The Rediscovered Annals of Sherlock Holmes, page 42
“I believe that time is of the utmost importance. Are you willing to miss your lunch again that we may resolve this matter before more harm is done?”
“If you deem it necessary, but I fail to see what we can do now.”
“Think, man, think! You know my methods. What have we achieved so far? What is my guiding principle?”
I pondered for a few seconds before it dawned on me. “Why, of course! We have eliminated the impossible, so whatever remains – ”
“ – However improbable, must be the truth. Stout fellow! Now I want you to make all haste to Harwood’s address in Bayswater, and under no circumstances must you leave him alone until I arrive. Do you think you can manage that?”
Without replying I picked up my hat and stick and was about to depart when he stopped me.
“On your way stop at the first telegraph office and send this for me.”
He thrust a piece of paper into my hand which I saw was addressed to Ruth Medwin, enjoining her immediate attendance at Baker Street on a matter of extreme urgency. “Let us hope that our man is at home and we are in time to avert a catastrophe,” were his parting words to me.
I took a four-wheeler to Harwood’s lodgings, which were situated in a quiet little backwater near Kensington Gardens, stopping only to send the telegram to Miss Medwin at her address in Bromley. My knock was answered by a comfortable-looking body who might have come from the same mould as Mrs. Hudson. Taking my card, she quickly returned to announce that Captain Harwood would be delighted to see me, as he himself showed when I was shown into his sitting room. He seized my hand in both of his and pumped it vigorously.
“My dear Doctor!” he exclaimed. “This is indeed an unexpected pleasure! Remove your coat and make yourself comfortable in that chair. I hope this is not a flying visit?”
He had aged somewhat in comparison with my last memory of him, and his complexion revealed that the malaria in his system had not yet burned itself out.
I felt justified in a half-truth, remembering the need for discretion, and hoping that the Colonel had not been in touch with him.
“I happened to visit Colonel Hayter yesterday,” I began. “He told me you had left the service and passed on your address to me.”
He smiled fondly at the mention of the old soldier and nodded. “He is the only one from the old days with whom I have kept in touch. How is he?”
I assured him of the Colonel’s continuing good health and cast around for an opening to broach the real purpose of my visit. It was he who provided it by asking if I was in practice and if so, where.
“No, not at present,” I replied. “My pension keeps my head above water, although I am kept pretty busy in other directions. Perhaps you have heard mention of Mr. Sherlock Holmes?”
“Who has not? I have read in the press of his cases with the utmost interest.”
“Then you will not be surprised if I tell you that we are at present engaged on a case. What may astound you is the fact that you are part of that case – a part I hasten to add that is none of your doing.”
“I, Doctor?” He indeed looked astounded. “Whatever connection could I have in any case of Mr. Sherlock Holmes?”
“I’m sorry, old man. I am not at liberty to reveal any details at this precise moment. Will you take me on trust and answer me but one question?”
He hesitated briefly before acceding to my request. “Why, yes, Doctor, I will trust you and answer whatever is in my power, but I must confess to some bewilderment.”
“Thank you. Have you in the last day or two received an unexpected visitor?”
“Is that all?” he laughed. “I can answer that with a straight ‘No’. If I sat here all day waiting for callers, I would have a long and lonely vigil. I can guarantee that no one has asked for me in the past three weeks until you turned up.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed in my chair. “In that case, all there is to do is to wait until Holmes arrives here in person, when he will give you an explanation of this strange affair.”
He stared at me in amazement tinged with irritation. “Good Lord, Doctor, I have every respect for you both as a medical man and as a person, but it seems that you are presuming on both my respect and my tolerance. Why should Holmes want to come here? What business can he have with me?”
I hastened to placate him. “Please, old man, bear with me. It is most important that we await him, and I am in the awkward position of having my lips sealed until he gets here in person. Continue to trust me and hear what he has to say. It will, I hope, prevent sorrow and embarrassment to more than one person.”
He gave an amused chuckle and appeared to be mollified. “Very well, Doctor. I know you well enough to appreciate that you are no practical joker, so I will go along with what you ask. But I’m neglecting my duties as a host – put it down to lack of practise. Can I get you a drink?”
“Thank you, and if it is not too presumptuous a couple of biscuits would not come amiss. I overlooked lunch in my haste to reach you.”
As he handed me my drink, he eyed me keenly. “You are convinced that it is important for me to remain here until your colleague arrives?”
“Believe me, Captain, it is vital. I only regret that I cannot be more explicit, but I must not anticipate any action that Holmes may wish to take. He has all the strings in his hands.”
He gave a resigned shrug and leaned back in his chair. “Tell me, Doctor, what is Holmes really like? Is he as brilliant as he is portrayed?”
