by Ashton, Hugh
“And then we have the sudden, unpremeditated type of murder,” I added. “The type for which no satisfactory solution can be found.”
“Alas, that will not work in this case,” my friend answered me. “Remember the electric bell that killed Tosca. Premeditation of the most unpleasant kind. The use of the Toledo blade was, I believe, an attempt to incriminate Alvarez. Mahoney undoubtedly recognised him and saw him as an adversary.”
“Have you determined Alvarez’ true identity?”
Holmes laughed. “My dear fellow. As soon as he had declared himself to be other than Alvarez, I recognised him. Even before that time I had marked him as a man who had not spent his life as a servant, and I was reasonably certain of his true name and rank. The way he moved was that of one used to command, rather than one used to being commanded, and the state of his hands indicated that manual labour was a practice to which he had only recently come.” Here Holmes gave a name, but for the sake of discretion, I prefer not to repeat it here. The man whom we knew as Alvarez has recently come to occupy a senior position in his government, and it might cause not a little embarrassment were his previous activities to be revealed. I have sometimes wondered, though, what were Lord Ledbury’s feelings on beholding the face of his former butler in the newspaper, as a minister in the Spanish Cabinet.
Editor’s note: Despite my best efforts, it has proved impossible to locate with certainty any member of the Spanish Cabinet of the year of 1914 who was possessed of an English mother. It is possible that Watson’s notorious memory has failed him yet again as to the year of “Alvarez”’s government service.
“But how did you make the connection between Mahoney and the Aldertons?”
“You should be familiar with my discovery that a typewriter is as distinctive a means of communication as is handwriting. I remarked it previously in the case of Mr. James Windibank and his stepdaughter, Miss Sutherland, as you will probably recall. In any event, though the majority of the documents that we saw left behind at Ledbury Hall were handwritten by the clerks of the Holy See, there were some copies of letters that had been typewritten in England, one assumes by Mahoney, and had been produced using carbon paper.
“Though a carbon impression is less susceptible to analysis than one impressed directly by the typewriter ribbon, there were some points of interest that caught my eye at the time. The slight damage to the upper loop of the g, for example, coupled with the depression of the capital T relative to the rest of the line, and the slight nick out of the dot of the small I were sufficient to make a unique identification of this machine.
“As one does in these cases, I filed the information away mentally, not expecting to use it again once the case had been given up, but imagine my surprise when we encountered the same typewriter again in Upper Holland Street. I proved to my own satisfaction that it was the same machine by typing a few letters of my own using it, and the recollection of the documents we had seen at Ledbury came to mind. It is amazing, is it not, how the mind can instantly summon into prominence, almost without effort, those facts that were learned previously but previously were discarded as seemingly being of little value?
“This typewriter, of course, is also that used to type the name and address given to the girls and to write the letter to the letting agent ending the lease. We may also be certain that the note informing Mrs. Wiles, the cook, that her services would no longer be required, was written on the same machine. It is clear that following Mahoney’s murder, the criminals wished to end the lease and dismiss the cook, but they felt unsure of their ability to imitate Mahoney’s handwriting with sufficient skill to deceive the recipients of these documents.
“The typewritten nature of the cancelled lease, together with discrepancies between the signatures, and the dismissal of the cook were sufficient to tell me that Mahoney’s departure had not been a voluntary one. It was also clear, after one smell of the foul odour proceeding from the floor, that Mahoney was still with us, though in a decomposed form.
“Given Mahoney’s Fenian connections, and the Irish accent of the tramps who came to call at Windsor, I had no doubt that these were Mahoney’s confederates seeking him. I had also deduced that the girls calling on the Aldertons and seeking employment were likewise attempts to gain access to the house, either to discover the paper themselves and hand it over to the gang, or allowing the gang members to effect an entrance for that purpose.
“The information supplied to us by Alvarez regarding the letter took me by surprise, I freely admit. I can offer no defence for my ignorance in that regard.”
“And what of the Aldertons? May I ask where they stayed the night?”
Sherlock Holmes permitted himself what can only be described as a mischievous grin—an expression that I had hardly ever previously seen on his face, and one which I saw but twice subsequently. “Why,” he chuckled. “Where would you guess would be the safest, best-guarded location in the fair town of Windsor?”
“The Castle,” I answered, after a moment’s thought.
“And that is exactly where the Aldertons and their girl stayed for two nights, while their house was disinfected and made safe from any infection that the late Mr. Mahoney may have left behind, and any damage caused by his removal from the premises was repaired. Her Majesty was not in residence at the time, but the State Guest Suite was made available to them. I trust that Mrs. Alderton can adapt herself once more to the relative squalor of The Willows,” he laughed.
“And the Royal personage whose indiscretions have caused so much trouble?”
Holmes became serious. “I have heard from Mycroft that senior Ministers, not to mention the Archbishop of Canterbury, have been holding conversations with him, and that he has agreed not to make his conversion to Roman Catholicism public. He has further agreed that when the time comes for his coronation, it will be conducted according to the English, not the Roman rite.”
“That is indeed a relief,” I told him. “I believe that you may well have saved England from the horrors of a civil war.”
“Not I alone, Watson,” he said. “As I say, I regard most of my work in this case as having been a failure, and I was, at the end, only one of many who helped to preserve the peace of the Realm. And I must now attend to the dreadful business at Upminster, the solution of which I expect to find in today’s agony column”. Having said this, he took up the day’s Times and proceeded to scan it with interest.
Appendix
ACD’s note
Editor’s note: This letter, in the distinctive handwriting of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was enclosed with the sheets in which this adventure was set forth. The date at the top of the letter does not include the year, but for reasons I have given earlier, I believe it to be 1914, at which time the Duke of York as mentioned in this story would have become the reigning monarch, George V.
September 25
My Dear Watson,
I must thank you for the manuscript of the “Adventure of the Cardinal” that you sent me last week. At this moment in our nation’s history, I feel it would be extremely inadvisable to release the facts contained therein to the public. I am sure on further reflection you will agree with me on this, and will come to the same conclusion as have I—that is, that the balance of the public’s mind will be disturbed by the revelation of these facts. I therefore have concluded that this adventure should not be forwarded for publication.
However, notwithstanding my opinion on this matter, I found your account to be of immense interest, and further confirms my high opinion of Mr. Holmes as one of the greatest Englishmen who has ever lived, in every sense of those words.
I do, however, look forward to reading the account of the incident to which you alluded in your letter; namely, the capture of the German spy, and the way in which our mutual friend deceived the German High Command for so long. How I wish that I had been there with you to enjoy the look on Von Bork’s face when “Altamont” revealed the truth.
Please pass my very best regards to
Mr. Holmes, should you chance to encounter him in the near future, and naturally, the same good wishes extend to you. I look forward to renewing our acquaintance when you are next in the neighbourhood.
Yours sincerely
[signature]
Arthur Conan Doyle
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