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+\documentclass{article}
+\usepackage{add2}
+\nofiles
+
+\begin{document}
+
+\section*{THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER'S THUMB}
+
+Of all the problems which have been submitted to my friend, Mr. Sherlock
+Holmes, for solution during the years of our intimacy, there were only two
+which I was the means of introducing to his notice---that of Mr. Hatherley's
+thumb, and that of Colonel Warburton's madness. Of these the latter
+may have afforded a finer field for an acute and original observer,
+but the other was so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its
+details that it may be the more worthy of being placed upon record,
+even if it gave my friend fewer openings for those deductive methods of
+reasoning by which he achieved such remarkable results. The story has,
+I believe, been told more than once in the newspapers, but, like all
+such narratives, its effect is much less striking when set forth en
+bloc in a single half-column of print than when the facts slowly evolve
+before your own eyes, and the mystery clears gradually away as each new
+discovery furnishes a step which leads on to the complete truth. At the
+time the circumstances made a deep impression upon me, and the lapse of
+two years has hardly served to weaken the effect.
+
+It was in the summer of '89, not long after my marriage, that the events
+occurred which I am now about to summarise. I had returned to civil
+practice and had finally abandoned Holmes in his Baker Street rooms,
+although I continually visited him and occasionally even persuaded
+him to forgo his Bohemian habits so far as to come and visit us. My
+practice had steadily increased, and as I happened to live at no very
+great distance from Paddington Station, I got a few patients from among
+the officials. One of these, whom I had cured of a painful and lingering
+disease, was never weary of advertising my virtues and of endeavouring
+to send me on every sufferer over whom he might have any influence.
+
+One morning, at a little before seven o'clock, I was awakened by the maid
+tapping at the door to announce that two men had come from Paddington
+and were waiting in the consulting-room. I dressed hurriedly, for I
+knew by experience that railway cases were seldom trivial, and hastened
+downstairs. As I descended, my old ally, the guard, came out of the room
+and closed the door tightly behind him.
+
+``I've got him here,'' he whispered, jerking his thumb over his shoulder;
+``he's all right.''
+
+``What is it, then?'' I asked, for his manner suggested that it was some
+strange creature which he had caged up in my room.
+
+``It's a new patient,'' he whispered. ``I thought I'd bring him round
+myself; then he couldn't slip away. There he is, all safe and sound. I
+must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the same as you.'' And off
+he went, this trusty tout, without even giving me time to thank him.
+
+I entered my consulting-room and found a gentleman seated by the table. He
+was quietly dressed in a suit of heather tweed with a soft cloth cap
+which he had laid down upon my books. Round one of his hands he had a
+handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all over with bloodstains. He
+was young, not more than five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong,
+masculine face; but he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression
+of a man who was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took
+all his strength of mind to control.
+
+``I am sorry to knock you up so early, Doctor,'' said he, ``but I have
+had a very serious accident during the night. I came in by train this
+morning, and on inquiring at Paddington as to where I might find a doctor,
+a worthy fellow very kindly escorted me here. I gave the maid a card,
+but I see that she has left it upon the side-table.''
+
+I took it up and glanced at it. ``Mr. Victor Hatherley, hydraulic
+engineer, 16A, Victoria Street (3rd floor).'' That was the name,
+style, and abode of my morning visitor. ``I regret that I have kept you
+waiting,'' said I, sitting down in my library-chair. ``You are fresh
+from a night journey, I understand, which is in itself a monotonous
+occupation.''
+
+``Oh, my night could not be called monotonous,'' said he, and laughed. He
+laughed very heartily, with a high, ringing note, leaning back in his
+chair and shaking his sides. All my medical instincts rose up against
+that laugh.
+
+``Stop it!'' I cried; ``pull yourself together!'' and I poured out some
+water from a caraffe.
+
+It was useless, however. He was off in one of those hysterical outbursts
+which come upon a strong nature when some great crisis is over and
+gone. Presently he came to himself once more, very weary and pale-looking.
+
+``I have been making a fool of myself,'' he gasped.
+
+``Not at all. Drink this.'' I dashed some brandy into the water, and
+the colour began to come back to his bloodless cheeks.
+
+``That's better!'' said he. ``And now, Doctor, perhaps you would kindly
+attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb used to be.''
+
+He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even my
+hardened nerves a shudder to look at it. There were four protruding
+fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the thumb should have
+been. It had been hacked or torn right out from the roots.
+
+``Good heavens!'' I cried, ``this is a terrible injury. It must have
+bled considerably.''
+
+``Yes, it did. I fainted when it was done, and I think that I must have
+been senseless for a long time. When I came to I found that it was still
+bleeding, so I tied one end of my handkerchief very tightly round the
+wrist and braced it up with a twig.''
