Picture Dictionary & Books : Free for English Learner!

"I am convinced myself," said I, "that there is an understanding between those two people. She must be a heartless creature to sit laughing at some jest within a few hours of her husband's murder."

"Exactly. She does not shine as a wife even in her own account of what occurred.

I am not a whole-souled admirer of womankind, as you are aware, Watson, but my experience of life has taught me that there are few wives, having any regard for their husbands, who would let any man's spoken word stand between them and that husband's dead body.

Should I ever marry, Watson, I should hope to inspire my wife with some feeling which would prevent her from being walked off by a housekeeper when my corpse was lying within a few yards of her.

It was badly stage-managed; for even the rawest investigators must be struck by the absence of the usual feminine ululation.

If there had been nothing else, this incident alone would have suggested a prearranged conspiracy to my mind."

"You think then, definitely, that Barker and Mrs. Douglas are guilty of the murder?"

"There is an appalling directness about your questions, Watson," said Holmes, shaking his pipe at me.

"They come at me like bullets.

If you put it that Mrs. Douglas and Barker know the truth about the murder, and are conspiring to conceal it, then I can give you a whole-souled answer.

I am sure they do.

But your more deadly proposition is not so clear.

Let us for a moment consider the difficulties which stand in the way.

"We will suppose that this couple are united by the bonds of a guilty love, and that they have determined to get rid of the man who stands betw een them.

It is a large supposition; for discreet inquiry among servants and others has failed to corroborate it in any way.

On the contrary, there is a good deal of evidence that the Douglases were very attached to each other."

"That, I am sure, cannot he true," said I, thinking of the beautiful smiling face in the garden.

"Well at least they gave that impression. However, we will suppose that they are an extraordinarily astute couple, who deceive everyone upon this point, and conspire to murder the husband. He happens to be a man over whose head some danger hangs-"

"We have only their word for that."

Holmes looked thoughtful.

"I see, Watson.

You are sketching out a theory by which everything they say from the beginning is false.

According to your idea, there was never any hidden menace, or secret society, or Valley of Fear, or Boss MacSomebody, or anything else.

Well, that is a good sweeping generalization.

Let us see what that brings us to.

Table of Contents