The Adventure at Baskerville Hall & Other Cases
vague wondering as to whether she had followed Holmes's advice and had asked someone to stay at her house.
I woke briefly when Holmes came to bed, some time in the early hours of the morning. His face and hands were cold as he lay down beside me, still clad in his dress shirt and trousers, and pulled me gently into his arms, trying not to wake me. He buried his face in my hair and I felt his mouth moving as he murmured softly to me. Drifting just below the surface of consciousness, I nuzzled my face into the crook of his neck as I wrapped an arm around his waist. I knew that he would not sleep while his brain was puzzling over a case, but the fact that he had sought my presence touched me deeply.
* * * *
The following morning I found Holmes at the breakfast table. Seating myself opposite, I greeted him and, as I was wondering how best to address the subject that had been preying on my mind, Holmes wordlessly passed me a telegram:
Please come out at once. Client's house burgled in the night. Police in possession.
Sutro
"The drama has come to a crisis, and quicker than I had expected," Holmes said gravely. "There is a great driving-power at the back of this business, Watson, which does not surprise me after what I have heard. This Sutro, of course, is her lawyer. I made a mistake, I fear, in not asking you to spend the night on guard. This fellow has clearly proved a broken reed. Well, there is nothing for it but another journey to Harrow Weald."
During our journey, Holmes had an air of barely-suppressed anticipation that I could well understand. Our adversary had shown their hand; such a desperate measure could only furnish Holmes with further clues as to the culprit, and I had every confidence that they would not elude him for long.
Moments after we pulled up at the house, Holmes leaped down from the cab and strode inside, leaving me to settle the fare. The place was in uproar – a small group of idlers had assembled at the gate, while a couple of constables were examining the windows and the geranium beds.
When I entered the main hall, I met a gray old gentleman, who introduced himself as the lawyer, together with a bustling, rubicund inspector who was greeting Holmes as an old friend, much to my amusement.
"Well, Mr. Holmes, no chance for you in this case, I'm afraid. Just a common, ordinary burglary, and well within the capacity of the poor old police. No experts need apply."
"I am sure the case is in very good hands," said Holmes silkily, with just the slightest tinge of irony audible only to me. "Merely a common burglary, you say?"
"Quite so. We know pretty well who the men are and where to find them. It is that gang of Barney Stockdale – they've been seen about here."
"Excellent! What did they get?"
"Well, they don't seem to have got much. Mrs. Maberley was chloroformed and the house was – Ah! But here is the lady herself."
Our friend of yesterday, looking very pale and ill, had entered the room, leaning upon a little maidservant.
"You gave me good advice, Mr. Holmes," said she, smiling ruefully. "Alas, I did not take it! I did not wish to trouble Mr. Sutro, and so I was unprotected."
"I only heard of it this morning," the lawyer explained.
"Mr. Holmes advised me to have some friend in the house. I neglected his advice, and I have paid for it."
"You look wretchedly ill," said Holmes, showing one of those flashes of compassion that he always later denied. "Perhaps you are hardly equal to telling me what occurred."
"It is all here," said the inspector officiously, tapping a bulky notebook.
"Still, if the lady is not too exhausted–"
"There is really so little to tell." Mrs. Maberley raised herself still further in my esteem by holding up a hand as the inspector opened his mouth again, and continuing. "I have no doubt that wicked Susan had planned an entrance for them. They must have known the house to an inch. I was conscious for a moment of the chloroform rag which was thrust over my mouth, but I have no notion how long I may have been senseless. When I woke, one man was at the bedside and another was rising with a bundle in his hand from among my son's baggage, which was partially opened and littered over the floor. Before he could get away I sprang up and seized him."
"You took a big risk," said the inspector severely.
Ignoring this patronising remark, the lady elaborated.
"I clung to him, but he shook me off, and the other may have struck me, for I can remember no more. Mary the
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