“Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!”
Holmes chuckled heartily. “Your conversation is mostentertaining,” said he. “When you go out close the door, for thereis a decided draught.”
“I will go when I have said my say. Don’t you dare to meddlewith my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I tracedher! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here.” He steppedswiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with hishuge brown hands.
“See that you keep yourself out of my grip,” he snarled, andhurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of theroom.
“He seems a very amiable person,” said Holmes, laughing. “Iam not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shownhim that my grip was not much more feeble than his own.” Ashe spoke he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort,straightened it out again.
“Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the officialdetective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation,however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer fromher imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now,Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk downto Doctors’ Commons, where I hope to get some data which mayhelp us in this matter.”
It was nearly one o’clock when Sherlock Holmes returned fromhis excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawledover with notes and figures.
“I have seen the will of the deceased wife,” said he. “Todetermine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out thepresent prices of the investments with which it is concerned. Thetotal income, which at the time of the wife’s death was little shortof ￡1100, is now, through the fall in agricultural prices, not morethan ￡750. Each daughter can claim an income of ￡250, in case ofmarriage. It is evident, therefore, that if both girls had married,this beauty would have had a mere pittance, while even one ofthem would cripple him to a very serious extent. My morning’swork has not been wasted, since it has proved that he has the verystrongest motives for standing in the way of anything of the sort.
And now, Watson, this is too serious for dawdling, especially as theold man is aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; soif you are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I shouldbe very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into yourpocket. An Eley’s No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemenwho can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are,I think, all that we need.”
At Waterloo we were fortunate in catching a train forLeatherhead, where we hired a trap at the station inn and drovefor four or five miles through the lovely Surrey lanes. It wasa perfect day, with a bright sun and a few fleecy clouds in theheavens. The trees and wayside hedges were just throwing outtheir first green shoots, and the air was full of the pleasant smellof the moist earth. To me at least there was a strange contrastbetween the sweet promise of the spring and this sinister questupon which we were engaged. My companion sat in the front ofthe trap, his arms folded, his hat pulled down over his eyes, andhis chin sunk upon his breast, buried in the deepest thought.
Suddenly, however, he started, tapped me on the shoulder, andpointed over the meadows.
“Look there!” said he.
A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, thickeninginto a grove at the highest point. From amid the branches therejutted out the grey gables and high roof-tree of a very old mansion.
“Stoke Moran?” said he.
“Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott,” remarkedthe driver.
“There is some building going on there,” said Holmes; “that iswhere we are going.”
“There’s the village,” said the driver, pointing to a cluster ofroofs some distance to the left; “but if you want to get to thehouse, you’ll find it shorter to get over this stile, and so by thefoot-path over the fields. There it is, where the lady is walking.”
“And the lady, I fancy, is Miss Stoner,” observed Holmes, shadinghis eyes. “Yes, I think we had better do as you suggest.”
We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way toLeatherhead.
“I thought it as well,” said Holmes as we climbed the stile, “thatthis fellow should think we had come here as architects, or onsome definite business. It may stop his gossip. Good-afternoon,Miss Stoner. You see that we have been as good as our word.”
Our client of the morning had hurried forward to meet us witha face which spoke her joy. “I have been waiting so eagerly foryou,” she cried, shaking hands with us warmly. “All has turned outsplendidly. Dr. Roylott has gone to town, and it is unlikely that hewill be back before evening.”
“We have had the pleasure of making the doctor’s acquaintance,”
said Holmes, and in a few words he sketched out what hadoccurred. Miss Stoner turned white to the lips as she listened.
“Good heavens!” she cried, “he has followed me, then.”
“So it appears.”
“He is so cunning that I never know when I am safe from him.
What will he say when he returns?”
“He must guard himself, for he may find that there is someonemore cunning than himself upon his track. You must lock yourselfup from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away toyour aunt’s at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of ourtime, so kindly take us at once to the rooms which we are toexamine.”
The building was of grey, lichen-blotched stone, with a highcentral portion and two curving wings, like the claws of a crab,thrown out on each side. In one of these wings the windows werebroken and blocked with wooden boards, while the roof was partlycaved in, a picture of ruin. The central portion was in little betterrepair, but the right-hand block was comparatively modern, andthe blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up fromthe chimneys, showed that this was where the family resided.