Chapter Nine:

A Three Pipe Problem Solved

Back in our rooms at the Solway Hotel, Holmes accepted the glass of brandy I had passed to him. He then continued to arrange, on the floor, the components of the strange messages found at Tarminster Castle that had been interpreted as the writings of spirits.

It was late in the day that had followed that incredible night at the castle. I sat down in a chair where I could read the cut-out slips of letters that my friend had drawn up, in order to crack the code that Honora Devlin had devised. I had reminded Holmes, upon our journey back to Whitehaven, that I was not yet aware how he had solved the case – and so he was now complying with an explanation.

"This saga began when Miss Devlin first arrived at the castle, Watson. She had, I found, been recommended to Lord Cavendish by the doctor of the Tarminster parish, Doctor Phelps. The woman was his niece," Holmes began. He sipped at his brandy – then left it on a table, before assuming a lotus flower position on the floor.

"Phelps – who we now know is also a member of the Order of Abraxas," I pointed out. "Hopkins has arranged for his arrest, he told me."

"Quite so. Now, Honora Devlin came into the castle under the assumed name of Giselle Kaplan. As we heard for ourselves last night, her real surname would have rung a bell in Lord Cavendish's memory regarding the descendants of the previous owners of his property – and I fancy that his lordship would not have employed someone whose family may have still borne a grudge against the Cavendishes.

"I believe that Devlin was already an agent for Stroud and the Order of Abraxas, when she became the governess of Tarminster Castle. In any case, by the time it mattered, she was a spy in a strategic position on the Cumberland coast – ready to act for her lover after the Friesland operation if things went wrong, perhaps."

"Which we know they did," said I. "And Stroud confirmed, last night, that he was tended to by Mr Vaughan, who discovered him by chance – after being washed ashore. Despite having never met before, the forger became an accomplice to the fugitive."

"Indeed. To recap, Vaughan was walking along the coast, near to Barrow, when he came across the burnt Stroud. The fugitive asks for Doctor Phelps, and the Vaughans fetch him. By now, it becomes clear to the Vaughans that they are harbouring a criminal. However, they are not exactly favourable to the law themselves. Mr Vaughan has already been involved in a forgery ring, and his wife has a history of petty crime. So much the wife has admitted to Hopkins, under questioning – I learnt earlier today.

"To continue the story, the Vaughans decide to make a deal with the devil. Deliver Stroud to his lover, Devlin, by hiding him in the castle. In exchange, Devlin would hand over the Wexford Ruby to the couple as payment. The forger has already created a copy of the jewel's twin – the Wicklow Ruby. And Devlin, in turn, has already acquired a copy of the castle's vault key for herself.

"So, Mrs Vaughan arranges with Devlin a plan for the exchange, when they meet in the castle. But a problem soon arises. The cook takes some food from the kitchen, in order to feed the fugitive that she is hiding back home. It might not even be her first attempt – but on this particular occasion, she is caught in the act. When Lord Cavendish learns of this, he almost dismisses her – and relents only because of Devlin's influence on him. Nevertheless, he insists on the two women having as little contact with each other as possible. And yet, unknown to his lordship, the exchange of Stroud for the ruby is still planned to take place."

"So Devlin found herself searching for a way to get a message to the Vaughans – via the cook," I reasoned. "And if Stroud was to be holed up, in the secret chambers of the keep, the renovation work had to be halted."

"Precisely, Watson! And so, bearing in mind the séances held in the castle that she herself had brought away, Honora Devlin hit upon the idea of the 'spirit messages', which she promptly etched into those walls, at night. With the advantage of the secret tunnel to hide in, she – or Mrs Vaughan – would have been responsible for the unexplained stone-throwing at the workmen, to make Lord Cavendish believe that the ghosts of the castle were angry at the renovation taking place. The strange messages appearing in the Castellan's Walk reinforced the sense of dread from the 'poltergeist activity'. The plan worked, the workers were 'spooked'. Lord Cavendish called off the renovations – and Stroud would have had a safe place to hide in, and receive the occasional visit from Devlin, or the Vaughans, to help him whilst he recovered and began plotting his future."

"And the code to the messages?" I asked.

"Ahh, yes. From the start, my suspicions were aroused by the format of the writings, Watson. It was certainly peculiar – but too deliberate and arranged to my eye, for them to be anything other than a secret code.

"To keep my account short, I experimented with changing the words and letters around. Firstly, I found that the italicized letters of the first message could be rearranged easily into part of another, hidden message. Let's take the first etching to task: 'Pure rAge I say Torment To mY fOe'.

