Sherlock Holmes and the Ghosts of Bly Read Online Free PDF

sardonic tone in my friend’s voice that the sparring was over. Holmes had got him and was about to land a decisive blow.
    â€œIn order that your conscience may lie quite easily …”
    I winced at the savage double meaning of this statement.
    â€œâ€¦ you may put it from your mind that Patrick Riley tried to commit suicide. He did not.”
    The headmaster’s smile went out like a light.
    â€œYou were not there, Mr Holmes. Several witnesses were. They saw him run at the train. In law, a man must be assumed to intend the natural and probable consequences of his acts. What would those consequences have been if the fireman had not seen him as the train emerged from the tunnel and the driver had not pulled on the brake at once?”
    Holmes relaxed, drew a sheet of notepaper from his breast pocket and handed it to Winter. I recalled that he had been compiling this from his shelves the evening before. It had not occurred to me to ask him what it was.
    â€œMr Winter,” he continued languidly, “you may examine the tables of coroners’ courts, not to mention the statistics of alienation. There you will find suicides of every description. Suicide by poison or firearms, by noose or by falling from a height, by drowning or by burning. It is very difficult to stab oneself, of course, which is why defeated generals of the ancient world ordered their servants to hold out a sword that they might run upon it.”
    â€œI have heard of that,” Winter snapped impatiently.
    â€œAnd to be sure, there are poor souls who have thrown themselves under the wheels of trains.”
    â€œThen you admit it?”
    Holmes ignored this.
    â€œYou will find from the evidence that they often lingered at the last moment or even waited patiently for a train to appear. Some fell in front of trains, some jumped, some stood or lay upon the rails. But you will search long and hard, Mr Winter—dare I say until hell freezes over?—before you find one who ran to die in front of a train, as if he feared being late for an appointment. Hesitation or uncertainty, procrastination or postponement, not precipitation, is the governing impulse.”
    Mr Winter had ignored the sheet of paper and stared hard at Sherlock Holmes during this recital. Now he blinked at the paper in his hand and then looked up again.
    â€œAnd so …” he began.
    â€œAnd so, Mr Winter, every statistic and every scrap of medical experience is against you on this. It is even less likely that Patrick Riley tried to commit suicide, which I do not hear that he has admitted, than that he stole the postal order. You have—to use a common expression—not a leg to stand on.”
    The headmaster swallowed gently and continued to stare. Holmes continued.
    â€œNow, sir, I fear we must put suicide out of the question. What remains is the testimony of Miss Henslowe, who attended the identification parade, and the opinion of Mr Thomas Gurrin on the handwriting. None of this evidence has been subject to challenge or examination. My task is therefore to let a little light into dark corners. Unless we are to be governed by the jurisprudence of the late Tomas de Torquemada, Patrick Riley’s protest of innocence stands firm unless—and until—proved otherwise. Why should anyone want to undermine it?”
    â€œNot I, Mr Holmes.” Like so many of our opponents who started out in bluff self-confidence, Reginald Winter was beginning to lose his nerve in the face of my friend’s meticulous rationality. The headmaster’s smooth face creased carefully to suggest a sincere alarm at being misunderstood. “I should be only too happy to find him innocent, if the evidence were not all the other way! Believe me, it does a school no good if an offence of this sort becomes public gossip. For Riley’s own sake the best course is to note the facts, not all of which are known to you yet, and to leave us quietly to do what