into a glasshouse street behind it. No doubt
they belonged to that criminal fraternity, which has so often
had occasion to bewail the activity and ingenuity of the
injured man. I need not say that my eyes had
hardly glanced over the paragraph before I sprung into a
hansom and was on my way to Baker Street. I
found Sir Leslie Oakshat, the famous surgeon, in his hall,
and the brougham waiting at the curb. No immediate danger
was his report. Two lacerated scalp wounds and some considerable bruises.
Several stitches have been necessary, morphine has been injected, and
quiet is essential, but an interview of a few minutes
would not be absolutely forbidden. With this permission, I stole
into the darkened room. The sufferer was wide awake, and
I heard my name in a horse whisper was three
quarters down. But one ray of sunlight slanted through and
struck the bandage head of the injured man. A crimson
patch had soaked through the white linen compress. I sat
beside him and bent my head. All right, Watson, don't
look so scared, he muttered, in a very weak voice.
It's not nearly as bad as it seems, Thank God
for that. I'm a bit of a single stick expert.
As you know, I took most of them on my guard.
It was the second man that was too much for me.
What can I do? Holmes? Of course it was that
damned fellow who set them on. I'll go and thrash
the hide off him if you give the word, good
old Watson, No, we can do nothing there unless the
police laid their hands on the men. But their getaway
had been well prepared. We may be sure of that.
Wait a little. I have my plans. The first thing
is to exaggerate my injuries. They'll come to you for news.
Put it on thick Watson. Luckily if I live the
week out concussion, delirium, what you like. You can't overdo it.
But sir Leslie Oakshot, Oh he's all right. He shall
see the worst side of me. I'll look after that.
Anything else, Yes, tell Shamwell Johnson to get that girl
out of the way. Those beauties will be after her now.
They know, of course, that she was with me in
the case if they dare to do me, and it
is not likely they will neglect her, that is urgent.
Do it tonight. I'll go now anything more. Put my
pipe on the table and the tobacco slipper right, come
in each morning and we'll plan our campaign. I arranged
with Johnson that evening to take Miss Winter to a
quiet suburb and see that she lay low until the
danger was pasted. For six days, the public was under
the impression that Holmes was at the door of death.
The bulletins were very grave, and there were sinister paragraphs
in the papers. My continual visits assured me that it
was not so bad, as that his wiry constitution and
his turned will were working wonders. He was recovering fast,
and I had suspected at times that he was really
finding himself rather faster than he pretended, even to me.
There was a curious, secretive streak in the man which
led to many dramatic effects, but left even his closest
friend guessing as to what his exact plans might be.
He pushed to an extreme the accident that the only
safe plotter was he who plotted alone. I was nearer
him than anyone else, and yet I was always conscious
of the gap between us. On the seventh day, the
stitches were taken out, in spite of which there was
a report of erstapillas in the evening papers. The same
evening papers had an announcement which I was bound, sick
or well to carry to my friend. It was simply
that among the passengers on the counter boat Rubitania, starting
from Liverpool on Friday, was the Baron Albert Grunner, who
had some important financial business to settle in the States
before his impending wedding to Miss Violet de Murville, only
daughter of etc. Etc. Holmes listened to the news of
a cold, concentrated look upon his pale face, which told
me that it hit him hard. Friday. He cried only
three clear days. I believe the rascal wants to put
himself out of danger's way, but he won't, Watson, by
the Lord Harry, he won't. Now, Watson, I want you
to do something for me. I am here to be used.
Holmes well then spend the next twenty four hours in
an intensive study of Chinese pottery. He gave no explanations,
and I asked for none. By long experience, I had
learned the wisdom of obedience. But when I left his room,
I walked down Baker Street, revolving in my head how
on earth I was to carry out so strange an
order Finally I drove to the London Librrian Saint James Square,
put the matter to my friend Lomax, the sub librarian,
and departed to my rooms with a goodly volume under
my arm. It is said that the barrister who cramps
up a case with such care that he can't examine
an expert witness upon the Monday, has forgotten all his
fourth knowledge before the Saturday. Certainly I should not like
now to pose as an authority upon ceramics. And yet all
the evening and all that night, with short interval for rest,
and all next morning I was stucking in knowledge and
committing names to memory. There I learned of the hallmarks
of the great artist decorators, of the mystery of psychical dates,
the marks of the Hungwo, and the beauties of the
young Low, the writings of a ting Ying, and the
glories of the primitive period of the song and the
Wand I was charged with all this information. When I
called upon Holmes next evening, he was out of bed now,
though you would not have guessed it from the published reports,
and he sat with his much bandaged head resting upon
his hand in the death of his favorite armchair. Why Holmes,
I said, if one believes the papers you are dying,
that said, he is the very impression which I intended
to convey. And now, Watson, have you learned your lesson?
