The Big Book of Sherlock Holmes Stories (120 page)

“Could it not have been?”

“Of course her heart may have been the culprit.”

Holmes glanced at me. His face was haughty and remote but his eyes had in them that dry mercurial glitter I connect with his interest.

“Mr. Holmes,” said Eleanor Caston, standing up as if to confront him, “when I had questioned my servants, I put the story away with the papers. I engaged a new maid to replace Lucy. I went on with my improved life. But the months passed, and late in November, Lucy wrote to me. It was she who found my aunt lying dead, and now the girl told me she herself had also that day seen a white fox in the fields. It would be, of course, an albino, and our local hunt, I know, would think it unsporting to destroy such a creature. No, no. You must not think for a moment any of this daunted me.”

“What has?”

“Three days ago, another letter came.”

“From your maid?”

“Possibly. I can hardly say.”

On the table near the fire she now let fall a thin, pinkish paper. Holmes bent over it. He read aloud, slowly, “ ‘Go you out and live, or stay to die.' ” He added, “Watson, come and look at this.”

The paper was cheap, of a type that might be found in a thousand stationers who catered to the poor. Upon it every word had been pasted. These words were not cut from a book or newspaper, however. Each seemed to have been taken from a specimen of handwriting, and no two were alike. I remarked on this.

“Yes, Watson. Even the paper on which each word is written is of a different sort. The inks are different. Even the implement used to cut them out, unless I am much mistaken, is different.” He raised the letter, and held it close to his face, and next against the light of a lamp. “A scissors here, for example, and there a small knife. And see, this edge—a larger, blunter blade. And there, the trace of a water-mark. And this one is very old. Observe the grain, and how the ink has faded, a wonder it withstood the paste—Hallo, this word is oddly spelled.”

I peered more closely and saw that what had been read as “out” was in fact “our.” Some error,” said Holmes, “or else they could not find the proper word and substituted this. Miss Caston, I trust you have kept the envelope.”

“Here it is.”

“What a pity! The postmark is smudged and unreadable—from light snow or rain, perhaps.”

“There had been sleet.”

“But a cheap envelope, to coincide with the note-paper. The writing on the envelope is unfamiliar to you, or you would have drawn some conclusion from it. No doubt it is disguised. It looks malformed.” He tossed the envelope down and rounded on her like an uncoiling snake.

“Mr. Holmes—I assure you, I was no more than mildly upset by this. People can be meddlesome and malicious.”

“Do you think that you have enemies, Miss Caston?”

“None I could name. But then, I have been struck by fortune. It is sometimes possible to form a strong passion concerning another, only by reading of them say, in a newspaper. I gained my good luck suddenly, and without any merit on my part. Someone may be envious of me, without ever having met me.”

“I see your studies include the human mystery, Miss Caston.”

Her colour rose. One was not always certain with Holmes, if he complimented or scorned. She said, rather low, “Other things have occurred since this letter.”

“Please list them.”

She had gained all his attention, and now she did not falter.

“After the sleet, there was snow in our part of the country, for some days. In this snow, letters were written, under the terrace yesterday. An E, an N and an R and a V. No footsteps showed near them. This morning, I found, on coming into my study, the number five written large, and in red, on the wall. I sleep in an adjoining
room and had heard nothing. Conversely, the servants say the house is full of rustlings and scratchings.”

“And the white fox? Shall I assume it has been seen?”

“Oh, not by me, Mr. Holmes. But by my cook, yes, and my footman, a sensible lad. He has seen it twice, I gather, in the last week. I do not say any of this must be uncanny. But it comes very near to me.”

“Indeed it seems to.”

“I might leave, but why should I? I have gone long years with little or nothing, without a decent home, and now I have things I value. It would appal me to live as did my aunt, in flight each Christmas, and at length dying in such distress. Meanwhile, the day after tomorrow will be Christmas Eve.”

After Miss Caston had departed, Holmes sat a while in meditation. It seemed our visitor wished to collect some rare books, as now and then she did, from Lightlaws in Great Orme Street. We were to meet her at Charing Cross station and board the Kentish train together at six o'clock.

