 Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle The Men with the Watches This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Marta Kornowska Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle The Men with the Watches There are many who will still bear in mind the singular circumstances which under the heading of the rugby mystery filled many columns of the daily press in the spring of the year 1892. Coming as it did, at a period of exceptional dullness, it attracted perhaps rather more attention than it deserved, but it offered to the public that mixture of the whimsical and the tragic which is most stimulating to the popular imagination. Interest dropped, however, when after weeks of fruitless investigation it was found that no final explanation of the facts was forthcoming and the tragedy seemed from that time to the present to have finally taken its place in the dark catalogue of inexplicable and unexpeated crimes. A recent communication, the authenticity of which appears to be a both question, has, however, thrown some new and clear light upon the matter. Before laying it before the public, it would be as well perhaps that I should refresh their memories as to the singular facts upon which this commentary is founded. These facts were briefly as follows. At five o'clock on the evening of the 18th of March, in the year already mentioned, a train left Euston Station for Manchester. It was a rainy squaly day which grew wilder as it progressed, so it was by no means the weather in which anyone would travel who was not driven to do so by necessity. The train, however, is a favorite one among Manchester businessmen who are returning from town for it does the journey in four hours and twenty minutes with only three stop pages upon the way. In spite of the inclement evening it was, therefore fairly well filled upon the occasion of which I speak. The guard of the train was the trite servant of the company, a man who had worked for twenty-two years without a blemish or complaint. His name was John Palmer. The station clock was upon the stroke of five and the guard was about to give the customary signal to the engine driver when he observed two belated passengers hurrying down the platform. The one was an exceptionally tall man dressed in a long black overcoat with a streak and color and caps. I have already said that the evening was an inclement one and the tall traveler had the high, warm color turned up to protect his throat against the bitter March wind. He appeared as far as the guard could judge by so horrid an inspection to be a man between fifty and sixty years of age who had retained a good deal of the vigor and activity of his youth. In one hand he carried a brown leather gladstone bag. His companion was a lady, tall and erect, walking with a vigorous step which outpaced the gentleman beside her. She wore a long, phone-colored dust cloak, a black clothes-feeding toque and a dark veil which concealed the greater part of her face. The two might very well have passed as father and daughter. They walked swiftly down the line of carriages, glancing in at the windows until the guard John Palmer overtook them. Now, then, sir, look sharp, the train is going, said he. First class the man answered. The guard turned the handle of the nearest door. In the carriage which he had opened there sat a small man with a cigar in his mouth. His appearance seemed to have impressed itself upon the guard's memory, for he was prepared afterwards to describe or to identify him. He was a man of thirty-four or thirty-five years of age dressed in some grey material, sharp-nosed, alert, with a ruddy weather-beaten face and a small, closely cropped black bird. He glanced up as the door was opened. The tall man posed with his foot upon the step. This is a smoking compartment. The lady dislikes smoke, said he, looking ground at the guard. All right, here you are, sir, said John Palmer. He slammed the door of the smoking carriage, opened that of the next one which was empty and trussed the two travelers in. At the same moment he sounded his whistle and the wheels of the train began to move. The man with the cigar was at the window of his carriage and said something to the guard as he rolled past him, but the words were lost in the bustle of the departure. Palmer stepped into the guard's van as it came up to him and taught no more of the incident. 12 minutes after his departure, the train reached Will's Den junction where it stopped for a very short interval. An examination of the tickets has made it certain that no one either joined or left it at this time and no passenger was seen to alight upon the platform. At 5.14 the journey to Manchester was resumed and Dragby was reached at 6.50, the express being five minutes late. Dragby the attention of the station officials was drawn to the fact that the door of one of the first class carriages was open. An examination of that compartment and of its neighbor disclosed a remarkable state of affairs. The smoking carriage in which the short red-faced man with the black bird had been seen was now empty. Saved for a half-smoked cigar, there was no trace whatever of its recent occupant. Part of this carriage was fastened. In the next compartment, to which attention had been originally drawn, there was no sign either of the gentleman with the astrakhan collar or of the young lady who accompanied him. All three passengers had disappeared. On the other hand, there was found upon the floor of this carriage the one in which the tall traveller and the lady had been, a young man fashionably dressed and of elegant appearance. He lay with his knees drawn up and his head resting against the farther door and elbow upon either seat. A bullet had penetrated his heart and his death must have been instantaneous. No one had seen such a man enter the train and no railway ticket was found in his pocket. Neither were there any markings upon his lining, nor papers, nor personal property which might help to identify him. Who he was, whence he had come and how he had met his end were each as great a mystery as what had occurred to the three people who had started an hour and a half before from Wilsden in those two compartments. I have said that there was no personal property which might help to identify him, but it is true that there was one peculiarity about this unknown young man which was much commented upon at the time. In his pockets were found no fewer than six valuable gold watches, three in the various pockets of his waistcoat, one in his ticket pocket and one in his breast pocket and one small one set in a leather strap and fastened around his left wrist. The obvious explanation that the man was a pickpocket and that this was his plunder was discounted by the fact that all six were of American make and of a type which is rare in England. Three of them bore the mark of the Rochester watchmaking company. One was by Mason of Elmira, one was unmarked and the small one which was highly jeweled and ornamented was from Tiffany of New York. The other contents of his pocket consisted of an ivory knife and a corkscrew by Roders of Sheffield, a small circular mirror, one inch in diameter, a readmission to sleep to the Lisium Theater, a silver box full of Vesta matches and a brown leather cigar case containing two cheeryts, also two pounds, 14 shillings in money. It was clear then that whatever motives may have led to his death, robbery was not among them. As already mentioned, there were two markings upon the man's linen which appeared to be new and no teller's name upon his coat. In appearance, he was young, short, smooth, cheeked and delicately featured. One of his front teeth was conspicuously stuffed with gold. On the discovery of the tragedy, an