“We were shut up in Bhurtee, the regiment of us with half abattery of artillery, a company of Sikhs, and a lot of civilians andwomen-folk. There were ten thousand rebels round us, and theywere as keen as a set of terriers round a rat-cage. About the secondweek of it our water gave out, and it was a question whetherwe could communicate with General Neill’s column, which wasmoving up country. It was our only chance, for we could nothope to fight our way out with all the women and children, so Ivolunteered to go out and to warn General Neill of our danger. Myoffer was accepted, and I talked it over with Sergeant Barclay, whowas supposed to know the ground better than any other man, andwho drew up a route by which I might get through the rebel lines.
At ten o’clock the same night I started off upon my journey. Therewere a thousand lives to save, but it was of only one that I wasthinking when I dropped over the wall that night.
“My way ran down a dried-up watercourse, which we hopedwould screen me from the enemy’s sentries; but as I creptround the corner of it I walked right into six of them, who werecrouching down in the dark waiting for me. In an instant I wasstunned with a blow and bound hand and foot. But the real blowwas to my heart and not to my head, for as I came to and listenedto as much as I could understand of their talk, I heard enough totell me that my comrade, the very man who had arranged the waythat I was to take, had betrayed me by means of a native servantinto the hands of the enemy.
“Well, there’s no need for me to dwell on that part of it. Youknow now what James Barclay was capable of. Bhurtee was relievedby Neill next day, but the rebels took me away with them in theirretreat, and it was many a long year before ever I saw a white faceagain. I was tortured and tried to get away, and was captured andtortured again. You can see for yourselves the state in which I wasleft. Some of them that fled into Nepaul took me with them, andthen afterwards I was up past Darjeeling. The hill-folk up theremurdered the rebels who had me, and I became their slave for atime until I escaped; but instead of going south I had to go north,until I found myself among the Afghans. There I wandered aboutfor many a year, and at last came back to the Punjab, where I livedmostly among the natives and picked up a living by the conjuringtricks that I had learned. What use was it for me, a wretchedcripple, to go back to England or to make myself known to my oldcomrades? Even my wish for revenge would not make me do that.
I had rather that Nancy and my old pals should think of HarryWood as having died with a straight back, than see him living andcrawling with a stick like a chimpanzee. They never doubted that Iwas dead, and I meant that they never should. I heard that Barclayhad married Nancy, and that he was rising rapidly in the regiment,but even that did not make me speak.
“But when one gets old one has a longing for home. For yearsI’ve been dreaming of the bright green fields and the hedges ofEngland. At last I determined to see them before I died. I savedenough to bring me across, and then I came here where thesoldiers are, for I know their ways and how to amuse them and soearn enough to keep me.”
“Your narrative is most interesting,” said Sherlock Holmes. “Ihave already heard of your meeting with Mrs. Barclay, and yourmutual recognition. You then, as I understand, followed her homeand saw through the window an altercation between her husbandand her, in which she doubtless cast his conduct to you in histeeth. Your own feelings overcame you, and you ran across thelawn and broke in upon them.”
“I did, sir, and at the sight of me he looked as I have never seena man look before, and over he went with his head on the fender.
But he was dead before he fell. I read death on his face as plain asI can read that text over the fire. The bare sight of me was like abullet through his guilty heart.”
“And then?”
“Then Nancy fainted, and I caught up the key of the door fromher hand, intending to unlock it and get help. But as I was doing itit seemed to me better to leave it alone and get away, for the thingmight look black against me, and any way my secret would be outif I were taken. In my haste I thrust the key into my pocket, anddropped my stick while I was chasing Teddy, who had run up thecurtain. When I got him into his box, from which he had slipped,I was off as fast as I could run.”
“Who’s Teddy?” asked Holmes.
The man leaned over and pulled up the front of a kind of hutch inthe corner. In an instant out there slipped a beautiful reddish-browncreature, thin and lithe, with the legs of a stoat, a long, thin nose,and a pair of the finest red eyes that ever I saw in an animal’s head.
“It’s a mongoose,” I cried.
“Well, some call them that, and some call them ichneumon,”
said the man. “Snake-catcher is what I call them, and Teddy isamazing quick on cobras. I have one here without the fangs, andTeddy catches it every night to please the folk in the canteen.
“Any other point, sir?”
“Well, we may have to apply to you again if Mrs. Barclay shouldprove to be in serious trouble.”
“In that case, of course, I’d come forward.”
“But if not, there is no object in raking up this scandal against adead man, foully as he has acted. You have at least the satisfactionof knowing that for thirty years of his life his conscience bitterlyreproached him for this wicked deed. Ah, there goes MajorMurphy on the other side of the street. Good-by, Wood. I want tolearn if anything has happened since yesterday.”
We were in time to overtake the major before he reached thecorner.
“Ah, Holmes,” he said, “I suppose you have heard that all thisfuss has come to nothing?”
“What then?”
“The inquest is just over. The medical evidence showedconclusively that death was due to apoplexy. You see it was quite asimple case after all.”
“Oh, remarkably superficial,” said Holmes, smiling. “Come,Watson, I don’t think we shall be wanted in Aldershot any more.”