His Last Bow

my boots. I was reclining in a cane-backed chair at the moment

e surprise. "I got them at L

h an expression o

relaxing and expensive Turkish rather

c and old. A Turkish bath is what we call an alterative in

my boots and a Turkish bath is a perfectly self-evident one to a logi

ous twinkle. "It belongs to the same elementary class of deduction which I should

llustration is an explanation

e some splashes on the left sleeve and shoulder of your coat. Had you sat in the centre of a hansom you would probably have had no splashes, and if you

s very

ommonplace,

boots and

s not your usual method of tying them. You have, therefore, had them off. Who has tied them? A bootmaker - or the boy at the bath. It is unlikely that it i

is t

suggest that you take one. How would Lausanne do, my dear Watson

did! B

s armchair and took his

iter of crime in others. She is helpless. She is migratory. She has sufficient means to take her from country to country and from hotel to hotel. She is lost, as often as not, in a maze of o

cent from the general to the part

ome very remarkable old Spanish jewellery of silver and curiously cut diamonds to which she was fondly attached - too attached, for she refused to leave them with her banker and always carried them abo

appened to

to Miss Dobney, her old governess, who has long retired and lives in Camberwell. It is this Miss Dobney who has consulted me. Nearly five weeks have passed without a word. The last letter was from the

rce of information? Surely s

s are compressed diaries. She banks at Silvester's. I have glanced over her account. The last check but one paid her

m, and

eck was drawn. It was cashed at the Credit Lyonnais at Montp

s Miss Mar

Frances Carfax. Why she should have paid her this check we have not yet determin

esear

nciples it is best that I should not leave the country. Scotland Yard feels lonely without me, and it causes an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes. Go, then, my

he was still handsome and bore every sign of having in her youth been a very lovely woman. M. Moser knew nothing of any valuable jewellery, but it had been remarked by the servants that the heavy trunk in the lady's bedroom was always scrupulously locked. Marie Devine, the maid, was as p

, the lover of the maid, had any suggestion to offer. He connected the sudden departure with the visit to the hotel a day or two before of a tall, dark, bearded man. "Un sauvage - un veritable sauvage!" cried Jules Vibart. The man had rooms somewhere in the town. He had been seen talking earnestly to Madame on the promenade by the lake. Then he had called. She had refused to see him. He was English, but of

that she had gone with the intention of throwing someone off her track. Otherwise why should not her luggage have been openly labelled for Baden? Both she and it reached the Rhenish spa by some circuitous rout

ontracted in the exercise of his apostolic duties affected her deeply. She had helped Mrs. Shlessinger in the nursing of the convalescent saint. He spent his day, as the manager described it to me, upon a lounge-chair on the veranda, with an attendant lady upon either side of him. He was preparing a map of the Holy Land, with special reference to the kingdom of the Midianites, upon which he was writing a monograph. Finally,

ly friend of Lady Frances Carfax who is inquiring after her just n

ve a name?

Englishman, though

g my facts after the fashi

who looks as if he would be more at home in a farmers' inn than in a fashionable h

eared him, or she would not have fled from Lausanne. He had still followed. Sooner or later he would overtake her. Had he already overtaken her? Was that the secret of her continued silence? Could the

r a description of Dr. Shlessinger's left ear. Holmes's ideas of humour are strange and occasionally offensive, so I took no no

ad suspicions of her honesty, and this had made the parting easier than it would otherwise have been. Lady Frances had given her fifty pounds as a wedding-present. Like me, Marie viewed with deep distrust the stranger who had driven her mistress from Lausanne. With her own eyes she had seen him seize the lady's wrist with great violence on the public promenade by the lake. He was a fierce and terrible man. She believed that it was out of dread o

down the centre of the street and staring eagerly at the numbers of the houses. It was clear that, like mys

n Englishm

asked with a most

what your

not," said he

rd, but the most direct

Lady Frances C

at me in

Why have you pursued her? I

an unshaven French ouvrier in a blue blouse darted out from a cabaret opposite, with a cudgel in his hand, and struck my assailant a sharp crack over the forearm, which made him leave go his hold. He stood for an instant fum

have made of it! I rather think you had better

is sudden and opportune appearance was simplicity itself, for, finding that he could get away from London, he determined to head m

cannot at the moment recall any possible blunder which you have omitted. The total effe

ave done no better,"