examination was instantly made of the tickets of all passengers and the number of the passengers themselves was counted. Three tickets were unaccounted for, corresponding to the three travelers who were missing. The express was then allowed to proceed but the new guard was sent with it and John Palmer was detained as a witness at Rugby. The carriage which included the two compartments in question was uncoupled and sidetracked. Then, on the arrival of Inspector Vane of Scotland Yard and of Mr. Henderson, a detective in the service railway company, an exhaustive inquiry was made into all the circumstances. That crime had been committed was certain. The bullet, which appeared to have come from a small pistol or revolver, had been fired from some little distance as there was no scorching of the clothes. No weapon was found in the compartment which finally disposed of the theory of suicide nor was there any sign of the brown leather bag which the cart had seen in the hand of the tall gentleman. A lady's parasol was found upon the wreck but no other trace was to be seen of the travelers in either of the sections. Apart from the crime, the question of how or why three passengers, one of them a lady could get out of the train and one other get in during the unbroken run between Wilson and Rugby was one which excited at most curiosity among the general public and gave rise to much speculations in the London press. Don Palmer, the guard, was able at the inquest to give some evidence which threw a little light upon the matter. There was a spot between Trink and Cheddington according to his statement where on account of some repairs to the line the train had for a few minutes slowed down to a pace not exceeding 8 or 10 miles an hour. At that place it might be possible for a man or even for an exceptionally active woman to have left the train without serious injury. It was true that a gang of plate-layers was there and that they had seen nothing but it was their custom to stand in the middle between the metals and the open carriage door was upon the far side so that it was conceivable that someone might have alighted unseen as the darkness would by that time be drawing in. A steep embankment would instantly screen anyone who sprang out from the observation of the navies. The guard also deposed that there was a good deal of movement upon the platform at Wilson Junction and that though it was certain that no one had either joined or left the train there it was still quite possible that some of the passengers might have changed unseen from one compartment to another. It was by no means uncommon for a gentleman to finish his cigar in a smoking carriage and then to change to a clearer atmosphere. Supposing that the man with the black beard had done so at Wilson and the half-smoked cigar upon the floor seemed to favor this position he would naturally go into the nearest section which would bring him into the company of the two other actors in this drama. As the first stage of the affair might be surmised without any great breach of probability but what the second stage had been or how the final one had been arrived at neither the guard nor the experienced detective officers could suggest. A careful examination of the line between Whalesden and Rugby resulted in one discovery which might or might not have a bearing upon the tragedy. Near Thring at the very place where the train slowed down there was found at the bottom of the embankment a small pocket testament very shapey and worn. It was printed by the Bible Society of London and borne an inscription. From John to Alice January the 13th, 1856 upon the flyleaf underneath was written James, July the 14th, 1859 and beneath that again Edward, November the 1st, 1869 all the entries being in the same handwriting this was the only clue if it could be called a clue which the police obtained and the coroners verdict of murder by a person or persons unknown was the unsatisfactory ending of a singular case. Advertisements, rewards and inquires proved equally fruitless and could be found which was solid enough to form the basis for a profitable investigation. It would be a mistake however to suppose that no theories were formed to account for the facts. On the contrary the press both in England and in America teamed with suggestions and suppositions most of which were obviously absurd. The fact that the watches were of American make and some peculiarities in connection with the gold stopping of his front tooth appears to indicate that the deceased was a citizen of the United States though his linens, clothes and boots were undoubtedly of British manufacture. It was surmised by some that he was concealed under the seat and that being discovered he was for some reason possibly because he had overheard their guilty secrets put to death by his fellow passengers. When coupled with generalities as to the fur city and cunning of anarchical and other secret societies this theory sounded as plausible as any. The fact that he should be without the ticket would be consistent with the idea of concealment and it was well known that women played a prominent part in the nihilistic propaganda. On the other hand it was clear from the guards statement that the men must have been hidden there before the others arrived and how unlikely the coincidence that conspirators should stray exactly into the very compartment in which a spy was already concealed. Besides this explanation ignored the man in the smoking carriage and gave no reason at all for his simultaneous disappearance. The police had little difficulty in showing that such a theory would not cover the facts but they were unprepared for evidence to advance any alternative explanation. There was a letter in the Daily Gazette over the signature of a well known criminal investigator which gave rise to considerable discussion at the time. He had formed a hypothesis which had at least ingenuity to recommend it and I cannot do better than append it in his own words. Whatever may be the truth said he was against upon some bizarre and rare combination of events so we need have no hesitation in postulating such events in our explanation. In the absence of data we must abandon the analytic or scientific method of investigation and must approach it in the synthetic fashion. In a word, instead of taking known events and deducing from them what has occurred we must build up a fanciful explanation if it will only be consistent with known events. We can then test this explanation by any fresh facts which may arise. If they all fit into their places the probability is that we are upon the right track and with each fresh fact this probability increases in a geometrical progression until the evidence becomes final and convincing. Now there is one most remarkable and suggestive fact which has not met with the attention which it deserves. There is a local train running through Harrow and King's Langley which is timed in such a way that each express must have overtaken it at or about the period when it is down its speed to 8 miles an hour on account of the repulse of the line. The two trains would at that time be travelling in the same direction at a similar rate of speed and upon parallel lines. It is within everyone's experience how under such circumstances the occupant of each carriage can see very plainly the passengers in the other carriages opposite to him. The lamps of the express had been lit at Wilsden so that each compartment was brightly illuminated and most visible to an observer from outside. Now the sequence of events as I reconstruct them would be after this fashion. This young man with the abnormal number of watches was alone in the carriage of the slow train. His ticket with his papers