Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-07-18
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI
SHERLOCK HOLMES GIVES A DEMONSTRA
TgON

CHAPTER VI
SHERLOCK HOLMES GIVES A DEMoNSTRA-
ZION.
NOW, Watson" said Holmes, rub
bling his hands, 1--WE have half an hour
t| ourselves. Let us make good use of
it. My case is, as ! have told you,
almost complete; but we must not err
on the side of over-confidence. Simple
as the case seems now, there may be
something deeper underlying it,
''Simple!" l calculated.
Surely" said he, with something of
the air of clinical professor expound-
ing to his class. Just sit in the cor
ner there, that your footprints may not
conplicate matters. Now to work. In
the first place, how did these folks
come. and how did they go? The door
has not been opened since last night.
How OF the Window He carried the
lamp across to it, muttering his obser-
vatioas aloud the while, but address
ing them to himself rather than to me.
''Wintiow is saibbed on the inner side.
Framework is solid. No hinges at the
side. Let us open it. No water pipe
near. Roof quite out of reach. Yet a man
has mounted by the window. It rained
little last night. Here is the print of
q mold upon the sill. And here is a
circular muddy mark, and here again
upon the floor, and here again by the
table. See here, Watson. This is re-
ally very pretty demonstration"
looked at the round, well-defined
muddy discs. THAT is not foot
mark said /.
1T is something much more valua BILE
to US. 1t is the impression of a wooden
stump. You see here on the sill is the
boot mark. 4 heavy boot with a broad
metal heel, and beside it is the mark of
the timber-toe."
1T is the wooden-leggcd man"
Quite so. But there has been some
one elsa very able and efficient ally.
Could you scale that wall, doctor?'
/ looked out of the open window.
The moon still shone brightly on that
angle of the house. We were good
sixty feet from the ground, and, look
where would, could see no footho1d,
nor as much as crevice in the brick
work.
1T is absolutely impossible" I an
swercd.
Without aid it is so. But suppose
you had a friend up here who lowered
You this good. stout rope which 1 see
in the corner, securing one end of it to
this great hook in the wall. Then,
think, if you were an active man, you
might swarm up, wooden leg and all.
You would depart, of course, In the
same fashion, and your ally would
draw up the rope, unite it from the
hook, shut the window. snib it on the
Inside, and get away in the way that
he originally came. As minor point, it
may be noted" he continued, lingering
the rope, that our wooden-legged
friend, though fair climber, was not
4 professional sailor. His hands were
far from horny. My lens discloses
mere than one blood .narls, especially
tassa ard the end of the ROPE, from which
j gather that he slipped down with
such velocity that he took the skin OF
his hands"
This is all very WELL" said I, 'sbut
the thing becomes more unintelligible
than ever. How about this mysterious
ally? How came he into the room?"
''Ycs. the ally!" repeated Holmes,
pcnsively. There are features o. g.
terest about this ally. He lifts the !
case from the regions of the common
place. fancy that this ally breaks
fresh ground in the annals of crime in
this country-though parallel cases sug-
gest themselves from India, and, if nv
memory serves me, from Senegambia. !"