<br/>“Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the
utter stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman
was standing in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind
her, the yellow light from my lamp beating upon her eager and
beautiful face. I could see at a glance that she was sick with
fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own heart. She held up one
shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few
whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing back,
like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her.
<br/>“ ‘I would go,’ said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to
speak calmly; ‘I would go. I should not stay here. There is no
good for you to do.’
<br/>“ ‘But, madam,’ said I, ‘I have not yet done what I came for. I
cannot possibly leave until I have seen the machine.’
<br/>“ ‘It is not worth your while to wait,’ she went on. ‘You can pass
through the door; no one hinders.’ And then, seeing that I smiled
and shook my head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and
made a step forward, with her hands wrung together. ‘For the love
of Heaven!’ she whispered, ‘get away from here before it is too
late!’
<br/>“But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to
engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I
thought of my fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of
the unpleasant night which seemed to be before me. Was it all to
go for nothing? Why should I slink away without having carried
out my commission, and without the payment which was my due? This
woman might, for all I knew, be a monomaniac. With a stout
bearing, therefore, though her manner had shaken me more than I
cared to confess, I still shook my head and declared my intention
of remaining where I was. She was about to renew her entreaties
when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several footsteps
was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw up
her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and
as noiselessly as she had come.
<br/>“The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man
with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double
chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson.
<br/>“ ‘This is my secretary and manager,’ said the colonel. ‘By the
way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just
now. I fear that you have felt the draught.’
<br/>“ ‘On the contrary,’ said I, ‘I opened the door myself because I
felt the room to be a little close.’
<br/>“He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. ‘Perhaps we had
better proceed to business, then,’ said he. ‘Mr. Ferguson and I
will take you up to see the machine.’
<br/>“ ‘I had better put my hat on, I suppose.’
<br/>“ ‘Oh, no, it is in the house.’
<br/>“ ‘What, you dig fuller’s-earth in the house?’
<br/>“ ‘No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that.
All we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us
know what is wrong with it.’
<br/>“We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the
fat manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house,
with corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little
low doors, the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the
generations who had crossed them. There were no carpets and no
signs of any furniture above the ground floor, while the plaster
was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in
green, unhealthy blotches. I tried to put on as unconcerned an
air as possible, but I had not forgotten the warnings of the
lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen eye upon
my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent
man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at
least a fellow-countryman.
<br/>“Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which
he unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three
of us could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside,
and the colonel ushered me in.
<br/>“ ‘We are now,’ said he, ‘actually within the hydraulic press, and
it would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were
to turn it on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the
end of the descending piston, and it comes down with the force of
many tons upon this metal floor. There are small lateral columns
of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and
multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you. The machine
goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in the working
of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will
have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set
it right.’
<br/>“I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very
thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of
exercising enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and
pressed down the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by
the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed
a regurgitation of water through one of the side cylinders. An
examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands which was
round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk so as not quite to
fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly the cause
of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who
followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical
questions as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I
had made it clear to them, I returned to the main chamber of the
machine and took a good look at it to satisfy my own curiosity.
It was obvious at a glance that the story of the fuller’s-earth
was the merest fabrication, for it would be absurd to suppose
that so powerful an engine could be designed for so inadequate a
purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of a
large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a
crust of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was
scraping at this to see exactly what it was when I heard a
muttered exclamation in German and saw the cadaverous face of the
colonel looking down at me.
<br/>“ ‘What are you doing there?’ he asked.
<br/>“I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as
that which he had told me. ‘I was admiring your fuller’s-earth,’
said I; ‘I think that I should be better able to advise you as to
your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it
was used.’
<br/>“The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of
my speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in
his grey eyes.
<br/>“ ‘Very well,’ said he, ‘you shall know all about the machine.’ He
took a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key
in the lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it
was quite secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and
shoves. ‘Hullo!’ I yelled. ‘Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!’
<br/>“And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my
heart into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish
of the leaking cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp
still stood upon the floor where I had placed it when examining
the trough. By its light I saw that the black ceiling was coming
down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but, as none knew better than
myself, with a force which must within a minute grind me to a
shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door, and
dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let
me out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my
cries. The ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with
my hand upraised I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it
flashed through my mind that the pain of my death would depend
very much upon the position in which I met it. If I lay on my
face the weight would come upon my spine, and I shuddered to
think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way, perhaps; and
yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black
shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand
erect, when my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope
back to my heart.
<br/>“I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the
walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw
a thin line of yellow light between two of the boards, which
broadened and broadened as a small panel was pushed backward. For
an instant I could hardly believe that here was indeed a door
which led away from death. The next instant I threw myself
through, and lay half-fainting upon the other side. The panel had
closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp, and a few
moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told me
how narrow had been my escape.
<br/>“I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and
I found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor,
while a woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand,
while she held a candle in her right. It was the same good friend
whose warning I had so foolishly rejected.
<br/>“ ‘Come! come!’ she cried breathlessly. ‘They will be here in a
moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste
the so-precious time, but come!’
<br/>“This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to
my feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding
stair. The latter led to another broad passage, and just as we
reached it we heard the sound of running feet and the shouting of
two voices, one answering the other from the floor on which we
were and from the one beneath. My guide stopped and looked about
her like one who is at her wit’s end. Then she threw open a door
which led into a bedroom, through the window of which the moon
was shining brightly.
<br/>“ ‘It is your only chance,’ said she. ‘It is high, but it may be
that you can jump it.’
<br/>“As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the
passage, and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark
rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like a
butcher’s cleaver in the other. I rushed across the bedroom,
flung open the window, and looked out. How quiet and sweet and
wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it could not be
more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill, but I
hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between
my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used,
then at any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance.