+
+``Excellent! You should have been a surgeon.''
+
+``It is a question of hydraulics, you see, and came within my own
+province.''
+
+``This has been done,'' said I, examining the wound, ``by a very heavy
+and sharp instrument.''
+
+``A thing like a cleaver,'' said he.
+
+``An accident, I presume?''
+
+``By no means.''
+
+``What! a murderous attack?''
+
+``Very murderous indeed.''
+
+``You horrify me.''
+
+I sponged the wound, cleaned it, dressed it, and finally covered it over
+with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back without wincing,
+though he bit his lip from time to time.
+
+``How is that?'' I asked when I had finished.
+
+``Capital! Between your brandy and your bandage, I feel a new man. I
+was very weak, but I have had a good deal to go through.''
+
+``Perhaps you had better not speak of the matter. It is evidently trying
+to your nerves.''
+
+``Oh, no, not now. I shall have to tell my tale to the police; but,
+between ourselves, if it were not for the convincing evidence of this
+wound of mine, I should be surprised if they believed my statement,
+for it is a very extraordinary one, and I have not much in the way of
+proof with which to back it up; and, even if they believe me, the clues
+which I can give them are so vague that it is a question whether justice
+will be done.''
+
+``Ha!'' cried I, ``if it is anything in the nature of a problem which
+you desire to see solved, I should strongly recommend you to come to my
+friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, before you go to the official police.''
+
+``Oh, I have heard of that fellow,'' answered my visitor, ``and I should
+be very glad if he would take the matter up, though of course I must use
+the official police as well. Would you give me an introduction to him?''
+
+``I'll do better. I'll take you round to him myself.''
+
+``I should be immensely obliged to you.''
+
+``We'll call a cab and go together. We shall just be in time to have a
+little breakfast with him. Do you feel equal to it?''
+
+``Yes; I shall not feel easy until I have told my story.''
+
+``Then my servant will call a cab, and I shall be with you in an
+instant.'' I rushed upstairs, explained the matter shortly to my wife,
+and in five minutes was inside a hansom, driving with my new acquaintance
+to Baker Street.
+
+Sherlock Holmes was, as I expected, lounging about his sitting-room in
+his dressing-gown, reading the agony column of The Times and smoking
+his before-breakfast pipe, which was composed of all the plugs and
+dottles left from his smokes of the day before, all carefully dried
+and collected on the corner of the mantelpiece. He received us in his
+quietly genial fashion, ordered fresh rashers and eggs, and joined us
+in a hearty meal. When it was concluded he settled our new acquaintance
+upon the sofa, placed a pillow beneath his head, and laid a glass of
+brandy and water within his reach.
+
+``It is easy to see that your experience has been no common one,
+Mr. Hatherley,'' said he. ``Pray, lie down there and make yourself
+absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are tired
+and keep up your strength with a little stimulant.''
+
+``Thank you,'' said my patient, ``but I have felt another man since
+the doctor bandaged me, and I think that your breakfast has completed
+the cure. I shall take up as little of your valuable time as possible,
+so I shall start at once upon my peculiar experiences.''
+
+Holmes sat in his big armchair with the weary, heavy-lidded expression
+which veiled his keen and eager nature, while I sat opposite to him, and
+we listened in silence to the strange story which our visitor detailed
+to us.
+
+``You must know,'' said he, ``that I am an orphan and a bachelor, residing
+alone in lodgings in London. By profession I am a hydraulic engineer,
+and I have had considerable experience of my work during the seven years
+that I was apprenticed to Venner \& Matheson, the well-known firm, of
+Greenwich. Two years ago, having served my time, and having also come into
+a fair sum of money through my poor father's death, I determined to start
+in business for myself and took professional chambers in Victoria Street.
+
+``I suppose that everyone finds his first independent start in business
+a dreary experience. To me it has been exceptionally so. During two years
+I have had three consultations and one small job, and that is absolutely
+all that my profession has brought me. My gross takings amount to . 27
+10s. Every day, from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon,
+I waited in my little den, until at last my heart began to sink, and I
+came to believe that I should never have any practice at all.
+
+``Yesterday, however, just as I was thinking of leaving the office,
+my clerk entered to say there was a gentleman waiting who wished to
+see me upon business. He brought up a card, too, with the name of
+`Colonel Lysander Stark' engraved upon it. Close at his heels came the
+colonel himself, a man rather over the middle size, but of an exceeding
+thinness. I do not think that I have ever seen so thin a man. His whole
+face sharpened away into nose and chin, and the skin of his cheeks was
+drawn quite tense over his outstanding bones. Yet this emaciation seemed
+to be his natural habit, and due to no disease, for his eye was bright,
+his step brisk, and his bearing assured. He was plainly but neatly
+dressed, and his age, I should judge, would be nearer forty than thirty.
