Sherlock Holmes smiled demurely.
"Your Grace can hardly have heard of any small reputation which Ipossess, or you would not imagine that it is so easy to escape me. Mr.Reuben Hayes was arrested at Chesterfield on my information at eleveno'clock last night. I had a telegram from the head of the local policebefore I left the school this morning."
The Duke leaned back in his chair and stared with amazement at myfriend.
"You seem to have powers that are hardly human," said he. "So ReubenHayes is taken? I am right glad to hear it, if it will not react uponthe fate of James."
"Your secretary?"
"No, sir; my son."
It was Holmes's turn to look astonished.
"I confess that this is entirely new to me, your Grace. I must beg youto be more explicit."
"I will conceal nothing from you. I agree with you that completefrankness, however painful it may be to me, is the best policy in thisdesperate situation to which James's folly and jealousy have reducedus. When I was a very young man, Mr. Holmes, I loved with such a loveas comes only once in a lifetime. I offered the lady marriage, but sherefused it on the grounds that such a match might mar my career. Had shelived I would certainly never have married anyone else. She died, andleft this one child, whom for her sake I have cherished and cared for.I could not acknowledge the paternity to the world; but I gave him thebest of educations, and since he came to manhood I have kept him nearmy person. He surprised my secret, and has presumed ever since upon theclaim which he has upon me and upon his power of provoking a scandal,which would be abhorrent to me. His presence had something to dowith the unhappy issue of my marriage. Above all, he hated my younglegitimate heir from the first with a persistent hatred. You may wellask me why, under these circumstances, I still kept James under my roof.I answer that it was because I could see his mother's face in his, andthat for her dear sake there was no end to my long-suffering. All herpretty ways, too--there was not one of them which he could not suggestand bring back to my memory. I COULD not send him away. But I feared somuch lest he should do Arthur--that is, Lord Saltire--a mischief that Idispatched him for safety to Dr. Huxtable's school.
"James came into contact with this fellow Hayes because the man was atenant of mine, and James acted as agent. The fellow was a rascal fromthe beginning; but in some extraordinary way James became intimate withhim. He had always a taste for low company. When James determinedto kidnap Lord Saltire it was of this man's service that he availedhimself. You remember that I wrote to Arthur upon that last day. Well,James opened the letter and inserted a note asking Arthur to meet himin a little wood called the Ragged Shaw, which is near to the school.He used the Duchess's name, and in that way got the boy to come. Thatevening James bicycled over--I am telling you what he has himselfconfessed to me--and he told Arthur, whom he met in the wood, that hismother longed to see him, that she was awaiting him on the moor, andthat if he would come back into the wood at midnight he would find a manwith a horse, who would take him to her. Poor Arthur fell into the trap.He came to the appointment and found this fellow Hayes with a led pony.Arthur mounted, and they set off together. It appears--though this Jamesonly heard yesterday--that they were pursued, that Hayes struck thepursuer with his stick, and that the man died of his injuries. Hayesbrought Arthur to his public-house, the Fighting Cock, where he wasconfined in an upper room, under the care of Mrs. Hayes, who is a kindlywoman, but entirely under the control of her brutal husband.
"Well, Mr. Holmes, that was the state of affairs when I first saw youtwo days ago. I had no more idea of the truth than you. You will ask mewhat was James's motive in doing such a deed. I answer that there wasa great deal which was unreasoning and fanatical in the hatred whichhe bore my heir. In his view he should himself have been heir of allmy estates, and he deeply resented those social laws which made itimpossible. At the same time he had a definite motive also. He was eagerthat I should break the entail, and he was of opinion that it lay in mypower to do so. He intended to make a bargain with me--to restore Arthurif I would break the entail, and so make it possible for the estateto be left to him by will. He knew well that I should never willinglyinvoke the aid of the police against him. I say that he would haveproposed such a bargain to me, but he did not actually do so, for eventsmoved too quickly for him, and he had not time to put his plans intopractice.
