The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, Part 1

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's time to relax.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let your body fall into a comfortable position in your bed and drift gently into a state of total relaxation with tonight's story.
[SPEAKER_00]: part one.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is years since the incidents of which I speak took place, and yet it is with dividends that I allude to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: For a long time, even with the utmost discretion and reticence it would have been impossible to make the facts public, but now the principal person concerned is beyond the reach of human law, and with due suppression the story may be told in such fashion as to injure no one.
[SPEAKER_00]: it records an absolutely unique experience, in the career both of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and of myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reader will excuse me if I can seal the date or any other fact by which he might trace the actual occurrence.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'd been out for one of our evening rambles Holmes and I, and had returned about six o'clock on a cold frosty winter's evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: He glanced at it and then with an ejaculation of disgust through it on the floor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I picked it up and read, Charles Augustus Milvinton, Appledore Towers, Hamstered, Agent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is he?
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: The worst man in London, Holmes answered as he sat down and stretched his legs before the fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: is anything on the back of the card.
[SPEAKER_00]: I turned it over.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll call it 630, C-A-M, I read.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you feel a creeping shrinking sensation Watson when you stand before the serpents in the zoo and see the slithery gliding venomous creatures with their deadly eyes and wicked flattened faces?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's how Milvatern impresses me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've had to do with 50 murderers in my career, but the worst of them never gave me the repulsion which I have for this fellow.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet I can't get out of doing business with him indeed he is here at my invitation.
[SPEAKER_00]: but who is he?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you what's in.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is the king of all the black maillers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Heaven helped the man and still more the woman whose secret and reputation come into the power of Milvitan.
[SPEAKER_00]: With a smiling face and a heart of marble, he will squeeze and squeeze until he has drained them dry.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fellow is a genius in his way and would have made his mark in some more savory trade.
[SPEAKER_00]: His method is as follows.
[SPEAKER_00]: He allows it to be known that he is prepared to pay very high sums for letters which compromise people of wealth and position.
[SPEAKER_00]: He receives these wares not only from treacherous valleys or maids, but frequently from Gentile Ruffians, who have gained the confidence and affection of trusting women.
[SPEAKER_00]: He deals with no cheap hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: I happen to know that he paid 700 pounds to a footman for a note two lines in length.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that the ruin of a noble family was the result.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything which is in the market goes to Milvatern and there are hundreds in this great city who turned white at his name.
[SPEAKER_00]: No one knows where his grip may fall for his far too rich and far too cunning to work from hand to mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will hold a card back for years in order to play it at the moment when the stake is best worth winning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have said that he is the worst man in London, and I would ask you how could one compare the Rafian, who in hot blood bludgens his mate, with this man who methodically and at his leisure torches the soul and rings the nerves in order to add to his already swollen money bags.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had seldom heard my friend speak with such intensity of feeling.
[SPEAKER_00]: technically, no doubt, but practically not.
[SPEAKER_00]: What would it profit a woman, for example, to get him a few months imprisonment if her own ruin must immediately follow?
[SPEAKER_00]: His victims dare not hit back.
[SPEAKER_00]: If ever he blackmailed an innocent person, then indeed we should have him, but he is as cunning as the evil one.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, we must find other ways to fight him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why is he here?
[SPEAKER_00]: But because an illustrious client has placed her pittiest case in my hands, it is the lady Eva Blackwell, the most beautiful debutant of last season.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is to be married in a fortnight to the Earl of Dover Court.
[SPEAKER_00]: This fiend has several improved and letters, improved and what's and nothing worse, which were written to an impecunious young square in the country.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would suffice to break off the match.
[SPEAKER_00]: Milvatan will send the letters to the Earl and let a large sum of money is paid him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have been commissioned to meet him and to make the best terms I can.
[SPEAKER_00]: At that instant, there was a clatter and a rattle in the street below.
[SPEAKER_00]: Looking down, I saw a stately carriage and pear.
[SPEAKER_00]: The brilliant lamps gleaming on the glossy haunches of the noble chestnuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: A footman opened the door and a small stoutman
[SPEAKER_00]: a minute later, he was in the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Charles Augustus Milvitan was a man of 50 with a large intellectual head, a round, clump, hairless face, a perpetual frozen smile, and two keen gray eyes which gleamed brightly from behind broad, gold-rimmed glasses.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was something of Mr. Pickwick's benevolence in his appearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: marked only by the insincerity of the fixed smile, and by the hard glitter of those restless and penetrating eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: His voice was as smooth and swarves as his countenance as he advanced with a plump little hand extended, murmuring his regret for having missed us at his first visit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes disregarded the outstretched hand and looked at him with a face of granite.
[SPEAKER_00]: Milvitan's smile broadened, he shrugged his shoulders, removed his overcoat, folded it with great deliberation over the back of a chair, and then took a seat.
[SPEAKER_00]: This gentleman said he was a wave in my direction, is it discreet?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr Watson is my friend and partner.
