your reputation as a criminal by forgetting to fling your weaponinto those adjacent reed-beds which would forever cover it, butyou must needs carry it carefully home and put it in your ownwardrobe, the very first place that would be searched? Your bestfriends would hardly call you a schemer, Watson, and yet I couldnot picture you doing anything so crude as that.”
“In the excitement of the moment——”
“No, no, Watson, I will not admit that it is possible. Where acrime is coolly premeditated, then the means of covering it arecoolly premeditated also. I hope, therefore, that we are in thepresence of a serious misconception.”
“But there is so much to explain.”
“Well, we shall set about explaining it. When once your point ofview is changed, the very thing which was so damning becomes aclue to the truth. For example, there is this revolver. Miss Dunbardisclaims all knowledge of it. On our new theory she is speakingtruth when she says so. Therefore, it was placed in her wardrobe.
Who placed it there? Someone who wished to incriminate her.
Was not that person the actual criminal? You see how we come atonce upon a most fruitful line of inquiry.”
We were compelled to spend the night at Winchester, as theformalities had not yet been completed, but next morning, in thecompany of Mr. Joyce Cummings, the rising barrister who wasentrusted with the defence, we were allowed to see the younglady in her cell. I had expected from all that we had heard tosee a beautiful woman, but I can never forget the effect whichMiss Dunbar produced upon me. It was no wonder that even themasterful millionaire had found in her something more powerfulthan himself—something which could control and guide him. Onefelt, too, as one looked at the strong, clear-cut, and yet sensitiveface, that even should she be capable of some impetuous deed,none the less there was an innate nobility of character whichwould make her influence always for the good. She was a brunette,tall, with a noble figure and commanding presence, but her darkeyes had in them the appealing, helpless expression of the huntedcreature who feels the nets around it, but can see no way out fromthe toils. Now, as she realized the presence and the help of myfamous friend, there came a touch of colour in her wan cheeks anda light of hope began to glimmer in the glance which she turnedupon us.
“Perhaps Mr. Neil Gibson has told you something of whatoccurred between us?” she asked in a low, agitated voice.
“Yes,” Holmes answered, “you need not pain yourself by enteringinto that part of the story. After seeing you, I am prepared toaccept Mr. Gibson’s statement both as to the influence which you1340 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
had over him and as to the innocence of your relations with him.
But why was the whole situation not brought out in court?”
“It seemed to me incredible that such a charge could besustained. I thought that if we waited the whole thing must clearitself up without our being compelled to enter into painful detailsof the inner life of the family. But I understand that far fromclearing it has become even more serious.”
“My dear young lady,” cried Holmes earnestly, “I beg you to haveno illusions upon the point. Mr. Cummings here would assureyou that all the cards are at present against us, and that we mustdo everything that is possible if we are to win clear. It would be acruel deception to pretend that you are not in very great danger.
Give me all the help you can, then, to get at the truth.”
“I will conceal nothing.”
“Tell us, then, of your true relations with Mr. Gibson’s wife.”
“She hated me, Mr. Holmes. She hated me with all the fervourof her tropical nature. She was a woman who would do nothingby halves, and the measure of her love for her husband wasthe measure also of her hatred for me. It is probable that shemisunderstood our relations. I would not wish to wrong her,but she loved so vividly in a physical sense that she could hardlyunderstand the mental, and even spiritual, tie which held herhusband to me, or imagine that it was only my desire to influencehis power to good ends which kept me under his roof. I can seenow that I was wrong. Nothing could justify me in remainingwhere I was a cause of unhappiness, and yet it is certain that theunhappiness would have remained even if I had left the house.”
“Now, Miss Dunbar,” said Holmes, “I beg you to tell us exactlywhat occurred that evening.”
“I can tell you the truth so far as I know it, Mr. Holmes, but Iam in a position to prove nothing, and there are points—the mostvital points—which I can neither explain nor can I imagine anyexplanation.”
“If you will find the facts, perhaps others may find the explanation.”
“With regard, then, to my presence at Thor Bridge that night,received a note from Mrs. Gibson in the morning. It lay on thetable of the schoolroom, and it may have been left there by herown hand. It implored me to see her there after dinner, said shehad something important to say to me, and asked me to leave ananswer on the sundial in the garden, as she desired no one to bein our confidence. I saw no reason for such secrecy, but I did asshe asked, accepting the appointment. She asked me to destroyher note and I burned it in the schoolroom grate. She was verymuch afraid of her husband, who treated her with a harshness forwhich I frequently reproached him, and I could only imagine thatThe Case Book of Sherlock Holmes 1341
she acted in this way because she did not wish him to know of ourinterview.”
“Yet she kept your reply very carefully?”
“Yes. I was surprised to hear that she had it in her hand whenshe died.”
“Well, what happened then?”