by L. E. Smart
"You may imagine, Ms. Holmes, that to me, destitute as I was, such an offer seemed almost too good to be true. The lady, however, seeing perhaps the look of incredulity upon my face, opened a pocket-book and took out a note.
"'It is also my custom,' said she, smiling in the most pleasant fashion until her eyes were just two little shining slits amid the white creases of her face, 'to advance to my young gentlemen half their salary beforehand, so that they may meet any little expenses of their journey and their wardrobe.'
"It seemed to me that I had never met so fascinating and so thoughtful a woman. As I was already in debt to my tradesmen, the advance was a great convenience, and yet there was something unnatural about the whole transaction which made me wish to know a little more before I quite committed myself.
"'May I ask where you live, madam?' said I.
"'Hampshire. Charming rural place. The Copper Beeches, five miles on the far side of Winchester. It is the most lovely country, my dear young gentleman, and the dearest old country-house.'
"'And my duties, madam? I should be glad to know what they would be.'
"'One child -- one dear little romper just six years old. Oh, if you could see her killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! smack! smack! Three gone before you could wink!' She leaned back in her chair and laughed her eyes into her head again.
"I was a little startled at the nature of the child's amusement, but the mother's laughter made me think that perhaps she was joking.
"'My sole duties, then,' I asked, 'are to take charge of a single child?'
"'No, no, not the sole, not the sole, my dear young gentleman,' she cried. 'Your duty would be, as I am sure your good sense would suggest, to obey any little commands my husband might give, provided always that they were such commands as a gentleman might with propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?'
"'I should be happy to make myself useful.'
"'Quite so. In dress now, for example. We are faddy people, you know -- faddy but kind-hearted. If you were asked to wear any shirt which we might give you, you would not object to our little whim. Heh?'
"'No,' said I, considerably astonished at her words.
"'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to you?'
"'Oh, no.'
"'Or to cut your hair quite short before you come to us?'
"I could hardly believe my ears. As you may observe, Ms. Holmes, my hair is somewhat luxuriant, and of a rather peculiar tint of chestnut. It has been considered artistic. I could not dream of sacrificing it in this offhand fashion.
"'I am afraid that that is quite impossible,' said I. She had been watching me eagerly out of her small eyes, and I could see a shadow pass over her face as I spoke.
"'I am afraid that it is quite essential,' said she. 'It is a little fancy of my husband's, and gentlemen' fancies, you know, sir, gentlemen' fancies must be consulted. And so you won't cut your hair?'
"'No, madam, I really could not,' I answered firmly.
"'Ah, very well; then that quite settles the matter. It is a pity, because in other respects you would really have done very nicely. In that case, Mister Stoper, I had best inspect a few more of your young gentlemen.'
"The manageress had sat all this while busy with his papers without a word to either of us, but he glanced at me now with so much annoyance upon his face that I could not help suspecting that he had lost a handsome commission through my refusal.
"'Do you desire your name to be kept upon the books?' he asked.
"'If you please, Mister Stoper.'
"'Well, really, it seems rather useless, since you refuse the most excellent offers in this fashion,' said he sharply. 'You can hardly expect us to exert ourselves to find another such opening for you. Good-day to you, Mister Hunter.' He struck a gong upon the table, and I was shown out by the page.
"Well, Ms. Holmes, when I got back to my lodgings and found little enough in the cupboard, and two or three bills upon the table, I began to ask myself whether I had not done a very foolish thing. After all, if these people had strange fads and expected obedience on the most extraordinary matters, they were at least ready to pay for their eccentricity. Very few governors in England are getting 100 pounds a year. Besides, what use was my hair to me? Many people are improved by wearing it short and perhaps I should be among the number. Next day I was inclined to think that I had made a mistake, and by the day after I was sure of it. I had almost overcome my pride so far as to go back to the agency and inquire whether the place was still open when I received this letter from the lady herself. I have it here and I will read it to you:
"'The Copper Beeches, near Winchester. "'DEAR MISS HUNTER: -- Mister Stoper has very kindly given me your address, and I write from here to ask you whether you have reconsidered your decision. My husband is very anxious that you should come, for he has been much attracted by my description of you. We are willing to give 30 pounds a quarter, or 120 pounds a year, so as to recompense you for any little inconvenience which our fads may cause you. They are not very exacting, after all. My husband is fond of a particular shade of electric blue and would like you to wear such a shirt indoors in the morning. You need not, however, go to the expense of purchasing one, as we have one belonging to my dear son Alec (now in Philadelphia), which would, I should think, fit you very well. Then, as to sitting here or there, or amusing yourself in any manner indicated, that need cause you no inconvenience. As regards your hair, it is no doubt a pity, especially as I could not help remarking its beauty during our short interview, but I am afraid that I must remain firm upon this point, and I only hope that the increased salary may recompense you for the loss. Your duties, as far as the child is concerned, are very light. Now do try to come, and I shall meet you with the dog-cart at Winchester. Let me know your train. Yours faithfully, JESS RUCASTLE.'
