[SPEAKER_00]: Hello and welcome to the Sherlock Holmes Bedtime Stories podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Each episode is a section from a classic Sherlock Holmes story with relaxing music to help you fall asleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you love the podcast and never miss an episode, please follow us on Spotify and Apple podcasts and leave a five star rating.
[SPEAKER_00]: If our podcast has become a part of your bedtime routine, please consider supporting the show by clicking the link in the show notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our show is completely free.
[SPEAKER_00]: In part, thanks to support from listeners like you.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are options to give one time or on a monthly basis.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, sleep easier by clicking the, support this podcast link in the show notes and become a supporter today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as always, if you're enjoying the pod, please spread the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: sharing with friends and family really does help.
[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]: The disappearance of Lady Francis Carfax
[SPEAKER_00]: part two.
[SPEAKER_00]: A telegram was awaiting us when we reached our Baker Street rooms, which homes red with an exclamation of interest, and threw across to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jagged or torn was the message, and the place of origin, Barton.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is this I asked?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is everything, homes
[SPEAKER_00]: You may remember my seemingly irrelevant question as to this clerical gentleman's left ear.
[SPEAKER_00]: You did not answer it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I had left Barton and could not inquire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: For this reason, I sent a duplicate to the manager of the English or Hoff, who's answer lies here.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does it show?
[SPEAKER_00]: It shows my dear Watson that we are dealing with an exceptionally astute and dangerous man.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Reverend Dr. Schlesinger, missionary from South America, is none other than Holy Peters, one of the most unscrupulous rascals that Australia has ever evolved.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for a young country it has turned out some very finished types.
[SPEAKER_00]: His particular specialty is the begiling of lonely ladies by playing upon their religious feelings and his so-called wife, an English woman named Fraser is a worthy helpmate.
[SPEAKER_00]: The nature of his tactics suggested his identity to me, and this physical peculiarity, he was badly bitten in a saloon-fighted Adelaide in 89 confirmed my suspicion.
[SPEAKER_00]: This poor lady is in the hands of a most infernal couple who will stick at nothing Watson that she is already dead is a very likely supposition.
[SPEAKER_00]: If not, she is undoubtedly in some sort of confinement and unable to write to Ms. Dobney or her other friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is always possible that she never reached London or that she has passed through it, but the former is improbable.
[SPEAKER_00]: As with their system of registration, it is not easy for foreigners to play tricks with the continental police.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the latter is also unlikely, as these rogues could not hope to find any other place where it would be as easy to keep a person under a straight.
[SPEAKER_00]: All my instincts tell me that she is in London.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we have at present no possible means of telling where, we can only take the obvious steps, eat our dinner, and possess our souls in patience.
[SPEAKER_00]: Later in the evening, I will stroll down and have a word with friendless,
[SPEAKER_00]: But neither the official police nor homes is own small, but very efficient organization, suffice to clear away the mystery.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amid the crowded millions of London, the three persons we sought were as completely obliterated as if they had never lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: Advertisements were tried and failed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Clues were followed and led to nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: His older associates were watched, but they kept clear of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then suddenly after a week of helpless suspense, they came a flash of light.
[SPEAKER_00]: A silver and brilliant pendant of old Spanish design had been pawned at Bovington's in Westminster Road.
[SPEAKER_00]: The porno was a large, clean-shaven man of clerical appearance.
[SPEAKER_00]: His name and address were demonstrably false.
[SPEAKER_00]: The ear had escaped notice, but the description was surely that of Schlesinger.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three times had our bearded friend from the Langem called for news, the third time within an hour of this fresh development.
[SPEAKER_00]: His clothes were getting looser on his great body.
[SPEAKER_00]: He seemed to be wilting away in his anxiety.
[SPEAKER_00]: At last, Holmes could oblige him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has begun to pour the jewels we should get him now.
[SPEAKER_00]: But does this mean that any harm has befallen the lady Francis?
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes shook his head very gravely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Supposing that they have held her prisoner up to now, it is clear that they cannot let her loose without their own destruction.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must prepare for the worst.
[SPEAKER_00]: What can I do?
[SPEAKER_00]: These people do not know you by sight.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is possible that he will go to some other pawnbroker in the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: In that case, we must begin again.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, he has had a fair price and no questions asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if he is in need of ready money he will probably come back to bovintons.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will give you a note to them and they will let you wait in the shop.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the fellow comes you will follow him home but no indiscretion and above all no violence.
