The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge Read Online Free Page B

has
been seen since the crime, for he was detected and pursued by Constable
Walters on the same evening, when he had the audacity to revisit
Wisteria Lodge. Inspector Baynes, considering that such a visit must
have some purpose in view and was likely, therefore, to be repeated,
abandoned the house but left an ambuscade in the shrubbery. The man
walked into the trap and was captured last night after a struggle in
which Constable Downing was badly bitten by the savage. We understand
that when the prison is brought before the magistrates a remand will be
applied for by the police, and that great developments are hoped from
his capture."
    "Really we must see Baynes at once," cried Holmes, picking up his hat.
"We will just catch him before he starts." We hurried down the village
street and found, as we had expected, that the inspector was just
leaving his lodgings.
    "You've seen the paper, Mr. Holmes?" he asked, holding one out to us.
    "Yes, Baynes, I've seen it. Pray don't think it a liberty if I give
you a word of friendly warning."
    "Of warning, Mr. Holmes?"
    "I have looked into this case with some care, and I am not convinced
that you are on the right lines. I don't want you to commit yourself
too far unless you are sure."
    "You're very kind, Mr. Holmes."
    "I assure you I speak for your good."
    It seemed to me that something like a wink quivered for an instant over
one of Mr. Baynes's tiny eyes.
    "We agreed to work on our own lines, Mr. Holmes. That's what I am
doing."
    "Oh, very good," said Holmes. "Don't blame me."
    "No, sir; I believe you mean well by me. But we all have our own
systems, Mr. Holmes. You have yours, and maybe I have mine."
    "Let us say no more about it."
    "You're welcome always to my news. This fellow is a perfect savage, as
strong as a cart-horse and as fierce as the devil. He chewed Downing's
thumb nearly off before they could master him. He hardly speaks a word
of English, and we can get nothing out of him but grunts."
    "And you think you have evidence that he murdered his late master?"
    "I didn't say so, Mr. Holmes; I didn't say so. We all have our little
ways. You try yours and I will try mine. That's the agreement."
    Holmes shrugged his shoulders as we walked away together. "I can't
make the man out. He seems to be riding for a fall. Well, as he says,
we must each try our own way and see what comes of it. But there's
something in Inspector Baynes which I can't quite understand."
    "Just sit down in that chair, Watson," said Sherlock Holmes when we had
returned to our apartment at the Bull. "I want to put you in touch
with the situation, as I may need your help to-night. Let me show you
the evolution of this case so far as I have been able to follow it.
Simple as it has been in its leading features, it has none the less
presented surprising difficulties in the way of an arrest. There are
gaps in that direction which we have still to fill.
    "We will go back to the note which was handed in to Garcia upon the
evening of his death. We may put aside this idea of Baynes's that
Garcia's servants were concerned in the matter. The proof of this lies
in the fact that it was
he
who had arranged for the presence of Scott
Eccles, which could only have been done for the purpose of an alibi.
It was Garcia, then, who had an enterprise, and apparently a criminal
enterprise, in hand that night in the course of which he met his death.
I say 'criminal' because only a man with a criminal enterprise desires
to establish an alibi. Who, then, is most likely to have taken his
life? Surely the person against whom the criminal enterprise was
directed. So far it seems to me that we are on safe ground.
    "We can now see a reason for the disappearance of Garcia's household.
They were
all
confederates in the same unknown crime. If it came off
when Garcia returned, any possible suspicion would be warded off by the
Englishman's evidence, and all would be well. But the attempt was a
dangerous one, and if Garcia did
not
return by a certain