“Well, Watson,” said Holmes at length, “let me have your thoughts.”

“It appears but too simple. Someone has taken against her luck, as she guesses. They have discovered the Caston legend and are attempting to frighten her away.”

“Someone. But who is that someone?”

“As she speculated, it might be anyone.”

“Come, Watson. It might, but probably things are not so vague. This would seem a most definite grudge.”

“Some person then who reckons the inheritance should be theirs?”

“Perhaps.”

“It has an eerie cast, nonetheless. The letters in the snow: ENRV. That has a mediaeval sound which fits Sir Hugh. The number five on the study wall. The fox.”

“Pray do not omit the rustlings and scratchings.”

I left him to cogitate.

Below, Mrs. Hudson was in some disarray. “Is Mr. Holmes not to be here for the festive meal?”

“I fear he may not be. Nor I. We are bound for Kent.”

“And I had bought a goose!”

Outside the night was raw, and smoky with the London air. The snow had settled only somewhat, but more was promised by the look of the sky.

On the platform, Miss Caston awaited us, her parcel of books in her arm.

Holmes did not converse with us during the journey. He brooded, and might have been alone in the carriage. I was glad enough to talk to Miss Caston, who now seemed, despite the circumstances, serene and not unhappy. She spoke intelligently and amusingly, and I thought her occasional informed references to the classics might have interested Holmes, had he listened. Not once did she try to break in upon his thoughts, and yet I sensed she derived much of her resolution from his presence. I found her altogether quite charming.

Her carriage was in readiness at Chislehurst station. The drive to Crowby was a slow one, for here the snow had long settled and begun to freeze, making the lanes treacherous. How unlike the nights of London, the country night through which we moved. The atmosphere was sharp and glassy clear, and the stars blazed cold and white.

Presently we passed through an open gateway, decorated with an ancient crest. Beyond, a short drive ran between bare lime trees, to the house. It was evident the manor-farm had lost, over the years, the greater part of its grounds, although ample gardens remained, and a small area of grazing. Old, powerful oaks, their bareness outlined in white, skirted the building. This too had lost much of its original character to a later restoration, and festoons of ivy. Lights burned in tall windows at the front.

Miss Caston's small staff had done well. Fires
and lamps were lit. Upstairs, Holmes and I were conducted to adjacent rooms, supplied with every comfort. The modern wallpaper and gas lighting in the corridors did not dispell the feeling of antiquity, for hilly floors and low ceilings inclined one to remember the fifteenth century.

We descended to the dining room. Here seemed to be the heart of the house. It was a broad, high chamber with beams of carved oak, russet walls, and curtains of heavy plush. Here and there hung something from another age, a Saxon double-axe, swords, and several dim paintings in gilded frames. A fire roared on the great hearth.

“Watson, leave your worship of the fire, and come out on to the terrace.”

Somewhat reluctantly I followed Holmes, who now flung open the terrace doors and stalked forth into the winter night.

We were at the back of the house. Defined by snow, the gardens spread away to fields and pasture, darkly blotted by woods.

“Not there, Watson. Look down. Do you see?”

Under the steps leading from the terrace—those very steps on which the French Madame Caston had met her death—the snow lay thick and scarcely disturbed. The light of the room fell full there, upon four deeply incised letters: ENRV.

As I gazed, Holmes was off down the stair, kneeling by the letters and examining them closely.

“The snow has frozen hard and locked them in,” I said. But other marks caught my eye. “Look, there are footsteps!”

“A woman's shoe. They will be Miss Caston's,” said Holmes. “She too, it seems, did as I do now.”

“Of course. But that was brave of her.”

“She is a forthright woman, Watson. And highly acute, I believe.”

Other than the scatter of woman's steps, the letters themselves, nothing was to be seen.

“They might have dropped from the sky.”

Holmes stood up. “Despite her valour, it was a pity she walked about here. Some clue may have been defaced.” He looked out over the gardens, with their shrubs and small trees, towards the wider landscape. “Watson, your silent shivering disturbs me. Go back indoors.”

Affronted, I returned to the dining room, and found Miss Caston there, in a wine-red gown.

