The Complete Sherlock Holmes

hint which you conveyed to me through my friend,
Dr. Watson; but, at that time I had every reason
to believe that you were directly concerned in the
crime. Now I am assured that this is not so. At
the same time, there is much that is unexplained,
and I should strongly recommend that you ask Mr.
Douglas to tell us his own story.”
Mrs. Douglas gave a cry of astonishment at
Holmes’s words. The detectives and I must have
echoed it, when we were aware of a man who
seemed to have emerged from the wall, who advanced
now from the gloom of the corner in which
he had appeared. Mrs. Douglas turned, and in
an instant her arms were round him. Barker had
seized his outstretched hand.
“It’s best this way, Jack,” his wife repeated; “I
am sure that it is best.”
“Indeed, yes, Mr. Douglas,” said Sherlock
Holmes, “I am sure that you will find it best.”
The man stood blinking at us with the dazed
look of one who comes from the dark into the light.
It was a remarkable face, bold gray eyes, a strong,
short-clipped, grizzled moustache, a square, projecting
chin, and a humorous mouth. He took a
good look at us all, and then to my amazement he
advanced to me and handed me a bundle of paper.
“I’ve heard of you,” said he in a voice which
was not quite English and not quite American, but
was altogether mellow and pleasing. “You are the
historian of this bunch. Well, Dr. Watson, you’ve
never had such a story as that pass through your
hands before, and I’ll lay my last dollar on that.
Tell it your own way; but there are the facts, and
you can’t miss the public so long as you have those.
I’ve been cooped up two days, and I’ve spent the
daylight hours—as much daylight as I could get
in that rat trap—in putting the thing into words.
You’re welcome to them—you and your public.
There’s the story of the Valley of Fear.”
“That’s the past, Mr. Douglas,” said Sherlock
Holmes quietly. “What we desire now is to hear
your story of the present.”
“You’ll have it, sir,” said Douglas. “May I
smoke as I talk? Well, thank you, Mr. Holmes.
You’re a smoker yourself, if I remember right, and
you’ll guess what it is to be sitting for two days
with tobacco in your pocket and afraid that the
smell will give you away.” He leaned against the
mantelpiece and sucked at the cigar which Holmes
had handed him. “I’ve heard of you, Mr. Holmes.
I never guessed that I should meet you. But before
you are through with that,” he nodded at my
papers, “you will say I’ve brought you something
fresh.”
The Valley Of Fear
696
Inspector MacDonald had been staring at the
newcomer with the greatest amazement. “Well,
this fairly beats me!” he cried at last. “If you are
Mr. John Douglas of Birlstone Manor, then whose
death have we been investigating for these two
days, and where in the world have you sprung
from now? You seemed to me to come out of the
floor like a jack-in-a-box.”
“Ah, Mr. Mac,” said Holmes, shaking a reproving
forefinger, “you would not read that excellent
local compilation which described the concealment
of King Charles. People did not hide in those
days without excellent hiding places, and the hiding
place that has once been used may be again.
I had persuaded myself that we should find Mr.
Douglas under this roof.”
“And how long have you been playing this
trick upon us, Mr. Holmes?” said the inspector angrily.
“How long have you allowed us to waste
ourselves upon a search that you knew to be an
absurd one?”
“Not one instant, my dear Mr. Mac. Only last
night did I form my views of the case. As they
could not be put to the proof until this evening, I
invited you and your colleague to take a holiday
for the day. Pray what more could I do? When I
found the suit of clothes in the moat, it at once became
apparent to me that the body we had found
could not have been the body of Mr. John Douglas
at all, but must be that of the bicyclist from Tunbridge
Wells. No other conclusion was possible.
Therefore I had to determine where Mr. John Douglas
himself could be, and the balance of probability
was that with the connivance of his wife and
his friend he was concealed in a house which had
such conveniences for a fugitive, and awaiting quieter
times when he could make his final escape.”
“Well, you figured it out about right,” said
Douglas approvingly. “I thought I’d dodge your
British law; for I was not sure how I stood under
it, and also I saw my chance to throw these
hounds once for all off my track. Mind you, from
first to last I have done nothing to be ashamed of,
and nothing that I would not do again; but you’ll
judge that for yourselves when I tell you my story.
Never mind warning me, Inspector: I’m ready to
stand pat upon the truth.
“I’m not going to begin at the beginning. That’s
all there,” he indicated my bundle of papers, “and
a mighty queer yarn you’ll find it. It all comes
down to this: That there are some men that have
good cause to hate me and would give their last
dollar to know that they had got me. So long as
I am alive and they are alive, there is no safety in
this world for me. They hunted me from Chicago