Books: Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle >> Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
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"I took the papers and--"
"Excuse me an instant," said Holmes. "Were you alone
during this conversation?"
"Absolutely."
"In a large room?"
"Thirty feet each way."
"In the centre?"
"Yes, about it."
"And speaking low?"
"My uncle's voice is always remarkably low. I hardly
spoke at all."
"Thank you," said Holmes, shutting his eyes; "pray go
on."
"I did exactly what he indicated, and waited until the
other clerks had departed. One of them in my room,
Charles Gorot, had some arrears of work to make up, so
I left him there and went out to dine. When I
returned he was gone. I was anxious to hurry my work,
for I knew that Joseph--the Mr. Harrison whom you saw
just now--was in town, and that he would travel down
to Woking by the eleven-o'clock train, and I wanted if
possible to catch it.
"When I came to examine the treaty I saw at once that
it was of such importance that my uncle had been
guilty of no exaggeration in what he had said.
Without going into details, I may say that it defined
the position of Great Britain towards the Triple
Alliance, and fore-shadowed the policy which this
country would pursue in the event of the French fleet
gaining a complete ascendancy over that of Italy in
the Mediterranean. The questions treated in it were
purely naval. At the end were the signatures of the
high dignitaries who had signed it. I glanced my eyes
over it, and then settled down to my task of copying.
"It was a long document, written in the French
language, and containing twenty-six separate articles.
I copied as quickly as I could, but at nine o'clock I
had only done nine articles, and it seemed hopeless
for me to attempt to catch my train. I was feeling
drowsy and stupid, partly from my dinner and also from
the effects of a long day's work. A cup of coffee
would clear my brain. A commissionnaire remains all
night in a little lodge at the foot of the stairs, and
is in the habit of making coffee at his spirit-lamp
for any of the officials who may be working over time.
I rang the bell, therefore, to summon him.
"To my surprise, it was a woman who answered the
summons, a large, coarse-faced, elderly woman, in an
apron. She explained that she was the
commissionnaire's wife, who did the charing, and I
gave her the order for the coffee.
"I wrote two more articles and then, feeling more
drowsy than ever, I rose and walked up and down the
room to stretch my legs. My coffee had not yet come,
and I wondered what was the cause of the delay could
be. Opening the door, I started down the corridor to
find out. There was a straight passage, dimly
lighted, which led from the room in which I had been
working, and was the only exit from it. It ended in a
curving staircase, with the commissionnaire's lodge in
the passage at the bottom. Half way down this
staircase is a small landing, with another passage
running into it at right angles. This second one
leads by means of a second small stair to a side door,
used by servants, and also as a short cut by clerks
when coming from Charles Street. Here is a rough
chart of the place."
"Thank you. I think that I quite follow you," said
Sherlock Holmes.
"It is of the utmost importance that you should notice
this point. I went down the stairs and into the hall,
where I found the commissionnaire fast asleep in his
box, with the kettle boiling furiously upon the
spirit-lamp. I took off the kettle and blew out the
lamp, for the water was spurting over the floor. Then
I put out my hand and was about to shake the man, who
was still sleeping soundly, when a bell over his head
rang loudly, and he woke with a start.
"'Mr. Phelps, sir!' said he, looking at me in
bewilderment.
"'I came down to see if my coffee was ready.'
"'I was boiling the kettle when I fell asleep, sir.'
He looked at me and then up at the still quivering
bell with an ever-growing astonishment upon his face.
"'If you was here, sir, then who rang the bell?' he
asked.
"'The bell!' I cried. 'What bell is it?'
"'It's the bell of the room you were working in.'
"A cold hand seemed to close round my heart. Some
one, then, was in that room where my precious treaty
lay upon the table. I ran frantically up the stair
and along the passage. There was no one in the
corridors, Mr. Holmes. There was no one in the room.
All was exactly as I left it, save only that the
papers which had been committed to my care had been
taken from the desk on which they lay. The copy was
there, and the original was gone."
Holmes sat up in his chair and rubbed his hands. I
could see that the problem was entirely to his heart.
"Pray, what did you do then?" he murmured.
"I recognized in an instant that the thief must have
come up the stairs from the side door. Of course I
must have met him if he had come the other way."
"You were satisfied that he could not have been
concealed in the room all the time, or in the corridor
which you have just described as dimly lighted?"
