The Adventure of the Norwood Builder, Part 3

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us this evening.
[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]: The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
[SPEAKER_00]: part 3.
[SPEAKER_00]: My friend had no breakfast himself, for it was one of his peculiarities that in his more intense moments he would permit himself no food, and I have known him presume upon his iron strength until he has fainted from pure in addition.
[SPEAKER_00]: At present I cannot spare energy and nerve force for digestion, he would say in answer to my medical remonstances.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was not surprised, therefore, when this morning he left his untouched meal behind him and started with me for Norwood.
[SPEAKER_00]: A crowd of morbid sightseers were still gathered around deep Dean House, which was just such a suburban villa as I had pictured.
[SPEAKER_00]: Within the gates of a strad met us, his face flushed with victory, his manner grossly triumphant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Mr. Holmes, have you proved us to be wrong yet?
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you found your tramp, he cried?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have formed no conclusion whatever my companion answered.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we formed ours yesterday and now it proves to be correct so you must acknowledge that we have been a little in front of you this time, Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You certainly have the air of something unusual having occurred.
[SPEAKER_00]: the strad laughed loudly.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't like being beaten any more than the rest of us do, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: A man can't expect always to have it his own way, can he docta Watson?
[SPEAKER_00]: Step this way if you please gentlemen, and I think I can convince you once for all that it was John McFarlane who did this crime.
[SPEAKER_00]: He led us through the passage and out into a dark hall beyond.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is where Young MacFarlane must have come out to get his hat after the crime was done, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now look at this, with dramatic suddenness he struck a match, and by its light exposed a stain of blood upon the white-washed war.
[SPEAKER_00]: As he held the match nearer, I saw that it was more than a stain.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the well-marked print of a thumb.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I'm doing so.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are aware that no two thumb mucks are alike?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have heard something of the kind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well then, would you please compare that print with this wax impression of Young McFarlane's right thumb?
[SPEAKER_00]: Taken by my orders this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: As he held the wax and print close to the bloodstain, it did not take a magnifying glass to see that the two were undoubtedly from the same thumb.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was evident to me that our unfortunate client was lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is final, said Lestrade.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that is final.
[SPEAKER_00]: I involuntarily echoed.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is final, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something in his tone caught my ear, and I turned to look at him.
[SPEAKER_00]: An extraordinary change had come over his face.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was writhing with inward merriment.
[SPEAKER_00]: His two eyes were shining like stars.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seemed to me that he was making desperate efforts to restrain a convulsive attack of laughter
[SPEAKER_00]: Dear me, dear me, he said at last, well now who would have thought it, and how deceptive appearances may be to be sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Such a nice young man to look at.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a lesson to us not to trust our own judgment, is it not the Strad?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, some of us are a little too much inclined to be cock-shore Mr. Holmes, said the Strad.
[SPEAKER_00]: what a providential thing that this young man should press his right thumb against the wall in taking his hat from the peg, such a very natural action too if you come to think of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes was outwardly calm but his whole body gave a riggle of suppressed excitement as he spoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, Lestrade, who made this remarkable discovery,
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the housekeeper, Mrs. Lexington, who drew the night constable's attention to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where was the night constable?
[SPEAKER_00]: He remained on guard in the bedroom where the crime was committed, so as to see that nothing was touched.
[SPEAKER_00]: But why didn't the police see this mark yesterday?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we had no particular reason to make a careful examination of the hall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Besides, it's not in a very prominent place, as you see.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, of course not.
[SPEAKER_00]: I suppose there is no doubt that the mark was there yesterday.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Strad looked at Holmes as if he thought he was going out of his mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: I confess that I was myself surprised, both at his hilarious manner, and at his rather wild observation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know whether you think the McFarlane came out of jail in the dead of the night in order to strengthen the evidence against himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Settle a strad.
[SPEAKER_00]: I leave it to any expert in the world, whether that is not the mark of his thumb.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is unquestionably the mark of his thumb.
[SPEAKER_00]: There, that's enough, said Lestrade.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am a practical man, Mr. Holmes, and when I have got my evidence, I come to my conclusions.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have anything to say, you will find me writing my report in the sitting room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes had recovered his equanimity, though I still seem to detect gleams of amusement in his expression.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dear me, this is a very sad development Watson, is it not?"
[SPEAKER_00]: said he, and yet there are singular points about it which hold out some hopes for our client.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am delighted to hear it, said I heartily.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was afraid it was all up with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would hardly go so far as to say that my dear Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact is that there is one really serious flaw in this evidence to which our friend attaches so much importance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed Holmes, what is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Only this, that I know that that mark was not there when I examined the whole yesterday.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now Watson, let us have a little stroll round in the sunshine.
