His Last Bow An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes

Arthur Conan Doyle This text is provided to you “as-is” without any warranty. No warranties of any kind, expressed or implied, are made to you as to the text or any medium it may be on, including but not limited to warranties of merchantablity or fitness for a particular purpose. This text was formatted from various free ASCII and HTML variants. See http://sherlock-holm.esfor an electronic form of this text and additional information about it. This text comes from the collection’s version 3.1. t was nine o’clock at night upon the sec- Then one comes suddenly upon something very ond of August—the most terrible August hard, and you know that you have reached the in the history of the world. One might limit and must adapt yourself to the fact. They I have thought already that God’s curse have, for example, their insular conventions which hung heavy over a degenerate world, for there was simply must be observed.” an awesome hush and a feeling of vague expectancy “Meaning ‘good form’ and that sort of thing?” in the sultry and stagnant air. The sun had long Von Bork sighed as one who had suffered much. set, but one blood-red gash like an open wound lay low in the distant west. Above, the stars were shin- “Meaning British prejudice in all its queer man- ing brightly, and below, the lights of the shipping ifestations. As an example I may quote one of my glimmered in the bay. The two famous Germans own worst blunders—I can afford to talk of my stood beside the stone parapet of the garden walk, blunders, for you know my work well enough to be with the long, low, heavily gabled house behind aware of my successes. It was on my first arrival. I them, and they looked down upon the broad sweep was invited to a week-end gathering at the country of the beach at the foot of the great chalk cliff in house of a cabinet minister. The conversation was which Von Bork, like some wandering eagle, had amazingly indiscreet.” perched himself four years before. They stood with Von Bork nodded. “I’ve been there,” said he their heads close together, talking in low, confi- dryly. dential tones. From below the two glowing ends “Exactly. Well, I naturally sent a resume of of their cigars might have been the smouldering the information to Berlin. Unfortunately our good eyes of some malignant fiend looking down in the chancellor is a little heavy-handed in these matters, darkness. and he transmitted a remark which showed that he A remarkable man this Von Bork—a man who was aware of what had been said. This, of course, could hardly be matched among all the devoted took the trail straight up to me. You’ve no idea the agents of the Kaiser. It was his talents which had harm that it did me. There was nothing soft about first recommended him for the English mission, our British hosts on that occasion, I can assure you. the most important mission of all, but since he I was two years living it down. Now you, with this had taken it over those talents had become more sporting pose of yours—” and more manifest to the half-dozen people in the “No, no, don’t call it a pose. A pose is an ar- world who were really in touch with the truth. One tificial thing. This is quite natural. I am a born of these was his present companion, Baron Von sportsman. I enjoy it.” Herling, the chief secretary of the legation, whose “Well, that makes it the more effective. You huge 100-horse-power Benz car was blocking the yacht against them, you hunt with them, you play country lane as it waited to waft its owner back to polo, you match them in every game, your four-in- London. hand takes the prize at Olympia. I have even heard “So far as I can judge the trend of events, you that you go the length of boxing with the young will probably be back in Berlin within the week,” officers. What is the result? Nobody takes you se- the secretary was saying. “When you get there, my riously. You are a ‘good old sport,’ ‘quite a decent dear Von Bork, I think you will be surprised at the fellow for a German,’ a hard-drinking, night-club, welcome you will receive. I happen to know what knock-about-town, devil-may-care young fellow. is thought in the highest quarters of your work in And all the time this quiet country house of yours this country.” He was a huge man, the secretary, is the centre of half the mischief in England, and the deep, broad, and tall, with a slow, heavy fashion sporting squire the most astute secret-service man of speech which had been his main asset in his in Europe. Genius, my dear Von Bork—genius!” political career. “You flatter me, Baron. But certainly I may Von Bork laughed. claim my four years in this country have not been “They are not very hard to deceive,” he re- unproductive. I’ve never shown you my little store. marked. “A more docile, simple folk could not Would you mind stepping in for a moment?” be imagined.” The door of the study opened straight on to the “I don’t know about that,” said the other terrace. Von Bork pushed it back, and, leading the thoughtfully. “They have strange limits and one way, he clicked the switch of the electric light. He must learn to observe them. It is that surface sim- then closed the door behind the bulky form which plicity of theirs which makes a trap for the stranger. followed him and carefully adjusted the heavy cur- One’s first impression is that they are entirely soft. tain over the latticed window. Only when all these