Philip Green, who is a fellow-lodger with you in this hotel, and we

owed by the same bearded ruffian who had attack

I had your note and I have come. But wh

ssociate, Dr. Watson, who is

huge, sunburned hand, wi

responsible in these days. My nerves are like live wires. But this situation is beyond me. What I want

Miss Dobney, Lady

ith the mob cap! I

the days before - before you found

things that I had done, she would have no more to say to me. And yet she loved me - that is the wonder of it! - loved me well enough to remain single all her sainted days just for my sake alone. When the years had passed and I had made my money at Barberton I thought perhaps I could seek her out and soften her. I had heard that she was still unmarried. I found her at Lausanne

rlock Holmes with peculiar gravity. "W

m Hotel wil

ll that can be done will be done for the safety of Lady Frances. I can say no more for the instant. I will leave you this card so that you may be able to keep i

ich Holmes read with an exclamation of interest and threw across to m

this?"

ber my seemingly irrelevant question as to this cle

aden and coul

duplicate to the manager of the Eng

does i

d his identity to me, and this physical peculiarity - he was badly bitten in a saloon-fight at Adelaide in '89 - confirmed my suspicion. This poor lady is in the hands of a most infernal couple, who will stick at nothing, Watson. That she is already dead is a very likely supposition. If not, she is undoubtedly in some sort of confinement and unable to write to Miss Dobney or her other friends. It is always possible that she never reached London, or that she has passed through it, but the former is improbable, as, with their syst

iled. Clues were followed, and led to nothing. Every criminal resort which Shlessinger might frequent was drawn in vain. His old associates were watched but they kept clear of him. And then suddenly, after a week of helpless suspense, there came a flash of light. A silver-and-br

fresh development. His clothes were getting looser on his great body. He seemed to be wilting away in his

wn the jewels. We s

hat any harm has befa

k his head

, it is clear that they cannot let her loose without

can

do not know

N

sked, so if he is in need of ready-money he will probably come back to Bovington's. I will give you a note to them, and they will let you wait in the shop. If the fello

mmanded the Sea of Azof fleet in the Crimean War) brought us no news. On the evening of the third he rushed

! We have hi

. Holmes soothed him with a few wo

us the order of

me, but the pendant she brought was the fellow of th

he lady,"

the Kennington Road, and I kept behind her. Presently s

in that vibrant voice which told of t

that effect. The woman was excusing herself. 'It should be there before now,' she answered. 'It took longer, b

ently well. Wha

nd her. Then she called a cab and got in. I was lucky enough to get another and so to follow her. She got down at la

u see a

as standing there, wondering what I should do next, when a covered van drove up with two men in it. They desce

A

It was the woman who had opened it. But as I stood there she caught a glimpse of me, and I think that she re

thout a warrant, and you can serve the cause best by taking this note down to the authorities and getting one. There may be

while. What could the coffin mean, a

ied away, "he will set the regular forces on the move. We are, as usual, the irregulars, and we must take our own line of action. The si

n intercepted. Through some confederate they have engaged a furnished house. Once inside it, they have made her a prisoner, and they have become possessed of the valuable jewellery which has been their object from the first. Already they have begun to sell part of it, which seems s

ems very

r, beyond all doubt that the lady is dead. It points also to an orthodox burial with proper accompaniment of medical certificate and official sanction. Had the lady been obviously murdered, they would have buried her in a hole in the back garden. But here all is open and regular. What

e forged a medi

dently the undertaker's, for we have just passed the pawnbroker's. Would you go in, Watson? Your

atson, no mystery; everything aboveboard! In some way the legal forms have undoubtedly been complied with, and they

st

an't afford to wait for the police or to keep within the four corners of the law. You can drive off

