His Last Bow

xperience of Mr.

t at our lunch, and he had scribbled a reply. He made no remark, but the matter remained in his thoughts, for he stood in front of the fire afterwards wi

you as a man of letters," said he. "Ho

emarkable,"

s head at m

a long-suffering public, you will recognize how often the grotesque has deepened into the criminal. Think of that little affair of the red-headed men. That was grotesque enough in the outset, and

it there

he telegr

dible and grotesque exper

tt E

ice, Char

woman?"

would ever send a reply-paid t

you se

ot connected up with the work for which it was built. Life is commonplace; the papers are sterile; audacity and romance seem to have passed forever from the cri

vy features and pompous manner. From his spats to his gold-rimmed spectacles he was a Conservative, a churchman, a good citizen, orthodox and conventional to the last degree. But same amazin

r in my life have I been placed in such a situation. It is most improper - most ou

lmes in a soothing voice. "May I ask, in t

e heard the facts, you must admit that I could not leave it where it was. Private detectives a

second place, why did

do you

anced at

about one. But no one can glance at your toilet and attire without

n his unbrushed hair an

e. But I have been running round making inquiries before I came to you. I went to the house agents, you know,

rong end foremost. Please arrange your thoughts and let me know, in their due sequence, exactly what those events are which

h a rueful face at his own

uch a thing has ever happened before. But I will tell you the whole queer business, and

al-looking individuals, one of whom was well known to us as Inspector Gregson of Scotland Yard, an energetic, gallant, and, within his

this direction." He turned his bulldog eyes upon our visit

a

lowing you about

ugh the telegram, no

d up the scent at Charing Cros

follow me? Wha

events which led up to the death last night of M

ng eyes and every tinge of colou

you say h

ir, he

w? An a

er there was o

You don't mean - you don't

an's pocket, and we know by it that you ha

I

u did,

he officia

rlock Holmes. "All you desire i

n Mr. Scott Eccles that i

would do him no harm. Now, sir, I suggest that you take no notice of this addition to your audience, a

urned to his face. With a dubious glance at the inspector's

lle, living at Albemarle Mansion, Kensington. It was at his table that I met some weeks ago a young fellow named Garcia. He was, I understood, of Spanish de

hin two days of our meeting he came to see me at Lee. One thing led to another, and it ended in his inviting me out to spend a

English and did his housekeeping for him. Then there was a wonderful cook he said, a half-breed whom he had picked up in his travels, who could serve an excellent dinner. I

knew so slightly. He opened the door himself, however, and greeted me with a great show of cordiality. I was handed over to the manservant, a melancholy, swarthy individual, who led the way, my bag in his hand, to my bedroom. The whole place was depressing. Our dinner was tete-a-tete, and though my host did his best to be entertaining, his thoughts seemed to continually wander, and he talked so vaguely and wildly

it he seemed even more distrait and strange than before. He gave up all pretence at conversation and sat, smoking endless cigarettes, lost in his own thoughts, but he made no remark as to the contents. About eleven I was glad to go to bed. Some time lat

lt. Then I came to the conclusion that the bell was out of order. I huddled on my clothes and hurried downstairs in an exceedingly bad temper to order some hot water. You can imagine my surprise when I found that there was no one there. I shouted in the hall. There was no answer. Then I ran from room to room. All were deserted. My host ha

chuckling as he added this bizarre incid

now, perfectly unique," said he. "

out of the rent. It is late in March, so quarter-day is at hand. But this theory would not work. The agent was obliged to me for my warning, but told me that the rent had been paid in advance. Then I made my way to town and called at the Spanish embassy. The man was unknown there. After this I went to see Melville, at whose house I had first met Garcia, but I found that he really knew rather less about him than I did. Finally when I got your reply to my wir

und to say that everything which you have said agrees very closely with the facts as they have come to our not

rolled it up and thr

say to that

ness by two extraordinarily bright eyes, almost hidden behind the heavy creases of cheek a

nd he overpitched it. I picked thi

led his ap

house very carefully to fi

t's my way. Shall I r

ndoner

f in two snips with a short-bladed scissors. It has been folded over three times and sealed with purple wax, put

en open, white shut. Main stair, first

peed

, but the address is either done with another pen or b

xamination of it. A few trifling points might perhaps be added. The oval seal is undoubtedly a plain sleeve-link - what else is of s