At least I have tried to good. You could keep
an intelligent conversation on the subject. I believe I could.
Then hand me that little box from the mantelpiece. He
opened the lid and took out a small object, most
carefully wrapped in some fine Eastern silk. This he unfolded
and disclosed as a delicate little saucer of the most
beautiful deep blue color. He needs careful handling, Watson, this
is the real actual pottery of the Ming dynasty. No
finer piece ever passed through Christie's. A complete set of
this would be worth a king's ransom. In fact, it
is doubtful if there is a complete set outside of
the Imperial Palace of Pekin. The sight of this wild
drive a real connoisseur wild. What am I to do
with it? Holmes handed me a card upon which was
printed doctor Hill Barton three sixty nine Half Moon Street.
That is your name for the evening, Watson, you will
call upon Baron Grunner. I know something of his habits,
and at half past eight he would probably be disengaged.
A note will tell him in advance that you are
about to call, and you will see that you are
bringing him assessment of an absolutely unique set of ming China.
You may as well be a medical man, since that
is a part which you can play without duplicity. You
are a collector. This set has come your way. You
have heard of the Baron's interest in the subject, and
you are not averse to selling it at a price.
What price, well, asked Watson. You would certainly fall down
badly if you do not know the value of your
own wares. This saucer was got for me by Sir James,
and comes I understand from the collection of his clients.
You will not exaggerate if you say that it could
hardly be matched in the world. I could perhaps suggest
that the set should be valued by an expert. Excellent Watson,
you should tillate today, suggests Christy or Sophie. Your delicacy
prevents you putting a price for yourself. But if he
won't see me, oh yes, he will see you. He
has the collection mania in its most acute form, and
especially on this subject on which he is an acknowledged authority.
Sit down, Watson, and I will dictate the letter. No
answer needed, you will merely say that you are coming
and why. It was an admirable document, short, courteous, and
stimulating to the curiosity of the connoisseur. A district messenger
was duly dispatched with it on the same evening. With
the precious saucer in my hand and the card of
doctor hill Barton in my pocket, I set off on
my own adventure. The beautiful house and grounds indicated that
Baron Grunner was, as Sir James had said, a man
of considerable wealth. A long winding drive with banks of
rare shrubs on either side, opened out into a great
graveled square adorned with statues. The place had been built
by a South African gold king in the days of
the Great Boom, and a long low house with the
turrets at the corners, though an architectural nightmare, was imposing
in its size and solidity. A butler who would have
adorn a bench of bishops showed me in and handed
me over to a plush clad footman, who ushered me
into the baron's presence. He was standing at the open
front of a great case which stood between the windows,
and which contained part of his Chinese collection. As I entered,
he turned with a small vase in his hand. Praise
it down, Doctor said he. I was looking over my
own treasures and wondering whether I could really afford to
add to them. This little tanking specimen, which dates from
the seventh century, would probably interest you. I am sure
you never saw a final workmanship or richer glaze. Have
you the meaning saucer of which you spoke with you?
I carefully unpacked it and handed it to him. He
seated himself at his desk, pulled over the lamp, for
it was growing dark, and set himself to examine it.
As he did so, the yellow light beat upon his
own features, and I was able to study them at
my ease. He was certainly a remarkably handsome man. His
European reputation for beauty was fully deserved. In figure, he
was not more than a middle size, but was built
upon graceful and active lines. His face was swarthy, almost oriental,
with large, dark, lingorious eyes which might easily hold an
irresistible fascination for women. His hair and mustache were raven black.
The latter short pointed and carefully waxed. His features were
regular and pleasing, save only his straight, finlet mouth. If
ever I saw a murderer's mouth, it was there, a cruel,
hard gas in his face, compressed, inexorable and terrible. He
was ill advised to train his mustache away from it,
for it was nature's danger signal, set as a warning
to his victims. His voice was engaging, and his manner
is perfect in age. I should have put him at
little over thirty, though his record afterwards showed that he
was forty two. Already fine, very fine, indeed, he said,
at last, And you say you have a set of
six to correspond. What puzzles me is that I should
not have heard of such magnificent specimens. I only know
of one in England to match this, and it is
certainly not likely to be in the market. Would it
be indiscreet if I were to ask you, doctor hill Barton,
how you obtained this? Does it really matter? I asked,
with as careless an air as I can muster. You
can see that the piece is genuine, and as to
the value, I am content to take an experts valuation.
