by Hugh Ashton
“ I was not expecting to see things as well-prepared as this,” muttered Holmes. On the stern of the boat, we could read the name Friesland, followed by the name of the ship’s home port, Rotterdam. “ A name we will do well to remember,” Holmes said to me in a low voice.
We turned away from the dock, powerless to make any move against the ship or its crew. “ Do you know the identity of the woman who carried the package into the house this evening ? ” Holmes asked me.
“ From the list of those that you observed the other night, I would have to say that it is the Duchess.”
“ I agree with you. I believe that the Duke has in his possession—or what now seems to be more likely, used to have in his possession—a Rembrandt drawing which is said to be one of the finest of its type in the entire world. It is my belief that the package we have seen carried onto the ship just now represents the original of one of the choicest examples of the master’s draughtsmanship. I happen to know that the Duke is at present in Norfolk, and I shall run down there tomorrow. I will also pay a visit on Sir Godfrey, whose country seat is near to that of the Duke, and I shall acquaint him with our progress so far. While I am doing that, I wish you to make enquiries as to the identity of the owner of that ship and discover all that you can of its comings and goings. When we return to Baker-Street I will give you the card of one of the clerks in the Port Office who has been of service to me in the past. He will require his palm to be greased, but I anticipate full recompense from Sir Godfrey, and possibly the Duke also, for any expenses that may be incurred in this regard. A couple of sovereigns should suffice in this case.” He broke off. “ My dear fellow, are you cold ? ”
“ More than a little.” In truth, I was chilled to the marrow. “ I fear that I may be catching a chill, or worse, if I stay outside for much longer.”
“ My apologies. I was so consumed with the thrill of the chase that bodily discomfort was the furthest thing from my mind. Happily we have been deposited in an area of London where I have friends. Follow me.”
The acquaintances of Sherlock Holmes never failed to fill me with amazement, both in their number and in their variety. Holmes led me a short distance from the docks, to an establishment seemingly operated for the benefit of the dock labourers and sailors, which served hearty fare in the form of hot soup and baked potatoes, which appeared to be the only items on the menu. I hesitated before entering, but Holmes showed no such worries, and made his way to the counter as if he were a regular customer. To my astonishment, the proprietor greeted him by name.
“ A cold night, Mr. Holmes.”
“ It is indeed, Jim. Two large bowls of your finest, and two large potatoes.” He pushed some silver across the counter, which I estimated to be more than ample for the food he had just ordered. “ And may I introduce my colleague, Dr. Watson here,” gesturing towards me.
“ Pleased to make your acquaintance, sir,” said the man referred to as ‘ Jim’. “ I’ve heard Mr. Holmes here talk of you many times, and tell me that if it were not for you he could not do his work.”
I glanced at Holmes, whose face was now set in a sort of half-smile. He nodded at me and caught my eye. At that moment I felt the strength of the bond between us which was rarely expressed, except at moments like this. Two steaming bowls of soup were placed in front of us, and I can honestly say that I have hardly ever enjoyed any food so much in my life.
As we finished the soup, Jim placed a plate with a baked potato and a pat of butter in front of each of us, and we fell to. “ Excellent as always, Jim,” Holmes remarked. “ Maybe there’s something else you can provide for us ? ” He leaned forward, and the other copied the gesture, so that their faces were less than a foot apart over the table. They spoke in low voices.
“ What do you know of that Dutch tramp, the Friesland ? ”
“ You mean the one that’s tied up at the docks down there ? ” Jim jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
“ That is the one I mean.”
“ She’s an odd one, and no mistake. Three times in as many months she’s just taken off in the middle of the night. No word of goodbye, no pilot. Now if she was running stuff into the country, I could understand her coming in and tying up without anyone noticing, but it doesn’t make any sense for her to be setting off like that all the time. You know,” scratching his head, “ I don’t know as I have ever seen her set sail in the daylight. She’s a bit of a night bird, that one.”
