Eccles in a querulous voice, “but it is really uncommonly hardwpon me. I had nothing to do with my host going off upon anocturnal excursion and meeting so sad an end. How do I come tobe mixed up with the case?”
“Very simply, sir,” Inspector Baynes answered. “The onlydocument found in the pocket of the deceased was a letter fromyou saying that you would be with him on the night of his death.
It was the envelope of this letter which gave us the dead man’sname and address. It was after nine this morning when we reachedhis house and found neither you nor anyone else inside it. I wiredto Mr. Gregson to run you down in London while I examinedWisteria Lodge. Then I came into town, joined Mr. Gregson, andhere we are.”
“I think now,” said Gregson, rising, “we had best put this matterinto an official shape. You will come round with us to the station,Mr. Scott Eccles, and let us have your statement in writing.”
“Certainly, I will come at once. But I retain your services, Mr.
Holmes. I desire you to spare no expense and no pains to get at thetruth.”
My friend turned to the country inspector.
“I suppose that you have no objection to my collaborating withyou, Mr. Baynes?”
“Highly honoured, sir, I am sure.”
“You appear to have been very prompt and businesslike in allthat you have done. Was there any clue, may I ask, as to the exacthour that the man met his death?”
“He had been there since one o’clock. There was rain about thattime, and his death had certainly been before the rain.”
“But that is perfectly impossible, Mr. Baynes,” cried our client.
“His voice is unmistakable. I could swear to it that it was he whoaddressed me in my bedroom at that very hour.”
“Remarkable, but by no means impossible,” said Holmes,smiling.
“You have a clue?” asked Gregson.
“On the face of it the case is not a very complex one, though itcertainly presents some novel and interesting features. A furtherknowledge of facts is necessary before I would venture to give a finaland definite opinion. By the way, Mr. Baynes, did you find anythingremarkable besides this note in your examination of the house?”
The detective looked at my friend in a singular way.
“There were,” said he, “one or two very remarkable things.
Perhaps when I have finished at the police-station you would careto come out and give me your opinion of them.”
“I am entirely at your service,” said Sherlock Holmes, ringingthe bell. “You will show these gentlemen out, Mrs. Hudson, and1096 The Complete Sherlock Holmes
kindly send the boy with this telegram. He is to pay a five-shillingreply.”
We sat for some time in silence after our visitors had left.
Holmes smoked hard, with his browns drawn down over his keeneyes, and his head thrust forward in the eager way characteristicof the man.
“Well, Watson,” he asked, turning suddenly upon me, “what doyou make of it?”
“I can make nothing of this mystification of Scott Eccles.”
“But the crime?”
“Well, taken with the disappearance of the man’s companions,should say that they were in some way concerned in the murderand had fled from justice.”
“That is certainly a possible point of view. On the face of it youmust admit, however, that it is very strange that his two servantsshould have been in a conspiracy against him and should haveattacked him on the one night when he had a guest. They had himalone at their mercy every other night in the week.”
“Then why did they fly?”
“Quite so. Why did they fly? There is a big fact. Another bigfact is the remarkable experience of our client, Scott Eccles. Now,my dear Watson, is it beyond the limits of human ingenuity tofurnish an explanation which would cover both these big facts? Ifwere one which would also admit of the mysterious note with itsvery curious phraseology, why, then it would be worth acceptingas a temporary hypothesis. If the fresh facts which come to ourknowledge all fit themselves into the scheme, then our hypothesismay gradually become a solution.”
“But what is our hypothesis?”
Holmes leaned back in his chair with half-closed eyes.
“You must admit, my dear Watson, that the idea of a joke isimpossible. There were grave events afoot, as the sequel showed,and the coaxing of Scott Eccles to Wisteria Lodge had someconnection with them.”
“But what possible connection?”
“Let us take it link by link. There is, on the face of it, somethingunnatural about this strange and sudden friendship between theyoung Spaniard and Scott Eccles. It was the former who forcedthe pace. He called upon Eccles at the other end of London onthe very day after he first met him, and he kept in close touch withhim until he got him down to Esher. Now, what did he want withEccles? What could Eccles supply? I see no charm in the man. Henot particularly intelligent—not a man likely to be congenialto a quick-witted Latin. Why, then, was he picked out from allthe other people whom Garcia met as particularly suited to hisThe Adventure of Wisteria Lodge 1097
purpose? Has he any one outstanding quality? I say that he has. Heis the very type of conventional British respectability, and the veryman as a witness to impress another Briton. You saw yourself howneither of the inspectors dreamed of questioning his statement,extraordinary as it was.”
“But what was he to witness?”
“Nothing, as things turned out, but everything had they goneanother way. That is how I read the matter.”
“I see, he might have proved an alibi.”
