"I think, gentlemen," said Holmes, quietly, "that we had best take upour position behind the door. Every precaution is necessary when dealingwith such a fellow. You will need your handcuffs, inspector. You canleave the talking to me."
We waited in silence for a minute--one of those minutes which one cannever forget. Then the door opened and the man stepped in. In an instantHolmes clapped a pistol to his head and Martin slipped the handcuffsover his wrists. It was all done so swiftly and deftly that the fellowwas helpless before he knew that he was attacked. He glared from one tothe other of us with a pair of blazing black eyes. Then he burst into abitter laugh.
"Well, gentlemen, you have the drop on me this time. I seem to haveknocked up against something hard. But I came here in answer to a letterfrom Mrs. Hilton Cubitt. Don't tell me that she is in this? Don't tellme that she helped to set a trap for me?"
"Mrs. Hilton Cubitt was seriously injured and is at death's door."
The man gave a hoarse cry of grief which rang through the house.
"You're crazy!" he cried, fiercely. "It was he that was hurt, not she.Who would have hurt little Elsie? I may have threatened her, God forgiveme, but I would not have touched a hair of her pretty head. Take itback--you! Say that she is not hurt!"
"She was found badly wounded by the side of her dead husband."
He sank with a deep groan on to the settee and buried his face in hismanacled hands. For five minutes he was silent. Then he raised his faceonce more, and spoke with the cold composure of despair.
"I have nothing to hide from you, gentlemen," said he. "If I shot theman he had his shot at me, and there's no murder in that. But if youthink I could have hurt that woman, then you don't know either me orher. I tell you there was never a man in this world loved a woman morethan I loved her. I had a right to her. She was pledged to me years ago.Who was this Englishman that he should come between us? I tell you thatI had the first right to her, and that I was only claiming my own."
"She broke away from your influence when she found the man that youare," said Holmes, sternly. "She fled from America to avoid you, and shemarried an honourable gentleman in England. You dogged her and followedher and made her life a misery to her in order to induce her to abandonthe husband whom she loved and respected in order to fly with you, whomshe feared and hated. You have ended by bringing about the death of anoble man and driving his wife to suicide. That is your record in thisbusiness, Mr. Abe Slaney, and you will answer for it to the law."
"If Elsie dies I care nothing what becomes of me," said the American.He opened one of his hands and looked at a note crumpled up in his palm."See here, mister," he cried, with a gleam of suspicion in his eyes,"you're not trying to scare me over this, are you? If the lady ishurt as bad as you say, who was it that wrote this note?" He tossed itforwards on to the table.
"I wrote it to bring you here."
"You wrote it? There was no one on earth outside the Joint who knew thesecret of the dancing men. How came you to write it?"
"What one man can invent another can discover," said Holmes. There isa cab coming to convey you to Norwich, Mr. Slaney. But, meanwhile, youhave time to make some small reparation for the injury you have wrought.Are you aware that Mrs. Hilton Cubitt has herself lain under gravesuspicion of the murder of her husband, and that it was only my presencehere and the knowledge which I happened to possess which has saved herfrom the accusation? The least that you owe her is to make it clearto the whole world that she was in no way, directly or indirectly,responsible for his tragic end."
"I ask nothing better," said the American. "I guess the very best case Ican make for myself is the absolute naked truth."
"It is my duty to warn you that it will be used against you," cried theinspector, with the magnificent fair-play of the British criminal law.
Slaney shrugged his shoulders.
"I'll chance that," said he. "First of all, I want you gentlemen tounderstand that I have known this lady since she was a child. There wereseven of us in a gang in Chicago, and Elsie's father was the boss of theJoint. He was a clever man, was old Patrick. It was he who invented thatwriting, which would pass as a child's scrawl unless you just happenedto have the key to it. Well, Elsie learned some of our ways; but shecouldn't stand the business, and she had a bit of honest money of herown, so she gave us all the slip and got away to London. She had beenengaged to me, and she would have married me, I believe, if I had takenover another profession; but she would have nothing to do with anythingon the cross. It was only after her marriage to this Englishman that Iwas able to find out where she was. I wrote to her, but got no answer.After that I came over, and, as letters were no use, I put my messageswhere she could read them.
"Well, I have been here a month now. I lived in that farm, where I hada room down below, and could get in and out every night, and no one thewiser. I tried all I could to coax Elsie away. I knew that she read themessages, for once she wrote an answer under one of them. Then my tempergot the better of me, and I began to threaten her. She sent me a letterthen, imploring me to go away and saying that it would break her heartif any scandal should come upon her husband. She said that she wouldcome down when her husband was asleep at three in the morning, and speakwith me through the end window, if I would go away afterwards and leaveher in peace. She came down and brought money with her, trying to bribeme to go. This made me mad, and I caught her arm and tried to pullher through the window. At that moment in rushed the husband with hisrevolver in his hand. Elsie had sunk down upon the floor, and we wereface to face. I was heeled also, and I held up my gun to scare him offand let me get away. He fired and missed me. I pulled off almost at thesame instant, and down he dropped. I made away across the garden, and asI went I heard the window shut behind me. That's God's truth, gentlemen,every word of it, and I heard no more about it until that lad cameriding up with a note which made me walk in here, like a jay, and givemyself into your hands."
A cab had driven up whilst the American had been talking. Two uniformedpolicemen sat inside. Inspector Martin rose and touched his prisoner onthe shoulder.
"It is time for us to go."
"Can I see her first?"
"No, she is not conscious. Mr. Sherlock Holmes, I only hope that if everagain I have an important case I shall have the good fortune to have youby my side."
We stood at the window and watched the cab drive away. As I turned backmy eye caught the pellet of paper which the prisoner had tossed upon thetable. It was the note with which Holmes had decoyed him.
"See if you can read it, Watson," said he, with a smile.
It contained no word, but this little line of dancing men:--
GRAPHIC
"If you use the code which I have explained," said Holme
s, "you willfind that it simply means 'Come here at once.' I was convinced thatit was an invitation which he would not refuse, since he could neverimagine that it could come from anyone but the lady. And so, my dearWatson, we have ended by turning the dancing men to good when they haveso often been the agents of evil, and I think that I have fulfilled mypromise of giving you something unusual for your note-book. Three-fortyis our train, and I fancy we should be back in Baker Street for dinner."
Only one word of epilogue. The American, Abe Slaney, was condemned todeath at the winter assizes at Norwich; but his penalty was changed topenal servitude in consideration of mitigating circumstances, and thecertainty that Hilton Cubitt had fired the first shot. Of Mrs. HiltonCubitt I only know that I have heard she recovered entirely, and thatshe still remains a widow, devoting her whole life to the care of thepoor and to the administration of her husband's estate.