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[SPEAKER_00]: Hello and welcome to the Sherlock Holmes Bedtime Stories podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for joining us this evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's time to relax.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let your body fall into a comfortable position in your bed and drift gently into a state of total relaxation with tonight's story.
[SPEAKER_00]: part 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alighting at the small wayside station we drove for some miles through the remains of widespread woods, which were once part of that great forest, which for so long held the Saxon invaders at bay.
[SPEAKER_00]: The impenetrable wheeled in for 60 years the bulwark of Britain.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thus sections of it have been cleared, for this is the seat of the first ironworks of
[SPEAKER_00]: Now the richer fields of the north have absorbed the trade and nothing save these ravaged groves and great scars in the earth show the work of the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, in a clearing upon the green slope of a hill stood a long, low stone house, approached by a curving drive running through the fields.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nearer the road and surrounded on three sides by bushes was a small outhouse, one window and the door facing in our direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: it was the scene of the murder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stanley Hopkins led us first to the house where he introduced us to a haggard Greyhead woman, the widow of the murdered man, who's gaunt and deep-blind face with the fertive look of terror in the depths of her red-rimmed eyes, told of the years of hardship and ill usage which she had endured.
[SPEAKER_00]: With her was her daughter, a pale, fair head girl whose eyes blaze defiantly at us as she told us that she was glad that her father was dead, and that she blessed the hand which had struck him down.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a terrible household that black Peter Kerry had made for himself, and it was with a sense of relief that we found ourselves in the sunlight again, and making our way along a path which had been worn across the fields by the feet of the dead man.
[SPEAKER_00]: The outhouse was the simplest of dwellings, wooden walled, shingle roofed, one window beside the door and one on the farther side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stanley Hopkins drew the key from his pocket and had stooped to the lock when he paused with a look of attention and surprise upon his face.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone has been tampering with it, he said.
[SPEAKER_00]: The woodwork was cut, and the scratches showed white through the paint.
[SPEAKER_00]: As if they had been that instant done, homes had been examining the window.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone has tried to force this also, whoever it was has failed to make his way in, he must have been a very poor burglar.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the most extraordinary thing, said the inspector.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could swear that these marks were not here yesterday evening.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some curious person from the village, perhaps, I suggested.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very unlikely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Few of them would dare to set foot in the grounds, far less try to force their way into the cabin.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you think of it, Mr. Holmes?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that fortune is very kind to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: that you mean that the person will come again, it is very probable.
[SPEAKER_00]: He came expecting to find the door open.
[SPEAKER_00]: He tried to get in with the blade of a very small pen knife.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could not manage it.
[SPEAKER_00]: What would he do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Come again next night with a more useful tool.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I should say, it will be our fault if we are not there to receive him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, let me see the inside of the cabin.
[SPEAKER_00]: The traces of the tragedy had been removed, but the furniture within the little room still stood as it had been on the night of the crime.
[SPEAKER_00]: For two hours, with most intense concentration, homes examined every object in turn,
[SPEAKER_00]: one, so only he paused in his patient investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you taken anything off this shelf Hopkins?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I have moved nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something has been taken.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is less dust in this corner of the shelf than elsewhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may have been a book lying on its side.
[SPEAKER_00]: It may have been a box.
[SPEAKER_00]: well well I can do nothing more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us walk in these beautiful woods Watson and give a few hours to the birds and the flowers.
[SPEAKER_00]: We shall meet you here later Hopkins and see if we can come to closer quarters with the gentleman who has paid this visit in the night.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was past 11 o'clock when we formed our little ambuscade.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopkins was for leaving the door of the hut open but homes
[SPEAKER_00]: The lock was a perfectly simple one and only a strong blade was needed to push it back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes also suggested that we should wait, not inside the heart, but outside it among the bushes which grew round the farther window.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this way we should be able to watch our man if he struck a light and see what his object was in this stealthy nocturnal visit.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a long and melancholy vigil, and yet brought with it something of the thrill which the hunter feels when he lies beside the waterfall and waits for the coming of the thirsty beast of prey.
