The Adventure of the Dancing Men, Part 3

[SPEAKER_00]: Hello and welcome to the Sherlock Holmes Bedtime Stories podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Each episode is a section from a classic Sherlock Holmes story with relaxing music to help you fall asleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you love the podcast and never miss an episode, please follow us on Spotify and Apple podcasts and leave a five star rating.
[SPEAKER_00]: If our podcast has become a part of your bedtime routine, please consider supporting the show by clicking the link in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our show is completely free.
[SPEAKER_00]: In part, thanks to support from listeners like you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are options to give one time or on a monthly basis.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, sleep easier by clicking the support this podcast link in the show notes and become a supporter today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as always, if you're enjoying the pod, please spread the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: sharing with friends and family really does help.
[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]: Part 3 When the youth had been dispatched with the note, Sherlock Holmes gave his instructions to the servants.
[SPEAKER_00]: If any visitor were to call asking for Mrs. Hilton Cupid, no information should be given as to her condition, but he was to be shown at once into the drawing room.
[SPEAKER_00]: He impressed these points upon them with the utmost earnestness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, he led the way into the drawing room with the remark that the business was now out of our hands, and that we must while away the time as best we might until we could see what was in store for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The doctor had departed to his patients, and only the inspector and myself remained.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that I can help you to pass an hour in an interesting and profitable manner.
[SPEAKER_00]: at homes, drawing his chair up to the table, and spreading out in front of him the various papers upon which were recorded the antics of the dancing men.
[SPEAKER_00]: As to you, friend Watson, I owe you every atonement for having allowed your natural curiosity to remain so long and satisfied.
[SPEAKER_00]: To you, Inspector, the whole incident may appeal as a remarkable professional study.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must tell you first of all the interesting circumstances connected with the previous consultations, which Mr. Hilton Kubit has had with me in Baker Street.
[SPEAKER_00]: He then shortly recapitulated the facts which have already been recorded.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have here in front of me these singular productions, at which one might smile, had they not prove themselves to be the forerunners of so terrible at tragedy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writings, and am myself the author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyse 160 separate ciphers, but I confess that this is entirely new to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The object of those who invented the system has apparently been to conceal that these characters convey a message, and to give the idea that they are the mere random sketches of children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Having once recognized however that the symbols stood for letters, and having applied the rules which guide us in all forms of secret writings, the solution was easy enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first message submitted to me was so short that it was impossible for me to do more than to say, with some confidence, that the symbol X, X, X stood for E. As you are aware, E is the most common letter in the English alphabet.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it predominates to so marked an extent that even in a short sentence one would expect to find it most often.
[SPEAKER_00]: Out of 15 symbols in the first message, four were the same so it was reasonable to set this down as E. It is true that in some cases the figure was bearing a flag and in some cases not, but it was probable from the way in which the flags were distributed that they were used to break the sentence up into words.
[SPEAKER_00]: I accepted this as a hypothesis, and noted that E was represented by XXX.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now came the real difficulty of the inquiry.
[SPEAKER_00]: The order of the English letters after E is by no means well marked, and any preponderance which may be shown in an average of a printed sheet may be reversed in a single short sentence speaking roughly, T-A-O-I-N-S-H-R-D and L, other numerical order in which letters occur, but T-A-O and I are very nearly abreast of each other, and it would be an endless task to try each combination until a meaning was arrived at.
[SPEAKER_00]: I therefore waited for fresh material.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my second interview with Mr. Hilton Cupid, he was able to give me two other short sentences and one message, which appeared since there was no flag to be a single word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here are the symbols.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now in the single word I have already got the two ease coming second and fourth in a word of five letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might be saver, or lever, or never.
[SPEAKER_00]: There can be no question that the latter as a reply to an appeal is far the most probable, and the circumstance is pointed to its being a reply written by the Lady.
[SPEAKER_00]: Accepting it as correct, we are now able to say that the symbols stand respectively for NV and R. Even now I was in considerable difficulty, but a happy thought put me in possession of several other letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It occurred to me that if these appeals came as I expected, from someone who had been intimate with the lady in her early life, a combination which contained two ease with three letters between might very well stand for the name, Elsie.
[SPEAKER_00]: On examination I found that such a combination formed the termination of the message which was three times repeated, it was certainly some appeal to Elsie.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this way, I had got my L S and I.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what appeal could it be?
[SPEAKER_00]: There were only four letters in the word which preceded Elsey, and it ended in E. Surely the word must become.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried all other four letters ending in E, but could find none to fit the case.
[SPEAKER_00]: So now I was in possession of C, O and M, and I was in a position to attack the first message once more, dividing it into words and putting dots for each symbol which was still unknown.
