Disclaimer: I still do not own Sherlock Holmes.
Author's Notes: Miriam is such a drama queen, Amarantha is a real meanie lol. Well i hope you guys liked this chapter. This one was mostly done to carifly some stuff about the plot-line.
And i totally imagine Thaddeus Sholto as that guy from ER the red-headed one, yeah that one.
Please rate&review even if its anonymous :D
We followed the Indian down a sordid and common passage, ill-lit and worse furnished, until he came to a door upon the right, which he threw open. A blaze of yellow light streamed out upon us, and in the centre of the glare there stood a small man with a very high head, a bristle of red hair all around the fringe of it, and a bald, shinning scalp which shot ut from among it like a mountain peak from fir-trees.
He writhed his hands together as he stood and his features were in perpetual jerk –now smiling, now scowling, but never for an instant in repose. Nature had given hima pendulous lip, and a too visible line of yellow and irregular teeth, which he strove to conceal by constantly passing his hand over the lower part of his face. In spite of his obstrusive baldness he gave the impression of youth. In fact he had just turned his thirtieth year.
"Your servant, Miss Hale," He kept repeating in a thin, high voice. "Your servant, gentleman, lady. Pray step into my little sanctum. A small place, miss, but furnished to my own liking. An oasis of art in the howling desert of South London."
We were all astonished by the appearance of the apartment into which he invited us. I that sorry house it looked as out of the place as a diamond of the firstwater in a setting of brass. The richest and glossiest of curtains and tapestries draped the walls, looped back here and there to expose some richly mounted painting or Oriental vase. The carpet was of amber and black, so soft and so thick that the foot sank pleasantly into it, as into a bed of moss. Two great tiger-skins thrown athwart it increased rge suggestion of Eastern luxury, as did a huge hookah which stood upon a mat in the corner.A lamp in the fashion of a silver dove was hung from an almost invisible golden wire in the centre of the room. As it burned it filled the air with a subtle and aromatic odour.
"Mr. Thaddeus Sholto," said the little man, still jerking and smiling. "That' is my name. You are Miss Hale, of course. And these people-"
"This is Mr. Sherlock Holmes, and she is Miss Amarantha Devereaux."
"Deveraux?!" He cried, much excited. "From the London Deveraux? Why, you come from one of the most famous medical/army families in the whole children from this family are breed to be talented. Have you your stethoscope?"
"I don't really-"
"Would you have the kindness? I have grave doubts about my mitral valve, if yoy would be so very good. The aortic I may rely upon, but I should value your opinion upon the mitral."
I sighed as I pressed my ear to his chest, as requested, since I didn't have a stethoscope, but was unable to find anything amiss, save, indeed that he was in an ecstacy of fear, for he shivered from head to foot.
"It appears to be normal," I said with a sigh. "You have no cause for uneasiness."
He turned away from me and to Miss Hale. "You will excuse my anxiety, Miss Hale," he remarked airily. "I am a great sufferer, and I have long had suspicions as to that valve. I am delighted to hear that they were unwarranted. Had you father, Miss Hale, refrained from throwing a strain upon his heart, he might have been alive now
I could have struck the man across the face, how could he be so dense? & I was about to when a strong hand grabbed my wrist, stopping the blow in mid-air. I felt chills run down my spine as I looked up at Sherlock Holmes, his hand still grabbing my wrist firmly, as he glanced at a cringing Thaddeus Sholto.
"There's no need, Amarantha," Holmes turned to face me, an amused expression on his face as he let go of my hand.
"Ha, my you have the characteristic temper of the Deveraux."
"I'm sorry." I apologized, mainly to Sherlock. My hand was still tingling from his grip.
Miss Hale sat down, and her face grew white to the lips.
"I knew in my heart that he was dead." She said.
"I can give you every information," Sholto said, as he stepped a few spaced away from me. "and, what is more, I can do you justice; and I will, too, whatever Brother Bartholomew may say. I am so glad to have your friends here," He looked wearily at me. "Not only to escort you but to also witness to what I am about to do and say. The three of us can show a bold front to BrotherBartholomew. But let us have no outsiders –no police or officials. We can settle everything satisfactorily among ourselves without any interference. Nothing would annow Brother Bartholomew more than any publicity."
He sat down upon a low sette and blinked at us inquiringly with his weak, watery blue eyes.
"For my part," said Holmes. "Whatever you may choose to say will go not go outside this room."
I nodded my head to show agreement.