and gloves and other things was, we will suppose, on the seat beside him. He was probably an American and also probably a man of weak intellect. The excessive wearing of jewellery is an early symptom in some forms of mania. As he set watching the carriages of the express which were on account of the state of the line going at the same pace as himself he suddenly saw some people in it whom he knew. He was opposed for the sake of our theory that these people were a woman whom he loved and a man whom he hated and who in return hated him. The young man was excitable and impulsive. He opened the door of his carriage, stepped from the footboard of the local train to the footboard of the express, opened the other door and made his way into the presence of these two people. The feat on this position that the trains were going at the same pace is by no means so perilous as it might appear. Having now got our young man without his ticket into the carriage in which the elder man and the young woman are travelling it is not difficult to imagine that the violent scene ensued. It is possible that the power also Americans which is the more probable as the man carried a weapon and unusual thing in England. If our supposition of incipient mania is correct the young man is likely to have assaulted the other. As the upshot of the quarrel the elder man shot the intruder and then made his escape from the carriage taking the young lady with him. We will suppose that all this happened very rapidly and that the train was still going at so slow a pace that it was not difficult for them to leave it. A woman might leave a train going at 8 miles an hour. As a matter of fact we know that this woman did do so. And now we have to fit in the man in the smoking carriage presuming that we have up to this point reconstructed the tragedy correctly we shall find nothing in this other man to cause us to reconsider our conclusions. According to my theory this man saw the young fellow cross from one train to the other saw him open the door heard the pistol shot saw the two fugitives spring out onto the line realized that murder had been done and spring out himself in pursuit. Why he has never been heard of since whether he met his own death in the pursuit or whether as is more likely he was made to realize that it was not the case for his interference it's a detail which we have at present no means of explaining. I acknowledge that there are some difficulties in the way at first sight it might seem improbable that at such a moment a murderer would burden himself in his flight with a brown leather bag. My answer is that he was well aware that if the bag were found his identity would be established it was absolutely necessary for him to take it with him. My theory stands or falls upon one point and I call upon the railway company to make strict inquiry as to whether a ticket was found and claimed in the local train through Harrow and King's Langley upon the 18th of March. If such a ticket were found my case is proved. If not my theory may still be the correct one for it is conceivable either that he traveled without a ticket or that his ticket was lost. To this elaborate and plausible hypothesis the answer of the police and of the company was first that no such ticket was found secondly that the slow train would never run parallel to the express and thirdly that the local train had been stationary in King's Langley station when the express going at 50 miles an hour had flashed past it. So perished the only satisfying explanation and five years have elapsed without supplying a new one. Now at last there comes a statement which covers all the facts and which must be regarded as authentic. It took the shape of a letter dated from New York and addressed to the same criminal investigator whose theory I have quoted. It is given here in extensive with the exception of the two opening paragraphs which are personal in their nature. You'll excuse me if I'm not very free with names. There's less reason now than there was five years ago when mother was still living. But for all that I had rather cover up our tracks all I can. But I owe you an explanation for if your idea of it was wrong it was a mighty ingenious one all the same. I'll have to go back a little so as you may understand all about it. My people came from Bucks, England and immigrated to the states in the early 50s. They settled in Rochester in the state of New York where my father ran a large dry goods store. There were only two sons James and my brother Edward. I was ten years older than my brother and after my father died I sort of took the place of a father to him as an elder brother would. He was a bright, spirited boy and just one of the most beautiful creatures that ever lived. But there was always a soft spot in him and it was like mold in cheese for it spread and spread and nothing that you could do would stop it. Mother saw it just as clearly as I did but she went unspoiling him all the same for he had such a way with him that you could refuse him nothing. I did all I could to hold him in and he hated me for my pains. At last he fairly got his head and nothing that we could do would stop him. He got off into New York and went rapidly from bad to worse. At first he was only fast and then he was criminal and then at the end of a year or two he was one of the most notorious young crooks in the city. He had formed a friendship with Sparrow McCoy who was at the head of his profession as a Banco Steerer, Green Goodsman and General Rascal. They took to cart-sharping and frequented some of the best hotels in New York. My brother was an excellent actor. He might have made an honest name for himself if he had chosen and he would take the parts of a young Englishman of title of a simple lad from the west or of a college undergraduate whichever suited Sparrow McCoy's purpose. And then one day he dressed himself as a girl and he carried it off so well and made himself such a valuable decoy that it was their favorite game afterwards. They had made it right with Tammany and with the police so it seemed as if nothing could ever stop them for those were in the days before the Lexo Commission and if you only had a pull you could do pretty nearly everything you wanted. And nothing would have stopped them if they had only stuck to carts in New York but they must needs come approached away and forge a name upon a check. It was my brother that did it though everyone knew that it was under the influence of Sparrow McCoy. I bought up that check and a pretty summit cost me. Then I went to my brother, laid it before him on the table and swore to him that I would prosecute if he did not clear out of the country. At first he simply left. I could not prosecute, he said, without breaking our mother's heart and he knew that I would not do that. I made him understand, however, that our mother's heart was being broken in any case and that I had set firm on the point that I would rather see him in Rochester go than in a New York hotel. But at last he gave in and he made me a solemn promise that he would see Sparrow McCoy no more that he would go to Europe and that he would turn his hand to any honest trade that I helped him to get. I took him down right away to an old family friend, Joe Wilson, who is an exporter of American watches and clocks and I got him to give Edward an agency in London with a small salary and a 15% commission on old business. His manner and appearance were so good that he won the old man over at once and within a week he was sent off to London with a case full of samples. It seemed to me that his business of the check had really given my brother a fright and that there was some chance of his settling down into an honest line of life. My