“Come, Watson,” said he, “our ways lie elsewhere. Our nextstation must be the office from which the papers were taken.
“It was black enough before against this young man, but ourinquiries make it blacker,” he remarked as the cab lumbered off.
“His coming marriage gives a motive for the crime. He naturallywanted money. The idea was in his head, since he spoke about it.
He nearly made the girl an accomplice in the treason by telling herhis plans. It is all very bad.”
“But surely, Holmes, character goes for something? Then, again,why should he leave the girl in the street and dart away to commita felony?”
“Exactly! There are certainly objections. But it is a formidablecase which they have to meet.”
Mr. Sidney Johnson, the senior clerk, met us at the office andreceived us with that respect which my companion’s card alwayscommanded. He was a thin, gruff, bespectacled man of middleage, his cheeks haggard, and his hands twitching from the nervousstrain to which he had been subjected.
“It is bad, Mr. Holmes, very bad! Have you heard of the death ofthe chief?”
“We have just come from his house.”
“The place is disorganized. The chief dead, Cadogan West dead,our papers stolen. And yet, when we closed our door on Mondayevening, we were as efficient an office as any in the governmentservice. Good God, it’s dreadful to think of! That West, of allmen, should have done such a thing!”
“You are sure of his guilt, then?”
“I can see no other way out of it. And yet I would have trustedhim as I trust myself.”
“At what hour was the office closed on Monday?”
“At five.”
“Did you close it?”
“I am always the last man out.”
“Where were the plans?”
“In that safe. I put them there myself.”
“Is there no watchman to the building?”
“There is, but he has other departments to look after as well.
He is an old soldier and a most trustworthy man. He saw nothingthat evening. Of course the fog was very thick.”
“Suppose that Cadogan West wished to make his way into thebuilding after hours; he would need three keys, would he not,before he could reach the papers?”
“Yes, he would. The key of the outer door, the key of the office,and the key of the safe.”
“Only Sir James Walter and you had those keys?”
“I had no keys of the doors—only of the safe.”
“Was Sir James a man who was orderly in his habits?”
“Yes, I think he was. I know that so far as those three keys areconcerned he kept them on the same ring. I have often seen themthere.”
“And that ring went with him to London?”
“He said so.”
“And your key never left your possession?”
“Never.”
“Then West, if he is the culprit, must have had a duplicate. Andyet none was found upon his body. One other point: if a clerk in thisoffice desired to sell the plans, would it not be simply to copy theplans for himself than to take the originals, as was actually done?”
“It would take considerable technical knowledge to copy theplans in an effective way.”
“But I suppose either Sir James, or you, or West has thattechnical knowledge?”
“No doubt we had, but I beg you won’t try to drag me into thematter, Mr. Holmes. What is the use of our speculating in this waywhen the original plans were actually found on West?”
“Well, it is certainly singular that he should run the risk oftaking originals if he could safely have taken copies, which wouldhave equally served his turn.”
“Singular, no doubt—and yet he did so.”
“Every inquiry in this case reveals something inexplicable. Nowthere are three papers still missing. They are, as I understand, thevital ones.”
“Yes, that is so.”
“Do you mean to say that anyone holding these three papers,and without the seven others, could construct a Bruce-Partingtonsubmarine?”
“I reported to that effect to the Admiralty. But to-day I havebeen over the drawings again, and I am not so sure of it. Thedouble valves with the automatic self-adjusting slots are drawn inone of the papers which have been returned. Until the foreignershad invented that for themselves they could not make the boat.
Of course they might soon get over the difficulty.”
“But the three missing drawings are the most important?”
“Undoubtedly.”
“I think, with your permission, I will now take a stroll round thepremises. I do not recall any other question which I desired to ask.”
He examined the lock of the safe, the door of the room, andfinally the iron shutters of the window. It was only when we wereon the lawn outside that his interest was strongly excited. Therewas a laurel bush outside the window, and several of the branchesbore signs of having been twisted or snapped. He examined themcarefully with his lens, and then some dim and vague marks uponthe earth beneath. Finally he asked the chief clerk to close theiron shutters, and he pointed out to me that they hardly met inthe centre, and that it would be possible for anyone outside to seewhat was going on within the room.
“The indications are ruined by three days’ delay. They maymean something or nothing. Well, Watson, I do not think thatWoolwich can help us further. It is a small crop which we havegathered. Let us see if we can do better in London.”
Yet we added one more sheaf to our harvest before we leftWoolwich Station. The clerk in the ticket office was able to saywith confidence that he saw Cadogan West—whom he knew wellby sight—upon the Monday night, and that he went to London bythe 8:15 to London Bridge. He was alone and took a single thirdclassticket. The clerk was struck at the time by his excited andnervous manner. So shaky was he that he could hardly pick uphis change, and the clerk had helped him with it. A reference tothe timetable showed that the 8:15 was the first train which it waspossible for West to take after he had left the lady about 7:30.
“Let us reconstruct, Watson,” said Holmes after half an hour ofsilence. “I am not aware that in all our joint researches we haveever had a case which was more difficult to get at. Every freshadvance which we make only reveals a fresh ridge beyond. And yetwe have surely made some appreciable progress.