"It is absolutely impossible. A rat could not conceal
himself either in the room or the corridor. There is
no cover at all."
"Thank you. Pray proceed."
"The commissionnaire, seeing by my pale face that
something was to be feared, had followed me upstairs.
Now we both rushed along the corridor and down the
steep steps which led to Charles Street. The door at
the bottom was closed, but unlocked. We flung it open
and rushed out. I can distinctly remember that as we
did so there came three chimes from a neighboring
clock. It was quarter to ten."
"That is of enormous importance," said Holmes, making
a note upon his shirt-cuff.
"The night was very dark, and a thin, warm rain was
falling. There was no one in Charles Street, but a
great traffic was going on, as usual, in Whitehall, at
the extremity. We rushed along the pavement,
bare-headed as we were, and at the far corner we found
a policeman standing.
"'A robbery has been committed,' I gasped. 'A
document of immense value has been stolen from the
Foreign Office. Has any one passed this way?'
"'I have been standing here for a quarter of an hour,
sir,' said he; 'only one person has passed during that
time--a woman, tall and elderly, with a Paisley
shawl.'
"'Ah, that is only my wife,' cried the
commissionnaire; 'has no one else passed?'
"'No one.'
"'Then it must be the other way that the thief took,'
cried the fellow, tugging at my sleeve.
"'But I was not satisfied, and the attempts which he
made to draw me away increased my suspicions.
"'Which way did the woman go?' I cried.
"'I don't know, sir. I noticed her pass, but I had no
special reason for watching her. She seemed to be in
a hurry.'
"'How long ago was it?'
"'Oh, not very many minutes.'
"'Within the last five?'
"'Well, it could not be more than five.'
"'You're only wasting your time, sir, and every minute
now is of importance,' cried the commissionnaire;
'take my word for it that my old woman has nothing to
do with it, and come down to the other end of the
street. Well, if you won't, I will.' And with that
he rushed off in the other direction.
"But I was after him in an instant and caught him by
the sleeve.
"'Where do you live?' said I.
"'16 Ivy Lane, Brixton,' he answered. 'But don't let
yourself be drawn away upon a false scent, Mr. Phelps.
Come to the other end of the street and let us see if
we can hear of anything.'
"Nothing was to be lost by following his advice. With
the policeman we both hurried down, but only to find
the street full of traffic, many people coming and
going, but all only too eager to get to a place of
safety upon so wet a night. There was no lounger who
could tell us who had passed.
"Then we returned to the office, and searched the
stairs and the passage without result. The corridor
which led to the room was laid down with a kind of
creamy linoleum which shows an impression very easily.
We examined it very carefully, but found no outline of
any footmark."
"Had it been raining all evening?"
"Since about seven."
"How is it, then, that the woman who came into the
room about nine left no traces with her muddy boots?"
"I am glad you raised the point. It occurred to me at
the time. The charwomen are in the habit of taking
off their boots at the commissionnaire's office, and
putting on list slippers."
"That is very clear. There were no marks, then,
though the night was a wet one? The chain of events
is certainly one of extraordinary interest. What did
you do next?
"We examined the room also. There is no possibility
of a secret door, and the windows are quite thirty
feet from the ground. Both of them were fastened on
the inside. The carpet prevents any possibility of a
trap-door, and the ceiling is of the ordinary
whitewashed kind. I will pledge my life that whoever
stole my papers could only have come through the
door."
"How about the fireplace?"
"They use none. There is a stove. The bell-rope
hangs from the wire just to the right of my desk.
Whoever rang it must have come right up to the desk to
do it. But why should any criminal wish to ring the
bell? It is a most insoluble mystery."
"Certainly the incident was unusual. What were your
next steps? You examined the room, I presume, to see
if the intruder had left any traces--any cigar-end or
dropped glove or hairpin or other trifle?"
"There was nothing of the sort."
"No smell?"
"Well, we never thought of that."
"Ah, a scent of tobacco would have been worth a great
deal to us in such an investigation."
"I never smoke myself, so I think I should have
observed it if there had been any smell of tobacco.
There was absolutely no clue of any kind. The only
tangible fact was that the commissionnaire's wife--Mrs.