mother had spoken with him and what she said had touched him for she had always been the best of mothers to him and he had been the greatest sorrow of her life but I knew that this man's pearl McCoy had a great influence over Edward and my chance of keeping the land straight lay in breaking the connection between them. I had a friend in the New York detective force and through him I kept a watch upon McCoy. When within a fortnight of my brother's sailing I heard that McCoy had taken a bird in the truria and I was as certain as if he had told me that he was going over to England for the purpose of coaxing Edward back again into the ways that he had left. In an instant I had resolved to go also and to pit my influence against McCoy's. I knew it was a losing fight but I thought and my mother thought that it was my duty. We passed the last night together in prayer for my success and she gave me her own testament that my father had given her on the day of their marriage in the old country so that I might always wear it next to my heart. I was a fellow traveler on the steamship with Sparrow McCoy and at last I had the satisfaction of spoiling his little game for the voyage. The very first night I went into the smoking room and found him at the head of a card table with a half a dozen young fellows who were carrying their full purses and their empty skulls over to Europe. He was settling down for his harvest and the rich one it would have been but I soon changed all that. Gentlemen said I are you aware whom you are playing with? What's that to you? You mind your own business? said he with a note. Who is it anyway? asked one of the dudes. He's Sparrow McCoy the most notorious card-sharp in the States. Up he jumped with a bottle in his hand but he remembered that he was under the flag of the effort old country where law and order run and Temani has no pull. Goal and gallows wait for the violence and murder and there's no sleeping out by the back door on board an ocean liner. Prove your words you said he. Still said I if you will turn up your right shirt sleeve to the shoulder I will either prove my words or I will eat them. He turned white and said not a word. You see I knew something of his ways and I was aware of that part of the mechanism which he and all such sharpers use consist of an elastic down the arm with a clip just above the wrist. It is by means of this clip that they withdraw from their hands the cards which they do not want while they substitute other cards from another hiding place. I recount on it being there and it was he cursed me, slung out of the saloon and was hardly seen again during the voyage for once at any rate I got level with Mr. Sparrow McCoy but he soon had his revenge upon me for when it came to influencing my brother he outweighed me every time Edward had kept himself straight in London for the first few weeks and had done some business with his American watches until this villain came across his path once more I did my best but the best was little enough the next thing I heard there had been a scandal at one of the North Cumberland Avenue hotels a traveler had been fleeced of a large sum by two confederate card sharpers and the matter was in the hands of Scotland Yard the first I learned of it was in the evening paper and I was at once certain that my brother and McCoy were back at their old games I heard at once to Edward's lodgings they told me that he and a tall gentleman whom I recognized as McCoy had gone off together and that he had left the lodgings and taken his things with him the landlady had heard them give several directions to the cab men ending with Euston Station and she had accidentally overheard the tall gentleman saying something about Manchester she believed that that was their destination a glance at the timetable showed me that the most likely train was at 5 though there was another at 4.35 which they might have caught I had only time to get the later one but found no sign of them either at the depot or in the train they must have gone on by the earlier one so I determined to follow them to Manchester and search for them in the hotels there one must appeal to my brother by all that he owed to my mother might even now be the salvation of him my nerves were over-strung and I lit a cigar to steady them at that moment just as the train was moving off the door of my compartment was flung open and there were McCoy and my brother on the platform they were both disguised and with good reason for they knew that the London police were after them McCoy had a great astrakhan color drawn up so that only his eyes and nose were showing my brother was dressed like a woman with a black veil half down his face but of course it did not deceive me for an instant nor would it have done so even if I had not known that he had often used such a dress before I started up and as I did so McCoy recognized me he said something the conductor slammed the door and they were shown into the next compartment I tried to stop the train so as to follow them but the wheels were already moving and it was too late when we stopped at Wilsden I instantly changed my carriage it appears that I was not seen to do so which is not surprising as the station was crowded with people McCoy of course was expecting me and he had spent the time between Houston and Wilsden in saying all he could to harden my brother's heart and set him against me that is what I fancied for I had never found him so impossible to soften or to move I tried this way and I tried that I pictured his future in an English goal I described the sorrow of his mother when I came back with the news I said everything to touch his heart but all to no purpose he sat there with a fixed sneer upon his handsome face where every now and then Sparrow McCoy would throw in a taunted me or some word of encouragement to hold my brother to his resolutions why don't you run a Sunday school? he would say to me and then in the same breath he thinks you have no will of your own he thinks you are just the baby brother and that he can lead you where he likes he's only just finding out that you are a man as well as he it was those words of his which set me talking bitterly we had left Wilsden you understand for all this took some time my temper got the better of me and for the first time in my life I let my brother see the rough side of me perhaps it would have been better had I done so earlier and more often a man said I well I'm glad to have your friend's assurance of it for no one would suspect it to see you like a boarding school missy I don't suppose in all this country there is a more contemptible looking creature than you are as you sit there with the dolly peanut for upon you he colored up at that for he was a vain man and he wins from ridicule it's only a dust cloak he said and he slipped it off one has to throw the coppers off one's sand and I had no other way to do it he took his stock off with the veil attached and he put both in and the cloak into his brown bag anyway I don't need to wear it until the conductor comes round said he nor then either said I and staking the bag I slung it with all my force out of the window now said I you'll never make a marry Jaina for self while I can help it if nothing but that this guy stands between you and the goal then the goal you shall go that was the way to manage him I felt my advantage at once his simple nature was one which yielded the roughness far more readily than than to entreaty he flushed with shame and his eyes filled with tears but McCoy saw my advantage also and was determined that I should not pursue it he's my part and you shall not bully him he cried he's my brother and you shall not ruin him said I I believe a spell of prison is the very