Very mysterious, said he with a quick, dark, suspicious flash
of his dark eyes. In dealing with objects of such value,
one naturally wishes to know all about the transaction. That
the piece is genuine is certain. I have no doubts
at all about that. But suppose I am bound to
take every possibility into account that it should prove afterward
that you had no right to sell, I would guarantee
you against my claim of the sort. That, of course,
would open up the question as to what your guarantee
was worth. My bankers would answer that quite so. And
yet the whole transaction strikes me as rather unusual. You
can do business or not, said I with indifference. I
have given you the first offer, as I understood that
you were a connoisseewer. But I shall have no difficulty
in other quarters who told you I was a connoisseeer.
I was aware that you have written a book on
the subject. Have you read the book? No? Dear me,
this becomes more and more difficult for me to understand.
You are a connoisseur and collector with a very valuable
piece in your collection, and yet you have never troubled
to consult the one book which would have told you
the real meaning and value of what you held? How
do you explain that I am a very busy man?
I am a doctor in practice. That is no answer.
If a man has a hobby, he follows it up,
whatever his other pursuits may be. You said in your
note that you were a connoisseur, so I am. Might
I ask you a few questions to test you. I
am obliged to tell you, doctor, if you are indeed
a doctor, that the instant becomes more and more suspicious.
I would ask you, what do you know of the
emperor Shomu and how do you associate him with a
soci show in nar Nara? Dear me, does that puzzle?
You tell me a little about the Northern Way dynasty
and it placed in the history of ceramics. I spray
from my chair and stimulated anger. This is a tolerable sir,
said I. I came here to do you a favor,
and not to be examined as if I were a schoolboy.
My knowledge on the subjects may be second only to
your own. But I certainly shall not answer questions which
have been put in so offensive a way. He looked
at me steadily. The languor had gone from his eyes.
They suddenly glared. There was a gleam of teeth from
between those cruel lips. What is the game? You are
here as a spot. You are an emissary of Holmes.
This is a trick you are playing upon me. The
fellow is dying, I hear, so he sends his tools
to keep watch upon me. You've made your way in
here without leave, and by God, you may find it
harder to get out than to get in. He had
sprung to his feet, and I stepped back, bracing myself
for an attack, for the man was beside himself with rage.
He may have suspected me from the first, but certainly
this cross examination had shown him the truth. But it
was clear that I could not hope to see them.
He dived his hand into a side drawer and rummaged furiously.
Then something struck upon his ear, for he stood listening intently. Ah.
He cried, ah, and dashed into the room behind him.
Two steps took me to the open door, and my
mind will ever carry a clear picture of the scene
within the window leading out to a garden was wide
open beside it, looking like some terrible goold, his head
girt with bloody bandages, his face drawn in white, stood
Sherlock Holmes. The next instant he was through the gap,
and I heard the crash of his body among the
laurel bushes outside. With a howl of rage. The master
of the house rushed after him to the open window.
And then it was done in an instant, and yet
I clearly saw it. An arm, a young woman's arm,
shot out from among the leaves. At the same instant,
the baron uttered a horrible cry, a yell which will
always ring in my memory. He clapped his two hands
to his face and rushed round the room, beating his
head horribly against the walls. Then he fell upon the carpet,
rolling and writhing, while screaming. After scream resounded through the house. Water,
for God's sake, water was his cry. I seized a
carafe from a side table and rushed to his aid.
At the same moment, the butler and several footmen ran
in from the hall. I remember that one of them
fainted as I knelt by the injured man and turned
that horrible face to the light of the lamp. The
vitrol was eating into it everywhere and dripping from the
ears to the chin. One eye was already white and glazed.
The other was red and inflamed. The features which I
had admired a few minutes before were now like some
beautiful painting over which the artists had passed a wet,
foul sponge. It was blurred, discolored, and human terrible. In
a few words, I explained exactly what had occurred so
far as the vitual attack was concerned. Some had climbed
through the window, while others had rushed out onto the lawn.
But it was dark, and it had begun to rain.
Between his screams, the victim raised and raved against the avenger.