"Keeping 'I' and 'To' as they were, the other italics - 'e' and 'rAge' - become 'Agree'," Holmes pointed out.

"I see," said I. "Each capital letter resembles the beginning of a hidden word."

"Exactly. Now for the bolded letters. 'P', 'ay', and 'ment', as they appear in their original order…"

" 'Payment'! I exclaimed, sipping my brandy. "And the remaining letters in that first etching, Holmes?"

"Working methodically – and partaking of three pipe's worth of tobacco throughout the entirety of the task - I continued to use the same method I had discovered to all of the messages. Diligently employing a pencil, blank paper and scissors, to cut up and rearrange the letters of the original messages - as you see below me – I was able to form the following words: 'Your Terms Of'. See here."

Holmes presented me with a sheet of paper with the original message. Underneath it was: 'I Agree To Your Terms Of Payment'.

"So both the italics and bolded signal letters that should be grouped together, according to their type," I observed. "The italicized letters were the first part of the true message – followed by normal text, and ending with the bolded letters. My word… A three pipe problem, indeed. And Mr Boyd did remark that Miss Kaplan, as he knew her, was an expert in anagrams! So what of the rest of the writing? Did that follow the same decoding format as the first message?"

"Indeed, it did. To save you from acquiring a headache, Watson, the other true messages turned out to be: 'Enter Castle Through Secret Door', and 'Will Meet You At Stroke Of Midnight H'.

I smiled. "Which now makes sense. So on the night of that séance, last week, Mr Vaughan brings Stroud to the castle – via that secret entrance in the woods. Meanwhile, Devlin pretends to faint at the séance. She apparently retreats to her bedroom – only to in reality hurry along to the keep, to meet Mr Vaughan and Stroud. She takes along the Wexford Ruby that she has already replaced in the vault with the fake jewel. Only, Violet Boyd, wandering the castle in her ghostly garb, might have seen Devlin enter the keep with the ruby. She possibly also sees a gaslight coming through the keep window. Suspicious, the girl heads into the keep. At some stage, she sees Stroud's burnt face, screams, and gives her presence away."

Holmes had now stood up, and was pacing the room. "So I read it, Watson. And having seized the ruby intended as payment for Mr Vaughan, Violet tries to flee – only to be apprehended by Miss Devlin. The governess strikes the girl on the landing we saw in the keep. Violet is flung back by the blow, falls through the open arched window, and meets her end as a result of her plunge. Lauren Cavendish is close by – and if you remember, Miss Cavendish noted the time of her friend's death as not long after midnight – which fits with the true meaning of the third secret message. However, since Miss Cavendish did not actually see where her friend fell from, she does not realise the importance of the keep in the matter of how Violet died. Nevertheless, Miss Lauren recognizes the ruby that her deceased friend is holding, and flees with it – too scared to stay any longer at the scene.

"Meanwhile – as we have determined from the evidence – Sir Tristram Blanchard is on the north ramparts, close by. He has seen enough to deduce who is responsible for Violet's death, and resorts to blackmailing Miss Devlin. That, we discovered, turned out to be his fatal error.

"When I left Whitehaven to join you at Tarminster Castle, I had just managed to crack the last coded message. Armed with the knowledge it gave me, I hid myself in the castle, along with Hopkins. And I waited for further data to present itself. That came in the unexpected form of Sir Tristram's death. The rest of my approach to this case was as you saw it, Watson. Any further questions?"

"Yes. By the time we got to that torture chamber, you had decided it was Miss 'Kaplan' who was involved with the Vaughans. What made you sure of her guilt?"

"You are right, Watson. I made up my mind when I came across that slip of paper hidden in the library. The one where someone had cracked the secret anagram behind your alias. The fact that the paper was hidden showed that they regarded your real identity as a matter of concern – and they wanted to keep this information to themselves, whilst making sure that they did not have the paper on them when Hopkins and I questioned them and got them to empty their pockets. Now why would they hide their discovery of your real identity, unless they had a guilty secret themselves? That was my line of thought, anyway. As for the governess, the lady's expertise with word games and her professed spiritual beliefs – plus her influence on Lord Cavendish – all added up as suggestive to me that she had the ability to create those coded messages, whilst hiding some ulterior motive from her employer. Anything else?"

I was lost in thought, and finally shook my head. "That about covers it, Holmes. But… I saw and heard things that night that I cannot explain. Casting aside the deceit of Devlin and Mrs Vaughan at the séance, there was the falling candle… Then, the vision I saw of Mary in the torture chamber – when the iron maiden failed to crush me. And later on, that apparition on the roof of the keep…" I then told him of my experiences, in detail.