best way of keeping you apart and you shall have it or it will be no fault of mine oh you would squeal would you he cried in an instant he whipped out his revolver I sprang for his hand on the side at the same instant he fired and the bullet which would have struck me passed through the heart of my unfortunate brother he dropped without a groan upon the floor of the compartment and McCoy and I equally horrified knelt at each side of him trying to bring back some signs of life McCoy still held their loaded revolver in his hand but his anger against me towards him had bowed for the moment being swallowed up in this sudden tragedy it was he who first realized the situation the train was for some reason going very slowly at the moment and he saw his opportunity for escape in an instant he had the door open but I was as quick as he and jumping upon him the two of us fell off the footboard and rolled in each other's arms in this deep embankment at the bottom I struck my head against the stone and I remembered nothing more when I came to myself I was lying among some low bushes not far from the railroad track and somebody was baiting my head with a wet handkerchief it was Sparrow McCoy I guess I couldn't leave you said he I didn't want to have the blood of two of you on my hands in one day you loved your brother but you didn't love him ascent more than I loved him though you will say that I took a queer way to show it anyhow it seems a mighty empty word now that he is gone and I don't care a continental whether you give me over to the hangman or not he had turned his ankle in the fall and there we sat he with his useless foot and I with my throbbing head and we talked and talked until the bitterness began to soften and to turn into something like sympathy what was the use of preventing his death upon a man who was as much stricken by the death as I was and then as my wits gradually returned I begin to realize also that I could do nothing against McCoy which would not recoil upon my mother and myself how could we convict him without the full account of my brother's career being made public the very thing which of all others we wished to avoid it was really as much our interest as his to cover the matter up and from being an avenger of crime I found myself changed to a conspirator against justice the place in which we found ourselves was one of those fizz and preserves which are so common in the old country and as we grobbed our way through it I found myself consulting the slayer of my brother as to how far it would be possible to hash it up I soon realized from what he said that unless there were some papers of which we knew nothing in my brother's pockets there was really no possible means by which the police could identify him or learn how he had got there his ticket was in McCoy's pocket and so was the ticket for some baggage which they had left at the depot like most americans he had found it cheaper and easier to buy an outfit in London than to bring one from New York so that all his lining and clothes were new and unmarked the bag containing the dust cloak which I had thrown out of the window may have fallen among some bramble patch where it is still concealed or may have been carried off by some tramp or may have come into the possession of the police who kept the incident to themselves anyhow I have seen nothing about it in the London papers as to the watches they were a selection from those which had been entrusted to him for business purposes it may have been for the same business purposes that he was taking them to Manchester but well, it's too late to enter into that I don't blame the police for being at fault I don't see how it could have been otherwise there was just one little clue that it might have followed up but it was a small one I mean that small circular mirror which was found in my brother's pocket it isn't a very common thing for young men to carry about with him is it? but a gambler might have told you what such a mirror may mean to a car shopper if you sit back a little from the table and lay the mirror face upwards upon your lap you can see as you deal every card that you give to your adversary it is not hard to say whether you see a man or raise him when you know his cards as well as your own it was as much a part of sharpness outfit as the elastic clip upon Sparrow's McCoy's arm taking that in connection with the recent frauds at the hotels the police might have got hold of one end of the string I don't think there is much more for me to explain we got to a village called Amersham that night in the character of two gentlemen upon a walking tour and afterwards we made our way quietly to London when McCoy went on to Cairo and I returned to New York my mother died six months afterwards and I am glad to say that to the day of her death she never knew what happened she was always under the delusion that Edward was earning an illness living in London and I never had the heart to tell her the truth he never wrote but then he never did write it anytime so that made no difference his name was the last upon her lips there is just one other thing that I have to ask you sir and I should take it as a kind return for all this explanation if you could do it for me you remember the testament that was picked up I always carried it in my inside pocket and it must have come out in my fall I value it very highly for it was the family book with my birth and my brothers marked by my father in the beginning of it I wish you would apply at the proper place and have its sense to me it can be of no possible value to anyone else if you address it to Ex-Bessenus Library Broadway in New York it is true to come to hand End of the Man with the Watches by Arthur Conan Doyle recording by Marta Kornowski Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle The Japaned Box this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jeremy Pavier Tales of Terror and Mystery by Arthur Conan Doyle The Japaned Box it was a curious thing said the private tutor one of those grotesque and whimsical incidents which occur to one as one goes through life I lost the best situation which I'm ever likely to have through it but I am glad that I went to thought place for I gained well, as I tell you the story you will learn what I gained I don't know whether you are familiar with that part of the Midlands which is drained by the Avon it is the most English part of England Shakespeare, the flower of the whole race was born right in the middle of it it is a land of rolling pastures rising in higher folds to the westwards until they swell into the Malvern Hills there are no towns but numerous villages each with its grey Norman church you have left the brick of the southern and eastern counties behind you and everything is stone stone for the walls and lichen slabs of stone for the roofs it is all grim and solid and massive as befits the heart for great nation it was in the middle of this country not very far from Evesham that Sir John Bollemore lived in the old ancestral home of thought place and there it was that I came to teach his two little sons Sir John was a widower his wife had died three years before and he had been left with these two lads aged eight and ten and one dear little girl of seven Miss Witherton who is now my wife was governess to this little girl and I tutor to the two boys could there be a more obvious prelude to an engagement she governs me now and I tutor two little boys of our own but there I have already revealed what it was which I gained from thought place it was a very very old house incredibly old pre-Norman some of it and the Bollemores claimed to have lived in that situation since long before the conquest it struck a chill to my heart and I came there