therefore named a price which was five hundred pounds morethan I gave. He at once closed with the offer, but added that hisclient desired to buy the furniture as well and would I put a priceupon it. Some of this furniture is from my old home, and it is, asyou see, very good, so that I named a good round sum. To this alsohe at once agreed. I had always wanted to travel, and the bargainwas so good a one that it really seemed that I should be my ownmistress for the rest of my life.
“Yesterday the man arrived with the agreement all drawn out.
Luckily I showed it to Mr. Sutro, my lawyer, who lives in Harrow.
He said to me, ‘This is a very strange document. Are you awarethat if you sign it you could not legally take anything out of thehouse—not even your own private possessions?’ When the mancame again in the evening I pointed this out, and I said that Imeant only to sell the furniture.
“ ‘No, no, everything,’ said he.
“ ‘But my clothes? My jewels?’
“ ‘Well, well, some concession might be made for your personaleffects. But nothing shall go out of the house unchecked. Myclient is a very liberal man, but he has his fads and his own way ofdoing things. It is everything or nothing with him.’
“ ‘Then it must be nothing,’ said I. And there the matter wasleft, but the whole thing seemed to me to be so unusual that Ithought—.”
Here we had a very extraordinary interruption.
Holmes raised his hand for silence. Then he strode across theroom, flung open the door, and dragged in a great gaunt womanwhom he had seized by the shoulder. She entered with ungainlyThe Case Book of Sherlock Holmes 1289 struggle like some huge awkward chicken, torn, squawking, out ofits coop.
“Leave me alone! What are you a-doin’ of?” she screeched.
“Why, Susan, what is this?”
“Well, ma’am, I was comin’ in to ask if the visitors was stayin’ for lunch when this man jumped out at me.”
“I have been listening to her for the last five minutes, but didnot wish to interrupt your most interesting narrative. Just a littlewheezy, Susan, are you not? You breathe too heavily for that kindof work.”
Susan turned a sulky but amazed face upon her captor. “Who beyou, anyhow, and what right have you a-pullin’ me about like this?”
“It was merely that I wished to ask a question in your presence.
Did you, Mrs. Maberley, mention to anyone that you were goingto write to me and consult me?”
“No, Mr. Holmes, I did not.”
“Who posted your letter?”
“Susan did.”
“Exactly. Now, Susan, to whom was it that you wrote or sent amessage to say that your mistress was asking advice from me?”
“It’s a lie. I sent no message.”
“Now, Susan, wheezy people may not live long, you know. It’s awicked thing to tell fibs. Whom did you tell?”
“Susan!” cried her mistress, “I believe you are a bad, treacherouswoman. I remember now that I saw you speaking to someone overthe hedge.”
“That was my own business,” said the woman sullenly.
“Suppose I tell you that it was Barney Stockdale to whom youspoke?” said Holmes.
“Well, if you know, what do you want to ask for?”
“I was not sure, but I know now. Well now, Susan, it will beworth ten pounds to you if you will tell me who is at the back ofBarney.”
“Someone that could lay down a thousand pounds for every tenyou have in the world.”
“So, a rich man? No; you smiled—a rich woman. Now we havegot so far, you may as well give the name and earn the tenner.”
“I’ll see you in hell first.”
“Oh, Susan! Language!”
“I am clearing out of here. I’ve had enough of you all. I’ll sendfor my box to-morrow.” She flounced for the door.
“Good-bye, Susan. Paregoric is the stuff.... Now,” he continued,turning suddenly from lively to severe when the door had closedbehind the flushed and angry woman, “this gang means business.
Look how close they play the game. Your letter to me had the 101290 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
M. postmark. And yet Susan passes the word to Barney. Barneyhas time to go to his employer and get instructions; he or she—Iincline to the latter from Susan’s grin when she thought I hadblundered—forms a plan. Black Steve is called in, and I am warnedoff by eleven o’clock next morning. That’s quick work, you know.”
“But what do they want?”
“Yes, that’s the question. Who had the house before you?”
“A retired sea captain called Ferguson.”
“Anything remarkable about him?”
“Not that ever I heard of.”
“I was wondering whether he could have buried something. Ofcourse, when people bury treasure nowadays they do it in the Post-Office bank. But there are always some lunatics about. It wouldbe a dull world without them. At first I thought of some buriedvaluable. But why, in that case, should they want your furniture?
You don’t happen to have a Raphael or a first folio Shakespearewithout knowing it?”
“No, I don’t think I have anything rarer than a Crown Derbytea-set.”
“That would hardly justify all this mystery. Besides, why shouldthey not openly state what they want? If they covet your tea-set,they can surely offer a price for it without buying you out, lock,stock, and barrel. No, as I read it, there is something which you donot know that you have, and which you would not give up if youdid know.”
“That is how I read it,” said I.
“Dr. Watson agrees, so that settles it.”
“Well, Mr. Holmes, what can it be?”
“Let us see whether by this purely mental analysis we can get itto a finer point. You have been in this house a year.”
“Nearly two.”
“All the better. During this long period no one wants anythingfrom you. Now suddenly within three or four days you have urgentdemands. What would you gather from that?”
“It can only mean,” said I, “that the object, whatever it may be,has only just come into the house.”
“Settled once again,” said Holmes. “Now, Mrs. Maberley has anyobject just arrived?”
“No, I have bought nothing new this year.”
“Indeed! That is very remarkable. Well, I think we had best letmatters develop a little further until we have clearer data. Is thatlawyer of yours a capable man?”
“Mr. Sutro is most capable.”
“Have you another maid, or was the fair Susan, who has justbanged your front door alone?”