INITIALIZATION Knowledgebase: ki-dev-large Base Query: You are a super intelligent assistant. Please answer all my questions precisely and comprehensively. You have a large Knowledge Base with all the information of the user. This is the initial message to start the chat. Based on the following summary/context you should formulate an initial message greeting the user with the following user name diverse 1 2 tell them that you are the AI Chatbot Simon using the Large Language Model gemini-1.5-pro-preview-0409 to answer all questions. Formulate the initial message in the Usersettings Language German Please use the following context to suggest some questions or topics to chat about this knowledge base. List at least 3-10 possible topics or suggestions up and use emojis. The chat should be professional and in business terms. At the end ask an open question what the user would like to check on the list test summary Model: gemini-1.5-pro-preview-0409 Use Curl?: None ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.00 seconds** ================================================== ROUTING Query type: summary ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 1.81 seconds** ================================================== RAG PARAMETERS Max Context To Include: 100 Lowest Score to Consider: 0.1 ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.13 seconds** ================================================== VECTOR SEARCH ALGORITHM TO USE Use MMR search?: True Use Similarity search?: False ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.11 seconds** ================================================== VECTOR SEARCH DONE ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 6.31 seconds** ================================================== FILENAMES AND KEYWORDS Keywords Found: ['information', 'knowledge'] All file names: ['The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'not_empty_file.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Picture%20in%20the%20House.txt', 'The%20Tomb.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Picture%20in%20the%20House.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Tomb.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Picture%20in%20the%20House.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Picture%20in%20the%20House.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Tomb.txt', 'The%20Picture%20in%20the%20House.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Tomb.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Tomb.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Tomb.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt', 'The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt'] File names to FILTER: ['The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt'] ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 1.43 seconds** ================================================== PRIMER Primer: You are Simon, a highly intelligent personal assistant in a system called KIOS. You are a chatbot that can read knowledgebases through the "CONTEXT" that is included in the user's chat message. Your role is to act as an expert at summarization and analysis. In your responses to enterprise users, prioritize clarity, trustworthiness, and appropriate formality. Be honest by admitting when a topic falls outside your scope of knowledge, and suggest alternative avenues for obtaining information when necessary. Make effective use of chat history to avoid redundancy and enhance response relevance, continuously adapting to integrate all necessary details in your interactions. Use as much tokens as possible to provide a detailed response. ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.00 seconds** ================================================== FINAL QUERY Final Query: CONTEXT: ########## File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: chair. "Well, well, spend the day as you like," said Holmes, patting him cheerfully upon the shoulder. "Do what you like and go where you will, but meet me here before dusk without fail—without fail, Mr. Mac." "That sounds more like sanity." "All of it was excellent advice; but I don't insist, so long as you are here when I need you. But now, before we part, I want you to write a note to Mr. Barker." "Well?" "I'll dictate it, if you like. Ready? "Dear Sir: "It has struck me that it is our duty to drain the moat, in the hope that we may find some—" "It's impossible," said the inspector. "I've made inquiry." "Tut, tut! My dear sir, please do what I ask you." "Well, go on." "—in the hope that we may find something which may bear upon our investigation. I have made arrangements, and the workmen will be at work early to-morrow morning diverting the stream—" "Impossible!" "—diverting the stream; so I thought it best to explain matters beforehand. "Now sign that, and send it by hand about four o'clock. At that hour we shall meet again in this room. Until then we may each do what we like; for I can assure you that this inquiry has come to a definite pause." Evening was drawing in when we reassembled. Holmes was very serious in his manner, myself curious, and the detectives obviously critical and annoyed. "Well, gentlemen," said my friend gravely, "I am asking you now to put everything to the test with me, and you will judge for yourselves whether the observations I have made justify the conclusions to which I have come. It is a chill evening, and I do not know how long our expedition may last; so I beg that you will wear your warmest coats. It is of the first importance that we should be #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official page at http://pglaf.org For additional contact information: Dr. Gregory B. Newby Chief Executive and Director gbnewby@pglaf.org Section 4. 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Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "I thank you," said McMurdo, and shaking hands with his new acquaintance he plodded, gripsack in hand, up the path which led to the dwelling house, at the door of which he gave a resounding knock. It was opened at once by someone very different from what he had expected. It was a woman, young and singularly beautiful. She was of the German type, blonde and fair-haired, with the piquant contrast of a pair of beautiful dark eyes with which she surveyed the stranger with surprise and a pleasing embarrassment which brought a wave of colour over her pale face. Framed in the bright light of the open doorway, it seemed to McMurdo that he had never seen a more beautiful picture; the more attractive for its contrast with the sordid and gloomy surroundings. A lovely violet growing upon one of those black slagheaps of the mines would not have seemed more surprising. So entranced was he that he stood staring without a word, and it was she who broke the silence. "I thought it was father," said she with a pleasing little touch of a German accent. "Did you come to see him? He is downtown. I expect him back every minute." McMurdo continued to gaze at her in open admiration until her eyes dropped in confusion before this masterful visitor. "No, miss," he said at last, "I'm in no hurry to see him. But your house was recommended to me for board. I thought it might suit me—and now I know it will." "You are quick to make up your mind," said she with a smile. "Anyone but a blind man could do as much," the other answered. She laughed at the compliment. "Come right in, sir," she said. "I'm Miss Ettie Shafter, Mr. Shafter's daughter. My mother's dead, and I run the house. You can sit down by the stove in the front room until father comes along—Ah, here he is! So you can fix things with him right away." #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: You've seen how he's been opening his mouth against us again?" There was a murmur of assent, with many a muttered oath. McGinty took a slip of paper from his waistcoat pocket. "LAW AND ORDER! That's how he heads it. "REIGN OF TERROR IN THE COAL AND IRON DISTRICT "Twelve years have now elapsed since the first assassinations which proved the existence of a criminal organization in our midst. From that day these outrages have never ceased, until now they have reached a pitch which makes us the opprobrium of the civilized world. Is it for such results as this that our great country welcomes to its bosom the alien who flies from the despotisms of Europe? Is it that they shall themselves become tyrants over the very men who have given them shelter, and that a state of terrorism and lawlessness should be established under the very shadow of the sacred folds of the starry Flag of Freedom which would raise horror in our minds if we read of it as existing under the most effete monarchy of the East? The men are known. The organization is patent and public. How long are we to endure it? Can we forever live—" "Sure, I've read enough of the slush!" cried the chairman, tossing the paper down upon the table. "That's what he says of us. The question I'm asking you is what shall we say to him?" "Kill him!" cried a dozen fierce voices. "I protest against that," said Brother Morris, the man of the good brow and shaved face. "I tell you, Brethren, that our hand is too heavy in this valley, and that there will come a point where in self-defense every man will unite to crush us out. James Stanger is an old man. He is respected in the township and the district. His paper stands for all that is solid in the valley. If that man is struck down, there will be a stir through this state that will only end with our destruction." "And how would they bring about our destruction, Mr. Standback?" cried #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: l'Agneau fetched one million two hundred thousand francs—more than forty thousand pounds—at the Portalis sale may start a train of reflection in your mind." It was clear that it did. The inspector looked honestly interested. "I may remind you," Holmes continued, "that the professor's salary can be ascertained in several trustworthy books of reference. It is seven hundred a year." "Then how could he buy—" "Quite so! How could he?" "Ay, that's remarkable," said the inspector thoughtfully. "Talk away, Mr. Holmes. I'm just loving it. It's fine!" Holmes smiled. He was always warmed by genuine admiration—the characteristic of the real artist. "What about Birlstone?" he asked. "We've time yet," said the inspector, glancing at his watch. "I've a cab at the door, and it won't take us twenty minutes to Victoria. But about this picture: I thought you told me once, Mr. Holmes, that you had never met Professor Moriarty." "No, I never have." "Then how do you know about his rooms?" "Ah, that's another matter. I have been three times in his rooms, twice waiting for him under different pretexts and leaving before he came. Once—well, I can hardly tell about the once to an official detective. It was on the last occasion that I took the liberty of running over his papers—with the most unexpected results." "You found something compromising?" "Absolutely nothing. That was what amazed me. However, you have now seen the point of the picture. It shows him to be a very wealthy man. How did he acquire wealth? He is unmarried. His younger brother is a station master in the west of England. His chair is worth seven hundred a year. And he owns a Greuze." "Well?" "Surely the inference is plain." "You mean that he has a great income and that he must earn it in an illegal fashion?" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Valley of Fear Author: Arthur Conan Doyle Posting Date: May 15, 2009 [EBook #3776] Release Date: February, 2003 First Posted: September 3, 2001 Last Updated: February 10, 2005 Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF FEAR *** Produced by Toby F. Charkin. HTML version by Al Haines. The Valley Of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle CONTENTS PART 1—The Tragedy of Birlstone Chapter 1 The Warning 2 Sherlock Holmes Discourses 3 The Tragedy of Birlstone 4 Darkness 5 The People Of the Drama 6 A Dawning Light 7 The Solution PART 2—The Scowrers 1 The Man 2 The Bodymaster 3 Lodge 341, Vermissa 4 The Valley of Fear 5 The Darkest Hour 6 Danger 7 The Trapping of Birdy Edwards Epilogue PART 1 The Tragedy of Birlstone Chapter 1 The Warning "I am inclined to think—" said I. "I should do so," Sherlock Holmes remarked impatiently. I believe that I am one of the most long-suffering of mortals; but I'll admit that I was annoyed at the sardonic interruption. "Really, Holmes," said I severely, "you are a little trying at times." He was too much absorbed with his own thoughts to give any immediate answer to my remonstrance. He leaned upon his hand, with his untasted breakfast before him, and he stared at the slip of paper which he had just drawn #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations—that's the man! But so aloof is he from general suspicion, so immune from criticism, so admirable in his management and self-effacement, that for those very words that you have uttered he could hale you to a court and emerge with your year's pension as a solatium for his wounded character. Is he not the celebrated author of The Dynamics of an Asteroid, a book which ascends to such rarefied heights of pure mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it? Is this a man to traduce? Foul-mouthed doctor and slandered professor—such would be your respective roles! That's genius, Watson. But if I am spared by lesser men, our day will surely come." "May I be there to see!" I exclaimed devoutly. "But you were speaking of this man Porlock." "Ah, yes—the so-called Porlock is a link in the chain some little way from its great attachment. Porlock is not quite a sound link—between ourselves. He is the only flaw in that chain so far as I have been able to test it." "But no chain is stronger than its weakest link." "Exactly, my dear Watson! Hence the extreme importance of Porlock. Led on by some rudimentary aspirations towards right, and encouraged by the judicious stimulation of an occasional ten-pound note sent to him by devious methods, he has once or twice given me advance information which has been of value—that highest value which anticipates and prevents rather than avenges crime. I cannot doubt that, if we had the cipher, we should find that this communication is of the nature that I indicate." Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose and, leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscription, which ran as follows: 534 C2 13 127 36 31 4 17 21 41 #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "A widower." "Have you ever heard where his first wife came from?" "No, I remember his saying that she was of German extraction, and I have seen her portrait. She was a very beautiful woman. She died of typhoid the year before I met him." "You don't associate his past with any particular part of America?" "I have heard him talk of Chicago. He knew that city well and had worked there. I have heard him talk of the coal and iron districts. He had travelled a good deal in his time." "Was he a politician? Had this secret society to do with politics?" "No, he cared nothing about politics." "You have no reason to think it was criminal?" "On the contrary, I never met a straighter man in my life." "Was there anything curious about his life in California?" "He liked best to stay and to work at our claim in the mountains. He would never go where other men were if he could help it. That's why I first thought that someone was after him. Then when he left so suddenly for Europe I made sure that it was so. I believe that he had a warning of some sort. Within a week of his leaving half a dozen men were inquiring for him." "What sort of men?" "Well, they were a mighty hard-looking crowd. They came up to the claim and wanted to know where he was. I told them that he was gone to Europe and that I did not know where to find him. They meant him no good—it was easy to see that." "Were these men Americans—Californians?" "Well, I don't know about Californians. They were Americans, all right. But they were not miners. I don't know what they were, and was very glad to see their backs." "That was six years ago?" "Nearer seven." "And then you were together five years in California, so that this business dates back not less than eleven years at the least?" "That is so." "It must be a very serious feud that would be kept up with such earnestness #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: do with the matter you are investigating?" "I must repeat the question." "Well, I refuse to answer." "You can refuse to answer; but you must be aware that your refusal is in itself an answer, for you would not refuse if you had not something to conceal." Barker stood for a moment with his face set grimly and his strong black eyebrows drawn low in intense thought. Then he looked up with a smile. "Well, I guess you gentlemen are only doing your clear duty after all, and I have no right to stand in the way of it. I'd only ask you not to worry Mrs. Douglas over this matter; for she has enough upon her just now. I may tell you that poor Douglas had just one fault in the world, and that was his jealousy. He was fond of me— no man could be fonder of a friend. And he was devoted to his wife. He loved me to come here, and was forever sending for me. And yet if his wife and I talked together or there seemed any sympathy between us, a kind of wave of jealousy would pass over him, and he would be off the handle and saying the wildest things in a moment. More than once I've sworn off coming for that reason, and then he would write me such penitent, imploring letters that I just had to. But you can take it from me, gentlemen, if it was my last word, that no man ever had a more loving, faithful wife—and I can say also no friend could be more loyal than I!" It was spoken with fervour and feeling, and yet Inspector MacDonald could not dismiss the subject. "You are aware," said he, "that the dead man's wedding ring has been taken from his finger?" "So it appears," said Barker. "What do you mean by 'appears'? You know it as a fact." The man seemed confused and undecided. "When I said 'appears' I meant that it was conceivable that he had himself taken off the ring." "The mere fact that the ring should be absent, whoever may have removed it, #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: subject to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. *** START: FULL LICENSE *** THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at http://gutenberg.net/license). Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works 1.A. 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There are a few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. 