“ Do any of her crew ever come in here ? ”
“ Hard to tell. We get all sorts in here. Wait, though. Yes, I remember two of them coming in once. Spoke quite good English. Didn’t think much of my soup, as I recall. You know, there’s something else funny about the Friesland. She’s often here for three or four days at a time, but I hardly ever see anyone loading stuff onto her or taking stuff off her. Is there something strange going on there, can you tell me ? ”
“ I do not believe there is anything untoward.” He added, as if it were an afterthought, “ Just to be on the safe side, will you get word to me the next time she calls in port ? ”
“ It will be a pleasure, Mr. Holmes.”
We left the restaurant (for so I suppose I must term it) and set off for the main road in search of transport to return us to Baker-street. “ I may assume that your lack of interest in the Friesland is indeed pretended ? ” I said to Holmes.
“ Naturally. I have no wish to attract more attention than is necessary. I have used Jim as a source of information on a number of occasions following his release from gaol, where he had been confined following a wrongful conviction for burglary—you recall the Bishopsgate jewel case ? —which I was able to overturn, and secure his release. While he is from time to time a very valuable resource to me in my work, he does suffer from a failing in that he tends to overindulge, and has been known to let slip various pieces of information which would better have remained hidden from the common gaze, so to speak.” We walked on in silence for a while. Suddenly, Holmes addressed me. “ This is going to be a rough business, Watson. I feel there is more at risk here than your simply catching a cold. There is, I believe, a very real chance of my perishing in the attempt to stop this business, and you with me, should you persist in your folly in accompanying me in this business.”
“ How can you say such a thing ? ” I asked Holmes. “ In any event, whether or not the business is dangerous, you can count on my being at your side for as long as you need me there.”
“ Have no fear. I do not doubt your courage or your loyalty for an instant, but I do wish to make you fully aware of the danger into which you may be running. I have reason to believe that de Vries may be more deeply connected with European criminal organisations than I first suspected. My connections do not run to the Dutch police force, however, but I have telegraphed my friend in the French detective service, Monsieur Le Villard, to enquire if he has any information regarding this matter. He is rapidly gaining a reputation for his successes which, if I may be permitted my moment of vanity, is due at least in part to the hints I have been able to pass to him on various subjects. He is well aware of the debt he owes me, and I expect an answer to arrive at Baker-street in the next few hours at most. Ah ! You have no objection to an omnibus ? ” Indeed, dawn was breaking, and the morning fogs were disappearing as the metropolis woke to the life of a new day.
We caught the omnibus that Holmes had espied and eventually arrived at Baker-street, where Mrs. Hudson presented Holmes with a telegram.
“ Just come this moment, Mr. Holmes,” she said. “ I was going to take it up to you, not knowing that you and the Doctor were out. I’m sure you’d both like a nice cup of tea ? ”
“ Coffee, if you would be so kind, Mrs. Hudson. Strong, black, and plenty of it.”
“ And for you, Doctor ? ”
“ Doctor Watson will have the same,” replied Holmes, before I could answer. “ We will need to be alert today. Remember, I am for Norfolk, and you are for the Port Office. That reminds me.” He reache
d into a pigeonhole of his desk, and extracted a card which he handed to me. Loudon is your man. You have sufficient funds ? ” I replied in the affirmative.
Following two cups of some of the strongest coffee I have ever imbibed, and a few rounds of toast, Holmes and I set off on our respective errands. Once I had located the clerk Loudon, and the financial obligations consequent on doing business with him had been met, it proved a relatively simple matter for him to give me the dates on which the Friesland had called at the port.
“ The times here are not exact, mark you,” he warned me. “ She seems to come and go much as she pleases, without a pilot. But I can tell you that the dates are correct, because she pays her wharfage fees for the days she’s here. And if she didn’t, there’d be trouble, I can tell you.”
I wrote down the list of dates in my notebook.
