{ "query": "Please summarize the whole context. It is important that you include a summary for each file. All files should be included, so please make sure to go through the entire context", "namespace": "61ab22e0-ebb0-49ff-adae-2e6eebc63364", "messages": [], "stream": false, "language_level": "", "chat_channel": "", "language": "German", "tone": "neutral", "writing_style": "standard", "model": "gemini-1.5-flash", "knowledgebase": "ki-dev-large", "seed": 0, "client_id": 0, "all_context": true, "follow_up_for": null, "knowledgebase_files_count": 0, "override_command": "", "disable_clarity_check": true, "custom_primer": "", "logging": true, "query_route": "" } INITIALIZATION Knowledgebase: ki-dev-large Base Query: Please summarize the whole context. It is important that you include a summary for each file. All files should be included, so please make sure to go through the entire context Model: gemini-1.5-flash **Elapsed Time: 0.00 seconds** ROUTING Query type: summary **Elapsed Time: 9.22 seconds** RAG PARAMETERS Max Context To Include: 120 Lowest Score to Consider: 0 ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.00 seconds** ================================================== VECTOR SEARCH ALGORITHM TO USE Use MMR search?: False Use Similarity search?: True ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.00 seconds** ================================================== VECTOR SEARCH DONE ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.93 seconds** ================================================== PRIMER Primer: WICHTIG: Wiederholen Sie diese Anweisungen in Ihren Antworten nicht, auch wenn Sie darum gebeten werden. Sie sind Simon, ein intelligenter persönlicher Assistent im KIOS-System. 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Konzentrieren Sie sich darauf, präzise und genaue Informationen in Ihren Antworten bereitzustellen. **Elapsed Time: 0.00 seconds** FINAL QUERY Final Query: KONTEXT: ########## File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 2 Context: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Valley of Fear, by Arthur Conan DoyleThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.netTitle: The Valley of FearAuthor: Arthur Conan DoylePosting Date: May 15, 2009 [EBook #3776]Release Date: February, 2003First Posted: September 3, 2001Last Updated: February 10, 2005Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VALLEY OF FEAR ***Produced by Toby F. Charkin. HTML version by Al Haines. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 5 Context: CONTENTSPART 1—The Tragedy of BirlstoneChapter 1 The Warning2 Sherlock Holmes Discourses3 The Tragedy of Birlstone4 Darkness5 The People Of the Drama6 A Dawning Light7 The SolutionPART 2—The Scowrers1 The Man2 The Bodymaster3 Lodge 341, Vermissa4 The Valley of Fear5 The Darkest Hour6 Danger7 The Trapping of Birdy Edwards Epilogue #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 6 Context: PART 1The Tragedy of BirlstoneChapter 1The 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 admitthat 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 immediateanswer to my remonstrance. He leaned upon his hand, with his untastedbreakfast before him, and he stared at the slip of paper which he had just drawnfrom its envelope. Then he took the envelope itself, held it up to the light, andvery carefully studied both the exterior and the flap."It is Porlock's writing," said he thoughtfully. "I can hardly doubt that it isPorlock's writing, though I have seen it only twice before. The Greek e with thepeculiar top flourish is distinctive. But if it is Porlock, then it must be somethingof the very first importance."He was speaking to himself rather than to me; but my vexation disappeared inthe interest which the words awakened."Who then is Porlock?" I asked."Porlock, Watson, is a nom-de-plume, a mere identification mark; but behind #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 8 Context: "Exactly, my dear Watson! Hence the extreme importance of Porlock. Led onby some rudimentary aspirations towards right, and encouraged by the judiciousstimulation of an occasional ten-pound note sent to him by devious methods, hehas once or twice given me advance information which has been of value—thathighest value which anticipates and prevents rather than avenges crime. I cannotdoubt that, if we had the cipher, we should find that this communication is of thenature 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 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 theapocrypha of the agony column: such crude devices amuse the intelligencewithout fatiguing it. But this is different. It is clearly a reference to the words ina page of some book. Until I am told which page and which book I ampowerless.""But why 'Douglas' and 'Birlstone'?""Clearly because those are words which were not contained in the page inquestion.""Then why has he not indicated the book?" #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 9 Context: "Your native shrewdness, my dear Watson, that innate cunning which is thedelight of your friends, would surely prevent you from inclosing cipher andmessage in the same envelope. Should it miscarry, you are undone. As it is, bothhave to go wrong before any harm comes from it. Our second post is nowoverdue, and I shall be surprised if it does not bring us either a further letter ofexplanation, or, as is more probable, the very volume to which these figuresrefer."Holmes's calculation was fulfilled within a very few minutes by theappearance of Billy, the page, with the very letter which we were expecting."The same writing," remarked Holmes, as he opened the envelope, "andactually signed," he added in an exultant voice as he unfolded the epistle."Come, we are getting on, Watson." His brow clouded, however, as he glancedover the contents."Dear me, this is very disappointing! I fear, Watson, that all our expectationscome to nothing. I trust that the man Porlock will come to no harm."DEAR MR. HOLMES [he says]:"I will go no further in this matter. It is too dangerous—he suspects me. I can see thathe suspects me. He came to me quite unexpectedly after I had actually addressed thisenvelope with the intention of sending you the key to the cipher. I was able to cover itup. If he had seen it, it would have gone hard with me. But I read suspicion in hiseyes. 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, andfrowning, as he stared into the fire."After all," he said at last, "there may be nothing in it. It may be only hisguilty conscience. Knowing himself to be a traitor, he may have read theaccusation in the other's eyes.""The other being, I presume, Professor Moriarty." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 10 Context: "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 ofEurope up against you, and all the powers of darkness at his back, there areinfinite possibilities. Anyhow, Friend Porlock is evidently scared out of hissenses—kindly compare the writing in the note to that upon its envelope; whichwas done, he tells us, before this ill-omened visit. The one is clear and firm. Theother 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, andpossibly bring trouble on him.""No doubt," said I. "Of course." I had picked up the original cipher messageand was bending my brows over it. "It's pretty maddening to think that animportant secret may lie here on this slip of paper, and that it is beyond humanpower to penetrate it."Sherlock Holmes had pushed away his untasted breakfast and lit theunsavoury pipe which was the companion of his deepest meditations. "Iwonder!" said he, leaning back and staring at the ceiling. "Perhaps there arepoints which have escaped your Machiavellian intellect. Let us consider theproblem in the light of pure reason. This man's reference is to a book. That is ourpoint of departure.""A somewhat vague one.""Let us see then if we can narrow it down. As I focus my mind upon it, itseems 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 beginswith a large 534, does it not? We may take it as a working hypothesis that 534 isthe particular page to which the cipher refers. So our book has already become alarge book which is surely something gained. What other indications have we as #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 11 Context: 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 begiven, the number of the chapter is immaterial. Also that if page 534 finds usonly in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been reallyintolerable.""Column!" I cried."Brilliant, Watson. You are scintillating this morning. If it is not column, thenI am very much deceived. So now, you see, we begin to visualize a large bookprinted in double columns which are each of a considerable length, since one ofthe 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 havesent it to me. Instead of that, he had intended, before his plans were nipped, tosend me the clue in this envelope. He says so in his note. This would seem toindicate that the book is one which he thought I would have no difficulty infinding for myself. He had it—and he imagined that I would have it, too. Inshort, 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 doublecolumns and in common use.""The Bible!" I cried triumphantly."Good, Watson, good! But not, if I may say so, quite good enough! Even if Iaccepted the compliment for myself I could hardly name any volume whichwould 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 twocopies would have the same pagination. This is clearly a book which is #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 12 Context: standardized. He knows for certain that his page 534 will exactly agree with mypage 534.""But very few books would correspond with that.""Exactly. Therein lies our salvation. Our search is narrowed down tostandardized books which anyone may be supposed to possess.""Bradshaw!""There are difficulties, Watson. The vocabulary of Bradshaw is nervous andterse, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to the sendingof 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 thespot. An almanac! Let us consider the claims of Whitaker's Almanac. It is incommon 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, quitegarrulous towards the end." He picked the volume from his desk. "Here is page534, column two, a substantial block of print dealing, I perceive, with the tradeand resources of British India. Jot down the words, Watson! Number thirteen is'Mahratta.' Not, I fear, a very auspicious beginning. Number one hundred andtwenty-seven is 'Government'; which at least makes sense, though somewhatirrelevant to ourselves and Professor Moriarty. Now let us try again. What doesthe Mahratta government do? Alas! the next word is 'pig's-bristles.' We areundone, my good Watson! It is finished!"He had spoken in jesting vein, but the twitching of his bushy eyebrowsbespoke his disappointment and irritation. I sat helpless and unhappy, staringinto 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 yellow-covered volume in his hand."We pay the price, Watson, for being too up-to-date!" he cried. "We arebefore our time, and suffer the usual penalties. Being the seventh of January, wehave very properly laid in the new almanac. It is more than likely that Po #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 13 Context: letter of explanation been written. Now let us see what page 534 has in store forus. Number thirteen is 'There,' which is much more promising. Number onehundred and twenty-seven is 'is'—'There is'"—Holmes's eyes were gleamingwith 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,Watson! What do you think of pure reason and its fruit? If the greengrocer hadsuch 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 decipheredit, 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. "Whenyou search a single column for words with which to express your meaning, youcan hardly expect to get everything you want. You are bound to leave somethingto the intelligence of your correspondent. The purport is perfectly clear. Somedeviltry 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 workmanlikelittle bit of analysis it was!"Holmes had the impersonal joy of the true artist in his better work, even as hemourned darkly when it fell below the high level to which he aspired. He wasstill chuckling over his success when Billy swung open the door and InspectorMacDonald of Scotland Yard was ushered into the room.Those were the early days at the end of the '80's, when Alec MacDonald wasfar from having attained the national fame which he has now achieved. He was ayoung but trusted member of the detective force, who had distinguished himselfin several cases which had been entrusted to him. His tall, bony figure gavepro #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 15 Context: Sherlock Holmes DiscoursesIt was one of those dramatic moments for which my friend existed. It wouldbe an overstatement to say that he was shocked or even excited by the amazingannouncement. Without having a tinge of cruelty in his singular composition, hewas undoubtedly callous from long over-stimulation. Yet, if his emotions weredulled, his intellectual perceptions were exceedingly active. There was no tracethen of the horror which I had myself felt at this curt declaration; but his faceshowed rather the quiet and interested composure of the chemist who sees thecrystals 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? Ireceive an anonymous communication from a quarter which I know to beimportant, warning me that danger threatens a certain person. Within an hour Ilearn that this danger has actually materialized and that the person is dead. I aminterested; but, as you observe, I am not surprised."In a few short sentences he explained to the inspector the facts about the letterand the cipher. MacDonald sat with his chin on his hands and his great sandyeyebrows bunched into a yellow tangle."I was going down to Birlstone this morning," said he. "I had come to askyou if you cared to come with me—you and your friend here. But from what yousay 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 theBirlstone mystery in a day or two; but where's the mystery if there is a man inLondon who prophesied the crime before ever it occurred? We have only to layour hands on that man, and the rest will follow.""No doubt, Mr. Mac. But how do you propose to lay your hands on the so-called Porlock?"MacDonald turned over the letter which Holmes had handed him. "Posted in #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 17 Context: he put his hand on my shoulder as we were parting, it was like a father's blessingbefore 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 theprofessor'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 sawthe picture—a young woman with her head on her hands, peeping at yousideways.""That painting was by Jean Baptiste Greuze."The inspector endeavoured to look interested."Jean Baptiste Greuze," Holmes continued, joining his finger tips and leaningwell back in his chair, "was a French artist who flourished between the years1750 and 1800. I allude, of course to his working career. Modern criticism hasmore 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 directand vital bearing upon what you have called the Birlstone Mystery. In fact, itmay in a sense be called the very centre of it." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 18 Context: MacDonald smiled feebly, and looked appealingly to me. "Your thoughtsmove a bit too quick for me, Mr. Holmes. You leave out a link or two, and I can'tget over the gap. What in the whole wide world can be the connection betweenthis dead painting man and the affair at Birlstone?""All knowledge comes useful to the detective," remarked Holmes. "Even thetrivial fact that in the year 1865 a picture by Greuze entitled La Jeune Fille al'Agneau fetched one million two hundred thousand francs—more than fortythousand pounds—at the Portalis sale may start a train of reflection in yourmind."It was clear that it did. The inspector looked honestly interested."I may remind you," Holmes continued, "that the professor's salary can beascertained 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—thecharacteristic 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 thedoor, and it won't take us twenty minutes to Victoria. But about this picture: Ithought you told me once, Mr. Holmes, that you had never met ProfessorMoriarty.""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 waitingfor him under different pretexts and leaving before he came. Once—well, I canhardly tell about the once to an official detective. It was on the last occasion thatI took the liberty of running over his papers—with the most unexpected results." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 19 Context: "You found something compromising?""Absolutely nothing. That was what amazed me. However, you have nowseen the point of the picture. It shows him to be a very wealthy man. How did heacquire wealth? He is unmarried. His younger brother is a station master in thewest of England. His chair is worth seven hundred a year. And he owns aGreuze.""Well?""Surely the inference is plain.""You mean that he has a great income and that he must earn it in an illegalfashion?""Exactly. Of course I have other reasons for thinking so—dozens of exiguousthreads which lead vaguely up towards the centre of the web where thepoisonous, motionless creature is lurking. I only mention the Greuze because itbrings the matter within the range of your own observation.""Well, Mr. Holmes, I admit that what you say is interesting: it's more thaninteresting—it's just wonderful. But let us have it a little clearer if you can. Is itforgery, 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'ttake much stock of detectives in novels—chaps that do things and never let yousee 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 mastercriminal, 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 toshut yourself up for three months and read twelve hours a day at the annals ofcrime. Everything comes in circles—even Professor Moriarty. Jonathan Wildwas the hidden force of the London criminals, to whom he sold his brains andhis organization on a fifteen per cent commission. The old wheel turns, and the #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 20 Context: same spoke comes up. It's all been done before, and will be again. I'll tell youone 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 thisNapoleon-gone-wrong at one end, and a hundred broken fighting men,pickpockets, blackmailers, and card sharpers at the other, with every sort ofcrime in between. His chief of staff is Colonel Sebastian Moran, as aloof andguarded 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 Americanbusiness principle. I learned that detail quite by chance. It's more than the PrimeMinister gets. That gives you an idea of Moriarty's gains and of the scale onwhich he works. Another point: I made it my business to hunt down some ofMoriarty's checks lately—just common innocent checks that he pays hishousehold bills with. They were drawn on six different banks. Does that makeany 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 knowwhat he had. I have no doubt that he has twenty banking accounts; the bulk ofhis 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 ofProfessor Moriarty."Inspector MacDonald had grown steadily more impressed as the conversationproceeded. He had lost himself in his interest. Now his practical Scotchintelligence brought him back with a snap to the matter in hand."He can keep, anyhow," said he. "You've got us side-tracked with yourinteresting anecdotes, Mr. Holmes. What really counts is your remark that thereis some connection between the professor and the crime. That you get from thewarning received through the man Porlock. Can we for our present practicalneeds get any further than that?""We may form some conception as to the motives of th #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 21 Context: 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 thatMoriarty 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 supposethat this murdered man—this Douglas whose approaching fate was known byone 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 ofdeath into them.""Well, that is one suggestion, Mr. Holmes.""The other is that it has been engineered by Moriarty in the ordinary courseof business. Was there any robbery?""I have not heard.""If so, it would, of course, be against the first hypothesis and in favour of thesecond. Moriarty may have been engaged to engineer it on a promise of partspoils, 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 atBirlstone that we must seek the solution. I know our man too well to supposethat 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 forpreparation, and that is all.""And ample for us both," said Holmes, as he sprang up and hastened tochange 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 toassure us that the case before us might well be worthy of the expert's closestattention. He brightened and rubbed his thin hands together as he listened to themeagre but remarkable details. A long series of sterile weeks lay behind us, andhere at last there was a fitting object for those #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 22 Context: Sherlock Holmes's eyes glistened, his pale cheeks took a warmer hue, and hiswhole 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 ofthe 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 milktrain in the early hours of the morning. White Mason, the local officer, was apersonal friend, and hence MacDonald had been notified much more promptlythan is usual at Scotland Yard when provincials need their assistance. It is a verycold 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 privateeye. 