+
+```Mr. Hatherley?' said he, with something of a German accent. `You
+have been recommended to me, Mr. Hatherley, as being a man who is not
+only proficient in his profession but is also discreet and capable of
+preserving a secret.'
+
+``I bowed, feeling as flattered as any young man would at such an
+address. `May I ask who it was who gave me so good a character?'
+
+```Well, perhaps it is better that I should not tell you that just at
+this moment. I have it from the same source that you are both an orphan
+and a bachelor and are residing alone in London.'
+
+```That is quite correct,' I answered; `but you will excuse me
+if I say that I cannot see how all this bears upon my professional
+qualifications. I understand that it was on a professional matter that
+you wished to speak to me?'
+
+```Undoubtedly so. But you will find that all I say is really to the
+point. I have a professional commission for you, but absolute secrecy
+is quite essential---absolute secrecy, you understand, and of course we
+may expect that more from a man who is alone than from one who lives in
+the bosom of his family.'
+
+```If I promise to keep a secret,' said I, `you may absolutely depend
+upon my doing so.'
+
+``He looked very hard at me as I spoke, and it seemed to me that I had
+never seen so suspicious and questioning an eye.
+
+```Do you promise, then?' said he at last.
+
+```Yes, I promise.'
+
+```Absolute and complete silence before, during, and after? No reference
+to the matter at all, either in word or writing?'
+
+```I have already given you my word.'
+
+```Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning across
+the room he flung open the door. The passage outside was empty.
+
+```That's all right,' said he, coming back. `I know that clerks are
+sometimes curious as to their master's affairs. Now we can talk in
+safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to stare at
+me again with the same questioning and thoughtful look.
+
+``A feeling of repulsion, and of something akin to fear had begun to rise
+within me at the strange antics of this fleshless man. Even my dread of
+losing a client could not restrain me from showing my impatience.
+
+```I beg that you will state your business, sir,' said I; `my time is
+of value.' Heaven forgive me for that last sentence, but the words came
+to my lips.
+
+```How would fifty guineas for a night's work suit you?' he asked.
+
+```Most admirably.'
+
+```I say a night's work, but an hour's would be nearer the mark. I
+simply want your opinion about a hydraulic stamping machine which has
+got out of gear. If you show us what is wrong we shall soon set it right
+ourselves. What do you think of such a commission as that?'
+
+```The work appears to be light and the pay munificent.'
+
+```Precisely so. We shall want you to come to-night by the last train.'
+
+```Where to?'
+
+```To Eyford, in Berkshire. It is a little place near the borders of
+Oxfordshire, and within seven miles of Reading. There is a train from
+Paddington which would bring you there at about 11:15.'
+
+```Very good.'
+
+```I shall come down in a carriage to meet you.'
+
+```There is a drive, then?'
+
+```Yes, our little place is quite out in the country. It is a good seven
+miles from Eyford Station.'
+
+```Then we can hardly get there before midnight. I suppose there would
+be no chance of a train back. I should be compelled to stop the night.'
+
+```Yes, we could easily give you a shake-down.'
+
+```That is very awkward. Could I not come at some more convenient hour?'
+
+```We have judged it best that you should come late. It is to recompense
+you for any inconvenience that we are paying to you, a young and
+unknown man, a fee which would buy an opinion from the very heads of
+your profession. Still, of course, if you would like to draw out of the
+business, there is plenty of time to do so.'
+
+``I thought of the fifty guineas, and of how very useful they would
+be to me. `Not at all,' said I, `I shall be very happy to accommodate
+myself to your wishes. I should like, however, to understand a little
+more clearly what it is that you wish me to do.'
+
+```Quite so. It is very natural that the pledge of secrecy which we have
+exacted from you should have aroused your curiosity. I have no wish to
+commit you to anything without your having it all laid before you. I
+suppose that we are absolutely safe from eavesdroppers?'
+
+```Entirely.'
+
+```Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that fuller's-earth
+is a valuable product, and that it is only found in one or two places
+in England?'
+
+```I have heard so.'
+
+```Some little time ago I bought a small place---a very small place---within
+ten miles of Reading. I was fortunate enough to discover that there was a
+deposit of fuller's-earth in one of my fields. On examining it, however, I
+found that this deposit was a comparatively small one, and that it formed
+a link between two very much larger ones upon the right and left---both of
+them, however, in the grounds of my neighbours. These good people were
+absolutely ignorant that their land contained that which was quite as
+valuable as a gold-mine. Naturally, it was to my interest to buy their
+land before they discovered its true value, but unfortunately I had no
+capital by which I could do this. I took a few of my friends into the
+secret, however, and they suggested that we should quietly and secretly
+work our own little deposit and that in this way we should earn the
+money which would enable us to buy the neighbouring fields. This we have
+now been doing for some time, and in order to help us in our operations
+we erected a hydraulic press. This press, as I have already explained,
+has got out of order, and we wish your advice upon the subject. We guard
+our secret very jealously, however, and if it once became known that we
+had hydraulic engineers coming to our little house, it would soon rouse
+inquiry, and then, if the facts came out, it would be good-bye to any
+chance of getting these fields and carrying out our plans. That is why
+I have made you promise me that you will not tell a human being that
+you are going to Eyford to-night. I hope that I make it all plain?'
+
+```I quite follow you,' said I. `The only point which I could not quite
+understand was what use you could make of a hydraulic press in excavating
+fuller's-earth, which, as I understand, is dug out like gravel from
+a pit.'
+
+```Ah!' said he carelessly, `we have our own process. We compress the
+earth into bricks, so as to remove them without revealing what they
+are. But that is a mere detail. I have taken you fully into my confidence
+now, Mr. Hatherley, and I have shown you how I trust you.' He rose as
+he spoke. `I shall expect you, then, at Eyford at 11:15.'
+
+```I shall certainly be there.'
+
+```And not a word to a soul.' He looked at me with a last long,
+questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank grasp,
+he hurried from the room.
+
+``Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very much
+astonished, as you may both think, at this sudden commission which had
+been intrusted to me. On the one hand, of course, I was glad, for the fee
+was at least tenfold what I should have asked had I set a price upon my
+own services, and it was possible that this order might lead to other
+ones. On the other hand, the face and manner of my patron had made an
+unpleasant impression upon me, and I could not think that his explanation
+of the fuller's-earth was sufficient to explain the necessity for my
+coming at midnight, and his extreme anxiety lest I should tell anyone of
+my errand. However, I threw all fears to the winds, ate a hearty supper,
+drove to Paddington, and started off, having obeyed to the letter the
+injunction as to holding my tongue.
+
+``At Reading I had to change not only my carriage but my station. However,
+I was in time for the last train to Eyford, and I reached the little
+dim-lit station after eleven o'clock. I was the only passenger who got
+out there, and there was no one upon the platform save a single sleepy
+porter with a lantern. As I passed out through the wicket gate, however, I
+found my acquaintance of the morning waiting in the shadow upon the other
+side. Without a word he grasped my arm and hurried me into a carriage, the
+door of which was standing open. He drew up the windows on either side,
+tapped on the wood-work, and away we went as fast as the horse could go.''
+
+``One horse?'' interjected Holmes.
+
+``Yes, only one.''
+
+``Did you observe the colour?''
+
+``Yes, I saw it by the side-lights when I was stepping into the
+carriage. It was a chestnut.''
+
+``Tired-looking or fresh?''
+
+``Oh, fresh and glossy.''
+
+``Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue your most
+interesting statement.''
+
+``Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel Lysander
+Stark had said that it was only seven miles, but I should think, from
+the rate that we seemed to go, and from the time that we took, that
+it must have been nearer twelve. He sat at my side in silence all the
+time, and I was aware, more than once when I glanced in his direction,
+that he was looking at me with great intensity. The country roads
+seem to be not very good in that part of the world, for we lurched and
+jolted terribly. I tried to look out of the windows to see something of
+where we were, but they were made of frosted glass, and I could make
+out nothing save the occasional bright blur of a passing light. Now
+and then I hazarded some remark to break the monotony of the journey,
+but the colonel answered only in monosyllables, and the conversation
+soon flagged. At last, however, the bumping of the road was exchanged
+for the crisp smoothness of a gravel-drive, and the carriage came to a
+stand. Colonel Lysander Stark sprang out, and, as I followed after him,
+pulled me swiftly into a porch which gaped in front of us. We stepped,
+as it were, right out of the carriage and into the hall, so that I failed
+to catch the most fleeting glance of the front of the house. The instant
+that I had crossed the threshold the door slammed heavily behind us,
+and I heard faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage drove away.
+
+``It was pitch dark inside the house, and the colonel fumbled about
+looking for matches and muttering under his breath. Suddenly a door
+opened at the other end of the passage, and a long, golden bar of light
+shot out in our direction. It grew broader, and a woman appeared with
+a lamp in her hand, which she held above her head, pushing her face
+forward and peering at us. I could see that she was pretty, and from
+the gloss with which the light shone upon her dark dress I knew that
+it was a rich material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in
+a tone as though asking a question, and when my companion answered in
+a gruff monosyllable she gave such a start that the lamp nearly fell
+from her hand. Colonel Stark went up to her, whispered something in her
+ear, and then, pushing her back into the room from whence she had come,
+he walked towards me again with the lamp in his hand.