The thought had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at
the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round
him and tried to hold him back.
<br/>“ ‘Fritz! Fritz!’ she cried in English, ‘remember your promise
after the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be
silent! Oh, he will be silent!’
<br/>“ ‘You are mad, Elise!’ he shouted, struggling to break away from
her. ‘You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me
pass, I say!’ He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the
window, cut at me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and
was hanging by the hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was
conscious of a dull pain, my grip loosened, and I fell into the
garden below.
<br/>“I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and
rushed off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I
understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly,
however, as I ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me.
I glanced down at my hand, which was throbbing painfully, and
then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had been cut off and
that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured to tie my
handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my
ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the
rose-bushes.
<br/>“How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been
a very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was
breaking when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with
dew, and my coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded
thumb. The smarting of it recalled in an instant all the
particulars of my night’s adventure, and I sprang to my feet with
the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe from my pursuers. But
to my astonishment, when I came to look round me, neither house
nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle of the
hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was a
long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the
very station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were
it not for the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed
during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream.
<br/>“Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning
train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The
same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I
arrived. I inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Colonel
Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a
carriage the night before waiting for me? No, he had not. Was
there a police-station anywhere near? There was one about three
miles off.
<br/>“It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined
to wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the
police. It was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first
to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to
bring me along here. I put the case into your hands and shall do
exactly what you advise.”
<br/>We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to
this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down
from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he
placed his cuttings.
<br/>“Here is an advertisement which will interest you,” said he. “It
appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this:
‘Lost, on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged
twenty-six, a hydraulic engineer. Left his lodgings at ten
o’clock at night, and has not been heard of since. Was
dressed in,’ etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last time that
the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy.”
<br/>“Good heavens!” cried my patient. “Then that explains what the
girl said.”
<br/>“Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and
desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should
stand in the way of his little game, like those out-and-out
pirates who will leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well,
every moment now is precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall
go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for
Eyford.”
<br/>Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train
together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village.
There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector
Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and myself.
Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the
seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a circle with Eyford
for its centre.
<br/>“There you are,” said he. “That circle is drawn at a radius of
ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere
near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir.”
<br/>“It was an hour’s good drive.”
<br/>“And you think that they brought you back all that way when you
were unconscious?”
<br/>“They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having
been lifted and conveyed somewhere.”
<br/>“What I cannot understand,” said I, “is why they should have
spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden.
Perhaps the villain was softened by the woman’s entreaties.”
<br/>“I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face
in my life.”
<br/>“Oh, we shall soon clear up all that,” said Bradstreet. “Well, I
have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon
it the folk that we are in search of are to be found.”
<br/>“I think I could lay my finger on it,” said Holmes quietly.
<br/>“Really, now!” cried the inspector, “you have formed your
opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is
south, for the country is more deserted there.”
<br/>“And I say east,” said my patient.
<br/>“I am for west,” remarked the plain-clothes man. “There are
several quiet little villages up there.”
<br/>“And I am for north,” said I, “because there are no hills there,
and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up
any.”
<br/>“Come,” cried the inspector, laughing; “it’s a very pretty
diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do
you give your casting vote to?”
<br/>“You are all wrong.”
<br/>“But we can’t all be.”
<br/>“Oh, yes, you can. This is my point.” He placed his finger in the
centre of the circle. “This is where we shall find them.”
<br/>“But the twelve-mile drive?” gasped Hatherley.
<br/>“Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the
horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that
if it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?”
<br/>“Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough,” observed Bradstreet
thoughtfully. “Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature
of this gang.”
<br/>“None at all,” said Holmes. “They are coiners on a large scale,
and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the
place of silver.”
<br/>“We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work,”
said the inspector. “They have been turning out half-crowns by
the thousand. We even traced them as far as Reading, but could
get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that
showed that they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this
lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough.”
<br/>But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not
destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into
Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed
up from behind a small clump of trees in the neighbourhood and
hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape.
<br/>“A house on fire?” asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off
again on its way.
<br/>“Yes, sir!” said the station-master.
<br/>“When did it break out?”
<br/>“I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse,
and the whole place is in a blaze.”
<br/>“Whose house is it?”
<br/>“Dr. Becher’s.”
<br/>“Tell me,” broke in the engineer, “is Dr. Becher a German, very
thin, with a long, sharp nose?”
<br/>The station-master laughed heartily. “No, sir, Dr. Becher is an
Englishman, and there isn’t a man in the parish who has a
better-lined waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him,
a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as
if a little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm.”
<br/>The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all
hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low
hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in
front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in
the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to
keep the flames under.
<br/>“That’s it!” cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. “There is
the gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That
second window is the one that I jumped from.”
<br/>“Well, at least,” said Holmes, “you have had your revenge upon
them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which,
when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls,
though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to
observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for
your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are
a good hundred miles off by now.”
<br/>And Holmes’ fears came to be realised, for from that day to this
no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the
sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a
peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very
bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but
there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes’
ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their
whereabouts.
<br/>The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements
which they had found within, and still more so by discovering a
newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor.
About sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and
they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in,
and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save
some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a trace remained of
the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so
dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin were discovered stored
in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have
explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have been
already referred to.
<br/>How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to
the spot where he recovered his senses might have remained
forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a
very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two
persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other
unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the
silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous than his
companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out
of the way of danger.
<br/>“Well,” said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return
once more to London, “it has been a pretty business for me! I
have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what
have I gained?”
<br/>“Experience,” said Holmes, laughing. “Indirectly it may be of
value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the
reputation of being excellent company for the remainder of your
existence.”
<br/>
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