Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volume II (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

“Miss Dunbar herself.”

  “Well, perhaps.”

  Holmes looked at his watch. “I have no doubt we can get the necessary permits this morning and reach Winchester by the evening train. When I have seen this young lady it is very possible that I may be of more use to you in the matter, though I cannot promise that my conclusions will necessarily be such as you desire.”

  There was some delay in the official pass, and instead of reaching Winchester that day we went down to Thor Place, the Hampshire estate of Mr. Neil Gibson. He did not accompany us himself, but we had the address of Sergeant Coventry, of the local police, who had first examined into the affair. He was a tall, thin, cadaverous man, with a secretive and mysterious manner which conveyed the idea that he knew or suspected a very great deal more than he dared say. He had a trick, too, of suddenly sinking his voice to a whisper as if he had come upon something of vital importance, though the information was usually commonplace enough. Behind these tricks of manner he soon showed himself to be a decent, honest fellow who was not too proud to admit that he was out of his depth and would welcome any help.

  “Anyhow, I’d rather have you than Scotland Yard, Mr. Holmes,” said he. “If the Yard gets called into a case, then the local loses all credit for success and may be blamed for failure. Now, you play straight, so I’ve heard.”

  “I need not appear in the matter at all,” said Holmes to the evident relief of our melancholy acquaintance. “If I can clear it up I don’t ask to have my name mentioned.”

  “Well, it’s very handsome of you, I am sure. And your friend, Dr. Watson, can be trusted, I know. Now, Mr. Holmes, as we walk down to the place there is one question I should like to ask you. I’d breathe it to no soul but you.” He looked round as though he hardly dare utter the words. “Don’t you think there might be a case against Mr. Neil Gibson himself?”

  “I have been considering that.”

  “You’ve not seen Miss Dunbar. She is a wonderful fine woman in every way. He may well have wished his wife out of the road.ex And these Americans are readier with pistols than our folk are. It was his pistol, you know.”

  “Was that clearly made out?”

  “Yes, sir. It was one of a pair that he had.”

  “One of a pair? Where is the other?”

  “Well, the gentleman has a lot of firearms of one sort and another. We never quite matched that particular pistol—but the box was made for two.”

  “If it was one of a pair you should surely be able to match it.”

  “Well, we have them all laid out at the house if you would care to look them over.”

  “Later, perhaps. I think we will walk down together and have a look at the scene of the tragedy.”

  This conversation had taken place in the little front room of Sergeant Coventry’s humble cottage which served as the local police-station. A walk of half a mile or so across a wind-swept heath, all gold and bronze with the fading ferns, brought us to a side-gate opening into the grounds of the Thor Place estate. A path led us through the pheasant preserves, and then from a clearing we saw the widespread, half-timbered house, half Tudor and half Georgian, upon the crest of the hill. Beside us there was a long, reedy pool, constricted in the centre where the main carriage drive passed over a stone bridge, but swelling into small lakes on either side. Our guide paused at the mouth of this bridge, and he pointed to the ground.

  “That was where Mrs. Gibson’s body lay. I marked it by that stone.”

  “I understand that you were there before it was moved?”

  “Yes, they sent for me at once.”

  “Who did?”

  “Mr. Gibson himself. The moment the alarm was given and he had rushed down with others from the house, he insisted that nothing should be moved until the police should arrive.”

  “That was sensible. I gathered from the newspaper report that the shot was fired from close quarters.”

  “Yes, sir, very close.”

  “Near the right temple?”

  “Just behind it, sir.”

  “How did the body lie?”

  “On the back, sir. No trace of a struggle. No marks. No weapon. The short note from Miss Dunbar was clutched in her left hand.”

  “Clutched, you say?”

  “Yes, sir, we could hardly open the fingers.”

  “That is of great importance. It excludes the idea that anyone could have placed the note there after death in order to furnish a false clue. Dear me! The note, as I remember, was quite short:

  I will be at Thor Bridge at nine o‘clock.

  G. DUNBAR.

  Was that not so?“

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Did Miss Dunbar admit writing it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “What was her explanation?”

  “Her defence was reserved for the Assizes. She would say nothing.”

  “The problem is certainly a very interesting one. The point of the letter is very obscure, is it not?”

  “Well, sir,” said the guide, “it seemed, if I may be so bold as to say so, the only really clear point in the whole case.”

  Holmes shook his head.

  “Granting that the letter is genuine and was really written, it was certainly received some time before—say one hour or two. Why, then, was this lady still clasping it in her left hand? Why should she carry it so carefully? She did not need to refer to it in the interview. Does it not seem remarkable?”

  “Well, sir, as you put it, perhaps it does.”

  “I think I should like to sit quietly for a few minutes and think it out.” He seated himself upon the stone ledge of the bridge, and I could see his quick gray eyes darting their questioning glances in every direction. Suddenly he sprang up again and ran across to the opposite parapet, whipped his lens from his pocket, and began to examine the stonework.

  “This is curious,” said he.

  “Yes, sir, we saw the chip on the ledge. I expect it’s been done by some passer-by.”