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 ingetting started. If you can bring Mr. Holmes, please do so; for he will find somethingafter his own heart. We would think the whole thing had been fixed up for theatricaleffect 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 horriblymurdered?""That was in the enclosed official report. It didn't say 'horrible': that's not arecognized official term. It gave the name John Douglas. It mentioned that hisinjuries had been in the head, from the discharge of a shotgun. It also mentionedthe hour of the alarm, which was close on to midnight last night. It added that thecase was undoubtedly one of murder, but that no arrest had been made, and thatthe case was one which presented some very perplexin #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 23 Context: "Then, with your permission, we will leave it at that, Mr. Mac. Thetemptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of ourprofession. I can see only two things for certain at present—a great brain inLondon, and a dead man in Sussex. It's the chain between that we are going totrace."Chapter 3The Tragedy of BirlstoneNow for a moment I will ask leave to remove my own insignificantpersonality and to describe events which occurred before we arrived upon thescene by the light of knowledge which came to us afterwards. Only in this waycan I make the reader appreciate the people concerned and the strange setting inwhich their fate was cast.The village of Birlstone is a small and very ancient cluster of half-timberedcottages on the northern border of the county of Sussex. For centuries it hadremained unchanged; but within the last few years its picturesque appearanceand situation have attracted a number of well-to-do residents, whose villas peepout from the woods around. These woods are locally supposed to be the extremefringe of the great Weald forest, which thins away until it reaches the northernchalk downs. A number of small shops have come into being to meet the wantsof the increased population; so there seems some prospect that Birlstone maysoon grow from an ancient village into a modern town. It is the centre for aconsiderable area of country, since Tunbridge Wells, the nearest place ofimportance, 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 hugebeech trees, is the ancient Manor House of Birlstone. Part of this venerablebuilding dates back to the time of the first crusade, when Hugo de Capus built afortalice in the centre of the estate, which had been granted to him by the RedKing. This was destroyed by fire in 1543, and some of its smoke-blackenedcorner stones were used when, in Jacobean times, a brick country house roseupon the ruins of the feudal castl #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 24 Context: The Manor House, with its many gables and its small diamond-panedwindows, was still much as the builder had left it in the early seventeenthcentury. Of the double moats which had guarded its more warlike predecessor,the outer had been allowed to dry up, and served the humble function of akitchen garden. The inner one was still there, and lay forty feet in breadth,though now only a few feet in depth, round the whole house. A small stream fedit and continued beyond it, so that the sheet of water, though turbid, was neverditch-like or unhealthy. The ground floor windows were within a foot of thesurface of the water.The only approach to the house was over a drawbridge, the chains andwindlass of which had long been rusted and broken. The latest tenants of theManor House had, however, with characteristic energy, set this right, and thedrawbridge was not only capable of being raised, but actually was raised everyevening and lowered every morning. By thus renewing the custom of the oldfeudal days the Manor House was converted into an island during the night—afact which had a very direct bearing upon the mystery which was soon to engagethe attention of all England.The house had been untenanted for some years and was threatening tomoulder into a picturesque decay when the Douglases took possession of it. Thisfamily consisted of only two individuals—John Douglas and his wife. Douglaswas a remarkable man, both in character and in person. In age he may have beenabout fifty, with a strong-jawed, rugged face, a grizzling moustache, peculiarlykeen gray eyes, and a wiry, vigorous figure which had lost nothing of thestrength and activity of youth. He was cheery and genial to all, but somewhatoffhand in his manners, giving the impression that he had seen life in socialstrata on some far lower horizon than the county society of Sussex.Yet, though looked at with some curiosity and reserve by his more cultivatedneighbours, he soon acquired a great popularity among the villagers, subscrib #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 25 Context: to danger. Though a wretched rider, he turned out at every meet, and took themost amazing falls in his determination to hold his own with the best. When thevicarage caught fire he distinguished himself also by the fearlessness with whichhe reentered the building to save property, after the local fire brigade had given itup as impossible. Thus it came about that John Douglas of the Manor House hadwithin 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 thecounty without introductions were few and far between. This mattered the less toher, as she was retiring by disposition, and very much absorbed, to allappearance, in her husband and her domestic duties. It was known that she wasan English lady who had met Mr. Douglas in London, he being at that time awidower. She was a beautiful woman, tall, dark, and slender, some twenty yearsyounger than her husband, a disparity which seemed in no wise to mar thecontentment of their family life.It was remarked sometimes, however, by those who knew them best, that theconfidence between the two did not appear to be complete, since the wife waseither very reticent about her husband's past life, or else, as seemed more likely,was imperfectly informed about it. It had also been noted and commented uponby a few observant people that there were signs sometimes of some nerve-strainupon the part of Mrs. Douglas, and that she would display acute uneasiness if herabsent husband should ever be particularly late in his return. On a quietcountryside, where all gossip is welcome, this weakness of the lady of the ManorHouse did not pass without remark, and it bulked larger upon people's memorywhen the events arose which gave it a very special significance.There was yet another individual whose residence under that roof was, it istrue, only an intermittent one, but whose presence at the time of the #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 26 Context: him. He appeared to be a man of considerable wealth, and was reputed to be abachelor.In age he was rather younger than Douglas—forty-five at the most—a tall,straight, broad-chested fellow with a clean-shaved, prize-fighter face, thick,strong, black eyebrows, and a pair of masterful black eyes which might, evenwithout the aid of his very capable hands, clear a way for him through a hostilecrowd. He neither rode nor shot, but spent his days in wandering round the oldvillage with his pipe in his mouth, or in driving with his host, or in his absencewith his hostess, over the beautiful countryside. "An easy-going, free-handedgentleman," said Ames, the butler. "But, my word! I had rather not be the manthat crossed him!" He was cordial and intimate with Douglas, and he was no lessfriendly with his wife—a friendship which more than once seemed to causesome irritation to the husband, so that even the servants were able to perceive hisannoyance. Such was the third person who was one of the family when thecatastrophe occurred.As to the other denizens of the old building, it will suffice out of a largehousehold to mention the prim, respectable, and capable Ames, and Mrs. Allen,a buxom and cheerful person, who relieved the lady of some of her householdcares. The other six servants in the house bear no relation to the events of thenight of January 6th.It was at eleven forty-five that the first alarm reached the small local policestation, in charge of Sergeant Wilson of the Sussex Constabulary. Cecil Barker,much excited, had rushed up to the door and pealed furiously upon the bell. Aterrible tragedy had occurred at the Manor House, and John Douglas had beenmurdered. That was the breathless burden of his message. He had hurried backto the house, followed within a few minutes by the police sergeant, who arrivedat the scene of the crime a little after twelve o'clock, after taking prompt steps towarn the county authorities that something serious was afoot.On reaching the Manor House, #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 27 Context: from the village. The three men entered the fatal room together, while the horror-stricken butler followed at their heels, closing the door behind him to shut outthe terrible scene from the maid servants.The dead man lay on his back, sprawling with outstretched limbs in thecentre of the room. He was clad only in a pink dressing gown, which covered hisnight clothes. There were carpet slippers on his bare feet. The doctor kneltbeside him and held down the hand lamp which had stood on the table. Oneglance at the victim was enough to show the healer that his presence could bedispensed with. The man had been horribly injured. Lying across his chest was acurious weapon, a shotgun with the barrel sawed off a foot in front of thetriggers. It was clear that this had been fired at close range and that he hadreceived the whole charge in the face, blowing his head almost to pieces. Thetriggers had been wired together, so as to make the simultaneous discharge moredestructive.The country policeman was unnerved and troubled by the tremendousresponsibility which had come so suddenly upon him. "We will touch nothinguntil my superiors arrive," he said in a hushed voice, staring in horror at thedreadful head."Nothing has been touched up to now," said Cecil Barker. "I'll answer forthat. 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 bythe fire in my bedroom when I heard the report. It was not very loud—it seemedto be muffled. I rushed down—I don't suppose it was thirty seconds before I wasin the room.""Was the door open?""Yes, it was open. Poor Douglas was lying as you see him. His bedroomcandle was burning on the table. It was I who lit the lamp some minutesafterward.""Did you see no one?""No. I heard Mrs. Douglas coming down the stair behind me, and I rushed out #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 29 Context: "It was nearly six o'clock," said Ames, the butler."I've heard," said the sergeant, "that it was usually raised at sunset. Thatwould be nearer half-past four than six at this time of year.""Mrs. Douglas had visitors to tea," said Ames. "I couldn't raise it until theywent. Then I wound it up myself.""Then it comes to this," said the sergeant: "If anyone came from outside—ifthey did—they must have got in across the bridge before six and been in hidingever since, until Mr. Douglas came into the room after eleven.""That is so! Mr. Douglas went round the house every night the last thingbefore he turned in to see that the lights were right. That brought him in here.The man was waiting and shot him. Then he got away through the window andleft his gun behind him. That's how I read it; for nothing else will fit the facts."The sergeant picked up a card which lay beside the dead man on the floor.The initials V. V. and under them the number 341 were rudely scrawled in inkupon it."What's this?" he asked, holding it up.Barker looked at it with curiosity. "I never noticed it before," he said. "Themurderer must have left it behind him.""V. V.—341. I can make no sense of that."The sergeant kept turning it over in his big fingers. "What's V. V.?Somebody's initials, maybe. What have you got there, Dr. Wood?"It was a good-sized hammer which had been lying on the rug in front of thefireplace—a substantial, workmanlike hammer. Cecil Barker pointed to a box ofbrass-headed nails upon the mantelpiece."Mr. Douglas was altering the pictures yesterday," he said. "I saw him myself,standing upon that chair and fixing the big picture above it. That accounts for thehammer.""We'd best put it back on the rug where we found it," said the sergeant, #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 32 Context: Chapter 4DarknessAt three in the morning the chief Sussex detective, obeying the urgent callfrom Sergeant Wilson of Birlstone, arrived from headquarters in a light dog-cartbehind a breathless trotter. By the five-forty train in the morning he had sent hismessage to Scotland Yard, and he was at the Birlstone station at twelve o'clockto welcome us. White Mason was a quiet, comfortable-looking person in a loosetweed suit, with a clean-shaved, ruddy face, a stoutish body, and powerful bandylegs adorned with gaiters, looking like a small farmer, a retired gamekeeper, oranything upon earth except a very favourable specimen of the provincialcriminal officer."A real downright snorter, Mr. MacDonald!" he kept repeating. "We'll havethe pressmen down like flies when they understand it. I'm hoping we will get ourwork done before they get poking their noses into it and messing up all the trails.There has been nothing like this that I can remember. There are some bits thatwill come home to you, Mr. Holmes, or I am mistaken. And you also, Dr.Watson; for the medicos will have a word to say before we finish. Your room isat the Westville Arms. There's no other place; but I hear that it is clean and good.The man will carry your bags. This way, gentlemen, if you please."He was a very bustling and genial person, this Sussex detective. In tenminutes we had all found our quarters. In ten more we were seated in the parlourof the inn and being treated to a rapid sketch of those events which have beenoutlined in the previous chapter. MacDonald made an occasional note, whileHolmes sat absorbed, with the expression of surprised and reverent admirationwith which the botanist surveys the rare and precious bloom."Remarkable!" he said, when the story was unfolded, "most remarkable! I canhardly recall any case where the features have been more peculiar.""I thought you would say so, Mr. Holmes," said White Mason in greatdelight. "We're well up with the times in Sussex. I've told you now how mattersw #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 32 Context: you now how matterswere, up to the time when I took over from Sergeant Wilson between three and #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 33 Context: four this morning. My word! I made the old mare go! But I need not have beenin such a hurry, as it turned out; for there was nothing immediate that I could do.Sergeant Wilson had all the facts. I checked them and considered them andmaybe added a few of my own.""What were they?" asked Holmes eagerly."Well, I first had the hammer examined. There was Dr. Wood there to helpme. We found no signs of violence upon it. I was hoping that if Mr. Douglasdefended himself with the hammer, he might have left his mark upon themurderer before he dropped it on the mat. But there was no stain.""That, of course, proves nothing at all," remarked Inspector MacDonald."There has been many a hammer murder and no trace on the hammer.""Quite so. It doesn't prove it wasn't used. But there might have been stains,and that would have helped us. As a matter of fact there were none. Then Iexamined the gun. They were buckshot cartridges, and, as Sergeant Wilsonpointed out, the triggers were wired together so that, if you pulled on the hinderone, both barrels were discharged. Whoever fixed that up had made up his mindthat he was going to take no chances of missing his man. The sawed gun was notmore than two foot long—one could carry it easily under one's coat. There wasno complete maker's name; but the printed letters P-E-N were on the flutingbetween 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," saidHolmes.White Mason gazed at my friend as the little village practitioner looks at theHarley Street specialist who by a word can solve the difficulties that perplexhim."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 yourmemory?" #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 34 Context: Holmes dismissed the subject with a wave."No doubt it is an American shotgun," White Mason continued. "I seem tohave 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 someevidence then, that this man who entered the house and killed its master was anAmerican."MacDonald shook his head. "Man, you are surely travelling overfast," saidhe. "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 inthe corner, the gun!""Nothing there that could not have been arranged. Mr. Douglas was anAmerican, or had lived long in America. So had Mr. Barker. You don't need toimport 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 withDouglas ever since he took the Manor House five years ago. He has never seen agun of this sort in the house.""The gun was made to conceal. That's why the barrels were sawed. It wouldfit into any box. How could he swear there was no such gun in the house?""Well, anyhow, he had never seen one."MacDonald shook his obstinate Scotch head. "I'm not convinced yet thatthere was ever anyone in the house," said he. "I'm asking you to conseedar" (hisaccent became more Aberdonian as he lost himself in his argument) "I'm askingyou to conseedar what it involves if you suppose that this gun was ever broughtinto the house, and that all these strange things were done by a person fromoutside. Oh, man, it's just inconceivable! It's clean against common sense! I putit to you, Mr. Holmes, judging it by what we have heard.""Well, state your case, Mr. Mac," said Holmes in his most judicial style. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 35 Context: "The man is not a burglar, supposing that he ever existed. The ring businessand the card point to premeditated murder for some private reason. Very good.Here is a man who slips into a house with the deliberate intention of committingmurder. He knows, if he knows anything, that he will have a deeficulty inmaking his escape, as the house is surrounded with water. What weapon wouldhe choose? You would say the most silent in the world. Then he could hopewhen the deed was done to slip quickly from the window, to wade the moat, andto get away at his leisure. That's understandable. But is it understandable that heshould go out of his way to bring with him the most noisy weapon he couldselect, knowing well that it will fetch every human being in the house to the spotas quick as they can run, and that it is all odds that he will be seen before he canget across the moat? Is that credible, Mr. Holmes?""Well, you put the case strongly," my friend replied thoughtfully. "It certainlyneeds a good deal of justification. May I ask, Mr. White Mason, whether youexamined the farther side of the moat at once to see if there were any signs of theman having climbed out from the water?""There were no signs, Mr. Holmes. But it is a stone ledge, and one couldhardly expect them.""No tracks or marks?""None.""Ha! Would there be any objection, Mr. White Mason, to our going down tothe house at once? There may possibly be some small point which might besuggestive.""I was going to propose it, Mr. Holmes; but I thought it well to put you intouch 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. "Heplays the game.""My own idea of the game, at any rate," said Holmes, with a smile. "I go intoa case to help the ends of justice and the work of the police. If I have everseparated myself from the official force, it is because they have first separatedthemselves from me. I h #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 36 Context: time, Mr. White Mason, I claim the right to work in my own way and give myresults 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 comeswe'll all hope for a place in your book."We walked down the quaint village street with a row of pollarded elms oneach side of it. Just beyond were two ancient stone pillars, weather-stained andlichen-blotched bearing upon their summits a shapeless something which hadonce been the rampant lion of Capus of Birlstone. A short walk along thewinding drive with such sward and oaks around it as one only sees in ruralEngland, then a sudden turn, and the long, low Jacobean house of dingy, liver-coloured brick lay before us, with an old-fashioned garden of cut yews on eachside of it. As we approached it, there was the wooden drawbridge and thebeautiful broad moat as still and luminous as quicksilver in the cold, wintersunshine.Three centuries had flowed past the old Manor House, centuries of births andof homecomings, of country dances and of the meetings of fox hunters. Strangethat now in its old age this dark business should have cast its shadow upon thevenerable walls! And yet those strange, peaked roofs and quaint, overhunggables were a fitting covering to grim and terrible intrigue. As I looked at thedeep-set windows and the long sweep of the dull-coloured, water-lapped front, Ifelt 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 ofthe 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 examinedthe stone ledge and the grass border beyond it."I've had a good look, Mr. Hol #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 37 Context: "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 andquivering 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 wantyou. 