“Give him a cigar,” said Holmes. “Bite on that, Captain Crocker,and don’t let your nerves run away with you. I should not sit heresmoking with you if I thought that you were a common criminal,you may be sure of that. Be frank with me and we may do somegood. Play tricks with me, and I’ll crush you.”
“What do you wish me to do?”
“To give me a true account of all that happened at the AbbeyGrange last night—a true account, mind you, with nothing addedand nothing taken off. I know so much already that if you go oneinch off the straight, I’ll blow this police whistle from my windowand the affair goes out of my hands forever.”
The sailor thought for a little. Then he struck his leg with hisgreat sunburned hand.
“I’ll chance it,” he cried. “I believe you are a man of your word,and a white man, and I’ll tell you the whole story. But one thing Iwill say first. So far as I am concerned, I regret nothing and I fearnothing, and I would do it all again and be proud of the job. Damnthe beast, if he had as many lives as a cat, he would owe them all tome! But it’s the lady, Mary—Mary Fraser—for never will I call herThe Return of Sherlock Holmes 1063
by that accursed name. When I think of getting her into trouble, Iwho would give my life just to bring one smile to her dear face, it’sthat that turns my soul into water. And yet—and yet—what lesscould I do? I’ll tell you my story, gentlemen, and then I’ll ask you,as man to man, what less could I do?
“I must go back a bit. You seem to know everything, so I expectthat you know that I met her when she was a passenger and I wasfirst officer of the ROCK OF GIBRALTAR. From the first day Imet her, she was the only woman to me. Every day of that voyageI loved her more, and many a time since have I kneeled down inthe darkness of the night watch and kissed the deck of that shipbecause I knew her dear feet had trod it. She was never engagedto me. She treated me as fairly as ever a woman treated a man. Ihave no complaint to make. It was all love on my side, and all goodcomradeship and friendship on hers. When we parted she was afree woman, but I could never again be a free man.
“Next time I came back from sea, I heard of her marriage. Well,why shouldn’t she marry whom she liked? Title and money—whocould carry them better than she? She was born for all that isbeautiful and dainty. I didn’t grieve over her marriage. I was notsuch a selfish hound as that. I just rejoiced that good luck hadcome her way, and that she had not thrown herself away on apenniless sailor. That’s how I loved Mary Fraser.
“Well, I never thought to see her again, but last voyage I waspromoted, and the new boat was not yet launched, so I had to waitfor a couple of months with my people at Sydenham. One day outin a country lane I met Theresa Wright, her old maid. She told meall about her, about him, about everything. I tell you, gentlemen, itnearly drove me mad. This drunken hound, that he should dare toraise his hand to her, whose boots he was not worthy to lick! I metTheresa again. Then I met Mary herself—and met her again. Thenshe would meet me no more. But the other day I had a notice thatI was to start on my voyage within a week, and I determined thatI would see her once before I left. Theresa was always my friend,for she loved Mary and hated this villain almost as much as I did.
From her I learned the ways of the house. Mary used to sit upreading in her own little room downstairs. I crept round there lastnight and scratched at the window. At first she would not opento me, but in her heart I know that now she loves me, and shecould not leave me in the frosty night. She whispered to me tocome round to the big front window, and I found it open beforeme, so as to let me into the dining-room. Again I heard from herown lips things that made my blood boil, and again I cursed thisbrute who mishandled the woman I loved. Well, gentlemen, I wasstanding with her just inside the window, in all innocence, as Godis my judge, when he rushed like a madman into the room, called1064 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
her the vilest name that a man could use to a woman, and weltedher across the face with the stick he had in his hand. I had sprungfor the poker, and it was a fair fight between us. See here, on myarm, where his first blow fell. Then it was my turn, and I wentthrough him as if he had been a rotten pumpkin. Do you think Iwas sorry? Not I! It was his life or mine, but far more than that, itwas his life or hers, for how could I leave her in the power of thismadman? That was how I killed him. Was I wrong? Well, then,what would either of you gentlemen have done, if you had been inmy position?”
“She had screamed when he struck her, and that brought oldTheresa down from the room above. There was a bottle of wine onthe sideboard, and I opened it and poured a little between Mary’slips, for she was half dead with shock. Then I took a drop myself.
Theresa was as cool as ice, and it was her plot as much as mine.
We must make it appear that burglars had done the thing. Theresakept on repeating our story to her mistress, while I swarmed upand cut the rope of the bell. Then I lashed her in her chair, andfrayed out the end of the rope to make it look natural, else theywould wonder how in the world a burglar could have got up thereto cut it. Then I gathered up a few plates and pots of silver, to carryout the idea of the robbery, and there I left them, with orders togive the alarm when I had a quarter of an hour’s start. I dropped thesilver into the pond, and made off for Sydenham, feeling that foronce in my life I had done a real good night’s work. And that’s thetruth and the whole truth, Mr. Holmes, if it costs me my neck.”
Holmes smoked for some time in silence. Then he crossed theroom, and shook our visitor by the hand.