entre of Poultney Square. It was opened immediately, and the

she asked sharply, peering

to Dr. Shlessin

swered, and tried to close the door, b

o lives here, whatever he may c

e any man in the world." She closed the door behind us and showed us into a sitting-room on the right si

d ourselves before the door opened and a big, clean-shaven bald-headed man stepped lightly into the room. He had a large

nctuous, make-everything-easy voice. "I fancy that you have bee

re Henry Peters, of Adelaide, late the Rev. Dr. Shlessinger, of Baden and

. "I guess your name does not frighten me, Mr. Holmes," said he coolly. "When a m

ith the Lady Frances Carfax, whom yo

pendants that the dealer would hardly look at. She attached herself to Mrs. Peters and me at Baden - it is a fact that I was using another name at the time - and she stuck on to us until we ca

lock Holmes. "I'm going through

s your w

m his pocket. "This will have t

are a comm

lly. "My companion is also a dangerous ruffian.

ent opene

was a whisk of feminine skirts down the pas

to stop us, Peters, you will most certainly get hurt.

he coffin? It is in use.

see th

ith my c

der a half-lit chandelier, the coffin was lying. Holmes turned up the gas and raised the lid. Deep down in the recesses of the coffin lay an emaciated figure. The glare from the lights above beat down upo

muttered. "It'

e, Mr. Sherlock Holmes," said Peter

this dea

istian folk should. On the third day she died - certificate says senile decay - but that's only the doctor's opinion, and of course you know better. We ordered her funeral to be carried out by Stimson and Co., of the Kennington Road, who will bury her at eight o'clock tomorrow morning.

under the jeers of his antagonist, but his

hrough your h

sage. "We'll soon see about that. This way, officers, if you please. These men have f

tood in the doorway. Holmes

address. This is my

well," said the sergeant, "but you

t. I quite un

im!" crie

eman if he is wanted," said the sergeant maje

n, we shall

olmes was as cool as ever, but I was hot with ang

olmes, but th

nt, you could no

on for your presence there. I

and we think she is in that hous

ies, Mr. Holmes. If anything comes

that it was indeed the truth that a charitable couple had called-some days before, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a forme

ficate in due form. "I assure you that everything was perfectly normal and there was no room for foul play in the matter," said he. Nothing in the house h

il next morning. If Holmes would call about nine he could go down with Lestrade and see it acted upon. So ended the day, save that near midnight our friend, the sergeant, called to say that

ing upon the arms of his chair, as he turned over in his mind every possible solution of the mystery. Several times in the course of the night I heard him prowling about the house. Fi

s, Watson, what has become of any brains that God has given me? Quick, man, quick! It's life or deat

truck as we tore down the Brixton Road. But others were late as well as we. Ten minutes after the hour the hearse was still standing at the door of the ho

his hand on the breast of the for

re is your warrant?" shouted the furious Peters, his b

This coffin shall remain i

atson, quick! Here is a screw-driver!" he shouted as the coffin was replaced upon the table. "Here's one for you, my man! A sovereign if the lid comes of

ody lay within, its head all wreathed in cotton-wool, which had been soaked in the narcotic. Holmes plucked it off and disclosed the statuesque

there a spark left? Sur

e flutter of life, some quiver of the eyelids, some dimming of a mirror, spoke of the slowly returning life. A cab had driven up, and Holmes, parting the blind, looked out at it. "Here is Lestrade with his warrant," said he. "He will find that his birds have flown. And here," he added as a heavy step hurri

a curious observation, had come under my notice and had been too easily dismissed. Then, suddenly, in the gray of the morning, the words came back to me. It was the remark of the undertaker's wife, as reported by Philip Green. She had said, 'It should be there before now. It took longer, being out of the ordinary.' It was the coffin of which she spoke. It had been out of the ordinary. That could only mean that it had been made

umed there was a chance for them. I hoped that such considerations might prevail with them. You can reconstruct the scene well enough. You saw the horrible den upstairs, where the poor lady had been kept so long. They rushed in and overpowered her with their chloroform, carried her down,