Tangey was the name--had hurried out of the place. He
could give no explanation save that it was about the
time when the woman always went home. The policeman
and I agreed that our best plan would be to seize the
woman before she could get rid of the papers,
presuming that she had them.
"The alarm had reached Scotland Yard by this time, and
Mr. Forbes, the detective, came round at once and took
up the case with a great deal of energy. We hired a
hansom, and in half an hour we were at the address
which had been given to us. A young woman opened the
door, who proved to be Mrs. Tangey's eldest daughter.
Her mother had not come back yet, and we were shown
into the front room to wait.
"About ten minutes later a knock came at the door, and
here we made the one serious mistake for which I blame
myself. Instead of opening the door ourselves, we
allowed the girl to do so. We heard her say, 'Mother,
there are two men in the house waiting to see you,'
and an instant afterwards we heard the patter of feet
rushing down the passage. Forbes flung open the door,
and we both ran into the back room or kitchen, but the
woman had got there before us. She stared at us with
defiant eyes, and then, suddenly recognizing me, an
expression of absolute astonishment came over her
face.
"'Why, if it isn't Mr. Phelps, of the office!' she
cried.
"'Come, come, who did you think we were when you ran
away from us?' asked my companion.
"'I thought you were the brokers,' said she, 'we have
had some trouble with a tradesman.'
"'That's not quite good enough,' answered Forbes. 'We
have reason to believe that you have taken a paper of
importance from the Foreign Office, and that you ran in
here to dispose of it. You must come back with us to
Scotland Yard to be searched.'
"It was in vain that she protested and resisted. A
four-wheeler was brought, and we all three drove back
in it. We had first made an examination of the
kitchen, and especially of the kitchen fire, to see
whether she might have made away with the papers
during the instant that she was alone. There were no
signs, however, of any ashes or scraps. When we
reached Scotland Yard she was handed over at once to
the female searcher. I waited in an agony of suspense
until she came back with her report. There were no
signs of the papers.
"Then for the first time the horror of my situation
came in its full force. Hitherto I had been acting,
and action had numbed thought. I had been so
confident of regaining the treaty at once that I had
not dared to think of what would be the consequence if
I failed to do so. But now there was nothing more to
be done, and I had leisure to realize my position. It
was horrible. Watson there would tell you that I was
a nervous, sensitive boy at school. It is my nature.
I thought of my uncle and of his colleagues in the
Cabinet, of the shame which I had brought upon him,
upon myself, upon every one connected with me. What
though I was the victim of an extraordinary accident?
No allowance is made for accidents where diplomatic
interests are at stake. I was ruined, shamefully,
hopelessly ruined. I don't know what I did. I fancy
I must have made a scene. I have a dim recollection
of a group of officials who crowded round me,
endeavoring to soothe me. One of them drove down with
me to Waterloo, and saw me into the Woking train. I
believe that he would have come all the way had it not
been that Dr. Ferrier, who lives near me, was going
down by that very train. The doctor most kindly took
charge of me, and it was well he did so, for I had a
fit in the station, and before we reached home I was
practically a raving maniac.
"You can imagine the state of things here when they
were roused from their beds by the doctor's ringing
and found me in this condition. Poor Annie here and
my mother were broken-hearted. Dr. Ferrier had just
heard enough from the detective at the station to be
able to give an idea of what had happened, and his
story did not mend matters. It was evident to all
that I was in for a long illness, so Joseph was
bundled out of this cheery bedroom, and it was turned
into a sick-room for me. Here I have lain, Mr.
Holmes, for over nine weeks, unconscious, and raving
with brain-fever. If it had not been for Miss
Harrison here and for the doctor's care I should not
be speaking to you now. She has nursed me by day and
a hired nurse has looked after me by night, for in my
mad fits I was capable of anything. Slowly my reason
has cleared, but it is only during the last three days
that my memory has quite returned. Sometimes I wish
that it never had. The first thing that I did was to
wire to Mr. Forbes, who had the case in hand. He came
out, and assures me that, though everything has been
done, no trace of a clue has been discovered. The
commissionnaire and his wife have been examined in
every way without any light being thrown upon the
matter. The suspicions of the police then rested upon
young Gorot, who, as you may remember, stayed over
time in the office that night. His remaining behind
and his French name were really the only two points
which could suggest suspicion; but, as a matter of
fact, I did not begin work until he had gone, and his
people are of Huguenot extraction, but as English in
sympathy and tradition as you and I are. Nothing was
found to implicate him in any way, and there the
matter dropped. I turn to you, Mr. Holmes, as
absolutely my last hope. If you fail me, then my
honor as well as my position are forever forfeited."