I smiled faintly at the question but went on to give some examples of the workings of that quicksilver mind, Harwood seemed genuinely interested, and the time passed pleasantly enough and we began to reminisce over our days in India. He was evidently pleased to have someone to talk to. I gathered he had been invalided out with recurrent malaria, and since his return to civilian life had done very little with himself. I presently glanced at the clock on his mantelpiece and saw that I had been with Harwood for more than two hours, I began to speculate on what might be delaying Holmes when the sound of wheels and a knock on the door allowed me to relax.
The door opened to admit the lean figure of my friend, followed closely by a heavily veiled woman who I had no difficulty in recognising as our client. With no word of greeting he stood to one side and the lady gave went to a choking sob as her eyes fell on the man facing her.
“James!” The name was dragged from her lips and came from the very depths of her soul. With trembling hands she raised her veil to regard Harwood with a look of shocked despair, although she did not allow her eyes to leave his startled face.
For long seconds he stared at her, too dumb-struck to rise from his seat, and a kaleidoscope of emotions pursuing themselves across his face. Then recognition dawned and her monosyllable was answered by his own.
“Ruth!”
How Holmes had staged this dramatic confrontation he afterwards told me, when we had returned to Baker Street to demolish one of Mrs. Hudson’s excellent steak-and-kidney puddings.
After I had left on my errand to Harwood’s lodgings and sent the telegram to Miss Medwin, he had remained to await her arrival. She must have departed from Bromley on the instant, for little more than an hour had elapsed ere she was at the door, under the assumption that Holmes’s quest had been successful. Her eagerness faded as Holmes faced her, a cold expression on his austere features.
“No, Miss Medwin,” he said in a frosty voice, “I have not located your son, although I can fairly say that I am hot on the trail. I have summoned you here because I do not take kindly to being the victim of an attempted deception, and the only reason that I have not disengaged from the case is to save an innocent man from grievous hurt from the slander and calumny that you instigated. Are you now prepared to be frank with me, that we may more readily avert the results of your deception?”
She flushed a deep red. “I do not understand you, Mr. Holmes – ” But he interrupted before she could say more.
“Pray, do not fence with me, Miss. I have incontrovertible evidence that the gentleman so glibly named by you as your seducer is completely blameless, and furthermore I warn you that I have a very good idea of the truth. If you can confirm my theory, then I may be able to salvage something from this sorry mess.” She stared at him, her face chalk white, then burst into a fit of uncontrollable sobbing as she collapsed into the nearest chair. Holmes stood looking down at her, his face an implacable mask until at last she regained some semblance of calm and raised her head to stare at him with red-rimmed eyes.
“So be it,” she said resignedly. “The story I told you was in part true, but the gentleman I so basely impugned was, as you said, in no way to blame. We did have a brief friendship, but his behaviour towards me was always perfectly correct.” She moistened her dry lips. “It was soon after he had returned to his military duties that one dreadful night after the hotel was closed – we had no guests at the time – my employer came to my room and forced himself upon me. Remember, I was so very young then, and at first did not realise what was happening. By the time I recovered myself, it was too late, and he had accomplished his foul purpose. Frightened and ashamed, I quit that terrible place at the first light of dawn and returned home, telling my father only that I no longer found the work congenial. When I became aware of the result of that dastardly assault, I refused to talk about it, and the remainder of what I told you was nothing but the truth.”
Holmes had listened to her in silence but now interposed a question. “But why bring the officer’s name into it at all?”
“When Rupert found those papers that told him I was his mother and not his sister, I became distraught and uttered the first name that came into my head. Indeed, it was a name that had been with me all those years,” she added. “Consequently when I came to you for help, it was natural that I should hold to the story I had told Rupert, hoping that you would find him and return him to me with no further complications. I can only beg your forgiveness for my deception.”
“It is not I of whom you should ask forgiveness,” Holmes said. “I already had some inkling of the true state of affairs through my own inquiries and merely needed to hear your confirmation of what I had suspected. I have some sympathy with you in the plight in which you found yourself, but I cannot condone your wild accusations against an innocent man.”
“How – how did you find out that my story was untrue?”
“That is a point on which I cannot speak. Suffice it to say that I have my methods,” Holmes replied before turning away to answer a knock that came on the door. He was handed a telegram which was addressed to Holmes or Watson. He tore it open and gave a cry of triumph. “Ah! The ends begin to come together. Come, Miss Medwin, we have a short journey to make.”
The telegram was from Colonel Hayter and read:
Young man wild appearance inquiring of J.H. Have directed him to your address. Discretion paramount.
Hayter
Holmes sat down to scribble a short note which he sealed in an envelope. As he and Ruth Medwin descended the stairs he called Mrs. Hudson, and taking her to one side, he whispered a few words into her ear. Then, hailing a cab, he with the lady made all speed to Bayswater, where the amazing confrontation between Harwood and Miss Medwin.
As they stared at each other the atmosphere became charged and tense, while Holmes looked on with the smug expression of a cat who has come upon a dish of cream.
