 Part 1, Chapter 1 of The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Part 1. The Tragedy of Burlestone. Chapter 1. The Warning. I'm inclined to think, said I. I should do so, Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently. I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals, but I'll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption. Really, Holmes, said I, severely, you are a little trying at times. He was too much absorbed with his own thoughts to give any immediate answer to my remonstrance. He leaned upon his hand with his untasted breakfast before him, and he stared at the slip of paper which he had just drawn from its envelope. Then he took the envelope itself, held it up to the light, and very carefully studied both the exterior and the flap. It is Paul Ock's writing, said he thoughtfully. I can hardly doubt that it is Paul Ock's writing, though I have seen it only twice before. The Greek E, with a peculiar top flourish, is distinctive, but if it is Paul Ock, then it must be something of the very first importance. He was speaking to himself rather than to me, but my vexation disappeared in the interest which the words awakened. Who then is Paul Ock? I asked. Paul Ock Watson is a nom de plume, a mere identification mark, but behind it lies a shifty and evasive personality. In a former letter he frankly informed me that the name was not his own, and defied me ever to trace him among the teeming millions of this great city. Paul Ock is important, not for himself, but for the great man with whom he is in touch. Picture to yourself the pilot-fish with the shark, the jackal with the lion. Anything that is insignificant in companionship with that is formidable, not only formidable, Watson, but sinister. In the highest degree, sinister. That is where he comes within my purview. You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty? A famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as my blushes, Watson, Holmes murdered in a deprecating voice. I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public. A touch, a distinct touch, cried Holmes. You are developing a certain unexpected vein of porky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering a libel in the eyes of the law. And there lie the glory and the wonder of it. The greatest schemer of all time, the organiser of every devilry, the controlling brain of the underworld. A brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations. That's the man. But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hail you to a court and emerge you with your heart's pension as a salation for his wounded character. Is he not the celebrated author of the Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics, that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticising it? Is this a man to reduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor? Such would be your respective roles. That's genius, Watson, but if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come. May I be there to see? I exclaimed devoutly. But you are speaking of this man, Paulock. Ah, yes. The so-called Paulock is a link in the chain some little away from its great attachment. Paulock is not quite a sound link between ourselves. He is the only flaw in that chain so far as I have been able to test it. But no chain is stronger than its weakest link. Exactly, my dear Watson. Hence the extreme importance of Paulock. Led on by some rudimentary aspirations towards right, and encouraged by the judicious stimulation of an occasional ten-pound note sent to him by devious methods, he has once or twice given me advance information which has been of value, that highest value which anticipates and prevents rather than avenges crime. I cannot doubt that if we had the cipher we should find that this communication is of the nature that I indicate. Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose and, leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscription which ran as follows. 534, C2, 13, 127, 36, 31, 4, 17, 21, 41, Douglas, 109, 293, 537, Burlstone, 26, Burlstone, 9, 47, 171. What do you make of it, Holmes? It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information. But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher? In this instance, none at all. Why do you say in this instance? Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha of the agony column. Such crude devices amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it. But this is different. It is clearly a reference to the words in a page of some book, until I am told which page and which book I am powerless. But why Douglas and Burlstone? Clearly because those are words which were not contained in the page in question. Then why has he not indicated the book? Your native shrewdness, my dear Watson, that innate cunning which is the delight of your friends, would surely prevent you from enclosing cipher and message in the same envelope. Should it miscarry, you are undone. As it is, both have to go wrong before any harm comes from it. Our second post is now overdue, and I shall be surprised if it does not bring us either a further letter of explanation, or, as is more probable, the very volume to which these figures refer. Holmes's calculation was fulfilled within a very few minutes by the appearance of Billy, the page, with the very letter which we were expecting. The same writing remarked Holmes as he opened the envelope, and actually signed. He added in an exultant voice as he unfolded the epistle. Come, we are getting on, Watson. His brow clouded, however, as he glanced over the contents. Dear me, this is very disappointing. I fear, Watson, that all our expectations come to nothing. I trust that the man Paul Ock will come to know harm. Dear Mr. Holmes, he says, I will go no further in this matter. It is too dangerous. He suspects me. He came to me quite unexpectedly after I had actually addressed this envelope with the intention of sending you the key to the cipher. I was able to cover it up. If he had seen it, it would have gone hard with me. But I read suspicion in his eyes. Please burn the cipher message which can now be of no use to you. Fred Paul Ock. Holmes sat for some little time, twisting this letter between his fingers and frowning as he stared into the fire. After all, he said at last, there may be nothing in it. It may be only his guilty conscience. Knowing himself to be a traitor, he may have read the accusation in the other's eyes. The other being, I presume, Professor Moriarty. No less. When any of that party talk about he, you know whom they mean. There is one predominant he for all of them. But what can he do? Hmm, that's a large question. When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities. Anyhow, Fred Paul Ock is evidently scared out of his senses. Kindly compare the writing in the note to that upon its envelope, which was done, he tells us, before this ill-ohmened visit. The one is clear and firm. The other hardly legible. Why did he write it at all? Why did he not simply drop it? Because he feared I would make some inquiry after him in that case and possibly bring trouble on him. No doubt, said I. Of course I had picked up the original cipher message and was bending my brows over it. It's pretty maddening to think that an important secret may lie here on this slip of paper and that it is beyond human power to penetrate it. Sherlock Holmes had pushed away his untasted breakfast and lit the unsavory pipe, which was the companion of his deepest meditations. I wonder, said he, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. Perhaps there are points which have been found perhaps there are points which have escaped your Machiavellian intellect. Let us consider the problem in the light of pure reason. This man's reference is to a book. That is our point of departure. A somewhat vague one. Let us see then if we can narrow it down. As I focus my mind upon it, it seems rather less impenetrable. What indications have we as to this book? None. Well, well, it is surely not quite so bad as that. The cipher message begins with a large 534, does it not? We may take it as a working hypothesis that 534 is the particular page to which the cipher refers. So our book has already become a large book, which is surely something gained. What other indications have we as to the nature of this large book? The next sign is C2. What do you make of that, Watson? Chapter II, no doubt. Hardly that, Watson. You will, I am sure, agree with me that if the page be given the number of the chapter is immaterial. Also, that if page 534 finds us only in the second chapter the length of the first one must have been really intolerable. Column, I cried. Brilliant, Watson! You are scintillating this morning. If it is not columned, then I am very much deceived. So now you see we begin to visualize a large book printed in double columns which are each of a considerable length since one of the words is numbered in the document as the 293rd. Have we reached the limits of what reason can supply? I fear that we have. Surely you do yourself an injustice. One more coruscation, my dear Watson. Yet another brainwave? Had the volume been an unusual one he would have sent it to me. Instead of that he had intended before his plans were nipped to send me the clue in this envelope. He says so in this note. This would seem to indicate that the book is one which he thought I would have no difficulty in finding for myself. He had it, and he imagined that I would have it, too. In short, Watson, it is a very common book. What you say certainly sounds plausible. So we have contracted our field of search to a large book printed in double columns and in common use. The Bible, I cried triumphantly. Good Watson, good. But not if I may say so quite good enough. Even if I accepted the compliment for myself, I could hardly name any volume which would be less likely to lie at the elbow of one of Moriarty's associates. Besides, the editions of Holy Rit are so numerous that he could hardly suppose that two copies would have the same pagination. This is clearly a book which is standardized. He knows for certain that his page 534 will exactly agree with my page 534. But very few books would correspond with that. Exactly. Therein lies our salvation. Our search is narrowed down to standardized books which anyone may be supposed to possess. Bradshaw. There are difficulties, Watson. The vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous and terse, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to the sending of general messages. We will eliminate Bradshaw. The dictionary is, I fear, inadmissible for the same reason. What then is left? An almanac. Excellent, Watson. I am very much mistaken if you have not touched the spot. An almanac. Let us consider the claims of Whittaker's almanac. It is in common use. It has the requisite number of pages. It is in double column. Though reserved in its earlier vocabulary, it becomes, if I remember right, quite garrulous towards the end. He picked the volume from his desk. Here is page 534, column 2. A substantial block of print dealing I perceive with the trade and resources of British India. Jot down the words, Watson. Number 13 is marata. Not, I fear, a very auspicious beginning. Number 127 is government, which at least makes sense, though somewhat irrelevant to ourselves and Professor Moriarty. Now, let us try again. What does the marata government do? Alas, the next word is pigs bristles. We are undone, my good Watson. It is finished. He had spoken in jesting vain, but the twitching of his bushy eyebrows bespoke his disappointment and irritation. I sat helpless and unhappy, staring into the fire. A long silence was broken by a sudden exclamation from Holmes, who dashed at a cupboard from which he emerged with a second yellow-covered volume in his hand. We pay the price, Watson, for being too up to date," he cried. We are before our time and suffer the usual penalties. Being the 7th of January, we have very properly laid in the new almanac. It is more than likely that Paulock took his message from the old one. No doubt he would have told us so had his letter of explanation been written. Now, let us see what page 534 has in store for us. No. 13 is there, which is much more promising. No. 127 is, is, there is. Holmes' eyes were gleaming with excitement and his thin, nervous fingers twitched as he counted the words. Danger! Ha-ha! Capital! Put that down, Watson. There is danger. May come very soon. One. Then we have the name Douglas. Rich country now at Burlstone House. Burlstone Confidence is pressing. There, Watson. What do you think of pure reason than its fruit? If the greengrocer had such a thing as a laurel wreath, I should send Billy round for it. I was staring at the strange message which I had scrawled as he deciphered it upon a sheet of false cap on my knee. What a queer scrambling way of expressing his meaning, said I. On the contrary. He has done quite remarkably well, said Holmes. When you search a single column for words with which to express your meaning, you can hardly expect to get everything you want. You are bound to leave something to the intelligence of your correspondent. The purport is perfectly clear. Some devilry is intended against one Douglas, whoever he may be, residing as stated, a rich country gentleman. He is sure, confidence, was as near as he could get to confident, that it is pressing. There is our result, and a very workman-like little bit of analysis it was. Holmes had the impersonal joy of the true artist in his better work, even as he mourned darkly when it fell below the high level to which he aspired. He was still chuckling over his success when Billy swung open the door and Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard was ushered into the room. Those were the early days at the end of the eighties when Alec MacDonald was far from having attained the national fame which he has now achieved. He was a young but trusted member of the detective force who had distinguished himself in several cases which had been entrusted to him. His tall bony figure gave promise of exceptional physical strength, while his great cranium and deep-set lustrous eyes spoke no less clearly of the keen intelligence which twinkled out from behind his bushy eyebrows. He was a silent, precise man with a down-nature and a hard, Abadonian accent. Twice already in his career had Holmes helped him to attain success, his own sole reward being the intellectual joy of the problem. For this reason the affectation and respect of the Scotchman for his amateur colleague were profound and he showed them by the frankness with which he consulted Holmes in every difficulty. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself but talent instantly recognizes genius and MacDonald had talent enough for his profession to enable him to perceive that there was no humiliation in seeking the assistance of one who already stood alone in Europe, both in his gifts and in his experience. Holmes was not prone to friendship but he was tolerant of the big Scotchman and smiled at the sight of him. You are an early bird, Mr. Mac, said he. I wish you luck with your worm. I fear this means that there is some mischief afoot. If you said hope instead of fear it would be nearer the truth than thinking Mr. Holmes, the inspector answered with a knowing grin. Well, maybe a wee nip would keep out the roam on in chill. No, I won't smoke, I thank you. I'll have to be pushing on my way for the early o's of a case are the precious ones as no man knows better than your own self, but—but— the inspector had stopped suddenly and was staring with the look of absolute amazement at a paper upon the table. It was the sheet upon which I had scrawled the enigmatic message. D-d-Douglas, he stammered. B-Burlstone? What's this, Mr. Holmes? Man, it's witchcraft. Where's the name of all that is wonderful? Did you get these names? It is a cipher that Dr. Watson and I have had occasion to solve. But why? What's a miss with the names? The inspector looked from one to the other of us in dazed amazement. Just this, said he, that Mr. Douglas of Burlstone Manor House was horribly murdered last night. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Sherlock Holmes Discourses It was one of those dramatic moments for which my friend existed. It would be an overstatement to say that he was shocked or even excited by the amazing announcement. Without having a tinge of cruelty in his singular composition he was undoubtedly callous from long overstimulation. Yet, if his emotions were dulled, his intellectual perceptions were exceedingly active. There was no trace, then, of the horror which I had myself felt at this curt declaration. But his face showed rather the quiet and interested composure of the chemist who sees the crystals falling into position from his oversaturated solution. Remarkable, said he. Remarkable. You don't seem surprised. Interested, Mr. Mack, but hardly surprised. Why should I be surprised? I receive an anonymous communication from a quarter which I know to be important, warning me that danger threatens a certain person. Within an hour I learn that this danger has actually materialized and that the person is dead. I am interested, but as you observe I am not surprised. In a few short sentences he explained to the inspector the facts about the letter and the cipher. McDonald sat with his chin on his hands and his great sandy eyebrows bunched into a yellow tangle. I was going down to Burlstone this morning, said he. I had come to ask you if you cared to come with me. You and your friend here. As you say, we might perhaps be doing better work in London. I rather think not, said Holmes. Hang it all, Mr. Holmes, cried the inspector. The papers will be full of the Burlstone mystery in a day or two, but where's the mystery if there's a man in London who prophesied the crime before ever it occurred? We've only to lay our hands on that man and the rest will follow. No doubt, Mr. Mack, what do you propose to lay your hands on the so-called poorlock? McDonald turned over the letter which Holmes had handed him. Posted in Camberwell. That doesn't help as much. Name, you say, as assumed. Not much to go on, certainly. Didn't you say that you sent him money? Twice. And how? In notes to Camberwell Post Office. Did you ever trouble to see who called for them? No. You look surprised and a little shocked. Why not? Because I always keep faith and I had promised when he first wrote that I would not try to trace him. You think there's someone behind him? I know there is. This professor that I've heard you mention? Exactly. Inspector McDonald smiled and his eyelid quivered as he glanced towards me. I won't conceal from you, Mr. Holmes, that we think in the CID that you have a wee bit of a bee in your bonnet over this professor. I made some inquiries myself about the matter. He seems to be a very respectable, learned and talented sort of man. I'm glad you've got so far as to recognize the talent. Man, you can't but recognize it after I heard your view. I made it my business to see him. I had a chat with him on eclipses. How the talk got that way, I cannot think. But he had out a reflector lantern and a globe, and I made it all clear in a minute. He lent me a book, but I don't mind saying that it was a bit above my head, though I had a good Aberdeen upbringing. He'd have made a grand minister with his thin face and grey hair and solemn-like way of talking when he put his hand on my shoulder as we were part in it was like a father's blessing before you go out into the cold, cruel world. Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands. Great, he said, great. Tell me, friend McDonald, this pleasing and touching interview was, I suppose, in the professor's study. That's so. A fine room, is it not? Very fine, very handsome indeed, Mr. Holmes. You sat in front of his writing-desk? Just so. Sun in your eyes and his face in the shadow? Well, it was evening, but a mind that the lamp was turned on my face. It would be. Did you happen to observe a picture over the professor's head? I don't miss much, Mr. Holmes. Maybe I'll learn that from you. Yes, I saw the picture. A young woman with a head on her hands, peeping at you sideways. That painting was by Jean-Baptiste Gros. The inspector endeavored to look interested. Jean-Baptiste Gros, Holmes continued, joining his fingertips and leaning well back in his chair, an artist who flourished between the years 1750 and 1800. I allude, of course, to his working career. Modern criticism has more than endorsed the high opinion formed of him by his contemporaries. The inspector's eyes grew abstracted. Haven't we better— he said. We are doing so, Holmes interrupted. All that I'm saying has a very direct and vital bearing upon what you have called the Burlestone Mystery. In fact, it may in a sense be called the very centre of it. MacDonald smiled feebly and looked peelingly to me. Your thoughts move a bit too quick for me, Mr. Holmes. You leave out a link or two, and I can't get over the gap. What in the whole wide world can be the connection between this dead painting man and the affair at Burlestone? All knowledge comes useful to the detective, remarked Holmes. Even the trivial fact that in the year 1865 a picture by Greuse entitled La Jeune Fille à l'agneau fetched 1,200,000 francs, more than 40,000 pounds at the Portalis sale may start a train of reflection in your mind. It was clear that it did. The inspector looked honestly interested. I may remind you, Holmes continued, that the professor's salary can be ascertained in several trustworthy books of reference. It is seven hundred a year. And how could he buy? Quite so. How could he? Aye, that's remarkable," said the inspector thoughtfully. Talk away, Mr. Holmes. I'm just loving it. It's fine. Holmes smiled. He was always warmed by genuine admiration, the characteristic of the real artist. What about Burlstone? he asked. We've time yet," said the inspector glancing at his watch. I've a cab at the door, and it won't take us twenty minutes to Victoria. But about this picture I thought you told me once, Mr. Holmes, that you had never met Professor Moriarty. No, I never have. And how do you know about his rooms? Ah, that's another matter. I have been three times in his rooms, twice waiting for him under different pretexts and leaving before he came. Once, well, I can hardly tell about the once to an official detective. It was on the last occasion that I took the liberty of running over his papers with the most unexpected results. You found something compromising? Absolutely nothing. That was what amazed me. However, you have now seen the point of the picture. It shows him to be a very wealthy man. How did he acquire wealth? He is unmarried, his younger brother is a station master in the west of England, his chair is worth seven hundred a year, and he owns a grove. Well, surely the inference is plain. You mean that he's a great income and that he must earn it in an illegal fashion? Exactly. Of course, I have other reasons and dozens of exiduous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous motionless creature is lurking. I only mention the groves because it brings the matter within the range of your own observation. Well, Mr. Holmes, I admit that what you see is interesting. It's more than interesting. It's just wonderful. But let us have it a little clearer if you can. Is it forgery, coining, burglary? Where does the money come from? Have you ever read of Jonathan Wilde? Well, the name has a familiar sound. Someone in a novel, was he not? I don't take much stock of detectives in novels, chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That's just inspiration, not business. Jonathan Wilde wasn't a detective and he wasn't in a novel. He was a master criminal and he lived last century, 1750 or thereabouts. Then he's no use to me. I'm a practical man. Mr. Mack the most practical thing that you ever did in your life would be to shut yourself up for three months and read twelve hours a day at the annals of crime. Everything comes in circles, even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wilde was the hidden force of the London criminals to whom he sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen percent commission. The old wheel turns and the same spoke comes up. It's all been done before and will be again. I'll tell you one or two things about Moriarty which may interest you. You'll interest me right enough. I happen to know who is the first link in his chain. A chain with this Napoleon gone wrong at one end and a hundred broken fighting men, pickpockets, blackmailers and card shoppers at the other with every sort of crime in between. His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran as a loof and guarded and inaccessible to the law as himself. What do you think he pays him? I'd like to hear. Six thousand a year. That's paying for brains. You see, the American business principle. I learned that detail quite by chance. It's more than the prime minister gets. That gives you an idea of Moriarty's gains and of the scale on which he works. Another point. I made it my business to hunt down some of Moriarty's checks lately. Just common innocent checks that he pays his household bills with. They were drawn on six different banks. Does that make any impression on your mind? Queer, certainly. But what do you gather from it? That he wanted no gossip about his wealth. No single man should know what he had. I have no doubt that he has twenty banking accounts in the bulk of his fortune abroad in the Deutsche Bank or the Credit Lyonnais as likely as not. Sometime when you have a year or two to spare I commend to you the study of Professor Moriarty. Inspector Macdonald had grown steadily more impressed as the conversation proceeded. He had lost himself in his interest. Now his practical scotch intelligence brought him back with a snap to the matter in hand. He can keep anyhow, said he. You've got a side-tracked with your interesting anecdotes, Mr. Holmes. What really counts is your remark that there is some connection between the professor and the crime that you get from the warning received through the man Paulock. Can we for our present practical needs go further than that? We may form some conception as to the motives of the crime. It is, as I gather from your original remarks, an inexplicable or at least an unexplained murder. Now, presuming that the source of the crime is as we suspect it to be there might be two different motives. In the first place I may tell you that Moriarty rules with a rod of iron over his people. His discipline is tremendous. There is only one punishment in his code. It is death. Now, we might suppose that this murdered man, this Douglas, whose approaching fate was known by one of the arch-criminal subordinates, had in some way betrayed the chief. His punishment followed and would be known to all if only to put the fear of death into them. Well, that is one suggestion, Mr. Holmes. The other is that it has been engineered by Moriarty in the ordinary course of business. Was there any robbery? I have not heard. If so, it would, of course, be against the first hypothesis and in favour of the second. Moriarty may have been engaged to engineer it on a promise of part spoils or he may have been paid so much down to manage it, either as possible, but whichever it may be, or if it's some third combination, down at Burlestone that we must seek the solution. I know our man too well to suppose that he has left anything up here which may lead us to him. Then to Burlestone we must go, cried MacDonald, jumping from his chair. My word! It's later than I thought. I can give you, gentlemen, five minutes for preparation and that is all. And ample for us both, said Holmes, as he sprang up and hastened to change from his dressing-gown to his coat. We are on our way, Mr. Mac, I will ask you to be good enough to tell me all about it. All about it proved to be disappointingly little and yet there was enough to assure us that the case before us might well be worthy of the expert's closest attention. He brightened and rubbed his thin hands together as he listened to the meagre but remarkable details. A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us and here at last there was a fitting object for those remarkable powers which, like all special gifts, become irksome to their owner when they are not in use. That razor-brain blunted and rusted within action. Sherlock Holmes' eyes glistened, his pale cheeks took a warmer hue and his whole eager face shone with an inward light when the call for work reached him. Leaning forward in the cab he listened intently to MacDonald's and which awaited us in Sussex. The inspector was himself dependent, as he explained to us, upon a scribbled account forward to him by the milk-train in the early hours of the morning. White Mason, the local officer, was a personal friend and hence MacDonald had been notified much more promptly than is usual at Scotland Yard when provincials need their assistance. It is a very cold scent upon which the metropolitan expert is generally asked to run. Dear Inspector MacDonald said the letter which he read to us, official requisition for your services is in separate envelope. This is for your private eye. Wire me what train in the morning you can get for Burlston and I will meet it, or have it met if I am too occupied. This case is a snorter. Don't waste a moment in getting started. If you can bring Mr. Holmes, please do so, for he will find something after his own heart. We would think the hole had been fixed up for theatrical effect if there wasn't a dead man in the middle of it. My word, it is a snorter. Your friend seems to be no fool, remarked Holmes. No, sir. White Mason is a very live man if I am any judge. Well, have you anything more? Only that he will give us every detail when we meet. Then how did you get at Mr. Douglas and the fact that he had been horribly murdered? That was in the enclosed official report. They didn't say horrible. That's not a recognized official term. It gave the name John Douglas. It mentioned that his injuries had been in the head from the discharge of a shotgun. It also mentioned the hour of the alarm which was close on to midnight last night. It added that the case was undoubtedly one of murder, but that no arrest had been made. And that the case was one which presented some very perplexing and next-door ordinary features. That's absolutely all we have at present, Mr. Holmes. Then with your permission we will leave it at that, Mr. Mack. The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. I can see only two things for certain at present. A great brain in London and a dead man in Sussex. It's the chain between that we are going to trace. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 3 The Tragedy of Burlestone Now for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificant personality and to describe events which occurred before we arrived upon the scene by the light of knowledge which came to us afterwards. Only in this way can I make the reader appreciate the people concerned and the strange setting in which their fate was cast. The village of Burlestone is a small and very ancient cluster of half-timbered cottages on the northern border of the county of Sussex. For centuries it had remained unchanged, but within the last few years its picturesque appearance and situation have attracted a number of well-to-do residents whose villas peep out from the woods around. These woods are locally supposed to be the extreme fringe of the great wheeled forest which thins away until it reaches the northern chalk-downs. A number of small shops have come into being to meet the wants of the increased population, so there seems some prospect that Burlestone may soon grow from an ancient village into a modern town. It is the centre for a considerable area of country, since Tumbridge first place of importance is 10 or 12 miles to the eastward over the borders of Kent. About half a mile from the town, standing in an old park famous for its huge beech trees, is the ancient manor house of Burlestone. Part of this venerable building dates back to the time of the first crusade when Hugo de Capus built a fortilice in the centre of the estate which had been grunted to him by the Red King. It was destroyed by fire in 1543 and some of its smoke-blackened cornerstones were used when, in Jacobean times, a brick country house rose upon the ruins of the feudal castle. The manor house, with its many gables and its small diamond-pained windows, was still much as the builder had left it in the early seventeenth century. Of the double motes which had guarded its more war-like predecessor, the outer had been served the humble function of a kitchen garden. The inner one was still there and lay forty feet in breadth, though now only a few feet in depth round the whole house. A small stream fed it and continued beyond it, so that the sheet of water, though turbid, was never ditch-like or unhealthy. The ground floor windows were within a foot of the surface of the water. The only approach to the house was over a drawbridge, the chains and windlass of which had long been rusted and broken. The latest tenants of the manor house had, however, with characteristic energy set this right, and the drawbridge was not only capable of being raised, but actually was raised every evening and lowered every morning. By thus renewing the custom of the old feudal days, the manor house was converted into an island during the night, a fact which had very direct bearing upon the mystery which was soon to engage the attention of all England. The house had been untenanted for some years and was threatening to moulder into a picturesque decay when the Douglasses took possession of it. This family consisted of only two individuals, John Douglass and his wife. Douglass was a remarkable man, both in character and in person. In age he may have been about fifty with a strong jawed rugged face, a grizzling gush, peculiarly keen grey eyes, and a wiry, vigorous figure which had lost nothing of the strength and activity of youth. He was cheery and genial to all, but somewhat offhand in his manors, giving the impression that he had seen life in social strata on some far lower horizon than the county society of Sussex. Yet though looked at with some curiosity and reserve by his more cultivated neighbours, he soon acquired a great popularity among the villagers, subscribing handsomely to all local objects and attending their smoking concerts and other functions, where having a remarkably rich tenor voice he was always ready to oblige with an excellent song. He appeared to have plenty of money which was said to have been gained in the California Goldfields and it was clear from his own talk and that of his wife that he had spent a part of his life in America. The good impression which had been produced by his generosity and by his democratic manners was increased by a reputation gained for utter indifference to danger. Though a wretched rider, he turned out at every meet and took the most amazing falls in his determination to hold his own with the best. When the vicarage caught fire he distinguished himself also and entered the building to save property and after the local fire brigade had given it up as impossible. Thus it came about that John Douglas of the Manor House had within five years won himself quite a reputation in Burlestone. His wife too was popular with those who had made her acquaintance, though after the English fashion the callers upon a stranger who settled in the county without introductions were few and far between. This mattered the less to her as she was retiring by disposition and very much absorbed to all appearance in her husband and her domestic duties. It was known that she was an English lady who had met Mr. Douglas in London, he being at the time a widower. She was a beautiful woman, tall, dark and slender, some twenty years younger than her husband, a disparity which seemed in no wise to mar the contentment of their family life. It was remarked sometimes, however, by those who knew them best, that the confidence between the two did not appear to be complete since the wife was either very reticent about her husband's past life or else as seemed more likely was imperfectly informed about it. It had also been noted and commented upon by a few observant people that there were signs sometimes of some nerve strain upon the part of Mrs. Douglas and that she would display acute uneasiness if her absent husband should ever be particularly late in his return. On a quiet countryside where all gossip is welcome this weakness of the Lady of the Manor House did not pass without remark and it bulked large upon people's memory when the events arose which gave it a very special significance. There was yet another individual whose residence under that roof was, it is true, only an intermittent one, but whose presence at the time of the strange happenings which will now be narrated brought his name prominently before the public. This was Cecil James Barker of Hale's Lodge, Hampstead. Cecil Barker's tall loose-jointed figure was a familiar one in the main street of Burlestone Village, and he was a frequent and welcome visitor at the Manor House. He was the more noticed as being the only friend of the past unknown life of Mr. Douglas who was ever seen in his new English surroundings. Barker was himself an undoubted Englishman, but by his remarks it was clear that he had first known Douglas in America and had there lived on intimate terms with him. He appeared to be a man of considerable wealth and was reputed to be a bachelor. In age he was rather younger than Douglas. Forty-five at the most. A tall, straight, broad-chested fellow with a clean-shaved, prize-fighter face, thick, strong, black eyebrows and a pair of masterful black eyes which might, even without the aid of his very capable hands, clear away for him through a hostile crowd. He neither rode nor shot, but spent his days in wandering around the old village with his pipe in his mouth, or in driving with his host, or in his absence with his hostess, over the beautiful countryside. An easygoing, free-handed gentleman, said Ames the Butler, but my word I had rather not be the man that crossed him. He was cordial and intimate with Douglas and he was no less friendly with his wife. A friendship which more than once seemed to cause some irritation so that even the servants were able to perceive his annoyance. Such was the third person who was one of the family when the catastrophe occurred. As to the other denizens of the old building, it was suffice out of a large household to mention the prim, respectable and capable Ames, and Mrs. Allen, a buxom and cheerful person who relieved the lady of some of her household cares. Another six servants in the house were no relation to the events of the night of January 6. It was at 11.45 that the first alarm reached the small local police station in charge of Sergeant Wilson of the Sussex Constabulary. Cecil Barker, much excited, had rushed up to the door and peeled furiously upon the bell. A terrible tragedy had occurred at the Manor House and John Douglas had been murdered. That was the breathless burden of his message. He had hurried back to the house followed within a few minutes by the police sergeant who arrived at the scene of the crime a little after twelve o'clock after taking prompt steps to warn the county authorities that something serious was afoot. On reaching the Manor House the sergeant had found the drawbridge down, the windows lighted up and the whole household in a state of wild confusion and alarm. The white-faced servants were huddling together in the hall with the frightened butler ringing his hands in the doorway. Only Cecil Barker seemed to be master of himself and his emotions. He had opened the door which was nearest to the entrance and he had beckoned to the sergeant to follow him. At that moment a brisk and capable general practitioner from the village the three men entered the fatal room together while the horror-stricken butler followed at their heels closing the door behind him to shut out the terrible scene from the maid-servants. The dead man lay on his back sprawling without stretched limbs in the centre of the room. He was clad only in a pink dressing-gown which covered his night-clothes. There were carpet slippers on his bare feet. The doctor knelt beside him and held down the hand-lamp which had stood on the table. One glance at the victim was enough to show the healer that his presence could be dispensed with. The man had been horribly injured. Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of the triggers. It was clear that this had been fired at close range and that he had received the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost to pieces. The triggers had been wired together so as to make the simultaneous discharge more destructive. The country policemen were unnerved and troubled by the tremendous responsibility which had come so suddenly upon them. We all touched nothing until my superiors arrived, he said in a hushed voice, staring in horror at the dreadful head. Nothing has been touched up to now. Said Cecil Barker, I'll answer for that. You see it all exactly as I found it. When was that? The sergeant had drawn out his notebook. It was just half past eleven. I had not begun to undress and I was sitting by the fire in my bedroom when I heard the report. It was not very loud. It seemed to be muffled. I rushed down. I don't suppose it was thirty seconds before I was in the room. Was the door open? Yes, it was open. Poor Douglas was lying as you see him. His bedroom candle was burning on the table. It was I who lit the lamp some minutes afterward. Did you see no one? No, I heard Mrs. Douglas coming down the stair behind me and I rushed out to prevent her from seeing this dreadful sight. Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, came and took her away. Ames had arrived and we ran back into the room once more. But surely I've heard that the drawbridge is kept up all night. Yes, it was up until I lowered it. Then how could any murderer have got away? It is out of the question Mr. Douglas must have shot himself. That was our first idea. But see! Barker drew aside the curtain and showed that the long diamond-pained window was to its full extent. And look at this! He held the lamp down and illuminated a smudge of blood like the mark of a boot-soul upon the window sill. Someone has stood there and getting out. You mean that someone waded across the moat? Exactly! Then if you were in the room within half a minute of the crime he must have been in the water at that very moment. I have not a doubt of it. I wished heaven that I had rushed to the window. But the curtain screened it as you can see. And so it never occurred to me. Then I heard the step of Mrs. Douglas and I could not let her enter the room. It would have been too horrible. Horrible enough said the doctor, looking at the shattered head and the terrible marks which surrounded it. I've never seen such injuries since the Burlestone Railway Smash. But I say, remarked the police officer, who's slow, bucolic common sense was still pondering the open window. It's all very well you saying that a man escaped by wading this moat. But why ask you is how did he ever get into the house at all if the bridge was up? Ah, that's the question, said Barker. At what o'clock was it raised? It was nearly six o'clock, said Ames the butler. He said, Ames the butler. I've heard, said the sergeant, that it was usually raised at sunset. That would be near our pass four than six at this time of year. Mrs. Douglas had visitors to tea, said Ames. I couldn't raise it until they went. Then I wound it up myself. Then it comes to this, said the sergeant. If anyone came from outside, if they did, they must have got in across the bridge four or six and been in the hiding ever since, until Mr. Douglas came into the room after eleven. That is so. Mr. Douglas went round the house every night, the last thing before he turned in to see that the lights were right. That brought him in here. The man was waiting and shot him. Then he got away through the window and left his gun behind him. That's how I read it, for nothing else will fit the facts. The sergeant picked up a card beside the dead man on the floor. The initials V, V and under them the number 341 were rudely scrawled in ink upon it. What's this? he asked, holding it up. Barker looked at it with curiosity. I never noticed it before, he said. The murderer must have left it behind him. V, V 341 I don't make no sense of that. The sergeant kept turning it over in his big fingers. What's V, V? Some of these initials maybe. What have you got there, Dr. Wood? It was a good-sized hammer which had been lying on the rug in front of the fireplace. A substantial workman-like hammer. Cecil Barker pointed to a box of brass-headed nails upon the mantelpiece. Mr. Douglas was altering the pictures yesterday, he said. I saw him. I saw him myself, standing upon that chair and fixing the big picture above it. That accounts for the hammer. We best put it back on the rug where we found it," said the sergeant, scratching his puzzled head in his perplexity. He will want the best brains in the force to get to the bottom of this thing. It'll be London job before it's finished. He raised the hand-lamp and walked slowly round the room. He walked slowly round the room. Hello!" he cried excitedly, drawing the window curtain to one side. What o'clock were these curtains drawn? When the lamps were lit, said the butler, he will be shortly after four. Someone had been hiding here, sure enough. He held down the light and the marks of muddy boots were very visible in the corner. I'm bound to say this bears out your theory, Mr. Barker. It looks as if the man got into the house after four when the curtains were drawn and before six when the bridge was raised. He slipped into his room because it was the first that he saw. There was no other place where he could hide, so he popped in behind this curtain. That all seems clear enough. It is likely that his main idea was to burgle the house. But Mr. Douglas chanced to come upon him, so he murdered him and escaped. That's how I read it, said Barker. But I say, aren't we wasting precious time? Couldn't we start out and scout the country before the fellow gets away? The sergeant considered for a moment. There are no trains before six in the morning, so he can't get away by rail. If he goes by road with his legs all dripping, it's odd that some will notice him. Anyhow, I can't leave here myself until I'm relieved. But I think none of you should go until we see more clearly how we all stand. The doctor had taken the lamp and was narrowly scrutinizing the body. What's this, Mark? he asked. Could this have any connection with the crime? The dead man's right arm was thrust out from his dressing-gown and exposed as high as the elbow. About half way up the forearm was a curious brown design, a triangle inside a circle standing out in vivid relief upon the large-coloured ceiling in vivid relief upon the large-coloured skin. It's not tattooed," said the doctor, peering through his glasses. I never saw anything like it. The man has been branded at some time as a brand cattle. What is the meaning of this? I don't profess to know the meaning of it," said Cecil Barker. But I have seen the mark on Douglas many times this last ten years. And so have I," said the butler. Many a time when the master has rolled up his sleeves I have noticed that very mark. I've often wondered what it could be. Then it has nothing to do with the crime anyhow," said the sergeant. But it's a rum thing all the same. Everything about this case is rum. Well, what is it now? The butler had given an exclamation of astonishment and was pointing at the dead man's outstretched hand. They've taken his wedding ring, he gasped. What? Yes, indeed. Master always wore his plain gold wedding ring on the little finger of his left hand. That ring with the sore nugget on it was above it, and a twisted snake ring on the third finger. There's the nugget, and there's the snake. But the wedding ring is gone. He's right," said Barker. Do you tell me," said the sergeant, that the wedding ring was below the other? Always. Then the murderer, or whoever it was, first took off this ring you call the nugget ring, then the wedding ring, and afterwards put the nugget ring back again. That is so. The worthy country policeman shook his head. Seems to me, as soon as we get London onto this case, the bear," said he. White Mason is a smart man. No local job has ever been too much for White Mason. It won't be long now before he's here to help us. But I expect we'll have to look to London before we're through. Anyhow, I'm not ashamed to say that it is a deal too thick for the likes of me. End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Of The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Chapter 4 Darkness At three in the morning the Chief Sussex Detective obeying the urgent call from Sergeant Wilson of Burlestone arrived from headquarters in a light dog-cart behind a breathless trotter. By the 5.40 train in the morning he had sent his message to Scotland Yard and he was at the Burlestone Station at twelve o'clock to welcome us. White Mason was a quiet, comfortable-looking person in a loose tweed suit with a clean-shaved, ruddy face, a stoutish body, and powerful, bandy legs adorned with gaiters, looking like a small farmer, a retired game-keeper or anything upon earth except a very favourable specimen of the provincial criminal officer. A real downright snorter, Mr. McDonald, he kept repeating, will have the pressman down like flies when they understand it. I'm hoping we will get our work done before they get poking their noses into it and messing up all the trails. There's been nothing like this that I can remember. Come home to you, Mr. Holmes, or I'm mistaken. And you also, Dr. Watson, for the medicos will have a word to say before we finish. Your room is at the Westville Arms. There's no other place, but I hear that it is clean and good. The man will carry your bags. This way, gentlemen, if you please. He was a very bustling and genial person, this Sussex detective. In ten minutes we had all found our quarters. In ten more we were seated in the parlour of the inn and being treated to a rapid sketch of those events which have been outlined in the previous chapter. McDonald made an occasional note while Holmes sat absorbed with the expression of surprised and reverent admiration with which the botanist surveyed the rare and precious loom. Remarkable, he said when the story was unfolded, most remarkable I can hardly recall any case where the features have been more peculiar. I thought you would say so, Mr. Holmes," said White Mason in great delight. We're well up with the times in Sussex. I've told you now how matters were up to the time when I took over from Sergeant Wilson between three and four this morning. My word, I made the old mare go, but I need not have been in such a hurry as it turned out, for there was nothing immediate that I could do. Sergeant Wilson had all the facts. I checked them and considered them and maybe added a few of my own. What were they? asked Holmes eagerly. Well, I first had the hammer examined, and there was Dr. Wood there to help me. We found no signs of violence upon it. I was hoping that if Mr. Douglas defended himself with the hammer he might have left his mark upon the murderer before he dropped it on the mat, but there was no stain. That, of course, bruised nothing at all," remarked Inspector McDonald. There has been many a hammer-murder and no trace on the hammer. Quite so. It doesn't prove it wasn't used, but there might have been stains and that would have helped us. As a matter of fact there weren't on. Then I examined the gun. There were buckshot cartridges and, as Sergeant Wilson pointed out, the triggers were wired together so that if you pulled on the hind of one both barrels were discharged. Whoever fixed that up had made up his mind that he was going to take no chances of missing his man. The sword-gun was not more than two feet long. One could carry it easily under one's coat. There was no complete maker's name, but the printed letters P, E, N were on the fluting between the barrels and the rest of the name had been cut off by the saw. A big P with a flourish above it, E and N smaller, asked Holmes, exactly what was the name asked Holmes. Exactly. Pennsylvania Small Arms Company, well-known American firm, said Holmes. White Mason gazed at my friend as the little village practitioner looks at the Harley Street Specialist who, by a word, can solve the difficulties that perplex him. That is very helpful, Mr. Holmes. No doubt you're right. Wonderful, wonderful! Do you carry the names of all the gun-makers in your memory? Holmes dismissed the subject with a wave. No doubt it is an American shotgun, White Mason continued. I seem to have read that a sword-off shotgun is a weapon used in some parts of America. Apart from the name upon the barrel, the idea had occurred to me. There is some evidence, then, that this man who entered the house and killed its master was an American. The old shook his head. Man, you're surely travelling over fast, said he. I've heard no evidence yet that any stranger was ever in the house at all. The open window, the blood on the sill, the queer card, the marks of boots in the corner, the gun. Nothing there that could have been arranged Mr. Douglas was an American who had lived long in America. So had Mr. Barker. You don't need to import an American for your wings. Ames the butler. What about him? Is he reliable? Ten years with Sir Charles Chandos, solid as a rock. He's been with Douglas ever since he took the manor house five years ago. He's never seen a gun of this sort in the house. The gun was made to conceal. That's why the barrels were soared. It would fit into any box. How could he swear there was a gun in the house? Well, anyhow he had never seen one. MacDonald shook his obstinate scotch head. They're not convinced yet that there was ever anyone in the house, said he. I'm asking you to consider. His accent became more Abedonian as he lost himself in his argument. I'm asking you to consider what it involves if you're supposed that his gun has ever brought into the house inside. Oh, man, it's just inconceivable. It's clean against common sense. I'll put it to you, Mr. Holmes, judging it by what we've heard. Well, state your case, Mr. Mac," said Holmes in his most judicial style. The man is not a burglar. Supposing that he ever existed. The ring business and the card point to premeditated murder for some private reason. Very good. He goes into a house with the deliberate intention of committing murder. He knows if he knows anything that you'll have a difficulty in making his escape as the house is surrounded with water. What weapon would he choose? You'd say the most silent in the world. Then he would hope when the deed was done to slip quickly from the window to wade the moat and to get away at his leisure. That's understandable. But is it understandable that he should go out of his way to bring with him an easy weapon he could select? Knowing well that it'll fetch every human being in the house to the spot as quick as he could run, and that it is all odds that he'll be seen before he can go across the moat. Is that credible, Mr. Holmes? Well, you put the case strongly, my friend replied thoughtfully. It certainly needs a good deal of justification. May I ask Mr. White Mason whether you examined the farther side of the moat at once of any signs of the man having climbed out from the water? There were no signs, Mr. Holmes, but it is a stone ledge and one could hardly expect them. No tracks or marks? None. Ha! There be any objection, Mr. White Mason, to our going down to the house at once? There may possibly be some small point which might be suggestive. I was going to propose it, Mr. Holmes, but I thought it well to put you in touch with all the facts before we go. I suppose if anything should strike you. White Mason looked doubtfully at the amateur. I have worked with Mr. Holmes before, said Inspector McDonald. He plays the game. My own idea of the game at any rate, said Holmes with a smile. I go into a case to help the ends of justice and the work of the police. If I have ever separated myself from the official force, it is because they have first separated themselves from me. I have no wish ever to score at their expense. At the same time, Mr. White Mason, I claim the right to work in my own way and give my results at my own time, complete rather than in stages. I'm sure we are honoured by your presence and to show you all we know, said White Mason cordially, Dr. Watson, and when the time comes we'll all hope for a place in your book. We walk down the quaint village street with a row of pollarded elms on each side of it. Just beyond were two ancient stone pillars, weather-stained and like and blotched, bearing upon their summits a shapeless something which had once been the rampant lion of Capus of Burlestone. A short walk along the winding rye with such sword and oaks around it as one only sees in rural England, then a sudden turn and the long, low, Jacobean house of dingy, liver-coloured brick lay before us, with an old-fashioned garden of cut hues on each side of it. As we approached it there was the wooden drawbridge and the beautiful broad moat as still and luminous as quick silver in the cold winter sunshine. Three centuries had flowed past the old manor house, centuries of births and of homecomings, of country dances and of the meetings of fox-hunters. Strange that now in its old age this dark business should have cast its shadow upon the venerable walls. And yet those strange peaked roofs and quaint overhung gables were a fitting covering to grim and terrible intrigue. As I looked at the deep-set windows and the long sweep of the dull-coloured water-lapped front I felt that no more fitting scene could be set for such a tragedy. That's the window," said White Mason. That one on the immediate right of the drawbridge. It's open just as it was found last night. It looks rather narrow for a man to pass. Well, it wasn't a fat man, anyhow. We don't need your deductions, Mr. Holmes, to tell us that. But your eye could squeeze through, all right? Holmes walked to the edge of the moat and looked across. Then he examined the stone ledge and the grass border beyond it. I've had a good look, Mr. Holmes," said White Mason. There's nothing there, no sign that anyone has landed. But why should he leave any sign? Exactly. Why should he? Is the water always turbid? Generally about this colour. The stream brings down the clay. How deep is it? About two feet at each side and three in the middle. So we can put aside all idea of the man having been drowned in crossing. No, a child could not be drowned in it. We walked across the drawbridge and were admitted by a quaint, gnarled, dried-up person who was the butler Ames. The poor old fellow was white and quivering from the shock. The sergeant, a tall, formal, melancholy man, still held his vigil in the room of fate. The doctor had departed. Anything fresh, Sergeant Wilson? asked White Mason. No, sir. Then you can go home. You've had enough. We can send for you if we want you. The butler had better wait outside. Tell him to warn Mr. Cecil Barker, Mrs. Douglas and the housekeeper that we may want a word with them now, gentlemen. Perhaps you'll allow me to give you the views I've formed first and then you'll be able to arrive at your own. He impressed me, this country specialist. He had a solid group of fact and a cool, clear, common-sense brain which should take him some way in his profession. Holmes listened to him intently with no sign of that impatience which the official exponent too often produced. That's our first question, gentlemen. Is it not? If it was suicide, then we have to believe that this man began by taking off his wedding ring and concealing it. That he then came down here in his dressing-gown, trampled mud into a corner behind the curtain in order to give the idea someone had waited for him, opened the window, put blood on the we can surely dismiss that, said MacDonald. I think. Suicide is out of the question. Then a murder has been done. What we have to determine is whether it was done by someone outside or inside the house. Well, let's hear the argument. There are considerable difficulties both ways and yet one or the other it must be. We will suppose first that some personal persons inside the house did the crime. They got this man down here at a time when everything was still and yet no one was asleep. They then did the deed with the queerest and noisiest weapon in the world so as to tell everyone what had happened, a weapon that was never seen in the house before. That does not seem a very likely start, does it? No, it does not. Well then, everyone has agreed that after the alarm was given only a minute at the most had passed before the whole household. Not Mr. Cecil Barker alone though he claims to have been the first but Ames and all of them were on the spot. You tell me that in that time the guilty person managed to make footmarks in the corner, open the window, mark the sill with blood, taking the wedding ring off the dead man's finger and all the rest of it. It's impossible. You put it very clearly, said Holmes. I am inclined to agree with you. Well then, we are driven back to the theory that it was done by someone from outside. We are still faced with some big difficulties but anyhow they have ceased to be impossibilities. The man got into the house between 4.30 and 6. That is to say between dusk and the time when the bridge was raised. There had been some visitors and the door was open to prevent him. He may have been a common burglar or he may have had some private grudge against Mr. Douglas. Since Mr. Douglas had spent most of his life in America and this shotgun seems to be an American weapon it would seem that the private grudge is the more likely theory. He slipped into this room because it was the first he came to and he hid behind the curtain. There he remained until half past eleven at night. At that time Mr. Douglas entered the room. It was a short interview if there were any interview at all for Mrs. Douglas declares that our husband had not left her more than a few minutes when she heard the shot. The candle shows that, said Holmes. Exactly, the candle which was a new one is not burned more than half an inch. He must have placed it on the table before he was attacked otherwise of course it would have fallen when he fell. This shows that he was not attacked the instant that he entered the room. When Mr. Barker arrived the candle was lit and the lamp was out. That's all clear enough. Well now we can reconstruct things on those lines. Mr. Douglas enters the room. He puts down the candle. A man appears from behind the curtain. He's armed with this gun. He demands the wedding ring. I haven't only knows why but so it must have been. Mr. Douglas gave it up then either in cold blood or in the course of a struggle Douglas may have gripped the hammer that was found upon the mat. He shot Douglas in his horrible way. He dropped his gun and also it would seem this queer card VV341 whatever that may mean and he made his escape through the window and across the moat at the very moment when Cecil Barker was discovering the crime. How's that Mr. Holmes? Very interesting but just a little unconvincing. Man it would be absolute nonsense if it wasn't that anything else is even worse cried McDonald. Somebody killed the man and whoever it was I could clearly prove to you that he should have done it some other way. What does he mean by allowing his retreat to be cut off like that? What does he mean by using a shotgun when silence was his one chance of escape? Come Mr. Holmes, it's up to you to give us a lead since you say Mr. White Mason's theory is unconvincing. Holmes had sat intently observant during this long discussion missing no word that was said with his keen eyes darting to right and to left and his forehead wrinkled with speculation. I should like a few more facts if I get so far as a theory, Mr. Mack, said he kneeling down beside the body. Dear me, these injuries are really appalling. Can we have the butler in for a moment? Ames, I understand that you have often seen this very unusual mark, a branded triangle inside a circle upon Mr. Douglas's forearm. Frequently, sir. You never heard any speculation as to what it meant. No, sir. It must have caused great pain when it was inflicted. It is undoubtedly a burn. Now, I observe Ames that there is a small piece of plaster at the angle of Mr. Douglas's jaw. Did you observe that in life? Yes, sir. He cut himself in shaving yesterday morning. Did you ever know him to cut himself in shaving before? Not for a very long time, sir. Suggestive, said Holmes, it may, of course, be a mere coincidence, or it may point to some nervousness which would indicate that he had reason to apprehend danger. Had you noticed anything unusual in his conduct yesterday, Ames? It struck me, sir, that he was a little restless and excited, sir. Ha! The attack may not have been entirely unexpected. We do seem to make a little progress, do we not? I'd rather do the questioning, Mr. Mack. Oh, Mr. Holmes! Send better hands than mine! Well, then, we will pass to this card, VV341. It is rough cardboard. Have you any of the sort in this house? We don't think so. Holmes walked across to the desk and dabbed a little ink from each bottle onto the blotting paper. It was not printed in this room, he said. This is black ink and the other purplish. It was done by a thick pen and these are fine. No, it was done elsewhere, I should say. Can you make anything of the inscription, Ames? No, sir. Nothing. What do you think, Mr. Mack? It gives me the impression of a secret society of some sort, the same withers badge upon the forearm. That's my idea, too, White Mason. Well, we can adopt it as a working hypothesis and then see how far our difficulties disappear. An agent from such a society makes his way into the house, waits for Mr. Douglas, blows his head nearly off with his weapon and escapes by wading the moat after leaving a card beside the dead man, which will, when mentioned in the papers, tell other members of the society that vengeance has been done. That all hangs together. But why this gun of all weapons? Exactly. And why the missing ring? Quite so. And why no arrest? It's past two now. I take it for granted that since dawn every constable within forty miles has been looking out for a wet stranger. That is so, Mr. Holmes. Well, unless he has a burrow close by or a change of clothes ready they can hardly miss him. And yet they have missed him up to now. Holmes had gone to the window and was examining with his lens the blood mark on the sill. It is clearly the tread of a shoe. It is remarkably broad. A splay foot, one would say. Curious, because so far as one can trace any foot mark in this mud-stained corner one would say it was a more shapely soul. However, they are certainly very indistinct. What's this under the side table? Mr. Douglas Dumbbells, said Ames. Dumbbell? There's only one. Where's the other? I don't know, Mr. Holmes. There may have been only one. I've not noticed some for months. One Dumbbell, Holmes said seriously. But his remarks were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. A tall, sunburned, capable-looking, clean-shaved man looked in at us. I had no difficulty in guessing that it was the Cecil Barker of whom I had heard. His master-of-lies travelled quickly with a questioning glance from face to face. Sorry to interrupt your consultation, said he, but you should hear the latest news. An arrest? No such luck. A bicycle. The fellow left his bicycle behind him. Come and have a look. It is within a hundred yards at the whole door. We found three or four grooms and idlers standing in the drive inspecting a bicycle which had been drawn out from a clump of evergreens in which it had been concealed. It was a well-used, Rudge Whitworth, splashed as from a considerable journey, no as a saddle-bag with a spanner and oil can, it would be a grand help to the police, said the Inspector, if these things were numbered and registered but we must be thankful for what we've got. If we can't find where he went to at least we're likely to get where he came from. But what in the name of all that is wonderful made the fellow leave it behind and how in the world has he got away without it? We don't seem to get a gleam of light in the case, Mr. Holmes. Don't we? my friend answered thoughtfully. I wonder. End of Chapter 4 Chapter 5 of The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle This Librivox recording is in the public domain. Chapter 5 The People of the Drama Have you seen all you want of the study? asked White Mason as we re-entered the house. For the time, said the Inspector, and Holmes nodded. Then perhaps you would now like to hear the evidence of some of the people in the house. We could use the dining-room. Ames, please come yourself first and tell us what you know. The Butler's account was a simple and a clear one, and he gave a convincing impression of sincerity. He'd been engaged five years before when Douglas first came to Burlestone. He understood that Mr. Douglas was a rich gentleman who had made his money in America. He'd been a kind and considerate employer. Not quite what Ames was used to, perhaps, but one can't have everything. He never saw any signs of apprehension in Mr. Douglas. On the contrary, he was the most fearless man he had ever known. He ordered the drawbridge to be pulled up every night because it was the ancient custom of the old house, and he liked to keep the old ways up. Mr. Douglas seldom went to London or left the village, but on the day before the crime he had been shopping at Tumbidge Wells. He, Ames, had observed some restlessness and excitement on the part of Mr. Douglas that day, for he had seemed impatient and irritable, which was unusual with him. He had not gone to bed that night, but was in the pantry at the back of the house, putting away the silver when he heard the bell ring violently. He heard no shot, but it was hardly possibly would as the pantry and kitchens were at the very back of the house, and there were several closed doors and a long passage between. The housekeeper had come out of her room, attracted by the violent ringing of the bell. They had gone to the front of the house together. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, he had seen Mrs. Douglas coming down it. No, she was not hurrying it. It did not seem to him that she was particularly agitated. Just as she reached the bottom of the stair, Mr. Barker had rushed out of the study and had stopped Mrs. Douglas and begged her to go back. For God's sake, go back to your room," he cried. Poor Jack is dead. You can do nothing. For God's sake, go back. After some persuasion upon the stairs, Mrs. Douglas had gone back. She did not scream. She made no outcry, whatever. Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, had taken her upstairs and stayed with her in the bedroom. Ames and Mr. Barker had then returned to the study where they had found everything exactly as the police had seen it. The candle was not lit at that time, but the lamp was burning. They had looked out of the window, but the night was very dark and nothing could be seen or heard. They had then rushed out into the hall where Ames had turned the windlass which lowered the drawbridge. Mr. Barker had then hurried off to get the police. Such, in its essentials, was the evidence of the butler. The account of Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, was so far as it went a corroboration of that of her fellow-servant. The housekeeper's room was rather nearer to the front of the house and the pantry in which Ames had been working. She was preparing to go to bed when the loud ringing of the bell had attracted her attention. She was a little hard of hearing. Perhaps that was why she heard the shot, but in any case the study was a long way off. She remembered hearing some sound which she imagined to be the slamming of a door. That was a good deal earlier, half an hour at least before the ringing of the bell. When Mr. Ames ran to the front she went with him. She saw Mr. Barker, very pale and excited, come out of the study. He intercepted Mrs. Douglas who was coming down the stairs. She sat back and she answered him but what she said could not be heard. Take her up! Stay with her!" he had said to Mrs. Allen. She had therefore taken her to the bedroom and endeavoured to soothe her. She was greatly excited, trembling all over, but made no other attempt to go downstairs. She just sat in her dressing-gown by her bedroom fire with her head sunk in her hands. Mrs. Allen stayed with her most of the night. As to the other servants they had all gone to bed and the alarm did not reach them until just before the police arrived. They slept at the extreme back of the house and could not possibly have heard anything. So far the housekeeper could add nothing on cross-examination, save lamentations and expressions of amazement. Cecil Barker succeeded Mrs. Allen as a witness. As to the occurrences of the night before, he had very little to add to what he had already told the police. Personally he was convinced that the murderer had escaped by the window. The bloodstain was conclusive in his opinion on that point. Besides, as the bridge was up there was no other possible way of escaping. He could not explain what had become of the assassin or why he had not taken his bicycle if it were indeed his. He could not possibly have been drowned in a moat which was at no place more than three feet deep. In his own mind he had a very definite theory about the murder. Douglas was a reticent man and there were some chapters in his life of which he never spoke. He had emigrated to America when he was a very young man. He had prospered well and Barker had first met him in California where they had become partners in a successful mining claim at a place called Benito Canyon. He had done very well but Douglas had suddenly sold out and started for England. He was a widower at that time. Barker had afterwards realized his money and come to live in London. Thus they had renewed their friendship. Douglas had given him the impression that some danger was hanging over his head and he had always looked upon his sudden departure from California and also his renting a house in so quieter place in England with this peril. He imagined that some secret society, some implacable organization was on Douglas's track which would never rest until it killed him. Some remarks of his had given him this idea though he had never told him what the society was nor how he had come to offend it. He could only suppose that the legend upon the placard had some reference to this secret society. How long were you with Douglas in California? asked Inspector MacDonald. Five years altogether. He was a bachelor, you see. A widower. Have you ever heard where his first wife came from? No, I remember his saying that she was of German extraction and I have seen her portrait. She was a very beautiful woman. She died of typhoid the year before I met him. You don't associate his past with any particular part of America. I have heard him talk of Chicago. He knew that city well and had worked there. I have heard him talk of the Coal and Iron districts. He had travelled a good deal in his time. Was he a politician? Had this secret society to do with politics? No, he cared nothing about politics. You have no reason to think it was criminal. On the contrary, he was a straighter man in my life. Was there anything curious about his life in California? He liked best to stay and to work at our claim in the mountains. He would never go where other men were if he could help it. That's why I first thought that someone was after him. Then when he left so suddenly for Europe I made sure that it was so. I believe that he had a warning of some sort. Within a week of his leaving half a dozen men were inquiring for him. What sort of men? Well, they were a mighty hard-lucking crowd. They came up to the claim and wanted to know where he was. I told them that he's gone to Europe and that I did not know where to find him. They meant him no good. It was easy to see that. Were these men Americans? Californians? Well, I don't know about Californians. They were Americans all right, but they were not miners. I don't know what they were and was very glad to see their backs. That was six years ago. Near a seven. And then you were together five years in California so that this business dates back and not less than eleven years at the least. That is so. It must be a very serious feud that would be kept up with such earnestness as that. It'd be no light thing that would give rise to it. I think it shadowed his whole life. He was never quite out of his mind. But if a man had a dagger hanging over him and knew what it was, don't you think he would turn to the police for protection? Maybe it was some danger that he could not be protected against. There's one thing you should know. He always went about armed. His revolver was never out of his pocket. But by bad luck he was in his dressing-gown and had left it in the bedroom last night. Once the bridge was up I guess he thought he was safe. I should like these dates a little clearer," said MacDonald. It is quiet six years since Douglas left California. You've followed him next year, did you not? That is so. And he'd been married five years. You must have returned from the time of his marriage. About a month before I was his best man. Did you know Mrs. Douglas before her marriage? No, I did not. I had been away from England for ten years. But you have seen a good deal of her since. Barker looked sternly at the detective. I have seen a good deal of him since," he answered. If I have seen her it is because you cannot visit a man without knowing his wife. If you imagine there's any connection to his relationship if you imagine there's any connection I imagine nothing, Mr. Barker. I am bound to make every inquiry which can bear upon the case but I mean no offence. Some inquiries are offensive," Barker answered angrily. It's only the facts that we want. It is in your interest and everyone's interest that they should be cleared up. Did Mr. Douglas entirely approve your friendship with his wife? Barker grew paler and his great strong hands were clasped convulsively together. You have no right to ask such questions," he cried. What is this to do with the matter you're investigating? I must repeat the question. Well, I refuse to answer. You can refuse to answer, but you must be aware that your refusal is in itself an answer, for you would not refuse if he had nothing to conceal. Barker stood for a moment with his face set grimly and his strong black eyebrows drawn low in intense thought. Then he looked up with a smile. Well, I guess you gentlemen are only doing your clear duty after all and I have no right to stand in the way of it. I'd only ask you not to worry Miss Douglas over this matter for she has enough upon her just now. I may tell you that poor Douglas had just one fault in the world and that was his jealousy. He was fond of me. No man could be fonder of a friend and he was devoted to his wife. He loved me to come here and was forever sending for me and yet if his wife and I talk together or there seemed any sympathy between us a kind of wave of jealousy would pass over him and he would be off the handle and saying the wildest things in a moment more than once I've sworn off coming for that reason and then he would write me with such penitent imploring letters that I just had to. But you can take it from me gentlemen if it was my last word that no man ever had a more loving faithful wife and I can say also no friend could be more loyal than I. He was spoken with fervor and feeling and yet Inspector MacDonald could not be subject. You are aware, said he that the dead man's wedding ring has been taken from his fingers so it appears, said Barker. What do you mean by appears? You know it as a fact. The man seemed confused and undecided. When I said appears I meant that it was conceivable that he had himself taken off the ring. The mere fact that the ring should be absent whoever may have removed it would suggest to anyone's mind would it not that the marriage and the tragedy were connected? Barker shrugged his broad shoulders. I can't profess to say what it means he answered but if you mean to hint that it could reflect in any way upon this lady's honour his eyes blazed for an instant and then with an evident effort he got a grip upon his own emotions. Oh, you are on the wrong track, that's all. I don't know that I have anything else to ask you at present, said MacDonald coldly. There was one small point remarked Sherlock Holmes when you enter the room there was only a candle lighted on the table, was there not? Yes, that was so. By its light you saw that some terrible incident had occurred. Exactly. You at once rang for help? Yes and it arrived very speedily within a minute or two and yet when they arrived they found that the candle was out and that the lamp had been lighted. That seems very remarkable. Again Barker showed some signs of indecision. I don't see that it was remarkable, Mr. Holmes he answered after a pause the candle threw a very bad light my first thought was to get a better one my lamp was on the table so I lit it and blew out the candle exactly Holmes asked no further question and Barker with a deliberate look from one to the other of us which had as it seemed to me something of defiance in it turned and left the room Inspector MacDonald had sent up a note to the effect that he would wait upon Mrs. Douglas in her room but she had replied that she would meet us in the dining room she entered now a tall and beautiful woman of thirty reserved and self-possessed to a remarkable degree very different from the tragic and distracted figure I had pictured it is true that her face was pale and drawn like that of one who had endured a great shock but her manner was composed and the finely moulded hand which she rested upon the edge of the table was as steady as my own her sad appealing eyes travelled from one to the other of us with a curiously inquisitive expression that questioning gaze transformed itself suddenly into abrupt speech have you found anything out yet? she asked was it my imagination that there was an undertone of fear rather than of hope in the question we have taken every possible step Mrs. Douglas said the Inspector you may rest assured that nothing will be neglected spare no money she said in a dead even tone it is my desire that every possible effort should be made perhaps you can tell us something which may throw some light upon the matter I fear not but all I know is at your service we've heard from Mr. Cecil Barker that you did not actually see that you were never in the room where the tragedy occurred no he turned me back upon the stairs he begged me to return to my room quite so you had heard the shot and yet it once come down I put on my dressing gown and then came down how long was it after hearing the shot that you were stopped on the stair by Mr. Barker it may have been a couple of minutes it is so hard to reckon time at such a moment he implored me not to go on he assured me that I could do nothing then Mrs. Allen the housekeeper led me upstairs again it was all like some dreadful dream can you give us any idea how long your husband had been downstairs before you heard the shot no I cannot say he went from his dressing room and I did not hear him go he did the round of the house every night for he was nervous at fire it is the only thing that I have ever known him nervous of that is just the point which I want to come to Mrs. Douglas you have known your husband only in England have you not yes we have been married five years have you heard him speak of anything which occurred in America and might bring some danger upon him Mrs. Douglas thought earnestly before she answered yes she said at last I have always felt danger hanging over him he refused to discuss it with me it was not from want of confidence in me there was the most complete love and confidence between us but it was out of his desire to keep all alarm away from me he thought I should brood over it if I knew all and so he was silent how did you know it then Mrs. Douglas face lit with a quick smile can a husband carry about a secret all his life and a woman who loves him have no suspicion of it I knew it by his refusal to talk about some episodes in his American life I knew it by certain precautions he took I knew it by certain words he let fall I knew it by the way he looked at unexpected strangers I was perfectly certain that he had some powerful enemies that he believed they were on his track and that he was always on his guard against them I was so sure of it that for years I have been terrified if ever he came home later than was expected might I ask asked Holmes what the words were which attracted your attention the valley of fear the lady answered that was an expression he had used when I questioned him I have been in the valley of fear I am not out of it yet are we never to get out of the valley of fear I have asked him when I have seen him more serious than usual sometimes I think that we never shall he has answered surely you ask him what he meant by the valley of fear I did but his face would become very grave and he would shake his head it is bad enough that one of us should have been in its shadow he said I will fall upon you to some real valley in which he had lived and in which something terrible had occurred to him of that I am certain but I can tell you no more and he never mentioned any names yes he was delirious with fever once when he had his hunting accident three years ago then I remember that there was a name that came continually to his lips he spoke it with anger it was sort of a horror McGinty was the name Bodymaster McGinty I asked him when he recovered who Bodymaster McGinty was and whose body he was master of never of mine thank God he answered with a laugh and that was all I could get from him but there is a connection between Bodymaster McGinty and the valley of fear there is one other point said Inspector McDonald that Mr Douglas in a boarding house in London did you not and became engaged in there was there any romance anything secret or mysterious about the wedding there was romance there is always romance there was nothing mysterious he had no rival no I was quite free you have heard no doubt that his wedding ring has been taken does that suggest anything to you suppose that some enemy of his old life attract him down and committed his crime what possible reason could he have for taking his wedding ring for an instant I could have sworn that the faintest shadow of a smile flickered over the woman's lips I really can't tell she answered it is certainly a most extraordinary thing well we'll not detain you any longer and we're sorry to have put you to this trouble at such a time said the Inspector there are some words said the Inspector there are some other points no doubt but we can refer to you as they arise she arose and I was again conscious of that quick questioning glance with which she had just surveyed us what impression has my evidence made upon you the question might as well have been spoken then with a bow she swept from the room she's a beautiful woman a very beautiful woman said McDonald thoughtfully after the door had closed behind her this man Barker has certainly been down here a good deal he's a man who might be attractive to a woman he admits that the dead man was jealous and maybe he knew best himself what cause he had for jealousy then there's that wedding ring you can't get past that the man who tears a wedding ring off a dead man's what do you say to that Mr Holmes my friend had sat with his head upon his hands sunk in the deepest thought now he rose and rang the bell Ames he said when the butler entered where is Mr Cecil Barker now our Caesar he came back in a moment to say that Barker was in the garden can you remember Ames what Mr Barker had on his feet last night when they joined him in the study yes Mr Holmes he had a pair of bedroom slippers I brought him his boots when he went for the police where are the slippers now they're still under the chair in the hall very good Ames it is of course important for us to know which tracks may be Mr Barker's and which from outside yes sir I might say that I noticed that the slippers were stained with blood so indeed were my own that is natural enough considering the condition of the room very good Ames we will ring if we want you a few minutes later we were in the study Holmes had brought with him the carpet slippers from the hall as Ames had observed the soles of both were dark with blood strange moment Holmes as he stood in the light of the window and examined them minutely strange indeed stooping with one of his quick feline pounces he placed a slipper upon the blood mark on the sill it exactly corresponded he smiled in silence at his colleagues the inspector was transfigured with excitement his native accent rattled like a stick upon railings man! he cried there's not a doubt of it Barker has just marked a window himself in a deal broader than any bootmark I mind you said it was a splay foot and here's the explanation but what's the game, Mr. Holmes? what's the game? aye, what's the game? my friend repeated thoughtfully white mason chuckled and rubbed his fat hands together in his professional satisfaction I said it was a snorter he cried and a real snorter it is CHAPTER VI CHAPTER VI A DAWNING LIGHT The three detectives had many matters of detail into which to inquire so I returned alone to our modest quarters at the village inn but before doing so I took a stroll in the curious old world garden which flanked the house rows of very ancient yew-trees cut into strange designs girded it around inside was a beautiful stretch of lawn with an old sundial in the middle the whole effect so soothing and restful that it was welcomed to my somewhat jangled nerves in that deeply peaceful atmosphere one could forget or remember only as some fantastic nightmare that darkened study with the sprawling blood-stained figure on the floor and yet as I strolled round it and tried to steep my soul in its gentle balm a strange incident occurred which brought me back to the tragedy and left a sinister impression in my mind I've said that a decoration of yew-trees circled the garden at the end farthest from the house they thickened into a continuous hedge on the other side of this hedge concealed from the eyes of anyone approaching from the direction of the house there was a stone seat as I approached the spot I was aware of voices some remark in the deep tones of a man answered by a little ripple of feminine laughter an instant later I had come round the end of the hedge and my eyes lit upon Mrs. Douglas and the man barker before they were aware of my presence her appearance gave me a shock in the dining-room she had been demure and discreet now all pretense of grief had passed away from her her eyes shone with the joy of living and her face still quivered with amusement at some remark of her companion he sat forward his hands clasped and his forearms on his knees with an answering smile upon his bold, handsome face in an instant but it was just one instant too late they resumed their solemn masks as my figure came into view a hurried word or two passed between them and then Barker rose and came towards me excuse me sir said he but I addressing Dr. Watson I bowed with a coldness which showed, I dare say, very plainly the impression which had been produced upon my mind we thought that it was probably you as your friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes is so well known would you mind coming over and speaking to Mrs. Douglas for one instant with a dour face very clearly I could see in my mind's eye that shattered figure on the floor here within a few hours of the tragedy were his wife and his nearest friend laughing together behind a bush in the garden which had been his I greeted the lady with reserve I had grieved with her grief in the dining room now I met her appealing gaze with an unresponsive eye I fear that you think me callous and hard-hearted said she I shrugged my shoulders it is no business of mine said I perhaps some day you will do me justice if you only realized there's no need why Dr. Watson should realize said Barker quickly as he has himself said it is no possible business of his exactly said I and so I will beg leave to resume my walk one moment Dr. Watson cried the woman in a pleading voice there is one question which you can answer with more authority than anyone else in the world and it may make a very great difference to me you know Mr. Holmes and his relations with the police better than anyone else can supposing that a matter were brought confidentially to his knowledge is it absolutely necessary that he should pass it on to the detectives yes is it? said Barker eagerly is he on his own or is he entirely in with them I really don't know that I should be justified in discussing that's point I beg I implore that you will Dr. Watson I assure you that you will be helping us helping me greatly if you will guide us on that point there was such a ring of sincerity in the woman's voice that for the instant I forgot all about her levity only to do her will Mr. Holmes is an independent investigator I said he is his own master and would act as his own judgment directed at the same time he would naturally feel loyalty towards the officials who were working on the same case and he would not conceal from them anything which would help them in bringing a criminal to justice beyond this I can say nothing and I would refer you to Mr. Holmes himself if you wanted fuller information so saying I raised my hat and went upon my way leaving them still seated behind that concealing hedge I looked back as I rounded the far end of it and saw that they were still talking very earnestly together and as they were gazing after me it was clear that it was our interview that was the subject of their debate I wish none of their confidences said Holmes when I reported to him what had occurred he had spent the whole afternoon at the Hannah House in consultation with his two colleagues and returned about five with a ravenous appetite for a high tea which I had ordered for him no confidences Watson for they are mighty awkward if it comes to an arrest for conspiracy and murder you think it will come to that he was in his most cheerful and devonair humor my dear Watson when I have exterminated that fourth egg I shall be ready to put you in touch with the whole situation I don't say that we have fathomed it far from it but when we have traced the missing dumbbell the dumbbell dear me Watson is it possible that you have not penetrated the fact that the case hangs upon the missing dumbbell well well you need not be downcast for between ourselves I don't think that either Inspector Mack or the excellent local practitioner has grasped the overwhelming importance of this incident one dumbbell Watson consider an athlete with one dumbbell picture to yourself the unilateral development the imminent danger of a spinal curvature shocking Watson shocking he sat with his mouth full of toast and his eyes sparkling with mischief watching my intellectual entanglement the mere sight of his excellent appetite was an assurance of success for I had very clear recollections of days and nights without a thought of food when his baffled mind had chafed before some problem while his thin eager features became more attenuated with the asceticism of complete mental concentration finally he lit his pipe and sitting in the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at random about his case rather as one who thinks aloud than as one who makes a considered statement a lie Watson a great big thumping obtrusive uncompromising lie that's what meets us on the threshold there is our starting point the whole story told by Barker is a lie but Barker's story is corroborated by Mrs. Douglas or she is lying also they are both lying and in a conspiracy so now we have the clear problem why are they lying and what is the truth which they are trying so hard to conceal let us try Watson you and I if we can get behind the lie and reconstruct the truth how do I know that they are lying because it is a clumsy fabrication which simply could not be true consider according to the story given to us the assassin had less than a minute after the murder had been committed to take that ring which was under another ring from the dead man's finger to replace the other ring a thing which he would surely never have done and to put that singular card beside his victim I say that this was obviously impossible you may argue but I have too much respect for your judgment Watson to think that you will do so that the ring may have been taken before the man was killed the fact that the candle had been lit only a short time shows that there had been no lengthy interview was Douglas from what we hear of his fearless character a man who would be likely to give up his wedding ring at such short notice or could we conceive of his giving it up at all no no Watson Watson was alone with the dead man for some time with a lamp lit of that I have no doubt at all but the gunshot was apparently the cause of death therefore the shot must have been fired some time earlier than we are told but there could be no mistake about such a matter as that we are in the presence therefore of a deliberate conspiracy upon the part of the two people who heard the gunshot and Barker and of the woman Douglas when on the top of this I am able to show that the blood mark on the windowsill was deliberately placed there by Barker in order to give a false clue to the police you will admit that the case grows dark against him now we have to ask ourselves at what hour the murder actually did occur up to half past ten the servants were moving about the house so it was certainly not before that time at a quarter to eleven they had all gone to their rooms with the exception of Ames who was in the pantry I have been trying some experiments after you left us this afternoon and I find that no noise which McDonald can make in the study can penetrate to me in the pantry when the doors are all shut it is otherwise however from the housekeeper's room it is not so far down the corridor I could vaguely hear a voice when it was very loudly raised the sound from a shotgun is to some extent muffled when the discharge is at very close range as it undoubtedly was in this instance it would not be very loud and yet in the silence of the night it should have easily penetrated to Mrs. Allen's room she is as she has told us somewhat deaf but nonetheless she mentioned in her evidence that she did hear something like a door slamming half an hour before the alarm was given half an hour before the alarm was given would be a quarter to eleven I have no doubt that what she heard was the report of the gun and that this was the real instant of the murder if this is so we have now to determine what Barker and Mrs. Douglas presuming that they are not the actual murderers could have been doing from quarter to eleven when the sound of the shot brought them down until quarter past eleven when they rang the bell and summoned the servants what were they doing and why did they not instantly give the alarm that is the question which faces us and when it has been answered we shall surely have gone some way to solve our problem I am convinced myself said I that there is an understanding between those two people that she must be a heartless creature to sit laughing at some jest within a few hours of her husband's murder exactly she does not shine as a wife even in her own account of what occurred I am not a whole-sold admirer of womankind as you are aware Watson but my experience of life has taught me that there are few wives having any regard for their husbands who would let any man's spoken words stand between them husband's dead body should I ever marry Watson I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her it was badly stage-managed for even the roist investigators must be struck by the absence of the usual feminine eululation if there had been nothing else this incident alone would have suggested a pre-arranged conspiracy to my mind you think then definitely that Barker and Mrs. Douglas are guilty of the murder there is an appalling directness about your questions Watson said Holmes shaking his pipe at me they come at me like bullets if you put it that Mrs. Douglas and Barker know the truth about the murder and are conspiring to conceal it then I can give you a whole-sold answer I am sure they do but your more deadly proposition is not so clear let us for a moment to consider the difficulties which stand in the way we will suppose that this couple are united by the bonds of a guilty love and that they have determined to get rid of the man who stands between them it is a large supposition for a discreet inquiry among servants and others has failed to corroborate it in any way on the contrary there is a good deal of evidence that Mrs. Douglas's were very attached to each other that I am sure cannot be true thinking of the beautiful smiling face in the garden well at least they gave that impression however we will suppose that they are an extraordinary astute couple who deceive everyone upon this point and conspire to murder the husband he happens to be a man over whose head some danger hangs we have only their word for that homes looked thoughtful I see Watson you are sketching out a theory by which everything they say from the beginning is false according to your idea there was never any hidden menace or secret society or valley of fear or boss max somebody or anything else well that is a good sweeping generalization let us see what that brings to us they invent this theory to account for the crime they then play up to the idea by leaving this bicycle in the park as proof of the existence of some outsider the stain on the window sill conveys the same idea so does the card on the body which might have been prepared in the house that all fits into your hypothesis Watson but now we come on the nasty angular uncompromising bits which won't slip into their places why a cut off shotgun of all weapons and an American one at that how could they be so sure that the sound of it would not bring someone on to them it's a mere chance as if that Mrs. Allen did not start out to inquire for the slamming door why did your guilty couple do all this Watson I confess I can't explain it then again if a woman and her lover conspire to murder a husband are they going to advertise their guilt by ostentatiously removing his wedding ring after his death does that strike you as very probable Watson no it doesn't and once again if the thought of leaving a bicycle concealed outside had occurred to you would it really have seemed worth doing when the dullest detective would naturally say this is an obvious blind as the bicycle is the first thing which the fugitive needed in order to make his escape I can conceive a no explanation and yet there should be no combination of events for which the wit of man cannot conceive an explanation simply as a mental exercise without any assertion that it is true let me indicate a possible line of thought it is I admit mere imagination but how often is imagination the mother of truth we'll suppose there was a guilty secret a really shameful secret in the life of this man Douglas this leads to his murder by someone who is we will suppose an Avenger someone from outside this Avenger for some reason which I confess I am still at a loss to explain took the dead man's wedding ring the vendetta might conceivably date back to the man's first marriage and the ring be taken for some such reason before this Avenger got away Barker and the wife had reached the room the assassin convinced them that any attempt to arrest him would lead to the publication of some hideous scandal they were converted to this idea and preferred to let him go for this purpose they probably lowered the bridge which can be done quite noiselessly and then raised it again he made his escape and for some reason thought that he could do so more safely on foot than on a bicycle he therefore left his machine where it would not be discovered until he had got safely away so far we are within the bounds of possibility are we not well it's possible no doubt said I with some reserve we have to remember Watson that whatever occurred is certainly something very extraordinary well now to continue our suppositious case the couple really a guilty couple realize after the murder is gone that they have placed themselves in a position in which it may be difficult for them to prove that they did not themselves either do the deed or connive at it they rapidly and rather clumsily met the situation the mark was put by Barker's bloodstained slipper upon the windowsill to suggest how the fugitive got away they obviously were the two who must have heard the sound of the gun they gave the alarm exactly as they would have done but a good half hour after the event and how do you propose to prove all this well if there was an outsider he may be traced and taken that would be the most effective of all proofs but if not well the resources of science are far from being exhausted I think that an evening alone in that study would help me much alone I propose to go up there presently I have arranged it with the estimable aims who is by no means wholehearted about Barker I shall sit in that room and see if its atmosphere brings me inspiration I'm a believer in the genius loci you smile friend Watson well we shall see by the way you have that big umbrella of yours have you not it is here well I'll borrow that if I may certainly but what a wretched weapon if there's a danger nothing serious my dear Watson or I should certainly ask for your assistance but I'll take the umbrella at present I'm only waiting the return of our colleagues from Tunbridge Wells where they are at present engaged in trying for a lightly owner of the bicycle it was nightfall before Inspector McDonald and White Mason came back from their expedition and they arrived exultant reporting a great advance in our investigation man I'll admit that my doubts if there's ever an outsider said McDonald but that's all past now we've had the bicycle identified and we have a description of our man so that's a long step on our journey it sounds to me like the beginning of the end said Holmes I'm sure I congratulate you both with all my heart well I started from the fact that Mr. Douglas had seemed disturbed since the day before when he'd been at Tunbridge Wells it was at Tunbridge Wells then that he'd become conscious of some danger it was clear therefore that if a man had come over with a bicycle it was from Tunbridge Wells that he might be expected to have come we took the bicycle over with us and showed it at the hotels it was identified at once by the manager of the Eagle Commercial as belonging to a man named Hargrave who'd taken a room there two days before this bicycle and a small valise where his old belongings he had registered his name as coming from London but had given no address the valise was London made and the contents were British but the man himself was undoubtedly an American well well said Holmes gleefully you have indeed done some solid work while I've been sitting spinning theories with my friend it's a lesson in being practical Mr. Mack I is just that Mr. Holmes said the inspector with satisfaction but this may all fit in with your theories I remarked that may or may not be but let us hear the end Mr. Mack was there nothing to identify this man so little that it was evident that he'd carefully guarded himself against identification there were no papers or letters and no marking upon the clothes a cycle map of the county lay on his bedroom floor he'd left the hotel after breakfast yesterday morning on his bicycle and no more was heard of him until our inquiries that's what puzzles me Mr. Holmes said White Mason if the fellow did not want the hue and cry raised over him one would imagine that he would have returned and remained at the hotel as an inoffensive tourist as it is he must know that he will be reported to the police by the hotel manager and that his disappearance will be connected with the murder so one would imagine still he has been justified of his wisdom up to date at any rate since he has not been taken but his description what of that McDonald referred to his notebook here we have it so far as they could give it they don't seem to have taken every particular stock of him but still the porter, the clerk and the chambermaid are all agreed that this about covers the points he was a man about five foot nine in height fifty or so years of age his hair slightly grizzled a grayish moustache a curved nose and a face which all of them described as fierce and forbidding well, bar the expression that might almost be a description of Douglas himself said Holmes he was over fifty with grizzled hair and moustache and about the same height did you get anything else he was dressed in a heavy gray suit with a reefer jacket and he wore a short yellow overcoat and a soft cap what about the shotgun it is less than two feet long it could very well have fitted into his valise he could have carried it inside his overcoat without difficulty and how do you consider that all this bears upon the general case well Mr. Holmes said McDonald when we've got our man and you may be sure that I had his description on the wires within five minutes of hearing it we should be better able to judge it but even as it stands we've surely gone a long way we know that an American calling himself Hargrave came to Tumbridge Wells two days ago with bicycle and valise in the latter was a sword off shotgun so he came with a deliberate purpose of crime yesterday morning he set off for this place on his bicycle with his gun concealed in his overcoat no one saw him arrive so far as we can learn but he need not pass through the village to reach the park gates and there are many cyclists upon the road presumably at once concealed his cycle among the laurels where it was found and possibly lurked there himself with his eye on the house waiting for Mr. Douglas to come out the shotgun is a strange weapon to use inside a house he needed to use it outside and there it has very obvious advantages as it would be impossible to miss with it and the sound of shots is so common in an English spotting neighbourhood that no particular notice would be taken that is all very clear said Holmes well Mr. Douglas did not appear what was he to do next he left his bicycle and approached the house in the twilight he found the bridge down he took his chance intending no doubt to make some excuse if he met