: .4..:. like a long, dark thorn stuck in the / n \s , m? .u . .g,_‘ ‘ ' , 4.; -, u ’1" an}: - V min. , . . I, My“ CHAPTER V.—CONI‘INUED. I stooped to the hole, and recoiled in horror. Moonlight was streaming into the room, and it was bright with a vague and shifty radiance. Looking straight at me, and suspended, as it were, in the air, for all beneath was in shadow, there hung a face—the, very face of our companion Thaddeus. There was the same high, shining head, the same circular bristle of red hair. the same bloodless countenance. The features were set, however, in a horrible smile, a fixed and unnatural grin, which in that still ,and moonlit room was more jarring to the nerves than any scowl or contortion. So like. was the face to that of our little friend that I looked round at him to make sure that he was indeed with us. Then I recalled to mind that he had men- tioned to us that his brother and he were twins. “This is terrible!” I said to Holmes. “What is to be done?” “The door must come down,” he an- swered, and, springing against it, he put all his weight upon the lock. 1t creaked and groaned, but did not yield. Together we flung ourselves upon it once more, and this time it gave way with a sudden snap, and we found our- selves within Bartholomew Sholto’s Chamber. ' . It appeared to have been fitted up as aehemical laboratory. A double line of glass-stoppered [bottles was drawn up upon the wall opposite the door, and the table was littered over with Bunsen burners, test tubes and retorts. In the corners stood carboys of acid in wicker baskets. One of these appeared to leak or to have been broken, for a stream of dark-colored liquid had trickled out from it, and the air was heavy with a peculiarly pungent tar- like odor. A set of steps stood at one side of the room, in the midst of a lit- ter of lath and plaster, and above them there was an opening in 'the ceil- ing large enough. for a man to pass through. At the foot of the stepsa long coil of rope was thrown carelessly together. . By the table, in a wooden arm-chair, the master of ‘ the house was seated all in a heap, with his head sunk upon his left shoulder, and that ghastly, inscrut- able smile upon his face. He was stiff and cold, and had clearly been dead many hours. It seemed to me that not only his features but all his limbs were twisted and turned in the'most fan- tastic fashion. By his hand upon the table there lay a peculiar instrument, —a brown, close-grained stick, with a stone head like a hammer, rudely lashed on with coarse twine. Beside it was a torp sheet of note paper with some words scrawled upon it. llolmes glanced at it, and then handedit to me. “You see,” he said, with a significant raising of the eyebrows. In the light of the lantern I read, with a thrill of horror: “The sign of the four.” “In God‘s name, what does it all mean?” I asked. “It means murder,” said he, stooping over the dead man. “Ah, I expected it. l I I‘ N is lllllllfl ‘; : I!”y‘/;.f~‘~/ I my“ .nigiégvxs snrr AND COLD. Look‘ here!” He pointed to what looked skin just above the ear. “It looks like a thorn," said I. “It is a thorn. You may pick it out. But be careful, for it is poisoned.” I took it up between my finger and thumb. It came away from the skin so readily that hardly any mark was left behind. One tiny speck of blood showed were the puncture had been. “This is all an insoluble mystery to me,” said I. “It grows darker instead of clearer.” . “On the contrary,” he answered,- “it clears .every instant. I only require a few missing links to have an entirely connected case.” . We had almost forgotten our com- panion’s presence since we entered the chamber. He was still standing in the doorway, the very picture of terror, wringing his hands and moaning to | himself. Suddenly, however, he broke out into a sharp, querulous cry. “The treasure is gone!” he said. “They have robbed him of the treasure! There is the hole through which we lowered it. I helped him to do it. I was the last person who saw him! I left him here last night, andI heard him lock the door as I came down-‘ stairs.” “What time was that?” “It was ten o’clock. And now he is dead and the police will be, called in and Ishall be suspected of having a hand in it. Oh, yes, I am sure I shall. But you don’t think so, gentlemen? Surely you don’t think that it was I? , place. Is it likely that‘l would have brought “ . you here if it were 1? Oh, dear! oh, dear! I know that I shall go mad!” He jerked his arms and stamped his feet in a kind of convulsive frenzy. “You have no reason for fear, Mr. Sholto.” said llolmes. kindly, putting his hand upon his'sshoulder. “Take my advice and drive down to the station to report the matter to the police. Offer to assist them in every way. We shall wait here until your return.” The little man obeyed in a half- stupefied fashion. and we heard him stumbling down the stairs in the dark. CHAPTER 'VI. SHERLOCK HOLMES GIVES A DEMONSTRA- TION. “Now, \Vatson,” said Holmes, rub- bing his hands, “we have half an hour to