[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 adventure of the Devil's Foot
[SPEAKER_00]: part 2.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was marked however at the outset by an incident which left the most sinister impression upon my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: The approach to the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a narrow winding country lane.
[SPEAKER_00]: While we made our way along it, we heard the rattle of a carriage coming
[SPEAKER_00]: As it drove by us, I caught at glimps through the closed window of a horribly contorted grinning face glaring out at us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those staring eyes and gnashing teeth flashed past us like a dreadful vision.
[SPEAKER_00]: My brothers cried Mortimer Trigonis, white to his lips.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are taking them to Hellston.
[SPEAKER_00]: then we turned our steps towards this ill-owned house in which they had met their strange fate.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a large and bright dwelling, rather a villa than a cottage with a considerable garden which was already in that Cornish air, well filled with spring flowers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Towards this garden, the window of the sitting room fronted, and from it, according to Mortimer Treganis, must have come that thing of evil, which had by sheer horror in a single instant blasted their minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes walked slowly and thoughtfully among the flower plots and along the path before we entered the porch.
[SPEAKER_00]: So absorbed was he in his thoughts I remember that he stumbled over the watering pot, upset
[SPEAKER_00]: Inside the house we were met by the elderly Cornish housekeeper Mrs. Porter, who with the aid of a young girl looked after the once of the family.
[SPEAKER_00]: She readily answered all homes' questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had heard nothing in the night.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her employers had all been in excellent spirits lately, and she had never known them more cheerful and prosperous.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had fainted with horror upon entering the room in the morning and seeing that dreadful company round the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: She had when she recovered thrown open the window to let the morning air in and had run down to the lane, when she sent a farm lad for the doctor.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lady was on her bed upstairs if we cared to see her.
[SPEAKER_00]: It took four strong men to get the brothers into the asylum carriage.
[SPEAKER_00]: She would not herself stay in the house another day and was starting that very afternoon to rejoin her family at St. Eves.
[SPEAKER_00]: We ascended the stairs and viewed the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: Miss Brenda Trigenes had been a very beautiful girl, though now verging upon Middle Age.
[SPEAKER_00]: Her dark, clear cut face was handsome, even in death.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they're still lingered upon it something of that convulsion of horror which had been her last human emotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: From her bedroom, we descended to the sitting room, where this strange tragedy had actually occurred.
[SPEAKER_00]: The charred ashes of the overnight fire lay in the grate.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the table, with a four gutter and burned out candles, with the card scattered over its surface.
[SPEAKER_00]: The chairs had been moved back against the walls, but all else was as it had been the night before.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes paced with light swift steps about the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sat in the various chairs drawing them up and reconstructing their positions.
[SPEAKER_00]: He tested how much of the garden was visible.
[SPEAKER_00]: He examined the floor the ceiling and the fireplace, but never once did I see that sudden brightening of his eyes and tightening of his lips, which would have told me that he saw
[SPEAKER_00]: Why a fire, he asked once, had they always a fire in this small room on a spring evening?
[SPEAKER_00]: Mortimer Trugenis explained that the night was cold and damp.
[SPEAKER_00]: For that reason, after his arrival, the fire was lit.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you going to do now, Mr. Holmes?
[SPEAKER_00]: He asked.
[SPEAKER_00]: My friend smiled and laid his hand upon my arm.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think what's in that I shall resume that course of tobacco poisoning, which you have so often and so justly condemned, said he.
[SPEAKER_00]: With your permission, gentlemen, we will now return to our cottage for I am not aware that any new factor is likely to come to our notice here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will turn the facts over in my mind, Mr. Trigenez.
[SPEAKER_00]: And should anything occur to me, I will certainly communicate with you in the vicar.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the meantime, I wish you both good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not until long after we were back in Poldou Cottage that Holmes broke his complete and absorbed silence.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sat, coiled in his armchair, his hangard and ascetic face hardly visible amid the blue swirl of his tobacco smoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: His black brows drawn down his forehead contracted, his eyes vacant and far away.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, he laid down his pipe and sprang to his feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: It won't do Watson, said he with a laugh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us walk along the cliffs together and search for flint arrows.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are more likely to find them than clues to this problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: To let the brain work without sufficient material is like racing an engine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It racks itself to pieces.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sea air, sunshine and patience Watson.
[SPEAKER_00]: All else will come.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let us calmly define our position Watson, he continued as we skirted the cliffs together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us get a firm grip of the very little which we do know so that when fresh facts arise we may be ready to fit them into their places.
[SPEAKER_00]: I take it in the first place that neither of us is prepared to admit dire, bonical intrusions into the affairs of men.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us begin by ruling that entirely out of our minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: there remain three persons who have been grievously stricken by some conscious or unconscious human agency.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is firm ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, when did this occur?
[SPEAKER_00]: Evidently, assuming his narrative to be true, it was immediately after Mr. Mortimer Treganis had left the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a very important point.
[SPEAKER_00]: The presumption is that it was within a few minutes afterwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: The cards still lay upon the table.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was already past their usual hour for bed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet they had not changed their position or pushed back their chairs.
[SPEAKER_00]: I repeat then that the occurrence was immediately after his departure, and not later than 11 o'clock last night.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our next obvious step is to check so far as we can.
[SPEAKER_00]: The movements of Mortimer Trigenes after he left the room.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this there is no difficulty and they seem to be above suspicion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing my methods as you do you were of course conscious of the somewhat clumsy water pot expedient by which I obtained a clearer impression of his foot than my otherwise have been possible.