[SPEAKER_00]: I put you on your honor that you will take no step without my knowledge and consent.
[SPEAKER_00]: For two days, the honourable Philip Green, he was, I may mention, the son of the famous admiral of that name, who commanded the sea of Asaf Fleet in the Crimean War, brought us no news.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the evening of the third, he rushed into our sitting room pale, trembling with every muscle of his powerful frame quivering with excitement.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have him, we have him, he cried.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes soothed him with a few words and thrust him into an armchair.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come now, give us the order of events, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: She came only an hour ago, it was the wife this time, but the pendant she brought was the fellow of the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is a tall, pale woman, with ferret eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the lady, said Homes.
[SPEAKER_00]: She left the office and I followed her.
[SPEAKER_00]: She walked up the Kennington Road and I kept behind her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Presently she went into a shop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Holmes, it was an undertaker's.
[SPEAKER_00]: My companion started.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he asked in that vibrant voice which told of the fiery soul behind the cold gray face.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was talking to the woman behind the counter,
[SPEAKER_00]: It is late.
[SPEAKER_00]: I heard her say, or words to that effect.
[SPEAKER_00]: The woman was excusing herself.
[SPEAKER_00]: It should be there before now, she answered.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took longer being out of the ordinary.
[SPEAKER_00]: They both stopped and looked at me so I asked some questions and then left the shop.
[SPEAKER_00]: You did excellently well what happened next.
[SPEAKER_00]: The woman came out but I had hit myself in a doorway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her suspicions had been aroused I think for she looked round her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then she called a cab and got in.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was lucky enough to get another and so to follow her.
[SPEAKER_00]: She got down at last at number 36 Pultney Square Brickston.
[SPEAKER_00]: I drove past, left my cab at the corner of the square, and watched the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you see anyone?
[SPEAKER_00]: The windows were all in darkness, save one on the lower floor.
[SPEAKER_00]: The blind was down, and I could not see in.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was standing there wondering what I should do next, when a covered van drove up with two men in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: They descended, took something out of the van, and carried it up the steps to the whole door.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Holmes, it was a coffin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah!
[SPEAKER_00]: For an instant I was on the point of rushing in.
[SPEAKER_00]: The door had been open to admit the men in their burden.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the woman who had opened it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as I stood there she caught a glimpse of me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that she recognized me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw her start and she hastily closed the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remembered my promise to you and here I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have done excellent work.
[SPEAKER_00]: scribbling a few words upon a half-sheet of paper.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can do nothing legal without a warrant, and you can serve the cause best by taking this note down to the authorities and getting one.
[SPEAKER_00]: There may be some difficulty, but I should think that the sale of the jewelry should be sufficient.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lestrade will see to all details.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they may murder her in the meanwhile.
[SPEAKER_00]: What could the coffin mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: And for whom could it be but for her?
[SPEAKER_00]: We will do all that can be done, Mr. Green, not a moment will be lost, leave it in our hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Watson, he added as our client hurried away.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will set the regular forces on the move.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are as usual the irregulars, and we must take our own line of action.
[SPEAKER_00]: The situation strikes me as so desperate that the most extreme measures are justified,
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us try to reconstruct the situation, said he as we drove swiftly past the houses of Parliament and over Westminster Bridge.
[SPEAKER_00]: These villains have coaxed this unhappy lady to London after first alienating her from her faithful maid.
[SPEAKER_00]: If she has written any letters they have been intercepted through some confederate they have engaged a furnished house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once inside it they have made her a prisoner and they have become possessed of the valuable jewelry which has been their object from the first.
[SPEAKER_00]: Already they have begun to sell part of it, which seems safe enough to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since they have no reason to think that anyone is interested in the ladies' fate, when she is released she will of course denounce them therefore she must not be released, but they cannot keep her under lock and key forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: So murder is their only solution.
[SPEAKER_00]: that seems very clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we will take another line of reasoning.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you follow two separate chains of thought Watson, you will find some point of intersection which should approximate to the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will start now, not from the lady but from the coffin and argue backward.
[SPEAKER_00]: That incident proves I fear beyond all doubt that the lady is dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: It points also to an orthodox burial with proper accompaniment of medical certificate and official sanction.
[SPEAKER_00]: Had the lady been obviously murdered, they would have buried her in a hole in the back garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here all is open and regular.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does this mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely that they have done her to death in some way which has deceived the doctor and simulated a natural end, poisoning perhaps and yet how strange that they should ever let a doctor approach her unless he were a confederate, which is hardly a credible proposition.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could they have forged a medical certificate?