[SPEAKER_00]: M-E-R-E-E-S-L-N-E Now the first letter can only be A, which is a most useful discovery, since it occurs no fewer than three times in this short sentence, and the H is also apparent in the second word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it becomes a M-H-E-R-E-E-S-L-A-N-E, or filling in the obvious vacancies
[SPEAKER_00]: I had so many letters now that I could proceed with considerable confidence to the second message, which worked out in this fashion.
[SPEAKER_00]: A-E-L-R-I-E-S Here I could only make sense by putting T and G for the missing letters, and supposing that the name was that of some house or in, at which the writer was staying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Inspector Martin and I had listened with the utmost interest to the full and clear account of how my friend had produced results, which had led to so complete a command over our difficulties.
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you do then, sir?
[SPEAKER_00]: Ask the Inspector.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had every reason to suppose that this Abe slain he was an American since Abe is an American contraction, and since a letter from America had been the starting point of all the trouble,
[SPEAKER_00]: I had also every cause to think that there was some criminal secret in the matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lady's allusions to her past and her refusal to take her husband into her confidence both pointed in that direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: I therefore cable to my friend Wilson Hargreed of the New York Police Bureau, who has more than once made use of my knowledge of London crime.
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked him whether the name of Abe Slaney was known to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here is his reply.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the very evening upon which I had his answer, Hilton Cupid sent me the last message from Slainy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Working with known letters, it took this form.
[SPEAKER_00]: Elsie.re.a.e to meet thy geo.
[SPEAKER_00]: The addition of a P and a D completed a message which showed me that the rascal was proceeding from persuasion to threats.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my knowledge of the crux of Chicago, prepared me to find that he might very rapidly put his words into action.
[SPEAKER_00]: I at once came to Norfolk with my friend and colleague Dr. Watson, but unhappy, only in time to find that the worst had already occurred.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a privilege to be associated with you in the handling of a case, said the inspector warmly.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will excuse me however if I speak frankly to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are only answerable to yourself, but I have to answer to my superiors.
[SPEAKER_00]: If this Abe slainy living at L. Ridges is indeed the murderer, and if he has made his escape while I am seated here, I should certainly get into serious trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need not be uneasy, he will not try to escape.
[SPEAKER_00]: How do you know?
[SPEAKER_00]: To fly would be a confession of guilt, then let us go arrest him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I expect him here every instant, but why should he come?
[SPEAKER_00]: because I have written an ask to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this is incredible, Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why should he come because you have asked him would not such a request rather rows his suspicions and cause him to fly?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I have known how to frame the letter, said Sherlock Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, if I am not very much mistaken, here is the gentleman himself coming up the drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: a man was striding up the path which led to the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a tall handsome sworthy fellow, clad in a suit of gray flannel, with a Panama hat, a bristling black beard, and a great, aggressive hooked nose and flourishing a cane as he walked.
[SPEAKER_00]: He swaggered up a path as if the place belonged to him, and we heard his loud, confident peel at the bell.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think gentlemen said homes quietly.
[SPEAKER_00]: That we had best take up our position behind the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every precaution is necessary when dealing with such a fellow.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will need your handcuffs inspector, you can leave the talking to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: We waited in silence for a minute, one of those minutes which one can never forget.
[SPEAKER_00]: In an instant, Holmes clapped a pistol to his head and Martin slipped the handcuffs over his wrists.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was all done so swiftly and definitely that the fellow was helpless before he knew that he was attacked.
[SPEAKER_00]: He glared from one to the other of us with a pair of blazing black eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he burst into a bitter laugh.
[SPEAKER_00]: I seem to have knocked up against something hard, but I came here in answer to a letter from Mrs. Hilton Cupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't tell me that she is in this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't tell me that she helped us at a track for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mrs. Hilton Cupid was seriously injured and is at death's door.
[SPEAKER_00]: The man gave a horse cry of grief which rang through the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your crazy, he cried fiercely.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was he that was hurt, not she.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who would have hurt little Elsie?
[SPEAKER_00]: I may have threatened her, God forgive me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I would not have touched a hair of her pretty head.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take it back, you say that she is not hurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was found badly wounded by the side of her dead husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sank with a deep groan on the setee and buried his face in his manicled hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: for five minutes he was silent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he raised his face once more and spoke with the cold composure of despair.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have nothing to hide from you gentlemen, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I shot the man he had his shot at me and there's no murder in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you think I could have hurt that woman, then you don't know either me or her.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a right to her.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was pledged to me years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who was this Englishman that he should come between us?
[SPEAKER_00]: I tell you that I had the first right to her and that I was only claiming my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: She broke away from your influence when she found the man that you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Said Holmes sternly.
[SPEAKER_00]: She fled from America to avoid you and she married an honorable gentleman in England.