"That is the letter which I have just received, Ms. Holmes, and my mind is made up that I will accept it. I thought, however, that before taking the final step I should like to submit the whole matter to your consideration."
"Well, Mister Hunter, if your mind is made up, that settles the question," said Holmes, smiling.
"But you would not advise me to refuse?"
"I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to see a brother of mine apply for."
"What is the meaning of it all, Ms. Holmes?"
"Ah, I have no data. I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself formed some opinion?"
"Well, there seems to me to be only one possible solution. Ms. Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good-natured woman. Is it not possible that her husband is a lunatic, that she desires to keep the matter quiet for fear he should be taken to an asylum, and that she humours his fancies in every way in order to prevent an outbreak?"
"That is a possible solution -- in fact, as matters stand, it is the most probable one. But in any case it does not seem to be a nice household for a young gentleman."
"But the money, Ms. Holmes, the money!"
"Well, yes, of course the pay is good -- too good. That is what makes me uneasy. Why should they give you 120 pounds a year, when they could have their pick for 40 pounds? There must be some strong reason behind."
"I thought that if I told you the circumstances you would understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so much stronger if I felt that you were at the back of me."
"Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you. I assure you that your little problem promises to be the most interesting which has come my way for some months. There is something distinctly novel about some of the features. If you should find yourself in doubt or in danger -- "
"Danger! What danger do you foresee?"
Holmes shook her head gravely. "It would cease to be a danger if we could define it," said she. "But at any time, day or night, a telegram would bring me down to your help."
"That is enough." He rose briskly from his chair with the anxiety all swept from his face. "I shall go down to Hampshire quite easy in my mind now
. I shall write to Ms. Rucastle at once, sacrifice my poor hair tonight, and start for Winchester tomorrow." With a few grateful words to Holmes he bade us both good-night and bustled off upon his way.
"At least," said I as we heard his quick, firm steps descending the stairs, "he seems to be a young gentleman who is very well able to take care of himself."
"And he would need to be," said Holmes gravely. "I am much mistaken if we do not hear from him before many days are past."
It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled. A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my thoughts turning in his direction and wondering what strange side-alley of human experience this lonely man had strayed into. The unusual salary, the curious conditions, the light duties, all pointed to something abnormal, though whether a fad or a plot, or whether the woman were a philanthropist or a villain, it was quite beyond my powers to determine. As to Holmes, I observed that she sat frequently for half an hour on end, with knitted brows and an abstracted air, but she swept the matter away with a wave of her hand when I mentioned it. "Data! data! data!" she cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay." And yet she would always wind up by muttering that no brother of her should ever have accepted such a situation.
The telegram which we eventually received came late one night just as I was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down to one of those all-night chemical researches which she frequently indulged in, when I would leave her stooping over a retort and a test-tube at night and find her in the same position when I came down to breakfast in the morning. She opened the yellow envelope, and then, glancing at the message, threw it across to me.
"Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said she, and turned back to her chemical studies.
The summons was a brief and urgent one.
"Please be at the Black Swan Hotel at Winchester at midday tomorrow," it said. "Do come! I am at my wit's end. HUNTER."
"Will you come with me?" asked Holmes, glancing up.
"I should wish to."
"Just look it up, then."
"There is a train at half-past nine," said I, glancing over my Bradshaw. "It is due at Winchester at 11:30."
"That will do very nicely. Then perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the acetones, as we may need to be at our best in the morning."
By eleven o'clock the next day we were well upon our way to the old English capital. Holmes had been buried in the morning papers all the way down, but after we had passed the Hampshire border she threw them down and began to admire the scenery. It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a woman's energy. All over the countryside, away to the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and grey roofs of the farm-steadings peeped out from amid the light green of the new foliage.
"Are they not fresh and beautiful?" I cried with all the enthusiasm of a woman fresh from the fogs of Baker Street.