[SPEAKER_00]: dangerous Watson, very dangerous, no I hardly see them doing that pull-up cabby, this is evidently the undertakers for we have just passed the porn brokers, would you go in Watson, your appearance inspires confidence, ask what hour the poltny square funeral takes place tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: The woman in the shop answered me without hesitation that it was to be at 8 o'clock in the morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: In some way, the legal forms have undoubtedly been complied with, and they think that they have little to fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, there's nothing for it now, but a direct frontal attack.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you armed?
[SPEAKER_00]: My stick.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, well, we shall be strong enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thrice is he armed, who hath his quarrel just.
[SPEAKER_00]: we simply can't afford to wait for the police or to keep within the four corners of the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can drive off cabby.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now Watson will just take our luck together as we have occasionally in the past.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had rung loudly at the door of a great dark house in the centre of Pultney Square.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was opened immediately and the figure of a tall woman was outlined against the dim
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, what do you want?
[SPEAKER_00]: She asked sharply peering at us through the darkness.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to speak to Dr. Schlesinger, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no such person here she answered and tried to close the door, but Holmes had jammed it with his foot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I want to see the man who lives here, whatever he may call himself,
[SPEAKER_00]: she hesitated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then she threw open the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, come in, said she.
[SPEAKER_00]: My husband is not afraid to face any man in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: She closed the door behind us and showed us into a sitting room on the right side of the hall, turning up the gas as she left us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Peters will be with you in an instant.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her words were literally true for we had hardly time to look around the dusty and moth-eaten apartment in which we found ourselves, before the door opened, and a big, clean-shaven, bald-headed man stepped lightly into the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a large red face with pendulous cheeks, and a general air of superficial benevolence which was marred by a cruel, vicious mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is surely some mistake here, gentlemen.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said in a nunchewous, make everything easy, voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fancy that you have been misdirected.
[SPEAKER_00]: Possibly if you tried farther down the street.
[SPEAKER_00]: That will do, we have no time to waste, said my companion firmly.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are Henry Peters of Adelaide, late the Reverend Dr. Schlesinger of Barden and South America.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am a sure of that as that my own name is Sherlock Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peters, as I will now call him, started and stared hard at his formidable pursuer.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess your name does not frighten me, Mr. Holmes, said he coolly.
[SPEAKER_00]: When a man's conscience is easy, you can't rattle him.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is your business in my house?
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to know what you have done with the Lady Francis Carfax whom you brought away with you from Barden.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd be very glad if you could tell me where that Lady may be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peters answered coolly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've a bill against her for nearly 100 pounds, and nothing to show for it but a couple of Trumpery pendants that the dealer would hardly look at.
[SPEAKER_00]: She attached herself to Mrs. Peters and me at Barden.
[SPEAKER_00]: it is a fact that I was using another name at the time and she stuck onto us until we came to London.
[SPEAKER_00]: I paid her bill and her ticket.
[SPEAKER_00]: Once in London she gave us the slip and as I say left these out of date jewels to pay her bills.
[SPEAKER_00]: You find her Mr. Holmes and I'm your debtor.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean to find her, said Sherlock Holmes, I'm going through this house till I do
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is your warrant?
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes half drew a revolver from his pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: This will have to serve till a better one comes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why you're a common burglar?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you might describe me, said Holmes cheerfully.
[SPEAKER_00]: My companion is also a dangerous ruffian, and together we are going through your house,
[SPEAKER_00]: Our opponent opened the door.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fetch a policeman, Annie, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was a whisk of feminine skirts down the passage, and the hall door was opened and shut.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our time is limited, Watson, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you try to stop us, Peters, you will most certainly get hurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is that coffin, which was brought into your house?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you want with the coffin it is in use?
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a body in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I must see the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never with my consent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then without it, with a quick movement homes push the fellow to one side and passed into the hall.
[SPEAKER_00]: A door half open stood immediately before us.
[SPEAKER_00]: we entered.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the dining room.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the table, under a half-lit chandelier, the coffin was lying.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes turned up the gas and raised the lid.
[SPEAKER_00]: Deep down in the recesses of the coffin lay an emaciated figure.