1 precautions had been taken and tested did he turn drawn it disclosed a large, brass-bound safe. Von his sunburned aquiline face to his guest. Bork detached a small key from his watch chain, “Some of my papers have gone,” said he. and after some considerable manipulation of the “When my wife and the household left yesterday lock he swung open the heavy door. for Flushing they took the less important with them. I must, of course, claim the protection of the em- “Look!” said he, standing clear, with a wave of bassy for the others.” his hand. “Your name has already been filed as one of the personal suite. There will be no difficulties for you The light shone vividly into the opened safe, or your baggage. Of course, it is just possible that and the secretary of the embassy gazed with an we may not have to go. England may leave France absorbed interest at the rows of stuffed pigeon- to her fate. We are sure that there is no binding holes with which it was furnished. Each pigeon- treaty between them.” hole had its label, and his eyes as he glanced “And Belgium?” along them read a long series of such titles as “Fords,” “Harbour-defences,” “Aeroplanes,” “Ire- “Yes, and Belgium, too.” land,” “Egypt,” “Portsmouth forts,” “The Channel,” Von Bork shook his head. “I don’t see how that “Rosythe,” and a score of others. Each compartment could be. There is a definite treaty there. She could was bristling with papers and plans. never recover from such a humiliation.” “She would at least have peace for the moment.” “Colossal!” said the secretary. Putting down his “But her honor?” cigar he softly clapped his fat hands. “Tut, my dear sir, we live in a utilitarian age. Honour is a mediaeval conception. Besides Eng- “And all in four years, Baron. Not such a bad land is not ready. It is an inconceivable thing, but show for the hard-drinking, hard-riding country even our special war tax of fifty million, which one squire. But the gem of my collection is coming and would think made our purpose as clear as if we there is the setting all ready for it.” He pointed to a had advertised it on the front page of the Times, has space over which “Naval Signals” was printed. not roused these people from their slumbers. Here and there one hears a question. It is my business “But you have a good dossier there already.” to find an answer. Here and there also there is an irritation. It is my business to soothe it. But I can “Out of date and waste paper. The Admiralty assure you that so far as the essentials go—the stor- in some way got the alarm and every code has age of munitions, the preparation for submarine been changed. It was a blow, Baron—the worst attack, the arrangements for making high explo- setback in my whole campaign. But thanks to my sives—nothing is prepared. How, then, can Eng- check-book and the good Altamont all will be well land come in, especially when we have stirred her to-night.” up such a devil’s brew of Irish civil war, window- breaking Furies, and God knows what to keep her The Baron looked at his watch and gave a gut- thoughts at home.” tural exclamation of disappointment. “She must think of her future.” “Ah, that is another matter. I fancy that in the “Well, I really can wait no longer. You can imag- future we have our own very definite plans about ine that things are moving at present in Carlton England, and that your information will be very Terrace and that we have all to be at our posts. I vital to us. It is to-day or to-morrow with Mr. John had hoped to be able to bring news of your great Bull. If he prefers to-day we are perfectly ready. coup. Did Altamont name no hour?” If it is to-morrow we shall be more ready still. I should think they would be wiser to fight with al- Von Bork pushed over a telegram. lies than without them, but that is their own affair. This week is their week of destiny. But you were speaking of your papers.” He sat in the armchair with the light shining upon his broad bald head, Will come without fail to-night and while he puffed sedately at his cigar. bring new sparking plugs. The large oak-panelled, book-lined room had a curtain hung in the future corner. When this was — —Altamont.