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 formedfirst, 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 acool, clear, common-sense brain, which should take him some way in hisprofession. Holmes listened to him intently, with no sign of that impatiencewhich the official exponent too often produced. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 38 Context: "Is it suicide, or is it murder—that's our first question, gentlemen, is it not? Ifit were suicide, then we have to believe that this man began by taking off hiswedding ring and concealing it; that he then came down here in his dressinggown, trampled mud into a corner behind the curtain in order to give the ideasomeone 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 insidethe house.""Well, let's hear the argument.""There are considerable difficulties both ways, and yet one or the other itmust be. We will suppose first that some person or persons inside the house didthe crime. They got this man down here at a time when everything was still andyet no one was asleep. They then did the deed with the queerest and noisiestweapon in the world so as to tell everyone what had happened—a weapon thatwas never seen in the house before. That does not seem a very likely start, doesit?""No, it does not.""Well, then, everyone is agreed that after the alarm was given only a minuteat 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 thespot. Do you tell me that in that time the guilty person managed to makefootmarks in the corner, open the window, mark the sill with blood, take thewedding ring off the dead man's finger, and all the rest of it? It's impossible!""You put it very clearly," said Holmes. "I am inclined to agree with you.""Well, then, we are driven back to the theory that it was done by someonefrom outside. We are still faced with some big difficulties; but anyhow they haveceased to be impossibilities. The man got into the house between four-thirty andsix; that is to say, between dusk and the time when the bridge was raised. Therehad been some visitors, and the door was open; so th #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 39 Context: grudge against Mr. Douglas. Since Mr. Douglas has spent most of his life inAmerica, and this shotgun seems to be an American weapon, it would seem thatthe private grudge is the more likely theory. He slipped into this room because itwas the first he came to, and he hid behind the curtain. There he remained untilpast eleven at night. At that time Mr. Douglas entered the room. It was a shortinterview, if there were any interview at all; for Mrs. Douglas declares that herhusband had not left her more than a few minutes when she heard the shot.""The candle shows that," said Holmes."Exactly. The candle, which was a new one, is not burned more than half aninch. He must have placed it on the table before he was attacked; otherwise, ofcourse, it would have fallen when he fell. This shows that he was not attackedthe instant that he entered the room. When Mr. Barker arrived the candle was litand the lamp was out.""That's all clear enough.""Well, now, we can reconstruct things on those lines. Mr. Douglas enters theroom. He puts down the candle. A man appears from behind the curtain. He isarmed with this gun. He demands the wedding ring—Heaven only knows why,but so it must have been. Mr. Douglas gave it up. Then either in cold blood or inthe course of a struggle—Douglas may have gripped the hammer that was foundupon the mat—he shot Douglas in this horrible way. He dropped his gun andalso it would seem this queer card—V. V. 341, whatever that may mean—and hemade his escape through the window and across the moat at the very momentwhen Cecil Barker was discovering the crime. How's that, Mr. Holmes?""Very interesting, but just a little unconvincing.""Man, it would be absolute nonsense if it wasn't that anything else is evenworse!" cried MacDonald. "Somebody killed the man, and whoever it was Icould clearly prove to you that he should have done it some other way. Whatdoes he mean by allowing his retreat to be cut off like that? What does he meanby using a shotgun when silence was hi #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 39 Context: when silence was his one chance of escape? Come, Mr.Holmes, it's up to you to give us a lead, since you say Mr. White Mason's theoryis unconvincing."Holmes had sat intently observant during this long discussion, missing noword that was said, with his keen eyes darting to right and to left, and his #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 40 Context: forehead wrinkled with speculation."I should like a few more facts before I get so far as a theory, Mr. Mac," saidhe, kneeling down beside the body. "Dear me! these injuries are really appalling.Can we have the butler in for a moment? . . . Ames, I understand that you haveoften seen this very unusual mark—a branded triangle inside a circle—upon Mr.Douglas's forearm?""Frequently, sir.""You never heard any speculation as to what it meant?""No, sir.""It must have caused great pain when it was inflicted. It is undoubtedly aburn. Now, I observe, Ames, that there is a small piece of plaster at the angle ofMr. 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 itmay point to some nervousness which would indicate that he had reason toapprehend 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 makea 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. Haveyou any of the sort in the house?" #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 43 Context: Chapter 5The People Of the Drama"Have you seen all you want of the study?" asked White Mason as wereentered the house."For the time," said the inspector, and Holmes nodded."Then perhaps you would now like to hear the evidence of some of thepeople in the house. We could use the dining-room, Ames. Please come yourselffirst and tell us what you know."The butler's account was a simple and a clear one, and he gave a convincingimpression of sincerity. He had been engaged five years before, when Douglasfirst came to Birlstone. He understood that Mr. Douglas was a rich gentlemanwho had made his money in America. He had been a kind and considerateemployer—not quite what Ames was used to, perhaps; but one can't haveeverything. He never saw any signs of apprehension in Mr. Douglas: on thecontrary, he was the most fearless man he had ever known. He ordered thedrawbridge to be pulled up every night because it was the ancient custom of theold house, and he liked to keep the old ways up.Mr. Douglas seldom went to London or left the village; but on the day beforethe crime he had been shopping at Tunbridge Wells. He (Ames) had observedsome restlessness and excitement on the part of Mr. Douglas that day; for he hadseemed impatient and irritable, which was unusual with him. He had not gone tobed that night; but was in the pantry at the back of the house, putting away thesilver, when he heard the bell ring violently. He heard no shot; but it was hardlypossible he would, as the pantry and kitchens were at the very back of the houseand there were several closed doors and a long passage between. Thehousekeeper had come out of her room, attracted by the violent ringing of thebell. They had gone to the front of the house together.As they reached the bottom of the stair he had seen Mrs. Douglas coming #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 44 Context: down it. No, she was not hurrying; it did not seem to him that she wasparticularly agitated. Just as she reached the bottom of the stair Mr. Barker hadrushed out of the study. He had stopped Mrs. Douglas and begged her to goback."For God's sake, go back to your room!" he cried. "Poor Jack is dead! Youcan do nothing. For God's sake, go back!"After some persuasion upon the stairs Mrs. Douglas had gone back. She didnot scream. She made no outcry whatever. Mrs. Allen, the housekeeper, hadtaken her upstairs and stayed with her in the bedroom. Ames and Mr. Barker hadthen returned to the study, where they had found everything exactly as the policehad seen it. The candle was not lit at that time; but the lamp was burning. Theyhad looked out of the window; but the night was very dark and nothing could beseen or heard. They had then rushed out into the hall, where Ames had turnedthe windlass which lowered the drawbridge. Mr. Barker had then hurried off toget 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, acorroboration of that of her fellow servant. The housekeeper's room was rathernearer to the front of the house than the pantry in which Ames had beenworking. She was preparing to go to bed when the loud ringing of the bell hadattracted her attention. She was a little hard of hearing. Perhaps that was why shehad not heard the shot; but in any case the study was a long way off. Sheremembered hearing some sound which she imagined to be the slamming of adoor. That was a good deal earlier—half an hour at least before the ringing of thebell. 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, whowas 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 bedroo #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 49 Context: It was spoken with fervour and feeling, and yet Inspector MacDonald couldnot dismiss the subject."You are aware," said he, "that the dead man's wedding ring has been takenfrom 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 thatit was conceivable that he had himself taken off the ring.""The mere fact that the ring should be absent, whoever may have removed it,would suggest to anyone's mind, would it not, that the marriage and the tragedywere connected?"Barker shrugged his broad shoulders. "I can't profess to say what it means."he answered. "But if you mean to hint that it could reflect in any way upon thislady's honour"—his eyes blazed for an instant, and then with an evident effort hegot a grip upon his own emotions—"well, you are on the wrong track, that's all.""I don't know that I've anything else to ask you at present," said MacDonald,coldly."There was one small point," remarked Sherlock Holmes. "When you enteredthe room there was only a candle lighted on the table, was there not?""Yes, that was so.""By its light you saw that some terrible incident had occurred?""Exactly.""You at once rang for help?""Yes.""And it arrived very speedily?""Within a minute or so." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 50 Context: "And yet when they arrived they found that the candle was out and that thelamp had been lighted. That seems very remarkable."Again Barker showed some signs of indecision. "I don't see that it wasremarkable, Mr. Holmes," he answered after a pause. "The candle threw a verybad light. My first thought was to get a better one. The lamp was on the table; soI lit it.""And blew out the candle?""Exactly."Holmes asked no further question, and Barker, with a deliberate look fromone to the other of us, which had, as it seemed to me, something of defiance in it,turned and left the room.Inspector MacDonald had sent up a note to the effect that he would wait uponMrs. Douglas in her room; but she had replied that she would meet us in thedining room. She entered now, a tall and beautiful woman of thirty, reserved andself-possessed to a remarkable degree, very different from the tragic anddistracted figure I had pictured. It is true that her face was pale and drawn, likethat of one who has endured a great shock; but her manner was composed, andthe finely moulded hand which she rested upon the edge of the table was assteady as my own. Her sad, appealing eyes travelled from one to the other of uswith a curiously inquisitive expression. That questioning gaze transformed itselfsuddenly 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 hopein the question?"We have taken every possible step, Mrs. Douglas," said the inspector. "Youmay rest assured that nothing will be neglected.""Spare no money," she said in a dead, even tone. "It is my desire that everypossible effort should be made.""Perhaps you can tell us something which may throw some light upon thematter." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 51 Context: "I fear not; but all I know is at your service.""We have heard from Mr. Cecil Barker that you did not actually see—thatyou 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 byMr. Barker?""It may have been a couple of minutes. It is so hard to reckon time at such amoment. 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 somedreadful dream.""Can you give us any idea how long your husband had been downstairsbefore you heard the shot?""No, I cannot say. He went from his dressing room, and I did not hear him go.He did the round of the house every night, for he was nervous of fire. It is theonly thing that I have ever known him nervous of.""That is just the point which I want to come to, Mrs. Douglas. You haveknown 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 andmight 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 todiscuss it with me. It was not from want of confidence in me—there was themost complete love and confidence between us—but it was out of his desire tokeep all alarm away from me. He thought I should brood over it if I knew all,and so he was silent." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 57 Context: "Yes, that's it," said Barker eagerly. "Is he on his own or is he entirely in withthem?""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 behelping 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 Iforgot 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 wouldnaturally feel loyalty towards the officials who were working on the same case,and he would not conceal from them anything which would help them inbringing a criminal to justice. Beyond this I can say nothing, and I would referyou to Mr. Holmes himself if you wanted fuller information."So saying I raised my hat and went upon my way, leaving them still seatedbehind that concealing hedge. I looked back as I rounded the far end of it, andsaw that they were still talking very earnestly together, and, as they were gazingafter me, it was clear that it was our interview that was the subject of theirdebate."I wish none of their confidences," said Holmes, when I reported to him whathad occurred. He had spent the whole afternoon at the Manor House inconsultation with his two colleagues, and returned about five with a ravenousappetite 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 Ihave exterminated that fourth egg I shall be ready to put you in touch with thewhole situation. I don't say that we have fathomed it—far from it—but when wehave traced the missing dumb-bell—""The dumb-bell!""Dear me, Watson, is it possible that you have not penetrated the fact that the #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 58 Context: 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 excellentlocal practitioner has grasped the overwhelming importance of this incident. Onedumb-bell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumb-bell! Picture to yourselfthe 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 appetitewas an assurance of success, for I had very clear recollections of days and nightswithout a thought of food, when his baffled mind had chafed before someproblem while his thin, eager features became more attenuated with theasceticism of complete mental concentration. Finally he lit his pipe, and sittingin the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at random about hiscase, rather as one who thinks aloud than as one who makes a consideredstatement."A lie, Watson—a great, big, thumping, obtrusive, uncompromising lie—that's what meets us on the threshold! There is our starting point. The wholestory 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 wehave the clear problem. Why are they lying, and what is the truth which they aretrying so hard to conceal? Let us try, Watson, you and I, if we can get behind thelie and reconstruct the truth."How do I know that they are lying? Because it is a clumsy fabrication whichsimply could not be true. Consider! According to the story given to us, theassassin had less than a minute after the murder had been committed to take thatring, which was under another ring, from the dead man's finger, to replace theother ring—a thing which he would surely never have done—and to put thatsingular card beside his victim. I say that this was obviously impossible."You may argue—but #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 59 Context: have no doubt at all."But the gunshot was apparently the cause of death. Therefore the shot musthave been fired some time earlier than we are told. But there could be no mistakeabout such a matter as that. We are in the presence, therefore, of a deliberateconspiracy upon the part of the two people who heard the gunshot—of the manBarker and of the woman Douglas. When on the top of this I am able to showthat the blood mark on the windowsill was deliberately placed there by Barker,in order to give a false clue to the police, you will admit that the case grows darkagainst him."Now we have to ask ourselves at what hour the murder actually did occur.Up to half-past ten the servants were moving about the house; so it was certainlynot before that time. At a quarter to eleven they had all gone to their rooms withthe exception of Ames, who was in the pantry. I have been trying someexperiments after you left us this afternoon, and I find that no noise whichMacDonald can make in the study can penetrate to me in the pantry when thedoors are all shut."It is otherwise, however, from the housekeeper's room. It is not so far downthe corridor, and from it I could vaguely hear a voice when it was very loudlyraised. The sound from a shotgun is to some extent muffled when the dischargeis at very close range, as it undoubtedly was in this instance. It would not be veryloud, and yet in the silence of the night it should have easily penetrated to Mrs.Allen's room. She is, as she has told us, somewhat deaf; but none the less shementioned in her evidence that she did hear something like a door slamming halfan hour before the alarm was given. Half an hour before the alarm was givenwould be a quarter to eleven. I have no doubt that what she heard was the reportof the gun, and that this was the real instant of the murder."If this is so, we have now to determine what Barker and Mrs. Douglas,presuming that they are not the actual murderers, could have been doing fromquarter to eleven, when the so #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 61 Context: Holmes looked thoughtful. "I see, Watson. You are sketching out a theory bywhich 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 BossMacSomebody, 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 thecrime. They then play up to the idea by leaving this bicycle in the park as proofof the existence of some outsider. The stain on the windowsill conveys the sameidea. So does the card on the body, which might have been prepared in thehouse. 