those enormously thick grey walls the rude crumbling stones the smellers from a sick animal which exhaled from the rotting plaster of the aged building but the modern wing was bright and the garden was well kept no house could be dismal which had a pretty girl inside it and such a show of roses in the front apart from a very complete staff of servants there were only four of us in the household these were Miss Witherton who was at that time 4 and 20 and as pretty well as pretty as Mrs Colmore is now myself Frank Colmore age 30 Mrs Stevens the housekeeper a dry silent woman and Mr Richards a tall military looking man who acted as steward to the Bollemore estates we four always had our meals together but Sir John had his usually alone in the library sometimes he joined us at dinner but on the whole we were just as glad when he did not for he was a very formidable person imagine a man 6 feet 3 inches in height majestically built with a high nose to aristocratic face brindled hair shaggy eyebrows a small pointed methistophelian beard and lines upon his brow and round his eyes as deep as if they had been carved with a pen knife he had grey eyes with just looking eyes proud and yet pathetic eyes which claimed your pity yet dared you to show it his back was rounded with study but otherwise he was as fine looking man of his age 5 and 50 perhaps as any woman could wish to look upon but his presence was not a cheerful one he was always cautious always refined but singularly silent and retiring I have never lived so long with any man and known so little of him if he were indoors he spent his time either in his own small study in the eastern tower or in the library in the modern wing so regular was his routine that one could always say at any hour exactly where he would be twice in the day he would visit his study once after breakfast and once about ten at night in the slam of the heavy door for the rest of the day he would be in his library save that for an hour or two in the afternoon he would take a walk or a ride which was solitary like the rest of his existence he loved his children and was keenly interested in the progress of their studies but they were a little awed by the silent shaggy brown figure and they avoided him as much as they could indeed we all did that it was some time before I came to know anything about the circumstances of Sir John Bollimore's life for Mrs Stevens the housekeeper and Mr Richards the land steward were too loyal to talk easily to their employers affairs as to the governess she knew no more than I did and our common interest was one of the causes which drew us together at last however an incident occurred which led to a closer acquaintance with Mr Richards and a fuller knowledge of the life of the man whom I served the immediate cause of this was no less than the falling of Master Percy the youngest of my pupils into the mill race with imminent danger both to his life and to mine since I had to risk myself in order to save him dripping and exhausted for I was far more spent than the child I was making for my room when Sir John who had heard the hubbub opened the door of his little study and asked me what was the matter I told him of the accident but assured him that his child was in no danger while he listened with a rugged immobile face which expressed in its intense eyes and tightened lips all the emotion which he tried to conceal one moment step in here let me have the details said he turning back through the open door and so I found myself within that little sanctum inside which as I afterwards learned no other foot had for three years been set save that of the old servant who cleaned it out it was a round room conforming to the shape of the tower in which it was situated with a low ceiling a single narrow ivy wreathed window and the simplest to furniture an old carpet a single chair a deal table and a small shelf of books made up the whole contents on the table stood a full length photograph of a woman I took no particular notice of the features but I remember that a certain gracious gentleness was the prevailing impression beside it were a large black japan box and one or two bundles of letters or papers fastened together with elastic bands our interview was a short one for Sir John Bollemore perceived that I was soaked and that I should change without delay the incident led however to an instructive talk with Richards the agent who had never penetrated into the chamber which chance had opened to me that very afternoon he came to me all curiosity and walked up and down the garden path with me while my two charges played tennis upon the lawn beside us you hardly realised the exception which has been made in your favour said he that room has been kept such a mystery and Sir John's visits to it have been so regular and consistent that an almost superstitious feeling has arisen about it in the household I assure you that if I were to repeat to you the tales which are flying about tales of mysterious visitors there and of voices overheard by the servants you might suspect that Sir John had relapsed into his old ways why do you say relapsed I ask he looked at me in surprise is it possible said he that Sir John Bollemore's previous history is unknown to you absolutely you astound me I thought that every man in England knew something of his antecedents I should not mention the matter if it were not that you are now one of ourselves and the facts might come to your ears in some harsher form if I was silent upon them I always took it for granted that you knew that you were in the service of devil Bollemore but why devil I asked ah you were young the world moves fast but twenty years ago the name of devil Bollemore was one of the best known in London he was the leader of the fastest set bruiser, driver, gambler drunkard a survival of the old type and as bad as the worst of them I stared at him in amazement what I cried that quiet studious sad faced man the greatest rip and debauchy in England all between ourselves Colmore but you understand now what I mean when I say that a woman's voice in his room might even now give rise to suspicions but what can have changed him so little beryl claire when she took the risk of becoming his wife that was the turning point he had got so far that his own fast set had thrown him over there is a world of difference you know between a man who drinks and a drunkard they all drink but they taboo a drunkard he'd become a slave to it hopeless and helpless then she stepped in saw the possibilities of a fine man in the wreck took a chance in marring him though she might have had the pick of a dozen and by devoting her life to it brought him back to manhood and decency you have observed that no liquor is ever kept in the house there never has been any since her foot crossed its threshold a drop of it would be like blood to a tiger even now then her influence still holds him that is the wonder of it when she died three years ago we all expected and feared that he would fall back into his old ways she feared it herself and the thought gave her terror to death for she was like a guardian angel to that man and lived only for the one purpose by the way did you see a black japaned box in his room yes i fancy it contains her letters if ever he has occasion to be away if only for a single night he invariably takes his black japaned box with him oh well colmore perhaps i have told you rather more than i should but i shall expect you to reciprocate if anything of interest should come to your knowledge i could see that the worthy man was consumed with curiosity and just a little peaked that i the newcomer should have been the first to penetrate into the untrodden chamber but the fact raised me in his esteem and