2 “Sparking plugs, eh?” a table, was a dear old ruddy-faced woman in a “You see he poses as a motor expert and I keep country cap. She was bending over her knitting a full garage. In our code everything likely to come and stopping occasionally to stroke a large black up is named after some spare part. If he talks of a cat upon a stool beside her. radiator it is a battleship, of an oil pump a cruiser, “That is Martha, the only servant I have left.” and so on. Sparking plugs are naval signals.” The secretary chuckled. “From Portsmouth at midday,” said the secre- “She might almost personify Britannia,” said tary, examining the superscription. “By the way, he, “with her complete self-absorption and general what do you give him?” air of comfortable somnolence. Well, au revoir, Von “Five hundred pounds for this particular job. Bork!” With a final wave of his hand he sprang into Of course he has a salary as well.” the car, and a moment later the two golden cones “The greedy rouge. They are useful, these from the headlights shot through the darkness. The traitors, but I grudge them their blood money.” secretary lay back in the cushions of the luxurious limousine, with his thoughts so full of the impend- “I grudge Altamont nothing. He is a wonder- ing European tragedy that he hardly observed that ful worker. If I pay him well, at least he deliv- as his car swung round the village street it nearly ers the goods, to use his own phrase. Besides he passed over a little Ford coming in the opposite is not a traitor. I assure you that our most pan- direction. Germanic Junker is a sucking dove in his feelings towards England as compared with a real bitter Von Bork walked slowly back to the study when Irish-American.” the last gleams of the motor lamps had faded into the distance. As he passed he observed that his “Oh, an Irish-American?” old housekeeper had put out her lamp and retired. “If you heard him talk you would not doubt it. It was a new experience to him, the silence and Sometimes I assure you I can hardly understand darkness of his widespread house, for his family him. He seems to have declared war on the King’s and household had been a large one. It was a re- English as well as on the English king. Must you lief to him, however, to think that they were all in really go? He may be here any moment.” safety and that, but for that one old woman who “No. I’m sorry, but I have already overstayed had lingered in the kitchen, he had the whole place my time. We shall expect you early to-morrow, and to himself. There was a good deal of tidying up when you get that signal book through the little to do inside his study and he set himself to do it door on the Duke of York’s steps you can put a until his keen, handsome face was flushed with the triumphant finis to your record in England. What! heat of the burning papers. A leather valise stood Tokay!” He indicated a heavily sealed dust-covered beside his table, and into this he began to pack very bottle which stood with two high glasses upon a neatly and systematically the precious contents of salver. his safe. He had hardly got started with the work, “May I offer you a glass before your journey?” however, when his quick ears caught the sounds of a distant car. Instantly he gave an exclamation of “No, thanks. But it looks like revelry.” satisfaction, strapped up the valise, shut the safe, “Altamont has a nice taste in wines, and he took locked it, and hurried out on to the terrace. He was a fancy to my Tokay. He is a touchy fellow and just in time to see the lights of a small car come to needs humouring in small things. I have to study a halt at the gate. A passenger sprang out of it and him, I assure you.” They had strolled out on to advanced swiftly towards him, while the chauffeur, the terrace again, and along it to the further end a heavily built, elderly man with a gray moustache, where at a touch from the Baron’s chauffeur the settled down like one who resigns himself to a long great car shivered and chuckled. “Those are the vigil. lights of Harwich, I suppose,” said the secretary, “Well?” asked Von Bork eagerly, running for- pulling on his dust coat. “How still and peaceful ward to meet his visitor. it all seems. There may be other lights within the week, and the English coast a less tranquil place! For answer the man waved a small brown-paper The heavens, too, may not be quite so peaceful if parcel triumphantly above his head. all that the good Zeppelin promises us comes true. “You can give me the glad hand to-night, mis- By the way, who is that?” ter,” he cried. “I’m bringing home the bacon at Only one window showed a light behind them; last.” in it there stood a lamp, and beside it, seated at “The signals?”