[SPEAKER_00]: You dogged her and followed her and made her life a misery to her in order to induce her to abandon the husband whom she loved and respected in order to fly with you, whom she feared and hated.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have ended by bringing about the death of a noble man and driving his wife to suicide.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is your record in this business Mr. Abe Sleini, and you will answer for it to the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: If Elsie dies, I care nothing what becomes of me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He opened one of his hands and looked at a note crumpled up in his palm.
[SPEAKER_00]: See here, Mr. He cried with a gleam of suspicion in his eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're not trying to scare me over this, are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: If the lady is hurt as bad as you say, who was it that wrote this note?
[SPEAKER_00]: He tossed it forward onto the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote it to bring you here.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was no one on earth outside the joint who knew the secret of the dancing men, how came you to write it.
[SPEAKER_00]: What one man can invent another can discover?
[SPEAKER_00]: Said Holmes, There is a cab coming to convey you to Norwich, Mr. Slaney.
[SPEAKER_00]: But meanwhile, you have time to make some small reparation for the injury you have wrought.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you aware that Mrs. Hilton Cupid has herself laying under grave suspicion of the murder of her husband, and that it was only my presence here, and the knowledge which I happened to possess, which has saved her from the accusation?
[SPEAKER_00]: The least that you owe her is to make it clear to the whole world that she was in no way directly or indirectly, responsible for his tragic end.
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked nothing better, said the American.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess the very best case I can make for myself is the absolute naked truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you, cried the inspector with the magnificent fair play of the British criminal law.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, I want you gentlemen to understand that I have known this lady since she was a child.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were seven of us in a gang in Chicago and Elsie's father was the boss of the joint.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a clever man, was old Patrick.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was he who invented that writing, which would pass as a child's scroll unless you just happen to have the key to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Elsie learned some of our ways, but she couldn't stand the business and she had a bit of honest money of her own, so she gave us all the slip and got away to London.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had been engaged to me and she would have married me, I believe, if I had taken over another profession, but she would have nothing to do with anything on the cross.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was only after her marriage to this Englishman that I was able to find out where she was.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wrote to her, but got no answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: After that, I came over and as letters were no use, I put my messages where she could read them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I have been here a month now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I lived in that farm where I had a room down below, and could get in and out every night and no one the wiser.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried all I could to coax Elsea away.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew that she read the messages for once she wrote an answer under one of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then my temper got the better of me, and I began to threaten her.
[SPEAKER_00]: She sent me a letter then, imploring me to go away and saying that it would break her heart if any scandal should come upon her husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said that she would come down when her husband was asleep at three in the morning and speak with me through the end window.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I would go away afterwards and leave her in peace, she came down and brought money with her trying to bribe me to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: This made me mad, and I caught her arm, and tried to pull her through the window.
[SPEAKER_00]: At that moment in rush the husband with his revolver in his hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Elsie had sunk down upon the floor and we were face-to-face.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was healed also and I held up my gun to scare him off and let me get away.
[SPEAKER_00]: He fired and missed me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pulled off almost at the same instant and down he dropped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I made away across the garden and as I went I heard the window shut behind me.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's God's truth, gentlemen, every word of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I heard no more about it until that lad came riding up with a note which made me walk in here like a Jay and give myself into your hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: A cab had driven up whilst the American had been talking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two uniformed policemen sat inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: Inspect a martin rose and touched his prisoner on the shoulder.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is time for us to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I see her first?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, she is not conscious.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I only hope that if ever again I have an important case, I shall have the good fortune to have you by my side.
[SPEAKER_00]: We stood at the window and watched the cap drive away.
[SPEAKER_00]: As I turn back my eye caught the pellet of paper which the prisoner had tossed upon the
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the note with which homes had decoyed him.
[SPEAKER_00]: See if you can read it Watson said he was a smile.
[SPEAKER_00]: It contained no word but this little line of dancing men.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you use the code which I have explained said homes, you will find that it simply means come here at once.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was convinced that it was an invitation which he would not refuse, since he could never imagine that it could come from anyone but the lady.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, my dear Watson, we have ended by turning the dancing meant to good when they have so often been the agents of evil, and I think that I have fulfilled my promise of giving you something unusual for your notebook.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three-fourty is our train, and I fancy we should be back in Baker Street for dinner.
[SPEAKER_00]: The American, Abe Slaney, was condemned to death at the winter assises at Norwich, but his penalty was changed to penal servitude in consideration of mitigating circumstances, and the certainty that Hilton Kubit had fired the first shot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of Mrs. Hilton Cupid, I only know that I have heard she recovered entirely, and that she still remains a widow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Devoting her whole life to the care of the poor, and to the administration of her husband's estate.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you for watching.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: you
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.