1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: sent it to me. Instead of that, he had intended, before his plans were nipped, to send me the clue in this envelope. He says so in his note. This would seem to indicate that the book is one which he thought I would have no difficulty in finding for myself. He had it—and he imagined that I would have it, too. In short, Watson, it is a very common book." "What you say certainly sounds plausible." "So we have contracted our field of search to a large book, printed in double columns and in common use." "The Bible!" I cried triumphantly. "Good, Watson, good! But not, if I may say so, quite good enough! Even if I accepted the compliment for myself I could hardly name any volume which would be less likely to lie at the elbow of one of Moriarty's associates. Besides, the editions of Holy Writ are so numerous that he could hardly suppose that two copies would have the same pagination. This is clearly a book which is standardized. He knows for certain that his page 534 will exactly agree with my page 534." "But very few books would correspond with that." "Exactly. Therein lies our salvation. Our search is narrowed down to standardized books which anyone may be supposed to possess." "Bradshaw!" "There are difficulties, Watson. The vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous and terse, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to the sending of general messages. We will eliminate Bradshaw. The dictionary is, I fear, inadmissible for the same reason. What then is left?" "An almanac!" "Excellent, Watson! I am very much mistaken if you have not touched the spot. An almanac! Let us consider the claims of Whitaker's Almanac. It is in common use. It has the requisite number of pages. It is in double column. Though reserved in its earlier vocabulary, it becomes, if I remember right, quite garrulous towards the end." He picked the volume from his desk. "Here is page #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: conversed in low voices, glancing occasionally at two men on the opposite side of the car, whose uniforms and badges showed them to be policemen. Several women of the labouring class and one or two travellers who might have been small local storekeepers made up the rest of the company, with the exception of one young man in a corner by himself. It is with this man that we are concerned. Take a good look at him, for he is worth it. He is a fresh-complexioned, middle-sized young man, not far, one would guess, from his thirtieth year. He has large, shrewd, humorous gray eyes which twinkle inquiringly from time to time as he looks round through his spectacles at the people about him. It is easy to see that he is of a sociable and possibly simple disposition, anxious to be friendly to all men. Anyone could pick him at once as gregarious in his habits and communicative in his nature, with a quick wit and a ready smile. And yet the man who studied him more closely might discern a certain firmness of jaw and grim tightness about the lips which would warn him that there were depths beyond, and that this pleasant, brown-haired young Irishman might conceivably leave his mark for good or evil upon any society to which he was introduced. Having made one or two tentative remarks to the nearest miner, and receiving only short, gruff replies, the traveller resigned himself to uncongenial silence, staring moodily out of the window at the fading landscape. It was not a cheering prospect. Through the growing gloom there pulsed the red glow of the furnaces on the sides of the hills. Great heaps of slag and dumps of cinders loomed up on each side, with the high shafts of the collieries towering above them. Huddled groups of mean, wooden houses, the windows of which were beginning to outline themselves in light, were scattered here and there along the line, and the frequent halting places were crowded with their swarthy inhabitants. The iron and coal valleys of the Vermissa district were no resorts for the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: between the barrels, and the rest of the name had been cut off by the saw." "A big P with a flourish above it, E and N smaller?" asked Holmes. "Exactly." "Pennsylvania Small Arms Company—well-known American firm," said Holmes. White Mason gazed at my friend as the little village practitioner looks at the Harley Street specialist who by a word can solve the difficulties that perplex him. "That is very helpful, Mr. Holmes. No doubt you are right. Wonderful! Wonderful! Do you carry the names of all the gun makers in the world in your memory?" Holmes dismissed the subject with a wave. "No doubt it is an American shotgun," White Mason continued. "I seem to have read that a sawed-off shotgun is a weapon used in some parts of America. Apart from the name upon the barrel, the idea had occurred to me. There is some evidence then, that this man who entered the house and killed its master was an American." MacDonald shook his head. "Man, you are surely travelling overfast," said he. "I have heard no evidence yet that any stranger was ever in the house at all." "The open window, the blood on the sill, the queer card, the marks of boots in the corner, the gun!" "Nothing there that could not have been arranged. Mr. Douglas was an American, or had lived long in America. So had Mr. Barker. You don't need to import an American from outside in order to account for American doings." "Ames, the butler—" "What about him? Is he reliable?" "Ten years with Sir Charles Chandos—as solid as a rock. He has been with Douglas ever since he took the Manor House five years ago. He has never seen a gun of this sort in the house." "The gun was made to conceal. That's why the barrels were sawed. It would fit into any box. How could he swear there was no such gun in the house?" "Well, anyhow, he had never seen one." #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "Sure," said McMurdo. "And you were told to see me?" "I was." "And who told you?" "Brother Scanlan of Lodge 341, Vermissa. I drink your health Councillor, and to our better acquaintance." He raised a glass with which he had been served to his lips and elevated his little finger as he drank it. McGinty, who had been watching him narrowly, raised his thick black eyebrows. "Oh, it's like that, is it?" said he. "I'll have to look a bit closer into this, Mister—" "McMurdo." "A bit closer, Mr. McMurdo; for we don't take folk on trust in these parts, nor believe all we're told neither. Come in here for a moment, behind the bar." There was a small room there, lined with barrels. McGinty carefully closed the door, and then seated himself on one of them, biting thoughtfully on his cigar and surveying his companion with those disquieting eyes. For a couple of minutes he sat in complete silence. McMurdo bore the inspection cheerfully, one hand in his coat pocket, the other twisting his brown moustache. Suddenly McGinty stooped and produced a wicked-looking revolver. "See here, my joker," said he, "if I thought you were playing any game on us, it would be short work for you." "This is a strange welcome," McMurdo answered with some dignity, "for the Bodymaster of a lodge of Freemen to give to a stranger brother." "Ay, but it's just that same that you have to prove," said McGinty, "and God help you if you fail! Where were you made?" "Lodge 29, Chicago." "When?" "June 24, 1872." "What Bodymaster?" "James H. Scott." "Who is your district ruler?" "Bartholomew Wilson." "Hum! You seem glib enough in your tests. What are you doing here?" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: Watson! What do you think of pure reason and its fruit? If the greengrocer had such a thing as a laurel wreath, I should send Billy round for it." I was staring at the strange message which I had scrawled, as he deciphered it, upon a sheet of foolscap on my knee. "What a queer, scrambling way of expressing his meaning!" said I. "On the contrary, he has done quite remarkably well," said Holmes. "When you search a single column for words with which to express your meaning, you can hardly expect to get everything you want. You are bound to leave something to the intelligence of your correspondent. The purport is perfectly clear. Some deviltry is intended against one Douglas, whoever he may be, residing as stated, a rich country gentleman. He is sure—'confidence' was as near as he could get to 'confident'—that it is pressing. There is our result—and a very workmanlike little bit of analysis it was!" Holmes had the impersonal joy of the true artist in his better work, even as he mourned darkly when it fell below the high level to which he aspired. He was still chuckling over his success when Billy swung open the door and Inspector MacDonald of Scotland Yard was ushered into the room. Those were the early days at the end of the '80's, when Alec MacDonald was far from having attained the national fame which he has now achieved. He was a young but trusted member of the detective force, who had distinguished himself in several cases which had been entrusted to him. His tall, bony figure gave promise of exceptional physical strength, while his great cranium and deep-set, lustrous eyes spoke no less clearly of the keen intelligence which twinkled out from behind his bushy eyebrows. He was a silent, precise man with a dour nature and a hard Aberdonian accent. Twice already in his career had Holmes helped him to attain success, his own sole reward being the intellectual joy of the problem. For this reason the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: dining-room. Now I met her appealing gaze with an unresponsive eye. "I fear that you think me callous and hard-hearted." said she. I shrugged my shoulders. "It is no business of mine," said I. "Perhaps some day you will do me justice. If you only realized—" "There is no need why Dr. Watson should realize," said Barker quickly. "As he has himself said, it is no possible business of his." "Exactly," said I, "and so I will beg leave to resume my walk." "One moment, Dr. Watson," cried the woman in a pleading voice. "There is one question which you can answer with more authority than anyone else in the world, and it may make a very great difference to me. You know Mr. Holmes and his relations with the police better than anyone else can. Supposing that a matter were brought confidentially to his knowledge, is it absolutely necessary that he should pass it on to the detectives?" "Yes, that's it," said Barker eagerly. "Is he on his own or is he entirely in with them?" "I really don't know that I should be justified in discussing such a point." "I beg—I implore that you will, Dr. Watson! I assure you that you will be helping us—helping me greatly if you will guide us on that point." There was such a ring of sincerity in the woman's voice that for the instant I forgot all about her levity and was moved only to do her will. "Mr. Holmes is an independent investigator," I said. "He is his own master, and would act as his own judgment directed. At the same time, he would naturally feel loyalty towards the officials who were working on the same case, and he would not conceal from them anything which would help them in bringing a criminal to justice. Beyond this I can say nothing, and I would refer you to Mr. Holmes himself if you wanted fuller information." So saying I raised my hat and went upon my way, leaving them still seated behind that concealing hedge. I looked back as I rounded the far end of it, and #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: case was undoubtedly one of murder, but that no arrest had been made, and that the case was one which presented some very perplexing and extraordinary features. That's absolutely all we have at present, Mr. Holmes." "Then, with your permission, we will leave it at that, Mr. Mac. The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession. I can see only two things for certain at present—a great brain in London, and a dead man in Sussex. It's the chain between that we are going to trace." Chapter 3 The Tragedy of Birlstone Now for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificant personality and to describe events which occurred before we arrived upon the scene by the light of knowledge which came to us afterwards. Only in this way can I make the reader appreciate the people concerned and the strange setting in which their fate was cast. The village of Birlstone is a small and very ancient cluster of half-timbered cottages on the northern border of the county of Sussex. For centuries it had remained unchanged; but within the last few years its picturesque appearance and situation have attracted a number of well-to-do residents, whose villas peep out from the woods around. These woods are locally supposed to be the extreme fringe of the great Weald forest, which thins away until it reaches the northern chalk downs. A number of small shops have come into being to meet the wants of the increased population; so there seems some prospect that Birlstone may soon grow from an ancient village into a modern town. It is the centre for a considerable area of country, since Tunbridge Wells, the nearest place of importance, is ten or twelve miles to the eastward, over the borders of Kent. About half a mile from the town, standing in an old park famous for its huge beech trees, is the ancient Manor House of Birlstone. Part of this venerable building dates back to the time of the first crusade, when Hugo de Capus built a #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: there is much that is unexplained, and I should strongly recommend that you ask Mr. Douglas to tell us his own story." Mrs. Douglas gave a cry of astonishment at Holmes's words. The detectives and I must have echoed it, when we were aware of a man who seemed to have emerged from the wall, who advanced now from the gloom of the corner in which he had appeared. Mrs. Douglas turned, and in an instant her arms were round him. Barker had seized his outstretched hand. "It's best this way, Jack," his wife repeated; "I am sure that it is best." "Indeed, yes, Mr. Douglas," said Sherlock Holmes, "I am sure that you will find it best." The man stood blinking at us with the dazed look of one who comes from the dark into the light. It was a remarkable face, bold gray eyes, a strong, shortclipped, grizzled moustache, a square, projecting chin, and a humorous mouth. He took a good look at us all, and then to my amazement he advanced to me and handed me a bundle of paper. "I've heard of you," said he in a voice which was not quite English and not quite American, but was altogether mellow and pleasing. "You are the historian of this bunch. Well, Dr. Watson, you've never had such a story as that pass through your hands before, and I'll lay my last dollar on that. Tell it your own way; but there are the facts, and you can't miss the public so long as you have those. I've been cooped up two days, and I've spent the daylight hours—as much daylight as I could get in that rat trap—in putting the thing into words. You're welcome to them—you and your public. There's the story of the Valley of Fear." "That's the past, Mr. Douglas," said Sherlock Holmes quietly. "What we desire now is to hear your story of the present." "You'll have it, sir," said Douglas. "May I smoke as I talk? Well, thank you, #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "What's come over you, Jack?" she cried. "Why were you so scared of me? Oh, Jack, if your conscience was at ease, you would not have looked at me like that!" "Sure, I was thinking of other things, and when you came tripping so lightly on those fairy feet of yours—" "No, no, it was more than that, Jack." Then a sudden suspicion seized her. "Let me see that letter you were writing." "Ah, Ettie, I couldn't do that." Her suspicions became certainties. "It's to another woman," she cried. "I know it! Why else should you hold it from me? Was it to your wife that you were writing? How am I to know that you are not a married man—you, a stranger, that nobody knows?" "I am not married, Ettie. See now, I swear it! You're the only one woman on earth to me. By the cross of Christ I swear it!" He was so white with passionate earnestness that she could not but believe him. "Well, then," she cried, "why will you not show me the letter?" "I'll tell you, acushla," said he. "I'm under oath not to show it, and just as I wouldn't break my word to you so I would keep it to those who hold my promise. It's the business of the lodge, and even to you it's secret. And if I was scared when a hand fell on me, can't you understand it when it might have been the hand of a detective?" She felt that he was telling the truth. He gathered her into his arms and kissed away her fears and doubts. "Sit here by me, then. It's a queer throne for such a queen; but it's the best your poor lover can find. He'll do better for you some of these days, I'm thinking. Now your mind is easy once again, is it not?" "How can it ever be at ease, Jack, when I know that you are a criminal among #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: fashion?" "Exactly. Of course I have other reasons for thinking so—dozens of exiguous threads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where the poisonous, motionless creature is lurking. I only mention the Greuze because it brings the matter within the range of your own observation." "Well, Mr. Holmes, I admit that what you say is interesting: it's more than interesting—it's just wonderful. But let us have it a little clearer if you can. Is it forgery, coining, burglary—where does the money come from?" "Have you ever read of Jonathan Wild?" "Well, the name has a familiar sound. Someone in a novel, was he not? I don't take much stock of detectives in novels—chaps that do things and never let you see how they do them. That's just inspiration: not business." "Jonathan Wild wasn't a detective, and he wasn't in a novel. He was a master criminal, and he lived last century—1750 or thereabouts." "Then he's no use to me. I'm a practical man." "Mr. Mac, the most practical thing that you ever did in your life would be to shut yourself up for three months and read twelve hours a day at the annals of crime. Everything comes in circles—even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wild was the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he sold his brains and his organization on a fifteen per cent commission. The old wheel turns, and the same spoke comes up. It's all been done before, and will be again. I'll tell you one or two things about Moriarty which may interest you." "You'll interest me, right enough." "I happen to know who is the first link in his chain—a chain with this Napoleon-gone-wrong at one end, and a hundred broken fighting men, pickpockets, blackmailers, and card sharpers at the other, with every sort of crime in between. His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran, as aloof and #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: to be master of himself and his emotions; he had opened the door which was nearest to the entrance and he had beckoned to the sergeant to follow him. At that moment there arrived Dr. Wood, a brisk and capable general practitioner from the village. The three men entered the fatal room together, while the horrorstricken butler followed at their heels, closing the door behind him to shut out the terrible scene from the maid servants. The dead man lay on his back, sprawling with outstretched limbs in the centre of the room. He was clad only in a pink dressing gown, which covered his night clothes. There were carpet slippers on his bare feet. The doctor knelt beside him and held down the hand lamp which had stood on the table. One glance at the victim was enough to show the healer that his presence could be dispensed with. The man had been horribly injured. Lying across his chest was a curious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of the triggers. It was clear that this had been fired at close range and that he had received the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost to pieces. The triggers had been wired together, so as to make the simultaneous discharge more destructive. The country policeman was unnerved and troubled by the tremendous responsibility which had come so suddenly upon him. "We will touch nothing until my superiors arrive," he said in a hushed voice, staring in horror at the dreadful head. "Nothing has been touched up to now," said Cecil Barker. "I'll answer for that. You see it all exactly as I found it." "When was that?" The sergeant had drawn out his notebook. "It was just half-past eleven. I had not begun to undress, and I was sitting by the fire in my bedroom when I heard the report. It was not very loud—it seemed to be muffled. I rushed down—I don't suppose it was thirty seconds before I was in the room." "Was the door open?" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: 534, column two, a substantial block of print dealing, I perceive, with the trade and resources of British India. Jot down the words, Watson! Number thirteen is 'Mahratta.' Not, I fear, a very auspicious beginning. Number one hundred and twenty-seven is 'Government'; which at least makes sense, though somewhat irrelevant to ourselves and Professor Moriarty. Now let us try again. What does the Mahratta government do? Alas! the next word is 'pig's-bristles.' We are undone, my good Watson! It is finished!" He had spoken in jesting vein, but the twitching of his bushy eyebrows bespoke his disappointment and irritation. I sat helpless and unhappy, staring into the fire. A long silence was broken by a sudden exclamation from Holmes, who dashed at a cupboard, from which he emerged with a second yellowcovered volume in his hand. "We pay the price, Watson, for being too up-to-date!" he cried. "We are before our time, and suffer the usual penalties. Being the seventh of January, we have very properly laid in the new almanac. It is more than likely that Porlock took his message from the old one. No doubt he would have told us so had his letter of explanation been written. Now let us see what page 534 has in store for us. Number thirteen is 'There,' which is much more promising. Number one hundred and twenty-seven is 'is'—'There is'"—Holmes's eyes were gleaming with excitement, and his thin, nervous fingers twitched as he counted the words —"'danger.' Ha! Ha! Capital! Put that down, Watson. 'There is danger—may— come—very—soon—one.' Then we have the name 'Douglas'— 'rich—country— now—at—Birlstone—House—Birlstone—confidence—is— pressing.' There, #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: strength and activity of youth. He was cheery and genial to all, but somewhat offhand in his manners, giving the impression that he had seen life in social strata on some far lower horizon than the county society of Sussex. Yet, though looked at with some curiosity and reserve by his more cultivated neighbours, he soon acquired a great popularity among the villagers, subscribing handsomely to all local objects, and attending their smoking concerts and other functions, where, having a remarkably rich tenor voice, he was always ready to oblige with an excellent song. He appeared to have plenty of money, which was said to have been gained in the California gold fields, and it was clear from his own talk and that of his wife that he had spent a part of his life in America. The good impression which had been produced by his generosity and by his democratic manners was increased by a reputation gained for utter indifference to danger. Though a wretched rider, he turned out at every meet, and took the most amazing falls in his determination to hold his own with the best. When the vicarage caught fire he distinguished himself also by the fearlessness with which he reentered the building to save property, after the local fire brigade had given it up as impossible. Thus it came about that John Douglas of the Manor House had within five years won himself quite a reputation in Birlstone. His wife, too, was popular with those who had made her acquaintance; though, after the English fashion, the callers upon a stranger who settled in the county without introductions were few and far between. This mattered the less to her, as she was retiring by disposition, and very much absorbed, to all appearance, in her husband and her domestic duties. It was known that she was an English lady who had met Mr. Douglas in London, he being at that time a widower. She was a beautiful woman, tall, dark, and slender, some twenty years younger than her husband, a disparity which seemed in no wise to mar the contentment of their family life. It was remarked sometimes, however, by those who knew them best, that the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: and I ask you what the end is to be. Are you ready to be a cold-blooded murderer also, or can we do anything to stop it?" "What would you do?" asked McMurdo abruptly. "You would not inform?" "God forbid!" cried Morris. "Sure, the very thought would cost me my life." "That's well," said McMurdo. "I'm thinking that you are a weak man and that you make too much of the matter." "Too much! Wait till you have lived here longer. Look down the valley! See the cloud of a hundred chimneys that overshadows it! I tell you that the cloud of murder hangs thicker and lower than that over the heads of the people. It is the Valley of Fear, the Valley of Death. The terror is in the hearts of the people from the dusk to the dawn. Wait, young man, and you will learn for yourself." "Well, I'll let you know what I think when I have seen more," said McMurdo carelessly. "What is very clear is that you are not the man for the place, and that the sooner you sell out—if you only get a dime a dollar for what the business is worth—the better it will be for you. What you have said is safe with me; but, by Gar! if I thought you were an informer—" "No, no!" cried Morris piteously. "Well, let it rest at that. I'll bear what you have said in mind, and maybe some day I'll come back to it. I expect you meant kindly by speaking to me like this. Now I'll be getting home." "One word before you go," said Morris. "We may have been seen together. They may want to know what we have spoken about." "Ah! that's well thought of." "I offer you a clerkship in my store." "And I refuse it. That's our business. Well, so long, Brother Morris, and may you find things go better with you in the future." That same afternoon, as McMurdo sat smoking, lost in thought beside the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: eyes were of a strange dead black, which, combined with a slight squint, gave them a particularly sinister appearance. All else in the man—his noble proportions, his fine features, and his frank bearing—fitted in with that jovial, man-to-man manner which he affected. Here, one would say, is a bluff, honest fellow, whose heart would be sound however rude his outspoken words might seem. It was only when those dead, dark eyes, deep and remorseless, were turned upon a man that he shrank within himself, feeling that he was face to face with an infinite possibility of latent evil, with a strength and courage and cunning behind it which made it a thousand times more deadly. Having had a good look at his man, McMurdo elbowed his way forward with his usual careless audacity, and pushed himself through the little group of courtiers who were fawning upon the powerful boss, laughing uproariously at the smallest of his jokes. The young stranger's bold gray eyes looked back fearlessly through their glasses at the deadly black ones which turned sharply upon him. "Well, young man, I can't call your face to mind." "I'm new here, Mr. McGinty." "You are not so new that you can't give a gentleman his proper title." "He's Councillor McGinty, young man," said a voice from the group. "I'm sorry, Councillor. I'm strange to the ways of the place. But I was advised to see you." "Well, you see me. This is all there is. What d'you think of me?" "Well, it's early days. If your heart is as big as your body, and your soul as fine as your face, then I'd ask for nothing better," said McMurdo. "By Gar! you've got an Irish tongue in your head anyhow," cried the saloonkeeper, not quite certain whether to humour this audacious visitor or to stand upon his dignity. "So you are good enough to pass my appearance?" "Sure," said McMurdo. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: in the garden. "Well at least they gave that impression. However, we will suppose that they are an extraordinarily astute couple, who deceive everyone upon this point, and conspire to murder the husband. He happens to be a man over whose head some danger hangs—" "We have only their word for that." Holmes looked thoughtful. "I see, Watson. You are sketching out a theory by which everything they say from the beginning is false. According to your idea, there was never any hidden menace, or secret society, or Valley of Fear, or Boss MacSomebody, or anything else. Well, that is a good sweeping generalization. Let us see what that brings us to. They invent this theory to account for the crime. They then play up to the idea by leaving this bicycle in the park as proof of the existence of some outsider. The stain on the windowsill conveys the same idea. So does the card on the body, which might have been prepared in the house. That all fits into your hypothesis, Watson. But now we come on the nasty, angular, uncompromising bits which won't slip into their places. Why a cut-off shotgun of all weapons—and an American one at that? How could they be so sure that the sound of it would not bring someone on to them? It's a mere chance as it is that Mrs. Allen did not start out to inquire for the slamming door. Why did your guilty couple do all this, Watson?" "I confess that I can't explain it." "Then again, if a woman and her lover conspire to murder a husband, are they going to advertise their guilt by ostentatiously removing his wedding ring after his death? Does that strike you as very probable, Watson?" "No, it does not." "And once again, if the thought of leaving a bicycle concealed outside had occurred to you, would it really have seemed worth doing when the dullest detective would naturally say this is an obvious blind, as the bicycle is the first thing which the fugitive needed in order to make his escape." "I can conceive of no explanation." #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: telegrams, which they were carefully sorting and docketing. Three had been placed on one side. "Still on the track of the elusive bicyclist?" Holmes asked cheerfully. "What is the latest news of the ruffian?" MacDonald pointed ruefully to his heap of correspondence. "He is at present reported from Leicester, Nottingham, Southampton, Derby, East Ham, Richmond, and fourteen other places. In three of them—East Ham, Leicester, and Liverpool—there is a clear case against him, and he has actually been arrested. The country seems to be full of the fugitives with yellow coats." "Dear me!" said Holmes sympathetically. "Now, Mr. Mac and you, Mr. White Mason, I wish to give you a very earnest piece of advice. When I went into this case with you I bargained, as you will no doubt remember, that I should not present you with half-proved theories, but that I should retain and work out my own ideas until I had satisfied myself that they were correct. For this reason I am not at the present moment telling you all that is in my mind. On the other hand, I said that I would play the game fairly by you, and I do not think it is a fair game to allow you for one unnecessary moment to waste your energies upon a profitless task. Therefore I am here to advise you this morning, and my advice to you is summed up in three words—abandon the case." MacDonald and White Mason stared in amazement at their celebrated colleague. "You consider it hopeless!" cried the inspector. "I consider your case to be hopeless. I do not consider that it is hopeless to arrive at the truth." "But this cyclist. He is not an invention. We have his description, his valise, his bicycle. The fellow must be somewhere. Why should we not get him?" "Yes, yes, no doubt he is somewhere, and no doubt we shall get him; but I would not have you waste your energies in East Ham or Liverpool. I am sure that we can find some shorter cut to a result." #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: saw that they were still talking very earnestly together, and, as they were gazing after me, it was clear that it was our interview that was the subject of their debate. "I wish none of their confidences," said Holmes, when I reported to him what had occurred. He had spent the whole afternoon at the Manor House in consultation with his two colleagues, and returned about five with a ravenous appetite for a high tea which I had ordered for him. "No confidences, Watson; for they are mighty awkward if it comes to an arrest for conspiracy and murder." "You think it will come to that?" He was in his most cheerful and debonair humour. "My dear Watson, when I have exterminated that fourth egg I shall be ready to put you in touch with the whole situation. I don't say that we have fathomed it—far from it—but when we have traced the missing dumb-bell—" "The dumb-bell!" "Dear me, Watson, is it possible that you have not penetrated the fact that the case hangs upon the missing dumb-bell? Well, well, you need not be downcast; for between ourselves I don't think that either Inspector Mac or the excellent local practitioner has grasped the overwhelming importance of this incident. One dumb-bell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumb-bell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" He sat with his mouth full of toast and his eyes sparkling with mischief, watching my intellectual entanglement. The mere sight of his excellent appetite was an assurance of success, for I had very clear recollections of days and nights without a thought of food, when his baffled mind had chafed before some problem while his thin, eager features became more attenuated with the asceticism of complete mental concentration. Finally he lit his pipe, and sitting in the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at random about his case, rather as one who thinks aloud than as one who makes a considered statement. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: sunshine. Three centuries had flowed past the old Manor House, centuries of births and of homecomings, of country dances and of the meetings of fox hunters. Strange that now in its old age this dark business should have cast its shadow upon the venerable walls! And yet those strange, peaked roofs and quaint, overhung gables were a fitting covering to grim and terrible intrigue. As I looked at the deep-set windows and the long sweep of the dull-coloured, water-lapped front, I felt that no more fitting scene could be set for such a tragedy. "That's the window," said White Mason, "that one on the immediate right of the drawbridge. It's open just as it was found last night." "It looks rather narrow for a man to pass." "Well, it wasn't a fat man, anyhow. We don't need your deductions, Mr. Holmes, to tell us that. But you or I could squeeze through all right." Holmes walked to the edge of the moat and looked across. Then he examined the stone ledge and the grass border beyond it. "I've had a good look, Mr. Holmes," said White Mason. "There is nothing there, no sign that anyone has landed—but why should he leave any sign?" "Exactly. Why should he? Is the water always turbid?" "Generally about this colour. The stream brings down the clay." "How deep is it?" "About two feet at each side and three in the middle." "So we can put aside all idea of the man having been drowned in crossing." "No, a child could not be drowned in it." We walked across the drawbridge, and were admitted by a quaint, gnarled, dried-up person, who was the butler, Ames. The poor old fellow was white and quivering from the shock. The village sergeant, a tall, formal, melancholy man, still held his vigil in the room of Fate. The doctor had departed. "Anything fresh, Sergeant Wilson?" asked White Mason. "No, sir." "Then you can go home. You've had enough. We can send for you if we want #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: this point there are several trails which lead to various mines. The strangers took that which led to the Crow Hill, a huge business which was in strong hands which had been able, thanks to their energetic and fearless New England manager, Josiah H. Dunn, to keep some order and discipline during the long reign of terror. Day was breaking now, and a line of workmen were slowly making their way, singly and in groups, along the blackened path. McMurdo and Scanlan strolled on with the others, keeping in sight of the men whom they followed. A thick mist lay over them, and from the heart of it there came the sudden scream of a steam whistle. It was the ten-minute signal before the cages descended and the day's labour began. When they reached the open space round the mine shaft there were a hundred miners waiting, stamping their feet and blowing on their fingers; for it was bitterly cold. The strangers stood in a little group under the shadow of the engine house. Scanlan and McMurdo climbed a heap of slag from which the whole scene lay before them. They saw the mine engineer, a great bearded Scotchman named Menzies, come out of the engine house and blow his whistle for the cages to be lowered. At the same instant a tall, loose-framed young man with a clean-shaved, earnest face advanced eagerly towards the pit head. As he came forward his eyes fell upon the group, silent and motionless, under the engine house. The men had drawn down their hats and turned up their collars to screen their faces. For a moment the presentiment of Death laid its cold hand upon the manager's heart. At the next he had shaken it off and saw only his duty towards intrusive strangers. "Who are you?" he asked as he advanced. "What are you loitering there for?" There was no answer; but the lad Andrews stepped forward and shot him in the stomach. The hundred waiting miners stood as motionless and helpless as if they were paralyzed. The manager clapped his two hands to the wound and #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "You are making fools of us, Mr. Holmes!" "Tut, tut, Mr. Mac!—the first sign of temper I have detected in you. Well, I won't read it verbatim, since you feel so strongly upon the subject. But when I tell you that there is some account of the taking of the place by a parliamentary colonel in 1644, of the concealment of Charles for several days in the course of the Civil War, and finally of a visit there by the second George, you will admit that there are various associations of interest connected with this ancient house." "I don't doubt it, Mr. Holmes; but that is no business of ours." "Is it not? Is it not? Breadth of view, my dear Mr. Mac, is one of the essentials of our profession. The interplay of ideas and the oblique uses of knowledge are often of extraordinary interest. You will excuse these remarks from one who, though a mere connoisseur of crime, is still rather older and perhaps more experienced than yourself." "I'm the first to admit that," said the detective heartily. "You get to your point, I admit; but you have such a deuced round-the-corner way of doing it." "Well, well, I'll drop past history and get down to present-day facts. I called last night, as I have already said, at the Manor House. I did not see either Barker or Mrs. Douglas. I saw no necessity to disturb them; but I was pleased to hear that the lady was not visibly pining and that she had partaken of an excellent dinner. My visit was specially made to the good Mr. Ames, with whom I exchanged some amiabilities, which culminated in his allowing me, without reference to anyone else, to sit alone for a time in the study." "What! With that?" I ejaculated. "No, no, everything is now in order. You gave permission for that, Mr. Mac, as I am informed. The room was in its normal state, and in it I passed an instructive quarter of an hour." "What were you doing?" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: notebook. "He's the chief foreman of the Iron Dike Company. He's a hard citizen, an old colour sergeant of the war, all scars and grizzle. We've had two tries at him; but had no luck, and Jim Carnaway lost his life over it. Now it's for you to take it over. That's the house—all alone at the Iron Dike crossroad, same as you see here on the map—without another within earshot. It's no good by day. He's armed and shoots quick and straight, with no questions asked. But at night— well, there he is with his wife, three children, and a hired help. You can't pick or choose. It's all or none. If you could get a bag of blasting powder at the front door with a slow match to it—" "What's the man done?" "Didn't I tell you he shot Jim Carnaway?" "Why did he shoot him?" "What in thunder has that to do with you? Carnaway was about his house at night, and he shot him. That's enough for me and you. You've got to settle the thing right." "There's these two women and the children. Do they go up too?" "They have to—else how can we get him?" "It seems hard on them; for they've done nothing." "What sort of fool's talk is this? Do you back out?" "Easy, Councillor, easy! What have I ever said or done that you should think I would be after standing back from an order of the Bodymaster of my own lodge? If it's right or if it's wrong, it's for you to decide." "You'll do it, then?" "Of course I will do it." "When?" "Well, you had best give me a night or two that I may see the house and make my plans. Then—" "Very good," said McGinty, shaking him by the hand. "I leave it with you. It #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: one could swear to his face, poor devil! I brought down this suit of clothes, and in a quarter of an hour Barker and I had put my dressing gown on him and he lay as you found him. We tied all his things into a bundle, and I weighted them with the only weight I could find and put them through the window. The card he had meant to lay upon my body was lying beside his own. "My rings were put on his finger; but when it came to the wedding ring," he held out his muscular hand, "you can see for yourselves that I had struck the limit. I have not moved it since the day I was married, and it would have taken a file to get it off. I don't know, anyhow, that I should have cared to part with it; but if I had wanted to I couldn't. So we just had to leave that detail to take care of itself. On the other hand, I brought a bit of plaster down and put it where I am wearing one myself at this instant. You slipped up there, Mr. Holmes, clever as you are; for if you had chanced to take off that plaster you would have found no cut underneath it. "Well, that was the situation. If I could lie low for a while and then get away where I could be joined by my 'widow' we should have a chance at last of living in peace for the rest of our lives. These devils would give me no rest so long as I was above ground; but if they saw in the papers that Baldwin had got his man, there would be an end of all my troubles. I hadn't much time to make it all clear to Barker and to my wife; but they understood enough to be able to help me. I knew all about this hiding place, so did Ames; but it never entered his head to connect it with the matter. I retired into it, and it was up to Barker to do the rest. "I guess you can fill in for yourselves what he did. He opened the window and made the mark on the sill to give an idea of how the murderer escaped. It #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "No such luck. But they've found his bicycle. The fellow left his bicycle behind him. Come and have a look. It is within a hundred yards of the hall door." We found three or four grooms and idlers standing in the drive inspecting a bicycle which had been drawn out from a clump of evergreens in which it had been concealed. It was a well used Rudge-Whitworth, splashed as from a considerable journey. There was a saddlebag with spanner and oilcan, but no clue as to the owner. "It would be a grand help to the police," said the inspector, "if these things were numbered and registered. But we must be thankful for what we've got. If we can't find where he went to, at least we are likely to get where he came from. But what in the name of all that is wonderful made the fellow leave it behind? And how in the world has he got away without it? We don't seem to get a gleam of light in the case, Mr. Holmes." "Don't we?" my friend answered thoughtfully. "I wonder!" Chapter 5 The People Of the Drama "Have you seen all you want of the study?" asked White Mason as we reentered the house. "For the time," said the inspector, and Holmes nodded. "Then perhaps you would now like to hear the evidence of some of the people in the house. We could use the dining-room, Ames. Please come yourself first and tell us what you know." The butler's account was a simple and a clear one, and he gave a convincing impression of sincerity. He had been engaged five years before, when Douglas first came to Birlstone. He understood that Mr. Douglas was a rich gentleman who had made his money in America. He had been a kind and considerate employer—not quite what Ames was used to, perhaps; but one can't have everything. He never saw any signs of apprehension in Mr. Douglas: on the contrary, he was the most fearless man he had ever known. He ordered the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: do as I order you, for indeed it's the only way for us. Things are going to happen in this valley. I feel it in my bones. There may be many of us that will have to look out for ourselves. I'm one, anyhow. If I go, by day or night, it's you that must come with me!" "I'd come after you, Jack." "No, no, you shall come with me. If this valley is closed to me and I can never come back, how can I leave you behind, and me perhaps in hiding from the police with never a chance of a message? It's with me you must come. I know a good woman in the place I come from, and it's there I'd leave you till we can get married. Will you come?" "Yes, Jack, I will come." "God bless you for your trust in me! It's a fiend out of hell that I should be if I abused it. Now, mark you, Ettie, it will be just a word to you, and when it reaches you, you will drop everything and come right down to the waiting room at the depot and stay there till I come for you." "Day or night, I'll come at the word, Jack." Somewhat eased in mind, now that his own preparations for escape had been begun, McMurdo went on to the lodge. It had already assembled, and only by complicated signs and counter-signs could he pass through the outer guard and inner guard who close-tiled it. A buzz of pleasure and welcome greeted him as he entered. The long room was crowded, and through the haze of tobacco smoke he saw the tangled black mane of the Bodymaster, the cruel, unfriendly features of Baldwin, the vulture face of Harraway, the secretary, and a dozen more who were among the leaders of the lodge. He rejoiced that they should all be there to take counsel over his news. "Indeed, it's glad we are to see you, Brother!" cried the chairman. "There's business here that wants a Solomon in judgment to set it right." #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: power to penetrate it." Sherlock Holmes had pushed away his untasted breakfast and lit the unsavoury pipe which was the companion of his deepest meditations. "I wonder!" said he, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. "Perhaps there are points which have escaped your Machiavellian intellect. Let us consider the problem in the light of pure reason. This man's reference is to a book. That is our point of departure." "A somewhat vague one." "Let us see then if we can narrow it down. As I focus my mind upon it, it seems rather less impenetrable. What indications have we as to this book?" "None." "Well, well, it is surely not quite so bad as that. The cipher message begins with a large 534, does it not? We may take it as a working hypothesis that 534 is the particular page to which the cipher refers. So our book has already become a large book which is surely something gained. What other indications have we as to the nature of this large book? The next sign is C2. What do you make of that, Watson?" "Chapter the second, no doubt." "Hardly that, Watson. You will, I am sure, agree with me that if the page be given, the number of the chapter is immaterial. Also that if page 534 finds us only in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable." "Column!" I cried. "Brilliant, Watson. You are scintillating this morning. If it is not column, then I am very much deceived. So now, you see, we begin to visualize a large book printed in double columns which are each of a considerable length, since one of the words is numbered in the document as the two hundred and ninety-third. Have we reached the limits of what reason can supply?" "I fear that we have." "Surely you do yourself an injustice. One more coruscation, my dear Watson —yet another brain-wave! Had the volume been an unusual one, he would have #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: 1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the problem. 1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. 1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. 1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: DOUGLAS 109 293 5 37 BIRLSTONE 26 BIRLSTONE 9 47 171 "What do you make of it, Holmes?" "It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information." "But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?" "In this instance, none at all." "Why do you say 'in this instance'?" "Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha of the agony column: such crude devices amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it. But this is different. It is clearly a reference to the words in a page of some book. Until I am told which page and which book I am powerless." "But why 'Douglas' and 'Birlstone'?" "Clearly because those are words which were not contained in the page in question." "Then why has he not indicated the book?" "Your native shrewdness, my dear Watson, that innate cunning which is the delight of your friends, would surely prevent you from inclosing cipher and message in the same envelope. Should it miscarry, you are undone. As it is, both have to go wrong before any harm comes from it. Our second post is now overdue, and I shall be surprised if it does not bring us either a further letter of explanation, or, as is more probable, the very volume to which these figures refer." Holmes's calculation was fulfilled within a very few minutes by the appearance of Billy, the page, with the very letter which we were expecting. "The same writing," remarked Holmes, as he opened the envelope, "and actually signed," he added in an exultant voice as he unfolded the epistle. "Come, we are getting on, Watson." His brow clouded, however, as he glanced over the contents. "Dear me, this is very disappointing! I fear, Watson, that all our expectations come to nothing. I trust that the man Porlock will come to no harm. "DEAR MR. HOLMES [he says]: #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: doubt; but we can refer to you as they arise." She rose, and I was again conscious of that quick, questioning glance with which she had just surveyed us. "What impression has my evidence made upon you?" The question might as well have been spoken. Then, with a bow, she swept from the room. "She's a beautiful woman—a very beautiful woman," said MacDonald thoughtfully, after the door had closed behind her. "This man Barker has certainly been down here a good deal. He is a man who might be attractive to a woman. He admits that the dead man was jealous, and maybe he knew best himself what cause he had for jealousy. Then there's that wedding ring. You can't get past that. The man who tears a wedding ring off a dead man's—What do you say to it, Mr. Holmes?" My friend had sat with his head upon his hands, sunk in the deepest thought. Now he rose and rang the bell. "Ames," he said, when the butler entered, "where is Mr. Cecil Barker now?" "I'll see, sir." He came back in a moment to say that Barker was in the garden. "Can you remember, Ames, what Mr. Barker had on his feet last night when you joined him in the study?" "Yes, Mr. Holmes. He had a pair of bedroom slippers. I brought him his boots when he went for the police." "Where are the slippers now?" "They are still under the chair in the hall." "Very good, Ames. It is, of course, important for us to know which tracks may be Mr. Barker's and which from outside." "Yes, sir. I may say that I noticed that the slippers were stained with blood— so indeed were my own." "That is natural enough, considering the condition of the room. Very good, Ames. We will ring if we want you." A few minutes later we were in the study. Holmes had brought with him the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "It must have caused great pain when it was inflicted. It is undoubtedly a burn. Now, I observe, Ames, that there is a small piece of plaster at the angle of Mr. Douglas's jaw. Did you observe that in life?" "Yes, sir, he cut himself in shaving yesterday morning." "Did you ever know him to cut himself in shaving before?" "Not for a very long time, sir." "Suggestive!" said Holmes. "It may, of course, be a mere coincidence, or it may point to some nervousness which would indicate that he had reason to apprehend danger. Had you noticed anything unusual in his conduct, yesterday, Ames?" "It struck me that he was a little restless and excited, sir." "Ha! The attack may not have been entirely unexpected. We do seem to make a little progress, do we not? Perhaps you would rather do the questioning, Mr. Mac?" "No, Mr. Holmes, it's in better hands than mine." "Well, then, we will pass to this card—V. V. 341. It is rough cardboard. Have you any of the sort in the house?" "I don't think so." Holmes walked across to the desk and dabbed a little ink from each bottle on to the blotting paper. "It was not printed in this room," he said; "this is black ink and the other purplish. It was done by a thick pen, and these are fine. No, it was done elsewhere, I should say. Can you make anything of the inscription, Ames?" "No, sir, nothing." "What do you think, Mr. Mac?" "It gives me the impression of a secret society of some sort; the same with his badge upon the forearm." "That's my idea, too," said White Mason. "Well, we can adopt it as a working hypothesis and then see how far our difficulties disappear. An agent from such a society makes his way into the house, waits for Mr. Douglas, blows his head nearly off with this weapon, and #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: crime in between. His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran, as aloof and guarded and inaccessible to the law as himself. What do you think he pays him?" "I'd like to hear." "Six thousand a year. That's paying for brains, you see—the American business principle. I learned that detail quite by chance. It's more than the Prime Minister gets. That gives you an idea of Moriarty's gains and of the scale on which he works. Another point: I made it my business to hunt down some of Moriarty's checks lately—just common innocent checks that he pays his household bills with. They were drawn on six different banks. Does that make any impression on your mind?" "Queer, certainly! But what do you gather from it?" "That he wanted no gossip about his wealth. No single man should know what he had. I have no doubt that he has twenty banking accounts; the bulk of his fortune abroad in the Deutsche Bank or the Credit Lyonnais as likely as not. Sometime when you have a year or two to spare I commend to you the study of Professor Moriarty." Inspector MacDonald had grown steadily more impressed as the conversation proceeded. He had lost himself in his interest. Now his practical Scotch intelligence brought him back with a snap to the matter in hand. "He can keep, anyhow," said he. "You've got us side-tracked with your interesting anecdotes, Mr. Holmes. What really counts is your remark that there is some connection between the professor and the crime. That you get from the warning received through the man Porlock. Can we for our present practical needs get any further than that?" "We may form some conception as to the motives of the crime. It is, as I gather from your original remarks, an inexplicable, or at least an unexplained, murder. Now, presuming that the source of the crime is as we suspect it to be, there might be two different motives. In the first place, I may tell you that Moriarty rules with a rod of iron over his people. His discipline is tremendous. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: self-possessed to a remarkable degree, very different from the tragic and distracted figure I had pictured. It is true that her face was pale and drawn, like that of one who has endured a great shock; but her manner was composed, and the finely moulded hand which she rested upon the edge of the table was as steady as my own. Her sad, appealing eyes travelled from one to the other of us with a curiously inquisitive expression. That questioning gaze transformed itself suddenly into abrupt speech. "Have you found anything out yet?" she asked. Was it my imagination that there was an undertone of fear rather than of hope in the question? "We have taken every possible step, Mrs. Douglas," said the inspector. "You may rest assured that nothing will be neglected." "Spare no money," she said in a dead, even tone. "It is my desire that every possible effort should be made." "Perhaps you can tell us something which may throw some light upon the matter." "I fear not; but all I know is at your service." "We have heard from Mr. Cecil Barker that you did not actually see—that you were never in the room where the tragedy occurred?" "No, he turned me back upon the stairs. He begged me to return to my room." "Quite so. You had heard the shot, and you had at once come down." "I put on my dressing gown and then came down." "How long was it after hearing the shot that you were stopped on the stair by Mr. Barker?" "It may have been a couple of minutes. It is so hard to reckon time at such a moment. He implored me not to go on. He assured me that I could do nothing. Then Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, led me upstairs again. It was all like some dreadful dream." "Can you give us any idea how long your husband had been downstairs before you heard the shot?" "No, I cannot say. He went from his dressing room, and I did not hear him go. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: statement. "A lie, Watson—a great, big, thumping, obtrusive, uncompromising lie— that's what meets us on the threshold! There is our starting point. The whole story told by Barker is a lie. But Barker's story is corroborated by Mrs. Douglas. Therefore she is lying also. They are both lying, and in a conspiracy. So now we have the clear problem. Why are they lying, and what is the truth which they are trying so hard to conceal? Let us try, Watson, you and I, if we can get behind the lie and reconstruct the truth. "How do I know that they are lying? Because it is a clumsy fabrication which simply could not be true. Consider! According to the story given to us, the assassin had less than a minute after the murder had been committed to take that ring, which was under another ring, from the dead man's finger, to replace the other ring—a thing which he would surely never have done—and to put that singular card beside his victim. I say that this was obviously impossible. "You may argue—but I have too much respect for your judgment, Watson, to think that you will do so—that the ring may have been taken before the man was killed. The fact that the candle had been lit only a short time shows that there had been no lengthy interview. Was Douglas, from what we hear of his fearless character, a man who would be likely to give up his wedding ring at such short notice, or could we conceive of his giving it up at all? No, no, Watson, the assassin was alone with the dead man for some time with the lamp lit. Of that I have no doubt at all. "But the gunshot was apparently the cause of death. Therefore the shot must have been fired some time earlier than we are told. But there could be no mistake about such a matter as that. We are in the presence, therefore, of a deliberate conspiracy upon the part of the two people who heard the gunshot—of the man #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: entrance. Holmes brushed him aside without a word and, followed by all of us, rushed into the room which had been occupied by the man whom we had been watching. The oil lamp on the table represented the glow which we had seen from outside. It was now in the hand of Cecil Barker, who held it towards us as we entered. Its light shone upon his strong, resolute, clean-shaved face and his menacing eyes. "What the devil is the meaning of all this?" he cried. "What are you after, anyhow?" Holmes took a swift glance round, and then pounced upon a sodden bundle tied together with cord which lay where it had been thrust under the writing table. "This is what we are after, Mr. Barker—this bundle, weighted with a dumbbell, which you have just raised from the bottom of the moat." Barker stared at Holmes with amazement in his face. "How in thunder came you to know anything about it?" he asked. "Simply that I put it there." "You put it there! You!" "Perhaps I should have said 'replaced it there,'" said Holmes. "You will remember, Inspector MacDonald, that I was somewhat struck by the absence of a dumb-bell. I drew your attention to it; but with the pressure of other events you had hardly the time to give it the consideration which would have enabled you to draw deductions from it. When water is near and a weight is missing it is not a very far-fetched supposition that something has been sunk in the water. The idea was at least worth testing; so with the help of Ames, who admitted me to the room, and the crook of Dr. Watson's umbrella, I was able last night to fish up and inspect this bundle. "It was of the first importance, however, that we should be able to prove who placed it there. This we accomplished by the very obvious device of announcing that the moat would be dried to-morrow, which had, of course, the effect that whoever had hidden the bundle would most certainly withdraw it the moment #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: The two detectives shook their heads. "Well, Mr. Holmes, if this is true, we only tumble out of one mystery into another," said the London inspector. "And in some ways a worse one," added White Mason. "The lady has never been in America in all her life. What possible connection could she have with an American assassin which would cause her to shelter him?" "I freely admit the difficulties," said Holmes. "I propose to make a little investigation of my own to-night, and it is just possible that it may contribute something to the common cause." "Can we help you, Mr. Holmes?" "No, no! Darkness and Dr. Watson's umbrella—my wants are simple. And Ames, the faithful Ames, no doubt he will stretch a point for me. All my lines of thought lead me back invariably to the one basic question—why should an athletic man develop his frame upon so unnatural an instrument as a single dumb-bell?" It was late that night when Holmes returned from his solitary excursion. We slept in a double-bedded room, which was the best that the little country inn could do for us. I was already asleep when I was partly awakened by his entrance. "Well, Holmes," I murmured, "have you found anything out?" He stood beside me in silence, his candle in his hand. Then the tall, lean figure inclined towards me. "I say, Watson," he whispered, "would you be afraid to sleep in the same room with a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, an idiot whose mind has lost its grip?" "Not in the least," I answered in astonishment. "Ah, that's lucky," he said, and not another word would he utter that night. Chapter 7 The Solution Next morning, after breakfast, we found Inspector MacDonald and White Mason seated in close consultation in the small parlour of the local police sergeant. On the table in front of them were piled a number of letters and telegrams, which they were carefully sorting and docketing. Three had been #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: Friend MacDonald, this pleasing and touching interview was, I suppose, in the professor's study?" "That's so." "A fine room, is it not?" "Very fine—very handsome indeed, Mr. Holmes." "You sat in front of his writing desk?" "Just so." "Sun in your eyes and his face in the shadow?" "Well, it was evening; but I mind that the lamp was turned on my face." "It would be. Did you happen to observe a picture over the professor's head?" "I don't miss much, Mr. Holmes. Maybe I learned that from you. Yes, I saw the picture—a young woman with her head on her hands, peeping at you sideways." "That painting was by Jean Baptiste Greuze." The inspector endeavoured to look interested. "Jean Baptiste Greuze," Holmes continued, joining his finger tips and leaning well back in his chair, "was a French artist who flourished between the years 1750 and 1800. I allude, of course to his working career. Modern criticism has more than indorsed the high opinion formed of him by his contemporaries." The inspector's eyes grew abstracted. "Hadn't we better—" he said. "We are doing so," Holmes interrupted. "All that I am saying has a very direct and vital bearing upon what you have called the Birlstone Mystery. In fact, it may in a sense be called the very centre of it." MacDonald smiled feebly, and looked appealingly to me. "Your thoughts move a bit too quick for me, Mr. Holmes. You leave out a link or two, and I can't get over the gap. What in the whole wide world can be the connection between this dead painting man and the affair at Birlstone?" "All knowledge comes useful to the detective," remarked Holmes. "Even the trivial fact that in the year 1865 a picture by Greuze entitled La Jeune Fille a l'Agneau fetched one million two hundred thousand francs—more than forty #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: http://www.gutenberg.net This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: He will show them when to act and where. Yours in freedom, "J. W. WINDLE D. M. A. O. F. "Windle has never refused us when we have had occasion to ask for the loan of a man or two, and it is not for us to refuse him." McGinty paused and looked round the room with his dull, malevolent eyes. "Who will volunteer for the job?" Several young fellows held up their hands. The Bodymaster looked at them with an approving smile. "You'll do, Tiger Cormac. If you handle it as well as you did the last, you won't be wrong. And you, Wilson." "I've no pistol," said the volunteer, a mere boy in his teens. "It's your first, is it not? Well, you have to be blooded some time. It will be a great start for you. As to the pistol, you'll find it waiting for you, or I'm mistaken. If you report yourselves on Monday, it will be time enough. You'll get a great welcome when you return." "Any reward this time?" asked Cormac, a thick-set, dark-faced, brutallooking young man, whose ferocity had earned him the nickname of "Tiger." "Never mind the reward. You just do it for the honour of the thing. Maybe when it is done there will be a few odd dollars at the bottom of the box." "What has the man done?" asked young Wilson. "Sure, it's not for the likes of you to ask what the man has done. He has been judged over there. That's no business of ours. All we have to do is to carry it out for them, same as they would for us. Speaking of that, two brothers from the Merton lodge are coming over to us next week to do some business in this quarter." "Who are they?" asked someone. "Faith, it is wiser not to ask. If you know nothing, you can testify nothing, and no trouble can come of it. But they are men who will make a clean job when they are about it." #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: plan and I'll ask you to fit the others into it. You will all come in good time. Very well. He comes at ten. He is to tap three times, and me to open the door for him. Then I'll get behind him and shut it. He's our man then." "That's all easy and plain." "Yes; but the next step wants considering. He's a hard proposition. He's heavily armed. I've fooled him proper, and yet he is likely to be on his guard. Suppose I show him right into a room with seven men in it where he expected to find me alone. There is going to be shooting, and somebody is going to be hurt." "That's so." "And the noise is going to bring every damned copper in the township on top of it." "I guess you are right." "This is how I should work it. You will all be in the big room—same as you saw when you had a chat with me. I'll open the door for him, show him into the parlour beside the door, and leave him there while I get the papers. That will give me the chance of telling you how things are shaping. Then I will go back to him with some faked papers. As he is reading them I will jump for him and get my grip on his pistol arm. You'll hear me call and in you will rush. The quicker the better; for he is as strong a man as I, and I may have more than I can manage. But I allow that I can hold him till you come." "It's a good plan," said McGinty. "The lodge will owe you a debt for this. I guess when I move out of the chair I can put a name to the man that's coming after me." "Sure, Councillor, I am little more than a recruit," said McMurdo; but his face showed what he thought of the great man's compliment. When he had returned home he made his own preparations for the grim evening in front of him. First he cleaned, oiled, and loaded his Smith & Wesson #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: brain blunted and rusted with inaction. Sherlock Holmes's eyes glistened, his pale cheeks took a warmer hue, and his whole eager face shone with an inward light when the call for work reached him. Leaning forward in the cab, he listened intently to MacDonald's short sketch of the problem which awaited us in Sussex. The inspector was himself dependent, as he explained to us, upon a scribbled account forwarded to him by the milk train in the early hours of the morning. White Mason, the local officer, was a personal friend, and hence MacDonald had been notified much more promptly than is usual at Scotland Yard when provincials need their assistance. It is a very cold scent upon which the Metropolitan expert is generally asked to run. "DEAR INSPECTOR MACDONALD [said the letter which he read to us]: "Official requisition for your services is in separate envelope. This is for your private eye. Wire me what train in the morning you can get for Birlstone, and I will meet it— or have it met if I am too occupied. This case is a snorter. Don't waste a moment in getting started. If you can bring Mr. Holmes, please do so; for he will find something after his own heart. We would think the whole thing had been fixed up for theatrical effect if there wasn't a dead man in the middle of it. My word! it is a snorter." "Your friend seems to be no fool," remarked Holmes. "No, sir, White Mason is a very live man, if I am any judge." "Well, have you anything more?" "Only that he will give us every detail when we meet." "Then how did you get at Mr. Douglas and the fact that he had been horribly murdered?" "That was in the enclosed official report. It didn't say 'horrible': that's not a recognized official term. It gave the name John Douglas. It mentioned that his injuries had been in the head, from the discharge of a shotgun. It also mentioned the hour of the alarm, which was close on to midnight last night. It added that the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: rooms on Baker Street, where this, like so many other wonderful happenings, will find its end. PART 2 The Scowrers Chapter 1 The Man It was the fourth of February in the year 1875. It had been a severe winter, and the snow lay deep in the gorges of the Gilmerton Mountains. The steam ploughs had, however, kept the railroad open, and the evening train which connects the long line of coal-mining and iron-working settlements was slowly groaning its way up the steep gradients which lead from Stagville on the plain to Vermissa, the central township which lies at the head of Vermissa Valley. From this point the track sweeps downward to Bartons Crossing, Helmdale, and the purely agricultural county of Merton. It was a single-track railroad; but at every siding—and they were numerous—long lines of trucks piled with coal and iron ore told of the hidden wealth which had brought a rude population and a bustling life to this most desolate corner of the United States of America. For desolate it was! Little could the first pioneer who had traversed it have ever imagined that the fairest prairies and the most lush water pastures were valueless compared to this gloomy land of black crag and tangled forest. Above the dark and often scarcely penetrable woods upon their flanks, the high, bare crowns of the mountains, white snow, and jagged rock towered upon each flank, leaving a long, winding, tortuous valley in the centre. Up this the little train was slowly crawling. The oil lamps had just been lit in the leading passenger car, a long, bare carriage in which some twenty or thirty people were seated. The greater number of these were workmen returning from their day's toil in the lower part of the valley. At least a dozen, by their grimed faces and the safety lanterns which they carried, proclaimed themselves miners. These sat smoking in a group and conversed in low voices, glancing occasionally at two men on the opposite side #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: he has answered." "Surely you asked him what he meant by the Valley of Fear?" "I did; but his face would become very grave and he would shake his head. 'It is bad enough that one of us should have been in its shadow,' he said. 'Please God it shall never fall upon you!' It was some real valley in which he had lived and in which something terrible had occurred to him, of that I am certain; but I can tell you no more." "And he never mentioned any names?" "Yes, he was delirious with fever once when he had his hunting accident three years ago. Then I remember that there was a name that came continually to his lips. He spoke it with anger and a sort of horror. McGinty was the name— Bodymaster McGinty. I asked him when he recovered who Bodymaster McGinty was, and whose body he was master of. 'Never of mine, thank God!' he answered with a laugh, and that was all I could get from him. But there is a connection between Bodymaster McGinty and the Valley of Fear." "There is one other point," said Inspector MacDonald. "You met Mr. Douglas in a boarding house in London, did you not, and became engaged to him there? Was there any romance, anything secret or mysterious, about the wedding?" "There was romance. There is always romance. There was nothing mysterious." "He had no rival?" "No, I was quite free." "You have heard, no doubt, that his wedding ring has been taken. Does that suggest anything to you? Suppose that some enemy of his old life had tracked him down and committed this crime, what possible reason could he have for taking his wedding ring?" For an instant I could have sworn that the faintest shadow of a smile flickered over the woman's lips. "I really cannot tell," she answered. "It is certainly a most extraordinary thing." "Well, we will not detain you any longer, and we are sorry to have put you to this trouble at such a time," said the inspector. "There are some other points, no #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "Jack has been lost overboard in gale off St Helena. No one knows how accident occurred.—Ivy Douglas." "Ha! It came like that, did it?" said Holmes, thoughtfully. "Well, I've no doubt it was well stage-managed." "You mean that you think there was no accident?" "None in the world." "He was murdered?" "Surely!" "So I think also. These infernal Scowrers, this cursed vindictive nest of criminals—" "No, no, my good sir," said Holmes. "There is a master hand here. It is no case of sawed-off shot-guns and clumsy six-shooters. You can tell an old master by the sweep of his brush. I can tell a Moriarty when I see one. This crime is from London, not from America." "But for what motive?" "Because it is done by a man who cannot afford to fail—one whose whole unique position depends upon the fact that all he does must succeed. A great brain and a huge organization have been turned to the extinction of one man. It is crushing the nut with the hammer—an absurd extravagance of energy—but the nut is very effectually crushed all the same." "How came this man to have anything to do with it?" "I can only say that the first word that ever came to us of the business was from one of his lieutenants. These Americans were well advised. Having an English job to do, they took into partnership, as any foreign criminal could do, this great consultant in crime. From that moment their man was doomed. At first he would content himself by using his machinery in order to find their victim. Then he would indicate how the matter might be treated. Finally, when he read in the reports of the failure of this agent, he would step in himself with a master touch. You heard me warn this man at Birlstone Manor House that the coming danger was greater than the past. Was I right?" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: this young lady is mine, and you'll find it a very fine evening for a walk." "Thank you, I am in no humour for a walk." "Aren't you?" The man's savage eyes were blazing with anger. "Maybe you are in a humour for a fight, Mr. Boarder!" "That I am!" cried McMurdo, springing to his feet. "You never said a more welcome word." "For God's sake, Jack! Oh, for God's sake!" cried poor, distracted Ettie. "Oh, Jack, Jack, he will hurt you!" "Oh, it's Jack, is it?" said Baldwin with an oath. "You've come to that already, have you?" "Oh, Ted, be reasonable—be kind! For my sake, Ted, if ever you loved me, be big-hearted and forgiving!" "I think, Ettie, that if you were to leave us alone we could get this thing settled," said McMurdo quietly. "Or maybe, Mr. Baldwin, you will take a turn down the street with me. It's a fine evening, and there's some open ground beyond the next block." "I'll get even with you without needing to dirty my hands," said his enemy. "You'll wish you had never set foot in this house before I am through with you!" "No time like the present," cried McMurdo. "I'll choose my own time, mister. You can leave the time to me. See here!" He suddenly rolled up his sleeve and showed upon his forearm a peculiar sign which appeared to have been branded there. It was a circle with a triangle within it. "D'you know what that means?" "I neither know nor care!" "Well, you will know, I'll promise you that. You won't be much older, either. Perhaps Miss Ettie can tell you something about it. As to you, Ettie, you'll come back to me on your knees—d'ye hear, girl?