[SPEAKER_00]: very good Mr. Holmes, it is only in your client's interest that I protested, the matter is so very delicate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dr. Watson has already heard of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then we can proceed to business.
[SPEAKER_00]: You say that you are acting for Lady Eva, has she empowered you to accept my terms?
[SPEAKER_00]: What are your terms?
[SPEAKER_00]: 7,000 pounds, and the alternative.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dear sir, it is painful for me to discuss it, but if the money is not paid on the 14th, there certainly will be no marriage on the 18th.
[SPEAKER_00]: His insufferable smile was more complacent than ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes thought for a little,
[SPEAKER_00]: You appeared to me, he said at last, to be taking matters too much for granted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am of course familiar with the contents of these letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: My client will certainly do what I may advise.
[SPEAKER_00]: I shall counsel her to tell her future husband the whole story and to trust to his generosity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Milvittum chuckled You evidently do not know the Earl, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: from the baffled look upon Holmes's face I could see clearly that he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: What harm is there in the letters he asked?
[SPEAKER_00]: They are sprightly, very sprightly, Milvitan answered.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lady was a charming correspondent, but I can assure you that the Earl of Dovercourt would fail to appreciate them.
[SPEAKER_00]: However since you think otherwise we will let it rest at that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is purely a matter of business.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you think that it is in the best interest of your client that these letters should be placed in the hands of the Earl, then you would indeed be foolish to pay so large a sum of money to regain them.
[SPEAKER_00]: He rose and seized his extra-concote.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes was grey with anger and modification.
[SPEAKER_00]: wait a little, he said, you go too fast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We should certainly make every effort to avoid scandal in so delicate a matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Milvitan relapsed into his chair.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was sure that you would see it in that light, he purred.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, Holmes continued, Lady Eva is not a wealthy woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: I assure you that 2,000 pounds would be a drain upon her resources and that the sum you name is utterly beyond her power.
[SPEAKER_00]: I beg therefore that you will moderate your demands and that you will return the letters at the price I indicate, which is I assure you, the highest that you can get.
[SPEAKER_00]: Milvitton's smile broadened and his eyes twinkled humorously.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am aware that what you say is true about the lady's resources," said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: At the same time, you must admit that the occasion of a lady's marriage is a very suitable time for her friends and relatives to make some little effort upon her behalf.
[SPEAKER_00]: They may hesitate as to an acceptable wedding present.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me assure them that this little bundle of letters would give more joy than all the candelabra and butter dishes in London.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is impossible," said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dear me, dear me, how unfortunate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cride Milverton taking out a bulky pocketbook.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot help thinking that ladies are ill-advised in not making an effort.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at this.
[SPEAKER_00]: he held up a little note with a coat of arms upon the envelope.
[SPEAKER_00]: That belongs to… well, perhaps it is hardly fair to tell the name until tomorrow morning, but at that time it will be in the hands of the ladies husband, and all because she will not find a beggarly sum which he could get by turning her diamonds into paste.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is such a pity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you remember the sudden end of the engagement between the honourable Miss Miles and Colonel Dawking.
[SPEAKER_00]: only two days before the wedding, there was a paragraph in the morning post to say that it was all off.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is almost incredible, but the absurd sum of £1200 would have settled the whole question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is it not pitiful?
[SPEAKER_00]: And here I find you, a man of sense, boggling about terms, when your client's future and honour are at stake.
[SPEAKER_00]: You surprise me, Mr. Holmes,
[SPEAKER_00]: What I say is true, Holmes answered, the money cannot be found.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely it is better for you to take the substantial sum which I offer than to ruin this woman's career, which can profit you in no way.
[SPEAKER_00]: There you make a mistake, Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: An exposure would profit me indirectly to a considerable extent.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have eight or ten similar cases maturing.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it was circulated among them that I had made a severe example of the Lady Eva, I should find all of them much more open to reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see my point?
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes sprang from his chair.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get behind him what's and don't let him out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now so let us see the contents of that notebook.
[SPEAKER_00]: Milvatern had glided as quick as a rat to the side of the room and stood with his back against the wall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Holmes, Mr. Holmes, he said turning the front of his coat and exhibiting the butt of a large revolver, which projected from the inside pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have been expecting you to do something original.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been done so often, and what good has ever come from it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I assure you that I am armed to the teeth, and I am perfectly prepared to use my weapons, knowing that the law will support me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Besides your supposition that I would bring the letters here in a notebook is entirely mistaken, I would do nothing so foolish.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now, gentlemen, I have one or two little interviews this evening, and it is a long drive to hamstered.
[SPEAKER_00]: He stepped forward, took up his coat, laid his hand on his revolver and turned to the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: I picked up a chair, but Holmes shook his head, and I laid it down again.
[SPEAKER_00]: With bow, a smile, and a twinkle, Milvitan was out of the room, and a few moments after we heard the slam of the carriage door and the rattle of the wheels as he drove away.