“ Anything else you want to know ? ”
Though Holmes had not specifically asked for the information, I thought it worthwhile to enquire what sort of cargo had been declared, and with whom the shipping company did business.
“ That wouldn’t be our affair,” I was told. “ It might be possible to find out if you really wanted to know. I had heard a rumour that they were running things into Holland that they shouldn’t be doing. It’s none of our business here in this country, of course, if they want to buy good Scotch whisky and take it to the Dutchmen there without their Customs knowing about it. Of course, if they were running Dutch gin here without paying the duty, that would be a different matter.”
I thanked him, and armed with this knowledge, returned to Baker-street to await Sherlock Holmes. In the event, I had not long to wait.
“ Excellent ! ” said he upon entering. “ Have the goodness to ring for Mrs. Hudson. I am famished, and I have a fancy for buttered eggs or some such.” Our housekeeper entered, and Holmes placed his order.
“ You said matters were excellent ? ” I enquired, when Mrs. Hudson had departed.
“ For us, yes. Our supposition is correct. Maybe things are not so excellent for His Grace, but I was not so gauche as to inform him of that fact. The Rembrandt drawing in his London town house which he was kind enough to let me examine is undoubtedly a modern copy. I went to visit him in Norfolk, and informed him, since he recognised my name, that I had been retained by an insurance company to check one or two details, including the drawing in question. He thereupon provided me with a letter of introduction, which I handed to the butler of the London house on my return to Town, and I was left alone with the so-called Rembrandt. A palpable fake, my dear Watson. The paper, the medium in which the drawing was executed—all demonstrably modern. The execution, however, was competent.”
“ If you ever succeed in putting the criminal element of London out of business altogether,” I laughed, “ you will have another trade on which you may fall back.”
“ I doubt if it will ever come to that pass,” he replied, “ but it is a pleasant enough fancy, to be sure.”
“ And Sir Godfrey ? ” I asked.
“ I had taken the precaution of telegraphing in advance, and received a reply informing me that he would not be in residence. No reason was given. Accordingly, I did not bother to pay a visit. And how did you fare ? ” he asked me.
I told him of what I had discovered, and he listened with interest. “ The idea of smuggling whisky seems to be an ingenious one. If they were ever caught, they could give up the whisky casks, receive a nominal punishment, and no exciseman would ever dream of investigating further. The trick of hiding a larger crime behind a smaller one is one that I have observed before. The Grotton affair was before your time, but that was an excellent example of the stratagem.”
“ What is our next move ? Are we simply going to wait for the Friesland to come here again ? ”
“ No. I think we will pay another visit to Finsbury, now we have a clearer idea of what we seek.”
“ You propose to bother the house-agent once more ? ”
“ I do not think we will trouble him on this occasion,” smiled Holmes. “ I am sorry to turn your night into day once more, but I feel a nocturnal expedition will yield more satisfactory results. Provided, as always, that you wish to accompany me.”
“ Holmes ! ” I exclaimed in irritation that was only partially feigned. “ I am by now becoming seriously annoyed at these repeated references of yours, suggesting that I am unwilling to assist you.” I attempted to adopt an expression of ferocity, but the effort proved too much, and I burst out in a fit of laughter, in which Holmes, after a moment’s puzzlement, joined me.
“ Thank you. I feel bound to warn you, though, that we risk arrest and possible conviction should we be apprehended by the law, as we will be equipped for housebreaking. Also, as I have mentioned previously, if for some reason our assumptions should prove to be incorrect, we are at risk of suffering the attentions of any members of the gang who may chance to disturb us.”
“ I am almost of the impression that you do not wish me to come with you,” I said.
“ Nothing could be further from my mind, I assure you. But I would be remiss if I failed to remind you of the possible risks involved here.”
“ Have no fear,” I confirmed. “ I am with you.”
“ Very good. I expected no less.”
I picked up the newspaper, having had no time to read it earlier, and perused a few pages before uttering a cry. “ Holmes ! The man Ripley whom we spoke to in Hampstead ! ”
“ What of him ? ”
“ He is dead.”