+
+```Perhaps you will have the kindness to wait in this room for a few
+minutes,' said he, throwing open another door. It was a quiet, little,
+plainly furnished room, with a round table in the centre, on which several
+German books were scattered. Colonel Stark laid down the lamp on the top
+of a harmonium beside the door. `I shall not keep you waiting an instant,'
+said he, and vanished into the darkness.
+
+``I glanced at the books upon the table, and in spite of my ignorance
+of German I could see that two of them were treatises on science, the
+others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked across to the window,
+hoping that I might catch some glimpse of the country-side, but an oak
+shutter, heavily barred, was folded across it. It was a wonderfully
+silent house. There was an old clock ticking loudly somewhere in the
+passage, but otherwise everything was deadly still. A vague feeling of
+uneasiness began to steal over me. Who were these German people, and what
+were they doing living in this strange, out-of-the-way place? And where
+was the place? I was ten miles or so from Eyford, that was all I knew,
+but whether north, south, east, or west I had no idea. For that matter,
+Reading, and possibly other large towns, were within that radius, so
+the place might not be so secluded, after all. Yet it was quite certain,
+from the absolute stillness, that we were in the country. I paced up and
+down the room, humming a tune under my breath to keep up my spirits and
+feeling that I was thoroughly earning my fifty-guinea fee.
+
+``Suddenly, without any preliminary sound in the midst of the utter
+stillness, the door of my room swung slowly open. The woman was standing
+in the aperture, the darkness of the hall behind her, the yellow light
+from my lamp beating upon her eager and beautiful face. I could see at a
+glance that she was sick with fear, and the sight sent a chill to my own
+heart. She held up one shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she
+shot a few whispered words of broken English at me, her eyes glancing
+back, like those of a frightened horse, into the gloom behind her.
+
+```I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to speak
+calmly; `I would go. I should not stay here. There is no good for you
+to do.'
+
+```But, madam,' said I, `I have not yet done what I came for. I cannot
+possibly leave until I have seen the machine.'
+
+```It is not worth your while to wait,' she went on. `You can pass through
+the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled and shook my
+head, she suddenly threw aside her constraint and made a step forward,
+with her hands wrung together. `For the love of Heaven!' she whispered,
+`get away from here before it is too late!'
+
+``But I am somewhat headstrong by nature, and the more ready to engage
+in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I thought of my
+fifty-guinea fee, of my wearisome journey, and of the unpleasant night
+which seemed to be before me. Was it all to go for nothing? Why should
+I slink away without having carried out my commission, and without
+the payment which was my due? This woman might, for all I knew,
+be a monomaniac. With a stout bearing, therefore, though her manner
+had shaken me more than I cared to confess, I still shook my head and
+declared my intention of remaining where I was. She was about to renew
+her entreaties when a door slammed overhead, and the sound of several
+footsteps was heard upon the stairs. She listened for an instant, threw
+up her hands with a despairing gesture, and vanished as suddenly and as
+noiselessly as she had come.
+
+``The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man with
+a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double chin, who
+was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson.
+
+```This is my secretary and manager,' said the colonel. `By the way,
+I was under the impression that I left this door shut just now. I fear
+that you have felt the draught.'
+
+```On the contrary,' said I, `I opened the door myself because I felt
+the room to be a little close.'
+
+``He shot one of his suspicious looks at me. `Perhaps we had better
+proceed to business, then,' said he. `Mr. Ferguson and I will take you
+up to see the machine.'
+
+```I had better put my hat on, I suppose.'
+
+```Oh, no, it is in the house.'
+
+```What, you dig fuller's-earth in the house?'
+
+```No, no. This is only where we compress it. But never mind that. All
+we wish you to do is to examine the machine and to let us know what is
+wrong with it.'
+
+``We went upstairs together, the colonel first with the lamp, the fat
+manager and I behind him. It was a labyrinth of an old house, with
+corridors, passages, narrow winding staircases, and little low doors,
+the thresholds of which were hollowed out by the generations who had
+crossed them. There were no carpets and no signs of any furniture
+above the ground floor, while the plaster was peeling off the walls,
+and the damp was breaking through in green, unhealthy blotches. I tried
+to put on as unconcerned an air as possible, but I had not forgotten the
+warnings of the lady, even though I disregarded them, and I kept a keen
+eye upon my two companions. Ferguson appeared to be a morose and silent
+man, but I could see from the little that he said that he was at least
+a fellow-countryman.
+
+``Colonel Lysander Stark stopped at last before a low door, which he
+unlocked. Within was a small, square room, in which the three of us
+could hardly get at one time. Ferguson remained outside, and the colonel
+ushered me in.
+
+```We are now,' said he, `actually within the hydraulic press, and it
+would be a particularly unpleasant thing for us if anyone were to turn it
+on. The ceiling of this small chamber is really the end of the descending
+piston, and it comes down with the force of many tons upon this metal
+floor. There are small lateral columns of water outside which receive the
+force, and which transmit and multiply it in the manner which is familiar
+to you. The machine goes readily enough, but there is some stiffness in
+the working of it, and it has lost a little of its force. Perhaps you will
+have the goodness to look it over and to show us how we can set it right.'
+
+``I took the lamp from him, and I examined the machine very
+thoroughly. It was indeed a gigantic one, and capable of exercising
+enormous pressure. When I passed outside, however, and pressed down
+the levers which controlled it, I knew at once by the whishing sound
+that there was a slight leakage, which allowed a regurgitation of water
+through one of the side cylinders. An examination showed that one of the
+india-rubber bands which was round the head of a driving-rod had shrunk
+so as not quite to fill the socket along which it worked. This was clearly
+the cause of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who
+followed my remarks very carefully and asked several practical questions
+as to how they should proceed to set it right. When I had made it clear
+to them, I returned to the main chamber of the machine and took a good
+look at it to satisfy my own curiosity. It was obvious at a glance that
+the story of the fuller's-earth was the merest fabrication, for it would
+be absurd to suppose that so powerful an engine could be designed for so
+inadequate a purpose. The walls were of wood, but the floor consisted of
+a large iron trough, and when I came to examine it I could see a crust
+of metallic deposit all over it. I had stooped and was scraping at this
+to see exactly what it was when I heard a muttered exclamation in German
+and saw the cadaverous face of the colonel looking down at me.
+
+```What are you doing there?' he asked.
+
+``I felt angry at having been tricked by so elaborate a story as that
+which he had told me. `I was admiring your fuller's-earth,' said I;
+`I think that I should be better able to advise you as to your machine
+if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it was used.'
+
+``The instant that I uttered the words I regretted the rashness of my
+speech. His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in his grey eyes.
+
+```Very well,' said he, `you shall know all about the machine.' He took
+a step backward, slammed the little door, and turned the key in the
+lock. I rushed towards it and pulled at the handle, but it was quite
+secure, and did not give in the least to my kicks and shoves. `Hullo!' I
+yelled. `Hullo! Colonel! Let me out!'
+
+``And then suddenly in the silence I heard a sound which sent my heart
+into my mouth. It was the clank of the levers and the swish of the leaking
+cylinder. He had set the engine at work. The lamp still stood upon the
+floor where I had placed it when examining the trough. By its light I
+saw that the black ceiling was coming down upon me, slowly, jerkily, but,
+as none knew better than myself, with a force which must within a minute
+grind me to a shapeless pulp. I threw myself, screaming, against the door,
+and dragged with my nails at the lock. I implored the colonel to let me
+out, but the remorseless clanking of the levers drowned my cries. The
+ceiling was only a foot or two above my head, and with my hand upraised
+I could feel its hard, rough surface. Then it flashed through my mind
+that the pain of my death would depend very much upon the position in
+which I met it. If I lay on my face the weight would come upon my spine,
+and I shuddered to think of that dreadful snap. Easier the other way,
+perhaps; and yet, had I the nerve to lie and look up at that deadly black
+shadow wavering down upon me? Already I was unable to stand erect, when
+my eye caught something which brought a gush of hope back to my heart.
+
+``I have said that though the floor and ceiling were of iron, the walls
+were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw a thin line
+of yellow light between two of the boards, which broadened and broadened
+as a small panel was pushed backward. For an instant I could hardly
+believe that here was indeed a door which led away from death. The next
+instant I threw myself through, and lay half-fainting upon the other
+side. The panel had closed again behind me, but the crash of the lamp,
+and a few moments afterwards the clang of the two slabs of metal, told
+me how narrow had been my escape.
+
+``I was recalled to myself by a frantic plucking at my wrist, and I
+found myself lying upon the stone floor of a narrow corridor, while a
+woman bent over me and tugged at me with her left hand, while she held
+a candle in her right. It was the same good friend whose warning I had
+so foolishly rejected.
+
+```Come! come!' she cried breathlessly. `They will be here in a
+moment. They will see that you are not there. Oh, do not waste the
+so-precious time, but come!'