[SPEAKER_00]: With a confused brain, but with a heart into which some warmth of hope was returning, I accompanied my friend in a walk around the garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes took each face of the house in turn and examined it with great interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: He then led the way inside and went over the whole building from basement to attic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Most of the rooms were unfinished, but nonetheless, homes inspected them all minutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, on the top corridor, which ran outside three untenanted bedrooms, he again was seized with a spasm of merriment.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are really some very unique features about this case Watson, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it is time now that we took our friendless strad into our confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has had his little smile at our expense, and perhaps we may do as much by him if my
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes, I think I see how we should approach it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Scotlandyard Inspector was still writing in the parlour when Holmes interrupted him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I understood that you were writing a report of this case, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you think it may be a little premature?
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't help thinking that your evidence is not complete.
[SPEAKER_00]: The strad knew my friend too well to disregard his words.
[SPEAKER_00]: He laid down his pen and looked curiously at him.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you mean, Mr. Holmes?
[SPEAKER_00]: Only that there is an important witness whom you have not seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you produce him?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I can.
[SPEAKER_00]: then do so.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will do my best.
[SPEAKER_00]: How many constables have you?
[SPEAKER_00]: There are three within call.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excellent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: May I ask if they are all large able-bodied men with powerful voices?
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no doubt they are, though I fail to see what
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps I can help you to see that and one or two other things as well, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kindly summon your men, and I will try.
[SPEAKER_00]: Five minutes later, three policemen had assembled in the hall.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the outhouse you will find a considerable quantity of straw.
[SPEAKER_00]: Said Holmes, I will ask you to carry in two bundles of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it will be of the greatest assistance in producing the witness whom I require.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe you have some matches in your pocket Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Mr. Lestrade, I will ask you all to accompany me to the top landing.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I have said, there was a broad corridor there which ran outside three empty bedrooms.
[SPEAKER_00]: At one end of the corridor we were all marshaled by Sherlock Holmes, the constables grinning and lestrade staring at my friend with amazement, expectation and derision, chasing each other across his features.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes stood before us with the air of a congerer who is performing a trick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you kindly send one of your constables for two buckets of water?
[SPEAKER_00]: Put the straw on the floor here, free from the wall on either side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think that we are all ready.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lestrade's face had begun to grow red and angry.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know whether you are playing a game with us, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, said he, if you know anything, you can surely say it without all this Tom Foulary.
[SPEAKER_00]: I assure you my goodness, Trod, that I have an excellent reason for everything that I do.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may possibly remember that you chaffed me a little some hours ago, when the sun seemed on your side of the hedge so you must not grudge me a little pomp and ceremony now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Might I ask you what's and to open that window and then to put a match to the edge of the straw?
[SPEAKER_00]: I did so, and driven by the draft a coil of grace moke swirled down the corridor, while the dry straw crackled and flamed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we must see if we can find this witness for you, Lestrad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Might I ask you all to join in the cry of fire?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now then, one, two, three.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fire, we all yelled.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, I will trouble you once again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just once more gentlemen and all together.
[SPEAKER_00]: fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: The shout must have rung over Norwood.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had hardly died away when an amazing thing happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: A door suddenly flew open out of what appeared to be solid wall at the end of the corridor, and a little whizzened man darted out of it, like a rabbit out of its burrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: capital," said Holmes calmly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Watson, a bucket of water over the straw.
[SPEAKER_00]: That will do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lestrade, allow me to present you with your principal missing witness, Mr. Jonas Oldaker.
[SPEAKER_00]: The detective stared at the newcomer with blank amazement.
[SPEAKER_00]: The latter was blinking in the bright light of the corridor, and peering at us, and at the
[SPEAKER_00]: It was an odious face, crafty, vicious, malignant with shifty light gray eyes and white lashes.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's this then, said Lestrade at last?
[SPEAKER_00]: What have you been doing all this time, eh?
[SPEAKER_00]: Old Acca gave an uneasy laugh, shrinking back from the furious red face of the angry detective.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have done no harm.
[SPEAKER_00]: No harm.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have done your best to get an innocent man hanged.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it wasn't for this gentleman here, I am not sure that you would not have succeeded.
[SPEAKER_00]: The wretched creature began to whimper.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, a joke was it?
[SPEAKER_00]: You won't find the laugh on your side, I promise you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take him down, and keep him in the sitting room until I come.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Holmes, he continued when they had gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could not speak before the constables, but I don't mind saying in the presence of Dr. Watson, that this is the brightest thing that you have done yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Though it is a mystery to me how you did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have saved an innocent man's life, and you have prevented a very grave scandal which
[SPEAKER_00]: home smiled and clapped a strad upon the shoulder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead of being ruined my good sir you will find that your reputation has been enormously enhanced.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just make a few alterations in that report which you were writing and they will understand how hard it is to throw dust in the eyes of inspector a strad.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't want your name to appear.
[SPEAKER_00]: the work is its own reward.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps I shall get the credit also at some distant day when I permit my zealous historian to lay out his fool's cap once more.
[SPEAKER_00]: A. Watson?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well now, let us see where this rat has been lurking.
