The Secret Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes Read Online Free PDF Page B

inside the cupboard, Barker released some hidden catch at which the whole set of shelves swung inwards like a door.
    With a silent gesture of one hand, Lord Deerswood invited us to enter, which we did, followed by his lordship.
    Beyond lay a room of a similar size to the one which we had just vacated but so different in its furnishings and appearance that it was like entering another world. In place of the plain drugget, a thick carpet lay upon the floor while hangings of a similar richness disguised the shutters at the window in front of which stood a small reading table and an armchair. Other luxuries in the form of paintings and bookcases occupied the walls and the chimney alcoves where, on the hearth, a bright coal fire was burning.
    The only incongruous fittings in this otherwise comfortably appointed chamber were the high iron guard which stood before the fire, the fine mesh screen over the window which would have been invisible from outside, and, most disturbing of all, a pair of leather straps fastened to the frame of a bed which was placed against the wall to the immediate right of the doorway.
    On the bed, under the linen sheets and the thick embroidered quilt, lay a young man, so heavily asleep that I suspected he had been drugged. He neither stirred nor opened his eyes aswe entered but lay immobile, his head resting on the monogrammed pillows.
    It was a tragic face despite its youthfulness for the man was only in his mid-twenties, but so ravaged that the features appeared those of someone much older who had endured many dark and bitter experiences.
    ‘My nephew, the Marquis of Deerswood,’ his lordship announced.
    He was standing at the foot of the bed, gazing down at the motionless figure, his face as drawn and as haggard as the young man’s with an expression of agonised compassion.
    ‘If you have seen enough, gentlemen,’ he continued as Holmes and I remained silent, ‘I suggest we retire to the library where I shall give you a full account of how my nephew came to be reduced to this pitiable state. I know I may trust your discretion. Your reputation in that respect has also followed you.’
    Again Holmes inclined his head and, preceded by Lord Hindsdale, to accord him his proper title, we vacated the chamber and returned downstairs to the library where, on his lordship’s invitation, we seated ourselves before the fire.
III
    However, it was Holmes who opened the interview, pressed to do so by Lord Hindsdale.
    ‘Before I begin my own account,’ he said, ‘I should prefer to hear yours, Mr Holmes. It might save my having to repeat certain facts with which you may already be acquainted. Besides, I am curious to know by what methods you have so far proceeded in discovering the truth.’
    ‘I know only what I have deduced from my own observations and a little research I undertook after Miss Russell and her solicitor first requested me to inquire into the case,’ Holmes replied. ‘There is no need for me to repeat her account of what she saw in the grounds of Hartsdene Manor; she has already given it to you herself. However, I should like to explain thather concern arose not out of idle curiosity or from a desire to spread scandal. She was – is – genuinely fond of your nephew and it was for his sake that she consulted me.
    ‘Her statement prompted me to look up in my own records the newspaper reports of your nephew’s apparent death in a boating accident last summer in Scotland. However, as I have already explained to my colleague, Dr Watson, certain features about the tragedy intrigued me. My curiosity was further aroused by Miss Russell’s account of her first meeting with the young Marquis which occurred when he fell and hit his head while climbing over a stile.
    ‘And then there was your family history, Lord Hindsdale, which went part of the way to solving your nephew’s apparent return from the dead. It involved the arrest of one of your ancestors for his part in the Babington Plot in