someone he met no one he slipped into the first room that he saw and concealed himself behind the curtain then he could see that drawbridge go up and he knew that his only escape was through the moat he waited until quarter past eleven when Mr. Douglas upon his usual nightly round came into the room he shot him and escaped he was arranged he was aware that the bicycle would be described by the hotel people and be a clue against him so I left it there and made his way by some other means to London or to some safe hiding place which he'd already arranged how's that Mr. Holmes well Mr. Mack it is very good and very clear so far as it goes that is your end of the story my end I have been reported that Mrs. Douglas and Barker are both in a conspiracy to conceal something that they aided the murderer's escape or at least that they reached the room before he escaped and that they fabricated evidence of his escape through the window whereas in all probability they had themselves let him go by lowering the bridge that's my reading of the first half the two detectives shook their heads well Mr. Holmes if this is true we only tumble out of one mystery into another said the London Inspector and in some ways a worse one added White Mason the lady has never been in America in all her life what possible connection could she have with an American assassin which would cause her to shelter him I freely admit the difficulties said Holmes to make a little investigation of my own tonight and it is just possible that it may contribute something to the common cause can we help you Mr. Holmes no no darkness and Dr. Watson's umbrella my wants are simple and Ames the faithful Ames no doubt he will stretch a point for me all my lines of thought lead me back invariably to the one basic question why should an athletic man develop his frame upon so unnatural an instrument as a single dumbbell it was late that night when Holmes returned from his solitary excursion we slept in a double bedded room which was the best that the little country in could do for us I was already asleep when I was partly awakened by his entrance well Holmes I murdered have you found anything out he stood beside me in silence his candle in his hand then the tall lean figure inclined towards me I say Watson he whispered would you be afraid to sleep in the same room with a lunatic a man with softening of the brain an idiot whose mind has lost its grip not in the least I answered in astonishment ah that's lucky he said and not another word would he utter that night End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 7 The Solution next morning, after breakfast we found Inspector McDonald and White Mason seated in close consultation in the small parlor of the local police sergeant on the table in front of them were piled a number of letters and telegrams which they were carefully sorting and ducketing three had been placed on one side still on the track of the elusive bicyclist Holmes asked cheerfully what is the latest news of the Ruffian McDonald pointed roofily to his heap of correspondence he is at present reported from Leicester, Nottingham Southampton, Derby Eastmam, Richmond and fourteen other places in three of them Eastham, Leicester and Liverpool there is a clear case against him and has Ashley been arrested this country seems to be full of the fugitives with yellow coats Dear me said Holmes sympathetically now Mr. Mack and you Mr. White Mason I wish to give you a very earnest piece of advice when I went into this case with you I bargained as you will no doubt remember that I should not present you with half-proved theories but that I should retain and work out ideas until I had satisfied myself that they were correct for this reason I am not at the present moment telling you all that is in my mind on the other hand I said that I would play the game fairly by you and I do not think it is a fair game to allow you for one unnecessary moment to waste your energies upon a profitless task therefore I am here to advise you this morning and my advice to you is summed up in three words abandon the case McDonald and White Mason stared in amazement at their celebrated colleague you consider it hopeless cried the inspector I consider your case to be hopeless I do not consider that it is hopeless to arrive at the truth but this cyclist is not an invention we have his description his valise, his bicycle must be somewhere why should we not get him yes, yes, no doubt he is somewhere and no doubt we shall get him but I would not have you waste your energies in East Ham or Liverpool I am sure that we can find some shorter cut to a result you're holding something back it's hardly fair of you Mr. Holmes the inspector was annoyed you know my methods of work Mr. Mack but I will hold it back for the shortest time possible I only wish to verify my details in one way which can very readily be done and then I make my bow and return to London leaving my results entirely at your service I owe you too much to act otherwise for in all my experience I cannot recall any more singular and interesting study this is clean beyond me Mr. Holmes we saw you when we returned from Tumbridge Wells last night and you're in general agreement with our results what has happened since then to give you a completely new idea of the case well, since you asked me I spent, as I told you that I would some hours last night at the Manor House well, what happened? ah, I can only give you a very general answer to that for the moment today I have been reading a short but clear and interesting account of the old building purchasable at the modest sum of one penny from the local tobaccoist here Holmes drew a small tract embellished with a rude engraving of the ancient Manor House from his waistcoat pocket it immensely adds to the zest of an investigation my dear Mr. Mack when one is in conscious sympathy with the historical atmosphere of one's surroundings don't look so impatient for I assure you that even so bold an account as this raises some sort of picture of the past in one's mind permit me to give you an example erected in the fifth year of the reign of James I and standing upon the site of a much older building the Manor House of Burlston presents one of the finest surviving examples of the Jacobian residence you're making fools of us Mr. Holmes tut tut Mr. Mack the first sign of temper I have detected in you well I won't read it verbatim since you feel so strongly upon the subject but when I tell you that there is some account of the taking of the place by a parliamentary colonel in 1644 of the concealment of Charles for several days in the course of the Civil War and, interestingly, of a visit there by the Second George you will admit that there are various associations of interest connected with this ancient house I don't doubt it Mr. Holmes but that is no business of ours is it not is it not breads of view my dear Mr. Mack is one of the essentials of our profession the interplay of ideas and the oblique uses of knowledge are often of extraordinary interest you will excuse these remarks from one who though a mere connoisseur of crime is still rather older and perhaps more experienced than yourself I'm the first to admit that said the detective heartily you get to your point I admit but you have such a deuce round the corner way of doing it well well I'll drop past history and get down to present day facts I called last night as I've already said at the Manor House I did not see either Barker or Mrs. Douglas I saw no necessity to disturb them but I was pleased to hear that the lady was not visibly pining and that she had partaken of an excellent dinner my visit was specially made to the good Mr. Ames with whom I exchanged some amiabilities which culminated in his allowing me without reference to anyone else to sit alone for a time in the study what? with that I ejaculated no no everything is now in order you gave permission for that Mr. Mack as I am informed the room was in its normal state and in it I passed an instructive quarter of an hour what were you doing well not to make a mystery of so simple a matter I was looking for the missing dumbbell I was always bolt rather large in my estimate of the case I ended by finding it where? ah there we come to the edge of the unexplored let me go a little further a very little further and I will promise that you shall share everything that I know well we're bound to take you on your own terms said the inspector but when it comes to telling us why in the name of goodness should we abandon the case for the simple reason my dear Mr. Mack that you have not got the first idea what it is that you are investigating we are investigating the murder of Mr. John Douglas of Burlston Manor yes yes so you are but don't trouble to trace the mysterious gentleman upon the bicycle I assure you that it won't help then what do you suggest we do I will tell you exactly what to do if you will do it well I'm bound to see I've always found you a reason behind all your queer ways I'll do what you advise and you Mr. White Mason the country detective looked helplessly from one to the other Holmes and his methods were new to him well it is good enough for the inspector it's good enough for me and he asked capital said Holmes well then I should recommend a nice cheery country walk for both of you they tell me that the views from Burlston Ridge over the Weald are very remarkable no doubt lunch could be got at some suitable hostelry though my ignorance of the country prevents me from recommending one in the evening tired but happy man this is getting past a jerk cried McDonald rising angrily from his chair well well spend the day as you like said Holmes patting him cheerfully upon the shoulder do what you like and go where you will but meet me here before dusk without fail without fail Mr. Mack that sounds more like sanity all of it was excellent advice but I don't insist so long as you are here when I need you but now before we part I want you to write a note to Mr. Barker well I'll dictate it if you like ready dear sir it has struck me that it is our duty to drain the moat in the hope that we might find some it's impossible said the inspector I've made inquiry tut tut my dear sir please do what I ask you I'll go on in the hope that we might find something which may bear upon our investigation I have made arrangements and the workman will be at work early tomorrow morning diverting the stream impossible diverting the stream so I thought it best to explain matters beforehand now sign that and send it by hand about four o'clock at that hour we shall meet again in this room until then we may each do what we like for I can assure you that this inquiry has come to a definite pause evening was drawing in when we reassembled Holmes was very serious in his manner myself curious and the detectives obviously critical and annoyed well gentlemen said my friend gravely I am asking you now to put everything to the test with me and you will judge for yourselves what I have made justify the conclusions to which I have come it is a chill evening and I do not know how long our expedition may last so I beg that you will wear your warmest coats it is of the first importance that we should be in our places before it grows dark so with your permission we shall get started at once we passed along the outer bounds of the manor house park until we came to a place there was a gap in the rails which fenced it through this we slipped and then in the gathering gloom we followed Holmes until we had reached a shrubbery which lies near by opposite to the main door and the drawbridge the latter had not been raised Holmes crouched down behind a screen of laurels and we all three followed his example well what are we to do now asked McDonald with some gruffness possess our souls in patience and make as little noise as possible Holmes answered what are we here for at all I really think you might treat us with some more frankness Holmes laughed what's an insist that I am the dramatist in real life said he some touch of the artist wells up within me and cause insistently for a well-staged performance surely our profession Mr. Mack would be a drab and sordid one if we did not sometimes set the scene so as to glorify our results the blunt accusation the brutal tap upon the shoulder what can one make of such a denouement but the quick inference the subtle trap the clever forecast of coming events the triumphant vindication of bold theories are these not the pride and the justification of our life's work at the present moment the thrill with the glamour of the situation and the anticipation of the hunt where would be that thrill if I had been as definite as a timetable I only ask a little patience Mr. Mack and all will be clear to you well I hope the pride and justification and the rest of it will come before we all get our death of cold said the London detective with comic resignation we all had good reason to join in the aspiration where our vigil was a long and bitter one slowly the shadows darkened over the long somber face of the old house a cold damp reek from the moat chilled us to the bones and set our teeth chattering there was a single lamp over the gateway and a steady glow of light in the fatal study everything else was dark and still how long is this to last asked the inspector finally and what is it we're waiting for I have no more notion than you how long it is to last Holmes answered with some asperity if criminals would always schedule their movements like railway trains it would certainly be more convenient for all of us as to what it is we well that's what we're watching for as he spoke the bright yellow light in the study was obscured by somebody to throw before it the laurels among which we lay were immediately opposite the window and not more than a hundred feet from it presently it was thrown open with a whining of hinges and we could dimly see the dark outline of a man's head and shoulders looking out into the gloom for some minutes he peered forth in furtive stealthy fashion as one who wishes to be assured that he is unobserved and in the intense silence we were aware of the soft lapping of agitated water he seemed to be stirring up the moat with something which he held in his hand then suddenly he hauled something in as a fisherman lands a fish some large round object which obscured the light as it was dragged through the open casement now, cried Holmes now we were all upon our feet with him, with our stiffened limbs while he ran swiftly across the bridge and rang violently at the bell there was the rasping of bolts from the other side and the amazed Ames stood in the entrance Holmes brushed him aside without a word and followed by all of us rushed into the room which had been occupied by the man whom we had been watching the oil lamp on the table represented the glow which we had seen from outside it was now in the hand of Cecil Barker who held it towards us as we entered it's light shone upon his strong, resolute clean shaved face and his menacing eyes what the devil is the meaning of all this he cried what are you after, anyhow Holmes took a swift glance around and then pounced upon a sodden bundle tied together with cord which lay where it had been thrust under the writing-table this is what we are after, Mr. Barker this bundle weighted with a dumbbell which you have just raised from the bottom of the moat Barker stared at Holmes with amazement in his face how in thunder came you to know anything about it, he asked simply that I put it there you put it there? you? perhaps I should have said replaced it there, said Holmes you will remember, Inspector McDonald that I was somewhat struck by the absence of a dumbbell I drew your attention to it but with the pressure of other events you had hardly the time to give it the consideration which would have enabled you to draw deductions from it when water is near and a weight is missing it is not a very far-fetched supposition that something has been sunk in the water the idea was at least worth testing with the help of Ames who admitted me to the room and the crook of Dr. Watson's umbrella I was able last night to fish up and inspect this bundle it was of the first importance however that we should be able to prove who placed it there this we accomplished by the very obvious device of announcing that the moat would be dried tomorrow which had of course the effect that whoever had hidden the bundle would certainly withdraw it the moment that darkness enabled him to do so we have no less than four witnesses as to who it was who took advantage of the opportunity and so Mr. Barker I think the word lies now with you Sherlock Holmes put the sopping bundle upon the table beside the lamp and undid the cord which bound it from within he extracted a dumbbell which he tossed down to its fellow in the corner next he drew forth a pair of boots American as you perceive he remarked pointing to the toes then he laid upon the table a long, deadly sheathed knife finally he unraveled a bundle of clothing comprising a complete set of underclothes socks, a grey-tweed suit and a short yellow overcoat the clothes a common place remarked Holmes save only the overcoat which is full of suggestive touches he held it tenderly towards the light here as you perceive is the inner pocket prolonged into the lining in such a fashion as to give ample space for the truncated fouling piece the tailor's tab is on the back Neil Outfitter Vermissa, USA I've spent an instructive afternoon in the Rector's Library and have enlarged my knowledge by adding the fact that Vermissa is a flourishing little town at the head of one of the best known coal and iron valleys in the United States I have some recollection, Mr. Barker that you associated the coal districts with Mr. Douglas's first wife and it would surely not be too far-fetched an inference that the VV upon the card by the dead body might stand for Vermissa Valley or that this very valley which sends forth emissaries of murder may be that valley of fear which we have heard so much is fairly clear and now, Mr. Barker I seem to be standing rather in the way of your explanation it was a sight to see Cecil Barker's expressive face during this exposition of the great detective anger amazement consternation and indecision swept over it in turn finally he took refuge in a somewhat acrid irony you know such a lot, Mr. Holmes perhaps you had better tell us some more, he sneered I have no doubt that I could tell you a great deal more, Mr. Barker but it would come with a better grace from you oh, you think so, do you? well, all I can say is that it's not my secret here it's not my secret and I am not the man to give it away well, if you take that line, Mr. Barker said the inspector quietly we must just keep you in sight until we have the warrant and can hold you you can do what you damn please about that said Barker defiantly the proceedings seem to have come to a definite end so far as he was concerned for one had only to look at that granite face as that no penfort or dure would ever force him to plead against his will the deadlock was broken, however, by a woman's voice Mrs. Douglas had been standing listening at the half open door and now she entered the room you have done enough for now, Cecil said she whatever comes of it in the future you have done enough enough and more than enough remarked Sherlock Holmes gravely I have every sympathy with you, madam and should strongly urge you to have some confidence in the common sense of our jurisdiction and to take the police voluntarily into your complete confidence it may be that I am myself at fault for not following up the hint which you conveyed to me through my friend Dr. Watson but at that time I had every reason to believe that you were directly concerned in the crime now I am assured that this is not so at the same time there is much that is unexplained and I should strongly recommend that you ask Mr. Douglas to tell us his own story Mrs. Douglas gave a cry of astonishment at Holmes's words the detectives and I must have echoed it when we were aware of a man who seemed to have emerged from the wall who advanced now from the gloom of the corner in which he had appeared Mrs. Douglas turned in an instant her arms were round him Barker had seized his outstretched hand it's best this way Jack his wife repeated I'm sure that it is best indeed yes Mr. Douglas said Sherlock Holmes I am sure that you will find it best the man stood blinking at us with the dazed look of one who comes from the dark into the light it was a remarkable face bold grey eyes a strong short clipped grizzled moustache a square projecting chin and a humorous mouth he took a good look at us all and then to my amazement he advanced to me and handed me a bundle of paper I've heard of you said he in a voice which was not quite English and not quite American but was altogether mellow and pleasing you are the historian of this bunch well Dr. Watson you've never had such a story as that pass through your hands before and I'll lay my last dollar on that tell it your own way but there are the facts and you can't miss the public so long as you have those I've been cooped up two days and I've spent the daylight hours as much daylight as I could get in that rat trap in putting the thing into words you're welcome to them you and your public valley of fear that's the past Mr. Douglas said Sherlock Holmes quietly what we desire now is to hear your story of the present you'll have it sir said Douglas may I smoke as I talk well thank you Mr. Holmes you're a smokey yourself if I remember right and you'll guess what it is to be sitting for two days with Tobacco in your pocket and afraid that the smell give you away he leaned against the mantelpiece and sucked at the cigar which Holmes had handed him I've heard of you Mr. Holmes I never guess that I would meet you but before you threw with that he nodded at my papers you will say I brought you something fresh Inspector McDonald had been staring at the newcomer with the greatest amazement well this fairly beats me he cried at last if you're Mr. John Douglas then whose death have we been investigating for these two days and where in the world have you sprung from now you seem to come out of the floor like a jack in a box ah Mr. Mack said Holmes shaking a reproving forefinger you would not read that excellent local compilation which described the concealment of King Charles people did not hide in those days without excellent hiding places and the hiding place that had once been used may be used again I had persuaded myself that we should find Mr. Douglas under this roof and how long have you been playing this trick upon us Mr. Holmes said the Inspector angrily how long have you allowed us to waste ourselves upon a search that you knew to be an absurd one not one instant my dear Mr. Mack only last night did I form my views of the case that you could not be put to the proof until this evening I invited you and your colleagues to take a holiday for the day pray what more can I do when I found the suit of clothes in the moat it at once became apparent to me that the body we had found could not have been the body of Mr. John Douglas at all but must be that of the bicyclist from Tunbridge Wells no other conclusion was possible nor I had to determine where Mr. John Douglas himself could be and the balance of probability was that with the connivance of his wife and his friend he was concealed in a house which had such conveniences for a fugitive and awaiting quieter times when he could make his final escape well, you've figured it out about right said Douglas approvingly I thought I'd dodge your British law for I was not sure how I stood under it and also I saw my chance to throw these hounds once for all off my track mind you, from first to last I've done nothing to be ashamed of and nothing that I would not do again but you'll judge that for yourselves when I tell you my story never mind warning me, Inspector I'm ready to stand pat upon the truth I'm not going to begin at the beginning that's all there he indicated my bundle of papers and a mighty queer yarn you'll find it it all comes down to this that there are some men that have good cause to hate me and would give their last dollar to know that they had got to me so long as I'm alive and they are alive there is no safety in this world for me they hunted me from Chicago to California then they chased me out of America but when I married and settled down in this quiet spot I thought my last years were going to be peaceable I never explained to my wife how things were why should I pull her into it she would never have a quiet moment again but would always be imagining trouble I fancy she knew something for I may have dropped a word here or a word there but until yesterday after you gentlemen had seen her she never knew the rights of the matter she told you all she knew and so did Barker here for on the night when this thing happened there was a mighty little time for explanations she knows everything now and I would have been a wiser man if I had told her sooner but it was a hard question dear he took her hand for an instant in his own and I acted for the best well gentlemen the day before these happenings I was over in Tumbridge Wells and I got a glimpse of a man in the street it was only a glimpse but I have a quick eye for these things and I never doubted who it was it was the worst enemy I had among them all one who has been after me like a hungry wolf after a caribou all these years I know there was trouble coming and I came home and made ready for it I guess I'd fight through it all right on my own my luck was a proverb in the States about 76 I never doubted that it would be with me still I was on my guard all that next day and never went out into the park it's as well or he'd have had the drop on me with that bookshot gun of his before ever I could draw on him after the bridge was up my mind was always more restful when that bridge was up in the evenings I put the thing clear out of my head I never dreamed of his getting into the house and waiting for me but when I made my round in my dressing gown as was my habit I had no sooner entered study than I centered danger I guess when a man has had dangers of his life and I've had more than most in my time there's a kind of sixth sense that waves the red flag I saw the signal clear enough and yet I couldn't tell you why next instant I spotted a boot under the window curtain and then I saw why plain enough I just the one candle that was in my hand but there was a good light from the hall lamp through the open door I put down the candle on the mantle at the same moment he sprang at me I saw the glint of a knife and I lashed at him with the hammer I got him somewhere for the knife tinkled down on the floor he dodged around the table as quick as an eel and a moment later he'd got his gun from under his coat I heard him cock it but I got hold of it before he could fire I had it by the barrel and we wrestled for it all ends up for a minute or more it was death to the man he lost his grip he never lost his grip but he got it butt downward for a moment too long maybe it was I that pulled the trigger maybe we just jolted it off between us anyhow he got both barrels in the face and there I was staring down at all that was left of Ted Baldwin I'd recognized him in the township and again when he sprang for me but his own mother wouldn't recognize him I'm used to rough work but I fairly turned sick at the sight of him I was hanging on the side of the table when Barker came hurrying down I heard my wife coming and I ran to the door and stopped her it was no sight for a woman I promised I'd come to her soon I said a word or two to Barker he took it all in at a glance and we waited for the rest to come along but there was no sign of them then we understood that they could hear nothing and that all that had happened was known only to ourselves it was at that instant that the idea came to me I was fairly dazzled by the brilliance of it the man's sleeve had slipped up and there was the branded mark of the lodge upon his forearm see here the man whom we had known as Douglas turned up his own coat and cuff to show a brown triangle within a circle exactly like that which we'd seen upon the dead man it was the sight of that which started me on it I seemed to see it all clear at a glance there were his height and hair and figure about the same as my own no one could swear to his face poor devil I brought down this suit of clothes and in a quarter an hour Barker and I had to put my dressing gown on him and he lay as you found him we tied all things into a bundle and I waited them with the only weight I could find and put them through the window the card he'd meant to lay upon my body was lying beside his own my rings were put on his finger but when it came to the wedding ring he held out his muscular hand you can see for yourselves that I had struck the limit I have not moved it since the day I was married and it would have taken a file to get it off I don't know anyhow that I should have cared to part with it I wanted to I couldn't so we just had to leave that detail to take care of itself on the other hand I brought a bit of plaster down and put it where I'm wearing one myself at this instant you slipped up there Mr. Holmes clever as you are for if you had a chance to take off that plaster you'd have found no cut underneath it well that was the situation if I could lie low for a while and then get away we should have a chance at last of living in peace for the rest of our lives these devils would give me no rest so long as I was above ground but if they saw in the papers that Baldwin had got his man there would be an end of all my troubles I had much time to make it all clear to Barker and to my wife but they understood enough to be able to help me I knew all about this hiding place so did Ames but it never entered his head to connect it I retired into it and it was up to Barker to do the rest I guess you can fill in for yourselves what he did he opened the window and made the mark on the sill to give an idea of how the murderer escaped it was a tall order that but as the bridge was up there was no other way then when everything was fixed he rang the bell for all he was worth what happened afterward you know and so gentlemen you can do what you please but I've told you the truth and the whole truth so help me God what I ask you now is how do I stand by the English law there was a silence which was broken by Sherlock Holmes the English law is in the main adjust law you'll get no worse than your desserts from that Mr. Douglas but I would ask you how did this man know that you lived here or how to get into your house or where to hide to get you I know nothing of this Holmes's face was very white and grave the story is not over yet I fear said he you may find worse dangers than the English law or even than your enemies from America I see trouble before you Mr. Douglas you'll take my advice and still be on your guard and now my long-suffering readers I'll ask you to come away with me for a time far from the Sussex Manor House of Burlston and far also from the Year of Grace in which we made our eventful journey which ended with the strange story of the man who had been known as John Douglas I wish you to journey back some twenty years in time and westward some thousands of miles in space but I may lay before you a singular and terrible narrative so singular and so terrible that you may find it hard to believe that even as I tell it even so did it occur do not think that I intrude one story before another is finished as you read on you will find that this is not so and when I have detailed those distant events and you have solved this mystery of the past we shall meet once more in those rooms on Baker Street where this like so many other wonderful happenings will find its end end of chapter 7 and part 1 of the Valley of Fear part 2 chapter 1 of the Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this Librivox recording is in the public domain part 2 the Scourers chapter 1 the man it was the 4th of February in the year 1875 it had been a severe winter and the snow lay deep in the gorges of the Gilmerton Mountains the steam plows had however kept the railroad open and the evening train which connects the long line of coal mining and ironworking settlements was slowly groaning its way up the steep gradients which led from Stagville on the plain to Vermissa the central township which lies at the head of Vermissa Valley from this point the track sweeps downward to Barton's Bussling, Helmdale and the purely agricultural county of Merton it was a single track railroad but at every siding and they were numerous long lines of trucks piled with coal and iron ore told of the hidden wealth which had brought a rude population and a bustling life to this most desolate corner of the United States of America for desolate it was little could the first pioneer who had traversed it have ever imagined that the fairest prairies and the most lush water pastures were valueless compared to this gloomy land of black crag and tangled forest above the dark and often scarcely penetrable woods upon their flanks the high bare crowns of the mountains white snow and jagged rock towered upon each flank leaving a long winding tortuous valley in the center of this the little train was slowly crawling the oil lamps had just been lit in the leading passenger car a long bare carriage in which some twenty or thirty people were seated the greater number of these were workmen returning from their days toil in the lower part of the valley at least a dozen by their grime faces and the safety lanterns which they carried proclaimed themselves miners they sat smoking in a group and conversed in low voices glancing occasionally at two men on the opposite side of the car whose uniforms and badges showed them to be policemen several women of the laboring class and one or two travelers who might have been small local storekeepers made up the rest of the company with the exception of one young man in a corner by himself it is with this man that we are concerned take a good look at him for he is worth it he's a fresh complexioned middle-sized young man not far one would guess from his thirtieth year he has large shrewd humorous gray eyes which twinkle inquiringly from time to time as he looks round through his spectacles at the people about him it is easy to see that he is of a sociable and possibly simple disposition anxious to be friendly to all men anyone could pick him at once as gregarious in his habits and communicative in his nature with a quick wit and a ready smile and yet the man who studied him more closely might discern a certain firmness of jaw and grim tightness about the lips which would warn him that there were depths beyond and that this pleasant brown-haired young Irishman might conceivably leave his mark for good or evil upon any society to which he was introduced having made one or two tentative remarks to the nearest miner and receiving only short gruff replies the traveller resigned himself to uncongenial silence staring moodily out of the window at the fading landscape it was not a cheering prospect through the growing gloom there pulsed the red glow of the furnaces on the sides of the hills great heaps of slag and dumps of cinders loomed upon each side with the high shafts of the collieries towering above them huddled groups of mean wooden houses the windows of which were beginning to outline themselves in light were scattered here and there along the line and the frequent halting places were crowded with their swathe inhabitants the iron and coal valleys of the Vermissa district were no resorts for the cultured everywhere there were stern signs of the crudest battle of life the rude work to be done and the rude strong workers who did it the young traveller gazed out into this dismal country with a face of mingled repulsion and interest which showed that the scene was new to him at intervals he drew from his pocket a bulky letter to which he referred and on the margins of which once from the back of his waist he produced something which one would hardly have expected to find in the possession of so mild mannered a man it was a navy revolver of the largest size as he turned at slant-wise to the light the glint upon the rims of the copper shells within the drum showed that it was fully loaded he quickly restored it to his secret pocket but not before it had been observed by a working man he handed himself upon the adjoining bench hello mate said he you seem healed and ready the young man smiled with an air of embarrassment yes said he we need them sometimes in the place they come from and where may that be I'm last from Chicago a stranger in these parts yes you may find you need it here said the workman hello the young man seemed interested have you heard nothing of doings hereabouts nothing out of the way why I thought the country was full of it you'll hear quick enough what made you come here I heard there was always work for a willing man are you a member of the union sure then