The invalid sank back upon his cushions, tired out by
this long recital, while his nurse poured him out a
glass of some stimulating medicine. Holmes sat
silently, with his head thrown back and his eyes
closed, in an attitude which might seem listless to a
stranger, but which I knew betokened the most intense
self-absorption.
"You statement has been so explicit," said he at last,
"that you have really left me very few questions to
ask. There is one of the very utmost importance,
however. Did you tell any one that you had this
special task to perform?"
"No one."
"Not Miss Harrison here, for example?"
"No. I had not been back to Woking between getting
the order and executing the commission."
"And none of your people had by chance been to see
you?"
"None."
"Did any of them know their way about in the office?"
"Oh, yes, all of them had been shown over it."
"Still, of course, if you said nothing to any one
about the treaty these inquiries are irrelevant."
"I said nothing."
"Do you know anything of the commissionnaire?"
"Nothing except that he is an old soldier."
"What regiment?"
"Oh, I have heard--Coldstream Guards."
"Thank you. I have no doubt I can get details from
Forbes. The authorities are excellent at amassing
facts, though they do not always use them to
advantage. What a lovely thing a rose is!"
He walked past the couch to the open window, and held
up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at
the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new
phase of his character to me, for I had never before
seen him show any keen interest in natural objects.
"There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary
as in religion," said he, leaning with his back
against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact
science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the
goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the
flowers. All other things, our powers our desires,
our food, are all really necessary for our existence
in the first instance. But this rose is an extra.
Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life,
not a condition of it. It is only goodness which
gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to
hope from the flowers."
Percy Phelps and his nurse looked at Holmes during
this demonstration with surprise and a good deal of
disappointment written upon their faces. He had
fallen into a reverie, with the moss-rose between his
fingers. It had lasted some minutes before the young
lady broke in upon it.
"Do you see any prospect of solving this mystery, Mr.
Holmes?" she asked, with a touch of asperity in her
voice.
"Oh, the mystery!" he answered, coming back with a
start to the realities of life. "Well, it would be
absurd to deny that the case is a very abstruse and
complicated one, but I can promise you that I will
look into the matter and let you know any points which
may strike me."
"Do you see any clue?"
"You have furnished me with seven, but, of course, I
must test them before I can pronounce upon their
value."
"You suspect some one?"
"I suspect myself."
"What!"
"Of coming to conclusions too rapidly."
"Then go to London and test your conclusions."
"Your advice is very excellent, Miss Harrison," said
Holmes, rising. "I think, Watson, we cannot do
better. Do not allow yourself to indulge in false
hopes, Mr. Phelps. The affair is a very tangled one."
"I shall be in a fever until I see you again," cried
the diplomatist.
"Well, I'll come out be the same train to-morrow,
though it's more than likely that my report will be a
negative one."
"God bless you for promising to come," cried our
client. "It gives me fresh life to know that
something is being done. By the way, I have had a
letter from Lord Holdhurst."
"Ha! What did he say?"
"He was cold, but not harsh. I dare say my severe
illness prevented him from being that. He repeated
that the matter was of the utmost importance, and
added that no steps would be taken about my future--by
which he means, of course, my dismissal--until my
health was restored and I had an opportunity of
repairing my misfortune."
"Well, that was reasonable and considerate," said
Holmes. "Come, Watson, for we have a good day's work
before us in town."
Mr. Joseph Harrison drove us down to the station, and
we were soon whirling up in a Portsmouth train.
Holmes was sunk in profound thought, and hardly opened
his mouth until we had passed Clapham Junction.
"It's a very cheery thing to come into London by any
of these lines which run high, and allow you to look
down upon the houses like this."
I thought he was joking, for the view was sordid
enough, but he soon explained himself.
"Look at those big, isolated clumps of building rising
up above the slates, like brick islands in a
lead-colored sea."
"The board-schools."
"Light-houses, my boy! Beacons of the future!