ourselves. Let us make good use of it. My case is, as I have told you, almost Complete; but we must not err on the side of over—confidence. Simple as the case seems now, there may be something deeper underlying it.” “Simple!” I ejaculated. “Surely,” said he, with something of the air of a clinical professor expound- ing to his class. “Just sit in the cor- ner there, that your footprints may not complicate matters. Now to work. In the first place, how did these folks come, and how did they go? The door has not been opened since last night. Ilow of the window?” He carried the ,‘amp across to it, muttering his obsero 'vations aloud the while, but address- ing them to himself rather than to me. “Window is snibbed on the inner side. Framework is solid. No hinges at the side. Let us open it. No water pipe near. Roof quite out of reach. Yet a man has mounted by the window. . It rained a little last night. Here is the print of a mold upon the sill. And here is a circular muddy mark, and here again upon the floor, and here again by the table. See here, Watson! This is re ally a very pretty demonstration.” I looked at the round, well-defined muddy discs. “That is not a foot- mark," said I. “It is something much more valuable to us. It is the impression of a wooden stump. You see here on the sill is the boot mark, a heavy boot with a broad metal heel, and beside it is the mark of the timber-toe.” . “It is the wooden-legged man.” “Quite so. But there has been some one else—a very able and efiicient ally. Could you scale that wall, doctor?” I looked out of the open window. The moon still shone brightly on that angle of the house. We were a good sixty feet from the ground, and, look where I would, I could see no foothold, nor as much as a crevice in the brick- work. > - “It is absolutely impossible,” I an— swered. “Without aid it is so. But suppose you had a friend up here who lowered you this good, stout rope which I see in the comer, securing one end of it to this great hook in the wall. Then,I think, if you were an active man, you might swarm up, wooden leg and all. You would depart, of course. in the same fashion, and your ally would draw up the rope, untie it from the hook, shut the window, snib it on the inside, and get away in the way that he originally came. As a minor point, it may be noted,” he continued, fingering the rope, “that our wooden-legged friend, though a fair climber, was not a professional sailor. His hands were far from horny. My lens discloses more than one blood mark, especially toward the end of the rope, from which I gather that he slipped down with such velocity that he took the skin off his hands.” , “This is all very well,” said I, “but the thing becomes more unintelligible than ever. How about this mysterious ally? How came he into the room?” “Yes. the ally!” repeated Holmes, pensively. “There are features of in- terest about this ally. Ile lifts the case from the regions of the common- I fancy that this ally breaks fresh ground in the annals of crime in this country—though parallel cases suggest themselves from India, and, if my memory serves me, from Senegam- bia.” “How came he, then?” I reiterated. “The door is locked, the window is in- accessible. Was it through the chim- ney?” “The grate is much too small,” he ansWered. “I had already considered that possibility.” “How then?” I persisted “You Will not apply my precept,” he said,shaking his head. “How often have I said to you that when you have elimi- nated the impossible, whatever re- mains, however improbable, must be the truth? We know that he did not come through, the door, the window, or the chimney. We also know that he could not have been concealed in the room, as ‘there is no concealment pos- sible. Whence, then, did he come?” “He came through the hole in the roof," I cried. “Of course he did. He must have done so. If you will have the kindness to hold the lamp for me, we shall now extend our, researches to the room above—the secret room in which the treasure was found.” He mounted the steps, and, seizing a rafter with either hand, he swung him- self up into the garret. Then, lying on his face, he reached down for the lamp and held it while I followed him. The chamber in which we found our- selves was about ten feet one way by six the other. The floor was formed by the rafters, with thin lath-and-plaster between, so that 'in walking one had to-stcp from beam to beam. The roof impatience. - he said, in an off-hand way. ‘\_ ran up to an apex, and was evidently I the inner shell of the true roof of the house. There was no furniture of any sort, and the accumulated dust of. years lay thick upon the floor. , “Here you are, you see,” said Sher- lock Holmes, putting his hand against the sloping wall. “This is a trap-door which leads out onto the roof. I can press it back, and here is the roof it- self, sloping at a gentle angle. This, then, is the way by which Number One entered. Let us see if we can find some other traces of his individuality.” He held down the lamp to the floor, and as he did so I saw for the second time that night a startled, surprised look come over his face. For myself, as I followed his gaze my skin was cold under my clothes. 