from that time onwards i found myself upon more confidential terms with him and now the silent and majestic figure of my employer became an objective greater interest to me i began to understand that strangely human look in his eyes those deep lines upon his careworn face he was a man who was fighting a ceaseless battle holding at arms length from morning till night a horrible adversary who was forever trying to close with him an adversity which would destroy him body and soul could it but fix its claws once more upon him as i watched the grim round-backed figure pacing the corridor or walking in the garden this imminent danger seemed to take bodily shape and i could almost fancy that i saw this most loathsome and dangerous of all the fiends crouching closely in his very shadow like a half cowed beast which slinks beside its keeper ready at any unguarded moment to spring at his throat and the dead woman the woman who had spent her life in warding off this danger took shape also to my imagination and i saw her as a shadowy but beautiful presence which intervened forever with arms uplifted to screen the man whom she loved in some subtle way he divined the sympathy which i had for him and he showed in his own silent fashion that he appreciated it he even invited me once to share his afternoon walk and although no word passed between us on this occasion it was a mark of confidence which he had never shown to anyone before he asked me also to index his library it was one of the best private libraries in England and i spent many hours in the evening in his presence if not in his society he reading at his desk and i sitting in a recess by the window reducing toward the chaos which existed among his books in spite of these close relations i was never again asked to enter the chamber in the turret and then came my revulsion of feeling a single incident changed all my sympathy to loathing and made me realise that my employer still remained all that he had ever been with the additional vice of hypocrisy what happened was as follows miss witherton had gone down to broadway the neighbouring village to sing at a concert for some charity and i, according to my promise had walked over to escort her back the drive sweeps round under the eastern turret and i observed as i passed that the light was lit in the circular room it was a summer evening and the window which was a little higher than our heads was open we were as it happened engrossed in our own conversation at the moment and we had paused upon the lawn and we heard the scirts of the old turret when suddenly something broke in upon our talk and turned our thoughts away from our own affairs it was a voice the voice undoubtedly of a woman it was low so low that it was only in that still night air that we could have heard it but hushed as it was there was no mistaking its feminine tomb it spoke hurriedly gaspingly for a few sentences and then was silent a pitious breathless imploring sort of voice miss witherton and i stood for an instant staring at each other then we walked quickly in the direction of the whole door it came through the window i said we must not play the part of eavesdroppers we must forget that we have ever heard it there was an absence of surprise in her manner which suggested a new idea to me you have heard it before i cried i could not help it my own room is higher up on the same turret it has happened frequently who can the woman be i have no idea i had rather not discuss it her voice was enough to show me what she thought but granting that our employer led a double and dubious life who could she be this mysterious woman who kept him company in the old tower i knew from my own inspection how bleak and bare a room it was she certainly did not live there but in that case where did she come from it could not be any one of the household they were all under the vigilant eyes of mrs stevens the visitor must come from without but how and then suddenly i remembered how ancient this building was and how probable that some medieval passage existed in it there is hardly an old castle without one the mysterious room was the basement of the turret so that if there were anything of the sort it would open through the floor there were numerous cottages in the immediate vicinity the other end of the secret passage might lie amongst some tangle of bramble in the neighbouring cops i said nothing to anyone but i felt that the secret of my employer lay within my power and the more convinced i was of this the more i marvelled at the manner in which he concealed his true nature often as i watched his austere figure i asked myself if it were indeed possible that such a man should be living this double life and i tried to persuade myself that my suspicions might after all prove to be ill founded but there was the female voice there was the secret nightly rendezvous in the turret chamber how could such facts admit of an innocent interpretation i conceived a horror of the man i was filled with loathing at his deep consistent hypocrisy only once during all those months did i ever see him without that sad but impassive mask which he usually presented towards his fellow man for an instant i caught a glimpse of those volcanic fires which he had damped down so long the occasion was an unworthy one for the object of his wrath was none other than the aged charwoman whom i have already mentioned as being the one person who was allowed within his mysterious chamber i was passing the corridor which led to the turret for my own room lay in that direction when i heard a sudden startled scream and merged in it a husky growling note of a man who is inarticulate with passion it was a snarl of a furious wild beast then i heard his voice thrilling with anger you would dare he cried you would dare to disobey my directions an instant later the charwoman passed me flying down the passage white faced and tremulous while the terrible voice thundered behind her go to mrs stevens for your money never set foot in thought place again consumed with curiosity i could not help following the woman and found her round the corner leaning against the wall and palpitating like a frightened rabbit what is the matter mrs brown i asked it's master she gasped oh are we frightened me if you had seen his eyes mr colmore sir i thought you would have been the death of me but what had you done nothing at least nothing to make so much of just laid my hand on that black box of his hadn't even opened it when he came and you heard the way he went on i've lost my place and glad i am of it for i would never trust myself within reach of him again so it was the japan box which was the cause of this outburst the box from which he would never permit himself to be separated what was the connection or was there any connection to this and the secret visits of the lady whose voice i'd overheard so john bolamore's wrath was enduring as well as fiery for from that day mrs brown the charwoman vanished from our ken and thought place knew her no more and now i wish to tell you the singular chance which solved all these strange questions and put my employer's secret in my possession the story may leave you with some lingering doubts but my curiosity did not get the better of my honour and whether i did not condescend to play the spy if you choose to think so i cannot help it but can only assure you that improbable as it may appear the matter came about exactly as i describe it the first stage in this denouement was that the small room in the turret became uninhabitable this occurred through the fall of the worm eaton oaken beam which supported the ceiling rotten with age it snapped in the middle one morning and brought down a quantity of plaster with it fortunately so john was