A Scandal in Bohemia
Arthur Conan Doyle (1891)
A Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have rara vez heard him mencionar her under any other name. In his ojos she eclipses and predomina the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to amor for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularmente, eran abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably equilibrado mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a amante he would have placed himself en a false position. He never habló of the softer pasiones, salvar with a gibe and a sneer. They eran admirable cosas for the observer—excellent for dibujar the veil from hombres motives and acciones. Pero for the entrenado razonador to admit such intrusiones into his propio delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introducir a distracting factor which might throw a duda upon all his mental results. Grit en a sensitive instrument, or a crack en one of his propios high-power lentes, would not be more disturbing than a fuerte emotion en a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.
I tenido seen little of Holmes lately. My marriage había drifted us away from each other. My propio complete happiness, and the home-centred interests which rise up around the man who primero finds himself master of his propio establishment, fueron sufficient to absorb all my attention, while Holmes, who despreciaba cada form of society with his whole Bohemian alma, remained en our alojamientos en Baker Street, buried entre his viejos libros, and alternating from week to week between cocaína and ambition, the drowsiness of the drug, and the fiera energy of his propia keen nature. He was still, as ever, deeply attracted por the study of crime, and occupied his inmenso faculties and extraordinary poderes of observation en following out those clues, and clearing up those mysteries which habían sido abandoned as sin esperanza por the official police. De time to time I heard some vaga account of his acciones: of his convocatoria to Odessa en the case of the Trepoff murder, of his clearing up of the singular tragedia of the Atkinson brothers at Trincomalee, and finally of the mission which he había accomplished so delicately and successfully for the reigning family of Holland. Beyond these signs of his activity, however, which I meramente shared with all the readers of the daily press, I sabía little of my former amigo and companion.
One noche—it was on the vigésimo of March, 1888—I was regresando from a journey to a patient (for I había now returned to civil practice), when my way led me through Baker Street. As I pasé the well-remembered door, which must always be asociado en my mind with my wooing, and with the dark incidents of the Study en Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes again, and to know cómo he was employing his extraordinary poderes. His rooms estaban brilliantly lit, and, even as I looked up, I saw his tall, esbelto figure pass twice en a dark silhouette contra the blind. He was pacing the room rápidamente, eagerly, with his head sunk upon his chest and his hands clasped behind him. A me, who sabía his cada mood and habit, his actitud and manera told su propia story. He was at work again. He había risen out of his drug-created sueños and was hot upon the scent of some new problem. I rang the timbre and was shown up to the chamber which había anteriormente sido en part my propio.
His manera was not effusive. It raramente was; but he was glad, I think, to see me. Con apenas a word spoken, but with a kindly eye, he waved me to un sillón, threw across his case of cigarros, and indicó a spirit case and a gasogene en the esquina. Then he stood before the fire and looked me over en his singular introspective fashion.
“Wedlock suits you,” he remarked. “I think, Watson, that you have puesto on seven and a half pounds since I saw you.”
“Seven!” I answered.
“Indeed, I should have thought a little more. Sólo a trifle more, I imagino, Watson. And en practice again, I observe. Tú did not tell me that you intended to go into harness.”
“Then, cómo hacer you know?”
“I see it, I deduce it. Cómo hacer I know that you have estado getting yourself very wet lately, and that you have a most clumsy and careless servant girl?”
“My dear Holmes,” said I, “this is too much. Tú would certainly have estado burned, hubieras you lived a few centuries ago. It is true that I tenía a country walk on Thursday and came home en a dreadful mess, but as I have cambiado my clothes I no puedo imagine cómo you deduce it. As to Mary Jane, she is incorregible, and my wife has given her aviso, but there, again, I fail to see cómo you work it out.”
He chuckled to himself and rubbed his long, nervous hands juntos.
“It is simplicidad itself,” said he; “my ojos tell me that on the inside of tu left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored por six casi paralelos cortes. Obviamente ellos have estado caused por alguien who has very descuidadosamente raspado round the edges of the sole en order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you habías estado out en vil weather, and that you tuviste a particularmente malignant boot-slitting specimen of the London slavey. As to tu practice, if a gentleman walks into my rooms smelling of iodoform, with a black mark of nitrate of silver upon his right forefinger, and a bulge on the right side of his top-hat to mostrar where he has secreted his stethoscope, I must be dull, indeed, if I hago not pronounce him to be un active miembro of the medical profession.”
I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his proceso of deduction. “When I hear you give tu razones,” I remarked, “the thing always appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily hacer it yo mismo, aunque at each successive instance of tu reasoning I soy baffled until you explain tu proceso. And yet I believe that my ojos are as buenos as yours.”
“Quite so,” he answered, lighting a cigarette, and throwing himself down into un sillón. “Tú see, but you haces not observe. La distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”
“Frecuentemente.”
“¿Cómo often?”
“Well, some hundreds of times.”
“Then ¿cuántos muchos are there?”
“¿Cómo cuántos? I no know.”