[SPEAKER_00]: A latham plaster partition had been run across the passage six feet from the end, with a door cunningly concealed in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It
[SPEAKER_00]: a few articles of furniture and a supply of food and water were within, together with a number of books and papers.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the advantage of being a builder, said Holmes as we came out.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was able to fix up his own little hiding place without any confederate, save, of course, that precious housekeeper of his, whom I should lose no time in adding to your bagless
[SPEAKER_00]: but how did you know of this place, Mr. Holmes?
[SPEAKER_00]: I made up my mind that the fellow was in hiding in the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I paced one corridor and found its six feet shorter than the corresponding one below, it was pretty clear where he was.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought he had not the nerve to lie quiet before an alarm of fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: We could, of course, have gone in and taken him, but it amused me to make him reveal himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Besides, I owed you a little mystification that struggled for your chaff in the morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, sir, you certainly got equal with me on that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how in the world did you know that he was in the house at all?
[SPEAKER_00]: The thumb markless strad.
[SPEAKER_00]: You said it was final, and so it was in a very different sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew it had not been there the day before.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pay a good deal of attention to matters of detail as you may have observed, and I had examined the hall and was sure that the wall was clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, it had been put on during the night.
[SPEAKER_00]: But how?
[SPEAKER_00]: Very simply.
[SPEAKER_00]: When those packets were sealed up, Jonas Oldacre got McFarlane to secure one of the seals by putting his thumb upon the soft wax.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be done so quickly and so naturally that I dare say the young man himself has no recollection of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very likely it just so happened and Oldacre had himself no notion of the use he would put it to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Brooding over the case in that den of his, it's suddenly struck him what absolutely damning evidence he could make against McFarlane by using that thumb mark.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the simplest thing in the world for him to take a wax impression from the seal, to moisten it in as much blood as he could get from a pin prick, and to put the mark upon the wall during the night either with his own hand or with that of his housekeeper.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you examine among those documents which he took with him into his retreat,
[SPEAKER_00]: I will lay you a wager that you find the seal with a thumb mark upon it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wonderful, said Lestrade, wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all as clear as crystal as you put it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what is the object of this deep deception, Mr. Holmes?
[SPEAKER_00]: It was amusing to me to see how the detectives overbearing manner had changed suddenly to that of a child asking questions of its teacher.
[SPEAKER_00]: where I don't think that is very hard to explain.
[SPEAKER_00]: A very deep, malicious, vindictive person is the gentleman who's now waiting us downstairs.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know that he was once refused by McFarlane's mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I told you that you should go to Blackheat first and Norwood afterwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, this injury, as he would consider it, has rankled in his wicked scheming brain and all his life he has long for vengeance.
[SPEAKER_00]: But never seen his chance.
[SPEAKER_00]: During the last year or two things have gone against him, secret speculation, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he finds himself in a bad way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He determines to swindle his creditors.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for this purpose, he pays large checks to a certain Mr Cornelius, who is I imagine himself under another name.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have not traced these checks yet, but I have no doubt that they were banked under that name at some provincial town where old acre from time to time led a double existence.
[SPEAKER_00]: He intended to change his name altogether, draw this money, and vanish starting life again elsewhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's likely enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would strike him that in disappearing he might throw all pursuit off his track, and at the same time have an ample and crushing revenge upon his old sweetheart, if he could give the impression that he had been murdered by her only child.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a masterpiece of villainy and he carried it out like a master.
[SPEAKER_00]: The idea of the will, which would give an obvious motive for the crime, the secret visit unknown to his own parents, the retention of the stick, the blood and the animal remains and buttons in the wood pile, all were admirable.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a net from which it seemed to me a few hours ago that there was no possible escape.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he had not that supreme gift of the artist, the knowledge of when to stop,
[SPEAKER_00]: He wished to improve that which was already perfect to draw the rope tighter yet around the neck of his unfortunate victim, and so he ruined all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us descend the strad.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are just one or two questions that I would ask him.
[SPEAKER_00]: The malignant creature was seated in his own parlor with a policeman upon each side of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a joke, my good sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: A practical joke, nothing more.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wind incessantly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I assure you, sir, that I simply concealed myself in order to see the effect of my disappearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure that you would not be so unjust as to imagine that I would have allowed any harm to be full, poor, young, misdemeanored, fallen.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's for a jury to decide, Sideless Trud.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, we shall have you on a charge of conspiracy, if not for attempted murder.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you'll probably find that your creditors will impound the banking account of Mr. Cornelius, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The little man started and turned his malignant eyes upon my friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to thank you for a good deal, said he, perhaps I'll pay my debt someday.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes smiled indulgently.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fancy that for some few years you will find your time very fully occupied, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, what was it you put into the wood pile beside your old trousers?
[SPEAKER_00]: A dead dog or rabbits or what?
[SPEAKER_00]: You won't tell?
[SPEAKER_00]: Dear me, how very unkind of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well well I dare say that a couple of rabbits would account both for the blood and for the charred ashes.
[SPEAKER_00]: If ever you write an account Watson, you can make rabbits serve your turn.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you for watching.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.