y detectiv

over," he said. "I'm bound to say that I make nothing of the note except that th

idgeted in his seat du

said he. "But I beg to point out that I have not yet heard what

s of a sandbag or some such instrument, which had crushed rather than wounded. It is a lonely corner, and there is no house within a quarter of a mile of the spot. He had apparently be

bbe

as no attemp

e, "but it is really uncommonly hard upon me. I had nothing to do with my host going off upon

of his death. It was the envelope of this letter which gave us the dead man's name and address. It was after nine this morning when we reached his house and found neither

into an official shape. You will come round with us to the stati

your services, Mr. Holmes. I desire you to spa

ed to the coun

o objection to my collabor

oured, sir,

in all that you have done. Was there any clue, may I

ere was rain about that time, and his de

lient. "His voice is unmistakable. I could swear to it that

o means impossible,"

clue?" ask

features. A further knowledge of facts is necessary before I would venture to give a final and definite opinion

ked at my friend

. Perhaps when I have finished at the police-station you

bell. "You will show these gentlemen out, Mrs. Hudson, and kindly s

s smoked hard, with his brows drawn down over his keen eyes, and h

turning suddenly upon me

of this mystificat

the c

ompanions, I should say that they were in some way

strange that his two servants should have been in a conspiracy against him and should have attacked hi

y did th

uity to furnish an explanation which would cover both these big facts? If it were one which would also admit of the mysterious note with its very curious phraseology, why, then it woul

is our h

in his chair with

le. There were grave events afoot, as the sequel showed, and the coa

possible c

e touch with him until he got him down to Esher. Now, what did he want with Eccles? What could Eccles supply? I see no charm in the man. He is not particularly intelligent - not a man likely to be congenial to a quick-witted Latin. Why, then, was he picked out from all the other people whom Garcia met as parti

was he t

everything had they gone another w

ght have prov

g of the clocks it is quite possible that they may have got Scott Eccles to bed earlier than he thought but in any case it is likely that when Garcia went out of his way to tell him that it was one it was really not more than twelve. If Garcia could do whatever

But how about the disap

ble difficulties. Still, it is an error to argue in front of your data.

he mes

ain stair, first corridor, seventh right, green baize.' This is an assignation. We may find a jealous husband at the bottom of

est that 'D' stands for Dolores

is certainly English. Well, we can only possess our souls in patience until this excellent inspector comes back for us. Me

returned. Holmes read it and was about to place it in his notebook when h

in exalted ci

s a list of nam

Hynes Hynes, J.P., Purdey Place; Mr. James Baker Williams, Forton Ol

perations," said Holmes. "No doubt Baynes, with his me

quite und

perfectly clear that the house is a very large one. It is equally certain that this house cannot be more than a mile or two from Oxshott since Garcia was walking in that direction and hoped, according to my reading of the facts, to be back in Wisteria Lodge in time to avail himself of an alibi, which w

urselves in the pretty Surrey village of Es

y of the detective on our visit to Wisteria Lodge. It was a cold, dark March evening, with a sharp wind and a fine rain b

iger of

my avenue of chestnuts. The curved and shadowed drive led us to a low, dark house, pitch-black against a s

and on the pane. Through the fogged glass I dimly saw a man spring up from a chair beside the fire, and heard a sharp cry from withi

r, Walters?" aske

with his handkerchief and

s been a long evening, and I don't t

ould not have thought you

the queer thing in the kitchen. Then when you t

t had com

or all I know. It

t the windo

in the chair. I don't know what made me look up, but there was a face looking in at

This is not talk for

ith a splash of milk in it. Then there was the size of it - it was twice yours, sir. And the look of it - the great staring goggle eyes, and the line of white teeth like a hungry

his. If it were the devil himself a constable on duty should never thank God that he could

"Yes," he reported, after a short examination of the grass bed, "a number twelve shoe, I sh

ecame o

n through the shrubbery

nd whatever he may have wanted, he's gone for the present, and we have more immediate thi

been taken over with the house. A good deal of clothing with the stamp of Marx and Co., High Holborn, had been left behind. Telegraphic inquiries had been already made which showed that Marx knew n

andle in hand, from room to room. "But now, Mr.

er in one corner, which served apparently as a bed for the cook. The table was p

id Baynes. "What d

een. One could but say that it was black and leathery and that it bore some resemblance to a dwarfish, human figure. At first, as I examined it, I thought that it was a mummified negro ba