"That is well! That is well!" he said. "May I offer you a glass of Chianti, Miss Hale? Or of Tokay? I keep no other wines. Shall I open a flask? No? Well, then, I trust that you have no objection to tobacco-smoke, to the balsamic odour of the Eastern tobacco. I am a little nervous, and I find my hookah and invaluable sedative."
He applied a taper to the great bowl, and the smoke bubbled merrily through the rose-water. We sat all three in a semicircle, with our heads advanced and our chins upon our hands, while the strange, jerky little fellow, with his high, shinning head, puffed uneasily in the centre.
"When I first determined to make this communication to you," he said, "I might have given you my address; but I feared that you might disregard my request and bring unpleasant people with you. I took the liberty, therefore, of making an appointment in such a way that my man Williams might be able to see you first. I have complete confidence in his discretion, and he had orders, if he were dissatisfied, to proceed no further in the matter. You will excuse there precautions, but I am a man of somehwat retiring, and I might even say refined, tastes, and there is nothing more unaesthetic than a policeman. I have a natural shirnking from all forms or rough materialism. I seldom come I contact with the rough crowd. I live, as you see, with some little atmpsphere of elegance around me. May I call myself the patron of the arts. It is my weakness. The landscape is a genuine Corot and though a connoisseur might perhaps threw a doubt upon that Salvator Rosa, there cannot be the least question about the Bouguereau. I am partial to the modern French school."
"You will excuse me, ," Miriam said. "but I am here at your request to learn something which you desire to tell me. It is very late, andi should desire the interview to be as short as possible."
"At the best it must take some time." He answered. "For we shall certainly have to go to Norwood and see Brother Bartholomew. We shall all go and try if we can get the better of Brother Bartholomew. He is very with me for taking the course which has seemed right to me. I had quite high words with him last night. You cannot imagine what a terrible fellow he is when he is angry."
"If we are to go to Norwood, it would perhaps be as well to start at once." I ventured to remark, as I focused my blue eyes back at Miriam.
Sholto laughed till his ears were quite red.
"That would hardly do," he cried. "I don't kno what he would say if I brought you in that sudden way. No, I must prepare you by showing you how we all stand to each other. In the first place, I must tell ou that there are several points in the story of which I myself am ignorant. I can only lay the facts before you as far as I know myself."
"My father was, as you may have guessed, Major John Sholto, once of the Indian Army. He retired some eleven years ago and came to live at Pondicherry Lodge in Upper Noorwood. He had prospered in India and brought back with him a considerable sum of money, a large collection of valuable curiosities, and a staff of native servants. With these advantages he bought himself a house, and lived in great luxury. Twin brother Bartholomew and I were the only children.
"I very well remember the sensation which was caused by the of Captain Hale. We read the details in the papers, and knowing that he had been a friend of our father's we discussed the case freely in his presence. He used to join in our speculations as to what could have happened. Never for an instant did we suspect that he had the whole secret hidden in his own breast, that of all men he alone knew the fate of Arthur Hale.
"We did know, however, that some mustery, some mystery, some positive danger, overhung our father. he was very fearful of going out alone, and he always employed two prize-fighters to act as porters at Pondicherry Lodge. Williams, who drove you tonight, was one of them. Ge was ibce kufgrweight champion of England. Our father would never tell us what it was he feared, but he had a most marked aversion to men with wooden legs. On one occasion he actually fired his revolver at a wooden-legged man, who proved to be a harmless tradesman canvassing for orders. We had to pay a large sum to hush the matter up. My brother and I used to think this was a mere whim of my father's, but events since led us to change our opinion.
"Early in 1882 my father received a letter from India which was a great shock to him. He nearly fainted at the breakfastable when he opened it, and from that day he sickened to his death. What was the letter? We could never discover, but I could see as he held it that it was short and written in a scrawling hand. He had suffered from years from an enlarged spleen, but he now became rapidly worse, and towards the end of April we were informed that he was beyond all hope, and that he wished to make a last communication to us.
"We we entered his room he was propped up with pillows and breathing heavily. He besought us to lock the door and to come upon either side of the bed. Then grasping our hands he made a remarkable statement to us in a voice which was broken as much by emotion as by pain. I shall try to give it to you in his own very words.