Holmes took a careful sip of his brandy. Then he put his glass on the mantelpiece and sat down, before leaning forward in his chair. Gazing into the dancing flames within the comforting fireplace, he spoke earnestly to me.

"I will not dismiss all of what you have just told me as nonsense, Watson. I believe that to do so would be to insult your intelligence. As you know, I – like you – saw something that frightened Miss Devlin. Maybe… Just maybe… I should accept the possibility that not everything can be explained by science."

"My dear fellow! I never thought I would hear you say such words!"

"Neither did I, my old friend. However, I am not saying that all that was reported as supernatural at that castle was real. We know now that this is not so. But my suspicions that Miss Lebrun is a fraud have not been proved. And if you really believe you saw the image of your wife – and that iron maiden was suspended, to protect you from the collapsing wall – then who am I to deny you hope that you will be reunited with Mary Watson, in death? But for the love of God, do not publish any account of this story! The public would never see me in the same light again."

"I would wish to write notes," I retorted. "To preserve the record of what happened. Besides, I can always hold back details – or wait until you retire from your profession. I feel the public should know the truth about Isaac Stroud's capture – when the time is right."

Holmes grimaced, and shrugged his shoulders. "As far as the public should perceive me, I am still wary of anything connected to the realm of the supernatural. Now – to change the subject – I see that will be dinner in about an hour's time. I think a stroll along the harbour is in order, with my ankle being as right as rain once more. I fancy that the sea air and the sunlight outside will do us both the power of good, after our latest brush with darkness and death. What say you, Watson?"

"I am certainly in favour of that." I smiled.

*o*o*o*o*o*o*o*o*o*

Postscript

And that is the end of my account of the momentous events that we experienced at Tarminster Castle. As I stated at the beginning, Holmes may not be pleased with me revealing all – but now, some thirty years and more after the case described, I am getting old, and I sense that my own time is coming to an end. Besides, Holmes is in his retirement – and I do believe that the facts regarding our sighting of what I still suspect was Miss Boyd's spirit cannot harm anyone now.

Holmes, if you chance to read this account – in the aftermath of my death – please do not bear me any ill feeling. Even in 'The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire', I portrayed you with the cynicism that you displayed at the time – although I am glad that in private, omitted from my accounts presented to the public, your mind was more open to possibilities regarding the supernatural after our experiences at Tarminster Castle.

And as to you, the public, I find myself uncertain what words to end on. Suffice to say that I am grateful to you, dear reader. Firstly, for following my recollections of the cases I had the pleasure of assisting Homes with. And for tolerating my errors in the retelling of them, where such mistakes had been made – such as the incorrect dates of some cases.

When the time does come for me to leave this world, I am confident that my loving Mary, and our son will be there to greet me. Then, we can share in the luxury of spending our time together – time that was denied to us, in life.

Yours truly,

John H. Watson, M.D.

Author's notes

Reasons for writing this story:

I wanted to explore a case –

1) that incorporated spiritualistic elements, as Arthur Conan Doyle was interested in spiritualism – yet Holmes never had a truly supernatural problem that he couldn't explain. I wanted to capture something of the atmospheric feel of the Universal Studio's film 'The House of Fear'.

2) that had a personal aspect for a Scotland Yard Inspector, for once. Hopkins is quoted by Watson as involving Holmes in several investigations – yet I can only think of only three published (Black Peter, The Golden Prince Nez, and The Abbey Grange – all in 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes')! I felt the character deserved further use, as he seems to be one of the more intelligent Inspectors in the original canon.

3) that features the 'shocking affair of the Dutch steamship Friesland, which so nearby cost us both our lives'. What a wonderful, dramatic sentence! Rightly or wrongly (if Mr Doyle ever had any story ideas for this case) it hinted to me of an explosion – and I wanted to use this 'unpublished case' from Watson's accounts.

4) that had a strong female villain that Holmes actually has to defeat – not just scare or warn off. Regarding gender balance of villains and victims, there is a dearth of lady villains – and deaths of ladies - in the original ACD canon.

5) that had a location in the north of England – thus making a chance of scenery for Holmes and Watson, who never ventured that far away from London in the original ACD canon (they got as far as the South Yorkshire area, I believe).

6) In addition, this adventure allowed me to explore the possible fate of Mary Watson, and address the buried grief of Dr Watson. His wife was never allowed to step out of the background after 'The Sign of Four' – and I wanted to give her some space in my story.

Thank you for reading!