3 “Same as I said in my cable. Every last one “My, but that was smart! You had it down to a of them, semaphore, lamp code, Marconi—a copy, fine thing.” mind you, not the original. That was too danger- “Yes, a few of us even then could have guessed ous. But it’s the real goods, and you can lay to that.” the date. Here it is, and I’m shutting down to- He slapped the German upon the shoulder with a morrow morning.” rough familiarity from which the other winced. “Well, I guess you’ll have to fix me up also. I’m “Come in,” he said. “I’m all alone in the house. not staying is this gol-darned country all on my I was only waiting for this. Of course a copy is lonesome. In a week or less, from what I see, John better than the original. If an original were missing Bull will be on his hind legs and fair ramping. I’d they would change the whole thing. You think it’s rather watch him from over the water.” all safe about the copy?” “But you’re an American citizen?” The Irish-American had entered the study and “Well, so was Jack James an American citizen, stretched his long limbs from the armchair. He was but he’s doing time in Portland all the same. It cuts a tall, gaunt man of sixty, with clear-cut features no ice with a British copper to tell him you’re an and a small goatee beard which gave him a general American citizen. ‘It’s British law and order over resemblance to the caricatures of Uncle Sam. A here,’ says he. By the way, mister, talking of Jack half-smoked, sodden cigar hung from the corner of James, it seems to me you don’t do much to cover his mouth, and as he sat down he struck a match your men.” and relit it. “Making ready for a move?” he re- “What do you mean?” Von Bork asked sharply. marked as he looked round him. “Say, mister,” he “Well, you are their employer, ain’t you? It’s up added, as his eyes fell upon the safe from which to you to see that they don’t fall down. But they do the curtain was now removed, “you don’t tell me fall down, and when did you ever pick them up? you keep your papers in that?” There’s James—” “Why not?” “It was James’s own fault. You know that your- “Gosh, in a wide-open contraption like that! self. He was too self-willed for the job.” And they reckon you to be some spy. Why, a Yan- “James was a bonehead—I give you that. Then kee crook would be into that with a can-opener. If there was Hollis.” I’d known that any letter of mine was goin’ to lie “The man was mad.” loose in a thing like that I’d have been a mug to “Well, he went a bit woozy towards the end. It’s write to you at all.” enough to make a man bug-house when he has to “It would puzzle any crook to force that safe,” play a part from morning to night with a hundred Von Bork answered. “You won’t cut that metal with guys all ready to set the coppers wise to him. But any tool.” now there is Steiner—” “But the lock?” Von Bork started violently, and his ruddy face turned a shade paler. “No, it’s a double combination lock. You know “What about Steiner?” what that is?” “Well, they’ve got him, that’s all. They raided “Search me,” said the American. his store last night, and he and his papers are all “Well, you need a word as well as a set of fig- in Portsmouth jail. You’ll go off and he, poor devil, ures before you can get the lock to work.” He rose will have to stand the racket, and lucky if he gets and showed a double-radiating disc round the key- off with his life. That’s why I want to get over the hole. “This outer one is for the letters, the inner water as soon as you do.” one for the figures.” Von Bork was a strong, self-contained man, but “Well, well, that’s fine.” it was easy to see that the news had shaken him. “How could they have got on to Steiner?” he “So it’s not quite as simple as you thought. It muttered. “That’s the worst blow yet.” was four years ago that I had it made, and what do you think I chose for the word and figures?” “Well, you nearly had a worse one, for I believe they are not far off me.” “It’s beyond me.” “You don’t mean that!” “Well, I chose August for the word, and 1914 “Sure thing. My landlady down Fratton way for the figures, and here we are.” had some inquiries, and when I heard of it I The American’s face showed his surprise and guessed it was time for me to hustle. But what admiration. I want to know, mister, is how the coppers know

