“ ‘It was just as if they had been given into my hands. There wasa bit of a haze, and you could not see more than a few hundredyards. I hired a boat for myself, and I pulled after them. I couldsee the blur of their craft, but they were going nearly as fast asI, and they must have been a long mile from the shore before Icaught them up. The haze was like a curtain all round us, and therewere we three in the middle of it. My God, shall I ever forget theirfaces when they saw who was in the boat that was closing in uponthem? She screamed out. He swore like a madman and jabbedat me with an oar, for he must have seen death in my eyes. I gotpast it and got one in with my stick that crushed his head like anegg. I would have spared her, perhaps, for all my madness, butshe threw her arms round him, crying out to him, and calling him“Alec.” I struck again, and she lay stretched beside him. I was likea wild beast then that had tasted blood. If Sarah had been there,by the Lord, she should have joined them. I pulled out my knife,and—well, there! I’ve said enough. It gave me a kind of savage joywhen I thought how Sarah would feel when she had such signs asthese of what her meddling had brought about. Then I tied thebodies into the boat, stove a plank, and stood by until they hadsunk. I knew very well that the owner would think that they hadlost their bearings in the haze, and had drifted off out to sea. Icleaned myself up, got back to land, and joined my ship without asoul having a suspicion of what had passed. That night I made upthe packet for Sarah Cushing, and next day I sent it from Belfast.
“ ‘There you have the whole truth of it. You can hang me, or dowhat you like with me, but you cannot punish me as I have beenpunished already. I cannot shut my eyes but I see those two facesstaring at me—staring at me as they stared when my boat brokethrough the haze. I killed them quick, but they are killing meslow; and if I have another night of it I shall be either mad or deadbefore morning. You won’t put me alone into a cell, sir? For pity’ssake don’t, and may you be treated in your day of agony as youtreat me now.’
“What is the meaning of it, Watson?” said Holmes solemnly ashe laid down the paper. “What object is served by this circle ofmisery and violence and fear? It must tend to some end, or elseour universe is ruled by chance, which is unthinkable. But whatend? There is the great standing perennial problem to whichhuman reason is as far from an answer as ever.”
The Adventure of the Red Circle
“Well, Mrs. Warren, I cannot see that you have any particularcause for uneasiness, nor do I understand why I, whose time isof some value, should interfere in the matter. I really have otherthings to engage me.” So spoke Sherlock Holmes and turned backto the great scrapbook in which he was arranging and indexingsome of his recent material.
But the landlady had the pertinacity and also the cunning of hersex. She held her ground firmly.
“You arranged an affair for a lodger of mine last year,” she said—“Mr. Fairdale Hobbs.”
“Ah, yes—a simple matter.”
“But he would never cease talking of it—your kindness, sir,and the way in which you brought light into the darkness. Iremembered his words when I was in doubt and darkness myself. Iknow you could if you only would.”
Holmes was accessible upon the side of flattery, and also, to dohim justice, upon the side of kindliness. The two forces made himlay down his gum-brush with a sigh of resignation and push backhis chair.
“Well, well, Mrs. Warren, let us hear about it, then. You don’tobject to tobacco, I take it? Thank you, Watson—the matches!
You are uneasy, as I understand, because your new lodger remainsin his rooms and you cannot see him. Why, bless you, Mrs.
Warren, if I were your lodger you often would not see me forweeks on end.”
“No doubt, sir; but this is different. It frightens me, Mr. Holmes.
I can’t sleep for fright. To hear his quick step moving here andmoving there from early morning to late at night, and yet never tocatch so much as a glimpse of him—it’s more than I can stand. Myhusband is as nervous over it as I am, but he is out at his work allday, while I get no rest from it. What is he hiding for? What hashe done? Except for the girl, I am all alone in the house with him,and it’s more than my nerves can stand.”
Holmes leaned forward and laid his long, thin fingers upon thewoman’s shoulder. He had an almost hypnotic power of soothingwhen he wished. The scared look faded from her eyes, and heragitated features smoothed into their usual commonplace. She satdown in the chair which he had indicated.
“If I take it up I must understand every detail,” said he. “Taketime to consider. The smallest point may be the most essential.
You say that the man came ten days ago and paid you for afortnight’s board and lodging?”
“He asked my terms, sir. I said fifty shillings a week. There is asmall sitting-room and bedroom, and all complete, at the top ofthe house.”
“Well?”
“He said, ‘I’ll pay you five pounds a week if I can have it on myown terms.’ I’m a poor woman, sir, and Mr. Warren earns little,and the money meant much to me. He took out a ten-pound note,and he held it out to me then and there. ‘You can have the sameevery fortnight for a long time to come if you keep the terms,’ hesaid. ‘If not, I’ll have no more to do with you.’
“What were the terms?”
“Well, sir, they were that he was to have a key of the house. Thatwas all right. Lodgers often have them. Also, that he was to be leftentirely to himself and never, upon any excuse, to be disturbed.”
“Nothing wonderful in that, surely?”
“Not in reason, sir. But this is out of all reason. He has beenthere for ten days, and neither Mr. Warren, nor I, nor the girl hasonce set eyes upon him. We can hear that quick step of his pacingup and down, up and down, night, morning, and noon; but excepton that first night he has never once gone out of the house.”
“Oh, he went out the first night, did he?”