[SPEAKER_00]: home sat motionless by the fire, his hands buried deep in his trouser pockets, his chin sunk upon his breast, his eyes fixed upon the glowing embers.
[SPEAKER_00]: For half an hour, he was silent and still.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then, with the gesture of a man who has taken his decision, he sprang to his feet and passed into his bedroom.
[SPEAKER_00]: A little later, a rakeish young workman, with a go-ty beard and a swagger.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is clay pipe at the lamp before descending into the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be back some time Watson, said he and vanished into the night.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understood that he had opened his campaign against Charles or Gustast Milvitan, but I little dreamed the strange shape which that campaign was destined to take.
[SPEAKER_00]: For some days Holmes came and went at all hours in this attire,
[SPEAKER_00]: and that it was not wasted, I knew nothing of what he was doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: At last, however, on a wild, tempestuous evening when the wind screamed and rattled against the windows, he returned from his last expedition, and having removed his disguise he sat before the fire and laughed heartily in his silent inward fashion.
[SPEAKER_00]: You would not call me a marrying man Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be interested to hear that I'm engaged.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dear fellow, I congratulate.
[SPEAKER_00]: To Milvittan's house made.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good heavens, homes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted information, Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely you have gone too far.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a most necessary step.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am a plumber with a rising business escort by name.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have walked out with her each evening and I have talked with her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good heavens those talks.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, I have got all I wanted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know Milvitton's house as I know the palm of my hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the girl homes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He shrugged his shoulders.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't help it, my dear Watson, you must play your cards as best you can when such a stake is on the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, I rejoice to say that I have a hated rival who will certainly cut me out the instant that my back is turned.
[SPEAKER_00]: What a splendid night it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: You like this weather?
[SPEAKER_00]: It suits my purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Watson, I mean to burgl, Milvertence House tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a caching of the breath and my skin went cold at the words, which was slowly uttered in a tone of concentrated resolution.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a flash of lightning in the night shows up in an instant every detail of a wild landscape.
[SPEAKER_00]: So at one glance I seem to see every possible result of such an action, the detection, the capture, the honoured career ending in a reprobile failure and disgrace.
[SPEAKER_00]: If a heaven-sake homes think what you are doing, I cried.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dear fellow, I have given it every consideration.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am never precipitated in my actions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nor would I adopt so energetic and indeed so dangerous, of course, if any other were possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us look at the matter clearly and fairly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose that you will admit that the action is morally justifiable, though technically criminal.
[SPEAKER_00]: To burgle his house is no more than to forcibly take his pocketbook, an action in which you were prepared to aid me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I turned it over in my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I said.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is morally justifiable, so long as our object is to take no articles, save those which are used for an illegal purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since it is morally justifiable, I have only to consider the question of personal risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely a gentleman should not lay much stress upon this when a lady is in most desperate need of his help.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that is part of the risk.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no other possible way of regaining these letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: The unfortunate lady has not the money, and there are none of her people in whom she could confide.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tomorrow is the last day of grace, and unless we can get the letters tonight, this villain will be as good as his word, and will bring about her ruin.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must therefore abandon my client to her fate, or I must play this last card.
[SPEAKER_00]: Between ourselves Watson, it's a sporting duel between this fellow Milverturn and me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had, as you saw, the best of the first exchanges, but my self-respect of my reputation are concerned to fight it to a finish.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well I don't like it, but I suppose it must be, said I, when do we start?
[SPEAKER_00]: You are not coming.
[SPEAKER_00]: I give you my word of honor and I never broke it in my life that I will take a cab straight to the police station and give you away unless you let me share this adventure with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't help me.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you know that?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't tell what may happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, my resolution is taken.
[SPEAKER_00]: Other people besides you have self-respect and even reputations.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes had looked annoyed but his brow cleared and he clapped me on the shoulder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, well, my dear fellow Beatso, we have shared this same room for some years, and it would be amusing if we ended by sharing the same cell.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what's an I don't mind confessing to you that I have always had an idea that I would have made a highly efficient criminal.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the chance of my lifetime in that direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: See here.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took a neat little leather case out of a drawer and opening it he exhibited a number of shining instruments.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a first-class up-to-date burgling kit, with nickel-plated gemmy, diamond-tipped glass cutter, adaptable keys, and every modern improvement which the March of Civilization demands.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here too is my dark lantern everything is in order.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you a pair of silent shoes?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have rubber sole tennis shoes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excellent.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a mask.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can make a couple out of black silk.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can see that you have a strong natural turn for this sort of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you make the masks?
[SPEAKER_00]: We shall have some cold supper before we start.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is now 9.30.
[SPEAKER_00]: At 11 we shall drive as far as church row.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a quarter of an hour's walk from there to Apple Door Towers.
[SPEAKER_00]: We shall be at work before midnight.
[SPEAKER_00]: and retires punctually at 10.30.
[SPEAKER_00]: With any luck, we should be back here by two with the Lady Eva's letters in my pocket.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: you
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.