It was a hellcat, kittie winter. He cried, Oh the
she devil. She shall pay for it, She shall pay,
Oh God in heaven, this paint is more than I
can bear. I baved his face in oil, put cotton
waddings on the raw surfaces, and administered a hypodermic morphia.
All suspicion of me had passed from his mind in
the presence of this shock, and he clung to my
hands as if I might have the power even yet
to clear his deathish eyes, which gazed upon me. I
could have wept over the ruin, had I not remembered
very clearly the vile life which had led up to
so hideous a change. It was loasted in the field
the pawing of his burning hands, and I was relieved
when his family surgeon, closely followed by a specialist, came
to relieve me of my charge. An inspector of police
had also arrived, and to him I handed my real card.
It would have been useless, as well as foolish to
do otherwise, for I was nearly as well by sight
at the yard as Holmes himself. Then I left that
house of gloom and terror. Within an hour I was
at Baker Street. Holmes was seated in his familiar chair,
looking very pale and exhausted. Apart from his injuries, even
his iron nerves had been shocked by the events of
the e and he listened with horror to my account
of the Baron's transformation. The wages of sin, Watson, the
wages of sin, said he. Sooner or later it will
always come. God knows. There was sin enough, he added,
taking up a brown volume from the table. Here is
the book the woman talked of. If this will not
break off the marriage, nothing ever could, but it will, Watson,
It must no self respecting woman could stand it. Is
it his love diary or is less diary? Call it
what you will. The moment the woman told us of it,
I realized what a tremendous weapon was there, if we
could but lay our hands on it. I said nothing
of the time to indicate my thoughts, for this woman
might have given it away, but I brooded over it.
Then this is soul upon me. Gave me the chance
of letting the baron think that no precautions may be
taken against me. That was all to the good. I
would have waited a little longer, but his visit to
America forced my hand. He would never have left so
compromising a document behind him. Therefore we had to act
at once. Burglary at night is impossible. He takes precautions,
but there was a chance in the evening if I
could only be sure that his attention was engaged. That
was where you and your blue saucer came in. But
I had to be sure of the position of the book,
and I knew I only had a few minutes in
which to act, for my time was limited by your
knowledge of Chinese pottery. Therefore I gathered the girl up
at the last moment. How could I guess what the
little packet was that she carried so carefully under her cloak.
I thought she had come altogether on my business, but
seems she had some of her own. He guessed that
came from you. I feared he would, but you held
him in play just long enough for me to get
the book, though not long enough for an unobserved escape. Ah,
Sir James, I am very glad you have come. Our
courtly friend had appeared in answer to a previous summons.
He listened with the deepest attention to Holmes account of
what had occurred. You have done wonders. Wonders, he cried
when he had heard the narrative. But if these injuries
are as terrible as doctor Watson describes, then truly our
purpose of affording the marriage is sufficiently gained without the
use of this horrible book. Holmes shook his head. Women
of the Murville type do not act like that. She
would love him for more as a disfigured martyr. No, No,
it was his moral side, not his physical, which we
have to destroy. That book will bring her back to earth,
and I know nothing else that could. It is his
own writing. She cannot get past that Sir James carried
away both it and the precious saucer. As I was
myself overdue, I went down with him into the street.
O'broham was waiting for him. He sprang in, gave a
hurried order to the cockaded coachman, and drove swiftly away.
He flung his overcoat half out of the window to
cover the armorial bearing upon the panel. But I had
seen them in the glare of our fanlight. Nonetheless, I
gasped with surprise. Then I turned back and ascended the
stairs to Holmes room. I have found who our client is,
I cried, bursting with my great news. Why Holmes it is.
It is a loyal friend and a chivalrous gentleman, said Holmes,
holding up a restraining hand let that now and forever
be enough for us. I do not know how the
incriminating book was used. Sir James may have managed it,
or it is more probable that so delicate a task
was entrusted to the young lady's father. The effect, at
any rate, was all that could be desired. Three days
later appeared a paragraph in the Morning Post to say
that the marriage between Baron Albert Grunner and Miss Violet
de Murville would not take place the same paper had
the first police court hearing of the proceedings against Miss
Kitty Winter on the great charge of vitriol for growing
such extenuating circumstances came out in the trial of at
the sentence, as will be remembered, was the lowest that
was possible for such an offense. Straw Holmes was threatened
with a prosecution for burglary. But when an object is
good and a client sufficiently illustrious, even the rigid British
law becomes human and elastic. My friend has not yet
stood in the dock. End of the Adventure of the
Illustrious Client by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle