But when I made my round in my dressing gown, as was my habit,I had no sooner entered the study than I scented danger. I guesswhen a man has had dangers in his life—and I’ve had more thanmost in my time—there is a kind of sixth sense that waves the redflag. I saw the signal clear enough, and yet I couldn’t tell you why.
Next instant I spotted a boot under the window curtain, and thenI saw why plain enough.
“I’d just the one candle that was in my hand; but there was agood light from the hall lamp through the open door. I put downthe candle and jumped for a hammer that I’d left on the mantel.
At the same moment he sprang at me. I saw the glint of a knife,and I lashed at him with the hammer. I got him somewhere; forthe knife tinkled down on the floor. He dodged round the tableas quick as an eel, and a moment later he’d got his gun from underhis coat. I heard him cock it; but I had got hold of it before hecould fire. I had it by the barrel, and we wrestled for it all ends upfor a minute or more. It was death to the man that lost his grip.
“He never lost his grip; but he got it butt downward for amoment too long. Maybe it was I that pulled the trigger. Maybewe just jolted it off between us. Anyhow, he got both barrels inthe face, and there I was, staring down at all that was left of TedBaldwin. I’d recognized him in the township, and again when hesprang for me; but his own mother wouldn’t recognize him as Isaw him then. I’m used to rough work; but I fairly turned sick atthe sight of him.
“I was hanging on the side of the table when Barker camehurrying down. I heard my wife coming, and I ran to the door andstopped her. It was no sight for a woman. I promised I’d cometo her soon. I said a word or two to Barker—he took it all in at aglance—and we waited for the rest to come along. But there wasno sign of them. Then we understood that they could hear nothing,and that all that had happened was known only to ourselves.
“It was at that instant that the idea came to me. I was fairlydazzled by the brilliance of it. The man’s sleeve had slipped up andthere was the branded mark of the lodge upon his forearm. Seehere!”
The man whom we had known as Douglas turned up his owncoat and cuff to show a brown triangle within a circle exactly likethat which we had seen upon the dead man.
“It was the sight of that which started me on it. I seemed to seeit all clear at a glance. There were his height and hair and figure,about the same as my own. No one could swear to his face, poordevil! I brought down this suit of clothes, and in a quarter of anhour Barker and I had put my dressing gown on him and he lay asyou found him. We tied all his things into a bundle, and I weightedthem with the only weight I could find and put them through thewindow. The card he had meant to lay upon my body was lyingbeside his own.
“My rings were put on his finger; but when it came to thewedding ring,” he held out his muscular hand, “you can see foryourselves that I had struck the limit. I have not moved it sincethe day I was married, and it would have taken a file to get it off.
I don’t know, anyhow, that I should have cared to part with it; butif I had wanted to I couldn’t. So we just had to leave that detail totake care of itself. On the other hand, I brought a bit of plasterdown and put it where I am wearing one myself at this instant.
You slipped up there, Mr. Holmes, clever as you are; for if youhad chanced to take off that plaster you would have found no cutunderneath it.
“Well, that was the situation. If I could lie low for a while andthen get away where I could be joined by my ‘widow’ we shouldhave a chance at last of living in peace for the rest of our lives.
These devils would give me no rest so long as I was above ground;but if they saw in the papers that Baldwin had got his man, therewould be an end of all my troubles. I hadn’t much time to makeit all clear to Barker and to my wife; but they understood enoughto be able to help me. I knew all about this hiding place, so didAmes; but it never entered his head to connect it with the matter.
I retired into it, and it was up to Barker to do the rest.
“I guess you can fill in for yourselves what he did. He openedthe window and made the mark on the sill to give an idea of howthe murderer escaped. It was a tall order, that; but as the bridgewas up there was no other way. Then, when everything was fixed,he rang the bell for all he was worth. What happened afterwardyou know. And so, gentlemen, you can do what you please; but I’vetold you the truth and the whole truth, so help me God! What Iask you now is how do I stand by the English law?”
There was a silence which was broken by Sherlock Holmes.
“The English law is in the main a just law. You will get no worsethan your deserts from that, Mr. Douglas. But I would ask youhow did this man know that you lived here, or how to get intoyour house, or where to hide to get you?”
“I know nothing of this.”
Holmes’s face was very white and grave. “The story is not overyet, I fear,” said he. “You may find worse dangers than the Englishlaw, or even than your enemies from America. I see trouble beforeyou, Mr. Douglas. You’ll take my advice and still be on your guard.”
And now, my long-suffering readers, I will ask you to come awaywith me for a time, far from the Sussex Manor House of Birlstone,and far also from the year of grace in which we made our eventfuljourney which ended with the strange story of the man who hadbeen known as John Douglas. I wish you to journey back sometwenty years in time, and westward some thousands of miles inspace, that I may lay before you a singular and terrible narrative—so singular and so terrible that you may find it hard to believe thateven as I tell it, even so did it occur.
Do not think that I intrude one story before another is finished.
As you read on you will find that this is not so. And when I havedetailed those distant events and you have solved this mystery of thepast, we shall meet once more in those rooms on Baker Street, wherethis, like so many other wonderful happenings, will find its end.
Part II.
The Scowrers
The Man