not in the room at the time his precious box was rescued from amongst the debris and brought into the library where hence forward it was locked within his bureau so john took no steps to repair the damage and i never had an opportunity of searching for that secret passage the existence of which i had surmised as to the lady i had thought that this would have brought her visits to an end had i not one evening heard mr richards asking mrs stevens who the woman was whom he had overheard talking to sir john in the library i could not catch her reply but i saw from her manner that it was not the first time that she had had to answer or avoid the same question you've heard the voice call more? said the agent i confessed that i had and what do you think of it i shrugged my shoulders and remarked that it was no business of mine come come you are just as curious as any of us is it a woman or not it is certainly a woman which room did you hear it from from the turret room before the ceiling fell but i heard it from the library only last night i passed the door as i was going to bed and i heard someone wailing and praying just as plainly as i hear you it may be a woman it may be a woman why what else could it be he looked at me hard there are more things in heaven and earth said he if it is a woman how does she get there i don't know no nor i but if it is the other thing ah but there for a practical businessman at the end of the 19th century this is rather a ridiculous line of conversation he turned away but i saw that he felt even more than he had said to all the old ghost stories of thought place a new one was being added before our very eyes it may by this time have taken its permanent place for though an explanation came to me it never reached the others and my explanation came in this way i had suffered a sleepless night from neuralgia and about midday i had taken a heavy dose of chlorodyne to alleviate the pain at that time and it was my custom to work there from 5 till 7 on this particular day i struggled against the double effect of my bad night and the narcotic i have already mentioned that there was a recess in the library and in this it was my habit to work i settled down steadily to my task but my weariness overcame me and falling back upon the city i dropped into a heavy sleep how long i slept i do not know but it was quite dark when i awoke confused by the chlorodyne which i had taken i lay motionless in a semi-conscious state the great room with its high walls covered with books loomed darkly all around me a dim radiance from the moonlight came through the farther window and against this lighter background i saw that Sir John Bollimore was sitting at his study table his well-set head and clearly cut profile was sharply outlined against the glimmering square behind him he bent as i watched him and i heard the sharp turning of a key and the rasping of metal upon metal as if in a dream i was vaguely conscious that this was the japan box which stood in front of him and that he had drawn something out of it something squat and uncouth which now lay before him upon the table i never realised what occurred to my bemuddled and torpid brain that i was intruding upon his privacy is that he imagined himself to be alone in the room and then just as it rushed upon my horrified perceptions and i had half risen to announce my presence i heard a strange, crisp, metallic clicking and then the voice yes, it was a woman's voice there could not be a doubt of it but a voice so charged within treaty and with yearning love that it will ring forever in my ears it came with a curious far away tinkle but every word was clear though faint, very faint for they were the last words of a dying woman i am not really gone john said the thin gasping voice i am here at your very elbow and shall be until we meet once more i die happy to think that morning and night you will hear my voice oh john, be strong be strong until we meet again i say that i had risen in order to announce my presence but i could not do so while the voice was sounding i could only remain half lying, half sitting paralysed astounded listening to those yearning distant musical words and he he who was so absorbed that even if i had spoken he might not have heard me but with the silence of the voice came my half articulated apologies and explanations he sprang across the room switched on the electric light and in its white glare i saw him his eyes gleaming with anger his face twisted with passion as the hapless charwoman may have seen him weeks before mr. colmore he cried you here, what is the meaning of this sir with halting words i explained it all my neuralgia, the narcotic my luckless sleep and singular awakening as he listened the glow of anger faded from his face and the sad impassive mask closed once more over his features my secret is yours mr. colmore said he and i have only myself to blame for relaxing my precautions half confidences are worse than no confidences and so you may know all since you know so much the story may go where you will when i have passed away but until then i rely upon your sense of honour that no human soul shall hear it from your lips i am proud still god help me or at least i am proud enough to resent that pity or upon me i have smiled at envy and disregarded hatred but pity is more than i can tolerate you have heard the source from which the voice comes that voice which has as i understand excited so much curiosity in my household i am aware of the rumours to which it has given rise these speculations whether scandalous or superstitious as such as i can disregard and forgive what i should never forgive would be a disloyal spying and eavesdropping in order to satisfy an illicit curiosity but of that mr colmore i acquit you when i was a young man sir many years younger than you are now i was launched upon town without a friend or advisor and with a purse which brought only too many false friends and false advisors to my side i drank deeply of the wine of life if there is a man living who has drunk more deeply he is not a man whom i envy my purse suffered my character suffered my constitution suffered stimulants became a necessity to me i was a creature from whom my memory recoils and it was at that time the time of my blackest degradation that god sent into my life the gentlest sweetest spirit that ever descended as a ministering angel from above she loved me broken as i was loved me and spent her life in making a man once more of that which had degraded itself to the level of the beasts but a fell disease struck her and she withered away before my eyes in the hour of her agony it was never of herself of her own sufferings and her own death that she thought it was all of me the one pang which her fate brought her was the fear that when her influence was removed i should revert to that which i had been it was in vain that i made oath to her that no drop of wine would ever cross my lips she knew only too well the hold that the devil had upon me she who had striven so to loosen it and it haunted her day and night the thought that my soul might again be within his grip it was from some friend's gossip of the sick room that she heard of this invention this phonograph on the side of a loving woman she saw how she might use it for her ends she sent me to London to procure the best which money could buy with her dying breath she gassed into it the words which have held me straight ever since lonely and broken what else have i in the world to uphold me but it is enough please god i shall face her without shame when he is pleased to reunite us that is my secret Mr. Cormor and whilst i live i leave it in your keeping end of the Japan box by Arthur Conan Doyle recording by Jeremy Pavier