The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge Read Online Free Page A

companions
follow him and kill him? If they did we should have them, for every
port is watched. But my own views are different. Yes, sir, my own
views are very different."
    "You have a theory then?"
    "And I'll work it myself, Mr. Holmes. It's only due to my own credit
to do so. Your name is made, but I have still to make mine. I should
be glad to be able to say afterwards that I had solved it without your
help."
    Holmes laughed good-humoredly.
    "Well, well, Inspector," said he. "Do you follow your path and I will
follow mine. My results are always very much at your service if you
care to apply to me for them. I think that I have seen all that I wish
in this house, and that my time may be more profitably employed
elsewhere. Au revoir and good luck!"
    I could tell by numerous subtle signs, which might have been lost upon
anyone but myself, that Holmes was on a hot scent. As impassive as
ever to the casual observer, there were none the less a subdued
eagerness and suggestion of tension in his brightened eyes and brisker
manner which assured me that the game was afoot. After his habit he
said nothing, and after mine I asked no questions. Sufficient for me
to share the sport and lend my humble help to the capture without
distracting that intent brain with needless interruption. All would
come round to me in due time.
    I waited, therefore—but to my ever-deepening disappointment I waited
in vain. Day succeeded day, and my friend took no step forward. One
morning he spent in town, and I learned from a casual reference that he
had visited the British Museum. Save for this one excursion, he spent
his days in long and often solitary walks, or in chatting with a number
of village gossips whose acquaintance he had cultivated.
    "I'm sure, Watson, a week in the country will be invaluable to you," he
remarked. "It is very pleasant to see the first green shoots upon the
hedges and the catkins on the hazels once again. With a spud, a tin
box, and an elementary book on botany, there are instructive days to be
spent." He prowled about with this equipment himself, but it was a
poor show of plants which he would bring back of an evening.
    Occasionally in our rambles we came across Inspector Baynes. His fat,
red face wreathed itself in smiles and his small eyes glittered as he
greeted my companion. He said little about the case, but from that
little we gathered that he also was not dissatisfied at the course of
events. I must admit, however, that I was somewhat surprised when,
some five days after the crime, I opened my morning paper to find in
large letters:
    THE OXSHOTT MYSTERY
A SOLUTION
ARREST OF SUPPOSED ASSASSIN
    Holmes sprang in his chair as if he had been stung when I read the
headlines.
    "By Jove!" he cried. "You don't mean that Baynes has got him?"
    "Apparently," said I as I read the following report:
    "Great excitement was caused in Esher and the neighbouring district
when it was learned late last night that an arrest had been effected in
connection with the Oxshott murder. It will be remembered that Mr.
Garcia, of Wisteria Lodge, was found dead on Oxshott Common, his body
showing signs of extreme violence, and that on the same night his
servant and his cook fled, which appeared to show their participation
in the crime. It was suggested, but never proved, that the deceased
gentleman may have had valuables in the house, and that their
abstraction was the motive of the crime. Every effort was made by
Inspector Baynes, who has the case in hand, to ascertain the hiding
place of the fugitives, and he had good reason to believe that they had
not gone far but were lurking in some retreat which had been already
prepared. It was certain from the first, however, that they would
eventually be detected, as the cook, from the evidence of one or two
tradespeople who have caught a glimpse of him through the window, was a
man of most remarkable appearance—being a huge and hideous mulatto,
with yellowish features of a pronounced negroid type. This man