+
+``This time, at least, I did not scorn her advice. I staggered to my
+feet and ran with her along the corridor and down a winding stair. The
+latter led to another broad passage, and just as we reached it we heard
+the sound of running feet and the shouting of two voices, one answering
+the other from the floor on which we were and from the one beneath. My
+guide stopped and looked about her like one who is at her wit's end. Then
+she threw open a door which led into a bedroom, through the window of
+which the moon was shining brightly.
+
+```It is your only chance,' said she. `It is high, but it may be that
+you can jump it.'
+
+``As she spoke a light sprang into view at the further end of the passage,
+and I saw the lean figure of Colonel Lysander Stark rushing forward with a
+lantern in one hand and a weapon like a butcher's cleaver in the other. I
+rushed across the bedroom, flung open the window, and looked out. How
+quiet and sweet and wholesome the garden looked in the moonlight, and it
+could not be more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill,
+but I hesitated to jump until I should have heard what passed between
+my saviour and the ruffian who pursued me. If she were ill-used, then at
+any risks I was determined to go back to her assistance. The thought had
+hardly flashed through my mind before he was at the door, pushing his
+way past her; but she threw her arms round him and tried to hold him back.
+
+```Fritz! Fritz!' she cried in English, `remember your promise after
+the last time. You said it should not be again. He will be silent! Oh,
+he will be silent!'
+
+```You are mad, Elise!' he shouted, struggling to break away from
+her. `You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me pass,
+I say!' He dashed her to one side, and, rushing to the window, cut at
+me with his heavy weapon. I had let myself go, and was hanging by the
+hands to the sill, when his blow fell. I was conscious of a dull pain,
+my grip loosened, and I fell into the garden below.
+
+``I was shaken but not hurt by the fall; so I picked myself up and rushed
+off among the bushes as hard as I could run, for I understood that I was
+far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, however, as I ran, a deadly
+dizziness and sickness came over me. I glanced down at my hand, which was
+throbbing painfully, and then, for the first time, saw that my thumb had
+been cut off and that the blood was pouring from my wound. I endeavoured
+to tie my handkerchief round it, but there came a sudden buzzing in my
+ears, and next moment I fell in a dead faint among the rose-bushes.
+
+``How long I remained unconscious I cannot tell. It must have been a
+very long time, for the moon had sunk, and a bright morning was breaking
+when I came to myself. My clothes were all sodden with dew, and my
+coat-sleeve was drenched with blood from my wounded thumb. The smarting
+of it recalled in an instant all the particulars of my night's adventure,
+and I sprang to my feet with the feeling that I might hardly yet be safe
+from my pursuers. But to my astonishment, when I came to look round me,
+neither house nor garden were to be seen. I had been lying in an angle
+of the hedge close by the highroad, and just a little lower down was
+a long building, which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the very
+station at which I had arrived upon the previous night. Were it not for
+the ugly wound upon my hand, all that had passed during those dreadful
+hours might have been an evil dream.
+
+``Half dazed, I went into the station and asked about the morning
+train. There would be one to Reading in less than an hour. The same porter
+was on duty, I found, as had been there when I arrived. I inquired of
+him whether he had ever heard of Colonel Lysander Stark. The name was
+strange to him. Had he observed a carriage the night before waiting for
+me? No, he had not. Was there a police-station anywhere near? There was
+one about three miles off.
+
+``It was too far for me to go, weak and ill as I was. I determined to
+wait until I got back to town before telling my story to the police. It
+was a little past six when I arrived, so I went first to have my wound
+dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to bring me along here. I
+put the case into your hands and shall do exactly what you advise.''
+
+We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to this
+extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down from the shelf
+one of the ponderous commonplace books in which he placed his cuttings.
+
+``Here is an advertisement which will interest you,'' said he. ``It
+appeared in all the papers about a year ago. Listen to this: `Lost,
+on the 9th inst., Mr. Jeremiah Hayling, aged twenty-six, a hydraulic
+engineer. Left his lodgings at ten o'clock at night, and has not been
+heard of since. Was dressed in,' etc., etc. Ha! That represents the last
+time that the colonel needed to have his machine overhauled, I fancy.''
+
+``Good heavens!'' cried my patient. ``Then that explains what the
+girl said.''
+
+``Undoubtedly. It is quite clear that the colonel was a cool and desperate
+man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should stand in the
+way of his little game, like those out-and-out pirates who will leave
+no survivor from a captured ship. Well, every moment now is precious,
+so if you feel equal to it we shall go down to Scotland Yard at once as
+a preliminary to starting for Eyford.''
+
+Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train together,
+bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. There were Sherlock
+Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard,
+a plain-clothes man, and myself. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map
+of the county out upon the seat and was busy with his compasses drawing
+a circle with Eyford for its centre.