—on your knees—and then I'll tell #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "You can come to-night, anyhow, and it will help you to know what we stand for in this community. I will make the announcement later. Meanwhile," he glanced at his agenda paper, "I have one or two more points to bring before the meeting. First of all, I will ask the treasurer as to our bank balance. There is the pension to Jim Carnaway's widow. He was struck down doing the work of the lodge, and it is for us to see that she is not the loser." "Jim was shot last month when they tried to kill Chester Wilcox of Marley Creek," McMurdo's neighbour informed him. "The funds are good at the moment," said the treasurer, with the bankbook in front of him. "The firms have been generous of late. Max Linder & Co. paid five hundred to be left alone. Walker Brothers sent in a hundred; but I took it on myself to return it and ask for five. If I do not hear by Wednesday, their winding gear may get out of order. We had to burn their breaker last year before they became reasonable. Then the West Section Coaling Company has paid its annual contribution. We have enough on hand to meet any obligations." "What about Archie Swindon?" asked a brother. "He has sold out and left the district. The old devil left a note for us to say that he had rather be a free crossing sweeper in New York than a large mine owner under the power of a ring of blackmailers. By Gar! it was as well that he made a break for it before the note reached us! I guess he won't show his face in this valley again." An elderly, clean-shaved man with a kindly face and a good brow rose from the end of the table which faced the chairman. "Mr. Treasurer," he asked, "may I ask who has bought the property of this man that we have driven out of the district?" "Yes, Brother Morris. It has been bought by the State & Merton County Railroad Company." "And who bought the mines of Todman and of Lee that came into the market #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "That's the Union House," said the guide, pointing to one saloon which rose almost to the dignity of being a hotel. "Jack McGinty is the boss there." "What sort of a man is he?" McMurdo asked. "What! have you never heard of the boss?" "How could I have heard of him when you know that I am a stranger in these parts?" "Well, I thought his name was known clear across the country. It's been in the papers often enough." "What for?" "Well," the miner lowered his voice—"over the affairs." "What affairs?" "Good Lord, mister! you are queer, if I must say it without offense. There's only one set of affairs that you'll hear of in these parts, and that's the affairs of the Scowrers." "Why, I seem to have read of the Scowrers in Chicago. A gang of murderers, are they not?" "Hush, on your life!" cried the miner, standing still in alarm, and gazing in amazement at his companion. "Man, you won't live long in these parts if you speak in the open street like that. Many a man has had the life beaten out of him for less." "Well, I know nothing about them. It's only what I have read." "And I'm not saying that you have not read the truth." The man looked nervously round him as he spoke, peering into the shadows as if he feared to see some lurking danger. "If killing is murder, then God knows there is murder and to spare. But don't you dare to breathe the name of Jack McGinty in connection with it, stranger; for every whisper goes back to him, and he is not one that is likely to let it pass. Now, that's the house you're after, that one standing back from the street. You'll find old Jacob Shafter that runs it as honest a man as lives in this township." "I thank you," said McMurdo, and shaking hands with his new acquaintance #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: something like that. If there are worse devils down yonder than some we could name, it's more than I'd expect. I guess you are new to this part, young man?" "Well, what if I am?" McMurdo answered in a surly voice. "Just this, mister, that I should advise you to be careful in choosing your friends. I don't think I'd begin with Mike Scanlan or his gang if I were you." "What the hell is it to you who are my friends?" roared McMurdo in a voice which brought every head in the carriage round to witness the altercation. "Did I ask you for your advice, or did you think me such a sucker that I couldn't move without it? You speak when you are spoken to, and by the Lord you'd have to wait a long time if it was me!" He thrust out his face and grinned at the patrolmen like a snarling dog. The two policemen, heavy, good-natured men, were taken aback by the extraordinary vehemence with which their friendly advances had been rejected. "No offense, stranger," said one. "It was a warning for your own good, seeing that you are, by your own showing, new to the place." "I'm new to the place; but I'm not new to you and your kind!" cried McMurdo in cold fury. "I guess you're the same in all places, shoving your advice in when nobody asks for it." "Maybe we'll see more of you before very long," said one of the patrolmen with a grin. "You're a real hand-picked one, if I am a judge." "I was thinking the same," remarked the other. "I guess we may meet again." "I'm not afraid of you, and don't you think it!" cried McMurdo. "My name's Jack McMurdo—see? If you want me, you'll find me at Jacob Shafter's on Sheridan Street, Vermissa; so I'm not hiding from you, am I? Day or night I dare #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: you will wear your warmest coats. It is of the first importance that we should be in our places before it grows dark; so with your permission we shall get started at once." We passed along the outer bounds of the Manor House park until we came to a place where there was a gap in the rails which fenced it. Through this we slipped, and then in the gathering gloom we followed Holmes until we had reached a shrubbery which lies nearly opposite to the main door and the drawbridge. The latter had not been raised. Holmes crouched down behind the screen of laurels, and we all three followed his example. "Well, what are we to do now?" asked MacDonald with some gruffness. "Possess our souls in patience and make as little noise as possible," Holmes answered. "What are we here for at all? I really think that you might treat us with more frankness." Holmes laughed. "Watson insists that I am the dramatist in real life," said he. "Some touch of the artist wells up within me, and calls insistently for a wellstaged performance. Surely our profession, Mr. Mac, would be a drab and sordid one if we did not sometimes set the scene so as to glorify our results. The blunt accusation, the brutal tap upon the shoulder—what can one make of such a denouement? But the quick inference, the subtle trap, the clever forecast of coming events, the triumphant vindication of bold theories—are these not the pride and the justification of our life's work? At the present moment you thrill with the glamour of the situation and the anticipation of the hunt. Where would be that thrill if I had been as definite as a timetable? I only ask a little patience, Mr. Mac, and all will be clear to you." "Well, I hope the pride and justification and the rest of it will come before we all get our death of cold," said the London detective with comic resignation. We all had good reason to join in the aspiration; for our vigil was a long and #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: instructive quarter of an hour." "What were you doing?" "Well, not to make a mystery of so simple a matter, I was looking for the missing dumb-bell. It has always bulked rather large in my estimate of the case. I ended by finding it." "Where?" "Ah, there we come to the edge of the unexplored. Let me go a little further, a very little further, and I will promise that you shall share everything that I know." "Well, we're bound to take you on your own terms," said the inspector; "but when it comes to telling us to abandon the case—why in the name of goodness should we abandon the case?" "For the simple reason, my dear Mr. Mac, that you have not got the first idea what it is that you are investigating." "We are investigating the murder of Mr. John Douglas of Birlstone Manor." "Yes, yes, so you are. But don't trouble to trace the mysterious gentleman upon the bicycle. I assure you that it won't help you." "Then what do you suggest that we do?" "I will tell you exactly what to do, if you will do it." "Well, I'm bound to say I've always found you had reason behind all your queer ways. I'll do what you advise." "And you, Mr. White Mason?" The country detective looked helplessly from one to the other. Holmes and his methods were new to him. "Well, if it is good enough for the inspector, it is good enough for me," he said at last. "Capital!" said Holmes. "Well, then, I should recommend a nice, cheery country walk for both of you. They tell me that the views from Birlstone Ridge over the Weald are very remarkable. No doubt lunch could be got at some suitable hostelry; though my ignorance of the country prevents me from recommending one. In the evening, tired but happy—" "Man, this is getting past a joke!" cried MacDonald, rising angrily from his chair. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: It was a sight to see Cecil Barker's expressive face during this exposition of the great detective. Anger, amazement, consternation, and indecision swept over it in turn. Finally he took refuge in a somewhat acrid irony. "You know such a lot, Mr. Holmes, perhaps you had better tell us some more," he sneered. "I have no doubt that I could tell you a great deal more, Mr. Barker; but it would come with a better grace from you." "Oh, you think so, do you? Well, all I can say is that if there's any secret here it is not my secret, and I am not the man to give it away." "Well, if you take that line, Mr. Barker," said the inspector quietly, "we must just keep you in sight until we have the warrant and can hold you." "You can do what you damn please about that," said Barker defiantly. The proceedings seemed to have come to a definite end so far as he was concerned; for one had only to look at that granite face to realize that no peine forte et dure would ever force him to plead against his will. The deadlock was broken, however, by a woman's voice. Mrs. Douglas had been standing listening at the half opened door, and now she entered the room. "You have done enough for now, Cecil," said she. "Whatever comes of it in the future, you have done enough." "Enough and more than enough," remarked Sherlock Holmes gravely. "I have every sympathy with you, madam, and should strongly urge you to have some confidence in the common sense of our jurisdiction and to take the police voluntarily into your complete confidence. It may be that I am myself at fault for not following up the hint which you conveyed to me through my friend, Dr. Watson; but, at that time I had every reason to believe that you were directly concerned in the crime. Now I am assured that this is not so. At the same time, there is much that is unexplained, and I should strongly recommend that you ask #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from people in all walks of life. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net 1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: seen or heard. They had then rushed out into the hall, where Ames had turned the windlass which lowered the drawbridge. Mr. Barker had then hurried off to get the police. Such, in its essentials, was the evidence of the butler. The account of Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, was, so far as it went, a corroboration of that of her fellow servant. The housekeeper's room was rather nearer to the front of the house than the pantry in which Ames had been working. She was preparing to go to bed when the loud ringing of the bell had attracted her attention. She was a little hard of hearing. Perhaps that was why she had not heard the shot; but in any case the study was a long way off. She remembered hearing some sound which she imagined to be the slamming of a door. That was a good deal earlier—half an hour at least before the ringing of the bell. When Mr. Ames ran to the front she went with him. She saw Mr. Barker, very pale and excited, come out of the study. He intercepted Mrs. Douglas, who was coming down the stairs. He entreated her to go back, and she answered him, but what she said could not be heard. "Take her up! Stay with her!" he had said to Mrs. Allen. She had therefore taken her to the bedroom, and endeavoured to soothe her. She was greatly excited, trembling all over, but made no other attempt to go downstairs. She just sat in her dressing gown by her bedroom fire, with her head sunk in her hands. Mrs. Allen stayed with her most of the night. As to the other servants, they had all gone to bed, and the alarm did not reach them until just before the police arrived. They slept at the extreme back of the house, and could not possibly have heard anything. So far the housekeeper could add nothing on cross-examination save lamentations and expressions of amazement. Cecil Barker succeeded Mrs. Allen as a witness. As to the occurrences of the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: breakfast before him, and he stared at the slip of paper which he had just drawn from its envelope. Then he took the envelope itself, held it up to the light, and very carefully studied both the exterior and the flap. "It is Porlock's writing," said he thoughtfully. "I can hardly doubt that it is Porlock's writing, though I have seen it only twice before. The Greek e with the peculiar top flourish is distinctive. But if it is Porlock, then it must be something of the very first importance." He was speaking to himself rather than to me; but my vexation disappeared in the interest which the words awakened. "Who then is Porlock?" I asked. "Porlock, Watson, is a nom-de-plume, a mere identification mark; but behind it lies a shifty and evasive personality. In a former letter he frankly informed me that the name was not his own, and defied me ever to trace him among the teeming millions of this great city. Porlock is important, not for himself, but for the great man with whom he is in touch. Picture to yourself the pilot fish with the shark, the jackal with the lion—anything that is insignificant in companionship with what is formidable: not only formidable, Watson, but sinister—in the highest degree sinister. That is where he comes within my purview. You have heard me speak of Professor Moriarty?" "The famous scientific criminal, as famous among crooks as—" "My blushes, Watson!" Holmes murmured in a deprecating voice. "I was about to say, as he is unknown to the public." "A touch! A distinct touch!" cried Holmes. "You are developing a certain unexpected vein of pawky humour, Watson, against which I must learn to guard myself. But in calling Moriarty a criminal you are uttering libel in the eyes of the law—and there lie the glory and the wonder of it! The greatest schemer of all time, the organizer of every deviltry, the controlling brain of the underworld, a #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "So one would imagine. Still, he has been justified of his wisdom up to date, at any rate, since he has not been taken. But his description—what of that?" MacDonald referred to his notebook. "Here we have it so far as they could give it. They don't seem to have taken any very particular stock of him; but still the porter, the clerk, and the chambermaid are all agreed that this about covers the points. He was a man about five foot nine in height, fifty or so years of age, his hair slightly grizzled, a grayish moustache, a curved nose, and a face which all of them described as fierce and forbidding." "Well, bar the expression, that might almost be a description of Douglas himself," said Holmes. "He is just over fifty, with grizzled hair and moustache, and about the same height. Did you get anything else?" "He was dressed in a heavy gray suit with a reefer jacket, and he wore a short yellow overcoat and a soft cap." "What about the shotgun?" "It is less than two feet long. It could very well have fitted into his valise. He could have carried it inside his overcoat without difficulty." "And how do you consider that all this bears upon the general case?" "Well, Mr. Holmes," said MacDonald, "when we have got our man—and you may be sure that I had his description on the wires within five minutes of hearing it—we shall be better able to judge. But, even as it stands, we have surely gone a long way. We know that an American calling himself Hargrave came to Tunbridge Wells two days ago with bicycle and valise. In the latter was a sawedoff shotgun; so he came with the deliberate purpose of crime. Yesterday morning he set off for this place on his bicycle, with his gun concealed in his overcoat. No one saw him arrive, so far as we can learn; but he need not pass through the village to reach the park gates, and there are many cyclists upon the road. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: can be to see him. Hark to that!" They all sat like wax figures, some with their glasses arrested halfway to their lips. Three loud knocks had sounded at the door. "Hush!" McMurdo raised his hand in caution. An exulting glance went round the circle, and hands were laid upon hidden weapons. "Not a sound, for your lives!" McMurdo whispered, as he went from the room, closing the door carefully behind him. With strained ears the murderers waited. They counted the steps of their comrade down the passage. Then they heard him open the outer door. There were a few words as of greeting. Then they were aware of a strange step inside and of an unfamiliar voice. An instant later came the slam of the door and the turning of the key in the lock. Their prey was safe within the trap. Tiger Cormac laughed horribly, and Boss McGinty clapped his great hand across his mouth. "Be quiet, you fool!" he whispered. "You'll be the undoing of us yet!" There was a mutter of conversation from the next room. It seemed interminable. Then the door opened, and McMurdo appeared, his finger upon his lip. He came to the end of the table and looked round at them. A subtle change had come over him. His manner was as of one who has great work to do. His face had set into granite firmness. His eyes shone with a fierce excitement behind his spectacles. He had become a visible leader of men. They stared at him with eager interest; but he said nothing. Still with the same singular gaze he looked from man to man. "Well!" cried Boss McGinty at last. "Is he here? Is Birdy Edwards here?" "Yes," McMurdo answered slowly. "Birdy Edwards is here. I am Birdy Edwards!" There were ten seconds after that brief speech during which the room might have been empty, so profound was the silence. The hissing of a kettle upon the stove rose sharp and strident to the ear. Seven white faces, all turned upward to #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: look after ours." "What am I accused of?" asked McMurdo. "Of being concerned in the beating of old Editor Stanger at the Herald office. It wasn't your fault that it isn't a murder charge." "Well, if that's all you have against him," cried McGinty with a laugh, "you can save yourself a deal of trouble by dropping it right now. This man was with me in my saloon playing poker up to midnight, and I can bring a dozen to prove it." "That's your affair, and I guess you can settle it in court to-morrow. Meanwhile, come on, McMurdo, and come quietly if you don't want a gun across your head. You stand wide, Mr. McGinty; for I warn you I will stand no resistance when I am on duty!" So determined was the appearance of the captain that both McMurdo and his boss were forced to accept the situation. The latter managed to have a few whispered words with the prisoner before they parted. "What about—" he jerked his thumb upward to signify the coining plant. "All right," whispered McMurdo, who had devised a safe hiding place under the floor. "I'll bid you good-bye," said the Boss, shaking hands. "I'll see Reilly the lawyer and take the defense upon myself. Take my word for it that they won't be able to hold you." "I wouldn't bet on that. Guard the prisoner, you two, and shoot him if he tries any games. I'll search the house before I leave." He did so; but apparently found no trace of the concealed plant. When he had descended he and his men escorted McMurdo to headquarters. Darkness had fallen, and a keen blizzard was blowing so that the streets were nearly deserted; but a few loiterers followed the group, and emboldened by invisibility shouted imprecations at the prisoner. "Lynch the cursed Scowrer!" they cried. "Lynch him!" They laughed and jeered as he was pushed into the police station. After a short, formal examination #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: you. The butler had better wait outside. Tell him to warn Mr. Cecil Barker, Mrs. Douglas, and the housekeeper that we may want a word with them presently. Now, gentlemen, perhaps you will allow me to give you the views I have formed first, and then you will be able to arrive at your own." He impressed me, this country specialist. He had a solid grip of fact and a cool, clear, common-sense brain, which should take him some way in his profession. Holmes listened to him intently, with no sign of that impatience which the official exponent too often produced. "Is it suicide, or is it murder—that's our first question, gentlemen, is it not? If it were suicide, then we have to believe that this man began by taking off his wedding ring and concealing it; that he then came down here in his dressing gown, trampled mud into a corner behind the curtain in order to give the idea someone had waited for him, opened the window, put blood on the—" "We can surely dismiss that," said MacDonald. "So I think. Suicide