“I must put it plainly, Mr. Holmes. If only you two know of thisincident, there is no reason why it should go any farther. I thinktwelve thousand pounds is the sum that I owe you, is it not?”
But Holmes smiled and shook his head.
“I fear, your Grace, that matters can hardly be arranged so easily.
There is the death of this schoolmaster to be accounted for.”
“But James knew nothing of that. You cannot hold himresponsible for that. It was the work of this brutal ruffian whomhe had the misfortune to employ.”
“I must take the view, your Grace, that when a man embarksupon a crime, he is morally guilty of any other crime which mayspring from it.”
“Morally, Mr. Holmes. No doubt you are right. But surelynot in the eyes of the law. A man cannot be condemned for amurder at which he was not present, and which he loathes andabhors as much as you do. The instant that he heard of it hemade a complete confession to me, so filled was he with horrorand remorse. He lost not an hour in breaking entirely with themurderer. Oh, Mr. Holmes, you must save him—you must savehim! I tell you that you must save him!” The Duke had droppedthe last attempt at self-command, and was pacing the room witha convulsed face and with his clenched hands raving in the air.
At last he mastered himself and sat down once more at his desk.
“I appreciate your conduct in coming here before you spoke toanyone else,” said he. “At least, we may take counsel how far wecan minimize this hideous scandal.”
“Exactly,” said Holmes. “I think, your Grace, that this can onlybe done by absolute frankness between us. I am disposed to helpyour Grace to the best of my ability, but, in order to do so, I mustunderstand to the last detail how the matter stands. I realize thatyour words applied to Mr. James Wilder, and that he is not themurderer.”
“No, the murderer has escaped.”
Sherlock Holmes smiled demurely.
“Your Grace can hardly have heard of any small reputationwhich I possess, or you would not imagine that it is so easy toescape me. Mr. Reuben Hayes was arrested at Chesterfield, on myinformation, at eleven o’clock last night. I had a telegram from thehead of the local police before I left the school this morning.”
The Duke leaned back in his chair and stared with amazementat my friend.
“You seem to have powers that are hardly human,” said he. “SoReuben Hayes is taken? I am right glad to hear it, if it will notreact upon the fate of James.”
“Your secretary?”
“No, sir, my son.”
It was Holmes’s turn to look astonished.
“I confess that this is entirely new to me, your Grace. I mustbeg you to be more explicit.”
“I will conceal nothing from you. I agree with you that completefrankness, however painful it may be to me, is the best policy inthis desperate situation to which James’s folly and jealousy havereduced us. When I was a very young man, Mr. Holmes, I lovedwith such a love as comes only once in a lifetime. I offered thelady marriage, but she refused it on the grounds that such a matchmight mar my career. Had she lived, I would certainly never havemarried anyone else. She died, and left this one child, whom forher sake I have cherished and cared for. I could not acknowledgethe paternity to the world, but I gave him the best of educations,and since he came to manhood I have kept him near my person.
He surmised my secret, and has presumed ever since upon theclaim which he has upon me, and upon his power of provokinga scandal which would be abhorrent to me. His presence hadsomething to do with the unhappy issue of my marriage. Above all,he hated my young legitimate heir from the first with a persistenthatred. You may well ask me why, under these circumstances,I still kept James under my roof. I answer that it was because Icould see his mother’s face in his, and that for her dear sake therewas no end to my long-suffering. All her pretty ways too—therewas not one of them which he could not suggest and bring backto my memory. I could not send him away. But I feared so muchlest he should do Arthur—that is, Lord Saltire—a mischief, that Idispatched him for safety to Dr. Huxtable’s school.
“James came into contact with this fellow Hayes, because theman was a tenant of mine, and James acted as agent. The fellowwas a rascal from the beginning, but, in some extraordinary way,James became intimate with him. He had always a taste for lowcompany. When James determined to kidnap Lord Saltire, it wasof this man’s service that he availed himself. You remember thatI wrote to Arthur upon that last day. Well, James opened theletter and inserted a note asking Arthur to meet him in a littlewood called the Ragged Shaw, which is near to the school. Heused the Duchess’s name, and in that way got the boy to come.
That evening James bicycled over—I am telling you what he hashimself confessed to me—and he told Arthur, whom he met in thewood, that his mother longed to see him, that she was awaitinghim on the moor, and that if he would come back into thewood at midnight he would find a man with a horse, who wouldtake him to her. Poor Arthur fell into the trap. He came to theappointment, and found this fellow Hayes with a led pony. Arthurmounted, and they set off together. It appears—though this Jamesonly heard yesterday—that they were pursued, that Hayes struckthe pursuer with his stick, and that the man died of his injuries.
Hayes brought Arthur to his public-house, the Fighting Cock,where he was confined in an upper room, under the care of Mrs.
Hayes, who is a kindly woman, but entirely under the control ofher brutal husband.