“And now I have a very strange experience to tell you. I had, asyou know, cut off my hair in London, and I had placed it in a greatcoil at the bottom of my trunk. One evening, after the child wasin bed, I began to amuse myself by examining the furniture of myroom and by rearranging my own little things. There was an oldchest of drawers in the room, the two upper ones empty and open,the lower one locked. I had filled the first two with my linen, andas I had still much to pack away I was naturally annoyed at nothaving the use of the third drawer. It struck me that it might havebeen fastened by a mere oversight, so I took out my bunch of keysand tried to open it. The very first key fitted to perfection, and Idrew the drawer open. There was only one thing in it, but I amsure that you would never guess what it was. It was my coil of hair.
“I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint,and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thingobtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked inthe drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out thecontents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the twotresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was itnot extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at all ofwhat it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer, and I saidnothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that I had put myselfin the wrong by opening a drawer which they had locked.
“I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr.
Holmes, and I soon had a pretty good plan of the whole housein my head. There was one wing, however, which appeared notto be inhabited at all. A door which faced that which led into thequarters of the Tollers opened into this suite, but it was invariablylocked. One day, however, as I ascended the stair, I met Mr.
Rucastle coming out through this door, his keys in his hand, anda look on his face which made him a very different person to theround, jovial man to whom I was accustomed. His cheeks werered, his brow was all crinkled with anger, and the veins stood outat his temples with passion. He locked the door and hurried pastme without a word or a look.
“This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in thegrounds with my charge, I strolled round to the side from whichI could see the windows of this part of the house. There werefour of them in a row, three of which were simply dirty, while thefourth was shuttered up. They were evidently all deserted. As Istrolled up and down, glancing at them occasionally, Mr. Rucastlecame out to me, looking as merry and jovial as ever.
“ ‘Ah!’ said he, ‘you must not think me rude if I passed youwithout a word, my dear young lady. I was preoccupied withbusiness matters.’
“I assured him that I was not offended. ‘By the way,’ said I, ‘youseem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one ofthem has the shutters up.’
“He looked surprised and, as it seemed to me, a little startled atmy remark.
“ ‘Photography is one of my hobbies,’ said he. ‘I have made mydark room up there. But, dear me! what an observant young ladywe have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who wouldhave ever believed it?’ He spoke in a jesting tone, but there wasno jest in his eyes as he looked at me. I read suspicion there andannoyance, but no jest.
“Well, Mr. Holmes, from the moment that I understood thatthere was something about that suite of rooms which I was not toknow, I was all on fire to go over them. It was not mere curiosity,though I have my share of that. It was more a feeling of duty—afeeling that some good might come from my penetrating to thisplace. They talk of woman’s instinct; perhaps it was woman’s instinctwhich gave me that feeling. At any rate, it was there, and I waskeenly on the lookout for any chance to pass the forbidden door.
“It was only yesterday that the chance came. I may tell you that,besides Mr. Rucastle, both Toller and his wife find something todo in these deserted rooms, and I once saw him carrying a largeblack linen bag with him through the door. Recently he has beendrinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; andwhen I came upstairs there was the key in the door. I have nodoubt at all that he had left it there. Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle wereboth downstairs, and the child was with them, so that I had anadmirable opportunity. I turned the key gently in the lock, openedthe door, and slipped through.
“There was a little passage in front of me, unpapered anduncarpeted, which turned at a right angle at the farther end.
Round this corner were three doors in a line, the first and third ofwhich were open. They each led into an empty room, dusty andcheerless, with two windows in the one and one in the other, sothick with dirt that the evening light glimmered dimly throughthem. The centre door was closed, and across the outside of it hadbeen fastened one of the broad bars of an iron bed, padlocked atone end to a ring in the wall, and fastened at the other with stoutcord. The door itself was locked as well, and the key was not there.
This barricaded door corresponded clearly with the shutteredwindow outside, and yet I could see by the glimmer from beneathit that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was askylight which let in light from above. As I stood in the passagegazing at the sinister door and wondering what secret it mightveil, I suddenly heard the sound of steps within the room and sawa shadow pass backward and forward against the little slit of dimlight which shone out from under the door. A mad, unreasoningterror rose up in me at the sight, Mr. Holmes. My overstrungnerves failed me suddenly, and I turned and ran—ran as thoughsome dreadful hand were behind me clutching at the skirt of mydress. I rushed down the passage, through the door, and straightinto the arms of Mr. Rucastle, who was waiting outside.
“ ‘So,’ said he, smiling, ‘it was you, then. I thought that it mustbe when I saw the door open.’
“ ‘Oh, I am so frightened!’ I panted.