you'll get your job I guess have you any friends not yet are you making them how's that then I am one of the eminent order of Freeman there's no town without a lodge and where there's a lodge I'll find my friends the remark had a singular effect upon his companion he glanced around suspiciously at the others in the car the miners were still whispering among themselves the two police officers were dozing he came across seated himself close to the young traveller and held out his hand put it there he said a hand-grip passed between the two I see you speak the truth said the workman but it's well to make certain he raised his right hand to his right eyebrow the traveller at once raised his left hand to his left eyebrow dark nights are unpleasant said the workman yes, for strangers to travel the other answered that's good enough I'm brother Scanlon lodge 341 Vermissa Valley glad to see you in these parts thank you I'm brother John McMurdo lodge 29 Chicago bodymaster J.H. Scott but I'm in luck to meet a brother so early well there are plenty of us about you won't find the order more flourishing anywhere in the States in Vermissa Valley but we could do with some lads like you I can't understand a spry man of the Union finding no work to do in Chicago I found plenty of work to do said McMurdo then why did you leave McMurdo nodded toward the policemen and smiled I guess those chaps would be glad to know he said Scanlon groaned sympathetically in trouble in a whisper deep a penitentiary job and rest not a killing it's early days to talk of such things seg McMurdo with the air of a man who'd been surprised into saying more than he intended I've my own good reasons for leaving Chicago and let that be enough for you who are you that you should take it on yourself to ask such things his grey eyes gleamed with dangerous anger from behind his glasses alright mate no offence meant the boys will think none the worse of you whatever you may have done where are you bound for now Vermissa that's the third halt down the line where are you staying McMurdo took out an envelope and held it close to the murky oil lamp here is the address Jacob Shafter Sheridan Street recommended by a man I know in Chicago well I don't know it but Vermissa is out of my beat I live at Hobson's Patch and that's here where we're drawing up to now but say there's one bit of advice I'll give you before we part if you're in trouble in Vermissa go straight to the union house and see Boss McGinty he's the bodymaster of Vermissa Lodge and nothing can happen in these parts unless Black Jack McGinty wants it so long mate maybe we'll meet in Lodge one of these evenings but mind my words if you're in trouble go to Boss McGinty Scanlan descended and McMurdo was left once again to his thoughts Knight had now fallen and the flames of the frequent furnaces were roaring and leaping in the darkness against their lurid background dark figures were bending and straining twisting and turning with the motion of winch or of windless to the rhythm of an eternal clank and roar I guess Hell must look something like that said a voice McMurdo turned and saw that one of the policemen had shifted in his seat and was staring out into the fiery waste for that matter said the other policeman I allow that Hell must be something like that if there are worse devils down yonder than some wicked name it's more than I'd expect I guess you're new to this part young man well what if I am? McMurdo answered in a surly voice just this mister that I should advise you to be careful in choosing your friends I don't think I'd begin with Mike Scanlan or his gang if I were you what the hell is it to you? who are my friends? Rod McMurdo in a voice which brought every head in the carriage round to witness the altercation did I ask you for your advice or did you think me such a sucker that I couldn't move without it you speak when you're spoken to and by the Lord you'd have to wait a long time if it was me he thrust out his face and grinned at the patrolman like a snarling dog the two policemen heavy good natured men were taken aback by the extraordinary vehemence with which their friendly advances have been rejected no offence, stranger said one it was a warning for your own good seeing that you are by your own showing new to the place I'm new to the place but I'm not new to you and your kind cried McMurdo in cold fury I guess you're the same in all places shoving your advice in when nobody asks for it maybe we'll see more of you before long said one of the patrolmen with a grin you're a real hand-picked one if I'm a judge I was thinking the same remarked the other I guess we may meet again I'm not afraid of you and don't you think it cried McMurdo my name's Jack McMurdo see, if you want me you'll find me at Jacob's Shafters on Sheridan Street, Vermissa so I'm not hiding from you, am I any mystic about that there was a murmur of sympathy and admiration from the miners at the dauntless demeanour of the newcomer while the two policemen shrugged their shoulders and renewed a conversation between themselves a few minutes later the train ran into the ill-lit station and there was a general clearing for Vermissa was by far the largest town on the line McMurdo picked up his leather gripsack and was about to start off into the darkness when one of the miners accosted him by gar, mate you know how to speak to the cups he said in a voice of awe it was grand to hear you let me carry your grip and show you the road I'm passing Shafters on the way to my own shack there was a chorus of friendly good-nights from the other miners as they passed from the platform before ever he had set foot on it McMurdo the turbulent had become a character in Vermissa the country had been a place of terror but the town was in its way even more depressing down that long valley there was at least a certain gloomy grandeur in the huge fires and the clouds of drifting smoke while the strength and industry of man found fitting monuments in the hills which he had spilled by the side of his monstrous excavations but the town showed a dead level of mean ugliness and squawor the broad street was churned up by the traffic into a horrible rutted paste of muddy snow the sidewalks were narrow and uneven the numerous gas-lamps served only to show more clearly a long line of wooden houses each with its veranda facing the street unkempt and dirty as they approached the centre of the town the scene was brightened by a row of well-lit stores and even more by a cluster of saloons and gaming houses in which the miners spent their hard-earned but generous wages that's the union house said the guide pointing to one saloon which rose almost to the dignity of being a hotel Jack McGinty is the boss there what sort of man is he? McMurdo asked what? have you never heard of the boss? how could I have heard of him I know that I'm a stranger in these parts well, I thought his name was known clear across the country it's been in the papers often enough what for? well, the miner lowered his voice over the affairs what affairs? good lord, mister you are queer if I must say it without offence there's only one set of affairs that you'll hear of in these parts and that's the affairs of the scourers why? I seem to have read of the scourers in Chicago a gang of murderers are they not? hush! on your life! cried the miner standing still in alarm and gazing in amazement at his companion man he won't live long in these parts if you speak in the open street like that many a man has had the life beaten out of him for less well, I know nothing about them it's only what I've read and I'm not saying that you've not read the truth the man looked nervously round him as he spoke peering into the shadows as if he feared to see some lurking danger if killing is murder and God knows there's a murder and to spare but don't you dare to breathe the name of Jack McGinty in connection with it stranger for every whisper goes back to him and he's not one that is likely to let it pass now that's the house you're after that one, standing back from the street you'll find old Jack of Shafter that runs it as honest a man as lives in his township I thank you said McMurdo and shaking hands with his new acquaintance he plotted grip sack in hand up the path which led to the dwelling-house at the door of which he gave a resounding knock it was opened at once by someone very different from what he had expected it was a woman young and singularly beautiful she was of the German type blond and fair-haired with the picante contrast of a pair of beautiful dark eyes with which she surveyed the stranger with surprise and a pleasing embarrassment which brought a wave of colour over her pale face framed in the bright light of the open doorway it seemed to McMurdo that he had never seen a more beautiful picture the more attractive for its contrast with the sordid and gloomy surroundings a lovely violet growing upon one of those black slag-heaps of the mines would not have seemed more surprising so entranced was he that he stood staring without a word and it was she who broke the silence I thought it was father said she with a pleasing little touch of a German accent did you come to see him he's downtown I expect him back every minute McMurdo continued to gaze at her in open admiration until her eyes dropped in confusion before this masterful visitor no miss, he said at last I mean no hurry to see him but your house was recommended to me for board I thought it might suit me and now I know it will you are quick to make up your mind said she with a smile anyone but a blind man could do as much the other answered she laughed at the compliment come right in sir she said I miss Etelchafter Mr.chafter's daughter my mother's dead and I run the house you can sit down by the stove in the front room until father comes along ah here he is so you can fix things with him right away a heavy elderly man came plodding up the path in a few words McMurdo explained his business a man of the name of Murphy had given him the address in Chicago he in turn had had it from someone else old Shafter was quite ready a stranger made no bones about terms agreed at once to every condition and was apparently fairly flush of money for seven dollars a week paid in advance so it was that McMurdo the self-confessed fugitive from justice took up his abode under the roof of the Shafters the first step which was to lead to so long and darker train of events ending in a far distant land end of part two chapter one part two chapter two of the valley of fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is in the public domain chapter two the body master McMurdo was a man who made his mark quickly wherever he was the folk around soon knew it within a week he had become infinitely the most important person at Shafters there were ten or a dozen borders there but they were honest foremen or commonplace clerks from the stores of a very different caliber from the young Englishmen of an evening when they gathered together his joke was always the readiest his conversation the brightest and his song the best he was a born boon companion with a magnetism which drew good humour from all around him and yet he showed again and again as he had shown in the railway carriage a capacity for sudden fierce anger which compelled the respect and even the fear of those who met him for the law too and all who were connected with it he exhibited a bitter contempt which delighted some and alarmed others of his fellow borders from the first he made it evident by his open admiration that the daughter of the house had won his heart from the instant that he had set eyes upon her beauty and her grace he was no backward suitor on the second day he told her that he loved her and from then onward he repeated the same story with absolute disregard of what she might say to discourage him someone else he would cry well the worst luck for someone else let him look out for himself I might lose my life's chance and all my heart's desire for someone else you can keep on saying no Etty the day will come when you'll say yes and I'm young enough to wait he was a dangerous suitor with his glib Irish tongue coaxing ways there was about him also that glamour of experience and of mystery which attracts a woman's interest and finally her love he could talk of the sweet valleys of County Monachan from which he came of the lovely distant island the low hills and green meadows of which seemed more beautiful when imagination viewed them from this place of grime and snow then he was versed in the life of the cities of the north of Detroit and of the lumber camps of Michigan and finally of Chicago where he had worked in a planing mill and afterwards came the hint of romance the feeling that strange things had happened to him in that great city so strange and so intimate that they might not be spoken of he spoke wistfully of a sudden leaving a breaking of old ties a flight into a strange world ending in this dreary valley and Etty listened her dark eyes gleaming with pity and with sympathy those two qualities which may turn so rapidly and so naturally to love McMurdo had obtained a temporary job as bookkeeper for he was a well educated man this kept him out most of the day and he had not found occasion yet to report himself to the head of the lodge of the eminent order of Freeman he was reminded of his omission, however by a visit one evening from Mike Scanlon the fellow member whom he had met in the train Scanlon, the small sharp-faced, nervous black-eyed man seemed glad to see him once more after a glass or two of whiskey he broached the subject of his visit Say, McMurdo said he I remembered your address so I made bold to call I'm surprised that you've not reported to the bodymaster why haven't you seen Boss McGinty yet? Well, I had to find a job I've been busy you must find time for him if you've none for anything else Good Lord man you're a fool not to have been down to the Union House and registered your name the first morning after you came here if you run against him well, you mustn't, that's all I showed my old surprise I've been a member of the lodge for over two years Scanlon, but I've never heard that duties were so pressing as all that maybe not in Chicago well, it's the same society here is it? Scanlon looked at him long and fixedly there was something sinister in his eyes isn't it? you'll tell me that in a month's time I hear you had a talk with the patrolman after I left the train how did you know that? oh, it got about things do get about for good and for bad in this district well, yes, I told the hounds what I thought of them by the Lord you'll be a man after McGinty's heart what? does he hate the police too? Scanlon burst out laughing you go and see him, Milad said he as he took his leave it's not the police but you that he'll hate if you don't now take a friend's advice and go at once a chance that on the same evening McMurdo had another more pressing interview which urged him in the same direction it may have been that his attentions to Etty had been more evident than before or that they had gradually obtruded themselves into the slow mind of his good German host but whatever the cause the boarding housekeeper beckoned the young man into his private room and started on the subject without any circumlocution it seems to me, Mr. said he that you are getting set on my Etty ain't that so or am I wrong? yes, that is so the young man answered well, I want to tell you right now that it ain't no manner of use there's someone slipped enough for you she told me so well, you can lay that she told you truth but did she tell you who it was? no, I asked her but she wouldn't tell I dare say not it was a little baggage perhaps she did not wish to frighten your way frighten? McMurdo was on fire in a moment ah, yes, my friend you need not be ashamed to be frightened of him I don't know I don't know I'm ashamed to be frightened of him it is Teddy Baldwin and who the devil is he? he is the boss of Scourers Scourers? I've heard of them before it's Scourers here and Scourers there and always in a whisper what are you all afraid of? who are the Scourers? the boarding housekeeper instinctively sank his voice as everyone did who talked about that terrible society the Scourers said he was the eminent order of free men the young man stared why? I'm a member of that order myself you I would never have had you in my house if I'd known it not a few words have paid me a hundred dollars a week what's wrong with the order? it's for charity and good fellowship the rules say so maybe in some places not here what is it here? it's a murder society that's what it is McMurdo laughed incredulously how can you prove that? he asked prove it are there not fifty murders to prove it? what about Millman and Von Schorscht and the Nicholson family and old Mr. Hyam and little Billy James and the others is there a man or a woman in this valley that does not know it? see here said McMurdo honestly I want you to take back what you said or else make it good one or the other you must do before I quit this room put yourself in my place here I am a stranger in the town I belong to a society that I know only as an innocent one you'll find it through the length and breadth of the states but always as an innocent one now when I'm counting upon joining it here you tell me that it's the same as a murder society called the Scourers I guess you owe me either an apology or else an explanation Mr. Schafter I can but tell you that the whole world knows Mr the bosses of the one are the bosses of the other if you offend the one it is the other that will strike you you have proved it too often that's just gossip I want proof said McMurdo if you live here long you will get your proof but I forget that you are yourself one of them you will soon be as bad as the rest but you will find other lodgings Mr. I cannot have you here is it not bad enough that one of these people come courting my Etty and that I dare not turn him down and that I should have another for my border yes indeed you shall not sleep here after tonight McMurdo found himself under sentence of banishment both from his comfortable quarters and from the girl whom he loved he found her alone in the sitting room that same evening and he poured his troubles into her ear sure your father is after giving me notice as little I would care if it was just my room but indeed Etty I want to warn you you're the very breath of life to me and I can't live without you oh hush Mr. McMurdo don't speak so said the girl I've told you have I not that you're too late there's another and if I have not promised to marry him at once at least I can promise no one else suppose I had been first Etty would have had a chance the girl sank her face into her hands and if you had been first she sobbed McMurdo was down on his knees before her in an instant for God's sake Etty let it stand at that he cried will you ruin your life and my own for the sake of this promise follow your heart tis a safer guide than any promise before you knew what it was what you were saying he had seized Etty's white hand tell me that you'll be mine and we'll face it out together not here yes here no, no Jack his arms were round her now he could not be here could you take me away a struggle passed for a moment over McMurdo's face but it ended by setting like granite no here he said I'll hold you against the world Etty why should we not leave together no Etty I can't leave here but why I'd never hold my head up again if I felt that I'd been driven out besides what is there to be afraid of are we not free folks in a free country if you love me and are you who dare to come between us you don't know Jack you've been here too short a time you don't know this Baldwin you don't know how McGinty and his cowards no I don't know them and I don't fear them and I don't believe in them said McMurdo I've lived among rough men my darling and instead of fearing them it has always ended that they feared me always Etty it's mad on the face of it if these men as your father says have done crime after crime in the valley and if everyone knows them by name how come is that none of brought to justice for that Etty because no witness dares to appear against them he would not live a month if he did also because they have always their own men to swear that the accused one was far from the scene of the crime but surely Jack you must have read all this I had understood that every paper in the United States was writing about it well I've read something it is true but I thought it was a story maybe these men have some reason in what they do maybe they're wronged and have no other way to help themselves oh Jack don't let me hear you speak or so that is how he speaks is the other one Baldwin he speaks like that does he and that is why I loathe him so oh Jack how can I tell you the truth I loathe him with all my heart but I fear him also I fear him for myself but above all I fear him for my father I know that some great sorrow would come upon us if I dared to say what I really felt that is why I've put him off with half promises it was in real truth our only hope but if you would fly with me Jack we could take father with us and live for ever far from the power of these wicked men again there was the struggle upon McMurdo's face set like granite no harm shall come to you Eddie nor to your father either as to wicked men I expect you may find that I'm as bad as the worst of them before you're through no no Jack I would trust you anywhere McMurdo laughed bitterly good lord how little you know of me your innocent soul my darling could not even guess what is passing in mine but hello who's the visitor the door had opened suddenly and a young fellow came swaggering in with the air of one who is the master he was a handsome dashing young man of about the same age and build as McMurdo himself under his broad brimmed black felt hat which he had not troubled to remove a handsome face with fierce domineering eyes and a curved hawk-bill of a nose especially at the pair who sat by the stove Eddie had jumped to her feet full of confusion and alarm I'm glad to see you Mr. Baldwin said she you're earlier than I thought come and sit down Baldwin stood with his hands on his hips looking at McMurdo who is this he asked curtly it's a friend of mine Mr. Baldwin a new border here Mr. McMurdo may I introduce you to Mr. Baldwin the young men nodded in surly fashion to each other maybe Miss Eddie has told you how it is with us said Baldwin I don't understand that there was any relation between you didn't you well you can understand it now you can take it from me that this young lady is mine and you'll find it a very fine evening for a walk thank you I'm in no humour for a walk aren't you the man's savage eyes were blazing with anger maybe you're in a humour for a fight Mr. Border that I am cried McMurdo springing to his feet you never said a more welcome word for God's sake Jack oh for God's sake Jack cried poor distracted Eddie oh Jack Jack oh it's Jack is it said Baldwin with an oath you've come to that already have you oh Ted be reasonable be kind for my sake Ted if ever you loved me be big hearted and forgiving I think Eddie that if you were to leave us alone we could get this thing settled said McMurdo quietly or maybe Mr. Baldwin you'll take a turn down the street with me it's a fine evening and there's some open ground beyond the next block I'll get even with you without needing to dirty my hands said his enemy you'll wish you'd never set foot in this house before I'm through with you no time like the present cried McMurdo I'll choose my own time Mr. you can leave the time to me see here he suddenly rolled up his sleeve and showed upon his forearm which appeared to have been branded there it was a circle with a triangle within it do you know what that means I neither know nor care well you will know I'll promise you that you won't be much older either perhaps Miss Eddie can tell you something about it as to you Eddie you'll come back to me on your knees do you hear girl and then I'll tell you what your punishment may be you've sowed and by the Lord I'll see that you reap he glanced at them both in fury then he turned upon his heel and an instant later the outer door had banged behind him for a few moments McMurdo and the girl stood in silence and she threw her arms around him oh Jack how brave you were no use you must fly tonight Jack tonight it's your only hope you will have your life I read it in his horrible eyes what chance of you against a dozen of them with Boss McGinty and all the power of the lodge behind them McMurdo disengaged her hands kissed her and gently pushed her back into a chair there Akushla there don't be disturbed or fear for me I'm a freeman myself I'm after telling your father about it maybe I am no better than the others so don't make a saint of me perhaps you hate me too now that I've told you so much hate you Jack while life lasts I could never do that I've heard that there is no harm in being a freeman anywhere but here so why should I sing the worst of you for that but if you are a freeman Jack why would you not go down to boss McGinty oh hurry Jack hurry get your virgin first or the hounds will be on your trail I was thinking the same thing said McMurdo I'll go right now and fix it you can tell your father that I'll sleep here tonight and find some other quarters in the morning the bar of McGinty's saloon was crowded as usual for it was the favourite loafing place of all the rougher elements of the town it was popular for it a rough jovial disposition which formed a mask covering a great deal which lay behind it but apart from this popularity the fear in which he was held throughout the township and indeed down the whole 30 miles of the valley and past the mountains on each side of it was enough in itself to fill his bar for none could afford to neglect his goodwill besides those secret powers he obviously believed that he exercised in so pitiless a fashion he was a high public official a municipal councillor and a commissioner of roads elected to the office through the votes of the ruffians who in turn expected to receive favours at his hands assessments and taxes were enormous the public works were notoriously neglected the accounts were slurred over by bribed auditors and the decent citizen was terrorised into paying public blackmail and holding his tongue less some worse thing before him thus it was that year by year boss McGinty's diamond pins became more obtrusive his gold chains more weighty across a more gorgeous vest and his saloon stretched farther and farther until it threatened to absorb one whole side of the market square McMurdo pushed open the swinging door of the saloon and made his way amid the crowd of men within through an atmosphere blurred with tobacco smoke and heavy with the smell of spirits the place was brilliantly lighted and the huge heavily gilt mirrors upon every wall reflected and multiplied the garish illumination there were several bartenders in their shirt sleeves hard at work mixing drinks for the loungers who fringed the broad brass trimmed counter at the far end with his body resting upon the bar and a cigar stuck at an acute angle from the corner of his mouth stood a tall strong heavily built man who could be none other than the famous McGinty himself he was a black mained giant bearded to the cheekbones and with a shock of raven hair which fell to his collar his complexion was as swarthy as that of an Italian and his eyes were of a strange dead black which combined with a slight squint gave them a particularly sinister appearance all else in the man his noble proportions his fine features and his frank bearing fitted in with that jovial man-to-man manner which he affected here one would say is a bluff honest fellow whose heart would be sound however rude his outspoken words might seem it was only when those dead dark eyes deep and remorseless were turned upon a man that he shrank within himself feeling that he was face-to-face with an infinite possibility of latent evil with a strength and courage and cunning behind it which made it a thousand times more deadly having had a good look at this man McMurdo elbowed his way forward with his usual careless audacity and pushed himself through the little group of courtiers who were forning upon the powerful boss laughing up roriously at the smallest of his jokes the young stranger's bold grey eyes looked back fearlessly through their glasses at the deadly black ones which turned sharply upon him well young man I can't call your face to mind I knew here Mr. McGinty you are not so new that you can't give a gentleman his proper title he's counsellor McGinty young man said a voice from the group I'm sorry counsellor I'm strange to the ways of the place but I was advised to see you well you see me this is all there is what do you think of me well it's early days if your heart is as big as your body and your soul as fine as your face then I'd ask for nothing better said McMurdo by God you've got an Irish tongue in your head anyhow cried the saloon keeper not quite certain whether to humor this audacious visitor or to stand upon his dignity so you are good enough to pass my appearance sure said McMurdo and you were told to see me I was and who told you brother Scanlon of large 341 for missa I drink your health counsellor and to our better acquaintance he raised a glass with which he had been served to his lips and elevated his little finger as he drank it McGinty who'd been watching him narrowly raised his thick black eyebrows oh it's like that is it said he I'll have to look a bit closer into this mister McMurdo a bit closer Mr. McMurdo for we don't take folk on trust in these parts nor believe all were told neither come in here for a moment behind the bar there was a small room there lined with barrels McGinty carefully closed the door and then seated himself on one of them biting thoughtfully on his cigar and surveying his companion with those disquieting eyes for a couple of minutes he sat in complete silence McMurdo bore the inspection cheerfully one hand in his coat pocket the other twisting his brown moustache suddenly McGinty stooped and produced a wicked looking revolver see here my joker said he if I thought you were playing any game on us it would be short work for you this is a strange welcome McMurdo answered with some dignity for the bodymaster of a large of freeman to give to a stranger brother ah but it's just the same that you have to prove said McGinty and God help you if you fail where were you made large 29 Chicago when June 24th 1872 what bodymaster James H. Scott who is your district ruler Bartholomew Wilson hmm you seem glib enough in your tests what are you doing here working the same as you but a poorer job you have your back answer quick enough yes I was always quick of speech are you quick of action I have had that name among those that knew me best well we may try you sooner than you think have you heard anything of the lodge in these parts I've heard that it takes a man to be a brother true for you Mr. McMurdo why did you leave Chicago I'm damned if I'll tell you that McGinty opened his eyes he was not used to being answered in such fashion and it amused him why won't you tell me because no brother may tell another a lie then the truth is too bad to tell you can put her that way if you like see here Mr you can't expect me as bodymaster to pass into the lodge a man for whose past he can't answer McMurdo looked puzzled then he took a worn newspaper cutting from an inner pocket you wouldn't squeal on a fella said he I'll wipe my hand across your face if you say such words to me cried McGinty hotly you're right counselor said McMurdo Meekly I should apologize I spoke without thought well I know that I'm safe in your hands look at that clipping McGinty glanced his eyes over the account of the shooting of one Jonas Pinto in the Lake Saloon Market Street Chicago in the New Year Week of 1874 your work he asked as he handed back the paper McMurdo nodded why did you shoot him I was helping Uncle Sam to make dollars maybe mine were not as good gold as his but they looked as well and were cheaper to make this man Pinto helped me to shove the queer to do what seems to pass the dollars out into circulation then he said he would split maybe he did split I didn't wait to see I just killed him and lighted out for the coal country why the coal country because I'd read in the papers that they weren't too particular in those parts McGinty laughed ha you're first a coiner and then a murderer and you came to these parts because you thought you'd be welcome that's about the size of it McMurdo answered well I guess you'll go far say can you make those dollars yet McMurdo took half a dozen from his pocket those never passed the Philadelphia Mint said he you don't say McGinty held them to the light in his enormous hand which was hairy as a gorilla's I can see no difference you'll be a mighty useful brother I'm thinking we can do with a bad man or two among us friend McMurdo for there are times when we have to take our own part we'd soon be against the wall if we didn't shove back at those that were pushing us well I guess I'll do my share of shoving with the rest of the boys you seem to have a good nerve you didn't squirm when I shoved this gun at you not me that was in danger who then it was you, counselor McMurdo drew a copped pistol from the side pocket of his P-jacket I was covering you all the time I guess my shot would have been as quick as yours by God McGinty flushed an angry red and then burst into a roar of laughter say we've had no such holy terror come to hand this many a year I reckon the lodge will learn to be proud of you well what the hell do you want and can't I speak alone with a gentleman for five minutes but you must butt in on us a bartender stood abashed I'm sorry counselor but it's Ted Baldwin he says he must see you this very minute the message was unnecessary for the set cruel face of the man himself was looking over the servant's shoulder he pushed the bartender out and closed the door on him so said he with a furious glance at McMurdo you got here first did you I have a word to say to you counselor about this man then say it here and now before my face cried McMurdo I'll say it at my own time in my own way tut tut said McGinty getting off his barrel this will never do we have a new brother here Baldwin and it's not for us to greet him in such fashion hold out your hand man and make it up never cried Baldwin in a fury I've offered to fight him if he thinks I've wronged him said McMurdo I'll fight him with fists or if that won't satisfy him I'll fight him any other way he chooses now I'll leave it to you counselor as a bodymaster should what is it then a young lady she's free to choose for herself is she? cried Baldwin as between two brothers of the lodge I should say that she was said the boss oh that's your ruling is it yes it is Ted Baldwin said McGinty with a wicked stare is it you that would dispute it you would throw over one that has stood by you this five years in favor of a man that you never saw before in your life you're not bodymaster for life Jack McGinty and by God when next it comes to a vote the counselor sprang at him like a tiger his hand closed round the other's neck and he hurled him back across one of the barrels in his mad fury he would have squeezed the life out of him if McMurdo had not interfered easy counselor for heaven's sake, go easy he cried as he dragged him back McGinty released his hold and Baldwin cowed and shaken gasping for breath and shivering in every limb as one who has looked over the very edge of death sat up on the barrel over which he had been hurled you've been asking for at this many a day Ted Baldwin now you've got it cried McGinty his huge chest rising and falling maybe you think if I was voted down from bodymaster you'd find yourself in my shoes it's for the lodge to say that but so long as I'm the chief I'll have no man lift his voice against me or my rulings I have nothing against you mumbled Baldwin feeling his throat well then cried the other relapsing in a moment into a bluff joviality we're all good friends again and there's an ending of the matter he took a bottle of champagne down from the shelf and twisted out the cork see now he continued as he filled three high glasses let us drink the quarrelling toast of the lodge after that as you know there can be no bad blood between us now then the left hand on the apple of my throat I say to you Ted Baldwin what is the offence, sir? the clouds are heavy answered him Baldwin but they will forever brighten and this I swear the men drank their glasses and the same ceremony was performed between Baldwin and McMurdo there cried McGinty rubbing his hands that's the end of the black blood you come under lodge discipline if it goes further and that's a heavy hand in these parts as brother Baldwin knows and as you will damn soon find out brother McMurdo if you ask for trouble faith I'd be slow to do that said McMurdo he held out his hand to Baldwin I'm quick to quarrel I'm quick to forgive