4 these things? Steiner is the fifth man you’ve lost you understand?” he added, looking back over his since I signed on with you, and I know the name shoulder at the American. “There’s the check upon of the sixth if I don’t get a move on. How do you the table. I claim the right to examine that parcel explain it, and ain’t you ashamed to see your men before you pick the money up.” go down like this?” The American passed it over without a word. Von Bork flushed crimson. Von Bork undid a winding of string and two wrap- pers of paper. Then he sat dazing for a moment in “How dare you speak in such a way!” silent amazement at a small blue book which lay “If I didn’t dare things, mister, I wouldn’t be in before him. Across the cover was printed in golden your service. But I’ll tell you straight what is in my letters Practical Handbook of Bee Culture. Only for mind. I’ve heard that with you German politicians one instant did the master spy glare at this strangely when an agent has done his work you are not sorry irrelevant inscription. The next he was gripped at to see him put away.” the back of his neck by a grasp of iron, and a chlo- Von Bork sprang to his feet. roformed sponge was held in front of his writhing “Do you dare to suggest that I have given away face. my own agents!” “Another glass, Watson!” said Mr. Sherlock Holmes as he extended the bottle of Imperial Tokay. “I don’t stand for that, mister, but there’s a stool The thickset chauffeur, who had seated himself pigeon or a cross somewhere, and it’s up to you to by the table, pushed forward his glass with some find out where it is. Anyhow I am taking no more eagerness. chances. It’s me for little Holland, and the sooner the better.” “It is a good wine, Holmes.” “A remarkable wine, Watson. Our friend upon Von Bork had mastered his anger. the sofa has assured me that it is from Franz Josef’s “We have been allies too long to quarrel now at special cellar at the Schoenbrunn Palace. Might I the very hour of victory,” he said. “You’ve done trouble you to open the window, for chloroform splendid work and taken risks, and I can’t forget it. vapour does not help the palate.” By all means go to Holland, and you can get a boat The safe was ajar, and Holmes standing in front from Rotterdam to New York. No other line will be of it was removing dossier after dossier, swiftly safe a week from now. I’ll take that book and pack examining each, and then packing it neatly in Von it with the rest.” Bork’s valise. The German lay upon the sofa sleep- The American held the small parcel in his hand, ing stertorously with a strap round his upper arms but made no motion to give it up. and another round his legs. “What about the dough?” he asked. “We need not hurry ourselves, Watson. We are safe from interruption. Would you mind touching “The what?” the bell? There is no one in the house except old “The boodle. The reward. The £500. The gun- Martha, who has played her part to admiration. ner turned damned nasty at the last, and I had I got her the situation here when first I took the to square him with an extra hundred dollars or it matter up. Ah, Martha, you will be glad to hear would have been nitsky for you and me. ‘Nothin’ that all is well.” doin’!’ says he, and he meant it, too, but the last The pleasant old lady had appeared in the door- hundred did it. It’s cost me two hundred pound way. She curtseyed with a smile to Mr. Holmes, but from first to last, so it isn’t likely I’d give it up glanced with some apprehension at the figure upon without gettin’ my wad.” the sofa. Von Bork smiled with some bitterness. “You “It is all right, Martha. He has not been hurt at don’t seem to have a very high opinion of my hon- all.” our,” said he, “you want the money before you give “I am glad of that, Mr. Holmes. According to up the book.” his lights he has been a kind master. He wanted “Well, mister, it is a business proposition.” me to go with his wife to Germany yesterday, but “All right. Have your way.” He sat down at the that would hardly have suited your plans, would it, table and scribbled a check, which he tore from sir?” the book, but he refrained from handing it to his “No, indeed, Martha. So long as you were here companion. “After all, since we are to be on such I was easy in my mind. We waited some time for terms, Mr. Altamont,” said he, “I don’t see why I your signal to-night.” should trust you any more than you trust me. Do “It was the secretary, sir.”

