The Adventure at Baskerville Hall & Other Cases
Hudson arrived with the tray, he had turned our conversation to the method by which one may calculate a man's height from his stride, something he had done in the Jefferson Hope case and that I had been curious about ever since.
I would not have been able to follow him without the aid of Mrs. Hudson's excellent coffee; as it was I acquitted myself fairly well but all the same was relieved when breakfast arrived.
After we had both eaten – I knew that he must have been famished, for usually once he was engaged in a case he rarely took the trouble to observe regular mealtimes – he departed and I attended to some small business matters of my own.
It was nearly one o'clock when Sherlock Holmes returned from his excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled over with notes and figures in his characteristic hand.
"I have seen the will of the deceased wife," said he. "To determine its exact meaning I have been obliged to work out the present prices of the investments with which it is concerned. The total income, which at the time of the wife's death was little short of 1100 pounds, is now, through the fall in agricultural prices, not more than 750 pounds. Each daughter can claim an income of 250 pounds, in case of marriage. It is evident, therefore, that if both girls had married, this beauty would have had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to a very serious extent. My morning's work has not been wasted, since it has proved that he has the very strongest motives for standing in the way of anything of the sort. And now, Watson, this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley's No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think, all that we need."
"If we are planning to stay overnight then surely I need pyjamas as well, do I not?"
"Oh," he murmured flirtatiously, "I don't think you need to bother with those."
And then as I looked at him in astonished silence, he bit his lip and turned away, his ears turning faintly pink.
* * * *
Holmes and I were in our sitting-room at the Crown Inn, having just finished a pot of tea and sandwiches preparatory to our night's adventures, when we would return to the house in which Miss Julia Stoner had met her death.
"Do you know, Watson," said Holmes as we sat together in the gathering darkness, "I have really some scruples as to taking you to-night. There is a distinct element of danger."
"Can I be of assistance?" I asked, ignoring his laughable notion that I would sit calmly by while he endangered himself.
"Your presence might be invaluable."
"Then I shall certainly come."
"It is very kind of you."
"You speak of danger. You have evidently seen more in these rooms than was visible to me."
"No, but I fancy that I may have deduced a little more. I imagine that you saw all that I did."
"I saw nothing remarkable save the bell-rope, and what purpose that could answer I confess is more than I can imagine."
"You saw the ventilator, too?"
"Yes, but I do not think that it is such a very unusual thing to have a small opening between two rooms. It was so small that a rat could hardly pass through."
"I knew that we should find a ventilator before ever we came to Stoke Moran."
"My dear Holmes!"
"Oh, yes, I did. You remember in her statement she said that her sister could smell Dr. Roylott's cigar. Now, of course that suggested at once that there must be a communication between the two rooms. It could only be a small one, or it would have been remarked upon at the coroner's inquiry. I deduced a ventilator."
"But what harm can there be in that?"
"Well, there is at least a curious coincidence of dates. A ventilator is made, a cord is hung, and a lady who sleeps in the bed dies. Does not that strike you?"
"I cannot as yet see any connection."
"Did you observe anything very peculiar about that bed?"
"No."
"It was clamped to the floor. Did you ever see a bed fastened like that before?"
"I cannot say that I have."
"The lady could not move her bed. It must always be in the same relative position to the ventilator and to the rope – for so we may call it, since it was clearly never meant for a bell-pull."
"Holmes," I cried, "I seem to see dimly what
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