“Quite so! Tú have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have ambos seen and observed. By-the-way, since you are interested en these little problems, and since you are bueno enough to chronicle one or two of my insignificantes experiences, you may be interested en this.” He threw over a sheet of thick, pink-tinted note-paper which había sido lying open upon the table. “It came por the last post,” said he. “Read it aloud.”
La note was undated, and without ninguna signature or address.
“There will call upon you esta noche, at a quarter to eight o’clock,” it said, “a gentleman who desires to consult you upon a matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent services to one of the royal casas of Europe have shown that you are one who may safely be trusted with asuntos which are of un importance which puede poco be exaggerated. This account of you nosotros have from all quarters received. Be en tu chamber then at that hour, and no not take it amiss if tu visitor wear a mask.”
“This is indeed a mystery,” I remarked. “What haces you imagine that it means?”
“I have ningún data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to torcer facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. Pero the note itself. What haces you deduce from it?”
I cuidadosamente examined the writing, and the paper upon which it was escrito.
“El man who wrote it was presumably well to hacer,” I remarked, endeavouring to imitate my companion’s processes. “Such paper could not be bought under half a crown a packet. It is peculiarly fuerte and stiff.”
“Peculiar—that is the very word,” said Holmes. “It is not un English paper at all. Hold it up to the light.”
I did so, and saw a large “E” with a pequeño “g,” a “P,” and a large “G” with a pequeño “t” woven into the texture of the paper.
“What haces you make of that?” asked Holmes.
“El name of the maker, sin duda; or his monogram, rather.”
“Not at all. El ‘G’ with the pequeño ‘t’ stands for ‘Gesellschaft,’ which is the German for ‘Company.’ It is a habitual contraction like our ‘Co.’ ‘P,’ of claro, stands for ‘Papier.’ Now for the ‘Eg.’ Let us glance at our Continental Gazetteer.” He tomó down a pesado brown volume from his shelves. “Eglow, Eglonitz—here nosotros are, Egria. It is en a German-speaking country—en Bohemia, not lejos from Carlsbad. ‘Remarkable as being the scene of the death of Wallenstein, and for its numerous glass-factories and paper-mills.’ Ha, ha, my boy, what haces you make of that?” His ojos sparkled, and he sent up a great blue triumphant cloud from his cigarette.
“El paper was made en Bohemia,” I said.
“Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you note the peculiar construcción of the sentence—‘This account of you nosotros have from all quarters received.’ Un Frenchman or Ruso could not have escrito that. It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs. It solo remains, therefore, to discover what is wanted por this German who writes upon Bohemian paper and prefers wearing a mask to mostrar his face. And here he comes, if I estoy not mistaken, to resolve all our doubts.”
As he habló there was the afilado sonido of horses’ hoofs and grating wheels contra the borde, followed por a agudo pull at the campana. Holmes whistled.
“Una pair, por the sonido,” said he. “Yes,” he continued, glancing out of the window. “Una bonita little brougham and a pair of bellezas. Una hundred and fifty guineas apiece. Hay money en this case, Watson, if there is nothing else.”
“I think that I tenía better go, Holmes.”
“Not a bit, Doctor. Stay where you are. I estoy lost without my Boswell. And this promises to be interesting. It would be a pity to miss it.”
“Pero tu client—”
“Nunca mind him. I may want tu help, and so may he. Here he comes. Sit down en that sillón, Doctor, and give us tu mejor attention.”
Un slow and pesado paso, which había sido heard upon the stairs and en the pasillo, paused immediately outside the door. Then there was a loud and authoritative tap.
“Come in!” said Holmes.
Un man entered who could apenas have sido less than six feet six inches en height, with the chest and extremidades of a Hercules. His dress was rich with a richness which would, en England, be looked upon as akin to bad taste. Heavy bands of astrakhan fueron slashed across the sleeves and fronts of his double-breasted abrigo, while the deep blue cloak which was thrown over his shoulders was lined with flame-coloured silk and secured at the neck with a brooch which consisted of a single flaming beryl. Boots which extended halfway up his pantorrillas, and which fueron recortadas at the topes with rich brown fur, completed the impression of bárbaro opulence which was suggested por his whole appearance. He llevaba a de ala ancha hat en his mano, while he wore across the upper part of his face, extending down past the cheekbones, a black máscara mask, which he había apparently adjusted that very moment, for his mano was still raised to it as he entered. De the inferior part of the face he apareció to be a man of fuerte character, with a thick, colgante lip, and a long, straight chin suggestive of resolución pushed to the longitud of obstinación.
“Tú tenías my nota?” he asked with a deep harsh voice and a strongly marked German accent. “I told you that I would call.” He looked from one to the other of us, as if uncertain which to address.
“Pray take a seat,” said Holmes. “This is my amigo and colleague, Dr. Watson, who is occasionally bueno enough to help me en my cases. A quién have I the honour to address?”
“Tú may address me as the Count Von Kramm, a Bohemian nobleman. I understand that this gentleman, tu amigo, is a man of honour and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most extreme importance. If not, I should much prefer to communicate with you alone.”
I rose to go, but Holmes atrapó me por the wrist and pushed me back into my chair. “It is ambos, or ninguno,” said he. “Tú may decir before this gentleman anything which you may decir to me.”
El Count shrugged his broad shoulders. “Then I must begin,” said he, “por binding you ambos to absolute secrecy for two años; at the end of that time the matter will be of ninguna importance. At presente it is not too much to decir that it is of such weight it may have un influencia upon European history.”
“I prometo,” said Holmes.
“And I.”
“You will excuse this mask,” continued our strange visitor. “El august person who employs me wishes his agent to be unknown to you, and I may confess at una vez that the título por which I have just called a mí mismo is not exactly my propio.”
“I was aware of it,” said Holmes dryly.
“Las circumstances are of great delicadeza, and cada precaution has to be taken to quench what might grow to be un inmenso escándalo and seriously comprometer one of the reigning families of Europe. Para speak plainly, the matter implicates the great House of Ormstein, hereditarios kings of Bohemia.”
“I was also aware of that,” murmuró Holmes, settling himself down en his butaca and closing his ojos.
Nuestro visitor glanced with some apparent surprise at the languid, reclinado figure of the man who tenía ha sido ningún duda representado to him as the most incisivo razonador and most energetic agent en Europe. Holmes slowly reopened his ojos and looked impacientemente at his gigantic cliente.
“If su Majesty would condescend to state su case,” he remarked, “I should be better able to advise you.”
El man saltó from his chair and paseó up and down the room en uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he tore the mask from his face and hurled it upon the ground. “Tú are right,” he crIed; “I soy the Rey. Why should I intentar to conceal it?”
“Why, indeed?” murmuró Holmes. “Your Majesty había not spoken before I was aware that I was dirigiendo Wilhelm Gottsreich Sigismond von Ormstein, Grand Duke of Cassel-Felstein, and hereditario Rey of Bohemia.”
“Pero you puedes understand,” said our strange visitor, sitting down una vez more and passing his mano over his high white forehead, “you puedes understand that I soy not accustomed to hacer such business en my propio person. Yet the matter was so delicate that I could not confide it to un agent without putting a mí mismo en his power. I have come incognito from Prague for the purpose of consulting you.”
“Then, reza consult,” said Holmes, shutting his ojos una vez more.
“Los facts are brevemente these: Some five años ago, during a largo visit to Warsaw, I made the acquaintance of the well-known adventuress, Irene Adler. El name is ninguno duda familiar to you.”
“Kindly look her up en my index, Doctor,” murmuró Holmes without opening his ojos. For muchos años he había adoptado a system of docketing all párrafos concerning men and cosas, so that it was difícil to name a subject or a person on which he could not at una vez furnish information. In this case I found her biography sandwiched en between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a staff-commander who había escrito a monograph upon the mar profundo fishes.
“Let me see!” said Holmes. “Hum! Born en New Jersey en the año 1858. Contralto—hum! La Scala, hum! Prima donna Imperial Opera of Warsaw—yes! Retirada from operatic stage—ha! Living en London—quite so! Your Majesty, as I understand, became enredado with this joven person, wrote her some compromising letters, and is now deseoso of getting those letters back.”
“Precisely so. Pero cómo—”
“Was there a secreto marriage?”
“Ninguno.”
“No legal papers or certificados?”
“Ninguno.”
“Then I fail to seguir tu Majesty. If this joven person should produce her letters for blackmailing or other purposes, cómo is she to prove su authenticity?”
“There is the writing.”
“Pooh, pooh! Forgery.”
“My private note-paper.”
“Stolen.”
“My propio seal.”
“Imitated.”
“My photograph.”
“Bought.”
“We éramos ambos en the photograph.”
“Oh, dear! That is very bad! Your Majesty has indeed committed una indiscretion.”
“I was mad—insane.”
“Tú have compromised yourself seriously.”
“I was solo Crown Prince then. I was joven. I soy but thirty now.”
“It must be recovered.”
“We have tried and failed.”
“Your Majesty must pagar. It must be bought.”
“She will not sell.”
“Stolen, then.”
“Five attempts have sido made. Twice burglars en my pago saqueado her house. Una vez nosotros diverted her equipaje when she travelled. Twice she has estado waylaid. There has habido ningún result.”
“No sign of it?”
“Absolutely ninguno.”
Holmes laughed. “It is quite a bonito little problem,” said he.
“Pero a very serious one to me,” returned the Rey reproachfully.
“Very, indeed. And what does she propose to hacer with the photograph?”
“Para arruinar me.”
“Pero cómo?”
“I soy about to be married.”
“So I have heard.”
“A Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the Rey of Scandinavia. Usted may know the strict principles of her family. She is ella misma the very alma of delicadeza. Una shadow of a duda as to my conducta would bring the matter to un end.”
“And Irene Adler?”
“Threatens to enviar them the photograph. And she will hacer it. I know that she will hacer it. Usted hace not know her, but she has a alma of steel. She has the face of the most beautiful of mujeres, and the mind of the most resolute of men. Rather than I should marry another woman, there are ninguna longitudes to which she would not go—ninguno.”
“Usted are sure that she has not sent it yet?”
“I soy sure.”