'The float was covered thickly with the prints of a naked foot—clear, well defined, per- fectly formed, but scarce half the size of those of an ordinary man. “Holmes.” I said, in awhisper, “a child has done this horrid thing.” He had recovered his self-possession in an instant. "‘I was staggered for the moment,” he said, “but the thing is quite natural. My memory failed me. or I should have been able to fore- tell it. There is nothing more to be learned here. Let us go down.” “What is your theory, then, as to those footmarks?” I asked, eagerly, when we had regained the lower room once more. . “My dear Watson, try a little analy- sis yourself,” said he, with a touch of “You know my methods. Apply them, and it will be instructive to compare results.” “I cannot conceive anything which will cover the facts.” I answered. “It will be clear enough to you soon,” "‘I think that there is nothing else of impor- tance- here, but I will look.” He . illa- is. I" J' "5",. E , it: ‘11. " . j - ‘ , ,_. :, E ,\ HE HELD DOWN THE LAMP TO THE FLOOR. whipped out his lens and a tape meas- ure, and hurried about the room on his knees, measuring, comparing, examin— ing, with his long thin nose only a few inches from the planks, and his beady eyes gleaming and deep—set like those of a bird. So swift, silent and furtive were his movements, like those of a trained blood-hound picking out a scent, that I could not but think what a terrible criminal he would have made had he turned his energy and sagacity against the law. instead of ex- erting them in its defense. As he hunted about, he kept muttering to himself, and finally he broke out into loud crow of delight. “We are certainly in luck,” said he. “We ought to have very little trouble now. Number One has had the misfor- tune to tread in the creosote. You can see the outline of the edge of his small foot here at the side of this evil-smell- ing mess. The carboy has been cracked, you see, and the stuff has leaked out.” “What then?” I asked. ' “Why, we have got him, that’s all,” said he. “I know a dog that would follow that scent to the world’s end. If a pack can track a trailed herring across a shire, how far can a spe cially- trained hound follow so pungent a smell as this? It sounds like a sum in the rule of three. The answer should give us the— But halloo! here are the accredited representatives of the law.” Heavy steps and the clamor of loud voices were audible from below, and the hall door shut with a loud crash. “Before they come,” sitid Holmes, "just put your hand here on this poor fellow’s arm, and here on his leg. What do you feel?” “The muscles are as hard as aboard,” I answered. "Quite so. They are in a state of ex- treme contraction, far exceeding. the usual rigor mortis. Coupled with this distortion of the face. this Hippocratic smile, or ‘risus sardonicus.’ as the old writers called it, what conclusion would it suggest to your mind?" “Death from some powerful vegeta~ ble alkaloid," I answered—”some strychnine-like substance which would produce tetanus.” “That was the idea, which occurred to me the instant I saw the drawn muscles of the face. On getting into the room I at once looked for the means by which the poison had entered the system. As you saw, I discovered a thorn which had been driven or shot with no great force into the scalp. You observe that the part struck was that which would be turned towards the hole in the ceiling if the man were erect in his chair. Now examine this thorn.” I took it up gingerly and held it in the light of the lantern. It was long, sharp and black, with a glazed look near the point as though some gummy substance had dried upon it. The blunt end had been trimmed ‘and rounded off with a knife. “Is this an English thorn?” he asked. “N o, it certainly is not.” “With all these data you should be able to draw some just inference. But here are the regulars; so the auxiliary forces may. beat a retreat.” As he spoke, the steps which had been coming nearer sounded loudly on the passage, and a very stout, portly man in a gray suit strode heavily into the room. He was red-faced, burly and plethoric, with a pair of very small twinkling eyes which looked keenly out from behind swollen and puffy pouches. He wasclosely followed by an inspector in uniform. and by the still palpitating Thaddeus Shelto. man--__-_.u.