5 “I know. His car passed ours.” He picked up the volume from the table and read “I thought he would never go. I knew that it out the whole title, Practical Handbook of Bee Cul- would not suit your plans, sir, to find him here.” ture, with Some Observations upon the Segregation of the Queen. “Alone I did it. Behold the fruit of pen- “No, indeed. Well, it only meant that we waited sive nights and laborious days when I watched the half an hour or so until I saw your lamp go out little working gangs as once I watched the criminal and knew that the coast was clear. You can report world of London.” to me to-morrow in London, Martha, at Claridge’s Hotel.” “But how did you get to work again?” “Very good, sir.” “Ah, I have often marvelled at it myself. The “I suppose you have everything ready to leave.” Foreign Minister alone I could have withstood, but “Yes, sir. He posted seven letters to-day. I have when the Premier also deigned to visit my humble the addresses as usual.” roof—! The fact is, Watson, that this gentleman “Very good, Martha. I will look into them to- upon the sofa was a bit too good for our people. morrow. Good-night. These papers,” he continued He was in a class by himself. Things were going as the old lady vanished, “are not of very great wrong, and no one could understand why they importance, for, of course, the information which were going wrong. Agents were suspected or even they represent has been sent off long ago to the caught, but there was evidence of some strong and German government. These are the originals which secret central force. It was absolutely necessary to cold not safely be got out of the country.” expose it. Strong pressure was brought upon me to look into the matter. It has cost me two years, “Then they are of no use.” Watson, but they have not been devoid of excite- “I should not go so far as to say that, Wat- ment. When I say that I started my pilgrimage son. They will at least show our people what is at Chicago, graduated in an Irish secret society at known and what is not. I may say that a good Buffalo, gave serious trouble to the constabulary at many of these papers have come through me, and Skibbareen, and so eventually caught the eye of a I need not add are thoroughly untrustworthy. It subordinate agent of Von Bork, who recommended would brighten my declining years to see a Ger- me as a likely man, you will realize that the matter man cruiser navigating the Solent according to the was complex. Since then I have been honoured by mine-field plans which I have furnished. But you, his confidence, which has not prevented most of Watson”—he stopped his work and took his old his plans going subtly wrong and five of his best friend by the shoulders—“I’ve hardly seen you in agents being in prison. I watched them, Watson, the light yet. How have the years used you? You and I picked them as they ripened. Well, sir, I hope look the same blithe boy as ever.” that you are none the worse!” “I feel twenty years younger, Holmes. I have The last remark was addressed to Von Bork him- seldom felt so happy as when I got your wire ask- self, who after much gasping and blinking had lain ing me to meet you at Harwich with the car. But quietly listening to Holmes’s statement. He broke you, Holmes—you have changed very little—save out now into a furious stream of German invective, for that horrible goatee.” his face convulsed with passion. Holmes contin- “These are the sacrifices one makes for one’s ued his swift investigation of documents while his country, Watson,” said Holmes, pulling at his little prisoner cursed and swore. tuft. “To-morrow it will be but a dreadful mem- ory. With my hair cut and a few other superficial “Though unmusical, German is the most ex- changes I shall no doubt reappear at Claridge’s to- pressive of all languages,” he observed when Von morrow as I was before this American stunt—I beg Bork had stopped from pure exhaustion. “Hullo! your pardon, Watson, my well of English seems to Hullo!” he added as he looked hard at the corner of be permanently defiled—before this American job a tracing before putting it in the box. “This should came my way.” put another bird in the cage. I had no idea that the “But you have retired, Holmes. We heard of paymaster was such a rascal, though I have long you as living the life of a hermit among your bees had an eye upon him. Mister Von Bork, you have a and your books in a small farm upon the South great deal to answer for.” Downs.” The prisoner had raised himself with some diffi- “Exactly, Watson. Here is the fruit of my culty upon the sofa and was staring with a strange leisured ease, the magnum opus of my latter years!” mixture of amazement and hatred at his captor.