“And por qué?”
“Because she has said that she would enviar it on the día when the betrothal was publicly proclaimed. That will be next Monday.”
“Oh, then nosotros have three days yet,” said Holmes with a yawn. “That is very fortunate, as I have one or two asuntos of importance to look into just at el presente. Your Majesty will, of curso, quedarse en London for the presente?”
“certainly. you will find me at the Langham under the name of the Count Von Kramm.”
“then I shall dejar you a line to dejar you know cómo nosotros progress.”
“reza hacer so. I shall be all ansiedad.”
“then, as to money?”
“you have carte blanche.”
“absolutamente?”
“I tell you that I would give one of the provinces of my reino to have that photograph.”
“and for presentes expenses?”
the king tomó a pesado chamois leather bag from under his cloak and laid it on the table.
“there are three hundred pounds en gold and seven hundred en notes,” he said.
holmes scribbled a receipt upon a sheet of his note-book and handed it to him.
“and de Mademoiselle address?” he asked.
“is briony lodge, serpentine avenida, st. john’s wood.”
holmes tomó a note of it. “one other question,” said he. “was the photograph a gabinete?”
“it was.”
“then, good-night, tu majesty, and I trust that nosotros shall soon have some buena news for you. and good-night, watson,” he added, as the wheels of the royal brougham rodó down the street. “if you will be bueno enough to call to-morrow afternoon at three o’clock I should like to chat this little matter over with you.”
chapter ii.
at three o’clock precisely I was at baker street, but holmes tenía not yet returned. the landlady informed me that he tenía left the house shortly after eight o’clock en the morning. I me senté down beside the fire, however, with the intention of awaiting him, however long he might be. I was already deeply interested en his inquiry, for, aunque it was surrounded por ninguno of the grim and strange features which eran asociados with the two crimes which I have already recorded, still, the nature of the case and the exalted estación of his cliente gave it a character of its propio. indeed, apart from the nature of the investigation which my amigo tenía on mano, there was something en his masterly grasp of a situation, and his keen, incisivo reasoning, which made it a pleasure to me to study his system of work, and to seguir the quick, subtle métodos por which he disentangled the most inextricable mysteries. so accustomed was I to his invariable success that the very posibilidad of his failing había ceased to enter into my head.
it was close upon four before the door opened, and a drogado caballero, ill-kempt and side-whiskered, with un inflamed face and desacreditado clothes, walked into the room. accustomed as I was to my friend’s amazing poderes en the uso of disfraces, I tenía to look three times before I was cierto that it was indeed he. with a nod he desapareció into the bedroom, whence he salió en five minutes tweed-suited and respetable, as of viejo. putting his hands into his bolsillos, he stretched out his legs en front of the fire and laughed heartily for some minutes.
“well, really!” he cried, and then he choked and laughed again until he was obliged to lie back, limp and helpless, en the chair.
“what is it?”
“it’s quite too divertido. I soy sure you could never adivinar cómo I employed my morning, or what I ended por haciendo.”
“I no puedo imagine. I suppose that you have habido watching the habits, and quizás the house, of miss irene adler.”
“quite so; but the secuela was rather unusual. I will tell you, however. I left the house a little after eight o’clock this morning en the character of a caballero out of work. there is a wonderful sympathy and freemasonry entre equino men. be one of them, and you will know all that there is to know. I soon found briony lodge. it is a bijou villa, with a jardín at the back, but built out en front right up to the road, two historias. chubb lock to the door. large sitting-room on the right side, well furnished, with long windows casi to the floor, and those preposterous english window fasteners which a child could open. behind there was nothing remarkable, salvar that the pasaje window could be reached from the superior of the coach-house. I walked round it and examined it de cerca from cada point of view, but without noting anything else of interest.
“I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that there was a mews en a calleja which runs down por one wall of the jardín. I lent the ostlers a mano en rubbing down sus horses, and received en exchange twopence, a glass of half and half, two fills of shag tobacco, and as much information as I could desire about Miss Adler, to decir nothing of half a dozen other personas en the neighbourhood en whom I was not en the least interested, but cuyas biographies I was compelled to listen to.”
“and what of Irene Adler?” I asked.
“Oh, she has turned all the hombres heads down en that part. She is the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet. So dicen the Serpentine-mews, to a man. She lives quietly, sings at concerts, conduce out at five cada día, and regresa at seven puntual for dinner. Seldom goes out at other times, except when she sings. Has solo one male visitor, but a bueno trato of him. He is dark, handsome, and dashing, never calls less than una vez a día, and often twice. He is a Mr. Godfrey Norton, of the Inner Temple. See the advantages of a taxista as a confidente. They habían driven him home a dozen times from Serpentine-mews, and sabían all about him. When I había listened to all ellos habían to tell, I began to walk up and down near Briony Lodge una vez more, and to think over my plan of campaign.