" 'I have only one thing.' he said. 'which weighs upon m mind at this supreme moment. It is my treatment of poor Hale's orphan. The cursed greed which has been my besetring sin through life has witheld from her the treausure, half at least which should have been hers. And yet I have made no use of it myself, so blind and foolish a thing is avarice. The mere feeling of possesssion has been so dear to me that I could not bear to share it with another. See that chaplet tipped with pears inside the quinine-bottle. Even that I could not bear to part with, although I had got it out with the design of sending it to her. You, my sons, will giverhear a fare share of the Agra Treasure. But send her nothing –not even the chaplet –until I am gone. After all, men have been as bad as this and have recovered.
" 'I will tell you how Hale died' he continued. 'He had suffered for years from a weak heart, but he concelead it from everyone. I alone knew it. When in India, he and I, through a remarkable chain of circumstance came into possession of a considerable treasure. I brought it over to England, and one the night of Hale's arrival he came straight over her to claim his share. He walked over from the station and was admitted by my faithful old La Chowdar, who is now dead. Hale and I had a difference of opinion as to the division of the treasure, and we came to heated words. Hale had sprung out of his chair in a paroxysm of anger, when he suddenly pressed his hand to his side, his face turned a dusky hew, and he fell backwards, cutting his head against the corner of the treasure-chest. When I stooped over him I found, to my horror, that he was dead.
" 'For a long time he sat half-distracted, wondering what I should do. My first impulse was, of course, to call for assistance; but I could not but recogize that there was every chance that I would be accused of his murder. His death at the momet of a quarrel, and the gash in his head, would be black agaist me. Again, and official inquiry could not be made without bringing some facts about the treasure, which I was particularly anxious to keep secret. He had told me that no soul upon earth knew where he had gone. There seemed to be o necessity why any sould should ever know.
" 'I was still pondering over thematter, when, looking up. I saw my servat, Lal Chowdar, in the doorway. He stole in and bolted the door behind him. "Do not fear, sahib," he said; "no oe need to know that you have killed him. Let us hide him away, and who is the wiser?" "I did not kill him," I said. Lal Chowdar shook his head and smiled. "I heard it all, sahib," said he; "I hear you quarrel, and I heard the blow. But my lips are sealed. All are sleep in the house. Let us put him away together." That was enough to decide me. If my ow servant could not believe my innocence, how could I hope to make it good before twelve foolish tradesmen in a jury-box? Lal Chowdar and I disposed of the body that night, and within a few days the London papers were full of the mysterious disappearance of Captain Hale. You will see from what I say that I can hardly be blamed in the matter. My fault lies in the fact that we concealed not only the body but also the treasure and that I have clung to Hale's share as well as to my own. I wish you, therefore, to make restitution. Put you ears down to my mouth. The treasure is hidden in ---"
"At this instant a horrible change came over his expression; his eyes stared widly, his jaw dropped, and he yelled in a voice which I can never forget, 'Keep him out! For Christ's sake keep him out!' We both stared round at the window behind us upon which his gazed was fixed. A face was looking in at us out of the darkness. We could see the whitening nose were it was pressed against the glass. It was a bearded, hairy face, with wild cruel eyes and an expression of concentrated malevolence. My brother and I rushed towards the window, but the man was gone. When we returned to my father his head had dropped and his pulse had ceased to beat.
"We searched the garden that night but found no sign of the intruder save that just under the window a single footmark was visible in the flower-bed. But for that once trace, we migt have thought that our imagination had conjured up that wild, fierce face. We soon, however, had another rand a more striking proof that there were secrer agencies at work all around us. The window of my father's room was found open in the morning, his cupboards and boxed had been rifled, and upon his chest was fixed a torn piece of paper with the words 'The sign of the four' scrawled across it. What the phrase meant or who our secret visitor may have been, we never knew. As far as we can judge, none of my father's property had been actually stolen, though everything had been turned out. My brother and I naturally associated this peculiar incident with the fear that haunted my father during is life, but it is still a complete mystery to us."
The little man stopped to relight his hookah and puffed thoughtfully for a few moments. We had all sat absorbed, listening to his extraordinary narrative. At the short account of her father's death Miss Hale had turned deadly white, and for a moment I hoped she would faint. She rallied, however, on drinking a glass of water which she quietly poured out form Venetian carafe upon the side table.
Sherlock Holmes leaned back in his chair with an abstracted expression and the lids drawn low over his glittering eyes. As I glanced at him I could not but think how on that very day he had complained bitterly of the commonplaceness of life.
Here at least was a problem which would tax his sagacity to the utmost. Sholto looked from one to another of us with and obvious pride at the effect which his story had produced and then continued between the puffs of his overgrown pipe.