6 “I shall get level with you, Altamont,” he said, done my best for mine, and what could be more speaking with slow deliberation. “If it takes me all natural? Besides,” he added, not unkindly, as he my life I shall get level with you!” laid his hand upon the shoulder of the prostrate “The old sweet song,” said Holmes. “How of- man, “it is better than to fall before some ignoble ten have I heard it in days gone by. It was a fa- foe. These papers are now ready, Watson. If you vorite ditty of the late lamented Professor Moriarty. will help me with our prisoner, I think that we may Colonel Sebastian Moran has also been known to get started for London at once.” warble it. And yet I live and keep bees upon the It was no easy task to move Von Bork, for he South Downs.” was a strong and a desperate man. Finally, hold- “Curse you, you double traitor!” cried the Ger- ing either arm, the two friends walked him very man, straining against his bonds and glaring mur- slowly down the garden walk which he had trod der from his furious eyes. with such proud confidence when he received the congratulations of the famous diplomatist only a “No, no, it is not so bad as that,” said Holmes, few hours before. After a short, final struggle he smiling. “As my speech surely shows you, Mr. Al- was hoisted, still bound hand and foot, into the tamont of Chicago had no existence in fact. I used spare seat of the little car. His precious valise was him and he is gone.” wedged in beside him. “Then who are you?” “I trust that you are as comfortable as circum- “It is really immaterial who I am, but since the stances permit,” said Holmes when the final ar- matter seems to interest you, Mr. Von Bork, I may rangements were made. “Should I be guilty of a say that this is not my first acquaintance with the liberty if I lit a cigar and placed it between your members of your family. I have done a good deal lips?” of business in Germany in the past and my name But all amenities were wasted upon the angry is probably familiar to you.” German. “I would wish to know it,” said the Prussian “I suppose you realize, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” grimly. said he, “that if your government bears you out in “It was I who brought about the separation be- this treatment it becomes an act of war.” tween Irene Adler and the late King of Bohemia “What about your government and all this treat- when your cousin Heinrich was the Imperial En- ment?” said Holmes, tapping the valise. voy. It was I also who saved from murder, by the Nihilist Klopman, Count Von und Zu Grafenstein, “You are a private individual. You have no who was your mother’s elder brother. It was I—” warrant for my arrest. The whole proceeding is absolutely illegal and outrageous.” Von Bork sat up in amazement. “Absolutely,” said Holmes. “There is only one man,” he cried. “Kidnapping a German subject.” “Exactly,” said Holmes. “And stealing his private papers.” Von Bork groaned and sank back on the sofa. “Well, you realize your position, you and your “And most of that information came through you,” accomplice here. If I were to shout for help as we he cried. “What is it worth? What have I done? It pass through the village—” is my ruin forever!” “My dear sir, if you did anything so foolish you “It is certainly a little untrustworthy,” said would probably enlarge the two limited titles of our Holmes. “It will require some checking and you village inns by giving us ‘The Dangling Prussian’ have little time to check it. Your admiral may find as a signpost. The Englishman is a patient creature, the new guns rather larger than he expects, and the but at present his temper is a little inflamed, and cruisers perhaps a trifle faster.” it would be as well not to try him too far. No, Mr. Von Bork clutched at his own throat in despair. Von Bork, you will go with us in a quiet, sensible “There are a good many other points of detail fashion to Scotland Yard, whence you can send for which will, no doubt, come to light in good time. your friend, Baron Von Herling, and see if even now But you have one quality which is very rare in a you may not fill that place which he has reserved German, Mr. Von Bork: you are a sportsman and for you in the ambassadorial suite. As to you, Wat- you will bear me no ill-will when you realize that son, you are joining us with your old service, as I you, who have outwitted so many other people, understand, so London won’t be out of your way. have at last been outwitted yourself. After all, you Stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be have done your best for your country, and I have the last quiet talk that we shall ever have.”

7 The two friends chatted in intimate converse for all the same, such a wind as never blew on Eng- a few minutes, recalling once again the days of the land yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a past, while their prisoner vainly wriggled to undo good many of us may wither before its blast. But the bonds that held him. As they turned to the car it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, Holmes pointed back to the moonlit sea and shook better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when a thoughtful head. the storm has cleared. Start her up, Watson, for it’s “There’s an east wind coming, Watson.” time that we were on our way. I have a check for “I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.” five hundred pounds which should be cashed early, “Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point for the drawer is quite capable of stopping it if he in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming can.”

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