, indeed!" said Holmes, peering at t

nd body of some large, white bird, torn savagely to pieces with the feathers still

Most interesting! It is re

the sink he drew a zinc pail which contained a quantity of blood. Then f

ned. We raked all these out of the fire. We had a doc

ed and rubb

nctive and instructive a case. Your powers, if I may say

s small eyes twin

. A case of this sort gives a man a chance, and I hope

should say,

e white

very curious. I shou

One of them is dead. Did his companions follow him and kill him? If they did we should have them, fo

e a theo

do so. Your name is made, but I have still to make mine. I should be g

ghed good-

s very much at your service if you care to apply to me for them. I think that I have seen all that I wi

a subdued eagerness and suggestion of tension in his brightened eyes and brisker manner which assured me that the game was afoot. After his habit he said nothing, and after mine I asked no q

ne morning he spent in town, and I learned from a casual reference that he had visited the British Museum. Save for this one excursion,

n the hedges and the catkins on the hazels once again. With a spud, a tin box, and an elementary book on botany, there are instructive d

eeted my companion. He said little about the case, but from that little we gathered that he also was not dissatisfied at the course of events.

SHOTT

OLU

SUPPOSED

r as if he had been stung

"You don't mean tha

d I as I read the

made by Inspector Baynes, who has the case in hand, to ascertain the hiding place of the fugitives, and he had good reason to believe that they had not gone far but were lurking in some retreat which had been already prepared. It was certain from the first, however, that they would eventually be detected, as the cook, from the evidence of one or two tradespeople who have caught a glimpse of him through the window, was a man of most remarkable appearance - being a huge and hideous mulatto, with yellowish features of a pronounced negroid type. This man has been seen since the crime, for he was

ill just catch him before he starts." We hurried down the village street and

Mr. Holmes?" he asked,

don't think it a liberty if I giv

ing, Mr.

not convinced that you are on the right lines. I don't

ry kind, M

u I speak fo

e a wink quivered for an instant o

r own lines, Mr. Holmes.

" said Holmes.

But we all have our own systems, Mr. Holm

y no more

rse and as fierce as the devil. He chewed Downing's thumb nearly off before they could mas

e evidence that he mur

so. We all have our little ways. You try you

seems to be riding for a fall. Well, as he says, we must each try our own way and see wh

on, as I may need your help to-night. Let me show you the evolution of this case so far as I have been able to follow it. Simple as it has been in its lead

for the presence of Scott Eccles, which could only have been done for the purpose of an alibi. It was Garcia, then, who had an enterprise, and apparently a criminal enterprise, in hand that night in the course of which he met his death. I say 'crimi

hman's evidence, and all would be well. But the attempt was a dangerous one, and if Garcia did not return by a certain hour it was probable that his own life had been sacrificed. It had been arranged, therefore, that

ghten out before me. I wondered, as I always

uld one serv

ious, something which he could not bear to part with, had been

t is the n

s in which in the intervals of my botanical researches I made a reconnaissance of all the large houses and an examination of the family history of the occupants. One house, and only one, riveted my attention. It is the famous old Jacobean grange of High Gable, one mile on the farther side of Oxshott, and less than

ay hair, great bunched black eyebrows, the step of a deer, and the air of an emperor - a fierce, masterful man, with a red-hot spirit behind his parchment face. He is either a foreigner or has lived long in the tropics, for he is yellow and sapless, but tough as whipcord. His friend a

hwoman of forty or thereabouts. There is also one confidential manservant. This little group forms the real family, for they travel about together, and Henderson is a great traveller, always on the move. It is only within the last few weeks that he has returned, after a

ck, but it would not have come my way had I not been looking out for it. As Baynes remarks, we all have our systems. It was my system which enabled me to find John Warner, late gardener of High Gable, sack

certain door, which forms the one connection. Governess and children hardly go out at all, except into the garden. Henderson never by any chance walks alone. His dark secretary is like his shadow. The gossip among the servants is that their master is terribly afraid of something. 'Sold his soul to the devil

eady been planned. Who wrote the note? It was someone within the citadel, and it was a woman. Who then but Miss Burnet, the governess? All our reasoning seems to point that way. At any rate, we may take it as

s and hatred against those who had killed him and would presumably help so far as she could to have revenge upon them. Could we see her, then, and try to use her? That was my first thought. But now we come to a sinister fact. Miss Burnet has not been seen by an