“This Godfrey Norton was evidently un important factor en the matter. He was a lawyer. That sounded ominoso. What was the relation between them, and what the object of his repetidas visits? Was she his cliente, his amigo, or his mistress? If the former, she había probably transferred the photograph to his keeping. If the latter, it was less likely. On the cuestión of this question depended whether I should continue my work at Briony Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman’s chambers en the Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the campo of my inquiry. I fear that I bore you with these details, but I have to dejar you see my little difficulties, if you are to understand the situation.”
“I soy following you de cerca,” I answered.
“I was still equilibrando the matter en my mind when a cabriolet cab condujo up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman salió out. He was a remarkably handsome man, dark, aquiline, and bigotudo—evidently the man of whom I había heard. He apareció to be en a great hurry, shouted to the taxista to wait, and brushed past the maid who opened the door with the air of a man who was thoroughly at home.
“He was en the house about half un hour, and I could catch glimpses of him en the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and down, talking excitedly, and ondeando his arms. Of her I could see nothing. Presently he emergió, mirando even more flurried than before. As he pasó up to the cab, he pulled a gold reloj from his pocket and looked at it earnestly, ‘Drive like the devil,’ he shouted, ‘primero to Gross & Hankey’s en Regent Street, and then to the Iglesia of St. Monica en the Edgeware Road. Half a guinea if you haces it en twenty minutes!’
“Away ellos went, and I was just wondering whether I should not hacer well to seguir them when up the carril came a neat little landau, the coachman with his abrigo solo medio abotonado, and his corbata under his ear, while all the tags of his harness estaban sticking out of the hebillas. It hadn’t pulled up before she shot out of the hall door and into it. I sólo atrapé a glimpse of her at the moment, but she was a lovely woman, with a face that a man might die for.
“ ‘La Iglesia of St. Monica, John,’ she cried, ‘and half a sovereign if you reach it en twenty minutes.’
“This was quite too bueno to lose, Watson. I was just equilibrando whether I should run for it, or whether I should perch behind her landau when a cab came through the street. El conductor looked twice at such a shabby fare, but I jumped en before he could object. ‘El Iglesia of St. Monica,’ said I, ‘and half a sovereign if you reach it en twenty minutes.’ It was twenty-five minutes to twelve, and of curso it was clear enough what was en the wind.
“my cabby condujo fast. i no think i ever conduje faster, but the others estaban there before us. the cab and the landau with sus humeante horses estaban en front of the door when i arrived. i paid the man and hurried into the church. there was not a alma there salvar the two whom i había followed and a surpliced clergyman, who seemed to be expostulating with them. ellos estaban all three de pie en a knot en front of the altar. i lounged up the side aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church. suddenly, to my surprise, the three at the altar se enfrentaron round to me, and godfrey norton came running as hard as he could towards me.
“ ‘gracias god,’ he cried. ‘you’ll hacer. come! come!’
“ ‘what then?’ i asked.
“ ‘come, man, come, solo three minutes, or it won’t be legal.’
“i was half-dragged up to the altar, and before i sabía where i was i found a mí mismo mumbling responses which eran whispered en my ear, and vouching for cosas of which i sabía nothing, and generally ayudando en the secure tying up of irene adler, soltera, to godfrey norton, bachelor. it was all done en un instant, and there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side and the dama on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me en front. it was the most preposterous position en which i ever found a mí mismo en my vida, and it was the thought of it that started me laughing just now. it seems that there había estado some informalidad about su licencia, that the clergyman absolutamente refused to marry them without a witness of some tipo, and that my lucky appearance saved the bridegroom from having to sally out into the calles en search of a mejor man. the bride gave me a sovereign, and i mean to wear it on my cadena del reloj en memory of the occasion.”
“this is a very unexpected turn of affairs,” said i; “and what then?”
“well, i found my plans very seriously menaced. it looked as if the pair might take una immediate departure, and so necessitate very prompt and energetic measures on my part. at the church door, however, ellos separated, he conduciendo back to the Temple, and she to her propia house. ‘I shall drive out en the park at five as usual,’ she said as she left him. I heard ninguno more. They condujeron away en different directions, and I went off to make my propias arrangements.”
“Which are?”
“Some cold beef and a glass of beer,” he answered, ringing the timbre. “I have sido too busy to think of food, and I soy likely to be busier still this noche. Por the way, Doctor, I shall want tu cooperación.”
“I shall be delighted.”
“Tú no mind breaking the law?”
“Not en the least.”
“Nor running a chance of arrest?”
“Not en a buena cause.”
“Oh, the cause is excellent!”
“Then I soy tu man.”
“I was sure that I might confiar on you.”
“Pero what is it you wish?”
“When Mrs. Turner has brought en the tray I will make it clear to you. Now,” he said as he turned hungrily on the simple fare that our landlady tenía provided, “I must discuss it while I eat, for I have not much time. It is nearly five now. In two hours nosotros must be on the scene of action. Miss Irene, or Madame, rather, regresa from her drive at seven. We must be at Briony Lodge to meet her.”
“And what then?”
“Tú must leave that to me. I have already arranged what is to occur. There is solo one point on which I must insist. Tú must not interfere, come what may. Tú understand?”
“I soy to be neutral?”