is out of the question. Then a murder has been done. What we have to determine is, whether it was done by someone outside or inside the house." "Well, let's hear the argument." "There are considerable difficulties both ways, and yet one or the other it must be. We will suppose first that some person or persons inside the house did the crime. They got this man down here at a time when everything was still and yet no one was asleep. They then did the deed with the queerest and noisiest weapon in the world so as to tell everyone what had happened—a weapon that was never seen in the house before. That does not seem a very likely start, does it?" "No, it does not." "Well, then, everyone is agreed that after the alarm was given only a minute at the most had passed before the whole household—not Mr. Cecil Barker alone, though he claims to have been the first, but Ames and all of them were on the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: and made the mark on the sill to give an idea of how the murderer escaped. It was a tall order, that; but as the bridge was up there was no other way. Then, when everything was fixed, he rang the bell for all he was worth. What happened afterward you know. And so, gentlemen, you can do what you please; but I've told you the truth and the whole truth, so help me God! What I ask you now is how do I stand by the English law?" There was a silence which was broken by Sherlock Holmes. "The English law is in the main a just law. You will get no worse than your deserts from that, Mr. Douglas. But I would ask you how did this man know that you lived here, or how to get into your house, or where to hide to get you?" "I know nothing of this." Holmes's face was very white and grave. "The story is not over yet, I fear," said he. "You may find worse dangers than the English law, or even than your enemies from America. I see trouble before you, Mr. Douglas. You'll take my advice and still be on your guard." And now, my long-suffering readers, I will ask you to come away with me for a time, far from the Sussex Manor House of Birlstone, and far also from the year of grace in which we made our eventful journey which ended with the strange story of the man who had been known as John Douglas. I wish you to journey back some twenty years in time, and westward some thousands of miles in space, that I may lay before you a singular and terrible narrative—so singular and so terrible that you may find it hard to believe that even as I tell it, even so did it occur. Do not think that I intrude one story before another is finished. As you read on you will find that this is not so. And when I have detailed those distant events and you have solved this mystery of the past, we shall meet once more in those rooms on Baker Street, where this, like so many other wonderful happenings, #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: Moriarty rules with a rod of iron over his people. His discipline is tremendous. There is only one punishment in his code. It is death. Now we might suppose that this murdered man—this Douglas whose approaching fate was known by one of the arch-criminal's subordinates—had in some way betrayed the chief. His punishment followed, and would be known to all—if only to put the fear of death into them." "Well, that is one suggestion, Mr. Holmes." "The other is that it has been engineered by Moriarty in the ordinary course of business. Was there any robbery?" "I have not heard." "If so, it would, of course, be against the first hypothesis and in favour of the second. Moriarty may have been engaged to engineer it on a promise of part spoils, or he may have been paid so much down to manage it. Either is possible. But whichever it may be, or if it is some third combination, it is down at Birlstone that we must seek the solution. I know our man too well to suppose that he has left anything up here which may lead us to him." "Then to Birlstone we must go!" cried MacDonald, jumping from his chair. "My word! it's later than I thought. I can give you, gentlemen, five minutes for preparation, and that is all." "And ample for us both," said Holmes, as he sprang up and hastened to change from his dressing gown to his coat. "While we are on our way, Mr. Mac, I will ask you to be good enough to tell me all about it." "All about it" proved to be disappointingly little, and yet there was enough to assure us that the case before us might well be worthy of the expert's closest attention. He brightened and rubbed his thin hands together as he listened to the meagre but remarkable details. A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us, and here at last there was a fitting object for those remarkable powers which, like all special gifts, become irksome to their owner when they are not in use. That razor #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: road, or was down in town when you went for him, or stayed indoors when you thought he would come out, you'll see my work." "You blasted traitor!" hissed McGinty through his closed teeth. "Ay, John McGinty, you may call me that if it eases your smart. You and your like have been the enemy of God and man in these parts. It took a man to get between you and the poor devils of men and women that you held under your grip. There was just one way of doing it, and I did it. You call me a traitor; but I guess there's many a thousand will call me a deliverer that went down into hell to save them. I've had three months of it. I wouldn't have three such months again if they let me loose in the treasury at Washington for it. I had to stay till I had it all, every man and every secret right here in this hand. I'd have waited a little longer if it hadn't come to my knowledge that my secret was coming out. A letter had come into the town that would have set you wise to it all. Then I had to act and act quickly. "I've nothing more to say to you, except that when my time comes I'll die the easier when I think of the work I have done in this valley. Now, Marvin, I'll keep you no more. Take them in and get it over." There is little more to tell. Scanlan had been given a sealed note to be left at the address of Miss Ettie Shafter, a mission which he had accepted with a wink and a knowing smile. In the early hours of the morning a beautiful woman and a much muffled man boarded a special train which had been sent by the railroad company, and made a swift, unbroken journey out of the land of danger. It was the last time that ever either Ettie or her lover set foot in the Valley of Fear. Ten days later they were married in Chicago, with old Jacob Shafter as witness of the wedding. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: Porlock?" MacDonald turned over the letter which Holmes had handed him. "Posted in Camberwell—that doesn't help us much. Name, you say, is assumed. Not much to go on, certainly. Didn't you say that you have sent him money?" "Twice." "And how?" "In notes to Camberwell post-office." "Did you ever trouble to see who called for them?" "No." The inspector looked surprised and a little shocked. "Why not?" "Because I always keep faith. I had promised when he first wrote that I would not try to trace him." "You think there is someone behind him?" "I know there is." "This professor that I've heard you mention?" "Exactly!" Inspector MacDonald smiled, and his eyelid quivered as he glanced towards me. "I won't conceal from you, Mr. Holmes, that we think in the C. I. D. that you have a wee bit of a bee in your bonnet over this professor. I made some inquiries myself about the matter. He seems to be a very respectable, learned, and talented sort of man." "I'm glad you've got so far as to recognize the talent." "Man, you can't but recognize it! After I heard your view I made it my business to see him. I had a chat with him on eclipses. How the talk got that way I canna think; but he had out a reflector lantern and a globe, and made it all clear in a minute. He lent me a book; but I don't mind saying that it was a bit above my head, though I had a good Aberdeen upbringing. He'd have made a grand meenister with his thin face and gray hair and solemn-like way of talking. When he put his hand on my shoulder as we were parting, it was like a father's blessing before you go out into the cold, cruel world." Holmes chuckled and rubbed his hands. "Great!" he said. "Great! Tell me, Friend MacDonald, this pleasing and touching interview was, I suppose, in the #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: The iron and coal valleys of the Vermissa district were no resorts for the leisured or the cultured. Everywhere there were stern signs of the crudest battle of life, the rude work to be done, and the rude, strong workers who did it. The young traveller gazed out into this dismal country with a face of mingled repulsion and interest, which showed that the scene was new to him. At intervals he drew from his pocket a bulky letter to which he referred, and on the margins of which he scribbled some notes. Once from the back of his waist he produced something which one would hardly have expected to find in the possession of so mild-mannered a man. It was a navy revolver of the largest size. As he turned it slantwise to the light, the glint upon the rims of the copper shells within the drum showed that it was fully loaded. He quickly restored it to his secret pocket, but not before it had been observed by a working man who had seated himself upon the adjoining bench. "Hullo, mate!" said he. "You seem heeled and ready." The young man smiled with an air of embarrassment. "Yes," said he, "we need them sometimes in the place I come from." "And where may that be?" "I'm last from Chicago." "A stranger in these parts?" "Yes." "You may find you need it here," said the workman. "Ah! is that so?" The young man seemed interested. "Have you heard nothing of doings hereabouts?" "Nothing out of the way." "Why, I thought the country was full of it. You'll hear quick enough. What made you come here?" "I heard there was always work for a willing man." "Are you a member of the union?" "Sure." "Then you'll get your job, I guess. Have you any friends?" "Not yet; but I have the means of making them." "How's that, then?" "I am one of the Eminent Order of Freemen. There's no town without a lodge, #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: and left a sinister impression in my mind. I have said that a decoration of yew trees circled the garden. At the end farthest from the house they thickened into a continuous hedge. On the other side of this hedge, concealed from the eyes of anyone approaching from the direction of the house, there was a stone seat. As I approached the spot I was aware of voices, some remark in the deep tones of a man, answered by a little ripple of feminine laughter. An instant later I had come round the end of the hedge and my eyes lit upon Mrs. Douglas and the man Barker before they were aware of my presence. Her appearance gave me a shock. In the dining-room she had been demure and discreet. Now all pretense of grief had passed away from her. Her eyes shone with the joy of living, and her face still quivered with amusement at some remark of her companion. He sat forward, his hands clasped and his forearms on his knees, with an answering smile upon his bold, handsome face. In an instant —but it was just one instant too late—they resumed their solemn masks as my figure came into view. A hurried word or two passed between them, and then Barker rose and came towards me. "Excuse me, sir," said he, "but am I addressing Dr. Watson?" I bowed with a coldness which showed, I dare say, very plainly the impression which had been produced upon my mind. "We thought that it was probably you, as your friendship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes is so well known. Would you mind coming over and speaking to Mrs. Douglas for one instant?" I followed him with a dour face. Very clearly I could see in my mind's eye that shattered figure on the floor. Here within a few hours of the tragedy were his wife and his nearest friend laughing together behind a bush in the garden which had been his. I greeted the lady with reserve. I had grieved with her grief in the dining-room. Now I met her appealing gaze with an unresponsive eye. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: instant in his own, "and I acted for the best. "Well, gentlemen, the day before these happenings I was over in Tunbridge Wells, and I got a glimpse of a man in the street. It was only a glimpse; but I have a quick eye for these things, and I never doubted who it was. It was the worst enemy I had among them all—one who has been after me like a hungry wolf after a caribou all these years. I knew there was trouble coming, and I came home and made ready for it. I guessed I'd fight through it all right on my own, my luck was a proverb in the States about '76. I never doubted that it would be with me still. "I was on my guard all that next day, and never went out into the park. It's as well, or he'd have had the drop on me with that buckshot gun of his before ever I could draw on him. After the bridge was up—my mind was always more restful when that bridge was up in the evenings—I put the thing clear out of my head. I never dreamed of his getting into the house and waiting for me. But when I made my round in my dressing gown, as was my habit, I had no sooner entered the study than I scented danger. I guess when a man has had dangers in his life—and I've had more than most in my time—there is a kind of sixth sense that waves the red flag. I saw the signal clear enough, and yet I couldn't tell you why. Next instant I spotted a boot under the window curtain, and then I saw why plain enough. "I'd just the one candle that was in my hand; but there was a good light from the hall lamp through the open door. I put down the candle and jumped for a hammer that I'd left on the mantel. At the same moment he sprang at me. I saw the glint of a knife, and I lashed at him with the hammer. I got him somewhere; #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: hardly expect them." "No tracks or marks?" "None." "Ha! Would there be any objection, Mr. White Mason, to our going down to the house at once? There may possibly be some small point which might be suggestive." "I was going to propose it, Mr. Holmes; but I thought it well to put you in touch with all the facts before we go. I suppose if anything should strike you—" White Mason looked doubtfully at the amateur. "I have worked with Mr. Holmes before," said Inspector MacDonald. "He plays the game." "My own idea of the game, at any rate," said Holmes, with a smile. "I go into a case to help the ends of justice and the work of the police. If I have ever separated myself from the official force, it is because they have first separated themselves from me. I have no wish ever to score at their expense. At the same time, Mr. White Mason, I claim the right to work in my own way and give my results at my own time—complete rather than in stages." "I am sure we are honoured by your presence and to show you all we know," said White Mason cordially. "Come along, Dr. Watson, and when the time comes we'll all hope for a place in your book." We walked down the quaint village street with a row of pollarded elms on each side of it. Just beyond were two ancient stone pillars, weather-stained and lichen-blotched bearing upon their summits a shapeless something which had once been the rampant lion of Capus of Birlstone. A short walk along the winding drive with such sward and oaks around it as one only sees in rural England, then a sudden turn, and the long, low Jacobean house of dingy, livercoloured brick lay before us, with an old-fashioned garden of cut yews on each side of it. As we approached it, there was the wooden drawbridge and the beautiful broad moat as still and luminous as quicksilver in the cold, winter sunshine. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: murdered last night!" Chapter 2 Sherlock Holmes Discourses It was one of those dramatic moments for which my friend existed. It would be an overstatement to say that he was shocked or even excited by the amazing announcement. Without having a tinge of cruelty in his singular composition, he was undoubtedly callous from long over-stimulation. Yet, if his emotions were dulled, his intellectual perceptions were exceedingly active. There was no trace then of the horror which I had myself felt at this curt declaration; but his face showed rather the quiet and interested composure of the chemist who sees the crystals falling into position from his oversaturated solution. "Remarkable!" said he. "Remarkable!" "You don't seem surprised." "Interested, Mr. Mac, but hardly surprised. Why should I be surprised? I receive an anonymous communication from a quarter which I know to be important, warning me that danger threatens a certain person. Within an hour I learn that this danger has actually materialized and that the person is dead. I am interested; but, as you observe, I am not surprised." In a few short sentences he explained to the inspector the facts about the letter and the cipher. MacDonald sat with his chin on his hands and his great sandy eyebrows bunched into a yellow tangle. "I was going down to Birlstone this morning," said he. "I had come to ask you if you cared to come with me—you and your friend here. But from what you say we might perhaps be doing better work in London." "I rather think not," said Holmes. "Hang it all, Mr. Holmes!" cried the inspector. "The papers will be full of the Birlstone mystery in a day or two; but where's the mystery if there is a man in London who prophesied the crime before ever it occurred? We have only to lay our hands on that man, and the rest will follow." "No doubt, Mr. Mac. But how do you propose to lay your hands on the socalled Porlock?" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: Mr. Holmes. You're a smoker yourself, if I remember right, and you'll guess what it is to be sitting for two days with tobacco in your pocket and afraid that the smell will give you away." He leaned against the mantelpiece and sucked at the cigar which Holmes had handed him. "I've heard of you, Mr. Holmes. I never guessed that I should meet you. But before you are through with that," he nodded at my papers, "you will say I've brought you something fresh." Inspector MacDonald had been staring at the newcomer with the greatest amazement. "Well, this fairly beats me!" he cried at last. "If you are Mr. John Douglas of Birlstone Manor, then whose death have we been investigating for these two days, and where in the world have you sprung from now? You seemed to me to come out of the floor like a jack-in-a-box." "Ah, Mr. Mac," said Holmes, shaking a reproving forefinger, "you would not read that excellent local compilation which described the concealment of King Charles. People did not hide in those days without excellent hiding places, and the hiding place that has once been used may be again. I had persuaded myself that we should find Mr. Douglas under this roof." "And how long have you been playing this trick upon us, Mr. Holmes?" said the inspector angrily. "How long have you allowed us to waste ourselves upon a search that you knew to be an absurd one?" "Not one instant, my dear Mr. Mac. Only last night did I form my views of the case. As they could not be put to the proof until this evening, I invited you and your colleague to take a holiday for the day. Pray what more could I do? When I found the suit of clothes in the moat, it at once became apparent to me that the body we had found could not have been the body of Mr. John Douglas at all, but must be that of the bicyclist from Tunbridge Wells. No other conclusion was possible. Therefore I had to determine where Mr. John Douglas himself #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: of Birdy Edwards, and that he has the name of being the best man in the Pinkerton service." "Does anyone know him by sight?" asked McGinty. "Yes," said McMurdo, "I do." There was a murmur of astonishment through the hall. "I believe we hold him in the hollow of our hands," he continued with an exulting smile upon his face. "If we act quickly and wisely, we can cut this thing short. If I have your confidence and your help, it is little that we have to fear." "What have we to fear, anyhow? What can he know of our affairs?" "You might say so if all were as stanch as you, Councillor. But this man has all the millions of the capitalists at his back. Do you think there is no weaker brother among all our lodges that could not be bought? He will get at our secrets —maybe has got them already. There's only one sure cure." "That he never leaves the valley," said Baldwin. McMurdo nodded. "Good for you, Brother Baldwin," he said. "You and I have had our differences, but you have said the true word to-night." "Where is he, then? Where shall we know him?" "Eminent Bodymaster," said McMurdo, earnestly, "I would put it to you that this is too vital a thing for us to discuss in open lodge. God forbid that I should throw a doubt on anyone here; but if so much as a word of gossip got to the ears of this man, there would be an end of any chance of our getting him. I would ask the lodge to choose a trusty committee, Mr. Chairman—yourself, if I might suggest it, and Brother Baldwin here, and five more. Then I can talk freely of what I know and of what I advise should be done." The proposition was at once adopted, and the committee chosen. Besides the chairman and Baldwin there were the vulture-faced secretary, Harraway, Tiger Cormac, the brutal young assassin, Carter, the treasurer, and the brothers #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "DEAR MR. HOLMES [he says]: "I will go no further in this matter. It is too dangerous—he suspects me. I can see that he suspects me. He came to me quite unexpectedly after I had actually addressed this envelope with the intention of sending you the key to the cipher. I was able to cover it up. If he had seen it, it would have gone hard with me. But I read suspicion in his eyes. Please burn the cipher message, which can now be of no use to you. FRED PORLOCK." Holmes sat for some little time twisting this letter between his fingers, and frowning, as he stared into the fire. "After all," he said at last, "there may be nothing in it. It may be only his guilty conscience. Knowing himself to be a traitor, he may have read the accusation in the other's eyes." "The other being, I presume, Professor Moriarty." "No less! When any of that party talk about 'He' you know whom they mean. There is one predominant 'He' for all of them." "But what can he do?" "Hum! That's a large question. When you have one of the first brains of Europe up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there are infinite possibilities. Anyhow, Friend Porlock is evidently scared out of his senses—kindly compare the writing in the note to that upon its envelope; which was done, he tells us, before this ill-omened visit. The one is clear and firm. The other hardly legible." "Why did he write at all? Why did he not simply drop it?" "Because he feared I would make some inquiry after him in that case, and possibly bring trouble on him." "No doubt," said I. "Of course." I had picked up the original cipher message and was bending my brows over it. "It's pretty maddening to think that an important secret may lie here on this slip of paper, and that it is beyond human power to penetrate it." #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: want? And can't I speak alone with a gentleman for five minutes but you must butt in on us?" The bartender stood abashed. "I'm sorry, Councillor, but it's Ted Baldwin. He says he must see you this very minute." The message was unnecessary; for the set, cruel face of the man himself was looking over the servant's shoulder. He pushed the bartender out and closed the door on him. "So," said he with a furious glance at McMurdo, "you got here first, did you? I've a word to say to you, Councillor, about this man." "Then say it here and now before my face," cried McMurdo. "I'll say it at my own time, in my own way." "Tut! Tut!" said McGinty, getting off his barrel. "This will never do. We have a new brother here, Baldwin, and it's not for us to greet him in such fashion. Hold out your hand, man, and make it up!" "Never!" cried Baldwin in a fury. "I've offered to fight him if he thinks I have wronged him," said McMurdo. "I'll fight him with fists, or, if that won't satisfy him, I'll fight him any other way he chooses. Now, I'll leave it to you, Councillor, to judge between us as a Bodymaster should." "What is it, then?" "A young lady. She's free to choose for herself." "Is she?" cried Baldwin. "As between two brothers of the lodge I should say that she was," said the Boss. "Oh, that's your ruling, is it?" "Yes, it is, Ted Baldwin," said McGinty, with a wicked stare. "Is it you that would dispute it?" "You would throw over one that has stood by you this five years in favour of a man that you never saw before in your life? You're not Bodymaster for life, Jack McGinty, and by God! when next it comes to a vote—" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: great Boss of Vermissa felt towards him something of the repulsion and fear which the huge Danton may have felt for the puny but dangerous Robespierre. One day Scanlan, who was McMurdo's fellow boarder, received a note from McGinty inclosing one from Evans Pott, which informed him that he was sending over two good men, Lawler and Andrews, who had instructions to act in the neighbourhood; though it was best for the cause that no particulars as to their objects should be given. Would the Bodymaster see to it that suitable arrangements be made for their lodgings and comfort until the time for action should arrive? McGinty added that it was impossible for anyone to remain secret at the Union House, and that, therefore, he would be obliged if McMurdo and Scanlan would put the strangers up for a few days in their boarding house. The same evening the two men arrived, each carrying his gripsack. Lawler was an elderly man, shrewd, silent, and self-contained, clad in an old black frock coat, which with his soft felt hat and ragged, grizzled beard gave him a general resemblance to an itinerant preacher. His companion Andrews was little more than a boy, frank-faced and cheerful, with the breezy manner of one who is out for a holiday and means to enjoy every minute of it. Both men were total abstainers, and behaved in all ways as exemplary members of the society, with the one simple exception that they were assassins who had often proved themselves to be most capable instruments for this association of murder. Lawler had already carried out fourteen commissions of the kind, and Andrews three. They were, as McMurdo found, quite ready to converse about their deeds in the past, which they recounted with the half-bashful pride of men who had done good and unselfish service for the community. They were reticent, however, as to the immediate job in hand. "They chose us because neither I nor the boy here drink," Lawler explained. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: attentions to Ettie had been more evident than before, or that they had gradually obtruded themselves into the slow mind of his good German host; but, whatever the cause, the boarding-house keeper beckoned the young man into his private room and started on the subject without any circumlocution. "It seems to me, mister," said he, "that you are gettin' set on my Ettie. Ain't that so, or am I wrong?" "Yes, that is so," the young man answered. "Vell, I vant to tell you right now that it ain't no manner of use. There's someone slipped in afore you." "She told me so." "Vell, you can lay that she told you truth. But did she tell you who it vas?" "No, I asked her; but she wouldn't tell." "I dare say not, the leetle baggage! Perhaps she did not vish to frighten you avay." "Frighten!" McMurdo was on fire in a moment. "Ah, yes, my friend! You need not be ashamed to be frightened of him. It is Teddy Baldwin." "And who the devil is he?" "He is a boss of Scowrers." "Scowrers! I've heard of them before. It's Scowrers here and Scowrers there, and always in a whisper! What are you all afraid of? Who are the Scowrers?" The boarding-house keeper instinctively sank his voice, as everyone did who talked about that terrible society. "The Scowrers," said he, "are the Eminent Order of Freemen!" The young man stared. "Why, I am a member of that order myself." "You! I vould never have had you in my house if I had known it—not if you vere to pay me a hundred dollar a week." "What's wrong with the order? It's for charity and good fellowship. The rules say so." "Maybe in some places. Not here!" "What is it here?" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: A few minutes later we were in the study. Holmes had brought with him the carpet slippers from the hall. As Ames had observed, the soles of both were dark with blood. "Strange!" murmured Holmes, as he stood in the light of the window and examined them minutely. "Very strange indeed!" Stooping with one of his quick feline pounces, he placed the slipper upon the blood mark on the sill. It exactly corresponded. He smiled in silence at his colleagues. The inspector was transfigured with excitement. His native accent rattled like a stick upon railings. "Man," he cried, "there's not a doubt of it! Barker has just marked the window himself. It's a good deal broader than any bootmark. I mind that you said it was a splay-foot, and here's the explanation. But what's the game, Mr. Holmes—what's the game?" "Ay, what's the game?" my friend repeated thoughtfully. White Mason chuckled and rubbed his fat hands together in his professional satisfaction. "I said it was a snorter!" he cried. "And a real snorter it is!" Chapter 6 A Dawning Light The three detectives had many matters of detail into which to inquire; so I returned alone to our modest quarters at the village inn. But before doing so I took a stroll in the curious old-world garden which flanked the house. Rows of very ancient yew trees cut into strange designs girded it round. Inside was a beautiful stretch of lawn with an old sundial in the middle, the whole effect so soothing and restful that it was welcome to my somewhat jangled nerves. In that deeply peaceful atmosphere one could forget, or remember only as some fantastic nightmare, that darkened study with the sprawling, bloodstained figure on the floor. And yet, as I strolled round it and tried to steep my soul in its gentle balm, a strange incident occurred, which brought me back to the tragedy and left a sinister impression in my mind. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: He did the round of the house every night, for he was nervous of fire. It is the only thing that I have ever known him nervous of." "That is just the point which I want to come to, Mrs. Douglas. You have known your husband only in England, have you not?" "Yes, we have been married five years." "Have you heard him speak of anything which occurred in America and might bring some danger upon him?" Mrs. Douglas thought earnestly before she answered. "Yes." she said at last, "I have always felt that there was a danger hanging over him. He refused to discuss it with me. It was not from want of confidence in me—there was the most complete love and confidence between us—but it was out of his desire to keep all alarm away from me. He thought I should brood over it if I knew all, and so he was silent." "How did you know it, then?" Mrs. Douglas's face lit with a quick smile. "Can a husband ever carry about a secret all his life and a woman who loves him have no suspicion of it? I knew it by his refusal to talk about some episodes in his American life. I knew it by certain precautions he took. I knew it by certain words he let fall. I knew it by the way he looked at unexpected strangers. I was perfectly certain that he had some powerful enemies, that he believed they were on his track, and that he was always on his guard against them. I was so sure of it that for years I have been terrified if ever he came home later than was expected." "Might I ask," asked Holmes, "what the words were which attracted your attention?" "The Valley of Fear," the lady answered. "That was an expression he has used when I questioned him. 'I have been in the Valley of Fear. I am not out of it yet.'—'Are we never to get out of the Valley of Fear?' I have asked him when I have seen him more serious than usual. 'Sometimes I think that we never shall,' he has answered." #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: "It must be a very serious feud that would be kept up with such earnestness for as long as that. It would be no light thing that would give rise to it." "I think it shadowed his whole life. It was never quite out of his mind." "But if a man had a danger hanging over him, and knew what it was, don't you think he would turn to the police for protection?" "Maybe it was some danger that he could not be protected against. There's one thing you should know. He always went about armed. His revolver was never out of his pocket. But, by bad luck, he was in his dressing gown and had left it in the bedroom last night. Once the bridge was up, I guess he thought he was safe." "I should like these dates a little clearer," said MacDonald. "It is quite six years since Douglas left California. You followed him next year, did you not?" "That is so." "And he had been married five years. You must have returned about the time of his marriage." "About a month before. I was his best man." "Did you know Mrs. Douglas before her marriage?" "No, I did not. I had been away from England for ten years." "But you have seen a good deal of her since." Barker looked sternly at the detective. "I have seen a good deal of him since," he answered. "If I have seen her, it is because you cannot visit a man without knowing his wife. If you imagine there is any connection—" "I imagine nothing, Mr. Barker. I am bound to make every inquiry which can bear upon the case. But I mean no offense." "Some inquiries are offensive," Barker answered angrily. "It's only the facts that we want. It is in your interest and everyone's interest that they should be cleared up. Did Mr. Douglas entirely approve your friendship with his wife?" Barker grew paler, and his great, strong hands were clasped convulsively together. "You have no right to ask such questions!" he cried. "What has this to do with the matter you are investigating?" #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: danger was greater than the past. Was I right?" Barker beat his head with his clenched fist in his impotent anger. "Do you tell me that we have to sit down under this? Do you say that no one can ever get level with this king-devil?" "No, I don't say that," said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to be looking far into the future. "I don't say that he can't be beat. But you must give me time— you must give me time!" We all sat in silence for some minutes, while those fateful eyes still strained to pierce the veil. End of Project Gutenberg's The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan Doyle *** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF FEAR *** ***** This file should be named 3776-h.htm or 3776-h.zip ***** This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/7/3776/ Produced by Toby F. Charkin. HTML version by Al Haines. Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be renamed. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution. #################### File: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt Page: 1 Context: to look the like of you in the face—don't make any mistake about that!" There was a murmur of sympathy and admiration from the miners at the dauntless demeanour of the newcomer, while the two policemen shrugged their shoulders and renewed a conversation between themselves. A few minutes later the train ran into the ill-lit station, and there was a general clearing; for Vermissa was by far the largest town on the line. McMurdo picked up his leather gripsack and was about to start off into the darkness, when one of the miners accosted him. "By Gar, mate! you know how to speak to the cops," he said in a voice of awe. "It was grand to hear you. Let me carry your grip and show you the road. I'm passing Shafter's on the way to my own shack." There was a chorus of friendly "Good-nights" from the other miners as they passed from the platform. Before ever he had set foot in it, McMurdo the turbulent had become a character in Vermissa. The country had been a place of terror; but the town was in its way even more depressing. Down that long valley there was at least a certain gloomy grandeur in the huge fires and the clouds of drifting smoke, while the strength and industry of man found fitting monuments in the hills which he had spilled by the side of his monstrous excavations. But the town showed a dead level of mean ugliness and squalor. The broad street was churned up by the traffic into a horrible rutted paste of muddy snow. The sidewalks were narrow and uneven. The numerous gas-lamps served only to show more clearly a long line of wooden houses, each with its veranda facing the street, unkempt and dirty. As they approached the centre of the town the scene was brightened by a row of well-lit stores, and even more by a cluster of saloons and gaming houses, in which the miners spent their hard-earned but generous wages. "That's the Union House," said the guide, pointing to one saloon which rose ########## """QUERY: You are a super intelligent assistant. Please answer all my questions precisely and comprehensively. You have a large Knowledge Base with all the information of the user. This is the initial message to start the chat. Based on the following summary/context you should formulate an initial message greeting the user with the following user name diverse 1 2 tell them that you are the AI Chatbot Simon using the Large Language Model gemini-1.5-pro-preview-0409 to answer all questions. Formulate the initial message in the Usersettings Language German Please use the following context to suggest some questions or topics to chat about this knowledge base. List at least 3-10 possible topics or suggestions up and use emojis. The chat should be professional and in business terms. At the end ask an open question what the user would like to check on the list test summary""" Consider the chat history for relevant information. Use all information included. Use as much tokens as needed.Important: Take a look at the QUERY and only the QUERY. If this is vague or unclear, please ignore everything and ask a follow-up question instead! Final Files Sources: The%20Valley%20of%20Fear.txt - Page 1 ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.00 seconds** ================================================== FINAL ANSWER Answer: Hallo diverse 1 2, ich bin Simon, Ihr KI-Chatbot. Ich nutze das große Sprachmodell gemini-1.5-pro-preview-0409, um all Ihre Fragen präzise und umfassend zu beantworten. Basierend auf dem Kontext, den Sie bereitgestellt haben, schlage ich folgende Themen oder Fragen für unsere Unterhaltung vor: * Analyse der Charaktere im Buch "The Valley of Fear" 🕵️ * Untersuchung der Motive und Hintergründe des Verbrechens in Birlstone 🔎 * Vergleich der Ermittlungsmethoden von Sherlock Holmes und Inspector MacDonald ⚖️ * Die Rolle der Geheimgesellschaften in der Geschichte 🗝️ * Die Bedeutung des Schauplatzes, Birlstone und das Vermissa Valley, für die Handlung 🏞️ * Vergleich der amerikanischen und englischen Gesellschaft im Kontext der Geschichte 🌎 * Analyse der Beziehung zwischen John Douglas und seiner Frau 💔 * Die Rolle von Cecil Barker in den Ereignissen 🤵 * Die Bedeutung des Motivs des "Tal des Schreckens" 😨 Was möchten Sie von dieser Liste gerne zuerst besprechen? 🤔 ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 14.49 seconds** ==================================================