Capsules with hundreds of bright little seeds in each,
out of which will spring the wise, better England of
the future. I suppose that man Phelps does not
drink?"
"I should not think so."
"Nor should I, but we are bound to take every
possibility into account. The poor devil has
certainly got himself into very deep water, and it's a
question whether we shall ever be able to get him
ashore. What did you think of Miss Harrison?"
"A girl of strong character."
"Yes, but she is a good sort, or I am mistaken. She
and her brother are the only children of an
iron-master somewhere up Northumberland way. He got
engaged to her when traveling last winter, and she
came down to be introduced to his people, with her
brother as escort. Then came the smash, and she
stayed on to nurse her lover, while brother Joseph,
finding himself pretty snug, stayed on too. I've been
making a few independent inquiries, you see. But
to-day must be a day of inquiries."
"My practice--" I began.
"Oh, if you find your own cases more interesting than
mine--" said Holmes, with some asperity.
"I was going to say that my practice could get along
very well for a day or two, since it is the slackest
time in the year."
"Excellent," said he, recovering his good-humor.
"Then we'll look into this matter together. I think
that we should begin by seeing Forbes. He can
probably tell us all the details we want until we know
from what side the case is to be approached."
"You said you had a clue?"
"Well, we have several, but we can only test their
value by further inquiry. The most difficult crime to
track is the one which is purposeless. Now this is
not purposeless. Who is it who profits by it? There
is the French ambassador, there is the Russian, there
is whoever might sell it to either of these, and
there is Lord Holdhurst."
"Lord Holdhurst!"
"Well, it is just conceivable that a statesman might
find himself in a position where he was not sorry to
have such a document accidentally destroyed."
"Not a statesman with the honorable record of Lord
Holdhurst?"
"It is a possibility and we cannot afford to disregard
it. We shall see the noble lord to-day and find out
if he can tell us anything. Meanwhile I have already
set inquiries on foot."
"Already?"
"Yes, I sent wires from Woking station to every
evening paper in London. This advertisement will
appear in each of them."
He handed over a sheet torn from a note-book. On it
was scribbled in pencil: "L10 reward. The number of
the cab which dropped a fare at or about the door of
the Foreign Office in Charles Street at quarter to ten
in the evening of May 23d. Apply 221 B, Baker
Street."
"You are confident that the thief came in a cab?"
"If not, there is no harm done. But if Mr. Phelps is
correct in stating that there is no hiding-place
either in the room or the corridors, then the person
must have come from outside. If he came from outside
on so wet a night, and yet left no trace of damp upon
the linoleum, which was examined within a few minutes
of his passing, then it is exceeding probable that he
came in a cab. Yes, I think that we may safely deduce
a cab."
"It sounds plausible."
"That is one of the clues of which I spoke. It may
lead us to something. And then, of course, there is
the bell--which is the most distinctive feature of the
case. Why should the bell ring? Was it the thief who
did it out of bravado? Or was it some one who was
with the thief who did it in order to prevent the
crime? Or was it an accident? Or was it--?" He sank
back into the state of intense and silent thought from
which he had emerged; but it seemed to me, accustomed
as I was to his every mood, that some new possibility
had dawned suddenly upon him.
It was twenty past three when we reached our terminus,
and after a hasty luncheon at the buffet we pushed on
at once to Scotland Yard. Holmes had already wired to
Forbes, and we found him waiting to receive us--a
small, foxy man with a sharp but by no means amiable
expression. He was decidedly frigid in his manner to
us, especially when he heard the errand upon which we
had come.
"I've heard of your methods before now, Mr. Holmes,"
said he, tartly. "You are ready enough to use all the
information that the police can lay at your disposal,
and then you try to finish the case yourself and bring
discredit on them."
"On the contrary," said Holmes, "out of my last
fifty-three cases my name has only appeared in four,
and the police have had all the credit in forty-nine.
I don't blame you for not knowing this, for you are
young and inexperienced, but if you wish to get on in
your new duties you will work with me and not against
me."
"I'd be very glad of a hint or two," said the
detective, changing his manner. "I've certainly had
no credit from the case so far."
"What steps have you taken?"
"Tangey, the commissionnaire, has been shadowed. He
left the Guards with a good character and we can find
nothing against him. His wife is a bad lot, though.
I fancy she knows more about this than appears."
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