  The stonework was gray, but at this one point it showed white for a space not larger than a sixpence. When examined closely one could see that the surface was chipped as by a sharp blow.

  “It took some violence to do that,” said Holmes thoughtfully. With his cane he struck the ledge several times without leaving a mark. “Yes, it was a hard knock. In a curious place, too. It was not from above but from below, for you see that it is on the lower edge of the parapet.”

  “But it is at least fifteen feet from the body.”

  “Yes, it is fifteen feet from the body. It may have nothing to do with the matter, but it is a point worth noting. I do not think that we have anything more to learn here. There were no footsteps, you say?”

  “The ground was iron hard, sir. There were no traces at all.”

  “Then we can go. We will go up to the house first and look over these weapons of which you speak. Then we shall get on to Winchester, for I should desire to see Miss Dunbar before we go farther.”

  Mr. Neil Gibson had not returned from town, but we saw in the house the neurotic Mr. Bates who had called upon us in the morning. He showed us with a sinister relish the formidable array of firearms of various shapes and sizes which his employer had accumulated in the course of an adventurous life.

  “Mr. Gibson has his enemies, as anyone would expect who knew him and his methods,” said he. “He sleeps with a loaded revolver in the drawer beside his bed. He is a man of violence, sir, and there are times when all of us are afraid of him. I am sure that the poor lady who has passed was often terrified.”

  “Did you ever witness physical violence towards her?”

  “No, I cannot say that. But I have heard words which were nearly as bad—words of cold, cutting contempt, even before the servants.”

  “Our millionaire does not seem to shine in private life,” remarked Holmes as we made our way to the station. “Well, Watson, we have come on a good many facts, some of them new ones, and yet I seem some way from my conclusion. In spite of the very eviden
t dislike which Mr. Bates has to his employer, I gather from him that when the alarm came he was undoubtedly in his library. Dinner was over at 8:30 and all was normal up to then. It is true that the alarm was somewhat late in the evening, but the tragedy certainly occurred about the hour named in the note. There is no evidence at all that Mr. Gibson had been out of doors since his return from town at five o‘clock. On the other hand, Miss Dunbar, as I understand it, admits that she had made an appointment to meet Mrs. Gibson at the bridge. Beyond this she would say nothing, as her lawyer had advised her to reserve her defence. We have several very vital questions to ask that young lady, and my mind will not be easy until we have seen her. I must confess that the case would seem to me to be very black against her if it were not for one thing.”

  “And what is that, Holmes?”

  “The finding of the pistol in her wardrobe.”

  “Dear me, Holmes!” I cried, “that seemed to me to be the most damning incident of all.”

  “Not so, Watson. It had struck me even at my first perfunctory reading as very strange, and now that I am in closer touch with the case it is my only firm ground for hope. We must look for consistency. Where there is a want of it we must suspect deception.”

  “I hardly follow you.”

  “Well now, Watson, suppose for a moment that we visualize you in the character of a woman who, in a cold, premeditated fashion, is about to get rid of a rival. You have planned it. A note has been written. The victim has come. You have your weapon. The crime is done. It has been workmanlike and complete. Do you tell me that after carrying out so crafty a crime you would now ruin your reputation as a criminal by forgetting to fling your weapon into those adjacent reed-beds which would forever cover it, but you must needs carry it carefully home and put it in your own wardrobe, the very first place that would be searched? Your best friends would hardly call you a schemer, Watson, and yet I could not picture you doing anything so crude as that.”

  “In the excitement of the moment—”

  “No, no, Watson, I will not admit that it is possible. Where a crime is coolly premeditated, then the means of covering it are coolly premeditated also. I hope, therefore, that we are in the presence of a serious misconception.”

  “But there is so much to explain.”

  “Well, we shall set about explaining it. When once your point of view is changed, the very thing which was so damning becomes a clue to the truth. For example, there is this revolver. Miss Dunbar disclaims all knowledge of it. On our new theory she is speaking truth when she says so. Therefore, it was placed in her wardrobe. Who placed it there? Someone who wished to incriminate her. Was not that person the actual criminal? You see how we come at once upon a most fruitful line of inquiry.”

  We were compelled to spend the night at Winchester, as the formalities had not yet been completed, but next morning, in the company of Mr. Joyce Cummings, the rising barrister who was entrusted with the defence, we were allowed to see the young lady in her cell. I had expected from all that we had heard to see a beautiful woman, but I can never forget the effect which Miss Dunbar produced upon me. It was no wonder that even the masterful millionaire had found in her something more powerful than himself—something which could control and guide him. One felt, too, as one looked at the strong, clear-cut, and yet sensitive face, that even should she be capable of some impetuous deed, none the less there was an innate nobility of character which would make her influence always for the good. She was a brunette, tall, with a noble figure and commanding presence, but her dark eyes had in them the appealing, helpless expression of the hunted creature who feels the nets around it, but can see no way out from the toils. Now, as she realized the presence and the help of my famous friend, there came a touch of colour in her wan cheeks and a light of hope began to glimmer in the glance which she turned upon us.

  “Perhaps Mr. Neil Gibson has told you something of what occurred between us?” she asked in a low, agitated voice.