But Holmes shook her head gravely.
"Do you know, Watson," said she, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."
"Good heavens!" I cried. "Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?"
"They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside."
"You horrify me!"
"But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser. Had this gentleman who appeals to us for help gone to live in Winchester, I should never have had a fear for him. It is the five miles of country which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that he is not personally threatened."
"No. If he can come to Winchester to meet us he can get away."
"Quite so. He has his freedom."
"What CAN be the matter, then? Can you suggest no explanation?"
"I have devised seven separate explanations, each of which would cover the facts as far as we know them. But which of these is correct can only be determined by the fresh information which we shall no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the tower of the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all that Mister Hunter has to tell."
The Black Swan is an inn of repute in the High Street, at no distance from the station, and there we found the young gentleman waiting for us. He had engaged a sitting-room, and our lunch awaited us upon the table.
"I am so delighted that you have come," he said earnestly. "It is so very kind of you both; but indeed I do not know what I should do. Your advice will be altogether invaluable to me."
"Pray tell us what has happened to you."
"I will do so, and I must be quick, for I have promised Ms. Rucastle to be back before three. I got her leave to come into town this morning, though she little knew for what purpose."
"Let us have everything in its due order." Holmes thrust her long thin legs out towards the fire and composed herself to listen.
"In the first place, I may say that I have met, on the whole, with no actual ill-treatment from Ms. and Mr. Rucastle. It is only fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them, and I am not easy in my mind about them."
"What can you not understand?"
"Their reasons for their conduct. But you shall have it all just as it occurred. When I came down, Ms. Rucastle met me here and drove me in her dog-cart to the Copper Beeches. It is, as she said, beautifully situated, but it is not beautiful in itself, for it is a large square block of a house, whitewashed, but all stained and streaked with damp and bad weather. There are grounds round it, woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field which slopes down to the Southampton highroad, which curves past about a hundred yards from the front door. This ground in front belongs to the house, but the woods all round are part of Lady Southerton's preserves. A clump of copper beeches immediately in front of the hall door has given its name to the place.
"I was driven over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever, and was introduced by her that evening to her husband and the child. There was no truth, Ms. Holmes, in the conjecture which seemed to us to be probable in your rooms at Baker Street. Mr. Rucastle is not mad. I found him to be a silent, pale-faced man, much younger than his wife, not more than thirty, I should think, while she can hardly be less than forty-five. From their conversation I have gathered that they have been married about seven years, that she was a widow, and that her only child by the first husband was the son who has gone to Philadelphia. Ms. Rucastle told me in private that the reason why he had left them was that he had an unreasoning aversion to his stepfather. As the son could not have been less than twenty, I can quite imagine that his position must have been uncomfortable with his mother's young husband.
"Mr. Rucastle seemed to me to be colourless in mind as well as in feature. He impressed me neither favourably nor the reverse. He was a nonentity. It was easy to see that he was passionately devoted both to his wife and to his little daughter. His light grey eyes wandered continually from one to the other, noting every little wa
nt and forestalling it if possible. She was kind to him also in her bluff, boisterous fashion, and on the whole they seemed to be a happy couple. And yet he had some secret sorrow, this man. He would often be lost in deep thought, with the saddest look upon his face. More than once I have surprised him in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was the disposition of his child which weighed upon his mind, for I have never met so utterly spoiled and so ill-natured a little creature. She is small for her age, with a head which is quite disproportionately large. Her whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving pain to any creature weaker than herself seems to be her one idea of amusement, and she shows quite remarkable talent in planning the capture of mice, little birds, and insects. But I would rather not talk about the creature, Ms. Holmes, and, indeed, she has little to do with my story."
"I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they seem to you to be relevant or not."
"I shall try not to mister anything of importance. The one unpleasant thing about the house, which struck me at once, was the appearance and conduct of the servants. There are only two, a woman and her husband. Toller, for that is her name, is a rough, uncouth woman, with grizzled hair and whiskers, and a perpetual smell of drink. Twice since I have been with them she has been quite drunk, and yet Ms. Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it. Her husband is a very tall and strong man with a sour face, as silent as Mr. Rucastle and much less amiable. They are a most unpleasant couple, but fortunately I spend most of my time in the nursery and my own room, which are next to each other in one corner of the building.
"For two days after my arrival at the Copper Beeches my life was very quiet; on the third, Mr. Rucastle came down just after breakfast and whispered something to his wife.
