It is equally clear that his enemies, lying in wait for him near yourdoor, mistook your husband for him in the foggy morning light.
On discovering their mistake they released him. What they wouldhave done had it not been a mistake, we can only conjecture.”
“Well, what am I to do, Mr. Holmes?”
“I have a great fancy to see this lodger of yours, Mrs. Warren.”
“I don’t see how that is to be managed, unless you break in thedoor. I always hear him unlock it as I go down the stair after Ileave the tray.”
“He has to take the tray in. Surely we could conceal ourselvesand see him do it.”
The landlady thought for a moment.
“Well, sir, there’s the box-room opposite. I could arrange alooking-glass, maybe, and if you were behind the door——”
“Excellent!” said Holmes. “When does he lunch?”
“About one, sir.”
“Then Dr. Watson and I will come round in time. For thepresent, Mrs. Warren, good-bye.”
At half-past twelve we found ourselves upon the steps of Mrs.
Warren’s house—a high, thin, yellow-brick edifice in Great OrmeStreet, a narrow thoroughfare at the northeast side of the BritishMuseum. Standing as it does near the corner of the street, itcommands a view down Howe Street, with its ore pretentioushouses. Holmes pointed with a chuckle to one of these, a row ofresidential flats, which projected so that they could not fail tocatch the eye.
“See, Watson!” said he. “ ‘High red house with stone facings.’
There is the signal station all right. We know the place, and weknow the code; so surely our task should be simple. There’s a ‘tolet’ card in that window. It is evidently an empty flat to which theconfederate has access. Well, Mrs. Warren, what now?”
“I have it all ready for you. If you will both come up and leaveyour boots below on the landing, I’ll put you there now.”
1136 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
It was an excellent hiding-plate which she had arranged. Themirror was so placed that, seated in the dark, we could very plainlysee the door opposite. We had hardly settled down in it, andMrs. Warren left us, when a distant tinkle announced that ourmysterious neighbour had rung. Presently the landlady appearedwith the tray, laid it down upon a chair beside the closed door, andthen, treading heavily, departed. Crouching together in the angleof the door, we kept our eyes fixed upon the mirror. Suddenly, asthe landlady’s footsteps died away, there was the creak of a turningkey, the handle revolved, and two thin hands darted out and liftedthe tray form the chair. An instant later it was hurriedly replaced,and I caught a glimpse of a dark, beautiful, horrified face glaringat the narrow opening of the box-room. Then the door crashed to,the key turned once more, and all was silence. Holmes twitchedmy sleeve, and together we stole down the stair.
“I will call again in the evening,” said he to the expectantlandlady. “I think, Watson, we can discuss this business better inour own quarters.”
“My surmise, as you saw, proved to be correct,” said he, speakingfrom the depths of his easy-chair. “There has been a substitutionof lodgers. What I did not foresee is that we should find a woman,and no ordinary woman, Watson.”
“She saw us.”
“Well, she saw something to alarm her. That is certain. Thegeneral sequence of events is pretty clear, is it not? A couple seekrefuge in London from a very terrible and instant danger. Themeasure of that danger is the rigour of their precautions. The man,who has some work which he must do, desires to leave the womanin absolute safety while he does it. It is not an easy problem,but he solved it in an original fashion, and so effectively thather presence was not even known to the landlady who suppliesher with food. The printed messages, as is now evident, were toprevent her sex being discovered by her writing. The man cannotcome near the woman, or he will guide their enemies to her. Sincehe cannot communicate with her direct, he has recourse to theagony column of a paper. So far all is clear.”
“But what is at the root of it?”
“Ah, yes, Watson—severely practical, as usual! What is at theroot of it all? Mrs. Warren’s whimsical problem enlarges somewhatand assumes a more sinister aspect as we proceed. This much wecan say: that it is no ordinary love escapade. You saw the woman’sface at the sign of danger. We have heard, too, of the attack uponthe landlord, which was undoubtedly meant for the lodger. Thesealarms, and the desperate need for secrecy, argue that the matterone of life or death. The attack upon Mr. Warren further showsThe Adventure of Wisteria Lodge 1137
that the enemy, whoever they are, are themselves not aware of thesubstitution of the female lodger for the male. It is very curiousand complex, Watson.”
“Why should you go further in it? What have you to gain fromit?”
“What, indeed? It is art for art’s sake, Watson. I suppose whenyou doctored you found yourself studying cases without thoughtof a fee?”
“For my education, Holmes.”
“Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with thegreatest for the last. This is an instructive case. There is neithermoney nor credit in it, and yet one would wish to tidy it up. Whendusk comes we should find ourselves one stage advanced in ourinvestigation.”
When we returned to Mrs. Warren’s rooms, the gloom of aLondon winter evening had thickened into one gray curtain, adead monotone of colour, broken only by the sharp yellow squaresof the windows and the blurred haloes of the gas-lamps. As wepeered from the darkened sitting-room of the lodging-house, onemore dim light glimmered high up through the obscurity.
“Someone is moving in that room,” said Holmes in a whisper, hisgaunt and eager face thrust forward to the window-pane. “Yes, Ican see his shadow. There he is again! He has a candle in his hand.
Now he is peering across. He wants to be sure that she is on thelookout. Now he begins to flash. Take the message also, Watson,that we may check each other. A single flash—that is A, surely.