"My brother and I," said Sholto. "Were, as you may imagine, much excited as to the treasure which my father had spoken of. For weeks and for months we dug and delved in every part of the garden without discovering its whereabouts. It was maddening to think that the hiding place was on his very lips at the moment he died. We could judge from the splendour of the missing riches by the chaplet which he had taken out. Over this chaplet my brother Bartholomew and I had some little discussion. The pears were evidently of great value, and he was averse to part with them, for, between friends, my brother was himself a little inclined to my father's fault. He thought, too, hat if we parted with the chaplet it might give rise to gossip and finally bring us to trouble. It was all that I could do to persuade him to let me find out about Miss Hale's address and send her a detached pearl at fixed intervals so that atleast she might never feel destitute."
"It was a kindly thought," said Miriam earnestly. "It was extremely good of you."
The little man waved his hand deprecatingly.
"We were your trustees," he said. "that was the view wich I took of it, though brother Bartholomew could not altogether see it in that light. We had plenty of money ourselves. I desired no more. Besides, it would have been such a bad taste to have treated a young lady in such a scurvy fashion. 'Le mauvais goût mène au crime'. The French have a very neat way of putting these things. Our difference of opinion on this subject went so far that I thought it best to set up rooms for myself; so I left Pondicherry Lodge, taking the old khitmutgar and Williams with me. Yesterday, however, I learned that an event of extreme importance had occurred. The treasure had been discovered. I instantly communicated with Miss Hale, and it only reamains for us to drive out to Norwood and demand our share. I explained my views last night to Brother Bartholomew, so we shall be expected, if not welcomes, visitors."
Mr. Thaddeus Sholto ceased and sat twitching on his luxurious settee. We all remained silent, with our thoughts upon the new development which the mysterious business had taken. Holmes was the first to spring to his feet.
"You have done well, sir, from first to last," he said. "It is possible that we may be able to make you some small return by throwing some light upon that which is still dark to you. But, as Miss Hale remarked just now, it is late, and we had best put the matter through without delay."
Our new acquaintance very deliberately coiled up the tube of his hookah and produced from behind a curtain a vey long befrogged topcoat with astrakhan collar and cuffs. This he butoned tightly up in spite of the extreme closeness of the night and finished his attire by putting on a rabbit-skin cap with hanging lappets which covered the ears, so that no part of him was visible save his mobile and peaky face.
"My health is somewhat fragile," he remarked as he led the way down the passage. "I am compeled to be a valetudinarian."
Our cab was awaiting outside, and our programme was evidently prearranged, for the driver started off at once at a rapid pace. Thaddeus Sholto talked incessantly in a voice wich rose high above the rattle of the wheels.
"Bartholomew is a clever fellow," he continued saying. "How do you think he found out where the treasure was? He had come to the conlcusion that it was somewhere indoors, so he worked out all the cubic space of the house and made measurements every where so that not one inch should be unaccounted for. Among other things, he found that the height of the building was seventy-four feet, but adding together the heights of all the separate rooms and making every allowabce for the space between, wich he ascertained by borings, he could not bring the total to more than seventy feet. There were four feet unacounted for. These could only be at the top of the building. He knocked a hole, therefore, sure enough, he came ypon another little garret above it, which had been sealed up and was known to no one. In the centre stood the treasure-chest resting upon two rafters. He lowered it through the hole, and there it lies. He computes the value of the jewels at not less than half a million sterling."
At the mention of this gigantic sum we all stared at once another open-eyed. Miss Hale, could we secure her rights, would change from a needy governess to the richest heiress in England. Surely iy was the place of a loyal friend to rejoice at such news, but me being neither loyal nor her friend my heart turned as heavy as lead within me.
I stammered out some few halting words of congratulation and then sat downcast, with my head drooped over Sherlock's shoulder, which I am sure caught him offguard, deaf to the babble of our new acquaintance. He was cleary a confirmed hypochondriack, and I was dreamily conscious that he was pouring forth interminable trains of symptoms, and imploring information as to the composition and action oof innumerable quack nosetrums, some of which he bore about in a leather case in his pocket.
I trust that he may not remember any of the answers which I gave him that night. But Holmes declared that he overheard me caution him against thegreat danger of taking more than two drops of castor-oil, while I recommended strychnine in large doses as a sedative. However that may be, I was certainly relieved when our cab pulled up with a jerk and the coachman sprang down to open the door.
"This, Misses, is Pondicherry Lodge," Mr Sholto said as he handed us out.