“Para hacer nothing whatever. There will probably be some pequeña unpleasantness. Do not join en it. It will end en my being conveyed into the house. Four or five minutes afterwards the sitting-room window will open. Tú are to estacionar yourself close to that open window.”
“Yes.”
“Tú are to mirar me, for I will be visible to you.”
“Yes.”
“And when I levantar my mano—so—you will throw into the room what I give you to throw, and will, at the same time, levantar the cry of fire. Tú quite seguir me?”
“Totalmente.”
“It is nothing very formidable,” he said, taking a long en forma de cigarro rollo from his pocket. “It is un ordinary plumber’s smoke-rocket, fitted with a cap at cada uno end to make it self-lighting. Your task is confined to that. When you elevar tu cry of fire, it will be taken up por quite a number of gente. Tú may then walk to the end of the street, and I will rejoin you en ten minutes. I hope that I have made yo mismo clear?”
“I soy to remain neutral, to get near the window, to mirar you, and at the signal to throw dentro this object, then to elevar the cry of fire, and to wait you at the esquina of the street.”
“Precisely.”
“Then you may entirely confiar on me.”
“That is excellent. I think, quizás, it is casi time that I preparar for the new role I have to play.”
He disappeared into his bedroom and returned en a few minutes en the character of un amiable and de mente sencilla Nonconformist clergyman. His broad black hat, his holgado pantalones, his white corbata, his sympathetic sonrisa, and general look of peering and benevolent curiosity eran such as Mr. John Hare alone could have equalled. It was not meramente that Holmes cambió his costume. His expression, his manera, his very alma seemed to vary with cada fresh part that he asumió. El stage lost a fine actor, even as science lost un acute racionalizador, when he became a especialista en crime.
It was a quarter past six when nosotros left Baker Street, and it still wanted ten minutes to the hour when nosotros found ourselves en Serpentine Avenue. It was already dusk, and the lamps estaban just being lighted as nosotros caminamos up and down en front of Briony Lodge, esperando for the llegada of its occupant. La house was just such as I tenía pictured it from Sherlock Holmes’ conciso description, but the localidad aparecía to be less private than I expected. On the contrario, for a pequeño street en a quiet neighbourhood, it was remarkably animated. There was a group of desaliñado dressed men smoking and laughing en a esquina, a scissors-grinder with his rueda, two guardsmen who estaban coqueteando with a nurse-girl, and several well-dressed joven men who estaban recreándose up and down with puros en sus mouths.
“you see,” remarked Holmes, as nosotros paseamos to and fro en front of the house, “this marriage rather simplifies asuntos. the photograph becomes a double-edged weapon now. the posibilidades are that she would be as averse to its being seen por mr. godfrey norton, as our cliente is to its llegar to the ojos of his princess. now the question is—where are nosotros to find the photograph?”
“where, indeed?”
“it is most unlikely that she carries it about with her. it is gabinete size. too large for easy ocultación about a woman’s dress. she knows that the king is capable of having her waylaid and searched. two attempts of the tipo have already sido made. nosotros may take it, then, that she does not carry it about with her.”
“where, then?”
“her banker or her lawyer. there is that double posibilidad. but i soy inclined to think neither. mujeres are naturally secretive, and ellas like to hacer su propio secreting. por qué should she dar it over to nadie else? she could trust her propio guardianship, but she could not tell what indirect or político influencia might be brought to bear upon a business man. besides, remember that she había resuelto to usar it within a few days. it must be where she puede poner her hands upon it. it must be en her propio house.”
“but it has twice sido burgled.”
“pshaw! ellos did not know cómo to look.”
“but cómo will you look?”
“i will not look.”
“what then?”
“i will get her to mostrar me.”
“but she will refuse.”
“she will not be able to. but i hear the rumble of wheels. it is her carriage. now carry out my orders to the letter.”
as he habló the gleam of the side-lights of a carriage came round the curve of the avenida. it was a smart little landau which rattled up to the door of briony lodge. as it pulled up, one of the loafing men at the esquina dashed forward to open the door en the hope of earning a copper, but was elbowed away por another loafer, who había apurado up with the same intention. a fiera quarrel broke out, which was aumentada por the two guardsmen, who tomó sides with one of the loungers, and por the scissors-grinder, who was equally hot upon the other side. Una blow was struck, and en un instant the dama, who había salido from her carriage, was the centre of a little knot of flushed and struggling men, who struck salvajemente at each other with sus puños and sticks. Holmes dashed into the crowd to protect the dama; but just as he reached her he gave a cry and dropped to the ground, with the blood running freely down his face. At his fall the guardsmen tomaron to sus talones en one dirección and the loungers en the other, while a number of better-dressed personas, who habían observado the scuffle without taking part en it, crowded dentro to help the dama and to attend to the injured man. Irene Adler, as I will still call her, había hurried up the steps; but she stood at the cima with her superb figure outlined contra the luces of the hall, mirando back into the street.
“Is the poor gentleman much hurt?” she asked.
“He is dead,” cried several voices.
“No, no, there’s vida en him!” shouted another. “Pero he’ll be gone before you puedes get him to hospital.”