it's my heart Irish blood they tell me but it's over for me and I bear no grudge Baldwin had to take the prophet hand for the baleful eye of the terrible boss was upon him but his sullen face showed how little the words of the other had moved him McGinty clapped them both on the shoulders turt these girls these girls he cried to think that the same petticoat should come between two of my boys it's the devil's own luck well it's the Colleen inside of them that it must settle the question for it's outside the jurisdiction of a bodymaster and the law be praised for that we have enough on us without the women as well you'll have to be affiliated to lodge 341 brother McMurdo we have our own ways and methods different from Chicago Saturday night is our meeting and if you come then we'll make you free forever of the Vermissa Valley End of chapter 2 part 2 chapter 3 of the valley of fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this Librivox recording is in the public domain chapter 3 Lodge 341 Vermissa on the day following the evening which had contained so many exciting events McMurdo moved his lodgings from old Jacob Shafters and took up his quarters at the widow McNamara's on the extreme outskirts of the town Scanlan the original acquaintance aboard the train had occasion shortly afterwards to move into Vermissa and the two lodged together there was no other border and the hostess was an easygoing old Irish woman who left them to themselves so that they had a freedom for speech and action welcome to men who had secrets in common Shafter had relented to the extent of letting McMurdo come to his meals there when he liked so that his intercourse with Etty was by no means broken on the contrary it drew closer and more intimate as the weeks went by in his bedroom at his new abode McMurdo felt it safe to take out the coining moulds and under many a pledge of secrecy a number of brothers from the lodge were allowed to come in and see them each carrying away in his pocket some examples of the false money so cunningly struck that there was never the slightest difficulty of a stranger in passing it why with such a wonderful art at his command McMurdo should condescend to work at all was a perpetual mystery to his companions though he made it clear to anyone who asked him that if he lived without any visible means it would very quickly bring the police upon his track one policeman was indeed after him already but the incident as luck would have it did the adventurer a great deal of good and harm after the first introduction there were few evenings when he did not find his way to McGinty's saloon there to make closer acquaintance with The Boys which was the jovial title by which the dangerous gang who infested the place were known to one another his dashing manner and fearlessness of speech made him a favourite with them all while the rapid and scientific way in which he left his antagonist in an all-in bar room scrap and the respect of that rough community another incident however raised him even higher in their estimation just at the crowded hour one night the door opened and a man entered with the quiet blue uniform and peeked cap of the mine police this was a special body raised by the railways and colliery owners to complement the efforts of the ordinary civil police who were perfectly helpless in the face of the organised ruffianism which terrorized the district there was a hush as he entered and many a curious glance was cast at him but the relations between policemen and criminals are peculiar in some parts of the states and McGinty himself standing behind his counter showed no surprise when the policeman enrolled himself among his customers a straight whiskey for the night is bitter said the police officer I don't think we've met before counselor you'll be the new captain said McGinty that's so we'll look into you counselor and to the other leading citizens to help us in upholding law and order in this township Captain Marvin is my name we do better without you Captain Marvin for we have our own police we have the township and no need for any imported goods what are you but the paid tool of the capitalists hired by them to club or shoot your poorer fellow citizen well well we won't argue about that said the police officer good humbly I expect we all do our duty same as we see it but we can't all see it the same he drunk off his glass and had turned to go when his eyes fell upon the face of Jack McMurdo who was scowling at his elbow hello hello he cried looking him up and down he is an old acquaintance McMurdo shrank away from him I was never a friend to you nor any other cursed copper in my life said he an acquaintance is not always a friend said the police captain grinning you're Jack McMurdo of Chicago right enough and don't you deny it McMurdo shrugged his shoulders I'm not denying it said he do you think I'm ashamed of my own name you've got good cause to be anyhow what the devil do you mean by that he roared with his fist clenched no no Jack bluster won't do with me I was an officer in Chicago before ever I came to this darned coal bunker and I know a Chicago crook when I see one McMurdo's face fell don't tell me that you're Marvin of the Chicago Central he cried just the same old Teddy Marvin at your service we haven't forgotten the shooting of Jonas Pinto up there I never shot him did you not that's good impartial evidence ain't it well his death came in an uncommon handy for you or they would have had you for shoving the queer let that be baggons four between you and me and perhaps I'm going further than my duty in saying it they could get no clear case against you and Chicago's open to you tomorrow I'm very well where I am well I've given you the pointer and you're a sulky dog not to thank me for it well I suppose you mean well and I do thank you said McMurdo in no very gracious manner it's mom with me so long as I see you living on the street said the captain but by the Lord if you get off after this it's another story so good night to you and good night counselor he left the bar room but not before he created a local hero McMurdo's deeds in far Chicago had been whispered before he'd put off all questions with a smile as one who did not wish to have greatness thrust upon him but now the thing was officially confirmed the bar loafers crowded round him and shook him heartily by the hand he was free of the community from that time on he could drink hard and show little trace of it but that evening had his mate Scanlon not been at hand to lead him home the fated hero would surely have spent his night under the bar on a Saturday night McMurdo was introduced to the lodge he'd thought to pass in without ceremony as being an initiate of Chicago but there were particular rights in Vermissa of which they were proud and these had to be undergone by every postulant the assembly met in a large room reserved for such purposes at the Union House some sixty members assembled at Vermissa but that by no means represented the full strength of the organization several other lodges in the valley and others across the mountains on each side who exchanged members when any serious business was afoot so that a crime might be done by men who were strangers to the locality altogether there were not less than five hundred scattered over the coal district in the bare assembly room the men were gathered round a long table at the side was a second one laden with bottles and glasses on which some members of the company were already turning their eyes McGinty sat at the head with a flat black velvet cap upon his shock of tangled black hair and a coloured purple stole round his neck so that he seemed to be a priest presiding over some diabolical ritual to right and left of him with a higher lodge officials the cruel, handsome face of Ted Baldwin among them each of these wore some scarf or medallion as emblem of his office they were for the most part men of mature age that the rest of the company consisted of young fellows from eighteen to twenty-five the ready and capable agents who carried out the commands of their seniors among the older men were many whose features showed the tigerish, lawless souls within but looking at the rank and file it was difficult to believe that these eager and open-faced young fellows were in very truth a dangerous gang of murderers whose minds had suffered such complete moral perversion that they took a horrible pride in their proficiency at the business and looked with deepest respect at the men who had the reputation of making what they called a clean job to their contorted natures it had become a spirited and chivalrous thing to volunteer for service against some man who had never injured them and whom in many cases they had never seen in their lives the crime committed they quarrelled as to who had actually struck the fatal blow and amused one another and the company by describing the cries and contortions of the murdered man at first they had shown some secrecy in their arrangements but at the time which this narrative describes their proceedings were extraordinarily open for the repeated failure of the law had proved to them that on the one hand no one would dare to witness against them and on the other they had an unlimited number of starch witnesses upon whom they could call and a well-filled treasure chest from which they could draw the funds to engage the best legal talent in the state for ten long years of outrage there had been no single conviction and the only danger that ever threatened the scourers lay in the victim himself who, however outnumbered and taken by surprise might and occasionally did leave his mark upon his assailants McMurdo had been warned that some ordeal lay before him but no one would tell him in what it consisted he was led now into an outer room by two solemn brothers through the plank partition he could hear the murmur of many voices from the assembly within once or twice he caught the sound of his own name and he knew that they were discussing his candidacy then there entered an inner-guard with a green and gold sash across his chest the body-master orders that he shall be trust, blinded and entered, said he the three of them removed his coat turned up the sleeve of his right arm and finally passed a rope around above the elbows and made it fast they next placed a thick black cap right over his head and the upper part of his face so that he could see nothing he was then led into the assembly-hall it was pitch-dark and very oppressive under his hood he heard the rustle and murmur of the people round him and then the voice of McGinty sounded dull and distant through the covering of his ears John McMurdo, said the voice are you already a member of the ancient order of Freeman? he bowed his assent is your lodge number 29 Chicago he bowed again dark nights are unpleasant said the voice yes for strangers to travel he answered the clouds are heavy yes, a storm is approaching are the brethren satisfied? asked the bodymaster there was a general murmur of assent we know, brother by your sign and by your counter-sign that you are indeed one of us said McGinty we would have you know, however that in this county and in other counties of these parts we have certain rights and also certain duties of our own which call for good men are you ready to be tested? I am are you of stout heart? I am take a stride forward to prove it as the words were said he felt two hard points in front of his eyes pressing upon them so that it appeared as if he could not move forward without a danger of losing them nonetheless he nerved himself to step resolutely out and as he did so the pressure melted away there was a low murmur of applause he is of a stout heart said the voice can you bear pain? as well as another he answered test him due to keep himself from screaming out for an agonizing pain shot through his forearm he nearly fainted at the sudden shock of it but he bit his lip and clenched his hands to hide his agony I can take more than that said he this time there was loud applause a finer first appearance had never been made in the lodge hands clapped him on the back and the hood was plucked from his head he stood blinking and smiling amid the congratulations of the brothers one last word brother McMurdo said McGinty you have already sworn the oath of secrecy and fidelity and you are aware that the punishment for any breach of it is instant and inevitable death I am said McMurdo and you accept the rule of the bodymaster for the time being under all circumstances I do then in the name of lodge 341 Vermissa I welcome you to its privileges and debates you will put the liquor on the table brother Scanlon and we will drink to our worthy brother McMurdo's coat had been brought to him but before putting it on his right arm which still smarted heavily there on the flesh of the forearm was a circle with a triangle within it deep and red as the branding iron had left it one of the two of his neighbors pulled up their sleeves and showed their own lodge marks we've all had it said one but not all as brave as you over it it was nothing said he came when the drinks which followed the ceremony of initiation had all been disposed of the business of the lodge proceeded McMurdo accustomed only to the prosaic performances of Chicago listened with open ears and more surprise and he ventured to show to what followed the first business on the agenda paper is to read the following letter from division master Wendell of Merton County Lodge 249 he says dear sir there is a job to be done on Andrew Ray of Ray and Sturmish co-owners near this place you will remember that your lodge owes us a return having had the service of two brethren in the matter of the patrolman last fall you will send two good men they will be taken charge of by treasurer Higgins of this lodge whose address you know he will show them when to act and where yours in freedom J. W. Wendell D. M. A. O. F. Wendell has never refused us when we have had occasion to ask for the loan of a man or two and it's not for us to refuse him McGinty paused and looked round the room with his little malevolent eyes who will volunteer for the job several young fellows held up their hands the bodymaster looked at them with an approving smile you'll do Tiger Cormack if you handle it as well as you did the last you won't be wrong and you Wilson I've no pistol said the volunteer I mean a boy in his teens it's your first is it not well you have to be blooded some time it'll be a great start for you as to the pistol you'll find it waiting for you or I'm mistaken if you report yourselves on Monday it'll be time enough you'll get a great welcome when you return any reward this time asked Cormack a thick-set dark-faced brutal-looking young man whose ferocity had earned him the nickname of Tiger never mind the reward you just do it for the honor of the thing maybe when it's done there'll be a few odd dollars at the bottom of the box what has the man done asked the young Wilson sure it's not for the likes of you to ask what the man has done he's been judged over there that's no business of ours all we have to do is to carry it out for them same as they would for us speaking of that two brothers from the Merton lodge are coming over to us next week to do some business in this quarter who are they asked someone Faith it is wiser not to ask if you know nothing you can testify nothing and no trouble can come of it but they are men who will make a clean job when they're about it and time, too, cried Ted Baldwin folk are getting out of hand in these parts it was only last week that three of our men were turned off by Forman Blaker it's been owing him a long time and he'll get it full and proper get what? McMurdo whispered to his neighbor the business end of a buckshot cartridge cried the man with a loud laugh what think you of our ways, brother? McMurdo's criminal soul seemed to have already absorbed the spirit of the vile association of which he was now a member I like it well, said he it is a proper place for a lad of metal several of those who sat around heard his words and applauded them what's that? cried the black mained bodymaster from the end of the table it is our new brother, sir who finds our ways to his taste McMurdo rose to his feet for an instant I would say eminent bodymaster that if a man should be wanted I should take it as an honor to be chosen to help the lodge there was great applause at this it was felt that a new son was pushing its rim above the horizon to some of the elders it seemed that the progress was a little too rapid I would move, said the secretary Harroway, a vulture faced old greybeard who sat near the chairman that brother McMurdo should wait until it is the good pleasure of the lodge to employ him sure that was what I meant I'm in your hands, said McMurdo your time will come, brother said the chairman we have marked you down as a willing man and we believe that you will do good work in these parts there is a small matter to night in which you may take a hand if it so pleases you I'll wait for something that is worthwhile you can come to night anyhow and it will help you to know what we stand for in this community I will make the announcement later meanwhile he glanced at his agenda paper I have one or two more points to bring before the meeting first of all I will ask the treasurer as to our bank balance there is the pension to Jim Conaway's widow he was struck down during the work of the lodge and it is for us to see that she is not the loser Jim was shot last month when they cried to kill Chester Wilcox of Marley Creek, McMurdo's neighbour informed him the funds are good at the moment said the treasurer with the bank book in front of him the firms have been generous of late 500 to be left alone Walker Brothers sent in 100 but I took it on myself to return it and asked for five if I do not hear by Wednesday their winding gear may get out of order we had to burn their breaker last year before they became reasonable then the west section Colling Company has paid its annual contribution we have enough on hand to meet any obligations what about Archie Swindon asked a brother he has sold out and left the district the old devil left a note for us to say that he had rather be a free crossing sweeper in a New York than a large mine owner under the power of a ring of blackmailers by gar it was as well that he made a break for it before the note reached us I guess he won't show his face in this valley again an elderly, clean-shaved man with a kindly face and a good brow rose from the end of the table which faced the chairman Mr. Treasurer he asked may I ask who has bought the property of this man that we have driven out of the district yes, brother Morris it has been bought by the state and Merton County Railroad Company and who bought the mines of Todman and of Lee that came into the market in the same way last year the same company, brother Morris and who bought the ironworks of Manson and of Schumann and of Van Der and of Atwood which have all been given up of late they were all bought by the West Gilmourton General Mining Company I don't see, brother Morris said the chairman that it matters to us who buys them since they can't carry them out of the district with all respect to you, eminent bodymaster I think it may matter very much to us this process has been going on now for ten long years we are gradually driving all the small men out of trade what is the result we find in their places great companies like the railroad or the general iron who have their directors in New York or Philadelphia and care nothing for our threats we can take it out of their local bosses but it only means that others will be sent in their stead and we are making it dangerous for ourselves the small men could not harm us they had not the money nor the power so long as we did not squeeze them too dry they would stay on under our power but if these big companies find that we stand between them and their profits they will spare no pains and no expense to hunt us down and bring us to court there was a hush at these ominous words and every face darkened as gloomy looks were exchanged so omnipotent and unchallenged had they been at the very thought that there was possible retribution in the background had been banished from their minds and yet the idea struck a chill to the most reckless of them it is my advice the speaker continued that we go easier upon the small men on the day that they have all been driven out the power of this society will have been broken unwelcome truths are not popular they were angry cries as the speaker resumed his seat McGinty rose with gloom upon his brow Brother Morris said he you were always a croaker so long as the members of this lodge stand together there is no power in the United States that can touch them have we not tried it often enough in the law courts I expect the big companies will find it easier to pay than to fight same as the little companies do and now Brethren McGinty took off his black velvet cap and his stole as he spoke this lodge has finished its business for the evening save for one small matter which may be mentioned when we are parting the time has now come for fraternal refreshment and for harmony strange indeed is human nature here were these men to whom murder was familiar who again and again had struck down the father of the family some man against whom they had no personal feeling without one thought of compunction or of compassion for his weeping wife or helpless children and yet the tender or pathetic in music could move them to tears McMurdo had a fine tender voice and if he had failed to gain the good will of the lodge before it could no longer have been withheld after he had thrilled them with I am sitting on the style Mary and on the banks of Alan Water in his very first night the new recruit had made himself one of the most popular of the Brethren marked already for advancement and high office quality's needed however besides those of good fellowship to make a worthy Freeman and of these he was given an example before the evening was over the whiskey bottle had passed round many times and the men were flushed and ripe for mischief when their bodymaster rose once more to address them boys said he there's one man in this town that wants trimming up and it's for you to see that he gets it I'm speaking of James Stanger of the Herald you've seen how he's been opening his mouth against us again it was a murmur of assent with many a mutterdose McGinty took a slip of paper from his waistcoat pocket law and order that's how he heads it reign of terror in the coal and iron district twelve years have now elapsed since the first assassinations which proved the existence of a criminal organization in our midst from that day these outrages have never ceased until now they have reached a pitch which makes us the aprobarium of the civilized world is it for such results as this that our great country welcomes to its bosom the alien who flies from the despotisms of Europe is it that they shall themselves become tyrants over the very men who have given them shelter and that a state of terrorism and lawlessness should be established under the very shadow of the sacred folds of the starry flag of freedom which would raise horror in our minds if we read of it as existing under the most defeat monarchy of the East the men are known the organization is patent and public how long are we to endure it to live? sure I've read enough of the slush cried the chairman tossing the paper down upon the table that's what he says of us the question I'm asking is what shall we say to him kill him cried a dozen fierce voices I protest against that said brother Morris the man of the good brow and shaved face I tell you brethren it's too heavy in this valley and that there will come a point where in self-defense every man will unite to crush us out James Stanger is an old man he is respected in the township and the district his paper stands for all that is solid in the valley if that man is struck down there will be a stir through this state that will only end with our destruction and how would they bring about our destruction Mr. Standback cried McGinty is it by the police sure half of them are in our pay and half of them are afraid of us or is it by the law courts and the judge haven't we tried that before now and whatever came of it there is a judge lynch that might try the case said brother Morris a general shout of anger greeted the suggestion I have but to raise my finger cried McGinty and I could put two hundred men into this town that would clear it out from end to end then suddenly raising his voice and bending his huge black brows into a terrible frown see here brother Morris I have my eye on you and have had for some time you've no heart yourself and you try to take the heart out of others it'll be an ill day for you brother Morris when your own name comes on our agenda paper and I'm thinking that it's just there that I ought to place it Morris had turned deadly pale and his knees seemed to give way under him as he fell back into his chair he raised his glass in his trembling hand and drank before he could answer I apologize eminent bodymaster every brother in this lodge if I've said more than I should I am a faithful member you all know that and it is my fear less evil come to the lodge which makes me speak in anxious words but I have greater trust in your judgment than in my own eminent bodymaster and I promise you that I will not offend again the bodymaster's scowl relaxed as he listened to the humble words very good brother Morris it's myself that would be sorry if it were needful to give you a lesson but so long as I am in this chair we shall be a united lodge in word and in deed and now boys he continued looking round at the company I'll say this much that if Stanger got his full desserts there would be more trouble than we need ask for these editors hang together and every journal in the state would be crying out for police and troops but I guess you can give him a pretty severe warning will you fix it brother Baldwin sure said the young man eagerly how many will you take half a dozen and two to guard the door you'll come Gower and you Mansel and you Scanlan and the two Willoughbys I promised the new brother he should go said the chairman Ted Baldwin looked at McMurdo with eyes which showed that he had not forgotten nor forgiven well he can come if he wants he said in a surly voice that's enough the sooner we get to work the better the company broke up with shouts and yells and snatches of drunken song the bar was still crowded with revelers and many of the brethren remained there the little band who had been told off for duty passed out into the street proceeding in twos and threes along the sidewalk so as not to provoke attention it was a bitterly cold night with a half moon shining brilliantly in a frosty star-spangled sky the men stopped and gathered in a yard which faced a high building the words Vermissa Herald were printed in gold lettering beautifully lit windows from within came the clanking of the printing press hear you said Baldwin to McMurdo you can stand below at the door and see that the road is kept open for us Arthur Willoughby can stay with you you others come with me have no fears boys for we have a dozen witnesses that we are in the union bar at this very moment it was nearly midnight and the street was deserted for one or two revelers upon their way home the party crossed the road and pushing open the door of the newspaper office Baldwin and his men rushed in and up the stair which faced them McMurdo and another remained below from the room above came a shout a cry for help and then the sound of trampling feet and of falling chairs an instant later a grey-haired man rushed out on the landing he was seized before he could get farther and his spectacles came tinkling down to McMurdo's feet there was a thud and a groan he was on his face and half a dozen sticks were clattering together as they fell upon him he writhed and his long thin limbs quivered under the blows the others ceased at last but Baldwin his cruel face set in an infernal smile on Baldwin's head which he vainly endeavoured to defend with his arms his white hair was dabbled with patches of blood Baldwin was still stooping over his victim putting in a short vicious blow whenever he could see a part exposed when McMurdo dashed up the stair and pushed him back you'll kill the man, said he drop it Baldwin looked at him in amazement curse you, he cried fear you that are new to the lodge stand back he raised his stick but McMurdo had whipped his pistol out of his pocket stand back yourself he cried I'll blow your face in if you lay a hand on me as to the lodge wasn't it the order of the body master that the man was not to be killed and what are you doing but killing him it's truth he says remarked one of the men by a guy you'd best hurry yourselves cried the man below the windows are all lighting up and you'll have the whole town here inside of five minutes there was indeed the sound of shouting in the street and the little group of compositors and press men was forming in the hall below and nerving itself to action leaving the limp and motionless body of the editor at the head of the stair the criminals rushed down and made their way swiftly along the street having reached the union house some of them mixed with the crowd the anti saloon whispering across the bar to the boss that the job had been well carried through others and among them McMurdo broke away into side streets and so by devious paths to their own homes End of Chapter 3 Part 2 Chapter 4 of the Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 4 The Valley of Fear When McMurdo woke next morning he had good reason to remember his initiation into the lodge his head ate with the effect of the drink and his arm where he had been branded was hot and swollen having his own peculiar source of income he was irregular in his attendance at his work so he had a late breakfast and remained at home for the morning writing a long letter to a friend he read the Daily Herald in a special column put in at the last moment he read Outrage at the Herald office editor seriously injured it was a short account of the facts with which he was himself more familiar than the writer could have been it ended with a statement the matter is now in the hands of the police but it can hardly be hoped that their exertions will be attended by any better results than in the past some of the men were recognized that a conviction may be obtained the source of the outrage was it need hardly be said that infamous society which has held this community in bondage for so longer period and against which the Herald has taken so uncompromising a stand Mr. Stanger's many friends will rejoice to hear that though he has been cruelly and brutally beaten and though he has sustained severe injuries about the head there is no immediate danger to his life below it stated that the guard of police armed with Winchester rifles had been requisitioned for the defence of the office McMurder had laid down the paper and was lighting his pipe with a hand which was shaky from the excesses of the previous evening when there was a knock outside and his landlady brought to him a note which had just been handed in by a lad it was unsigned and ran thus I should wish to speak to you but would rather not do so in your house you will find me beside the flagstaff upon Miller Hill if you will come there now I have something which is important for you to hear and for me to say McMurder read the note twice with the utmost surprise for he could not imagine what it meant or who was the author of it had it been in a feminine hand he might have imagined that it was the beginning of one of those adventures which have been familiar enough in the past life but it was the writing of a man and of a well educated one too finally after some hesitation he determined to see the matter through Miller Hill is an ill-kept public park in the very centre of the town in summer it is a favourite resort of the people but in the winter it is desolate enough from the top of it one has a view not only of the whole grimy town but of the winding valley beneath with its scattered mines and factories blackening the snow on each side of it and of the wooded and white-capped ranges flanking it McMurdo strolled up the winding path hedged in with evergreens until he reached the deserted restaurant which forms the centre of summer gaiety beside it was a bare flagstaff and underneath it a man, his hat drawn down and the collar of his overcoat turned up when he turned his face McMurdo saw that it was brother Morris he who had incurred the anger of the bodymaster the night before the lodge sign was given and exchanged as they met I want to have a word with you, Mr. McMurdo said the older man speaking with a hesitation which showed that he was on delicate ground it was kind enough of you to come why did he not put your name to the note one has to be cautious, Mr. one never knows in times like these how a thing may come back to one one never knows either who to trust or who not to trust surely one may trust brothers of the lodge no no not always cried Morris with vehemence whatever we say even what we think seems to get back and McGinty look here, said McMurdo sternly it was only last night as you know well that I swore good faith to our bodymaster would you be asking me to break my oath if that is the view you take said Morris sadly I can only say that I am sorry I gave you the trouble to come and meet me things have come to a bad pass when two free citizens cannot speak their thoughts to each other McMurdo who had been watching his companion very narrowly relaxed somewhat in his bearing sure I spoke for myself only said he I am a newcomer as you know and I am strange to it all it is not for me to open my mouth, Mr. Morris and if to think well to say anything to me I am here to hear it and to take it back to Boss McGinty said Morris bitterly indeed then there cried McMurdo for myself I am loyal to the lodge and so I tell you straight but I would be a poor creature if I were to repeat to any other what you might say to me in confidence it will go no further than me though I warn you that you may get neither help nor sympathy I have given up looking for either the one or the other said Morris I may be putting my very life in your hands by what I say but bad as you are and it seemed to me last night that you were shaping to be as bad as the worst still you are new to it and your conscience cannot yet be as hardened as theirs that was why I thought to speak with you well what have you to say if you give me away may a curse be on you sure I said I would not I would ask you then when you joined the Freeman Society in Chicago and swore vows of charity and fidelity did ever it cross your mind that you might find it would lead you to crime if you call it crime McMurdo answered call it crime cried Morris his voice vibrating with passion you have seen little of it if you can call it anything else was it crime last night when a man old enough to be your father while the blood dripped from his white hairs was that crime or what else would you call it there are some would say it was war said McMurdo a war of two classes with all in so that each struck as best it could well did you think of such a thing when you joined the Freeman Society in Chicago no I'm bound to say I did not nor did I when I joined it at Philadelphia it was just a benefit club and a meeting place for one's fellows then I heard of this place cursed the hour that the name first fell upon my ears and I came to better myself my god to better myself my wife and three children came with me I started a dry good store on Market Square and I prospered well the word had gone round that I was a Freeman and I was forced to join the local lodge same as you did last night I have the badge of shame on my forearm and something worse branded on my heart I found that I was under the orders of a black villain and caught in a mesh work of crime what could I do every word I said to make things better was taken as treason same as it was last night I can't get away for all I have in the world is in my store if I leave the society I know well that it means murder to me and God knows what to my wife and children oh man it is awful awful he put his hands to his face and his body shook with convulsive sobs McMurdo shrugged his shoulders you were too soft for the job said he you're the wrong sort for such work I had a conscience and a religion but they made me a criminal among them I was chosen for a job if I back down I knew well what would come to me maybe I'm a coward maybe it's the thought of my poor little woman and the children that makes me one anyway I went I guess it will haunt me forever it was a lonely house twenty miles from here over the range yonder I was told off for the door same as you were last night don't trust me with the job the others went in when they came out their hands were crimson to the wrists as we turned away a child was screaming out of the house behind us it was