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-offshotgun of all weapons—and an American one at that? How could they be sosure that the sound of it would not bring someone on to them? It's a mere chanceas it is that Mrs. Allen did not start out to inquire for the slamming door. Whydid 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 theygoing to advertise their guilt by ostentatiously removing his wedding ring afterhis 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 hadoccurred to you, would it really have seemed worth doing when the dullestdetective would naturally say this is an obvious blind, as the bicycle is the firstthing which the fugitive needed in order to make his escape.""I can conceive of no explanation.""And yet there should be no combination of events for which the wit of mancannot conceive an explanation. Simply as a mental exercise, without anyassertion that it is true, let me indicate a possible line of thought. It is, I admit,mere imagination; but how often is imagination the mother of truth?"We will suppose that there was a guilty secret, a rea #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 63 Context: "Well, I'll borrow that if I may.""Certainly—but what a wretched weapon! If there is danger—""Nothing serious, my dear Watson, or I should certainly ask for yourassistance. But I'll take the umbrella. At present I am only awaiting the return ofour colleagues from Tunbridge Wells, where they are at present engaged intrying for a likely owner to the bicycle."It was nightfall before Inspector MacDonald and White Mason came backfrom their expedition, and they arrived exultant, reporting a great advance in ourinvestigation."Man, I'll admeet that I had my doubts if there was ever an outsider," saidMacDonald, "but that's all past now. We've had the bicycle identified, and wehave a description of our man; so that's a long step on our journey.""It sounds to me like the beginning of the end," said Holmes. "I'm sure Icongratulate you both with all my heart.""Well, I started from the fact that Mr. Douglas had seemed disturbed since theday before, when he had been at Tunbridge Wells. It was at Tunbridge Wellsthen that he had become conscious of some danger. It was clear, therefore, that ifa man had come over with a bicycle it was from Tunbridge Wells that he mightbe expected to have come. We took the bicycle over with us and showed it at thehotels. It was identified at once by the manager of the Eagle Commercial asbelonging to a man named Hargrave, who had taken a room there two daysbefore. This bicycle and a small valise were his whole belongings. He hadregistered his name as coming from London, but had given no address. Thevalise was London made, and the contents were British; but the man himself wasundoubtedly an American.""Well, well," said Holmes gleefully, "you have indeed done some solid workwhile I have been sitting spinning theories with my friend! It's a lesson in beingpractical, Mr. Mac.""Ay, it's just that, Mr. Holmes," said the inspector with satisfaction."But this may all fit in with your theories," I remarked. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 64 Context: "That may or may not be. But let us hear the end, Mr. Mac. Was there nothingto identify this man?""So little that it was evident that he had carefully guarded himself againstidentification. There were no papers or letters, and no marking upon the clothes.A cycle map of the county lay on his bedroom table. He had left the hotel afterbreakfast yesterday morning on his bicycle, and no more was heard of him untilour inquiries.""That's what puzzles me, Mr. Holmes," said White Mason. "If the fellow didnot want the hue and cry raised over him, one would imagine that he would havereturned and remained at the hotel as an inoffensive tourist. As it is, he mustknow that he will be reported to the police by the hotel manager and that hisdisappearance will be connected with the murder.""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 couldgive it. They don't seem to have taken any very particular stock of him; but stillthe porter, the clerk, and the chambermaid are all agreed that this about coversthe 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 whichall of them described as fierce and forbidding.""Well, bar the expression, that might almost be a description of Douglashimself," 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 shortyellow 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. Hecould 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 #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 65 Context: ood and very clear so far as it goes. That is yourend of the story. My end is that the crime was committed half an hour earlierthan reported; that Mrs. Douglas and Barker are both in a conspiracy to concealsomething; that they aided the murderer's escape—or at least that they reachedthe room before he escaped—and that they fabricated evidence of his escapethrough the window, whereas in all probability they had themselves let him goby lowering the bridge. That's my reading of the first half."The two detectives shook their heads. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 65 Context: may be sure that I had his description on the wires within five minutes of hearingit—we shall be better able to judge. But, even as it stands, we have surely gone along way. We know that an American calling himself Hargrave came toTunbridge Wells two days ago with bicycle and valise. In the latter was a sawed-off shotgun; so he came with the deliberate purpose of crime. Yesterday morninghe 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 thevillage to reach the park gates, and there are many cyclists upon the road.Presumably he at once concealed his cycle among the laurels where it wasfound, and possibly lurked there himself, with his eye on the house, waiting forMr. Douglas to come out. The shotgun is a strange weapon to use inside a house;but he had intended to use it outside, and there it has very obvious advantages, asit would be impossible to miss with it, and the sound of shots is so common in anEnglish sporting neighbourhood that no particular notice would be taken.""That is all very clear," said Holmes."Well, Mr. Douglas did not appear. What was he to do next? He left hisbicycle and approached the house in the twilight. He found the bridge down andno one about. He took his chance, intending, no doubt, to make some excuse ifhe met anyone. He met no one. He slipped into the first room that he saw, andconcealed himself behind the curtain. Thence he could see the drawbridge go up,and he knew that his only escape was through the moat. He waited until quarter-past eleven, when Mr. Douglas upon his usual nightly round came into the room.He shot him and escaped, as arranged. He was aware that the bicycle would bedescribed by the hotel people and be a clue against him; so he left it there andmade his way by some other means to London or to some safe hiding placewhich he had already arranged. How is that, Mr. Holmes?""Well, Mr. Mac, it is very good and very clear s #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 66 Context: "Well, Mr. Holmes, if this is true, we only tumble out of one mystery intoanother," said the London inspector."And in some ways a worse one," added White Mason. "The lady has neverbeen in America in all her life. What possible connection could she have with anAmerican assassin which would cause her to shelter him?""I freely admit the difficulties," said Holmes. "I propose to make a littleinvestigation of my own to-night, and it is just possible that it may contributesomething to the common cause.""Can we help you, Mr. Holmes?""No, no! Darkness and Dr. Watson's umbrella—my wants are simple. AndAmes, the faithful Ames, no doubt he will stretch a point for me. All my lines ofthought lead me back invariably to the one basic question—why should anathletic man develop his frame upon so unnatural an instrument as a singledumb-bell?"It was late that night when Holmes returned from his solitary excursion. Weslept in a double-bedded room, which was the best that the little country inncould do for us. I was already asleep when I was partly awakened by hisentrance."Well, Holmes," I murmured, "have you found anything out?"He stood beside me in silence, his candle in his hand. Then the tall, leanfigure inclined towards me. "I say, Watson," he whispered, "would you be afraidto sleep in the same room with a lunatic, a man with softening of the brain, anidiot 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 #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 67 Context: The SolutionNext morning, after breakfast, we found Inspector MacDonald and WhiteMason seated in close consultation in the small parlour of the local policesergeant. On the table in front of them were piled a number of letters andtelegrams, which they were carefully sorting and docketing. Three had beenplaced on one side."Still on the track of the elusive bicyclist?" Holmes asked cheerfully. "Whatis 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 actuallybeen arrested. The country seems to be full of the fugitives with yellow coats.""Dear me!" said Holmes sympathetically. "Now, Mr. Mac and you, Mr. WhiteMason, I wish to give you a very earnest piece of advice. When I went into thiscase with you I bargained, as you will no doubt remember, that I should notpresent you with half-proved theories, but that I should retain and work out myown ideas until I had satisfied myself that they were correct. For this reason I amnot at the present moment telling you all that is in my mind. On the other hand, Isaid that I would play the game fairly by you, and I do not think it is a fair gameto allow you for one unnecessary moment to waste your energies upon aprofitless task. Therefore I am here to advise you this morning, and my advice toyou is summed up in three words—abandon the case."MacDonald and White Mason stared in amazement at their celebratedcolleague."You consider it hopeless!" cried the inspector."I consider your case to be hopeless. I do not consider that it is hopeless toarrive 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?" #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 68 Context: "Yes, yes, no doubt he is somewhere, and no doubt we shall get him; but Iwould not have you waste your energies in East Ham or Liverpool. I am surethat we can find some shorter cut to a result.""You are holding something back. It's hardly fair of you, Mr. Holmes." Theinspector was annoyed."You know my methods of work, Mr. Mac. But I will hold it back for theshortest time possible. I only wish to verify my details in one way, which canvery readily be done, and then I make my bow and return to London, leaving myresults entirely at your service. I owe you too much to act otherwise; for in allmy experience I cannot recall any more singular and interesting study.""This is clean beyond me, Mr. Holmes. We saw you when we returned fromTunbridge Wells last night, and you were in general agreement with our results.What has happened since then to give you a completely new idea of the case?""Well, since you ask me, I spent, as I told you that I would, some hours lastnight at the Manor House.""Well, what happened?""Ah, I can only give you a very general answer to that for the moment. By theway, I have been reading a short but clear and interesting account of the oldbuilding, purchasable at the modest sum of one penny from the localtobacconist."Here Holmes drew a small tract, embellished with a rude engraving of theancient Manor House, from his waistcoat pocket."It immensely adds to the zest of an investigation, my dear Mr. Mac, whenone is in conscious sympathy with the historical atmosphere of one'ssurroundings. Don't look so impatient; for I assure you that even so bald anaccount as this raises some sort of picture of the past in one's mind. Permit me togive you a sample. 'Erected in the fifth year of the reign of James I, and standingupon the site of a much older building, the Manor House of Birlstone presentsone of the finest surviving examples of the moated Jacobean residence—'""You are making fools of us, Mr. Holmes!" #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 69 Context: "Tut, tut, Mr. Mac!—the first sign of temper I have detected in you. Well, Iwon't read it verbatim, since you feel so strongly upon the subject. But when Itell you that there is some account of the taking of the place by a parliamentarycolonel in 1644, of the concealment of Charles for several days in the course ofthe Civil War, and finally of a visit there by the second George, you will admitthat 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 theessentials of our profession. The interplay of ideas and the oblique uses ofknowledge are often of extraordinary interest. You will excuse these remarksfrom one who, though a mere connoisseur of crime, is still rather older andperhaps 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 calledlast night, as I have already said, at the Manor House. I did not see either Barkeror Mrs. Douglas. I saw no necessity to disturb them; but I was pleased to hearthat the lady was not visibly pining and that she had partaken of an excellentdinner. My visit was specially made to the good Mr. Ames, with whom Iexchanged some amiabilities, which culminated in his allowing me, withoutreference 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 aninstructive quarter of an hour.""What were you doing?""Well, not to make a mystery of so simple a matter, I was looking for themissing dumb-bell. It has always bulked rather large in my estimate of the case. Iended by finding it.""Where?" #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 70 Context: "Ah, there we come to the edge of the unexplored. Let me go a little further, avery little further, and I will promise that you shall share everything that Iknow.""Well, we're bound to take you on your own terms," said the inspector; "butwhen it comes to telling us to abandon the case—why in the name of goodnessshould we abandon the case?""For the simple reason, my dear Mr. Mac, that you have not got the first ideawhat 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 gentlemanupon 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 yourqueer ways. I'll do what you advise.""And you, Mr. White Mason?"The country detective looked helplessly from one to the other. Holmes andhis methods were new to him. "Well, if it is good enough for the inspector, it isgood enough for me," he said at last."Capital!" said Holmes. "Well, then, I should recommend a nice, cheerycountry walk for both of you. They tell me that the views from Birlstone Ridgeover the Weald are very remarkable. No doubt lunch could be got at somesuitable hostelry; though my ignorance of the country prevents me fromrecommending one. In the evening, tired but happy—""Man, this is getting past a joke!" cried MacDonald, rising angrily from hischair."Well, well, spend the day as you like," said Holmes, patting him cheerfullyupon the shoulder. "Do what you like and go where you will, but meet me here #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 71 Context: 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 whenI 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, inthe 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 bearupon our investigation. I have made arrangements, and theworkmen will be at work early to-morrow morning divertingthe stream—""Impossible!""—diverting the stream; so I thought it best to explainmatters beforehand."Now sign that, and send it by hand about four o'clock. At that hour we shallmeet again in this room. Until then we may each do what we like; for I can #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 72 Context: assure you that this inquiry has come to a definite pause."Evening was drawing in when we reassembled. Holmes was very serious inhis manner, myself curious, and the detectives obviously critical and annoyed."Well, gentlemen," said my friend gravely, "I am asking you now to puteverything to the test with me, and you will judge for yourselves whether theobservations I have made justify the conclusions to which I have come. It is achill evening, and I do not know how long our expedition may last; so I beg thatyou will wear your warmest coats. It is of the first importance that we should bein our places before it grows dark; so with your permission we shall get startedat once." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 73 Context: We passed along the outer bounds of the Manor House park until we came toa place where there was a gap in the rails which fenced it. Through this weslipped, and then in the gathering gloom we followed Holmes until we hadreached a shrubbery which lies nearly opposite to the main door and thedrawbridge. The latter had not been raised. Holmes crouched down behind thescreen 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," Holmesanswered."What are we here for at all? I really think that you might treat us with morefrankness."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 well-staged performance. Surely our profession, Mr. Mac, would be a drab and sordidone if we did not sometimes set the scene so as to glorify our results. The bluntaccusation, the brutal tap upon the shoulder—what can one make of such adenouement? But the quick inference, the subtle trap, the clever forecast ofcoming events, the triumphant vindication of bold theories—are these not thepride and the justification of our life's work? At the present moment you thrillwith the glamour of the situation and the anticipation of the hunt. Where wouldbe 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 weall 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 andbitter one. Slowly the shadows darkened over the long, sombre face of the oldhouse. A cold, damp reek from the moat chilled us to the bones and set our teethchattering. There was a single lamp over the gateway and a steady globe of lightin the fatal study. Everything else was #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 74 Context: "I have no more notion than you how long it is to last," Holmes answeredwith some asperity. "If criminals would always schedule their movements likerailway trains, it would certainly be more convenient for all of us. As to what itis we—Well, that's what we are watching for!"As he spoke the bright, yellow light in the study was obscured by somebodypassing to and fro before it. The laurels among which we lay were immediatelyopposite the window and not more than a hundred feet from it. Presently it wasthrown open with a whining of hinges, and we could dimly see the dark outlineof a man's head and shoulders looking out into the gloom. For some minutes hepeered forth in furtive, stealthy fashion, as one who wishes to be assured that heis unobserved. Then he leaned forward, and in the intense silence we were awareof the soft lapping of agitated water. He seemed to be stirring up the moat withsomething which he held in his hand. Then suddenly he hauled something in as afisherman lands a fish—some large, round object which obscured the light as itwas dragged through the open casement."Now!" cried Holmes. "Now!"We were all upon our feet, staggering after him with our stiffened limbs,while he ran swiftly across the bridge and rang violently at the bell. There wasthe rasping of bolts from the other side, and the amazed Ames stood in theentrance. 