+
+``There you are,'' said he. ``That circle is drawn at a radius of ten
+miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere near that
+line. You said ten miles, I think, sir.''
+
+``It was an hour's good drive.''
+
+``And you think that they brought you back all that way when you were
+unconscious?''
+
+``They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having been
+lifted and conveyed somewhere.''
+
+``What I cannot understand,'' said I, ``is why they should have spared
+you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Perhaps the villain
+was softened by the woman's entreaties.''
+
+``I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face in
+my life.''
+
+``Oh, we shall soon clear up all that,'' said Bradstreet. ``Well, I have
+drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon it the folk
+that we are in search of are to be found.''
+
+``I think I could lay my finger on it,'' said Holmes quietly.
+
+``Really, now!'' cried the inspector, ``you have formed your
+opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is south,
+for the country is more deserted there.''
+
+``And I say east,'' said my patient.
+
+``I am for west,'' remarked the plain-clothes man. ``There are several
+quiet little villages up there.''
+
+``And I am for north,'' said I, ``because there are no hills there,
+and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up any.''
+
+``Come,'' cried the inspector, laughing; ``it's a very pretty diversity
+of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do you give your
+casting vote to?''
+
+``You are all wrong.''
+
+``But we can't all be.''
+
+``Oh, yes, you can. This is my point.'' He placed his finger in the
+centre of the circle. ``This is where we shall find them.''
+
+``But the twelve-mile drive?'' gasped Hatherley.
+
+``Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the horse
+was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that if it had
+gone twelve miles over heavy roads?''
+
+``Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough,'' observed Bradstreet
+thoughtfully. ``Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature of
+this gang.''
+
+``None at all,'' said Holmes. ``They are coiners on a large scale,
+and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the place
+of silver.''
+
+``We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work,'' said the
+inspector. ``They have been turning out half-crowns by the thousand. We
+even traced them as far as Reading, but could get no farther, for they
+had covered their traces in a way that showed that they were very old
+hands. But now, thanks to this lucky chance, I think that we have got
+them right enough.''
+
+But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not destined to
+fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into Eyford Station we saw
+a gigantic column of smoke which streamed up from behind a small clump
+of trees in the neighbourhood and hung like an immense ostrich feather
+over the landscape.
+
+``A house on fire?'' asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off again on
+its way.
+
+``Yes, sir!'' said the station-master.
+
+``When did it break out?''
+
+``I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, and
+the whole place is in a blaze.''
+
+``Whose house is it?''
+
+``Dr. Becher's.''
+
+``Tell me,'' broke in the engineer, ``is Dr. Becher a German, very thin,
+with a long, sharp nose?''
+
+The station-master laughed heartily. ``No, sir, Dr. Becher is an
+Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a better-lined
+waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, a patient, as
+I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as if a little good
+Berkshire beef would do him no harm.''
+
+The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all
+hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low hill,
+and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in front of us,
+spouting fire at every chink and window, while in the garden in front
+three fire-engines were vainly striving to keep the flames under.
+
+``That's it!'' cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. ``There is the
+gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That second
+window is the one that I jumped from.''
+
+``Well, at least,'' said Holmes, ``you have had your revenge upon
+them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, when
+it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, though no
+doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to observe it at the
+time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for your friends of last
+night, though I very much fear that they are a good hundred miles off
+by now.''
+
+And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this no word
+has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the sinister German,
+or the morose Englishman. Early that morning a peasant had met a cart
+containing several people and some very bulky boxes driving rapidly in the
+direction of Reading, but there all traces of the fugitives disappeared,
+and even Holmes' ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to
+their whereabouts.
+
+The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements which
+they had found within, and still more so by discovering a newly severed
+human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. About sunset,
+however, their efforts were at last successful, and they subdued the
+flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, and the whole place been
+reduced to such absolute ruin that, save some twisted cylinders and
+iron piping, not a trace remained of the machinery which had cost our
+unfortunate acquaintance so dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin
+were discovered stored in an out-house, but no coins were to be found,
+which may have explained the presence of those bulky boxes which have
+been already referred to.
+
+How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to the
+spot where he recovered his senses might have remained forever a mystery
+were it not for the soft mould, which told us a very plain tale. He had
+evidently been carried down by two persons, one of whom had remarkably
+small feet and the other unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most
+probable that the silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous
+than his companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man
+out of the way of danger.
+
+``Well,'' said our engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return once
+more to London, ``it has been a pretty business for me! I have lost my
+thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what have I gained?''
+
+``Experience,'' said Holmes, laughing. ``Indirectly it may be of value,
+you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the reputation of
+being excellent company for the remainder of your existence.''
+
+\end{document}