a boy of five who had seen his father murdered I nearly fainted with the horror of it and yet I had to keep a bold and smiling face for well I knew that if I did not it would be out of my house that they would come next with their bloody hands and it would be my little Fred that would be screaming for his father but I was a criminal then part sharer in a murder lost forever in this world and lost also in the next I am a good Catholic but the priest would have no word with me when he heard I was a scourer and I am excommunicated from my faith that's how it stands with me and I see you going down the same road and I ask you what the end is to be are you ready to be a cold blooded murderer also? or can we do anything to stop it? what would you do? asked McMurdo abruptly you'd not inform God forbid cried Morris sure the very thought would cost me my life that's well said McMurdo I'm thinking that you're a weak man and that you make too much of the matter too much? wait till you have lived here longer look down the valley see the cloud of a hundred chimneys that overshadows it I tell you that the cloud of murder hangs thicker and lower than that over the heads of the people it is the valley of fear the valley of death the terror is in the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn wait young man and you will learn for yourself well I'll let you know what I think when I have seen more said McMurdo carelessly what is very clear is that you are not the man for the place and that the sooner you sell out if you only get a dime a dollar for what the business is worth the better it'll be for you what you've said is safe with me but bad gar, if I thought you were an informer no, no cried Morris pitiously well let it rest at that in your mind and maybe some day I'll come back to it expect you meant kindly by speaking to me like this now I'll be getting home one word before you go said Morris we may have been seen together they may want to know what we have spoken about ah that's well thought of I offer you a clerkship in my store and I refuse it that's our business brother Morris and may you find things go better with you in the future that same afternoon as McMurdo sat smoking lost in thought beside the stove of his sitting-room the door swung open and its framework was filled with a huge figure of boss McGinty he passed the sign and then seating himself opposite to the young man he looked at him steadily for some time a look which was as steadily returned I'm not much of a visitor brother McMurdo he said at last I guess I'm too busy over the folk that visit me but I thought I'd stretch a point and drop down to see you in your own house I'm proud to see you here, Councillor McMurdo answered heartily bringing his whiskey bottle out of the cupboard it's an honour that I had not expected that was the arm that's the boss McMurdo made a wry face well I'm not forgetting it, he said but it's worth it yes it's worth it the other answered to those that are loyal and go through with it and they're a help to the lodge what were you speaking to brother Morris about on the Miller Hill this morning the question came so suddenly that it was well that he had his answer prepared he burst into a hearty laugh Morris didn't know I could earn a living here at home he shan't know either for he's got too much conscience for the likes of me but he's a good hearted old chap it was his idea that I was at a loose end and that he would do me a good turn by offering me a clerkship in a dry good store oh that was it yes that was it and you refused it sure couldn't I earn ten times as much to my own bedroom with four hours work that so but I wouldn't get about too much with Morris why not well I guess because I tell you not that's enough for most folk in these parts it may be enough for most folk but it ain't enough for me counselor said McMurdo Baldly if you're a judge of men you'll know that the swarthy giant glared at him and his hairy poor closed for an instant round the glass as though he would hurl it at the head of his companion then he laughed in his loud, boisterous insincere fashion you're a queer card for sure well if you want more reasons I'll give them did Morris say nothing to you against the lodge no nor against me no well that's because he don't trust you but in his heart he's not a loyal brother we know that well so we watch him and we wait for the time to admonish him I'm thinking that the time is drawing near there's no room for scabby sheep in our pen but if you keep company with a disloyal man we might think that you were disloyal too, see there's no chance of my keeping company with him for I disliked the man McMurdo answered asked of being disloyal if it was any man but you you would not use the word to me twice well that's enough said McGinty draining off his glass I came down to give you a word in season and you've had it I'd like to know said McMurdo how you ever came to learn that I'd spoken with Morris at all? McGinty laughed it's my business to know what goes on in this township said he I guess you'd best reckon on my hearing all that passes well time's up and I'll just say but his leave-taking was cut short in a very unexpected fashion with a sudden crash the door flew open and three frowning intent faces glared in at them from under the peaks of police caps McMurdo sprang to his feet and half drew his revolver but his arm stopped midway as he became conscious that two Winchester rifles were levelled at his head a man in uniform advanced into the room a six-shooter in his hand it was Captain Marvin one of Chicago and now of the mine constabulary he shook his head with a half smile at McMurdo I thought you'd be getting into trouble Mr. Crooked McMurdo of Chicago McGinty can't keep out of it can you take your hat and come along with us I guess you'll pay for this Captain Marvin said McGinty who are you I'd like to know to break into a house in this fashion and molest honest law-abiding men you're standing out in this deal Councillor McGinty said to police Captain we're not out after you but after this man McMurdo asked to hinder us in our duty he is a friend of mine and I'll answer for his conduct said the boss by all accounts Mr. McGinty you may have to answer for your own conduct some of these days the Captain answered this man McMurdo was a crook before ever he came here and he's a crook still cover him patrolman while I disarm him there's my pistol said McMurdo coolly maybe Captain Marvin if you and I were alone and face-to-face you would not take me so easily where's your warrant asked McGinty by garr a man might as well live in Russia as in vermouth while folk like you were running the police it's a capitalist outrage and you'll hear more of it I reckon you do what you think is your duty the best way you can Councillor we'll look after ours what am I accused of asked McMurdo of being concerned in the beating of old editor Stanger at the Herald office it wasn't your fault that it isn't a murder charge well if that's all you have against him cried McGinty with a laugh you can save yourself a deal of trouble by dropping it right now this man was with me in my saloon playing poker up to midnight and I can bring a dozen to prove it that's your affair and I guess you can settle it in court tomorrow meanwhile come on McMurdo and come quietly if you don't want a gun across your head you stand wired Mr. McGinty for I'll warn you I'll stand no resistance when I'm on duty so determined was the appearance of the captain that both McMurdo and his boss were forced to accept the situation the latter managed to have a few whispered words with the prisoner before they parted what about he jerked his thumb upward with a coining plant all right whispered McMurdo who had devised a safe hiding place under the floor I'll bid you good-bye said the boss shaking hands I'll see Riley the lawyer and take the defence upon myself take my word for it that they won't be able to hold you I wouldn't bet on that guard the prisoner you two and shoot him if he tries any games I'll search the house before I leave he did so but apparently found no trace of the concealed plant when he descended he and his men escorted McMurdo to headquarters darkness had fallen and a keen blizzard was blowing so that the streets were nearly deserted but a few loiterers followed the group and emboldened by invisibility shouted imprecations at the prisoner lynch the cursed scourer they cried lynch him he was pushed into the police station after a short formal examination from the inspector in charge he was put into the common cell here he found Baldwin and three other criminals of the night before all arrested that afternoon and waiting their trial next morning but even within this inner fortress of the law the long arm of the free men was able to extend late at night there came a jailer with a straw bundle out of which he extracted two bottles of whiskey some glasses and a pack of cards they spent a hilarious night without an anxious thought as to the ordeal of the morning nor had they caused as the result was to show the magistrate could not possibly on the evidence have held them for a higher court on the one hand the compositors and press men were forced to admit that the light was uncertain they were themselves much perturbed and that it was difficult for them to swear to the identity of the assailants although they believed that the accused were among them cross-examined by the clever attorney who had been engaged by McGinty they were even more nebulous in their evidence the injured man had already deposed that he was so taken by surprise by the suddenness of the attack that he could state nothing that the first man who struck him wore a moustache he added that he knew them to be scourers since no one else in the community could possibly have any enmity to him and he had long been threatened on account of his outspoken editorials on the other hand it was clearly shown by the united and unfaltering evidence of six citizens including that high municipal official Councillor McGinty that the men had been at a card party at the union house until an hour very much later than the commission of the outrage needless to say that they were discharged with something very near to an apology from the bench for the inconvenience to which they had been put together with an implied censure of Captain Marvin and the police for their officious zeal the verdict was greeted with loud applause by a court in which McMurdo saw many familiar faces brothers of the lodge smiled and waved but there were others who sat with compressed lips and brooding eyes as the men filed out of the dock one of them a little dark bearded resolute fellow put the thoughts of himself and comrades into words as the ex-prisoners passed him you damned murderers he said we'll fix you yet End of chapter 4 chapter 5 of the valley of fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this LibriVox recording is in the public domain chapter 5 the darkest hour if anything had been needed to give an impetus to Jack McMurdo's popularity among his fellows it would have been his arrest and acquittal as the man on the very night of joining the lodge should have done something which brought him before the magistrate was a new record in the annals of the society already he had earned the reputation of a good boon companion a cheery reveler and with all a man of high temper who would not take an insult even from the all-powerful boss himself but in addition to this he impressed his comrades with the idea that among them all there was not one whose brain was so ready to devise a bloodthirsty scheme or whose hand would be more capable of carrying it out he'll be the boy for the clean job said the oldsters to one another and waited their time until they could set him to his work McGinty had instruments enough already but he recognized that this was a supremely able one he felt like a man holding a fierce bloodhound in leash there were curves to do the smaller work but some day he would slip this creature upon its prey a few members of the lodge Ted Baldwin among them resented the rapid rise of the stranger and hated him for it but they kept clear of him for he was as ready to fight as to laugh but if he gained favor with his fellows there was another quarter one which had become even more vital to him in which he lost it Etty Shafter's father would have nothing more to do with him nor would he allow him to enter the house Etty herself was too deeply in love to give him up altogether and yet her own good sense warned her of what would come from a marriage with a man who was regarded as a criminal one morning after a sleepless night she determined to see him possibly for the last time and made one strong endeavor to draw him from those evil influences which were sucking him down she went to his house as he had often begged her to do and made her way into the room which she used as his sitting room he was seated at a table with his back turned and a letter in front of him a sudden spirit of girlish mischief came over her she was still only nineteen he had not heard her when she pushed open the door now she tiptoed forward and laid her hand lightly upon his bended shoulders if she had expected to startle him she certainly succeeded but only in turn to be startled herself with a tiger spring he turned on her and his right hand was feeling for her throat at the same instant with the other hand he crumpled up the paper that lay before him for an instant he stood glaring then astonishment and joy took the place of the ferocity which had convulsed his features a ferocity which had sent her shrinking back in horror as from something which had never before intruded into her gentle life it's you said he, mopping his brow and to think that you should come to me heart of my heart and I should find nothing better to do than want to strangle you come then darling and he held out his arms let me make it up to you but she had not recovered from that sudden glimpse of guilty fear which she had read in the man's face all her woman's instinct told her that it was not the mere fright of a man who is startled guilt that was it guilt and fear what's come over you Jack she cried why are you so scared of me oh Jack, if your conscience was at ease you would not have looked at me like that sure I was thinking of other things when you came tripping so lightly on those fairy feet of yours no, no it was more than that Jack then a sudden suspicion seized her let me seize that letter you were writing ah, Etty, I couldn't do that her suspicions became certainties it's to another woman she cried I know it you told it from me was it to your wife that you were writing how am I to know that you are not married man you were a stranger that nobody knows I am not married Etty see now I swear it you're the only one woman on earth to me by the cross of Christ I swear it he was so white with passionate earnestness she could not but believe him well then she cried violin not show me the letter I'll tell you Akushla said he I'm under oath not to show it and just as I wouldn't break my word to you so I would keep it to those who hold my promise it's a business of the large and even to you it's a secret and if I was scared when a hand fell on me can't you understand it when it might have been the hand of a detective she felt that he was telling the truth he gathered her into his arms and kissed away her fears and doubts sit by me then it's a queer throne for such a queen but it's the best you poor lover can find he'll do better for you some of these days I'm thinking now your mind is easy once again is it not how can it ever be at ease Jack when I know that you are a criminal among criminals when I never know the day that I may hear you're in court for murder McMurdo the scourer that's what one of the borders called you yesterday it went through my heart like a knife sure hard words break no bones but they were true well dear it's not so bad as you think we are but poor men that are trying in our own way to get our rights Etty threw her arms around her lover's neck give it up Jack for my sake for God's sake give it up it was to ask you that I came here today oh Jack see I beg it off your my bended knees kneeling here before you I implore you to give it up he raised her and soothed her with her head against his breast sure my darlin you don't know what it is you're asking how could I give it up when it would be to break my oath and to desert my comrades if you could see how things stand with me you could never ask it of me besides if I wanted to how could I do it you don't suppose that the lodge would let a man go free with all its secrets I thought of that Jack I've planned it all father has saved some money he is weary of this place where the fear of these people darkens our lives he is ready to go we would fly together to Philadelphia or New York where we would be safe from them McMurdo laughed the lodge has a long arm do you think it could not stretch from here to Philadelphia or New York well then to the west or to England or to Germany where my father came from anywhere to get away from the valley of fear McMurdo thought of old brother Morris sure it is the second time I've heard the valley so named said he the shadow does indeed seem to lie heavy on some of you it darkens every moment of our lives do you suppose that Ted Baldwin has ever forgiven us if it were not that he fears you what do you suppose our chances would be if you saw the look in those dark hungry eyes of his when they fall on me by Gar I'd teach him better manners if I caught him at it but see here little girl I can't leave here I can't take that from me once and for all but if you'll leave me to find my own way I will try to prepare a way of getting honourably out of it there is no honour in such a matter well well it's just how you look at it but if you'll give me six months I'll work it so that I can leave without being ashamed to look others in the face the girl laughed with joy the six months she cried is it a promise well it may be seven or eight but within a year at the furthest we will leave the valley behind us it was the most that Etty could obtain and yet it was something there was this distant light to illuminate the gloom of the immediate future she returned to her father's house more light-hearted than she had ever been since Jack McMurdo had come into her life it might be thought that as a member all the doings of the society would be told to him but he was soon to discover that the organisation was wider and more complex than the simple lodge even Boss McGinty was ignorant as to many things for there was an official named the county delegate living at Hobson's patch farther down the line who had power over several different lodges which he wielded in a sudden and arbitrary way only once did McMurdo see him a sly little grey-haired rat of a man with a slinking gate and a side-long glance which was charged with malice Evans Pot was his name and even the great boss of Vermissa felt towards him something of the repulsion and fear which the huge Danton may have felt for the puny but dangerous Robespierre one day Scanlan who was McMurdo's fellow-border received a note from McGinty in closing one from Evans Pot which informed him that he was sending over two good men Lawler and Andrews who had instructions to act in the neighbourhood though it was best for the cause that no particulars as to their objects should be given would the bodymaster see to it that suitable arrangements be made for their lodgings and comfort until the time for action should arrive McGinty added that it was important McGinty added that it was impossible for anyone to remain secret at the Union House and that therefore he would be obliged if McMurdo and Scanlan would put the strangers up for a few days in their boarding-house The same evening the two men arrived each carrying his gripsack Lawler was an elderly man shrewd, silent and self-contained clad in an old black frock-coat Rich with his soft felt hat and ragged grizzled beard gave him a general resemblance to an itinerant preacher His companion Andrews was little more than a boy frank-faced and cheerful with the breezy manner of one who is out for a holiday and means to enjoy every minute of it Both men were total abstainers and behaved in all ways as exemplary members of the society with the one simple exception They were assassins who had often proved themselves to be most capable instruments for this association of murder Lawler had already carried out fourteen commissions of the kind and Andrews three They were, as McMurdo found quite ready to converse about their deeds in the past which they recounted with half-bashful pride of men who had done good and unselfish service for the community They were reticent, however as to the immediate job in hand They chose us because neither I nor the boy here drink, Lawler explained They can count on us saying no more than we should You must not take it amiss but it is the orders of the county delegate that we obey Sure, we are all in it together said Scanlon, McMurdo's mate as the four sat together at supper That's true enough and we'll talk till the end of the killing of Charlie Williams or of Simon Bird or any other job in the past but till the work is done we say nothing There are half-dozen about here that I have a word to say to said McMurdo with an oath I suppose it isn't Jack Knox of Ironhild that you're after I'd go some way to see him get his desserts No, it's not him yet or Herman Strauss No, nor him either Well, if you won't tell us we can't make you but I'd be glad to know Lawler smiled and shook his head He was not to be drawn In spite of the reticence of their guests Scanlon and McMurdo were quite determined to be present at what they called the fun When therefore at an early hour one morning McMurdo heard them creeping down He awakened Scanlon and the two hurried on their clothes When they were dressed they found that the others had stolen out leaving the door open behind them It was not yet dawn and by the light of the lamps they could see the two men some distance down the street They followed them warily treading noiselessly in the deep snow The boarding-house was near the edge of the town and soon they were at the crossroads which is beyond its boundary Here three men were waiting with whom Lawler and Andrews held a short, eager conversation Then they all moved on together It was clearly some notable job which needed numbers At this point there are several trails which lead to various mines The strangers took that which led to the Crow Hill A huge business which was in strong hands which had been able thanks to their energetic and fearless New England manager Josiah H. Dunn to keep some order and discipline during the long reign of terror Day was breaking now and a line of workmen were slowly making their way singly and in groups along the blackened path McMurdo and Scanlon strolled on with the others keeping in sight of the men whom they followed A thick mist lay over them and from the heart of it there came the sudden scream of a steam whistle It was the ten minute signal before the cages descended and the day's labour began When they reached the open space around the mineshaft there were a hundred miners waiting stamping their feet and blowing on their fingers for it was bitterly cold The strangers stood in a little group under the shadow of the engine house Scanlon and McMurdo climbed a heap of slag from which the whole scene lay before them They saw the mine engineer a great bearded Scotchman named Menzies come out of the engine house and blow his whistle for the cages to be lowered At the same instant a tall, loose-framed young man with a clean shaved, earnest face advanced eagerly towards the pithead As he came forward his eyes fell upon the group silent and motionless under the engine house The men had drawn down their hats and turned up their collars to screen their faces For a moment the presentiment of death laid its cold hand upon the manager's heart At the next he had shaken it off and saw only his duty towards intrusive strangers Who are you? he asked as he advanced What are you loitering there for? There was no answer but the lad Andrews stepped forward and shot him in the stomach The hundred waiting miners stood as motionless and helpless as if they were paralyzed The manager clapped his two hands to the wound and doubled himself up Then he staggered away but another of the assassins fired and he went down sideways kicking and clawing among a heap of clinkers Menzies, the Scotchman gave a roar of rage at the site and rushed with an iron spanner at the murderers but was met by two balls in the face which dropped him dead at their very feet There was a surge forward of some of the miners and an inarticulate cry of pity and of anger but a couple of the strangers emptied their six shooters over the heads of the crowd and they broke and scattered some of them rushing wildly back to their homes in Vermissa When a few of the bravest had rallied and there was a return to the mine the murderous gang had vanished in the mists of the morning without a single witness being able to swear to the identity of these men who in front of a hundred spectators had wrought this double crime Scanlan and McMurdo made their way back Scanlan somewhat subdued for it was the first murder job that he had seen with his own eyes and it appeared less funny than he had been led to believe The horrible screams of the dead manager's wife pursued them as they hurried to the town McMurdo was absorbed and silent but he showed no sympathy for the weakening of his companion Sure it is like a war he repeated What is it but a war between us and them and we hit back where we best can There was high revel in the lodge room at the Union House that night not only over the killing of the manager of the Crow Hill Mine which would bring this organization into line with the other blackmailed and terror-stricken companies of the district but also over a distant triumph which had been wrought by the hands of the lodge itself It would appear that when the county delegate had sent over five good men to strike a blow in Vermissa he had demanded that in return three Vermissa men should be secretly selected and sent across to kill William Hales of Stake Royal one of the best known and most popular mine owners in the Gilmerton district a man who was believed not to have an enemy in the world for he was in all ways a model employer he had insisted however upon efficiency in the work and had therefore paid off certain drunken and idle employees who were members of the all-powerful society coffin notices hung outside his door had not weakened his resolution and so in a free civilized country he found himself condemned to death the execution had now been duly carried out Ted Baldwin who sprawled now in the seat of honour beside the body-master had been chief of the party his flushed face and glazed bloodshot eyes told of the sleeplessness and drink he and his two comrades before among the mountains they were unkempt and weather-stained but no heroes returning from a forlorn hope could have had a warmer welcome from their comrades the story was told and retold amid cries of delight and shouts of laughter they had waited for their man as he drove home at nightfall taking their station at the top of a steep hill where his horse must be at a walk he was so furred to keep out the cold that he could not lay his hand on his pistol they had pulled him out and shot him again and again he had screamed for mercy the screams were repeated for the amusement of the lodge let's hear again how he squealed they cried none of them knew the man but there is eternal drama in a killing and they had shown the scourers of Gilmourton that the vermissa men were to be relied upon there had been one contra-tom for a man and his wife had driven up while they were still emptying their revolvers into the silent body it had been suggested that they should shoot them both but they were harmless folk who were not connected with the mines so they were sternly bidden to drive on and keep silent lest a worse thing befall them and so the blood-mottled figure had been left as a warning to all such hard-hearted employers and the three noble avengers had hurried off into the mountains where unbroken nature comes down to the very edge of the furnaces and the slag-heaps here they were safe and sound their work well done and the plaudits of their companions in their ears it had been a great day for the scourers the shadow had fallen even darker over the valley but as the wise general chooses the moment of victory in which to redouble his efforts so that his foes may have no time to steady themselves after disaster so Boss McGinty looking out upon the scene of his operations with his brooding and malicious eyes had devised a new attack upon those who opposed him that very night as the half-drunken company broke up he touched McMurdo on the arm and let him aside into that inner room where they had their first interview see here my lad said he I've got a job that's worthy of you at last you'll have the doing of it in your own hands proud I am to hear it McMurdo answered you can take two men with you Manders and Riley they have been warned for service we'll never be right in this district until Chester Wilcox has been settled and you'll have the thanks of every lodge in the coal fields if you can down him I'll do my best anyhow who is he and where shall I find him McGinty took his eternal half-chewed half-smoked cigar from the corner of his mouth and proceeded to draw a rough diagram on a page torn from his notebook he's the chief foreman of the iron-dike company he's a hard citizen an old color sergeant of the war all scars and gristle we've had two tries at him but had no luck and Jim Conaway lost his life over it now it's for you to take it over that's the house all alone at the iron-dike crossroad same as you see here on the map without another within earshot it's no good by day he's armed and shoots quick and straight with no questions asked but at night well here he is with his wife three children at a hired help you can't pick or choose it's all or none if you could get a bag of blasting powder at the front door with a slow match to it what's the man done didn't I tell you he shot Jim Conaway why did he shoot him what in thunder is that to do with you Conaway was about his house at night and he shot him that's enough for me and you to settle the thing right there's these two women and the children do they go up to they have to else how can we get him it seems hard on them but they've done nothing what sort of fools talk is this do you back out easy counselor easy what have I ever said or done that you should think I would be after standing back from an order of the bodymaster of my own lodge if it's right or if it's wrong it's for you to decide you'll do it then of course I'll do it when well you had best give me a night or two that I may see the house and make my plans then very good said McGinty shaking him by the hand I leave it with you it'll be a great day when you bring us the news it's just a last stroke that'll bring them all to their knees McMurdo thought long and deeply over the commission which had been so suddenly placed in his hands the isolated house in which Chester Wilcox lived was about five miles off in an adjacent valley that very night he started off all alone to prepare for the attempt it was daylight before he returned from his reconnaissance next day he interviewed his two subordinates Manders and Riley reckless youngsters who were as elated as if it were a deer hunt two nights later they met outside the town all three armed and one of them carrying a sack stuffed with the powder which was used in the quarries it was two in the morning before they came to the lonely house the night was a windy one with broken clouds drifting swiftly across the face of a three quarter moon they had been warned to be on their guard against bloodhounds so they moved forward cautiously with their pistols cocked in their hands but there was no sound save the howling of the wind and no movement but the swaying branches above them McMurdo listened at the door of the lonely house but all was still within then he leaned the powder bag against it, ripped a hole in it with his knife and attached the fuse in a well alight he and his two companions took to their heels and were some distance off safe and snug in a sheltering ditch before the shattering roar of the explosion with the low deep rumble of the collapsing building told them that their work was done no cleaner job had ever been carried out in the bloodstained annals of the society but alas that work so well organized and carried out should all have gone for nothing warned by the fate of the various victims and knowing that he was marked down for destruction Chester Wilcox had moved himself and his family only the day before to some safer and less known quarters where a guard of police should watch over them it was an empty house which had been torn down by the gunpowder and the grim old color sergeant of the war was still teaching discipline to the miners of Iron Dyke leave him to me said McMurdo he's my man and I'll get him sure if I have to wait a year for him a vote of thanks and confidence was passed in full lodge and so for the time the matter ended when a few weeks later it was reported in the papers that Wilcox had been shot at from an ambush gate it was an open secret work upon his unfinished job such were the methods of the society of free men and such were the deeds of the scourers by which they spread their rule of fear over the great and rich district which was for so long a period haunted by their terrible presence why should these pages be stained by further crimes how I not said enough to show the men and their methods these deeds are written in history and their records were in one may read the details of them there one may learn of the shooting of Policeman Hunt and Evans because they had ventured to arrest two members of the society a double outrage planned at the Vermissa Lodge and carried out in cold blood upon two helpless and disarmed men there also one may read of the shooting of Mrs. Larby when she was nursing her husband who had been beaten almost to death by orders of boss McGinty the killing of the elder Jenkins shortly followed by that of his brother the mutilation of James Murdoch the blowing up of the Staphouse family and the murder of the Stendles all followed hard upon one another in the same terrible winter darkly the shadow lay upon the valley of fear the spring had come with running brooks and blossoming trees there was hope for all nature bound so long in an iron grip but nowhere was there any hope for the men and women who lived under the yoke of the terror never had the cloud above them been so dark and hopeless as in the early summer of the year 1875 End of Chapter 5 Part 2 Chapter 6 of the Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 6 Danger It was the height of the reign of terror McMurdo had already been appointed in a deacon with every prospect of some day succeeding McGinty as bodymaster was now so necessary to the councils of his comrades that nothing was done without his help and advice the more popular he became however with the free men the blacker were the scowls who greeted him as he passed along the streets of Vermissa in spite of their terror the citizens were taking heart to band themselves together against their oppressors rumours had reached a lodge of secret gatherings in the herald office and of distribution of firearms among the law abiding people but McGinty and his men were undisturbed by such reports they were numerous resolute and well armed their opponents were scattered and powerless it would all end as it had done in the past in aimless talk and possibly in impotent arrests so said McGinty, McMurdo and all the bolder spirits it was a Saturday evening in May Saturday was always the lodge night and McMurdo was leaving his house to attend it when Morris the weaker brother of the order came to see him his brow was creased with care his face was drawn and haggard can I speak with you freely, Mr. McMurdo? sure I can't forget that I spoke my heart to you once and that you kept it to yourself even though the boss himself came to ask you about it what else could I do if you trusted me? it wasn't that I agreed with what she said I know that well but you are the one that I can speak to and be safe I've a secret here he put his hand to his breast and it is just burning the life out of me I wish it had come to any one of you but me if I tell it it will mean murder for sure if I don't it may bring the end of us all God help me but I am near out of my wits over it McMurdo looked at the man earnestly he was trembling in every limb he poured some whiskey into a glass and handed it to him that's the physic for the likes of you said he no, let me hear it Morris drank and his white face took a tinge of colour I can tell it to you all in one sentence said he there's a detective on our trail