[SPEAKER_00]: What savage creature was it which might steal upon us out of the darkness?
[SPEAKER_00]: was it a fierce tiger of crime, which could only be taken fighting hard with flashing fang and claw, or would it prove to be some skulking jackal?
[SPEAKER_00]: Dangerous only to the week and unguarded.
[SPEAKER_00]: In absolute silence we crouched amongst the bushes waiting for whatever might come.
[SPEAKER_00]: At first, the steps of a few belated villages, or the sound of voices from the village, lightened our vigil, but one by one these interruptions died away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And an absolute stillness fellow ponies, save for the chimes of the distant church, which told us of the progress of the night, and for the Russell and Whisper of a fine-rained falling amid the foliage which roofed us in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Half past two had chimed, and it was the darkest hour which precedes the dawn, when we all started as a low but sharp click came from the direction of the gate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone had entered the drive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again there was a long silence and I had begun to fear that it was a false alarm, when a stealthy step was heard upon the other side of the hut, and a moment later, a metallic scraping and clinking.
[SPEAKER_00]: the man was trying to force the lock.
[SPEAKER_00]: This time his skill was greater or his tool was better for there was a sudden snap in the creek of the hinges.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then a match was struck and next instant the steady light from a candle filled the interior of the hut.
[SPEAKER_00]: Through the gauze curtain our eyes were all riveted upon the scene within.
[SPEAKER_00]: The nocturnal visitor was a young man frail and thin with a black moustache, which intensified the deadly pallor of his face.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could not have been much above 20 years of age.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have never seen any human being who appeared to be in such a pitiable fright, for his teeth were visibly chattering, and he was shaking in every limb.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was dressed like a gentleman, in Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers with a cloth cap upon
[SPEAKER_00]: We watched him staring round with frightened eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he laid the candle end up on the table and disappeared from our view into one of the corners.
[SPEAKER_00]: He returned with a large book, one of the log books which formed a line upon the shelves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Leaning on the table, he rapidly turned over the leaves of this volume, until he came to the entry which he sought.
[SPEAKER_00]: then, with an angry gesture of his clenched hand, he closed the book, replaced it in the corner and put out the light.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had hardly turned to leave the hut when Hopkins' hand was on the fellow's collar, and I heard his loud gasp of terror as he understood that he was taken.
[SPEAKER_00]: The candle was re-lit, and there was our wretched captive shivering and cowering in the grass
[SPEAKER_00]: He sank down upon the sea chest and looked helplessly from one of us to the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, my fine fellow, said Stanley Hopkins, who are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: And what do you want here?
[SPEAKER_00]: The man pulled himself together and faced us with an effort at self-composure.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are detectives, I suppose, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: You imagine I am connected with the death of Captain Peter Carey.
[SPEAKER_00]: I assure you that I am innocent.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll see about that, said Hopkins first of all, what is your name?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is John Hopley, Nelligan.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw Holmes and Hopkins exchange a quick glance.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing here?
[SPEAKER_00]: can I speak confidentially?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, certainly not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why should I tell you?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have no answer, it may go badly with you at the trial.
[SPEAKER_00]: The young man wins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I will tell you.
[SPEAKER_00]: and yet I hate to think of this old scandal gaining a new lease of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you ever hear of Dawson and Nelligan?
[SPEAKER_00]: I could see from Hopkins' face that he never had, but Holmes was keenly interested.
[SPEAKER_00]: You mean the West Country bankers, said he, they failed for a million, ruined half the county families of Cornwall and Nelligan disappeared,
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, Nelligan was my father.
[SPEAKER_00]: At last we were getting something positive and yet it seemed a long gap between an absconding banker and Captain Peter Carey pinned against the wall with one of his own harpoons.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all listened intently to the young man's words.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was my father who was really concerned.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dawson had retired.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was only ten years of age at the time, but I was old enough to feel the shame and horror of it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has always been said that my father stole all the securities and fled.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was his belief that if he were given time in which to realize them, all would be well and every creditor paid in full.