“ Show me,” he ordered, fairly snatching the paper from my hands. He scanned the page. “ Found dead in Finsbury Park. Skull crushed by a blunt object. Watch and wallet missing. Pockets emptied. ‘ Clear case of robbery,’ says Lestrade. Ha ! It is nothing of the kind, clearly.”
“ What do you believe it to be, then ? ”
“ We know that he was expecting Sir Godfrey, whom I am now convinced has been something less than straightforward in his dealings with us. Somehow, Sir Godfrey is connected with all of this.”
“ I fail to see how.”
“ I have my suspicions, but they are as yet unproven. May I suggest that you take a little rest ? You appear to need it.”
“ And you ? ”
“ For myself, I can confidently say that the thrill of the chase is sufficient fuel to keep my engine turning. When this is over, I can afford to relax a little, but until this time, it is impossible for me to consider letting down my guard.”
I followed Holmes’ advice, and lay down in my bed-room for a while, being woken a few hours later by Holmes standing at the foot of the bed. “ We will be off in a short while,” he said to me. “ It is now dark, and a merciful fog has descended, which should ensure that we will remain undetected at our work. Let us eat before we set off. Mrs. Hudson has prepared what promises to be an excellent repast to send us on our way. I have the dark lanterns and the necessary tools all ready.”
A little later we set off for Finsbury, and made our way to the back of the house, following the riverside route that de Vries had taken the previous evening. We met no-one on our way, and as Holmes had predicted, the fog hid us from view.
On arrival at the house, Holmes removed a cloth roll from his inside pocket, and proceeded to pick the lock of the back door of the house.
“ I had considered jemmying the door, or breaking a window, to simulate the work of ordinary criminals,” said he, “ but I considered it best if we left as few traces of our entry as possible. It would seem foolish to advertise the fact of our arrival.”
On entering the back room, where the large table was in the position where we had first seen it, Holmes checked that the blinds and curtains covering the window were closed before lighting the first of the dark-lanterns.
“ Since the whole business must be set up and taken down many times, and accomplished in a short space of time, I am confident that any hiding place will be in this room,” he explained.
“ Where should we lo
ok ? ”
“ The panels on the wall that forms the division between this room and the space under the staircase will almost certainly provide one hiding-place,” he answered, moving to the area of the room he had indicated, and tapping the walls gingerly with his knuckles. “ Ah ! ” He grasped at the side of one of the panels and applied himself to it. After an initial resistance, the panel suddenly slid to one side, revealing a cavity into which Holmes shone the lantern. “ Chairs,” he reported, “ and champagne glasses, together with some crates of champagne.” He explored the recess a little further. “ No sign of any gaming apparatus, though,” he said.
“ If it were cards or dice that formed the components of the games of chance, they could easily be carried in a pocket, and brought here as needed,” I pointed out.
“ That is very true, but the gamblers that we have observed are women, and roulette is the game of choice for most female gamesters. Here, take this,” he commanded me, passing me the other lantern, “ and see if you can discover any loose floorboards or concealed trapdoor or anything of that nature. I have a strong suspicion that there may be a more secret cache beneath our feet.”
I followed his example, and dropped to my knees to examine the floor. After a relatively short time I was able to announce some success. “ There is a crack between the two floorboards here,” I informed Holmes, “ but I am unsure how to make use of it.”
He came to my side, and studied the floor carefully. “ I believe that this is the hiding place we have been seeking, but I confess that I am a little puzzled by its operation.” He inserted a thin plasterer’s trowel that formed part of his housebreaker’s tools into the crack and moved it around. “ The hinges are here and here,” he told me, pointing to two locations, “ which implies that we should be able to lift the trapdoor from here,” plunging the trowel into a crack in the floor at some distance from the first. After a little struggle, that portion of the floor lifted on hinges, as Holmes had foretold.