woman's disappearance counts for nothing, since in that extraordinary household any member of it might be invisible for a week. And yet she may at the present moment be in danger of her l

o you s

f an outhouse. My suggestion is that you and I go to-night

nd the fact that we were putting ourselves legally in a false position all combined to damp my ardour. But there was something in the ice-cold reasoning of Holmes which made it i

s an ending. It was about five o'clock, and the shadows of the March eve

y the last train. The lady broke away,

s, springing to his feet. "Watso

traces of some recent tragedy. Her head hung listlessly upon her breast, but as she raised it and turned her dull

ing in her sleep, but when they tried to get her into the train she came to life and struggled. They pushed her into the carriage. She fought her way out again. I took her part, got

strongest coffee soon cleared her brain from the mists of the drug. Bayne

said the inspector warmly, shaking my friend by the

were after

igh Gable I was up one of the trees in the plantation and saw

d you arrest

s chu

o move so long as he thought he was in any danger. I arrested the wrong man to make him believe that our eye

and upon the insp

profession. You have insti

ushed wit

m in sight. But he must have been hard put to it when Miss Burnet broke away. However, your man picked her up, and

lmes, glancing at the governess. "But tel

wered, "is Don Murillo, once c

upon a cowering people for ten or twelve years. His name was a terror through all Central America. At the end of that time there was a universal rising against him. But he was as cunning as he was cruel, and at the first whisper of coming trouble he had secretly conveyed his treasures aboard a ship which was

te, same as in the note, Mr. Holmes. Henderson he called himself, but I traced him back, Paris and Rome and Madrid to Barcelona, where his

e evil spirit shielded him. Now, again, it is the noble, chivalrous Garcia who has fallen, while the monster goes safe. But another will come, and yet another, until

Burnet?" asked Holmes. "How can an Engli

go in San Pedro, or for the shipload of treasure which this man has stolen? To you they are like crimes committed in some other planet. But we know. We have le

you say. I have heard that he was

my real name is Signora Victor Durando - was the San Pedro minister in London. He met me and married me there. A nobler man never lived upon earth. Unhappily, Murillo heard of his excellence, r

my part after we had discovered in the transformed Henderson the fallen despot, to attach myself to his household and keep the others in touch with his movements. This I was able to do by securing the position of governess in his family. He little knew that the woman who faced him at every meal was the woman whose husban

e during the day, for Murillo took every precaution and never went out save with his satellite Lucas, or Lopez as he was known in the days of his greatness. At night, however, he slept alone, and the avenger might find him. On a certain evening, which had been prearranged, I sent my f

t they determined to get rid forever of Garcia. They had gagged me, and Murillo twisted my arm round until I gave him the address. I swear that he might have twisted it off had I understood what it would mean to Garcia. Lopez addressed the note which I had written, sealed it with his sleeve-link, and sent it by the hand of the servant, Jose. How they murdered him I do not know, save that it was Murillo's hand who struck him down, for Lopez had remained to guard me. I

thrust into my mouth on the one occasion when I tried to call from the window. For five days this cruel imprisonment continued, with hardly enough food to hold body and soul together. This afternoon a good lunch was brought me, but the moment after I took it I knew that I had been drugged. In a sort of dream I remember being half-led, half-carried to the ca

this remarkable statement. It

marked, shaking his head. "Our police

n act of self-defence. There may be a hundred crimes in the b

tice a man in cold blood with the object of murdering him is another, whatever danger you may fear from hi

ate into Curzon Square. From that day they were seen no more in England. Some six months afterwards the Marquess of Montalva and Signor Rulli, his secretary, were both murdered in their rooms at the Hotel Escurial at Madrid. The crime was ascribed to Nihilism, and the murderers

further complicated by the highly respectable presence of our friend, Scott Eccles, whose inclusion shows me that the deceased Garcia had a scheming mind and a well-developed instinct of self-preservation. It is remarkable only for the fact

the mulatto c

the companion had persuaded him to leave so compromising an article of furniture. But the mulatto's heart was with it, and he was driven back to it next day, when, on reconnoitring through the window, he found policeman Walters in possession. He waited three days longer

od, the charred bones, all the

e turned up an ent

p on that and other points. Here is a quotation fr

his unclean gods. In extreme cases these rites take the form of human sacrifices followed by cannibalism. The more u

Watson," Holmes added, as he slowly fastened his notebook, "but, as I have had