[SPEAKER_00]: The glare from the lights above beat down upon an age
[SPEAKER_00]: By no possible process of cruelty, starvation or disease could this worn out wreck be the still beautiful lady Francis.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes' face showed his amazement and also his relief.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank God he muttered with someone else.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, you've blundered badly for once, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, said Peters, who had followed us into the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is the dead woman?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well if you really must know, she is an old nurse of my wife's, Rose Spender by name, whom we found in the Brickston Workhouse in Firmary.
[SPEAKER_00]: We brought her around here, called in Dr. Horsum of 13, Furbank villas, mind you take the address Mr. Holmes, and had her carefully tended as Christian folk should.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the third day she died, certificate says Seenile decay, but that's only the doctor's opinion and of course you know better.
[SPEAKER_00]: We ordered her funeral to be carried out by Stimson and Co of the Kennington Road who will bury her at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you pick any hole in that Mr. Holmes?
[SPEAKER_00]: You've made a silly blunder and you may as well own up to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd give something for a photograph of your gaping, staring face when you pulled aside that lid, expecting to see the lady France's carfax, and only found a poor old woman of 90.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes' expression was as impassive as ever under the years of his antagonist, but his clenched hands betrayed his acute annoyance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am going through your house, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are you, though, cried Peter's as a woman's voice and heavy step sounded in the passage?
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll soon see about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This way, officers, if you please, these men have forced their way into my house and I cannot get rid of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Help me to put them out.
[SPEAKER_00]: A sergeant and a constable stood in the doorway.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my name and address.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is my friend Dr. Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bless you sir, we know you very well, said the sergeant, but you can't stay here without a warrant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course not, I quite understand that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Arrest him, cried Peters.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know at a lay our hands on this gentleman if he is wanted, said the sergeant majestically, but you'll have to go, Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, Watson, we shall have to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: A minute later, we were in the street once more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes was as cool as ever, but I was hot with anger and humiliation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sergeant had followed us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, Mr. Holmes, but that's the law.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, Sergeant, you could not do otherwise.
[SPEAKER_00]: I expect there was good reason for your presence there if there is anything I can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a missing lady, Sergeant, and we think she is in that house.
[SPEAKER_00]: I expect a warrant, presently.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I'll keep my eye on the parties, Mr. Holmes, if anything comes along, I will surely let you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was only nine o'clock, and we were off full cry up on the trail at once.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, we drove to Brickston Workhouse in Firmary, where we found that it was indeed the truth that a charitable couple had called some days before, that they had claimed an imbecile old woman as a former servant, and that they had obtained permission to take her away with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: No surprise was expressed at the news that she had since died.
[SPEAKER_00]: The doctor was our next goal.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had been called in, had found the woman dying of purestinility, had actually seen her pass away, and had signed the certificate in due form.
[SPEAKER_00]: I assure you that everything was perfectly normal and there was no room for foul play in the matter.
[SPEAKER_00]: Said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: nothing in the house had struck him as suspicious, saved that for people of their class, it was remarkable that they should have no servant.
[SPEAKER_00]: So far and no further went the doctor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally we found our way to Scotland Yard.
[SPEAKER_00]: There had been difficulties of procedure in regard to the warrant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some delay was inevitable.
[SPEAKER_00]: The magistrate's signature might not be obtained until next morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: If homes would call about nine he could go down with the strad and see it acted upon.
[SPEAKER_00]: So ended the day, saved that near midnight our friend, the sergeant, called to say that he had seen flickering lights here and there in the windows of the great dark house, but that no one had left it and none had entered.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sherlock Holmes was too irritable for conversation, and too restless for sleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: I left him smoking hard, with his heavy dark brows knotted together, and his long-nervous fingers tapping upon the arms of his chair as he turned over in his mind every possible solution of the mystery.
[SPEAKER_00]: Several times in the course of the night I heard him prowling about the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, just after I had been called in the morning he rushed into my room,
[SPEAKER_00]: He was in his dressing gown, but his pale, hollow-eyed face told me that his knight had been a sleepless one.
[SPEAKER_00]: What time was the funeral?
[SPEAKER_00]: Eight was it not?
[SPEAKER_00]: He asked eagerly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well it is 720 now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good heavens Watson, what has become of any brains that God has given me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Quick man, quick, it's life or death, a hundred chances on death to one on life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll never forgive myself, never if we are too late.
[SPEAKER_00]: five minutes had not passed before we were flying in a handsome down baker street.
[SPEAKER_00]: But even so it was 25 to 8 as we passed Big Ben, and 8 struck as we tore down the brickston road.