“He’s a brave fellow,” said a woman. “They would have tenido the dama purse and reloj if it hadn’t sido for him. They eran a gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, él está breathing now.”
“He no puede lie en the street. May nosotros bring him dentro, marm?”
“Surely. Bring him into the sitting-room. There is a comfortable sofá. This way, please!”
Slowly and solemnly he was borne into Briony Lodge and laid out en the principal room, while I still observed the proceedings from my post por the window. La lamps tenía sido lit, but the blinds habían not sido drawn, so that I could see Holmes as he yace upon the couch. I no not know whether he was seized with compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of mí mismo en my vida than when I saw the beautiful creature contra whom I was conspiring, or the gracia and kindliness with which she waited upon the injured man. And yet it would be the blackest traición to Holmes to draw back now from the part which he había intrusted to me. I hardened my heart, and tomé the smoke-rocket from under my ulster. Después all, I thought, nosotros are not injuring her. We are but previniendo her from injuring another.
Holmes había sentado up upon the couch, and I saw him motion like a man who is en need of air. Un maid se apresuró across and threw open the window. At the same instant I saw him levantar his mano and at the signal I tossed my rocket into the room with a cry of “Fire!” El word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of spectators, well dressed and caballeros mal, ostlers, and servant-maids—joined en a general shriek of “Fire!” Thick clouds of smoke curled through the room and out at the open window. I capturé a glimpse of rushing figuras, and a moment later the voice of Holmes from within assuring them that it was a false alarma. Slipping through the shouting crowd I made my way to the esquina of the street, and en ten minutes was rejoiced to find my friend’s arm en mine, and to get away from the scene of uproar. He walked rápidamente and en silencio for some few minutes until nosotros habíamos turned down one of the quiet calles which lead towards the Edgeware Road.
“Usted did it very nicely, Doctor,” he remarked. “Nothing could have sido better. It is all right.”
“Usted have the photograph?”
“I know where it is.”
“And cómo did you find out?”
“She mostró me, as I told you she would.”
“I estoy still en the dark.”
“I no not wish to make a mystery,” said he, laughing. “The matter was perfectly simple. You, of course, saw that everyone in the street was an accomplice. They were all engaged for the evening.”
“I guessed as much.”
“Eln, when the row broke out, I had a little moist red paint in the palm of my hand. I rushed forward, fell down, clapped my hand to my face, and became a piteous spectacle. It is an old trick.”
“that also I could fathom.”
“Then ellos cargaron me en. She was bound to have me en. What else could she hacer? And into her sitting-room, which was the very room which I suspected. It yacía between that and her bedroom, and I was determined to see which. They laid me on a couch, I motioned for air, ellos estaban compelled to open the window, and you tuviste tu chance.”
“Cómo did that help you?”
“It was all-important. When a woman piensa that her house is on fire, her instinto is at una vez to rush to the thing which she values most. It is a perfectly overpowering impulse, and I have more than una vez taken advantage of it. In the case of the Darlington substitution escándalo it was of uso to me, and also en the Arnsworth Castle business. Una married woman grabs at her baby; una unmarried one reaches for her caja de joyas. Now it was clear to me that our dama of to-day tenía nothing en the house more precioso to her than what nosotros are en quest of. She would rush to secure it. El alarma of fire was admirably done. El smoke and shouting eran enough to shake nerves of steel. She responded beautifully. La photograph is en a receso behind a sliding panel just above the right bell-pull. She was there en un instant, and I capté a glimpse of it as she half-drew it out. When I cried out that it was a false alarma, she replaced it, glanced at the rocket, corrió from the room, and I have not seen her since. I rose, and, haciendo my excuses, escaped from the house. I hesitated whether to intentar to secure the photograph at una vez; but the coachman había come dentro, and as he was watching me narrowly it seemed más seguro to wait. Una little over-precipitance may arruinar all.”
“And now?” I asked.
“Nuestra quest is practically finished. I shall call with the Rey to-morrow, and with you, if you care to come with us. We will be shown into the sitting-room to wait for the dama, but it is probable that when she comes she may find neither us nor the photograph. It might be a satisfaction to his Majesty to regain it with his propias hands.”
“and when will you call?”
“at eight en the morning. she will not be up, so that nosotros shall have a clear campo. besides, nosotros must be prompt, for this marriage may mean a complete cambio en her vida and habits. I must wire to the Rey without retraso.”
nosotros teníamos reached Baker Street and había stopped at the door. he was buscando his bolsillos for the key when alguien passing said:
“good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes.”
there había several personas on the pavement at the time, but the greeting apareció to come from a delgado youth en un ulster who había hurried por.
“I’ve heard that voice before,” said Holmes, staring down the dimly lit street. “now, I me pregunto who the deuce that could have sido.”
chapter iii.
I slept at Baker Street that noche, and nosotros estábamos engaged upon our toast and coffee en the morning when the Rey of Bohemia se apresuró into the room.
“you have really got it!” he cried, grasping Sherlock Holmes por cualquiera shoulder and mirando eagerly into his face.
“not yet.”
“but you have hopes?”
“I have hopes.”
“then, come. I soy all impatience to be gone.”