“They will serve dinner directly,” she said. “Does Mr. Holmes join us, or shall something be kept hot for him?”

“You must excuse Holmes, Miss Caston. The problem always comes first. He is a creature of the mind.”

“I know it, Doctor. Your excellent stories have described him exactly. He is the High Priest of logic and all pure, rational things. But also,” she added, smiling, “dangerous, partly unhuman, a leopard, with the brain almost of a god.”

I was taken aback. Yet, in the extreme colourfulness of what she had said, I did seem to make out Sherlock Holmes, both as I had portrayed him, and as I had seen him to be. A being unique.

However, at that moment Holmes returned into the room and Miss Caston moved away, casting at him only one sidelong glance.

The dinner was excellent, ably served by one of Miss Caston's two maids, and less well by the footman, Vine, a surly boy of eighteen or so. Miss Caston had told us she had dispensed with all the servants but these, a gardener and the cook.

I noticed Holmes observed the maid and the boy carefully. When they had left the room, he expressed the wish to interview each of the servants in turn. Miss Caston assured him all, save the gardener, who it seemed had gone elsewhere for Christmas, should make themselves available. The lady then left us, graciously, to our cigars.

“She is a fine and a most attractive woman,” I said.

“Ah, Watson,” said Holmes. He shook his head, half smiling.

“At least grant her this, she has, from what she has said, known a life less than perfect, yet she has a breeding far beyond her former station. Her talk betrays intellect and many accomplishments.
But she is also womanly. She deserves her good fortune. It suits her.”

“Perhaps. But our mysterious grudge-bearer does not agree with you.” Then he held up his hand for silence.

From a nearby room, the crystal notes of a piano had begun to issue. It seemed very much in keeping with the lady that she should play so modestly apart, yet so beautifully, and with such delicate expression. The piece seemed transcribed from the works of Purcell, or Handel, perhaps, at his most melancholy.

“Yes,” I said, “indeed, she plays delightfully.”

“Watson,” Holmes hissed at me. “Not the piano. Listen!”

Then I heard another sound, a dry sharp scratching, like claws. It came, I thought, from the far side of the large room, but then, startling me, it seemed to rise up into the air itself. After that there was a sort of soft quick rushing, like a fall of snow, but inside the house. We waited. All was quiet. Even the piano had fallen still.

“What can it have been, Holmes?”

He got up, and crossed to the fireplace. He began to walk about there, now and then tapping absently on the marble mantle, and the wall.

“The chimney?” I asked. “A bird, perhaps.”

“Well, it has stopped.”

I too went to the fireplace. On the hearth's marble lintel, upheld by two pillars, was the escutcheon I had glimpsed at the gate.

“There it is, Holmes, on the shield. De Castone's fox!”

To my mind, Holmes had seemed almost leisurely so far in his examination. He had not, for example, gone upstairs at once to view the study wall. Now however, he took his seat by the fire of the side parlour, and one by one, the remaining servants entered.

First came the cook, a Mrs. Castle. She was a large woman, neat and tidy, with a sad face which, I hazarded, had once been merry.

“Now, Mrs. Castle. We must thank you for your splendid dinner.”

“Oh, Mr. Holmes,” she said, “I am so glad that it was enjoyed. I seldom have a chance to cook for more than Miss Caston, who has only a little appetite.”

“Perhaps the former Miss Caston ate more heartily.”

“Indeed, sir, she did. She was a stout lady who took an interest in her food.”

“But I think you have other reasons to be uneasy.”

“I have seen it!”

“You refer—?”

“The white fox. Last week, before the snow fell, I saw it, shining like a ghost under the moon. I know the story of wicked old Sir Hugh. It was often told in these parts. I grew up in Chislehurst Village. The fox was said to be a legend, but my brother saw just such a white fox, when he was a boy.”

“Did he indeed.”

“Then there are those letters cut in the snow. And the number upstairs, and all of us asleep—a five, done in red, high upon the wall. The five days before Christmas, when the lady is in peril. A horrible thing, Mr. Holmes, if a woman may not live at her own property alone, but she must go in fear of her life.”