[SPEAKER_00]: But others were late as well as we.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ten minutes after the hour the hers was still standing at the door of the house, and even as our foaming horse came to our halt, the coffin, supported by three men, appeared
[SPEAKER_00]: homes darted forward and barred their way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take it back.
[SPEAKER_00]: He cried laying his hand on the breast of the foremost, take it back this instant.
[SPEAKER_00]: What the devil do you mean once again I ask you where is your warrant?
[SPEAKER_00]: Shouted the furious peaters, his big red face glaring over the father end of the coffin.
[SPEAKER_00]: The warrant is on its way, the coffin shall remain in the house until it comes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The authority in Holmes' voice had its effect upon the bearers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peters had suddenly vanished into the house and they obeyed these new orders.
[SPEAKER_00]: Quick Watson quick, here is a screwdriver, he shouted as the coffin was replaced upon the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's one for you, my man, a sovereign if the lid comes off in a minute, ask no questions, work away, that's good, another, and another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now pull all together, it's giving, it's giving, are that does it at last.
[SPEAKER_00]: With a united effort, we tore off the coffin lid.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we did so, there came from the inside a stupofying and overpowering smell of chloriform.
[SPEAKER_00]: A body lay within, its head all reathed in cotton wool which had been soaked in the narcotic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes plugged it off and disclosed the statue-esque face of a handsome and spiritual woman of mid-laid.
[SPEAKER_00]: In an instant, he had passed his arm round the figure and raised her to a sitting position.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is she gone Watson?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there a spark left?
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely we are not too late.
[SPEAKER_00]: half an hour it seemed that we were.
[SPEAKER_00]: What with actual suffocation and what with the poisonous fumes of the chloriform, the lady Francis seemed to have passed the last point of recall.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, at last with artificial respiration, with injected ether, and with every device that science could suggest,
[SPEAKER_00]: some flutter of life, some quiver of the eyelids, some dimming of a mirror, spoke of the slowly returning life.
[SPEAKER_00]: A cab had driven up, and homes parting the blind looked out at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here is Lestrade with his warrant, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will find that his birds have flown, and here he added, as a heavy step hurried along the passage,
[SPEAKER_00]: is someone who has a better right to nurse this lady than we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning Mr. Green.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that the sooner we can move the lady Francis the better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, the funeral may proceed, and the poor old woman who still lies in that coffin may go to her last resting place alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Should you care to add the case to your annals, my dear Watson, said Holmes that evening,
[SPEAKER_00]: It can only be as an example of that temporary eclipse to which even the best balanced mind may be exposed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Such slips are common to all mortals and the greatest is he who can recognize and repair them.
[SPEAKER_00]: To this modified credit, I may perhaps make some claim.
[SPEAKER_00]: My night was haunted by the thought that somewhere a clue, a strange sentence, a curious observation had come under my notice and had been too easily dismissed.
[SPEAKER_00]: then, suddenly, in the gray of the morning, the words came back to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the remark of the undertaker's wife, as reported by Philip Green.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had said, it should be there before now.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took longer, being out of the ordinary.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the coffin of which she spoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had been out of the ordinary.
[SPEAKER_00]: but why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Then in an instant I remembered the deep sides and the little wasted figure at the bottom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why so large a coffin for so small a body?
[SPEAKER_00]: To leave room for another body, both would be buried under the one certificate.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had all been so clear if only my own sight had not been dimmed.
[SPEAKER_00]: At eight, the lady Francis would be buried.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our one chance was to stop the coffin before it left the house.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a desperate chance that we might find her alive, but it was a chance as the results showed.
[SPEAKER_00]: These people had never to my knowledge done a murder.
[SPEAKER_00]: They might shrink from actual violence at the last.
[SPEAKER_00]: They could bury her with no sign of how she met her end and even if she were exhumed
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope that such considerations might prevail with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can reconstruct the scene well enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: You saw the horrible den upstairs where the poor lady had been kept so long.
[SPEAKER_00]: They rushed in and overpowered her with their chloriform, carried her down, poured more into the coffin to ensure against her waking, and then screwed down the lid.
[SPEAKER_00]: A clever device Watson, it is new to me in the annals of crime.
[SPEAKER_00]: If our Ex-Missionary friends escape the clutches of Lestrade, I shall expect to hear of some brilliant incidents in their future career.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: you
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much.
[UNKNOWN]: you