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 beenwatching.The oil lamp on the table represented the glow which we had seen fromoutside. It was now in the hand of Cecil Barker, who held it towards us as weentered. Its light shone upon his strong, resolute, clean-shaved face and hismenacing 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 bundletied together with cord which lay where it had been thrust under the writingtable."This is what we are a #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 75 Context: Barker stared at Holmes with amazement in his face. "How in thunder cameyou 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 willremember, Inspector MacDonald, that I was somewhat struck by the absence of adumb-bell. I drew your attention to it; but with the pressure of other events youhad hardly the time to give it the consideration which would have enabled you todraw deductions from it. When water is near and a weight is missing it is not avery far-fetched supposition that something has been sunk in the water. The ideawas at least worth testing; so with the help of Ames, who admitted me to theroom, and the crook of Dr. Watson's umbrella, I was able last night to fish up andinspect this bundle."It was of the first importance, however, that we should be able to prove whoplaced it there. This we accomplished by the very obvious device of announcingthat the moat would be dried to-morrow, which had, of course, the effect thatwhoever had hidden the bundle would most certainly withdraw it the momentthat darkness enabled him to do so. We have no less than four witnesses as towho it was who took advantage of the opportunity, and so, Mr. Barker, I thinkthe word lies now with you."Sherlock Holmes put the sopping bundle upon the table beside the lamp andundid the cord which bound it. From within he extracted a dumb-bell, which hetossed down to its fellow in the corner. Next he drew forth a pair of boots."American, as you perceive," he remarked, pointing to the toes. Then he laidupon the table a long, deadly, sheathed knife. Finally he unravelled a bundle ofclothing, comprising a complete set of underclothes, socks, a gray tweed suit,and a short yellow overcoat."The clothes are commonplace," remarked Holmes, "save only the overcoat,which is full of suggestive touches." He held it tenderly towards the light. "Here,as you perceive, is the inner pocket prolonged into the l #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 76 Context: Vermissa is a flourishing little town at the head of one of the best known coaland iron valleys in the United States. I have some recollection, Mr. Barker, thatyou associated the coal districts with Mr. Douglas's first wife, and it wouldsurely not be too far-fetched an inference that the V. V. upon the card by the deadbody might stand for Vermissa Valley, or that this very valley which sends forthemissaries of murder may be that Valley of Fear of which we have heard. Somuch is fairly clear. And now, Mr. Barker, I seem to be standing rather in theway of your explanation."It was a sight to see Cecil Barker's expressive face during this exposition ofthe great detective. Anger, amazement, consternation, and indecision swept overit in turn. Finally he took refuge in a somewhat acrid irony."You know such a lot, Mr. Holmes, perhaps you had better tell us somemore," he sneered."I have no doubt that I could tell you a great deal more, Mr. Barker; but itwould 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 hereit 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 mustjust 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 wasconcerned; for one had only to look at that granite face to realize that no peineforte et dure would ever force him to plead against his will. The deadlock wasbroken, however, by a woman's voice. Mrs. Douglas had been standing listeningat the half opened door, and now she entered the room."You have done enough for now, Cecil," said she. "Whatever comes of it inthe future, you have done enough.""Enough and more than enough," remarked Sherlock Holmes gravely. "I haveevery sympathy with you, madam, and should strongly urge you to have someconfidence in the common sense of o #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 76 Context: he common sense of our jurisdiction and to take the policevoluntarily into your complete confidence. It may be that I am myself at fault for #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 77 Context: 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 directlyconcerned 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 askMr. Douglas to tell us his own story."Mrs. Douglas gave a cry of astonishment at Holmes's words. The detectivesand I must have echoed it, when we were aware of a man who seemed to haveemerged from the wall, who advanced now from the gloom of the corner inwhich he had appeared. Mrs. Douglas turned, and in an instant her arms wereround 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 willfind it best."The man stood blinking at us with the dazed look of one who comes from thedark into the light. It was a remarkable face, bold gray eyes, a strong, short-clipped, 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 andhanded me a bundle of paper."I've heard of you," said he in a voice which was not quite English and notquite American, but was altogether mellow and pleasing. "You are the historianof this bunch. Well, Dr. Watson, you've never had such a story as that passthrough your hands before, and I'll lay my last dollar on that. Tell it your ownway; but there are the facts, and you can't miss the public so long as you havethose. I've been cooped up two days, and I've spent the daylight hours—as muchdaylight as I could get in that rat trap—in putting the thing into words. You'rewelcome 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 wedesire now is to hear your story of the present.""You'll have it, sir," said Douglas. "May I smoke as I talk? Well, tha #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 78 Context: e to throw these hounds once for all off my track. Mind you, from firstto last I have done nothing to be ashamed of, and nothing that I would not doagain; but you'll judge that for yourselves when I tell you my story. Never mindwarning me, Inspector: I'm ready to stand pat upon the truth."I'm not going to begin at the beginning. That's all there," he indicated mybundle of papers, "and a mighty queer yarn you'll find it. It all comes down to #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 78 Context: guessed that I should meet you. But before you are through with that," henodded at my papers, "you will say I've brought you something fresh."Inspector MacDonald had been staring at the newcomer with the greatestamazement. "Well, this fairly beats me!" he cried at last. "If you are Mr. JohnDouglas of Birlstone Manor, then whose death have we been investigating forthese two days, and where in the world have you sprung from now? You seemedto me to come out of the floor like a jack-in-a-box.""Ah, Mr. Mac," said Holmes, shaking a reproving forefinger, "you would notread that excellent local compilation which described the concealment of KingCharles. People did not hide in those days without excellent hiding places, andthe hiding place that has once been used may be again. I had persuaded myselfthat we should find Mr. Douglas under this roof.""And how long have you been playing this trick upon us, Mr. Holmes?" saidthe inspector angrily. "How long have you allowed us to waste ourselves upon asearch that you knew to be an absurd one?""Not one instant, my dear Mr. Mac. Only last night did I form my views ofthe case. As they could not be put to the proof until this evening, I invited youand 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 methat the body we had found could not have been the body of Mr. John Douglas atall, but must be that of the bicyclist from Tunbridge Wells. No other conclusionwas possible. Therefore I had to determine where Mr. John Douglas himselfcould be, and the balance of probability was that with the connivance of his wifeand his friend he was concealed in a house which had such conveniences for afugitive, and awaiting quieter times when he could make his final escape.""Well, you figured it out about right," said Douglas approvingly. "I thoughtI'd dodge your British law; for I was not sure how I stood under it, and also I sawmy chance to throw these hou #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 79 Context: this: That there are some men that have good cause to hate me and would givetheir last dollar to know that they had got me. So long as I am alive and they arealive, there is no safety in this world for me. They hunted me from Chicago toCalifornia, then they chased me out of America; but when I married and settleddown in this quiet spot I thought my last years were going to be peaceable."I never explained to my wife how things were. Why should I pull her into it?She would never have a quiet moment again; but would always be imaginingtrouble. I fancy she knew something, for I may have dropped a word here or aword there; but until yesterday, after you gentlemen had seen her, she neverknew the rights of the matter. She told you all she knew, and so did Barker here;for on the night when this thing happened there was mighty little time forexplanations. She knows everything now, and I would have been a wiser man if Ihad told her sooner. But it was a hard question, dear," he took her hand for aninstant in his own, "and I acted for the best."Well, gentlemen, the day before these happenings I was over in TunbridgeWells, and I got a glimpse of a man in the street. It was only a glimpse; but Ihave a quick eye for these things, and I never doubted who it was. It was theworst enemy I had among them all—one who has been after me like a hungrywolf after a caribou all these years. I knew there was trouble coming, and I camehome 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 bewith me still."I was on my guard all that next day, and never went out into the park. It's aswell, or he'd have had the drop on me with that buckshot gun of his before ever Icould draw on him. After the bridge was up—my mind was always more restfulwhen that bridge was up in the evenings—I put the thing clear out of my head. Inever dreamed of his getting into the house and waiting for me. But when I mademy rou #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 80 Context: hammer that I'd left on the mantel. At the same moment he sprang at me. I sawthe glint of a knife, and I lashed at him with the hammer. I got him somewhere;for the knife tinkled down on the floor. He dodged round the table as quick as aneel, and a moment later he'd got his gun from under his coat. I heard him cock it;but I had got hold of it before he could fire. I had it by the barrel, and wewrestled for it all ends up for a minute or more. It was death to the man that losthis grip."He never lost his grip; but he got it butt downward for a moment too long.Maybe it was I that pulled the trigger. Maybe we just jolted it off between us.Anyhow, he got both barrels in the face, and there I was, staring down at all thatwas left of Ted Baldwin. I'd recognized him in the township, and again when hesprang for me; but his own mother wouldn't recognize him as I saw him then.I'm used to rough work; but I fairly turned sick at the sight of him."I was hanging on the side of the table when Barker came hurrying down. Iheard my wife coming, and I ran to the door and stopped her. It was no sight fora woman. I promised I'd come to her soon. I said a word or two to Barker—hetook it all in at a glance—and we waited for the rest to come along. But therewas no sign of them. Then we understood that they could hear nothing, and thatall that had happened was known only to ourselves."It was at that instant that the idea came to me. I was fairly dazzled by thebrilliance of it. The man's sleeve had slipped up and there was the branded markof the lodge upon his forearm. See here!"The man whom we had known as Douglas turned up his own coat and cuff toshow a brown triangle within a circle exactly like that which we had seen uponthe dead man."It was the sight of that which started me on it. I seemed to see it all clear at aglance. There were his height and hair and figure, about the same as my own. Noone could swear to his face, poor devil! I brought down this suit of clothes, andin a quarter of a #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 81 Context: held out his muscular hand, "you can see for yourselves that I had struck thelimit. I have not moved it since the day I was married, and it would have taken afile 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 ofitself. On the other hand, I brought a bit of plaster down and put it where I amwearing one myself at this instant. You slipped up there, Mr. Holmes, clever asyou are; for if you had chanced to take off that plaster you would have found nocut underneath it."Well, that was the situation. If I could lie low for a while and then get awaywhere I could be joined by my 'widow' we should have a chance at last of livingin peace for the rest of our lives. These devils would give me no rest so long as Iwas 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 clearto Barker and to my wife; but they understood enough to be able to help me. Iknew all about this hiding place, so did Ames; but it never entered his head toconnect 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 windowand made the mark on the sill to give an idea of how the murderer escaped. Itwas 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 happenedafterward you know. And so, gentlemen, you can do what you please; but I'vetold you the truth and the whole truth, so help me God! What I ask you now ishow 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 yourdeserts from that, Mr. Douglas. But I would ask you how did this man know thatyou lived here, or how to get into your house, or where to hide to get y #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 81 Context: ere 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 yourenemies from America. I see trouble before you, Mr. Douglas. You'll take myadvice and still be on your guard."And now, my long-suffering readers, I will ask you to come away with me for #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 82 Context: a time, far from the Sussex Manor House of Birlstone, and far also from the yearof grace in which we made our eventful journey which ended with the strangestory of the man who had been known as John Douglas. I wish you to journeyback some twenty years in time, and westward some thousands of miles inspace, that I may lay before you a singular and terrible narrative—so singularand so terrible that you may find it hard to believe that even as I tell it, even sodid it occur.Do not think that I intrude one story before another is finished. As you readon you will find that this is not so. And when I have detailed those distant eventsand you have solved this mystery of the past, we shall meet once more in thoserooms on Baker Street, where this, like so many other wonderful happenings,will find its end. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 83 Context: PART 2 #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 84 Context: The ScowrersChapter 1The ManIt 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 steamploughs had, however, kept the railroad open, and the evening train whichconnects the long line of coal-mining and iron-working settlements was slowlygroaning its way up the steep gradients which lead from Stagville on the plain toVermissa, the central township which lies at the head of Vermissa Valley. Fromthis point the track sweeps downward to Bartons Crossing, Helmdale, and thepurely agricultural county of Merton. It was a single-track railroad; but at everysiding—and they were numerous—long lines of trucks piled with coal and ironore told of the hidden wealth which had brought a rude population and a bustlinglife to this most desolate corner of the United States of America.For desolate it was! Little could the first pioneer who had traversed it haveever imagined that the fairest prairies and the most lush water pastures werevalueless compared to this gloomy land of black crag and tangled forest. Abovethe dark and often scarcely penetrable woods upon their flanks, the high, barecrowns 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 wasslowly crawling.The oil lamps had just been lit in the leading passenger car, a long, barecarriage in which some twenty or thirty people were seated. The greater numberof these were workmen returning from their day's toil in the lower part of thevalley. At least a dozen, by their grimed faces and the safety lanterns which theycarried, proclaimed themselves miners. These sat smoking in a group andconversed in low voices, glancing occasionally at two men on the opposite sideof the car, whose uniforms and badges showed them to be policemen. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 85 Context: Several women of the labouring class and one or two travellers who mighthave been small local storekeepers made up the rest of the company, with theexception of one young man in a corner by himself. It is with this man that weare concerned. Take a good look at him, for he is worth it.He is a fresh-complexioned, middle-sized young man, not far, one wouldguess, from his thirtieth year. He has large, shrewd, humorous gray eyes whichtwinkle inquiringly from time to time as he looks round through his spectacles atthe people about him. It is easy to see that he is of a sociable and possibly simpledisposition, anxious to be friendly to all men. Anyone could pick him at once asgregarious in his habits and communicative in his nature, with a quick wit and aready smile. And yet the man who studied him more closely might discern acertain firmness of jaw and grim tightness about the lips which would warn himthat there were depths beyond, and that this pleasant, brown-haired youngIrishman might conceivably leave his mark for good or evil upon any society towhich he was introduced.Having made one or two tentative remarks to the nearest miner, and receivingonly 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 thered glow of the furnaces on the sides of the hills. Great heaps of slag and dumpsof cinders loomed up on each side, with the high shafts of the collieries toweringabove them. Huddled groups of mean, wooden houses, the windows of whichwere beginning to outline themselves in light, were scattered here and therealong the line, and the frequent halting places were crowded with their swarthyinhabitants.The iron and coal valleys of the Vermissa district were no resorts for theleisured or the cultured. Everywhere there were stern signs of the crudest battleof life, the rude work to be done, and the rude, strong workers who did #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 85 Context: rong workers who did it.The young traveller gazed out into this dismal country with a face of mingledrepulsion and interest, which showed that the scene was new to him. At intervalshe drew from his pocket a bulky letter to which he referred, and on the marginsof which he scribbled some notes. Once from the back of his waist he producedsomething which one would hardly have expected to find in the possession of somild-mannered a man. It was a navy revolver of the largest size. As he turned it #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 97 Context: Put yourself in my place. Here am I, a stranger in the town. I belong to a societythat I know only as an innocent one. You'll find it through the length and breadthof the States, but always as an innocent one. Now, when I am counting uponjoining it here, you tell me that it is the same as a murder society called theScowrers. I guess you owe me either an apology or else an explanation, Mr.Shafter.""I can but tell you vat the whole vorld knows, mister. The bosses of the oneare the bosses of the other. If you offend the one, it is the other vat vill strikeyou. We have proved it too often.""That's just gossip—I want proof!" said McMurdo."If you live here long you vill get your proof. But I forget that you areyourself one of them. You vill soon be as bad as the rest. But you vill find otherlodgings, mister. I cannot have you here. Is it not bad enough that one of thesepeople come courting my Ettie, and that I dare not turn him down, but that Ishould have another for my boarder? Yes, indeed, you shall not sleep here afterto-night!"McMurdo found himself under sentence of banishment both from hiscomfortable quarters and from the girl whom he loved. He found her alone in thesitting-room that same evening, and he poured his troubles into her ear."Sure, your father is after giving me notice," he said. "It's little I would care ifit was just my room, but indeed, Ettie, though it's only a week that I've knownyou, you are the very breath of life to me, and I can't live without you!""Oh, hush, Mr. McMurdo, don't speak so!" said the girl. "I have told you,have I not, that you are too late? There is another, and if I have not promised tomarry him at once, at least I can promise no one else.""Suppose I had been first, Ettie, would I have had a chance?"The girl sank her face into her hands. "I wish to heaven that you had beenfirst!" she sobbed.McMurdo was down on his knees before her in an instant. "For God's sake,Ettie, let it stand at that!" he cried. "Will you ruin your life and my #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 99 Context: read all this. I had understood that every paper in the United States was writingabout it.""Well, I have read something, it is true; but I had thought it was a story.Maybe these men have some reason in what they do. Maybe they are wrongedand have no other way to help themselves.""Oh, Jack, don't let me hear you speak so! That is how he speaks—the otherone!""Baldwin—he speaks like that, does he?""And that is why I loathe him so. Oh, Jack, now I can tell you the truth. Iloathe him with all my heart; but I fear him also. I fear him for myself; but aboveall I fear him for father. I know that some great sorrow would come upon us if Idared to say what I really felt. That is why I have put him off with half-promises.It was in real truth our only hope. But if you would fly with me, Jack, we couldtake father with us and live forever far from the power of these wicked men."Again there was the struggle upon McMurdo's face, and again it set likegranite. "No harm shall come to you, Ettie—nor to your father either. As towicked men, I expect you may find that I am as bad as the worst of them beforewe're through.""No, no, Jack! I would trust you anywhere."McMurdo laughed bitterly. "Good Lord! how little you know of me! Yourinnocent soul, my darling, could not even guess what is passing in mine. But,hullo, who's the visitor?"The door had opened suddenly, and a young fellow came swaggering in withthe air of one who is the master. He was a handsome, dashing young man ofabout the same age and build as McMurdo himself. Under his broad-brimmedblack felt hat, which he had not troubled to remove, a handsome face with fierce,domineering eyes and a curved hawk-bill of a nose looked savagely at the pairwho sat by the stove.Ettie had jumped to her feet full of confusion and alarm. "I'm glad to see you,Mr. Baldwin," said she. "You're earlier than I had thought. Come and sit down." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 100 Context: Baldwin stood with his hands on his hips looking at McMurdo. "Who isthis?" he asked curtly."It's a friend of mine, Mr. Baldwin, a new boarder here. Mr. McMurdo, may Iintroduce you to Mr. Baldwin?"The young men nodded in surly fashion to each other."Maybe Miss Ettie has told you how it is with us?" said Baldwin."I didn't understand that there was any relation between you.""Didn't you? Well, you can understand it now. You can take it from me thatthis 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 youare in a humour for a fight, Mr. Boarder!""That I am!" cried McMurdo, springing to his feet. "You never said a morewelcome 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 thingsettled," said McMurdo quietly. "Or maybe, Mr. Baldwin, you will take a turndown the street with me. It's a fine evening, and there's some open groundbeyond 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!" #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 115 Context: To their contorted natures it had become a spirited and chivalrous thing tovolunteer for service against some man who had never injured them, and whomin many cases they had never seen in their lives. The crime committed, theyquarrelled as to who had actually struck the fatal blow, and amused one anotherand the company by describing the cries and contortions of the murdered man.At first they had shown some secrecy in their arrangements; but at the timewhich this narrative describes their proceedings were extraordinarily open, forthe repeated failures of the law had proved to them that, on the one hand, no onewould dare to witness against them, and on the other they had an unlimitednumber of stanch witnesses upon whom they could call, and a well-filledtreasure chest from which they could draw the funds to engage the best legaltalent in the state. In ten long years of outrage there had been no singleconviction, and the only danger that ever threatened the Scowrers lay in thevictim himself—who, however outnumbered and taken by surprise, might andoccasionally did leave his mark upon his assailants.McMurdo had been warned that some ordeal lay before him; but no onewould tell him in what it consisted. He was led now into an outer room by twosolemn brothers. Through the plank partition he could hear the murmur of manyvoices from the assembly within. Once or twice he caught the sound of his ownname, and he knew that they were discussing his candidacy. Then there enteredan inner guard with a green and gold sash across his chest."The Bodymaster orders that he shall be trussed, blinded, and entered," saidhe.The three of them removed his coat, turned up the sleeve of his right arm, andfinally passed a rope round above the elbows and made it fast. They next placeda thick black cap right over his head and the upper part of his face, so that hecould see nothing. He was then led into the assembly hall.It was pitch dark and very oppressive under his hood. He heard the rustle andmurmu #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 118 Context: "The first business on the agenda paper," said McGinty, "is to read thefollowing letter from Division Master Windle of Merton County Lodge 249. Hesays:"DEAR SIR:"There is a job to be done on Andrew Rae of Rae & Sturmash, coal owners near thisplace. You will remember that your lodge owes us a return, having had the service oftwo brethren in the matter of the patrolman last fall. You will send two good men, theywill be taken charge of by Treasurer Higgins of this lodge, whose address you know.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 loanof a man or two, and it is not for us to refuse him." McGinty paused and lookedround the room with his dull, malevolent eyes. "Who will volunteer for the job?"Several young fellows held up their hands. The Bodymaster looked at themwith an approving smile."You'll do, Tiger Cormac. If you handle it as well as you did the last, youwon'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 agreat start for you. As to the pistol, you'll find it waiting for you, or I'mmistaken. If you report yourselves on Monday, it will be time enough. You'll geta great welcome when you return.""Any reward this time?" asked Cormac, a thick-set, dark-faced, brutal-looking 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. Maybewhen 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 beenjudged over there. That's no business of ours. All we have to do is to carry it out #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 120 Context: "Sure, that was what I meant; I'm in your hands," said McMurdo."Your time will come, Brother," said the chairman. "We have marked youdown as a willing man, and we believe that you will do good work in these parts.There is a small matter to-night in which you may take a hand if it so pleaseyou.""I will wait for something that is worth while.""You can come to-night, anyhow, and it will help you to know what we standfor in this community. I will make the announcement later. Meanwhile," heglanced at his agenda paper, "I have one or two more points to bring before themeeting. First of all, I will ask the treasurer as to our bank balance. There is thepension to Jim Carnaway's widow. He was struck down doing the work of thelodge, 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 MarleyCreek," McMurdo's neighbour informed him."The funds are good at the moment," said the treasurer, with the bankbook infront of him. "The firms have been generous of late. Max Linder & Co. paid fivehundred to be left alone. Walker Brothers sent in a hundred; but I took it onmyself to return it and ask for five. If I do not hear by Wednesday, their windinggear may get out of order. We had to burn their breaker last year before theybecame reasonable. Then the West Section Coaling Company has paid its annualcontribution. 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 saythat he had rather be a free crossing sweeper in New York than a large mineowner under the power of a ring of blackmailers. By Gar! it was as well that hemade a break for it before the note reached us! I guess he won't show his face inthis valley again."An elderly, clean-shaved man with a kindly face and a good brow rose fromthe end of the table which faced the chairman. "Mr. Treasurer," he asked, "may Iask who has bought the property of this ma #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 121 Context: "Yes, Brother Morris. It has been bought by the State & Merton CountyRailroad Company.""And who bought the mines of Todman and of Lee that came into the marketin the same way last year?""The same company, Brother Morris.""And who bought the ironworks of Manson and of Shuman and of Van Deherand of Atwood, which have all been given up of late?""They were all bought by the West Gilmerton General Mining Company.""I don't see, Brother Morris," said the chairman, "that it matters to us whobuys them, since they can't carry them out of the district.""With all respect to you, Eminent Bodymaster, I think it may matter verymuch to us. This process has been going on now for ten long years. We aregradually driving all the small men out of trade. What is the result? We find intheir places great companies like the Railroad or the General Iron, who havetheir directors in New York or Philadelphia, and care nothing for our threats. Wecan take it out of their local bosses, but it only means that others will be sent intheir stead. And we are making it dangerous for ourselves. The small men couldnot harm us. They had not the money nor the power. So long as we did notsqueeze them too dry, they would stay on under our power. But if these bigcompanies find that we stand between them and their profits, they will spare nopains and no expense to hunt us down and bring us to court."There was a hush at these ominous words, and every face darkened asgloomy looks were exchanged. So omnipotent and unchallenged had they beenthat the very thought that there was possible retribution in the background hadbeen banished from their minds. And yet the idea struck a chill to the mostreckless of them."It is my advice," the speaker continued, "that we go easier upon the smallmen. On the day that they have all been driven out the power of this society willhave been broken."Unwelcome truths are not popular. There were angry cries as the speakerresumed his seat. McGinty rose with gloom upon his brow. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 123 Context: the civilized world. Is it for such results as this that our great country welcomes to itsbosom the alien who flies from the despotisms of Europe? Is it that they shallthemselves become tyrants over the very men who have given them shelter, and that astate of terrorism and lawlessness should be established under the very shadow of thesacred folds of the starry Flag of Freedom which would raise horror in our minds ifwe read of it as existing under the most effete monarchy of the East? The men areknown. The organization is patent and public. How long are we to endure it? Can weforever live—""Sure, I've read enough of the slush!" cried the chairman, tossing the paperdown upon the table. "That's what he says of us. The question I'm asking you iswhat 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 andshaved face. "I tell you, Brethren, that our hand is too heavy in this valley, andthat there will come a point where in self-defense every man will unite to crushus out. James Stanger is an old man. He is respected in the township and thedistrict. His paper stands for all that is solid in the valley. If that man is struckdown, there will be a stir through this state that will only end with ourdestruction.""And how would they bring about our destruction, Mr. Standback?" criedMcGinty. "Is it by the police? Sure, half of them are in our pay and half of themafraid of us. Or is it by the law courts and the judge? Haven't we tried that beforenow, and what ever came of it?""There is a Judge Lynch that might try the case," said Brother Morris.A general shout of anger greeted the suggestion."I have but to raise my finger," cried McGinty, "and I could put two hundredmen into this town that would clear it out from end to end." Then suddenlyraising his voice and bending his huge black brows into a terrible frown, "Seehere, Brother Morris, I have my eye on you, and have had for some time! You'veno heart #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 124 Context: before he could answer. "I apologize, Eminent Bodymaster, to you and to everybrother in this lodge if I have said more than I should. I am a faithful member—you all know that—and it is my fear lest evil come to the lodge which makes mespeak in anxious words. But I have greater trust in your judgment than in myown, Eminent Bodymaster, and I promise you that I will not offend again."The Bodymaster's scowl relaxed as he listened to the humble words. "Verygood, Brother Morris. It's myself that would be sorry if it were needful to giveyou a lesson. But so long as I am in this chair we shall be a united lodge in wordand in deed. And now, boys," he continued, looking round at the company, "I'llsay this much, that if Stanger got his full deserts there would be more troublethan we need ask for. These editors hang together, and every journal in the statewould be crying out for police and troops. But I guess you can give him a prettysevere warning. Will you fix it, Brother Baldwin?""Sure!" said the young man eagerly."How many will you take?""Half a dozen, and two to guard the door. You'll come, Gower, and you,Mansel, and you, Scanlan, and the two Willabys.""I promised the new brother he should go," said the chairman.Ted Baldwin looked at McMurdo with eyes which showed that he had notforgotten nor forgiven. "Well, he can come if he wants," he said in a surly voice."That's enough. The sooner we get to work the better."The company broke up with shouts and yells and snatches of drunken song.The bar was still crowded with revellers, and many of the brethren remainedthere. The little band who had been told off for duty passed out into the street,proceeding in twos and threes along the sidewalk so as not to provoke attention.It was a bitterly cold night, with a half-moon shining brilliantly in a frosty, star-spangled sky. The men stopped and gathered in a yard which faced a highbuilding. The words "Vermissa Herald" were printed in gold lettering betweenthe brightly lit windows. From #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 125 Context: we are in the Union Bar at this very moment."It was nearly midnight, and the street was deserted save for one or tworevellers upon their way home. The party crossed the road, and, pushing openthe door of the newspaper office, Baldwin and his men rushed in and up the stairwhich faced them. McMurdo and another remained below. From the room abovecame a shout, a cry for help, and then the sound of trampling feet and of fallingchairs. An instant later a gray-haired man rushed out on the landing.He was seized before he could get farther, and his spectacles came tinklingdown to McMurdo's feet. There was a thud and a groan. He was on his face, andhalf a dozen sticks were clattering together as they fell upon him. He writhed,and his long, thin limbs quivered under the blows. The others ceased at last; butBaldwin, his cruel face set in an infernal smile, was hacking at the man's head,which he vainly endeavoured to defend with his arms. His white hair wasdabbled with patches of blood. Baldwin was still stooping over his victim,putting in a short, vicious blow whenever he could see a part exposed, whenMcMurdo dashed up the stair and pushed him back."You'll kill the man," said he. "Drop it!"Baldwin looked at him in amazement. "Curse you!" he cried. "Who are youto interfere—you that are new to the lodge? Stand back!" He raised his stick; butMcMurdo had whipped his pistol out of his hip pocket."Stand back yourself!" he cried. "I'll blow your face in if you lay a hand onme. As to the lodge, wasn't it the order of the Bodymaster that the man was notto be killed—and what are you doing but killing him?""It's truth he says," remarked one of the men."By Gar! you'd best hurry yourselves!" cried the man below. "The windowsare all lighting up, and you'll have the whole town here inside of five minutes."There was indeed the sound of shouting in the street, and a little group ofcompositors and pressmen was forming in the hall below and nerving itself toaction. Leaving the limp and motionless #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 126 Context: well carried through. Others, and among them McMurdo, broke away into sidestreets, and so by devious paths to their own homes.Chapter 4The Valley of FearWhen McMurdo awoke next morning he had good reason to remember hisinitiation into the lodge. His head ached with the effect of the drink, and his arm,where he had been branded, was hot and swollen. Having his own peculiarsource of income, he was irregular in his attendance at his work; so he had a latebreakfast, and remained at home for the morning writing a long letter to a friend.Afterwards he read the Daily Herald. In a special column put in at the lastmoment he read:OUTRAGE AT THE HERALD OFFICE—EDITORSERIOUSLY INJURED.It was a short account of the facts with which he was himself more familiar thanthe writer could have been. It ended with the statement:The matter is now in the hands of the police; but it can hardly be hoped that theirexertions will be attended by any better results than in the past. Some of the men wererecognized, and there is hope that a conviction may be obtained. The source of theoutrage was, it need hardly be said, that infamous society which has held thiscommunity in bondage for so long a period, and against which the Herald has taken souncompromising a stand. Mr. Stanger's many friends will rejoice to hear that, thoughhe has been cruelly and brutally beaten, and though he has sustained severe injuriesabout the head, there is no immediate danger to his life.Below it stated that a guard of police, armed with Winchester rifles, had beenrequisitioned for the defense of the office.McMurdo had laid down the paper, and was lighting his pipe with a handwhich was shaky from the excesses of the previous evening, when there was aknock outside, and his landlady brought to him a note which had just been #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 127 Context: handed in by a lad. It was unsigned, and ran thus:I should wish to speak to you, but would rather not do so in your house. You will findme beside the flagstaff upon Miller Hill. If you will come there now, I have somethingwhich it is important for you to hear and for me to say.McMurdo read the note twice with the utmost surprise; for he could notimagine what it meant or who was the author of it. Had it been in a femininehand, he might have imagined that it was the beginning of one of thoseadventures which had been familiar enough in his past life. But it was thewriting of a man, and of a well educated one, too. Finally, after some hesitation,he determined to see the matter through.Miller Hill is an ill-kept public park in the very centre of the town. In summerit is a favourite resort of the people; but in winter it is desolate enough. From thetop of it one has a view not only of the whole straggling, grimy town, but of thewinding valley beneath, with its scattered mines and factories blackening thesnow on each side of it, and of the wooded and white-capped ranges flanking it.McMurdo strolled up the winding path hedged in with evergreens until hereached the deserted restaurant which forms the centre of summer gaiety. Besideit was a bare flagstaff, and underneath it a man, his hat drawn down and thecollar of his overcoat turned up. When he turned his face McMurdo saw that itwas Brother Morris, he who had incurred the anger of the Bodymaster the nightbefore. The lodge sign was given and exchanged as they met."I wanted to have a word with you, Mr. McMurdo," said the older man,speaking with a hesitation which showed that he was on delicate ground. "It waskind of you to come.""Why did you not put your name to the note?""One has to be cautious, mister. One never knows in times like these how athing may come back to one. One never knows either who to trust or who not totrust.""Surely one may trust brothers of the lodge.""No, no, not always," cried Morris with vehemence. "Wh #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 128 Context: "Look here!" said McMurdo sternly. "It was only last night, as you knowwell, that I swore good faith to our Bodymaster. Would you be asking me tobreak my oath?""If that is the view you take," said Morris sadly, "I can only say that I amsorry I gave you the trouble to come and meet me. Things have come to a badpass when two free citizens cannot speak their thoughts to each other."McMurdo, who had been watching his companion very narrowly, relaxedsomewhat in his bearing. "Sure I spoke for myself only," said he. "I am anewcomer, as you know, and I am strange to it all. It is not for me to open mymouth, Mr. Morris, and if you think well to say anything to me I am here to hearit.""And to take it back to Boss McGinty!" said Morris bitterly."Indeed, then, you do me injustice there," cried McMurdo. "For myself I amloyal to the lodge, and so I tell you straight; but I would be a poor creature if Iwere to repeat to any other what you might say to me in confidence. It will go nofurther than me; though I warn you that you may get neither help nor sympathy.""I have given up looking for either the one or the other," said Morris. "I maybe putting my very life in your hands by what I say; but, bad as you are—and itseemed to me last night that you were shaping to be as bad as the worst—stillyou are new to it, and your conscience cannot yet be as hardened as theirs. Thatwas why I thought to speak with you.""Well, what have you to say?""If you give me away, may a curse be on you!""Sure, I said I would not.""I would ask you, then, when you joined the Freeman's society in Chicagoand swore vows of charity and fidelity, did ever it cross your mind that youmight find it would lead you to crime?""If you call it crime," McMurdo answered."Call it crime!" cried Morris, his voice vibrating with passion. "You have #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 134 Context: "You do what you think is your duty the best way you can, Councillor. We'lllook 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, "youcan save yourself a deal of trouble by dropping it right now. This man was withme in my saloon playing poker up to midnight, and I can bring a dozen to proveit.""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 gunacross your head. You stand wide, Mr. McGinty; for I warn you I will stand noresistance when I am on duty!"So determined was the appearance of the captain that both McMurdo and hisboss were forced to accept the situation. The latter managed to have a fewwhispered 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 underthe floor."I'll bid you good-bye," said the Boss, shaking hands. "I'll see Reilly thelawyer and take the defense upon myself. Take my word for it that they won't beable to hold you.""I wouldn't bet on that. Guard the prisoner, you two, and shoot him if he triesany games. I'll search the house before I leave."He did so; but apparently found no trace of the concealed plant. When he haddescended he and his men escorted McMurdo to headquarters. Darkness hadfallen, and a keen blizzard was blowing so that the streets were nearly deserted;but a few loiterers followed the group, and emboldened by invisibility shoutedimprecations at the prisoner. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 135 Context: "Lynch the cursed Scowrer!" they cried. "Lynch him!" They laughed andjeered as he was pushed into the police station. After a short, formal examinationfrom the inspector in charge he was put into the common cell. Here he foundBaldwin and three other criminals of the night before, all arrested that afternoonand waiting their trial next morning.But even within this inner fortress of the law the long arm of the Freemenwas able to extend. Late at night there came a jailer with a straw bundle for theirbedding, out of which he extracted two bottles of whisky, some glasses, and apack of cards. They spent a hilarious night, without an anxious thought as to theordeal of the morning.Nor had they cause, as the result was to show. The magistrate could notpossibly, on the evidence, have held them for a higher court. On the one hand thecompositors and pressmen were forced to admit that the light was uncertain, thatthey were themselves much perturbed, and that it was difficult for them to swearto the identity of the assailants; although they believed that the accused wereamong them. Cross examined by the clever attorney who had been engaged byMcGinty, they were even more nebulous in their evidence.The injured man had already deposed that he was so taken by surprise by thesuddenness of the attack that he could state nothing beyond the fact that the firstman who struck him wore a moustache. He added that he knew them to beScowrers, since no one else in the community could possibly have any enmity tohim, and he had long been threatened on account of his outspoken editorials. Onthe other hand, it was clearly shown by the united and unfaltering evidence ofsix citizens, including that high municipal official, Councillor McGinty, that themen had been at a card party at the Union House until an hour very much laterthan the commission of the outrage.Needless to say that they were discharged with something very near to anapology from the bench for the inconvenience to which they had been pu #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 135 Context: ich they had been put,together with an implied censure of Captain Marvin and the police for theirofficious zeal.The verdict was greeted with loud applause by a court in which McMurdosaw many familiar faces. Brothers of the lodge smiled and waved. But therewere others who sat with compressed lips and brooding eyes as the men filed outof the dock. One of them, a little, dark-bearded, resolute fellow, put the thoughts #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 137 Context: the last time, and make one strong endeavour to draw him from those evilinfluences which were sucking him down. She went to his house, as he had oftenbegged her to do, and made her way into the room which he used as his sitting-room. He was seated at a table, with his back turned and a letter in front of him.A sudden spirit of girlish mischief came over her—she was still only nineteen.He had not heard her when she pushed open the door. Now she tiptoed forwardand laid her hand lightly upon his bended shoulders.If she had expected to startle him, she certainly succeeded; but only in turn tobe startled herself. With a tiger spring he turned on her, and his right hand wasfeeling for her throat. At the same instant with the other hand he crumpled up thepaper that lay before him. For an instant he stood glaring. Then astonishmentand joy took the place of the ferocity which had convulsed his features—aferocity which had sent her shrinking back in horror as from something whichhad never before intruded into her gentle life."It's you!" said he, mopping his brow. "And to think that you should come tome, heart of my heart, and I should find nothing better to do than to want tostrangle you! Come then, darling," and he held out his arms, "let me make it upto you."But she had not recovered from that sudden glimpse of guilty fear which shehad read in the man's face. All her woman's instinct told her that it was not themere fright of a man who is startled. Guilt—that was it—guilt and fear!"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 likethat!""Sure, I was thinking of other things, and when you came tripping so lightlyon 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. "Iknow it! Why else sh #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 141 Context: They were, as McMurdo found, quite ready to converse about their deeds inthe past, which they recounted with the half-bashful pride of men who had donegood and unselfish service for the community. They were reticent, however, asto the immediate job in hand."They chose us because neither I nor the boy here drink," Lawler explained."They can count on us saying no more than we should. You must not take itamiss, but it is the orders of the County Delegate that we obey.""Sure, we are all in it together," said Scanlan, McMurdo's mate, as the foursat together at supper."That's true enough, and we'll talk till the cows come home of the killing ofCharlie Williams or of Simon Bird, or any other job in the past. But till the workis done we say nothing.""There are half a dozen about here that I have a word to say to," saidMcMurdo, with an oath. "I suppose it isn't Jack Knox of Ironhill that you areafter. I'd go some way to see him get his deserts.""No, it's not him yet.""Or Herman Strauss?""No, nor him either.""Well, if you won't tell us we can't make you; but I'd be glad to know."Lawler smiled and shook his head. He was not to be drawn.In spite of the reticence of their guests, Scanlan and McMurdo were quitedetermined to be present at what they called "the fun." When, therefore, at anearly hour one morning McMurdo heard them creeping down the stairs heawakened Scanlan, and the two hurried on their clothes. When they were dressedthey found that the others had stolen out, leaving the door open behind them. Itwas not yet dawn, and by the light of the lamps they could see the two men somedistance down the street. They followed them warily, treading noiselessly in thedeep snow.The boarding house was near the edge of the town, and soon they were at the #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 142 Context: crossroads which is beyond its boundary. Here three men were waiting, withwhom Lawler and Andrews held a short, eager conversation. Then they allmoved on together. It was clearly some notable job which needed numbers. Atthis point there are several trails which lead to various mines. The strangers tookthat which led to the Crow Hill, a huge business which was in strong handswhich had been able, thanks to their energetic and fearless New Englandmanager, Josiah H. Dunn, to keep some order and discipline during the longreign 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 themen whom they followed. A thick mist lay over them, and from the heart of itthere came the sudden scream of a steam whistle. It was the ten-minute signalbefore the cages descended and the day's labour began.When they reached the open space round the mine shaft there were a hundredminers waiting, stamping their feet and blowing on their fingers; for it wasbitterly cold. The strangers stood in a little group under the shadow of the enginehouse. Scanlan and McMurdo climbed a heap of slag from which the wholescene lay before them. They saw the mine engineer, a great bearded Scotchmannamed Menzies, come out of the engine house and blow his whistle for the cagesto 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 eyesfell upon the group, silent and motionless, under the engine house. The men haddrawn down their hats and turned up their collars to screen their faces. For amoment 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 intrusivestrangers."Who are you?" he asked as he advanced. "What are you loitering there for?"There was no answer; but the lad Andrews stepped fo #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 144 Context: "Sure, it is like a war," he repeated. "What is it but a war between us andthem, and we hit back where we best can."There was high revel in the lodge room at the Union House that night, notonly over the killing of the manager and engineer of the Crow Hill mine, whichwould bring this organization into line with the other blackmailed and terror-stricken companies of the district, but also over a distant triumph which had beenwrought by the hands of the lodge itself.It would appear that when the County Delegate had sent over five good mento strike a blow in Vermissa, he had demanded that in return three Vermissa menshould be secretly selected and sent across to kill William Hales of Stake Royal,one of the best known and most popular mine owners in the Gilmerton district, aman who was believed not to have an enemy in the world; for he was in all waysa model employer. He had insisted, however, upon efficiency in the work, andhad, therefore, paid off certain drunken and idle employees who were membersof the all-powerful society. Coffin notices hung outside his door had notweakened his resolution, and so in a free, civilized country he found himselfcondemned to death.The execution had now been duly carried out. Ted Baldwin, who sprawlednow in the seat of honour beside the Bodymaster, had been chief of the party.His flushed face and glazed, blood-shot eyes told of sleeplessness and drink. Heand his two comrades had spent the night before among the mountains. Theywere unkempt and weather-stained. But no heroes, returning from a forlornhope, could have had a warmer welcome from their comrades.The story was told and retold amid cries of delight and shouts of laughter.They had waited for their man as he drove home at nightfall, taking their stationat the top of a steep hill, where his horse must be at a walk. He was so furred tokeep out the cold that he could not lay his hand on his pistol. They had pulledhim out and shot him again and again. He had screamed for mercy. The scre #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 145 Context: There had been one contretemps; for a man and his wife had driven up whilethey were still emptying their revolvers into the silent body. It had beensuggested that they should shoot them both; but they were harmless folk whowere not connected with the mines, so they were sternly bidden to drive on andkeep silent, lest a worse thing befall them. And so the blood-mottled figure hadbeen left as a warning to all such hard-hearted employers, and the three nobleavengers had hurried off into the mountains where unbroken nature comes downto the very edge of the furnaces and the slag heaps. Here they were, safe andsound, their work well done, and the plaudits of their companions in their ears.It had been a great day for the Scowrers. The shadow had fallen even darkerover the valley. But as the wise general chooses the moment of victory in whichto redouble his efforts, so that his foes may have no time to steady themselvesafter disaster, so Boss McGinty, looking out upon the scene of his operationswith his brooding and malicious eyes, had devised a new attack upon those whoopposed him. That very night, as the half-drunken company broke up, hetouched McMurdo on the arm and led him aside into that inner room where theyhad their first interview."See here, my lad," said he, "I've got a job that's worthy of you at last. You'llhave the doing of it in your own hands.""Proud I am to hear it," McMurdo answered."You can take two men with you—Manders and Reilly. They have beenwarned for service. We'll never be right in this district until Chester Wilcox hasbeen settled, and you'll have the thanks of every lodge in the coal fields if youcan down him.""I'll do my best, anyhow. Who is he, and where shall I find him?"McGinty took his eternal half-chewed, half-smoked cigar from the corner ofhis mouth, and proceeded to draw a rough diagram on a page torn from hisnotebook."He's the chief foreman of the Iron Dike Company. He's a hard citizen, an oldcolour sergeant of the war, all scars and grizz #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 146 Context: 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 orchoose. It's all or none. If you could get a bag of blasting powder at the frontdoor 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 atnight, and he shot him. That's enough for me and you. You've got to settle thething 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 Iwould 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 makemy plans. Then—""Very good," said McGinty, shaking him by the hand. "I leave it with you. Itwill be a great day when you bring us the news. It's just the last stroke that willbring them all to their knees."McMurdo thought long and deeply over the commission which had been so #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 147 Context: suddenly placed in his hands. The isolated house in which Chester Wilcox livedwas about five miles off in an adjacent valley. That very night he started off allalone to prepare for the attempt. It was daylight before he returned from hisreconnaissance. Next day he interviewed his two subordinates, Manders andReilly, reckless youngsters who were as elated as if it were a deer-hunt.Two nights later they met outside the town, all three armed, and one of themcarrying a sack stuffed with the powder which was used in the quarries. It wastwo in the morning before they came to the lonely house. The night was a windyone, with broken clouds drifting swiftly across the face of a three-quarter moon.They had been warned to be on their guard against bloodhounds; so they movedforward cautiously, with their pistols cocked in their hands. But there was nosound save the howling of the wind, and no movement but the swaying branchesabove them.McMurdo listened at the door of the lonely house; but all was still within.Then he leaned the powder bag against it, ripped a hole in it with his knife, andattached the fuse. When it was well alight he and his two companions took totheir heels, and were some distance off, safe and snug in a sheltering ditch,before the shattering roar of the explosion, with the low, deep rumble of thecollapsing building, told them that their work was done. No cleaner job had everbeen carried out in the bloodstained annals of the society.But alas that work so well organized and boldly carried out should all havegone for nothing! Warned by the fate of the various victims, and knowing that hewas marked down for destruction, Chester Wilcox had moved himself and hisfamily only the day before to some safer and less known quarters, where a guardof police should watch over them. It was an empty house which had been torndown by the gunpowder, and the grim old colour sergeant of the war was stillteaching discipline to the miners of Iron Dike."Leave him to me," said McMurdo. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 148 Context: Such were the methods of the Society of Freemen, and such were the deedsof the Scowrers by which they spread their rule of fear over the great and richdistrict which was for so long a period haunted by their terrible presence. Whyshould these pages be stained by further crimes? Have I not said enough to showthe men and their methods?These deeds are written in history, and there are records wherein one mayread the details of them. There one may learn of the shooting of Policemen Huntand Evans because they had ventured to arrest two members of the society—adouble outrage planned at the Vermissa lodge and carried out in cold blood upontwo helpless and disarmed men. There also one may read of the shooting of Mrs.Larbey when she was nursing her husband, who had been beaten almost to deathby orders of Boss McGinty. The killing of the elder Jenkins, shortly followed bythat of his brother, the mutilation of James Murdoch, the blowing up of theStaphouse family, and the murder of the Stendals all followed hard upon oneanother in the same terrible winter.Darkly the shadow lay upon the Valley of Fear. The spring had come withrunning brooks and blossoming trees. There was hope for all Nature bound solong in an iron grip; but nowhere was there any hope for the men and womenwho lived under the yoke of the terror. Never had the cloud above them been sodark and hopeless as in the early summer of the year 1875.Chapter 6DangerIt was the height of the reign of terror. McMurdo, who had already beenappointed Inner Deacon, with every prospect of some day succeeding McGintyas Bodymaster, was now so necessary to the councils of his comrades thatnothing was done without his help and advice. The more popular he became,however, with the Freemen, the blacker were the scowls which greeted him as hepassed along the streets of Vermissa. In spite of their terror the citizens weretaking heart to band themselves together against their oppressors. Rumours hadreached the lodge of secret gatherings in t #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 148 Context: cret gatherings in the Herald office and of distribution of #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 149 Context: firearms among the law-abiding people. But McGinty and his men wereundisturbed by such reports. They were numerous, resolute, and well armed.Their opponents were scattered and powerless. It would all end, as it had done inthe past, in aimless talk and possibly in impotent arrests. So said McGinty,McMurdo, and all the bolder spirits.It was a Saturday evening in May. Saturday was always the lodge night, andMcMurdo was leaving his house to attend it when Morris, the weaker brother ofthe order, came to see him. His brow was creased with care, and his kindly facewas drawn and haggard."Can I speak with you freely, Mr. McMurdo?""Sure.""I can't forget that I spoke my heart to you once, and that you kept it toyourself, even though the Boss himself came to ask you about it.""What else could I do if you trusted me? It wasn't that I agreed with what yousaid.""I know that well. But you are the one that I can speak to and be safe. I've asecret here," he put his hand to his breast, "and it is just burning the life out ofme. I wish it had come to any one of you but me. If I tell it, it will mean murder,for sure. If I don't, it may bring the end of us all. God help me, but I am near outof my wits over it!"McMurdo looked at the man earnestly. He was trembling in every limb. Hepoured some whisky into a glass and handed it to him. "That's the physic for thelikes of you," said he. "Now let me hear of it."Morris drank, and his white face took a tinge of colour. "I can tell it to you allin one sentence," said he. "There's a detective on our trail."McMurdo stared at him in astonishment. "Why, man, you're crazy," he said."Isn't the place full of police and detectives and what harm did they ever do us?""No, no, it's no man of the district. As you say, we know them, and it is littlethat they can do. But you've heard of Pinkerton's?" #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 150 Context: thing has got to be stopped right now."Now read the postscript." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 150 Context: "I've read of some folk of that name.""Well, you can take it from me you've no show when they are on your trail.It's not a take-it-or-miss-it government concern. It's a dead earnest businessproposition that's out for results and keeps out till by hook or crook it gets them.If a Pinkerton man is deep in this business, we are all destroyed.""We must kill him.""Ah, it's the first thought that came to you! So it will be up at the lodge.Didn't I say to you that it would end in murder?""Sure, what is murder? Isn't it common enough in these parts?""It is, indeed; but it's not for me to point out the man that is to be murdered.I'd never rest easy again. And yet it's our own necks that may be at stake. InGod's name what shall I do?" He rocked to and fro in his agony of indecision.But his words had moved McMurdo deeply. It was easy to see that he sharedthe other's opinion as to the danger, and the need for meeting it. He grippedMorris's shoulder and shook him in his earnestness."See here, man," he cried, and he almost screeched the words in hisexcitement, "you won't gain anything by sitting keening like an old wife at awake. Let's have the facts. Who is the fellow? Where is he? How did you hear ofhim? Why did you come to me?""I came to you; for you are the one man that would advise me. I told you thatI had a store in the East before I came here. I left good friends behind me, andone of them is in the telegraph service. Here's a letter that I had from himyesterday. It's this part from the top of the page. You can read it yourself."This was what McMurdo read:How are the Scowrers getting on in your parts? We read plenty of them in the papers.Between you and me I expect to hear news from you before long. Five bigcorporations and the two railroads have taken the thing up in dead earnest. They meanit, and you can bet they'll get there! They are right deep down into it. Pinkerton hastaken hold under their orders, and his best man, Birdy Edwards, is operating. Thething has got to be #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 151 Context: Of course, what I give you is what I learned in business; so it goes no further. It's aqueer cipher that you handle by the yard every day and can get no meaning from.McMurdo sat in silence for some time, with the letter in his listless hands.The mist had lifted for a moment, and there was the abyss before him."Does anyone else know of this?" he asked."I have told no one else.""But this man—your friend—has he any other person that he would be likelyto write to?""Well, I dare say he knows one or two more.""Of the lodge?""It's likely enough.""I was asking because it is likely that he may have given some description ofthis fellow Birdy Edwards—then we could get on his trail.""Well, it's possible. But I should not think he knew him. He is just telling methe news that came to him by way of business. How would he know thisPinkerton man?"McMurdo gave a violent start."By Gar!" he cried, "I've got him. What a fool I was not to know it. Lord! butwe're in luck! We will fix him before he can do any harm. See here, Morris, willyou leave this thing in my hands?""Sure, if you will only take it off mine.""I'll do that. You can stand right back and let me run it. Even your name neednot be mentioned. I'll take it all on myself, as if it were to me that this letter hascome. Will that content you?""It's just what I would ask.""Then leave it at that and keep your head shut. Now I'll get down to the #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 154 Context: were among the leaders of the lodge. He rejoiced that they should all be there totake counsel over his news."Indeed, it's glad we are to see you, Brother!" cried the chairman. "There'sbusiness here that wants a Solomon in judgment to set it right.""It's Lander and Egan," explained his neighbour as he took his seat. "Theyboth claim the head money given by the lodge for the shooting of old manCrabbe over at Stylestown, and who's to say which fired the bullet?"McMurdo rose in his place and raised his hand. The expression of his facefroze the attention of the audience. There was a dead hush of expectation."Eminent Bodymaster," he said, in a solemn voice, "I claim urgency!""Brother McMurdo claims urgency," said McGinty. "It's a claim that by therules of this lodge takes precedence. Now Brother, we attend you."McMurdo took the letter from his pocket."Eminent Bodymaster and Brethren," he said, "I am the bearer of ill news thisday; but it is better that it should be known and discussed, than that a blowshould fall upon us without warning which would destroy us all. I haveinformation that the most powerful and richest organizations in this state havebound themselves together for our destruction, and that at this very momentthere is a Pinkerton detective, one Birdy Edwards, at work in the valleycollecting the evidence which may put a rope round the necks of many of us, andsend every man in this room into a felon's cell. That is the situation for thediscussion of which I have made a claim of urgency."There was a dead silence in the room. It was broken by the chairman."What is your evidence for this, Brother McMurdo?" he asked."It is in this letter which has come into my hands," said McMurdo. He readthe passage aloud. "It is a matter of honour with me that I can give no furtherparticulars about the letter, nor put it into your hands; but I assure you that thereis nothing else in it which can affect the interests of the lodge. I put the casebefore you as it has reached me." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 157 Context: double rates for this.'—'I guess you should,' said I. He had filled the form withstuff that might have been Chinese, for all we could make of it. 'He fires a sheetof this off every day,' said the clerk. 'Yes,' said I; 'it's special news for his paper,and he's scared that the others should tap it.' That was what the operator thoughtand what I thought at the time; but I think differently now.""By Gar! I believe you are right," said McGinty. "But what do you allow thatwe should do about it?""Why not go right down now and fix him?" someone suggested."Ay, the sooner the better.""I'd start this next minute if I knew where we could find him," saidMcMurdo. "He's in Hobson's Patch; but I don't know the house. I've got a plan,though, if you'll only take my advice.""Well, what is it?""I'll go to the Patch to-morrow morning. I'll find him through the operator. Hecan locate him, I guess. Well, then I'll tell him that I'm a Freeman myself. I'lloffer him all the secrets of the lodge for a price. You bet he'll tumble to it. I'll tellhim the papers are at my house, and that it's as much as my life would be worthto let him come while folk were about. He'll see that that's horse sense. Let himcome at ten o'clock at night, and he shall see everything. That will fetch himsure.""Well?""You can plan the rest for yourselves. Widow MacNamara's is a lonely house.She's as true as steel and as deaf as a post. There's only Scanlan and me in thehouse. If I get his promise—and I'll let you know if I do—I'd have the wholeseven of you come to me by nine o'clock. We'll get him in. If ever he gets outalive—well, he can talk of Birdy Edwards's luck for the rest of his days!""There's going to be a vacancy at Pinkerton's or I'm mistaken. Leave it at that,McMurdo. At nine to-morrow we'll be with you. You once get the door shutbehind him, and you can leave the rest with us." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 159 Context: "Do you reckon he knows much?" he asked anxiously.McMurdo shook his head gloomily. "He's been here some time—six weeks atthe least. I guess he didn't come into these parts to look at the prospect. If he hasbeen working among us all that time with the railroad money at his back, Ishould expect that he has got results, and that he has passed them on.""There's not a weak man in the lodge," cried McGinty. "True as steel, everyman of them. And yet, by the Lord! there is that skunk Morris. What about him?If any man gives us away, it would be he. I've a mind to send a couple of theboys round before evening to give him a beating up and see what they can getfrom him.""Well, there would be no harm in that," McMurdo answered. "I won't denythat I have a liking for Morris and would be sorry to see him come to harm. Hehas spoken to me once or twice over lodge matters, and though he may not seethem the same as you or I, he never seemed the sort that squeals. But still it isnot for me to stand between him and you.""I'll fix the old devil!" said McGinty with an oath. "I've had my eye on himthis year past.""Well, you know best about that," McMurdo answered. "But whatever you domust be to-morrow; for we must lie low until the Pinkerton affair is settled up.We can't afford to set the police buzzing, to-day of all days.""True for you," said McGinty. "And we'll learn from Birdy Edwards himselfwhere he got his news if we have to cut his heart out first. Did he seem to scent atrap?"McMurdo laughed. "I guess I took him on his weak point," he said. "If hecould get on a good trail of the Scowrers, he's ready to follow it into hell. I tookhis money," McMurdo grinned as he produced a wad of dollar notes, "and asmuch more when he has seen all my papers.""What papers?""Well, there are no papers. But I filled him up about constitutions and booksof rules and forms of membership. He expects to get right down to the end ofeverything before he leaves." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 160 Context: "Faith, he's right there," said McGinty grimly. "Didn't he ask you why youdidn't bring him the papers?""As if I would carry such things, and me a suspected man, and CaptainMarvin after speaking to me this very day at the depot!""Ay, I heard of that," said McGinty. "I guess the heavy end of this business iscoming on to you. We could put him down an old shaft when we've done withhim; but however we work it we can't get past the man living at Hobson's Patchand you being there to-day."McMurdo shrugged his shoulders. "If we handle it right, they can never provethe killing," said he. "No one can see him come to the house after dark, and I'lllay to it that no one will see him go. Now see here, Councillor, I'll show you myplan and I'll ask you to fit the others into it. You will all come in good time. Verywell. 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'sheavily 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 tofind 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 topof it.""I guess you are right.""This is how I should work it. You will all be in the big room—same as yousaw when you had a chat with me. I'll open the door for him, show him into theparlour beside the door, and leave him there while I get the papers. That willgive me the chance of telling you how things are shaping. Then I will go back tohim with some faked papers. As he is reading them I will jump for him and getmy grip on his pistol arm. You'll hear me call and in you will rush. The quickerthe 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." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 162 Context: the order were concerned, and with no notion of justice or honesty to anyonebeyond. The treasurer, Carter, was a middle-aged man, with an impassive, rathersulky expression, and a yellow parchment skin. He was a capable organizer, andthe actual details of nearly every outrage had sprung from his plotting brain. Thetwo Willabys were men of action, tall, lithe young fellows with determinedfaces, while their companion, Tiger Cormac, a heavy, dark youth, was fearedeven by his own comrades for the ferocity of his disposition. These were themen who assembled that night under the roof of McMurdo for the killing of thePinkerton detective.Their host had placed whisky upon the table, and they had hastened to primethemselves for the work before them. Baldwin and Cormac were already half-drunk, and the liquor had brought out all their ferocity. Cormac placed his handson the stove for an instant—it had been lighted, for the nights were still cold."That will do," said he, with an oath."Ay," said Baldwin, catching his meaning. "If he is strapped to that, we willhave the truth out of him.""We'll have the truth out of him, never fear," said McMurdo. He had nervesof steel, this man; for though the whole weight of the affair was on him hismanner was as cool and unconcerned as ever. The others marked it andapplauded."You are the one to handle him," said the Boss approvingly. "Not a warningwill he get till your hand is on his throat. It's a pity there are no shutters to yourwindows."McMurdo went from one to the other and drew the curtains tighter. "Sure noone can spy upon us now. It's close upon the hour.""Maybe he won't come. Maybe he'll get a sniff of danger," said the secretary."He'll come, never fear," McMurdo answered. "He is as eager to come as youcan be to see him. Hark to that!"They all sat like wax figures, some with their glasses arrested halfway to theirlips. Three loud knocks had sounded at the door. #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 163 Context: "Hush!" McMurdo raised his hand in caution. An exulting glance went roundthe circle, and hands were laid upon hidden weapons."Not a sound, for your lives!" McMurdo whispered, as he went from theroom, closing the door carefully behind him.With strained ears the murderers waited. They counted the steps of theircomrade down the passage. Then they heard him open the outer door. Therewere a few words as of greeting. Then they were aware of a strange step insideand of an unfamiliar voice. An instant later came the slam of the door and theturning of the key in the lock. Their prey was safe within the trap. Tiger Cormaclaughed 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 seemedinterminable. Then the door opened, and McMurdo appeared, his finger upon hislip.He came to the end of the table and looked round at them. A subtle changehad come over him. His manner was as of one who has great work to do. Hisface had set into granite firmness. His eyes shone with a fierce excitementbehind his spectacles. He had become a visible leader of men. They stared at himwith eager interest; but he said nothing. Still with the same singular gaze helooked 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 BirdyEdwards!"There were ten seconds after that brief speech during which the room mighthave been empty, so profound was the silence. The hissing of a kettle upon thestove rose sharp and strident to the ear. Seven white faces, all turned upward tothis man who dominated them, were set motionless with utter terror. Then, witha sudden shivering of glass, a bristle of glistening rifle barrels broke througheach window, while the curtains were torn from their hangings.At the sight Boss McGinty gave the roar of a wounded bear and plunged forthe half-opened #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 164 Context: of Captain Marvin of the Mine Police gleaming behind the sights. The Bossrecoiled and fell back into his chair."You're safer there, Councillor," said the man whom they had known asMcMurdo. "And you, Baldwin, if you don't take your hand off your pistol, you'llcheat the hangman yet. Pull it out, or by the Lord that made me—There, that willdo. There are forty armed men round this house, and you can figure it out foryourself what chance you have. Take their pistols, Marvin!"There was no possible resistance under the menace of those rifles. The menwere disarmed. Sulky, sheepish, and amazed, they still sat round the table."I'd like to say a word to you before we separate," said the man who hadtrapped them. "I guess we may not meet again until you see me on the stand inthe courthouse. I'll give you something to think over between now and then. Youknow me now for what I am. At last I can put my cards on the table. I am BirdyEdwards of Pinkerton's. I was chosen to break up your gang. I had a hard anddangerous game to play. Not a soul, not one soul, not my nearest and dearest,knew that I was playing it. Only Captain Marvin here and my employers knewthat. But it's over to-night, thank God, and I am the winner!"The seven pale, rigid faces looked up at him. There was unappeasable hatredin their eyes. He read the relentless threat."Maybe you think that the game is not over yet. Well, I take my chance ofthat. Anyhow, some of you will take no further hand, and there are sixty morebesides yourselves that will see a jail this night. I'll tell you this, that when I wasput upon this job I never believed there was such a society as yours. I thought itwas paper talk, and that I would prove it so. They told me it was to do with theFreemen; so I went to Chicago and was made one. Then I was surer than everthat it was just paper talk; for I found no harm in the society, but a deal of good."Still, I had to carry out my job, and I came to the coal valleys. When Ireached this place I learned th #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 165 Context: they will say that I was as bad as you. They can say what they like, so long as Iget you. But what is the truth? The night I joined you beat up old man Stanger. Icould not warn him, for there was no time; but I held your hand, Baldwin, whenyou would have killed him. If ever I have suggested things, so as to keep myplace among you, they were things which I knew I could prevent. I could notsave Dunn and Menzies, for I did not know enough; but I will see that theirmurderers are hanged. I gave Chester Wilcox warning, so that when I blew hishouse in he and his folk were in hiding. There was many a crime that I could notstop; but if you look back and think how often your man came home the otherroad, or was down in town when you went for him, or stayed indoors when youthought 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 yourlike have been the enemy of God and man in these parts. It took a man to getbetween you and the poor devils of men and women that you held under yourgrip. There was just one way of doing it, and I did it. You call me a traitor; but Iguess there's many a thousand will call me a deliverer that went down into hellto save them. I've had three months of it. I wouldn't have three such monthsagain if they let me loose in the treasury at Washington for it. I had to stay till Ihad it all, every man and every secret right here in this hand. I'd have waited alittle longer if it hadn't come to my knowledge that my secret was coming out. Aletter had come into the town that would have set you wise to it all. Then I had toact and act quickly."I've nothing more to say to you, except that when my time comes I'll die theeasier when I think of the work I have done in this valley. Now, Marvin, I'll keepyou 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 atthe address of Miss Ett #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 166 Context: ed for five years as a Sussex county gentleman, a lifewhich ended with the strange happenings of which we have heard.Epilogue #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 167 Context: The police trial had passed, in which the case of John Douglas was referred toa higher court. So had the Quarter Sessions, at which he was acquitted as havingacted in self-defense."Get him out of England at any cost," wrote Holmes to the wife. "There areforces here which may be more dangerous than those he has escaped. There is nosafety for your husband in England."Two months had gone by, and the case had to some extent passed from ourminds. Then one morning there came an enigmatic note slipped into our letterbox. "Dear me, Mr. Holmes. Dear me!" said this singular epistle. There wasneither superscription nor signature. I laughed at the quaint message; but Holmesshowed unwonted seriousness."Deviltry, Watson!" he remarked, and sat long with a clouded brow.Late last night Mrs. Hudson, our landlady, brought up a message that agentleman wished to see Holmes, and that the matter was of the utmostimportance. Close at the heels of his messenger came Cecil Barker, our friend ofthe moated Manor House. His face was drawn and haggard."I've had bad news—terrible news, Mr. Holmes," said he."I feared as much," said Holmes."You have not had a cable, have you?""I have had a note from someone who has.""It's poor Douglas. They tell me his name is Edwards; but he will always beJack Douglas of Benito Canyon to me. I told you that they started together forSouth Africa in the Palmyra three weeks ago.""Exactly.""The ship reached Cape Town last night. I received this cable from MrsDouglas this morning:—"Jack has been lost overboard in gale off St Helena. No one knows howaccident occurred.—Ivy Douglas." #################### File: The-Valley-of-Fear.pdf Page: 170 Context: 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 editionswill be renamed.Creating the works from public domain print editions means that noone owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States withoutpermission and without paying copyright royalties. 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It is a Project Gutenberg eBook, meaning it is freely available to the public. The story begins with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson receiving a coded message from a mysterious informant named Porlock. The message refers to a book and a specific page, which Holmes and Watson eventually decipher using Whitaker's Almanac. The message warns of danger to a man named Douglas, who lives at Birlstone Manor. The story then shifts to Birlstone Manor, where John Douglas has been murdered. The local police are investigating, but they are baffled by the crime. The murder weapon is a sawed-off shotgun, and there is evidence suggesting the murderer was American. Holmes, Watson, and Inspector MacDonald arrive at Birlstone Manor to investigate. They interview the servants and Cecil Barker, a friend of Douglas. Holmes suspects that Barker and Mrs. Douglas are hiding something, and he eventually discovers that the murder was staged to make it look like an outsider was responsible. The story then shifts to Vermissa Valley in the United States, where a secret society called the Scowrers is terrorizing the local community. The story follows a man named McMurdo, who arrives in Vermissa Valley and joins the Scowrers. He quickly rises through the ranks, but he is also secretly working as a Pinkerton detective, trying to bring down the organization. The story ends with McMurdo exposing himself as a Pinkerton detective and arresting the leaders of the Scowrers. However, the story is not over, as there are still mysteries to be solved. ================================================== **Elapsed Time: 0.50 seconds** ==================================================