The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-09-10

Eyes, miss. Mr.. Rucastle let me
| out when he came back before he
| went up to you. All, miss, it is a pity
you didn't let me know what you were
planning, for l would have told you
| that your pains were wasted"
Hal said Holmes, looking keenly
at her. 1T is clear that Mrs. Toller
knows more about this matter than
any one else
Yes, sir, 1 do, and l am ready
enough to tell what 1 know"
'Then, pray, sit down, and let us
hear it, for there are several points
on which l must confess that l am
still in the dark"
II will soon make it clear to you,
| said she; land I'd have done SO before
now if / could ha' got out from the
cellar. IL there's police-court business
| over this, you'll remember that | was
| the one that stood your friend, and
that l was Miss Aliccs friend too.
'She was never happy at home, Miss
Alice wasn't, from the time that her
| father married again. She was slight
! ed like, and had no say in anything
| but it never really became bad for
her until after she met Mr.. Fowler
at friends house. AS we'll as
| could learn, Miss Alice had rights Of
her own by will, but she was SO quiet
and patient, she was, that she never
said word about them, but just left
everything in Mr.. Rucastle's hands.
He knew he was safe with her; but
when there was chance of a hus-
band coming forward, who would ask
for all that the law would give him,
then her father thought it time to put
a stop on it. He wanted her to sign a
paper, so that whether she married or
not, he could use her money. When
she wouldn't do it, he kept on worry
ing her until she got brain-fcVer and
for six weeks was at deaths door
Then she got better at last, all worn
to shadow, and with her beautiful
hair cut off; but that didn't make no
change in her young man, and he
stuck to her as true as man could be.
"Ah," said Holmes Il think that
what you have been good enough to
tell us makes the matter fairly clear
and that / can deduce all that re-
mains. Mr.. Rucastle then, I presume,
took to this system of imprisonment"
Yes, sir
"And brought Miss Hunter down
from London in order to get rid of
the disagrecable persistence of Mr..
Fowler"
THAT was it, sir
"But Mr.. Fowler being a persever-
ing man, as good seaman should be,
blockaded the house, and, having met
you succeeded by certain arguments,
metallic or otherwise in convincing
you that your interests were the same
as his"
"Mr. Fowler was very kind-spOk-
en-, free-handed gentleman" said Mrs.
Toller, serenely.
"And in this way he managed that
your good man should have no want
of drink, and that a ladder should be
ready at the moment when your mas
ter had gone out.
"You have it, sir, just as it happen
ed"
81 am sure we owe you an apology,
Mrs. Tollcr, said Holmes ''for You
have certainly cleared up everything
which puzzled us. And here comes
the country surgeon and Mrs Ru-
castle, so | think, Watson, that we had
best escort Miss Hunter back to Win
chester, as it seems to me that our
locus standi now is rather a ques-
tionable one
And thus was solved the mystery OF
the sinister house with the copper
beeches in front of the door. Mr.. Ru-
castle survived but was always a
broken man. kept alive solely through
the care of his devoted wife. They
still live with their old servants.
who probably know so much of Ru-
castles past life that he finds it diff
ficult to part from them. Mr.. Fowler
and Miss Alice Rucastle were married,
by special license in Southampton the
day after their flight, and he is now
the holder of a Government appoint
ment in the Island of Mauritius. As
to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend
Holmes. rather to my disappointment,
manifested no further interest in her
when once she had ceased to be the
centre of one of his problems, and she
is now the head of private school at
Walsall where ] believe that she has
met with cnnSidorabl SUCCESS.