“nosotros must have a cab.”
“no, my brougham is esperando.”
“then that will simplify asuntos.” nosotros descended and started off una more for Briony Lodge.
“Irene Adler is married,” remarked Holmes.
“married! when?”
“yesterday.”
“but to whom?”
“to un English lawyer named Norton.”
“but she could not amar him.”
“I soy en hopes that she does.”
“and por qué en hopes?”
“because it would ahorrar tu Majesty all fear of futuro annoyance. if the dama ama her husband, she does not amar tu Majesty. if she does not amar tu Majesty, there is ningún reason por qué she should interfere with tu Majesty’s plan.”
“it is true. and yet—well! I wish she hubiera sido of my propio estación! what a queen she would have made!” he relapsed into a moody silencio, which was not broken until nosotros drew up en Serpentine Avenue.
the door of Briony Lodge was open, and una mayor woman stood upon the steps. she miró us with a sardonic eye as nosotros pisamos from the brougham.
“Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I believe?” said she.
“I soy Mr. Holmes,” answered my companion, mirando at her with a questioning and rather startled mirada.
“¡De hecho! My mistress told me that you estabas likely to call. She left this morning with her husband por the 5.15 tren from Charing Cross for the Continent.”
“What!” Sherlock Holmes staggered back, white with desgracia and surprise. “Do you mean that she has left England?”
“Nunca to return.”
“And the papers?” asked the Rey roncamente. “All is perdido.”
“We shall see.” He pushed past the servant and corrió into the drawing-room, followed por the Rey and myself. El furniture was scattered about en cada direction, with desmantelados shelves and open cajones, as if the dama había apuradamente revuelto them before her flight. Holmes apuró at the bell-pull, tore back a pequeño sliding shutter, y, plunging en his mano, pulled out a photograph and a letter. La photograph was of Irene Adler ella misma en noche dress, the letter was superscrito to “Sherlock Holmes, Esq. Para be left till called for.” My amigo tore it open and nosotros all three leímos it together. It was dated at midnight of the preceding noche and ran en this way:
“My dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes:
“Tú really did it very bien. Tú tomaste me en completely. Until after the alarma of incendio, I tenía not a sospecha. Pero then, when I found cómo I había betrayed myself, I began to think. I tenido estado warned en contra de you months ago. I tuve sido told that if the Rey employed un agent it would certainly be you. And tu address tenido sido given me. Yet, with all this, you made me reveal what you wanted to know. Even after I became suspicious, I found it hard to think evil of such a dear, kind viejo clérigo. But, you know, I have estado entrenada as una actriz myself. Masculino costume is nothing new to yo. I often take advantage of the freedom which it gives. I sent John, the coachman, to mirar you, ran up stairs, got into my ropa de caminar, as I call them, and came down just as you departed.
“well, I followed you to tu door, and so made sure that I was really un object of interest to the celebrated Mr. Sherlock Holmes. then I, rather imprudently, wished you good-night, and started for the Temple to see my husband.
“nosotros ambos thought the mejor resource was flight, when pursued por so formidable un antagonista; so you will find the nest empty when you call to-morrow. as to the photograph, tu cliente may descansar en peace. I amo and soy loved por a better man than he. the Rey may hacer what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly agraviado. I keep it solo to safeguard a mí mismo, and to preserve a weapon which will always secure me from any steps which he might take en the futuro. I leave a photograph which he might care to possess; and I remain, dear Mr. Sherlock Holmes,
“very truly yours,
“Irene Norton, née Adler.”
“what a woman—oh, what a woman!” cried the Rey of Bohemia, when nosotros habíamos all three leído this epistle. “did I not tell you cómo quick and resolute she was? would she not have made una admirable queen? is it not a pity that she was not on my level?”
“from what I have seen of the dama she seems indeed to be on a very different level to tu Majesty,” said Holmes coldly. “I soy sorry that I have not estado able to bring tu Majesty’s business to a more exitoso conclusion.”
“on the contrario, my dear señor,” cried the Rey; “nothing could be more exitoso. I know that her word is intocable. the photograph is now as safe as if it en en the fire.”
“I soy glad to hear tu Majesty decir so.”
“I soy immensely indebted to you. reza tell me en what way I puedo reward you. this anillo—” he slipped un emerald snake anillo from his dedo and held it out upon the palm of his mano.
“tu Majesty has something which I should value even more highly,” said Holmes.
“you have but to name it.”
“this photograph!”
the Rey stared at him en asombro.
“Irene’s photograph!” he cried. “certainly, if you wish it.”
“I gracias tu Majesty. then there is no more to be done en the matter. I have the honour to wish you a very good-morning.” He bowed, and, turning away without observing the mano which the Rey tenía stretched out to him, he set off en my compañía for his chambers.
And that was cómo a great escándalo threatened to affect the reino of Bohemia, and cómo the mejores plans of Mr. Sherlock Holmes fueron beaten por a woman’s wit. He used to make merry over the inteligencia of mujeres, but I have not heard him hacer it of late. And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he se refiere to her photograph, it is always under the honourable título of the woman.