  “Yes,” Holmes answered, “you need not pain yourself by entering into that part of the story. After seeing you, I am prepared to accept Mr. Gibson’s statement both as to the influence which you had over him and as to the innocence of your relations with him. But why was the whole situation not brought out in court?”

  “It seemed to me incredible that such a charge could be sustained. I thought that if we waited the whole thing must clear itself up without our being compelled to enter into painful details of the inner life of the family. But I understand that far from clearing it has become even more serious.”

  “My dear young lady,” cried Holmes earnestly, “I beg you to have no illusions upon the point. Mr. Cummings here would assure you that all the cards are at present against us, and that we must do everything that is possible if we are to win clear. It would be a cruel deception to pretend that you are not in very great danger. Give me all the help you can, then, to get at the truth.”

  “I will conceal nothing.”

  “Tell us, then, of your true relations with Mr. Gibson’s wife.”

  “She hated me, Mr. Holmes. She hated me with all the fervour of her tropical nature. She was a woman who would do nothing by halves, and the measure of her love for her husband was the measure also of her hatred for me. It is probable that she misunderstood our relations. I would not wish to wrong her, but she loved so vividly in a physical sense that she could hardly understand the mental, and even spiritual, tie which held her husband to me, or imagine that it was only my desire to influence his power to good ends which kept me under his roof. I can see now that I was wrong. Nothing could justify me in remaining where I was a cause of unhappiness, and yet it is certain that the unhappiness would have remained even if I had left the house.”

  “Now, Miss Dunbar,” said Holmes, “I beg you to tell us exactly what occurred that evening.”

  “I can tell you the truth so far as I know it, Mr. Holmes, but I am in a position to prove nothing, and there are points—the most vital points—which I can neither explain nor can I imagine any explanation.”

  “If you will find the facts, perhaps others may find the explanation.”

  “With regard, then, to my presence at Thor Bridge that night, I received a note from Mrs. Gibson in the morning. It lay on the table of the schoolroom, and it may have been left there by her own hand. It implored me to see her there after dinner, said she had something important to say to me, and asked me to leave an answer on the sundial in the garden, as she desired no one to be in our confidence. I saw no reason for such secrecy, but I did as she asked, accepting the appointment. She asked me to destroy her note and I burned it in the schoolroom grate. She was very much afraid of her husband, who treated her with a harshness for which I frequently reproached him, and I could only imagine that she acted in this way because she did not wish him to know of our interview.”

  “Yet she kept your reply very carefully?”

  “Yes. I was surprised to hear that she had it in her hand when she died.”

  “Well, what happened then?”

  “I went down as I had promised. When I reached the bridge she was waiting for me. Never did I realize till that moment how this poor creature hated me. She was like a mad woman—indeed, I think she was a mad woman, subtly mad with the deep power of deception which insane people may have. How else could she have met me with unconcern every day and yet had so raging a hatred of me in her heart? I will not say what she said. She poured her whole wild fury out in burning and horrible words. I did not even answer—I could not. It was dreadful to see her. I put my hands to my ears and rushed away. When I left her she was standing, still shrieking out her curses at me, in the mouth of the bridge.”

  “Where she was afterwards found?”

  “Within a few yards from the spot.”

  “And yet, presuming that she met her death shortly after you left her, you heard no shot?”

  “No, I heard nothing. But, indeed, Mr. Holmes, I was so agitated and horrified by this terrible outbreak that
I rushed to get back to the peace of my own room, and I was incapable of noticing anything which happened.”

  “You say that you returned to your room. Did you leave it again before next morning?”

  “Yes, when the alarm came that the poor creature had met her death I ran out with the others.”

  “Did you see Mr. Gibson?”

  “Yes, he had just returned from the bridge when I saw him. He had sent for the doctor and the police.”

  “Did he seem to you much perturbed?”

  “Mr. Gibson is a very strong, self-contained man. I do not think that he would ever show his emotions on the surface. But I, who knew him so well, could see that he was deeply concerned.”

  “Then we come to the all-important point. This pistol that was found in your room. Had you ever seen it before?”

  “Never, I swear it.”

  “When was it found?”

  “Next morning, when the police made their search.”

  “Among your clothes?”

  “Yes, on the floor of my wardrobe under my dresses.”

  “You could not guess how long it had been there?”

  “It had not been there the morning before.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I tidied out the wardrobe.”

  “That is final. Then someone came into your room and placed the pistol there in order to inculpate you.”

  “It must have been so.”

  “And when?”

  “It could only have been at meal-time, or else at the hours when I would be in the schoolroom with the children.”

  “As you were when you got the note?”

  “Yes, from that time onward for the whole morning.”

  “Thank you, Miss Dunbar. Is there any other point which could help me in the investigation?”

  “I can think of none.”

  “There was some sign of violence on the stonework of the bridge—a perfectly fresh chip just opposite the body. Could you suggest any possible explanation of that?”

  “Surely it must be a mere coincidence.”

  “Curious, Miss Dunbar, very curious. Why should it appear at the very time of the tragedy, and why at the very place?”