Each of them had a glass in his hand. I have already told you, haveI not, that one was elderly, with a beard, and the others young,hairless lads. They might have been a father with his two sons.
They talked together in whispers. Then they came over and madesure that I was securely bound. Finally they withdrew, closing thewindow after them. It was quite a quarter of an hour before I gotmy mouth free. When I did so, my screams brought the maid tomy assistance. The other servants were soon alarmed, and we sentfor the local police, who instantly communicated with London.
That is really all that I can tell you, gentlemen, and I trust that itwill not be necessary for me to go over so painful a story again.”
“Any questions, Mr. Holmes?” asked Hopkins.
“I will not impose any further tax upon Lady Brackenstall’spatience and time,” said Holmes. “Before I go into the diningroom,I should like to hear your experience.” He looked at themaid.
“I saw the men before ever they came into the house,” saidshe. “As I sat by my bedroom window I saw three men in themoonlight down by the lodge gate yonder, but I thought nothingof it at the time. It was more than an hour after that I heard mymistress scream, and down I ran, to find her, poor lamb, just asshe says, and him on the floor, with his blood and brains overthe room. It was enough to drive a woman out of her wits, tiedthere, and her very dress spotted with him, but she never wanted1052 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
courage, did Miss Mary Fraser of Adelaide and Lady Brackenstallof Abbey Grange hasn’t learned new ways. You’ve questioned herlong enough, you gentlemen, and now she is coming to her ownroom, just with her old Theresa, to get the rest that she badlyneeds.”
With a motherly tenderness the gaunt woman put her armround her mistress and led her from the room.
“She has been with her all her life,” said Hopkins. “Nursedher as a baby, and came with her to England when they first leftAustralia, eighteen months ago. Theresa Wright is her name,and the kind of maid you don’t pick up nowadays. This way, Mr.
Holmes, if you please!”
The keen interest had passed out of Holmes’s expressive face,and I knew that with the mystery all the charm of the case haddeparted. There still remained an arrest to be effected, but whatwere these commonplace rogues that he should soil his hands withthem? An abstruse and learned specialist who finds that he hasbeen called in for a case of measles would experience somethingof the annoyance which I read in my friend’s eyes. Yet the scene inthe dining-room of the Abbey Grange was sufficiently strange toarrest his attention and to recall his waning interest.
It was a very large and high chamber, with carved oak ceiling,oaken panelling, and a fine array of deer’s heads and ancientweapons around the walls. At the further end from the door wasthe high French window of which we had heard. Three smallerwindows on the right-hand side filled the apartment with coldwinter sunshine. On the left was a large, deep fireplace, with amassive, overhanging oak mantelpiece. Beside the fireplace was aheavy oaken chair with arms and cross-bars at the bottom. In andout through the open woodwork was woven a crimson cord, whichwas secured at each side to the crosspiece below. In releasing thelady, the cord had been slipped off her, but the knots with whichhad been secured still remained. These details only struck ourattention afterwards, for our thoughts were entirely absorbed bythe terrible object which lay upon the tigerskin hearthrug in frontof the fire.
It was the body of a tall, well-made man, about forty yearsof age. He lay upon his back, his face upturned, with his whiteteeth grinning through his short, black beard. His two clenchedhands were raised above his head, and a heavy, blackthorn sticklay across them. His dark, handsome, aquiline features wereconvulsed into a spasm of vindictive hatred, which had set hisdead face in a terribly fiendish expression. He had evidently beenin his bed when the alarm had broken out, for he wore a foppish,embroidered nightshirt, and his bare feet projected from histrousers. His head was horribly injured, and the whole room boreThe Return of Sherlock Holmes 1053
witness to the savage ferocity of the blow which had struck himdown. Beside him lay the heavy poker, bent into a curve by theconcussion. Holmes examined both it and the indescribable wreckwhich it had wrought.
“He must be a powerful man, this elder Randall,” he remarked.
“Yes,” said Hopkins. “I have some record of the fellow, and he isa rough customer.”
“You should have no difficulty in getting him.”
“Not the slightest. We have been on the look-out for him, andthere was some idea that he had got away to America. Now thatwe know that the gang are here, I don’t see how they can escape.
We have the news at every seaport already, and a reward will beoffered before evening. What beats me is how they could havedone so mad a thing, knowing that the lady could describe themand that we could not fail to recognize the description.”
“Exactly. One would have expected that they would silence LadyBrackenstall as well.”
“They may not have realized,” I suggested, “that she hadrecovered from her faint.”
“That is likely enough. If she seemed to be senseless, they wouldnot take her life. What about this poor fellow, Hopkins? I seem tohave heard some queer stories about him.”