- '\ W 'E E Kr. Y :TN. o W 'A 1.1:: e7 A ZETTE ' the matter. . - . . . . ! “I’ieres a busmess!” he cried, in a -mufiled husky voice. “Here’s a pretty business! But who are all these? Why, the house seems to be as full as a rab- bit-warren. ” “I think you very much recollect me” Mr. Athelney Jones,” said Holmes, quietly. “Why, of course I do!” he wheezed. “It's Mr Sherlock Holmes, the theo- rist. Remember you! I’ll never forget how you lectured us all on causes and inferences and effects in the Bishop- gate jewel case. . It’s true you set us on the right track; but you’ll own now that it was more by good luck than good guidance.” “It was a piece of very simple rea- soning.” “Oh, come, now, come! Never be ashamed, to own up. But what is all this? Bad business! Bad business! Stern facts here—no room for theories. How lucky that I happened to be out at Norwood over another case! the station when the message arrived. What d’you think the man died of?” “Oh, this is hardly a case for me to theorize over,” said Holmes, dryly. “No, no. Still, we can’t deny that you hit the nail on the head sometimes. Dear me! Door locked, Iunderstand. Jewels worth half a million missing. How was the window?” “Fastened; but there are steps on the sill.” . “Well, well, if it was fastened the steps could have nothing to do with That’s common sense. ,Man might have died in a fit; but then the jewels are missing. Ha! I have a theory. These flashes come upon me at times. Just step outside,'sergeant, and you, Mr. Sholto. Your friend can remain. What do you think of this, Holmes? Sholto was, on his own con- fession, with his brother last night. The brother died in a fit, on which Sholto walked ofi‘ with the treasure. How’s that?” “On which the dead man very con- siderately got up and locked the door on the inside.” “Ilum! There’s a flaw there. Let us apply common sense to the matter. This Thaddeus Sholto was with his brother; there was a quarrel; so much we know. The brother is dead and the jewels are gone. So much also we know. N 0 one saw the brother from the time Thaddeus left him. His bed had not been slept in. Thaddeus is evidently in a most. disturbed state of mind. His appearance is—well, not at- tractive. You see that I am weaving my web round Thaddeus. The net be- gins to close upon him.” “You are not quite in possession of the facts yet,” said Holmes. “This splinter of wood, which I have every reason to believe to be poisoned, was in the man’s scalp where you still see the mark; this card, inscribed as you see it, was on the table; and beside it lay this rather curious stone—headed instrument. How does all that fit into your theory?” “Confirms it in every respect,” said the fat detective, pompously. “House is full of Indian curiosities. Thaddeus brought this up, and if this splinter be poisonous Thaddeus may as well have made murderous use of it as any other man. The card is some hocus—pocus— a blind, as like as not. The only ques- tion is, how did he depart? Ah, of course, here is a hole in the roof.” With great activity, considering his bulk, he Sprang up the steps and squeezed through into the garret, and immediately afterwards we heard his exulting voice proclaiming that he had found the trap-door. “He can find something,” remarked Iolmes, shrugging his shoulders. “He has occasional glimmerings of reason. I’l n'y a pas d'cs sots si incommodes que ceux qui ont de I’esprit!” “You see!" said Athelney Jones, re- appearing down the steps again. “Facts are better than mere theories, after all. My view of the case is con— firmed. There is a trap-door commu- nicating with the roof, and it is partly open.” “It was I who opened it.” “Oh, indeed! You did notice it, then?” He seemedalittle crestfallen at the discovery. “Well, whoever no- “courmns 11: IN EVERY RESPECT.” ticed it, it shows how our gentleman got away. Inspector!” “Yes, sir," from the' passage. “Ask Mr. Sholto to step this way.—-— Mr. Sholto, it is my duty to inform you that anything which you may say will be used against you. I arrest you in the queen's name as being concerned in the death of your brother.” “There, now! . Didn’t I tell you?” cried the poor little ‘man, throwing out his hands and looking from one to the other of us. “Don’t trouble yourself about it, Mr. Sholto," said Holmes. “I think that I can engage to clear you of the charge.” “Don’t promise too much, Mr. Theo- rist—don’t promise too much!” snapped the detective. “You may find ita hard- er matter than vou think.” - (To be continue d.) Telford Roads. The Selectmenare in receipt of speci- fications from the State Highway com- missioners in reference to the building of telford roads m\ which the State pays a percentage of the cost. They. are rigid and If Milo-wed cannothelp 0! developing good roads. I was at , —————‘ H O-v~.-‘-+O—-<’———-—— «illnly Eight-Page [Inc Gent Paper in. Connecticut ‘ .g SOLD :IN Norwalk, South NOrWalk, East Non walk, Westport, Saugatuck, New Canaan, Darion. Rowayton, ‘ and Noroton. No other Paper in Norwalk compares with it to: Local and General News. Its local news is bright. reliable and well written. ‘1 After once reading The Evening Gazette you will be convinced that it is the best evening paper in Western Connecticut, and will take no other. Having a special correspondent in each town, it is en- abled' to furnish the latest and freshest news. ONLYICENT. SUBSCRIBE FOR IT. OFFICE OPEN MY AND EVENING. it"? Ask your newsdealer or newsboy to bring 11.- to-you for a. week. \
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