"What brought all his wicked scheme to wreck was your discovery of thisman Heidegger's dead body. James was seized with horror at the news. Itcame to us yesterday as we sat together in this study. Dr. Huxtable hadsent a telegram. James was so overwhelmed with grief and agitation thatmy suspicions, which had never been entirely absent, rose instantly toa certainty, and I taxed him with the deed. He made a complete voluntaryconfession. Then he implored me to keep his secret for three dayslonger, so as to give his wretched accomplice a chance of saving hisguilty life. I yielded--as I have always yielded--to his prayers, andinstantly James hurried off to the Fighting Cock to warn Hayes andgive him the means of flight. I could not go there by daylight withoutprovoking comment, but as soon as night fell I hurried off to see mydear Arthur. I found him safe and well, but horrified beyond expressionby the dreadful deed he had witnessed. In deference to my promise, andmuch against my will, I consented to leave him there for three daysunder the charge of Mrs. Hayes, since it was evident that it wasimpossible to i
nform the police where he was without telling them alsowho was the murderer, and I could not see how that murderer could bepunished without ruin to my unfortunate James. You asked for frankness,Mr. Holmes, and I have taken you at your word, for I have now told youeverything without an attempt at circumlocution or concealment. Do youin turn be as frank with me."
"I will," said Holmes. "In the first place, your Grace, I am bound totell you that you have placed yourself in a most serious position inthe eyes of the law. You have condoned a felony and you have aided theescape of a murderer; for I cannot doubt that any money which was takenby James Wilder to aid his accomplice in his flight came from yourGrace's purse."
The Duke bowed his assent.
"This is indeed a most serious matter. Even more culpable in my opinion,your Grace, is your attitude towards your younger son. You leave him inthis den for three days."
"Under solemn promises----"
"What are promises to such people as these? You have no guarantee thathe will not be spirited away again. To humour your guilty elder sonyou have exposed your innocent younger son to imminent and unnecessarydanger. It was a most unjustifiable action."
The proud lord of Holdernesse was not accustomed to be so rated inhis own ducal hall. The blood flushed into his high forehead, but hisconscience held him dumb.
"I will help you, but on one condition only. It is that you ring for thefootman and let me give such orders as I like."
Without a word the Duke pressed the electric bell. A servant entered.
"You will be glad to hear," said Holmes, "that your young master isfound. It is the Duke's desire that the carriage shall go at once to theFighting Cock Inn to bring Lord Saltire home.
"Now," said Holmes, when the rejoicing lackey had disappeared, "havingsecured the future, we can afford to be more lenient with the past. I amnot in an official position, and there is no reason, so long as theends of justice are served, why I should disclose all that I know. As toHayes I say nothing. The gallows awaits him, and I would do nothingto save him from it. What he will divulge I cannot tell, but I haveno doubt that your Grace could make him understand that it is to hisinterest to be silent. From the police point of view he will havekidnapped the boy for the purpose of ransom. If they do not themselvesfind it out I see no reason why I should prompt them to take a broaderpoint of view. I would warn your Grace, however, that the continuedpresence of Mr. James Wilder in your household can only lead tomisfortune."
"I understand that, Mr. Holmes, and it is already settled that he shallleave me for ever and go to seek his fortune in Australia."
"In that case, your Grace, since you have yourself stated that anyunhappiness in your married life was caused by his presence, I wouldsuggest that you make such amends as you can to the Duchess, andthat you try to resume those relations which have been so unhappilyinterrupted."
"That also I have arranged, Mr. Holmes. I wrote to the Duchess thismorning."
"In that case," said Holmes, rising, "I think that my friend and I cancongratulate ourselves upon several most happy results from our littlevisit to the North. There is one other small point upon which I desiresome light. This fellow Hayes had shod his horses with shoes whichcounterfeited the tracks of cows. Was it from Mr. Wilder that he learnedso extraordinary a device?"
The Duke stood in thought for a moment, with a look of intense surpriseon his face. Then he opened a door and showed us into a large roomfurnished as a museum. He led the way to a glass case in a corner, andpointed to the inscription.
"These shoes," it ran, "were dug up in the moat of Holdernesse Hall.They are for the use of horses; but they are shaped below with a clovenfoot of iron, so as to throw pursuers off the track. They are supposedto have belonged to some of the marauding Barons of Holdernesse in theMiddle Ages."
Holmes opened the case, and moistening his finger he passed it along theshoe. A thin film of recent mud was left upon his skin.