McMurdo stared at him in astonishment why man, you're crazy he said isn't the place full of police and detectives and what harm did they ever do us no, no, it's no man of the district as you say we know them and it is little that they can do but you've heard of Pinkerton's I've read some of folk of that name well you can take it from me you've no show when they are on your trail it's not a take it or miss it government concern it's a dead earnest business proposition that's out for results and keeps out till by the end it gets them if a Pinkerton man is deep in this business we're all destroyed we must kill him ah it's the first thought that came to you so it will be up at the lodge didn't I say to you that it would end in murder sure what is murder isn't it common enough in these parts it is indeed but it's not for me to point out the man that is to be murdered I'd never rest in peace if it is to be murdered I'd never rest easy again and yet it's our own necks that may be at stake in God's name what shall I do he rocked to and fro in his agony of indecision but his words had moved McMurdo deeply it was easy to see that he shared the other's opinion as to the danger and the need for meeting it he gripped Morris' shoulders and shook him in his earnestness see here man he cried and he almost screeched the words in his excitement he won't gain anything by sitting keening like an old wife at a week let's have the facts who is the fella, where is he how did you hear of him why did you come to me I came to you for you are the one man that would advise me I told you that I had a store in the east before I came here I left good friends behind me and one of them is in the telegraph service the letter that I had from him yesterday it's this part from the top of the page you can read it yourself this was what McMurdo read how are the scourers getting on in your parts we read plenty of them in the papers between you and me I expect to hear news from you before long five big corporations and the two railroads have taken the thing up in dead earnest they mean it and you can bet they'll get there they are right deep down into it Pinkerton has taken hold under their orders and his best man Birdie Edwards is operating the thing has got to be stopped right now now, read the proscript of course what I give you is what I learned in business so it goes no further it's a queer cipher that you handle by the yard every day and can get no meaning from McMurdo sat in silence for some time with a letter in his listless hands the mist had lifted for a moment and there was the abyss before him does anyone else know of this? he asked I have told no one else but this man your friend has he any other person that we would likely write to? well I dare say he knows one or two more of the lodge it's likely enough I was asking because it is likely that he may have given some description of this fellow Birdie Edwards then we could get on his trail well it's possible but I shouldn't think he knew him he's just telling me the news that came to him by way of business how would he know this Pinkerton man? McMurdo gave a violent start by Gar he cried I've got him what a fool I was not to know it we'll fix him before he can do any harm see here Morris will you leave this thing in my hands? sure if you will only take it off mine I'll do that you can stand right back and let me run it even your name need not be mentioned I'll take it all on myself as if it were to me that this letter has come will that content you? it's just what I would ask then leave it at that and keep your head shut now I'll get down to the lodge and we'll soon make old man Pinkerton sorry for himself you wouldn't kill this man? the less you know friend Morris the easier your conscience and the better you'll sleep ask no questions and let these things settle themselves I have hold of it now Morris shook his head sadly as he left I feel that his blood is on my hands he groaned self-protection is no murder anyhow said McMurdo smiling grimly it's him or us I guess this man would destroy us all if we left him long in the valley why brother Morris we'll have to elect you bodymaster yet for you've surely saved the lodge and yet it was clear from his actions that he thought more seriously of this new intrusion than his words would show it may have been his guilty conscience it may have been the reputation of the Pinkerton organization it may have been the knowledge that great rich corporations had set themselves the task of clearing out the scourers but whatever his reason his actions were those of a man who was preparing for the worst every paper which would incriminate him was destroyed before he left the house after that he gave a long sigh of satisfaction for it seemed to him that he was safe and yet the danger must still have pressed somewhat upon him for on his way to the lodge he stopped at old man's shafters the house was forbidden him but when he tapped at the window Etty came out to him the dancing Irish devilry had gone from her lover's eyes she read his danger in his earnest face something has happened she cried oh Jack you're in danger sure it is not very bad my sweet heart and yet it may be wise that we make a move before it's worse make a move I promised you once that I'd go some day I think the time is coming I had news tonight bad news and I see trouble coming as a police well a Pinkerton but sure you wouldn't know what that is a Kushler know what it would mean I'm too deep in this thing and I may have to get out of it quick you said you'd come with me if I went oh Jack it would be the saving of you I'm an honest man and some things Etty I wouldn't hurt a hair of your bonny head for all the world can give nor ever pull you down one inch from the golden throne above the clouds where I always see you would you trust me she put her hand in his without a word well then listen to what I say and do as I order you for indeed it's the only way for us things are going to happen in this valley I feel it in my bones there may be many of us that will have to look out for ourselves I'm one anyhow if I go by day or night it's you that must come with me I'd come after you Jack no no you should come with me if this valley is close to me and I can never come back how can I leave you behind and me perhaps in hiding from the police would never a chance of a message it's with me you must come I know a good woman in the place I come from and it's there I'd leave you till when we get married will you come yes Jack I will come God bless you for your trust in me it's a fiend out of hell that I should be if I abused it now mark you Etty it'll just be a word to you and when it reaches you you'll drop everything and come right down to the waiting room at the depot and stay there till I come for you day or night I'll come as a word Jack somewhat eased in mind now that his own preparations for escape had been begun McMurdo went on to the lodge it had already assembled and only by complicated signs and countersigns could he pass through the outer guard and inner guard who close-tiled it a buzz of pleasure and welcome greeted him as he entered the long room was crowded and through the haze of tobacco smoke he saw the tangled black mane of the bodymaster the cruel unfriendly features of Baldwin the vulture face of Harroway the secretary and a dozen more who were among the leaders of the lodge he rejoiced that they should all be there to take counsel over his news indeed it's glad we are to see you brother cried the chairman there's business here that wants a Solomon in judgment to set it right it's Lander and Egan explained his neighbour as he took his seat they both claimed the head money given by the lodge for the shooting of old man Crab over at Stiles Town and used to say which fired the bullet McMurdo rose in his place and raised his hand the expression of his face froze the attention of the audience there was a dead hush of expectation eminent bodymaster he said in a solemn voice I claim urgency brother McMurdo claims urgency said McGinty it's a claim that by the rules of this lodge takes precedence now brother we attend you McMurdo took the letter from his pocket eminent bodymaster and brethren he said I am the bearer of ill news this day but it is better that it should be known and discussed than that a blow should fall upon us without warning which would destroy us all I have information that the most powerful and richest organisations in this state have bound themselves together for our destruction and that at this very moment there is a Pinkerton detective one birdie Edwards at work in the valley collecting the evidence which may put a rope around the necks of many of us and send every man in this room into a felon's cell that is the situation for the discussion of which I have made a claim of urgency there was a dead silence in the room it was broken by the chairman what is your evidence for this brother McMurdo he asked it is in this letter which has come into my hands said McMurdo he read the passage aloud it is a matter of honour with me that I can give no further particulars about the letter nor put it into your hands but I assure you that there is nothing else in it which can affect the interests of the lodge I put the case before you as it has reached me let me say Mr Chairman said one of the older brethren that I have heard of birdie Edwards and that he has the name of being the best man in the Pinkerton service does anyone know him by sight asked McGinty yes, said McMurdo I do there was a murmur of astonishment through the hall I believe we hold him in the hollow of our hands he continued with an exulting smile upon his face if we act quickly and wisely we can cut this thing short if I have your confidence and your help it is a little that we have to fear what have we to fear anyhow what can he know of our affairs you might say so if all were as staunch as you, Councillor but this man has all the millions of the capitalists at his back do you think there is no weaker brother among all our lodges that could not be bought he will get at our secrets maybe has got them already there's only one sure cure that he never leaves the valley said Baldwin McMurdo nodded good for you, brother Baldwin you and I have had our differences but you've said the true word tonight where is he then where shall we know him eminent bodymaster said McMurdo earnestly I put it to you that this is too vital a thing for us to discuss in open lodge God forbid that I should throw a doubt on anyone here but if so much as a word of gossip got to the ears of this man there would be an end of any chance of our getting him I would ask the lodge to choose a trustee committee Mr Chairman, yourself if I might suggest it and brother Baldwin here and five more then I can talk freely of what I know and of what advice should be done the proposition was at once adopted and the committee chosen besides the Chairman and Baldwin there were the vulture-faced secretary, Harroway Tiger Cormac, the brutal young assassin Carter, the treasurer and the brothers Willoughby fearless and desperate men who would stick at nothing the usual revelry of the lodge was short and subdued for there was a cloud upon the men's spirits and many there for the first time began to see the cloud of avenging law drifting up in that serene sky under which they had dwelt so long the horrors they had dealt out to others had been so much a part of their settled lives that the thought of retribution had become a remote one and so seemed the more startling now that it came so closely upon them they broke up early and left their leaders to their council now McMurdo said McGinty when they were all alone the seven men sat frozen in their seats I said just now that I knew Birdie Edwards McMurdo explained I need not tell you that he is not here under that name he's a brave man but not a crazy one he passes under the name of Steve Wilson and he's lodging at Hobson's Patch how do you know this because I fell into talk with him at the time no one would have given it a second thought but for this letter but now I'm sure it's the man I met him on the cars when I went down the line on Wednesday a hard case if ever there was one he said he was a reporter I believed it for the moment wanted to know all he heard about the scourers and what he called the outrages for a New York paper asked me every kind of question so as to get something you bet I was giving nothing away I'd pay for it and pay well said he if I could get some stuff that would suit my editor I said what I thought would please him best and he handed me a $20 bill for my information there's ten times that for you said he if you can find me all that I want what did you tell him then any stuff I could make up how do you know he wasn't a newspaper man I'll tell you he got out at Hobson's Patch and so did I I chanced into the Telegraph Bureau and he was leaving it see here said the operator after he'd gone out I guess we could charge double rates for this I guess you should said I he'd filled the form with stuff that might have been Chinese for all we could make of it he fires a sheet of this off every day said the clerk yes said I special news for his paper and he's scared that others should tap it that was what the operator thought and what I thought at the time but I think differently now by gar I believe you're right said McGinty but what do you allow that we should do about it why not go right down now and fix him someone suggested the sooner the better I'd start this next minute where I could find him said McMurdo he's in Hobson's Patch but I don't know the house I've got a plan though if you'll only take my advice well what is it I'll go to the Patch tomorrow morning I'll find him through the operator he can locate him I guess well then I'll tell him that I'm a free man myself I'll offer him all the secrets of the lodge for a price I'll tumble to it I'll tell him the papers are at my house and that it's as much as my life would be worth to let him come while my folk were about he'll see that that's Hobson's let him come at ten o'clock at night and he shall see everything that will fetch him for sure well you can plan the rest for yourselves Widow Mackenna is a lonely house she's as true as steel and as deaf as a post there's only Scanlan and me in the house if I get his promise and I'll let you know if I do I'd have the whole seven of you come to me by nine o'clock we'll get him in if ever he gets out alive well he can talk of Birdie Edwards' luck for the rest of his days there's going to be a vacancy at Pinkerton's or I'm mistaken leave it at that, McMurdo at nine tomorrow we'll be with you once get the door shut behind him and you can leave the rest with us End of Chapter 6 Part 2, Chapter 7 of the Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Chapter 7 The Trapping of Birdie Edwards as McMurdo had said the house in which he lived was a lonely one and very well suited for such a crime as they had planned it was on the extreme fringe of the town and stood well back from the road in any other case the conspirators would have simply called out their man as they had many times before and emptied their pistols into his body but in this instance it was very necessary to find out how much he knew how he knew it and what had been passed on to his employers it was possible that he would be too late and that the work had been done if that was indeed so they could at least have their revenge upon the man who had done it but they were hopeful that nothing of great importance had yet come to the detective's knowledge as otherwise they argued he would not have trouble to write down and forward such trivial information as McMurdo claimed to have given him however all this they would learn from his own lips once in their power they would find a way to make him speak it was not the first time that they had handled an unwilling witness McMurdo went to Hobson's patch as agreed the police seemed to take particular interest in him that morning and Captain Marvin he who had claimed the old acquaintance with him at Chicago actually addressed him as he waited at the station McMurdo turned away and refused to speak with him in the afternoon and saw McGinty at the Union House he is coming he said good said McGinty the giant was in his shirt sleeves with chains and seals gleaming a thwart his ample waistcoat and a diamond twinkling through the fringe of his bristling beard drink and politics had made the boss a very rich as well as powerful man the more terrible therefore there was that glimpse of the prison or the gallows which had risen before him the night before do you reckon he knows much he asked anxiously McMurdo shook his head gloomily he has been here some time six weeks at least I guess he didn't come into these parts to look at the prospect if he's been working among us all that time with the real-world money at his back I should expect that he's got results and that he's passed them on there's not a weak man in the lodge cried McGinty true as steel every man of them and yet by the Lord there is that skunk Morris what about him if any man gives us away would be he I have a mind to send a couple of the boys round before evening to give him a beating up and see what they can get from him well there would be no harm in that McMurdo answered I deny that I have a liking for Morris and would be sorry to see him come to harm he's spoken to me once or twice over lodge matters I know he may not see them the same as you or I he never seemed the sort that squeals but still this is not for me to stand between him and you I'll fix the old devil said McGinty with an oath I've had my eye on him this year past well you know best about that McMurdo answered but whatever you do must be tomorrow for we must lie low until the Pinkerton affair is settled up we can't afford to set the police buzzing today of all days true for you said McGinty and will learn from Birdie Edwards himself where he got his news if we have to cut his heart out first did he seem to send to trap McMurdo laughed I guess I took him on his weak point he said if he could get on a good trail of the scourers he's ready to follow it into hell I took his money McMurdo grinned as he produced a wad of dollar notes and there's much more when he's seen all my papers what papers well there are no papers but I filled him up about constitutions and books of rules and forms of membership he expects to get right down to the end of everything before he leaves faith he's right there said McGinty grimly didn't he ask you why you didn't bring him the papers as if I would carry such things and me a suspected man and Captain Marvin after speaking to me this very day at the depot I heard of that said McGinty I guess the heavy end of this business is coming on to you we could put him down an old shaft when we've done with him we can't get past the man living at Hobson's Patch and you being there today McMurdo shrugged his shoulders if we handle it right they can never prove the killing said he no one can see him come to the house after dark and I'll lay to it that no one will see him go now see here counsellor I'll show you my plan and I'll ask you to fit the others into it you'll all come in good time very well he comes at ten he's to tap three times and me to open the door for him then I'll get behind him and shut it he's our man then that's all easy and plain yes but the next step once considering he's a hard proposition he's heavily armed I filled him proper and yet he's likely to be on his guard suppose I show him right into a room there's seven men in it where he expected to find me alone there's going to be shooting and somebody is going to be hurt that's so and the noise is going to bring every damned copper in the township on top of it I guess you're right this is how I should work it you'll all be in the big room same as you saw when you had a chat with me I'll open the door for him show him into the parlour beside the door and leave him there while I get the papers that will give me the chance of telling you how things are shaping then I'll go back to him with some faked papers as he's reading them I'll jump for him and get my grip on his pistol arm you'll hear me call and in you'll rush the quicker the better for he's as strong a man as I and I may have more than I can manage but I'll allow that I can hold him till you come it's a good plan said McGinty the lodge will owe you a debt for this I guess when I move out of the chair I can put a name to the man that's coming after me sure, Councillor I'm little more than a recruit said McMurdo but his face showed what he thought of the great man's compliment when he'd returned home he made his own preparations for the grim evening in front of him first he cleaned oiled and loaded his smith and wesson revolver then he surveyed the room in which the detective was to be trapped it was a large apartment with a long deal table in the centre and the big stove at one side at each of the other sides were windows there were no shutters on these only light curtains which drew across McMurdo examined these attentively it must have struck him that the apartment was very exposed for so secret a meeting yet its distance from the road made it of less consequence finally he discussed the matter with his fellow lodger Scanlon, though a scourer was an inoffensive little man who was too weak to stand against the opinion of his comrades but was secretly horrified by the deeds of blood of which he had sometimes been forced to assist McMurdo told him shortly what was intended and if I were you, Mike Scanlon I would take a night off and keep clear of it there would be bloody work here before morning well indeed then Mack, Scanlon answered it's not the will but the nerve that is wanting in me when I saw manager Dunn go down at the colliery yonder it was just more than I could stand I'm not made for it same as you or McGinty if the lodge will think it's not the worst of me I'll just do as you advise and leave you to yourselves for the evening the men came in good time as arranged they were outwardly respectable citizens well-clad and cleanly but a judge of faces would have read little hope for Birdie Edwards in those hard mouths and remorseless eyes there was not a man in the room whose hands had not been reddened a dozen times before he was sent to human murder as a butcher to sheep foremost of course both in appearance and in guilt was the formidable boss Haraway the secretary was a lean bitter man with a long scraggy neck and nervous jerky limbs a man of incorruptible fidelity where the finances of the order were concerned and with no notion of justice or honesty to anyone beyond Treasurer Carter was a middle-aged man with an impassive rather sulky expression and a yellow parchment skin he was a capable organiser and the actual details of nearly every outrage had sprung from his plotting brain the two Willoughbys were men of action tall, lithe young fellows with determined faces while their companion, Tiger Cormack a heavy dark youth was feared even by his own comrades for the ferocity of his disposition these were the men who assembled that night under the roof of McMurdo for the killing of the Pinkerton detective their host had placed whiskey upon the table and they had hastened to prime themselves for the work before them Baldwin and Cormack were already half drunk and the liquor had brought out all their ferocity Cormack placed his hands on the stove for an instant it had been lighted for the nights were still cold that will do said he with an oath I said Baldwin catching his meaning if he is strapped to that we'll have the truth out of him we'll have the truth out of him never fear said McMurdo he had nerves of steel this man for though the whole weight of the affair was on him his manner was as cool and concerned as ever the others marked it and applauded you are the one to handle him said the boss approvingly not a warning will he get till your hand is on his throat it's a pity there are no shutters to your windows McMurdo went from one to the other and drew the curtains tighter sure no one can spy upon us now it's close upon the hour maybe he won't come maybe he'll get a sniff of danger said the secretary he'll come never fear, McMurdo answered he is as eager to come as you can be to see him hark to that they all sat like wax figures some with their glasses arrested half way to their lips three loud knocks had sounded at the door hush! McMurdo raised his hand in caution an exulting glance went round the circle and hands were laid upon their weapons not a sound for your lives McMurdo whispered as he went from the room closing the door carefully behind him with strained ears the murderers waited they counted the steps of their comrade down the passage then they heard him open the outer door there were a few words as of a greeting then they were aware of a strange step inside and of an unfamiliar voice an instant later came the slam of the door and the turning of the key in the lock their prey was safe within the trap Tiger Cormack laughed horribly and Boss McGinty clapped his great hand across his mouth be quiet you fool he whispered you'll be the undoing of us yet there was a mutter of conversation from the next room it seemed interminable then the door opened and McMurdo appeared his finger upon his lip he came to the end of the table and looked round at them a subtle change had come over him his manner was as of one whose great work to do his face had set into granite firmness his eyes shone with a fierce excitement behind his spectacles he had become a visible leader of men they stared at him with eager interest but he said nothing still with the same singular gaze he looked from man to man well cried Boss McGinty at last is he here? is Birdie Edwards here? yes McMurdo answered slowly Birdie Edwards is here I am Birdie Edwards there were ten seconds after that brief speech during which the room might have been empty so profound was the silence the hissing of a kettle upon the stove rose sharp and strident to the ear seven white faces all turned upward to this man who dominated them were set motionless with utter terror then with a sudden shivering of glass a bristle of glistening rifle-barrels broke through each window while the curtains were torn from their hangings at the sight Boss McGinty gave the roar of a wounded bear and plunged for the half-open door a leveled revolver met him there with the stern blue eyes of Captain Marvin of the mine-police gleaming behind the sights the boss recoiled and fell back into his chair you're safer there, counselor you're safe you're safe you're safer there, counselor said the man whom they had known as McMurdo and you, Baldwin if you don't take your hand off your pistol you'll cheat the hangman yet pull it out or by the law that made me there, that will do there are forty armed men round this house and you can figure it out for yourself what chance you have take the pistols, Marvin there was no possible resistance under the menace of those rifles the men were disarmed sulky, sheepish and amazed they still sat round the table I'd like to say a word to you before we separate said the man who had trapped them I guess we may not meet again until you see me on the stand in the courthouse I'll give you something to think over between now and then you know me now for what I am at last I can put my cards on the table I am Birdie Edwards of Pinkerton's I was chosen to break up your gang I had a hard and dangerous game to play not a soul not one soul not my nearest and dearest knew that I was playing it only Captain Marvin here and my employers knew that but it's over tonight, thank God and I am the winner seven pale, rigid faces looked up at him there was unappeasable hatred in their eyes he read the relentless threat maybe you think that the game is not over yet well I take my chance of that anyhow some of you will take no further hand and there are sixty more besides yourselves that will see a jail this night I'll tell you this that when I was put upon this job I never believed I was such a society as yours I thought it was paper talk and that I would prove it so they told me it was to do with the free men so I went to Chicago and was made one then I was sureer than ever that it was just paper talk for I found no harm in the society but a deal of good still I had to carry out my job and then I came to the coal valleys when I reached this place I learned that I was wrong and that it wasn't a dime novel after all so I stayed to look after it I never killed a man in Chicago I never minted a dollar in my life those I gave you were as good as any others but I never spent money better but I knew the way into your good wishes and so I pretended to you that the law was after me it all worked just as I thought so I joined your infernal lodge and I took my share in your councils maybe they will say that I was as bad as you they can say what they like so long as I get you but what is the truth? the night I joined you beat up old man Stanger I could not warn him for there was no time but I held your hand Baldwin when you would have killed him if ever I've suggested things so as to keep my place among you they were things which I knew I could prevent I could not save Dunn and Menzies for I did not know enough but I will see that their murders are hanged I gave Chester Wilcox warning so that when I blew his house in he and his folk were in hiding there was many a crime that I could not stop but if you look back and think how often your man came home the other road or was down in town when you went for him or stayed indoors when you thought he would come out you'll see my work you blasted traitor hissed McGinty through his closed teeth Hi John McGinty Hi John McGinty you may call me that if it eases your smart you and your like have been the enemy of God and man in these parts it took a man to get between you and the poor devils of men and women that you held under your grip there was just one way of doing it and I did it you call me a traitor but I guess there's many a thousand will call me a deliverer that went down into hell to save them I've had three months of it I wouldn't have three such months again if they let me loose in the treasury of Washington for it I had to stay till I had it all every man and every secret right here in this hand I'd have waited a little longer if it hadn't come to my knowledge that my secret was coming out a letter had come into the town that would have set you wise to it all then I had to act and act quickly I've nothing more to say to you except that when my time comes I'll die the easier when I think of the work I've done in this valley now Marvin I'll keep you no more take them in and get it over there is little more to tell Scanlon had been given a sealed note to be left at the address of Miss Etty Shafter a mission which she had accepted with a wink and a knowing smile in the early hours of the morning a beautiful woman and a much muffled man boarded a special train which had been sent by the railroad company and made a swift, unbroken journey out of the land of danger it was the last time that ever either Etty or her lover set foot in the valley of fear ten days later they were married in Chicago with old Jacob Shafter as witness of the wedding the trial of the scourers was held far from the place where their adherents might have terrified the guardians of the law in vain they struggled in vain the money of the lodge money squeezed by blackmail out of the whole countryside was spent like water in the attempt to save them that cold, clear unimpassioned statement from one who knew every detail of their lives their organization and their crimes was unshaken by all the wiles of their defenders at last after so many years that they were broken and scattered the cloud was lifted forever from the valley McGinty met his fate upon the scaffold cringing and whining when the last hour came eight of his chief followers shared his fate fifty odd had various degrees of imprisonment the work of Birdie Edwards was complete and yet as he had guessed the game was not over yet there was another hand to be played and yet another and another Ted Baldwin for one had escaped the scaffold so had the Willoughbys so had several others of the fiercest spirits of the gang for ten years they were out of the world and then came a day when they were free once more a day which Edwards who knew his men was very sure would be an end of his life of peace they had sworn an oath on all that they thought holy to have his blood as a vengeance for their comrades and well they strove to keep their vow from Chicago he was chased after two attempts so near success that it was sure that the third would get him from Chicago he went under a change name to California and it was there that the light went for a time out of his life when Etty Edwards died once again he was nearly killed and once again under the name of Douglas he worked in a lonely canyon where with an English partner named Barker he amassed a fortune at last there came a warning to him that the bloodhounds were on his track once more and he cleared only just in time for England there came the John Douglas who for a second time married a worthy mate and lived for five years as a Sussex County gentleman a life which ended with the strange happenings of which we have heard End of Chapter 7 Epilogue the police trial had passed in which the case of John Douglas was referred to a higher court so had the quarter sessions enacted in self-defence get him out of England at any cost wrote Holmes to the wife there are forces here which may be more dangerous than those he has escaped there is no safety for your husband in England two months had gone by and the case had to some extent passed from our minds then one morning there came an enigmatic note slipped into our letter box Holmes, dear me, said this singular epistle there was neither a superscription nor signature I laughed at the quaint message but Holmes showed unwonted seriousness devilry Watson he remarked and sat long with a clouded brow late last night Mrs. Hudson, our landlady brought up a message that a gentleman wished to see Mr. Holmes and that the matter was of the utmost importance close to the heels of his messenger came Cecil Barker our friend of the moted manor-house his face was drawn and haggard I've had bad news terrible news, Mr. Holmes said he I feared as much, said Holmes you have not had a cable, have you? I have had a note from someone who has it's poor Douglas they tell me his name is Edwards but he will always be Jack Douglas of Benito Canyon to me I told you that they started together for South Africa in the Palmyra three weeks ago exactly the ship reached Cape Town last night I received this cable from Mrs. Douglas this morning Jack has been lost overboard in Gailoff St. Helena no one knows how accident occurred Ivy Douglas ah it came like that did it, said Holmes thoughtfully well I've no doubt it was well stage managed you mean that you think there was no accident? none in the world he was murdered? surely so I think also these infernal scourers this cursed vindictive nest of criminals no no my good sir said Holmes there is a master hand here it is no case of sword-off shotguns and clumsy six-shooters you can tell an old master by the sweep of his brush I can tell a Moriarty when I see one this crime is from London not from America but for what motive? because it is done by a man who cannot afford to fail one whose whole unique position depends upon the fact that all he does must succeed a great brain and a huge organization have been turned to the extinction of one man it is crushing the nut with the trip hammer an absurd extravagance of energy but the nut is very effectually crushed all the same how came this man to have anything to do with it? I can only say that the first word that ever came to us of the business was from one of his lieutenants these Americans were well advised having an English job to do they took into partnership as any foreign criminal could do this great consultant in crime from that moment their man was doomed at first he would content himself by using his machinery in order to find their victim then he would indicate how the matter might be treated finally when he read in the reports of the failure of this agent he would step in himself with a master touch you heard me warn this man at Burlston Manor House that the coming danger was greater than the past was I right? Barker beat his head with his clenched fist in his impotent anger do not tell me that we have to sit down under this do you say that no one can ever get level this king devil? no I don't say that said Holmes and his eyes seem to be looking far into the future I don't say that he can't be beat but you must give me time you must give me time we all sat in silence for some minutes while those fateful eyes still strained to pierce the veil end of the epilogue end of the last valley by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle read by David Clark bgdavid.wordpress.com and www.bgcoffee.net thank you for listening