“I believe you two have met before,” he observed casually as he advanced into the room. Harwood dragged his eyes away from the pale visage of Kiss Medwin to look first at Holmes and then at me, his face darkening in anger.
“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded. “Is this some kind of plot?”
Even I felt moved to expostulate. “Really, Holmes, what is going on?”
He ignored me and addressed himself to Harwood, who had risen to his feet to face Holmes with clenched fists, as if about to launch himself in an attack on my friend.
“Captain, I realise that this has been a tremendous shock to you, and you are entitled to a full and frank explanation. However, that explanation will not come from me. This lady is far more able to provide you with all the answers to which you are entitled, and I believe she has the courage and strength of character to do so.”
Ruth Medwin raised her head, and looked Harwood straight in the eyes.
“Yes, indeed,” said she firmly. “It is my duty and mine alone, and however humiliating and demeaning it is, I must face up to it. Will you permit me to be alone with Captain Harwood that I may retain some small amount of pride and dignity?”
Harwood had recovered sufficiently from the shock of Miss Medwin’s appearance to mount a further protest.
“What can this lady have to say that is so important? It is almost twenty years since we met, and I have heard nothing of her since then.”
“Be advised by me, sir,” said Holmes quietly. “Do the lady the courtesy of hearing her. It will benefit all concerned.
A moment of indecision, then Harwood jerked his head in agreement.
“Very well. I’ve nothing better to do,” he said ungraciously.
“Then, Captain, perhaps your landlady will provide us with some corner where Watson and I may wait. I should say that I am expecting another visitor who I wish to greet on your behalf.”
Harwood looked bewildered and then threw up his arms in resignation. “Do as you will. Take whatever steps you wish, just so long as we may have this bizarre affair cleared up.”
Brusquely bidding Miss Medwin to be seated, he conducted us downstairs, where he handed us over to Mrs. Latimer, the good lady who attended to his domestic comforts. We were made comfortable in her own front parlour and she even provided us with a most welcome pot of tea.
Holmes sat quietly looking out of the window, ignoring my questions in a most annoying manner. What passed between Ruth Medwin and James Harwood we never knew, and forty minutes passed with no sign that their tete-a-tete was terminating.
Presently there came a loud insistent hammering on the front door knocker. Mrs. Latimer went to answer it and Holmes, moving like a cat, opened the parlour door. From where I stood I saw on the doorstep a young man in the grip of a fever of angry excitement, his voice hoarse as he demanded to be taken to Captain James Harwood.
Holmes stepped swiftly forward and interposed himself between the landlady and the youth, for he was little more than that.
“Thank you, Mrs. Latimer, I will attend to this.”
The caller glared at him with blazing eyes, his face suffused with rage and hate. After several futile attempts he at last managed to speak.
“Are you the vile seducer Harwood?” he blurted out.
“No, I am not Captain Harwood,” Holmes replied. “Neither am I a vile seducer, and nor for that matter is Captain Harwood. My name is Sherlock Holmes, and you I know to be Rupert Medwin. I am engaged by Miss Medwin to intercept you before you take any rash action that will hurt her and another entirely blameless person. Will you allow me to elucidate?” Rupert Medwin’s expression was one of amazement and disbelief, but before he could answer, Holmes took him by the arm and drew him into the parlour where bade him be seated. Such was the force of Holmes’s personality that the young man submitted quietly and my friend stood looking down on him with compassionate eyes.
“You are Rupert Medwin, as I know,” Holmes began. “You were directed to this address by a letter left for you at 221b Baker Street, after pursuing a trail that led you to a Colonel Hayter, living near Reigate. Am I correct so far?”
The youth nodded and Holmes continued.
“What I am about to tell you now will undoubtedly be a further shock to you, but I believe you to be man enough to understand the stress that your – er – mother was under when she uttered the words that sent you on a quest to avenge a wrong that has been attributed to a completely innocent person. When she named Captain Harwood as your father, she knew that this was not so. If she wishes to give her reasons, then that is between yourselves, but at this very moment she is with the Captain, hoping to obtain his pardon for the slander on his honour. It is not an easy interview for her, and she needs your trust and support. Can that be relied upon?”
Rupert Medwin stared at Holmes uncomprehendingly and spoke in an uncertain tone,
“Why should she lie to me? Why lay blame where none exists? Is this some trick to save the man’s skin?
Holmes towered over him with a steely glint in his eye. “All I have said is true. If you insist on making a scene, not only will you give sorrow and embarrassment to your mother, but take my word, Captain Harwood is just the man to take a horse-whip to you for your impertinence. Be guided by me and you may see your mother at once. Hear what she has to say. You will not regret it.”
Young Medwin’s shoulders sagged, all the aggression gone from him, and he shook his head forlornly.
“It seems there is no longer anyone left in the world who can be trusted,” he said bitterly. “Very well, let me see her, and perhaps this time I shall hear the truth.”