[SPEAKER_00]: He started in his little yacht for Norway just before the warrant was issued for his arrest.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can remember that last night when he bade farewell to my mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: He left us a list of the securities he was taking, and he swore that he would come back with his honour cleared, and that none who had trusted him would suffer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well no word was ever heard from him again, both the yacht and he vanished utterly.
[SPEAKER_00]: with the securities that he had taken with him were at the bottom of the sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had a faithful friend, however, who is a business man, and it was he who discovered some time ago that some of the securities which my father had with him had reappeared on the London market.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can imagine our amazement.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spent months in trying to trace them and at last after many doubtings and difficulties, I discovered that the original seller had been kept in Peter Carey, the owner of this
[SPEAKER_00]: Naturally I made some inquiries about the man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I found that he had been in command of a wailer, which was due to return from the Arctic seas at the very time when my father was crossing to Norway.
[SPEAKER_00]: The autumn of that year was a stormy one, and there was a long succession of southerly gales.
[SPEAKER_00]: My father's yacht may well have been blown to the north, and they're met by Captain Peter Kerry's ship if that was so.
[SPEAKER_00]: What had become of my father?
[SPEAKER_00]: In any case, if I could prove from Peter Carey's evidence how these securities came on the market, it would be a proof that my father had not sold them, and that he had no view to personal profit when he took them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I came down to Sussex with the intention of seeing the captain, but it was at this moment that his terrible death occurred.
[SPEAKER_00]: I read at the inquest a description of his cabin, in which it stated that the old logbooks of his vessel were preserved in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It struck me that if I could see what occurred in the month of August 1883 on board the sea unicorn, I might settle the mystery of my father's fate.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried last night to get at these logbooks, but was unable to open the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tonight I tried again and succeeded, but I find that the pages which deal with that
[SPEAKER_00]: It was at that moment I found myself a prisoner in your hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that all?
[SPEAKER_00]: Asked Hopkins.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that is all.
[SPEAKER_00]: His eyes shifted as he said it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have nothing else to tell us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He hesitated.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, there is nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: you have not been here before last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then how do you account for that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Cride Hopkins as he held up the damning notebook with the initials of our prisoner on the first leaf and the bloodstain on the cover.
[SPEAKER_00]: The wretched man collapsed.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sank his face in his hands and trembled all over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did you get it?
[SPEAKER_00]: He groaned.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought I had lost it at the hotel.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is enough, said Hopkins, sternly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever else you have to say, you must say in court.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will walk down with me now to the police station.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Mr. Holmes, I am very much obliged to you and to your friend for coming down to help me.
[SPEAKER_00]: As it turns out, your presence was unnecessary, and I would have brought the case to this successful issue without you, but nonetheless, I am grateful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rooms have been reserved for you at the Bramblety Hotel, so we can all walk down to the village together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well Watson, what do you think of it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Asked homes as we travelled back next morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yes, my dear Watson, I'm perfectly satisfied, at the same time Stanley Hopkins' methods do not commend themselves to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am disappointed in Stanley Hopkins, I had hoped for better things from him.
[SPEAKER_00]: One should always look for a possible alternative and provide against it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the first rule of criminal investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: What then is the alternative?
[SPEAKER_00]: The line of investigation which I have myself been pursuing, it may give us nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot tell, but at least I shall follow it to the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Several letters were waiting for homes at Baker Street.
[SPEAKER_00]: He snatched one of them up, opened it, and burst out into a triumphant chuckle of laughter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excellent Watson, the alternative develops.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you telegraph forms?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just write a couple of messages for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sumner, shipping agent, Rack Cliff Highway, send three men on to arrive 10 tomorrow morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Basil, that's my name in those parts.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other is, Inspector Stanley Hopkins, 46 Lord Street, Brickston, come breakfast tomorrow at 9.30.
[SPEAKER_00]: Important, wire if unable to come, Sherlock Holmes,
[SPEAKER_00]: There Watson this infernal case has haunted me for 10 days I hereby banished it completely from my presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tomorrow I trust that we shall hear the last of it forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sharp at the hour named Inspector Stanley Hopkins appeared and we sat down together to the excellent breakfast which Mrs Hudson had prepared.
[SPEAKER_00]: The young detective was in high spirits at his success.
[SPEAKER_00]: You really think that your solution must be correct, as toms.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could not imagine a more complete case.
[SPEAKER_00]: It did not seem to me conclusive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You astonish me, Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: What more could one ask for?
[SPEAKER_00]: Does your explanation cover every point?
[SPEAKER_00]: Undoubtedly, I find that young Nelligan arrived at the Bramble tea hotel on the very day of the crime.
[SPEAKER_00]: He came on the pretence of playing golf.
[SPEAKER_00]: His room was on the ground floor, and he could get out when he liked.
[SPEAKER_00]: That very night he went down to Woodman's lease or Peter Carey at the heart quarreled with him and killed him with the harpoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then horrified by what he had done, he fled out of the hut, dropping the notebook which he had brought with him in order to question Peter Kerry about these different securities.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may have observed that some of them were marked with ticks, and the others, the great majority, were not.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those which are ticked have been traced on the London market, but the others presumably were still in the possession of Kerry, and young Nelligan, according to his own account, was anxious to recover them in order to do the right thing by his father's creditors.
[SPEAKER_00]: After his flight he did not dare to approach the hut again for some time, but at last he forced himself to do so in order to obtain the information which he needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely that is all simple and obvious.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems to me to have only one drawback Hopkins, and that is that it is intrinsically impossible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you tried to drive a harpoon through a body?
[SPEAKER_00]: No?
[SPEAKER_00]: TUT TUT my dear sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: You must really pay attention to these details.
[SPEAKER_00]: My friend Watson could tell you that I spent a whole morning in that exercise.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is no easy matter, and requires a strong and practised arm.
[SPEAKER_00]: but this blow was delivered with such violence that the head of the weapon sank deep into the war.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you imagine that this anemic youth was capable of so frightful and assault?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is he the man who hobnobbed in Raman water with black Peter in the dead of the night?
[SPEAKER_00]: Was it his profile that was seen on the blind two nights before?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no Hopkins, it is another and more formidable person for whom we must seek.
[SPEAKER_00]: The detective's face had grown longer and longer during homes his speech.
[SPEAKER_00]: His hopes and his ambitions were all crumbling about him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he would not abandon his position without a struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't deny that Nelligan was present that night, Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The book will prove that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fancy that I have evidence enough to satisfy a jury, even if you are able to pick a hole in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: besides Mr. Holmes, I have laid my hand upon my man as to this terrible person of yours where is he?
[SPEAKER_00]: I rather fancy that he is on the stair, said Holmes, serenely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Watson that you would do well to put that revolver where you can reach it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He rose and
[SPEAKER_00]: There had been some talking in gruff voices outside, and now Mrs. Hudson opened the door to say that there were three men inquiring for Captain Basil.
[SPEAKER_00]: Show them in one by one, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first who entered was a little ripsed and pipin of a man with ruddy cheeks and fluffy white side whiskers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes had drawn a letter from his pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: What name, he asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: James Lancaster.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am sorry Lancaster, but the birth is full.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here is half a sovereign for your trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just step into this room and wait there for a few minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The second man was a long dried-up creature with Lancair and Salo cheeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: His name was Hugh Patton's.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also received his dismissal, his half-sovereign, and the order to wait.
[SPEAKER_00]: The third applicant was a man of remarkable appearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: A fierce bulldog face was framed in a tangle of hair and beard, and two bold dark eyes gleamed behind the cover of thick, tuffeted overhung eyebrows.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your name, asked Holmes, Patrick Kenz, Papuna, Yeser, 26 Voyages, Dundee I suppose, Yeser,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes sir, what wages, eight pounds a month, could you start at once?
[SPEAKER_00]: As soon as I get my kit, have your papers, yes sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: He took a sheath of war and greasy forms from his pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes glanced over them and returned them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were just the man I want, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the agreement on the side table.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you sign it, the whole matter will be settled.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Seaman lurched across the room and took up the pen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shall I sign here?"
[SPEAKER_00]: he asked, stooping over the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes leaned over his shoulder and passed both hands over his neck.
[SPEAKER_00]: This will do, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: I heard a click of steel and a bellow like an enraged ball.
[SPEAKER_00]: The next instant homes and the semen were rolling on the ground together.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was a man of such gigantic strength that even with the handcuffs which Holmes had so definitely fastened upon his wrists, he would have very quickly overpowered my friend, had Hopkins and I not rushed to his rescue.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only when I pressed the cold muzzle of the revolver to his temple, did he had last understand that resistance was vain?
[SPEAKER_00]: We lashed his ankles with cord and rose breathless from the struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must really apologize Hopkins, said Sherlock Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fear that the scrambled eggs are cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, you will enjoy the rest of your breakfast all the better, will you not?
[SPEAKER_00]: For the thought that you have brought your case to a triumphant conclusion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stanley Hopkins was speechless with amazement.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what to say, Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He blurted out at last with a very red face.
[SPEAKER_00]: It seems to me that I have been making a fool of myself from the beginning I understand now.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I should never have forgotten that I am the pupil and you are the master.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even now I see what you have done but I don't know how you did it or what it signifies.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all learn by experience and your lesson this time is that you should never lose sight of the alternative.
[SPEAKER_00]: You were so absorbed in young Nelligan that you could not spare a thought to Patrick Kairns the true murder of Peter Kary.
[SPEAKER_00]: The horse voice of the Seaman broke in on our conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: See here, Mr. said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: I make no complaint of being manhandled in this fashion, but I would have you call things by their right names.
[SPEAKER_00]: You say I murdered Peter Carey, I say I killed Peter Carey, and there's all the difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you don't believe what I say, maybe you think I am just slinging you a yarn.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not at all, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us hear what you have to say.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's soon told and by the Lord every word of it is truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew Black Peter, and when he pulled out his knife I whipped a harpoon through him sharp.
[SPEAKER_00]: For I knew that it was him or me that's how he died.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can call it murder.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, I'd assume die with a rope round my neck as with Black Peter's knife in my heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: How came you there?
[SPEAKER_00]: Asked Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you from the beginning, just sit me up a little so as I can speak easy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was in 83 that it happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: August of that year Peter Carey was Master of the Sea Unicorn and I was Spear Hapuna.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were coming out of the ice pack on our way home with headwinds and a week southerly gale when we picked up a little craft that had been blown north.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was one man on her, a lansman.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess they were all drowned.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well we took him on board this man and he and the skipper had some long talks in the cabin.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the baggage we took off with him was one tin box.
[SPEAKER_00]: So far as I know the man's name was never mentioned, and on the second night he disappeared as if he had never been.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was given out that he had either thrown himself overboard or fallen overboard in the heavy weather that we were having.
[SPEAKER_00]: only one man knew what had happened to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was me for with my own eyes I saw the skipper tip up his heels and put him over the rail in the middle water of a dark night, two days before we sighted the shetland lights.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well I kept my knowledge to myself and waited to see what would come of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we got back to Scotland, it was easily hushed up, and nobody asked any questions a stranger died by accident, and it was nobody's business to inquire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shortly after Peter Carey gave up the sea and it was long years before I could find where he was, I guessed that he had done the deed for the sake of what was in that tin box, and that he could afford now to pay me well for keeping my mouth shut.
[SPEAKER_00]: I found out where he was through a sailor man that had met him in London, and down
[SPEAKER_00]: The first night he was reasonable enough and was ready to give me what would make me free of the sea for life.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were to fix it all two nights later.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I came, I found him three parts drunk and in a vile temper.
[SPEAKER_00]: We sat down and we drank and we yarned about old times, but the more he drank, the less I liked the look on his face.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spotted that harpoon upon the wall and I thought I might need it before I was through.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then at last he broke out at me, spitting and cursing with murder in his eyes and a great class knife in his hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had not time to get it from the sheath before I had the harpoon through him heavens, what a yell he gave, and his face gets between me and my sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: I stood there with his blood splashing around me, and I waited for a bit but all was quiet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I took heart once more I looked round.
[SPEAKER_00]: and there was the tin box on the shelf.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had as much right to it as Peter Carey anyhow.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I took it with me and left the hut.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like a fool, I left my backy pouch upon the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'll tell you the queries part of the whole story.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had hardly got outside the hut when I heard someone coming and I hid among the bushes.
[SPEAKER_00]: A man came slinking along, went into the hut, gave a cry as if he had seen a ghost and legged it as hard as he could run until he was out of sight, who he was or what he wanted is more than I can tell.
[SPEAKER_00]: For my part, I walked 10 miles, got a train at Tumbridge Wells, and so reached London and no one the wiser.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, when I came to examine the box, I found there was no money in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And nothing but papers that I would not dare to sell.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had lost my hold on Black Peter and was stranded in London without a shilling.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was only my trade left.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw these advertisements about harpooners and high wages, so I went to the shipping agents and they sent me here.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I say again that if I killed Black Peter, the law should give me thanks for I saved them the price of a hemp and rope.
[SPEAKER_00]: A very clear statement said Holmes, rising and lighting his pipe.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Hopkins, that you should lose no time in conveying your prisoner to a place of safety.
[SPEAKER_00]: This room is not well-adapted for a cell, and Mr. Patrick Kerenz occupies too large a proportion of our carpet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Holmes said Hopkins, I do not know how to express my gratitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even now, I do not understand how you attain this result.
[SPEAKER_00]: Simply by having the good fortune to get the right clue from the beginning,
[SPEAKER_00]: It is very possible if I had known about this notebook it might have led away my thoughts as it did yours.
[SPEAKER_00]: But all I heard pointed in the one direction.
[SPEAKER_00]: The amazing strength, the skill in the use of the harpoon, the rum and water, the seal skinned tobacco pouch with the course tobacco, all these pointed to a seaman and one who had been a wailer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was convinced that the initials PC up on the pouch were a coincidence and not those of Peter Carey since he seldom smoked, and no pipe was found in his cabin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You remember that I asked whether whiskey and brandy were in the cabin?
[SPEAKER_00]: You said they were.
[SPEAKER_00]: How many landsmen are there who would drink rum when they could get these other spirits?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I was certain it was a seaman.
[SPEAKER_00]: My dear sir, the problem had become a very simple one.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it were a seaman, it could only be a seaman who had been with him on the sea unicorn.
[SPEAKER_00]: So far as I could learn he had sailed in no other ship.
[SPEAKER_00]: I spent three days in wiring to Dundee, and at the end of that time I had ascertained the names of the crew of the sea unicorn in 1883.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I found Patrick Keins among the harpooners, my research was nearing its end.
[SPEAKER_00]: I argued that the man was probably in London and that he would desire to leave the country for a time.
[SPEAKER_00]: By therefore spent some days in the East End devised an Arctic expedition, put forth tempting terms for harpooners who would serve under Captain Basil and behold the result.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wonderful, cried Hopkins, wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: You must obtain the release of young Nelligan as soon as possible, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I confess that I think you owe him some apology.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tin box must be returned to him, but, of course, the securities which Peter Kerri has sold are lost forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the cab, Hopkins, and you can remove your man.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want me for the trial, my address and that of Watson will be somewhere in Norway.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll send particulars later.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: you
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: you