“I can assure you,” said Holmes, “that every essential is alreadyknown. We know that you were pressed for money; that you tookan impress of the keys which your brother held; and that youentered into a correspondence with Oberstein, who answeredyour letters through the advertisement columns of the DailyTelegraph. We are aware that you went down to the office in thefog on Monday night, but that you were seen and followed byyoung Cadogan West, who had probably some previous reason tosuspect you. He saw your theft, but could not give the alarm, as itwas just possible that you were taking the papers to your brotherin London. Leaving all his private concerns, like the good citizenthat he was, he followed you closely in the fog and kept at yourheels until you reached this very house. There he intervened, andthen it was, Colonel Walter, that to treason you added the moreterrible crime of murder.”
“I did not! I did not! Before God I swear that I did not!” criedour wretched prisoner.
“Tell us, then, how Cadogan West met his end before you laidhim upon the roof of a railway carriage.”
“I will. I swear to you that I will. I did the rest. I confess it. It wasjust as you say. A Stock Exchange debt had to be paid. I needed themoney badly. Oberstein offered me five thousand. It was to savemyself from ruin. But as to murder, I am as innocent as you.”
“What happened, then?”
“He had his suspicions before, and he followed me as youdescribe. I never knew it until I was at the very door. It was thickfog, and one could not see three yards. I had given two taps andOberstein had come to the door. The young man rushed up anddemanded to know what we were about to do with the papers.
Oberstein had a short life-preserver. He always carried it with him.
As West forced his way after us into the house Oberstein struckhim on the head. The blow was a fatal one. He was dead withinfive minutes. There he lay in the hall, and we were at our wit’s endwhat to do. Then Oberstein had this idea about the trains whichhalted under his back window. But first he examined the paperswhich I had brought. He said that three of them were essential,and that he must keep them. ‘You cannot keep them,’ said I. ‘Therewill be a dreadful row at Woolwich if they are not returned.’
‘I must keep them,’ said he, ‘for they are so technical that it isimpossible in the time to make copies.’ ‘Then they must all goback together tonight,’ said I. He thought for a little, and then hecried out that he had it. ‘Three I will keep,’ said he. ‘The otherswe will stuff into the pocket of this young man. When he is foundthe whole business will assuredly be put to his account.’ I couldsee no other way out of it, so we did as he suggested. We waitedhalf an hour at the window before a train stopped. It was so thickthat nothing could be seen, and we had no difficulty in loweringWest’s body on to the train. That was the end of the matter so faras I was concerned.”
“And your brother?”
“He said nothing, but he had caught me once with his keys, andI think that he suspected. I read in his eyes that he suspected. Asyou know, he never held up his head again.”
There was silence in the room. It was broken by MycroftHolmes.
“Can you not make reparation? It would ease your conscience,and possibly your punishment.”
“What reparation can I make?”
“Where is Oberstein with the papers?”
“I do not know.”
“Did he give you no address?”
“He said that letters to the Hotel du Louvre, Paris, wouldeventually reach him.”
“Then reparation is still within your power,” said SherlockHolmes.
“I will do anything I can. I owe this fellow no particular goodwill.
He has been my ruin and my downfall.”
“Here are paper and pen. Sit at this desk and write to mydictation. Direct the envelope to the address given. That is right.
Now the letter:
“Dear Sir:
“With regard to our transaction, you will no doubt haveobserved by now that one essential detail is missing. I have atracing which will make it complete. This has involved me inextra trouble, however, and I must ask you for a further advanceof five hundred pounds. I will not trust it to the post, nor will Itake anything but gold or notes. I would come to you abroad, butit would excite remark if I left the country at present. ThereforeI shall expect to meet you in the smoking-room of the CharingCross Hotel at noon on Saturday. Remember that only Englishnotes, or gold, will be taken.
That will do very well. I shall be very much surprised if it doesnot fetch our man.”
And it did! It is a matter of history—that secret history of anation which is often so much more intimate and interesting thanits public chronicles—that Oberstein, eager to complete the coupof his lifetime, came to the lure and was safely engulfed for fifteenyears in a British prison. In his trunk were found the invaluableBruce-Partington plans, which he had put up for auction in all thenaval centres of Europe.
Colonel Walter died in prison towards the end of the secondyear of his sentence. As to Holmes, he returned refreshed to hismonograph upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus, which hassince been printed for private circulation, and is said by expertsto be the last word upon the subject. Some weeks afterwardsI learned incidentally that my friend spent a day at Windsor,whence he returned with a remarkably fine emerald tie-pin. WhenI asked him if he had bought it, he answered that it was a presentfrom a certain gracious lady in whose interests he had once beenfortunate enough to carry out a small commission. He said nomore; but I fancy that I could guess at that lady’s august name,and I have little doubt that the emerald pin will forever recall tomy friend’s memory the adventure of the Bruce-Partington plans.
The Adventure of the Dying Detective