"When this was pulled down the bell in the kitchen must have rungloudly," he remarked.
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"No one could hear it. The kitchen stands right at the back of thehouse."
"How did the burglar know no one would hear it? How dared he pull at abell-rope in that reckless fashion?"
"Exactly, Mr. Holmes, exactly. You put the very question which I haveasked myself again and again. There can be no doubt that this fellowmust have known the house and its habits. He must have perfectlyunderstood that the servants would all be in bed at that comparativelyearly hour, and that no one could possibly hear a bell ring in thekitchen. Therefore he must have been in close league with one of theservants. Surely that is evident. But there are eight servants, and allof good character."
"Other things being equal," said Holmes, "one would suspect the oneat whose head the master threw a decanter. And yet that would involvetreachery towards the mistress to whom this woman seems devoted. Well,well, the point is a minor one, and when you have Randall you willprobably find no difficulty in securing his accomplice. The lady's storycertainly seems to be corroborated, if it needed corroboration, by everydetail which we see before us." He walked to the French window and threwit open. "There are no signs here, but the ground is iron hard, and onewould not expect them. I see that these candles on the mantelpiece havebeen lighted."
"Yes; it was by their light and that of the lady's bedroom candle thatthe burglars saw their way about."
"And what did they take?"
"Well, they did not take much--only half-a-dozen articles of plate offthe sideboard. Lady Brackenstall thinks that they were themselves sodisturbed by the death of Sir Eustace that they did not ransack thehouse as they would otherwise have done."
"No doubt that is true. And yet they drank some wine, I understand."
"To steady their own nerves."
"Exactly. These three glasses upon the sideboard have been untouched, Isuppose?"
"Yes; and the bottle stands as they left it."
"Let us look at it. Halloa! halloa! what is this?"
The three glasses were grouped together, all of them tinged with wine,and one of them containing some dregs of bees-wing. The bottle stoodnear them, two-thirds full, and beside it lay a long, deeply-stainedcork. Its appearance and the dust upon the bottle showed that it was nocommon vintage which the murderers had enjoyed.
A change had come over Holmes's manner. He had lost his listlessexpression, and again I saw an alert light of interest in his keen,deep-set eyes. He raised the cork and examined it minutely.
"How did they draw it?" he asked.
Hopkins pointed to a half-opened drawer. In it lay some table linen anda large cork-screw.
"Did Lady Brackenstall say that screw was used?"
"No; you remember that she was senseless at the moment when the bottlewas opened."
"Quite so. As a matter of fact that screw was NOT used. This bottle wasopened by a pocket-screw, probably contained in a knife, and not morethan an inch and a half long. If you examine the top of the cork youwill observe that the screw was driven in three times before the corkwas extracted. It has never been transfixed. This long screw wouldhave transfixed it and drawn it with a single pull. When you catch thisfellow you will find that he has one of these multiplex knives in hispossession."
"Excellent!" said Hopkins.
"But these glasses do puzzle me, I confess. Lady Brackenstall actuallySAW the three men drinking, did she not?"
"Yes; she was clear about that."
"Then there is an end of it. What more is to be said? And yet you mustadmit that the three glasses are very remarkable, Hopkins. What, yousee nothing remarkable! Well, well, let it pass. Perhaps when a man hasspecial knowledge and special powers like my own it rather encourageshim to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand. Ofcourse, it must be a mere chance about the glasses. Well, good morning,Hopkins. I don't see that I can be of any use to you, and you appearto have your case very clear. You will let me know when Randall isarrested, and any further developments which may occur. I trust that Ishall soon have to congratulate you upon a successful conclusion. Come,Watson, I fancy that we may employ ourselves more profitably at home."
During our return journey I could see by Holmes's face that he was muchpuzzled by something which he had observed. Every now and then, by aneffort, he would throw off the impression and talk as if the matter wereclear, but then his doubts would settle down upon him again, and hisknitted brows and abstracted eyes would show that his thoughts had goneback once more to the great dining-room of the Abbey Grange in whichthis midnight tragedy had been enacted. At last, by a sudden impulse,just as our train was crawling out of a suburban station, he sprang onto the platform and pulled me out after him.
"Excuse me, my dear fellow," said he, as we watched the rear carriagesof our train disappearing round a curve; "I am sorry to make you thevictim of what may seem a mere whim, but on my life, Watson, I simplyCAN'T leave that case in this condition. Every instinct that I possesscries out against it. It's wrong--it's all wrong--I'll swear that it'swrong. And yet the lady's story was complete, the maid's corroborationwas sufficient, the detail was fairly exact. What have I to put againstthat? Three wine-glasses, that is all. But if I had not taken things forgranted, if I had examined everything with the care which I would haveshown had we approached the case DE NOVO and had no cut-and-dried storyto warp my mind, would I not then have found something more definiteto go upon? Of course I should. Sit down on this bench, Watson, until atrain for Chislehurst arrives, and allow me to lay the evidence beforeyou, imploring you in the first instance to dismiss from your mind theidea that anything which the maid or her mistress may have said mustnecessarily be true. The lady's charming personality must not bepermitted to warp our judgment.
"Surely there are details in her story which, if we looked at it in coldblood, would excite our suspicion. These burglars made a considerablehaul at Sydenham a fortnight ago. Some account of them and of theirappearance was in the papers, and would naturally occur to anyone whowished to invent a story in which imaginary robbers should play a part.As a matter of fact, burglars who have done a good stroke of businessare, as a rule, only too glad to enjoy the proceeds in peace and quietwithout embarking on another perilous undertaking. Again, it is unusualfor burglars to operate at so early an hour; it is unusual for burglarsto strike a lady to prevent her screaming, since one would imagine thatwas the sure way to make her scream; it is unusual for them to commitmurder when their numbers are sufficient to overpower one man; it isunusual for them to be content with a limited plunder when there ismuch more within their reach; and finally I should say that it was veryunusual for such men to leave a bottle half empty. How do all theseunusuals strike you, Watson?"
"Their cumulative effect is certainly considerable, and yet each of themis quite possible in itself. The most unusual thing of all, as it seemsto me, is that the lady should be tied to the chair."
"Well, I am not so clear about that, Watson; for it is evident that theymust either kill her or else secure her in such a way that she couldnot give immediate notice of their escape. But at any rate I have shown,have I not, that there is a certain element of improbability aboutthe lady's story? And now on the top of this comes the incident of thewine-glasses."