[SPEAKER_00]: The wet, sandy path took it admirably.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last night was also wet you will remember and it was not difficult having obtained a sample
[SPEAKER_00]: he appears to have walked away swiftly in the direction of the Vicarage.
[SPEAKER_00]: If then Mortimer Trugen is disappeared from the scene and yet some outside person affected the card players, how can we reconstruct that person and how was such an impression of horror conveyed?
[SPEAKER_00]: Mrs. Porter may be eliminated.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is evidently harmless.
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there any evidence that someone crept up to the garden window and in some manner produced so terrific and effect that he drove those who saw it out of their senses?
[SPEAKER_00]: The only suggestion in this direction comes from Mortimer to gain his himself, who says that his brother spoke about some movement in the garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is certainly remarkable.
[SPEAKER_00]: As the night was rainy, cloudy, and dark.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone who had the design to alarm these people would be compelled to place his very face against the glass before he could be seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a three-foot flower border outside this window but no indication of a footmark.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is difficult to imagine then how an outsider could have made so terrible and impression upon the company, nor have we found any possible motive for so strange and elaborate and attempt.
[SPEAKER_00]: You perceive our difficulties Watson?
[SPEAKER_00]: They are only too clear, I answered with conviction.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet with a little more material, we may prove that they are not insurmountable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Said hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: I fancy that among your extensive archives Watson, you may find some which were nearly as obscure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, we shall put the case aside until more accurate data are available, and devote the rest of our morning to the pursuit of neolithic man.
[SPEAKER_00]: I may have commented upon my friend's power of mental detachment, but never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring morning in Cornwall.
[SPEAKER_00]: When for two hours he discourseed upon kelts, arrowheads and shards.
[SPEAKER_00]: As lightly as if no sinister mystery were waiting for his solution.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was not until we had returned in the afternoon to our cottage that we found a visitor awaiting us, who soon brought our minds back to the matter in hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Neither of us needed to be told who that visitor was.
[SPEAKER_00]: The huge body, the craggy and deeply seemed face with the fierce eyes and hawk-like nose, the grizzled hair which nearly brushed our cottage ceiling, the beard, golden at the fringes and white near the lips, save for the nicotine stain from his perpetual cigar.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these were as well known in London as in Africa.
[SPEAKER_00]: and could only be associated with the tremendous personality of Dr. Leon Sterndale, the great Lion Hunter and Explorer.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had heard of his presence in the district and had once or twice court sight of his tall figure upon the moorland paths.
[SPEAKER_00]: He made no advances to us, however, nor would we have dreamed of doing so to him,
[SPEAKER_00]: As it was well known that it was his love of seclusion, which caused him to spend the greater part of the intervals between his journeys in a small bungalow buried in the lonely wood of Boschia Arias.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, amid his books and his maps, he lived an absolutely lonely life, attending to his own simple wants and paying little apparent heed to the affairs of his neighbours.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a surprise to me, therefore, to hear him asking homes in an eager voice whether he had made any advance in his reconstruction of this mysterious episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: The county police are utterly at fault, said he, but perhaps your wider experience has suggested some conceivable explanation.
[SPEAKER_00]: My only claim to be taken into your confidence is that during my many residences here, I have come to know this family of Trigene is very well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, upon my Cornish mother's side I could call them cousins.
[SPEAKER_00]: And their strange fate has naturally been a great shock to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I may tell you that I had got as far as Plymouth upon my way to Africa.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the news reached me this morning, and I came straight back again to help in the inquiry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes raised his eyebrows.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you lose your boat through it?
[SPEAKER_00]: I will take the next.
[SPEAKER_00]: Dear me, that is friendship indeed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I tell you they were relatives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Quite so, cousins of your mother.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was your baggage aboard the ship?
[SPEAKER_00]: some of it, but the main part of the hotel.
[SPEAKER_00]: I see.
[SPEAKER_00]: But surely this event could not have found its way into the Plymouth Morning Papers.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, sir, I had a telegram.
[SPEAKER_00]: Might I ask from whom?
[SPEAKER_00]: A shadow passed over the gaunt face of the explorer.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are very inquisitive, Mr. Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is my business.
[SPEAKER_00]: With an effort, Dr. Sterndale recovered his ruffled composure.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have no objection to telling you, he said, it was Mr. Roundhay, the Vicka, who sent me the telegram which recalled me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, said Holmes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I may say in answer to your original question that I have not cleared my mind entirely on the subject of this case, but that I have every hope of reaching some conclusion.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would be premature to say more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you would not mind telling me if your suspicion is pointing any particular direction?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I can hardly answer that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then I have wasted my time and need not prolong my visit.
[SPEAKER_00]: The famous doctor strode out of our cottage in considerable ill humour, and within five minutes homes had followed him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw him no more until the evening, when he returned with a slow step and haggard face which assured me that he had made no great progress with his investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: He glanced at a telegram which awaited him and threw it into the great.
[SPEAKER_00]: from the Plymouth Hotel Watson, he said.
[SPEAKER_00]: I learned the name of it from the vicar, and I wired to make certain that Dr. Leon Sterndale's account was true.
[SPEAKER_00]: It appears that he did indeed spend last night there, and that he has actually allowed some of his baggage to go on to Africa while he returned to be present at this investigation.
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you make of that Watson?
[SPEAKER_00]: deeply interested, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a thread here which we had not yet grasped and which might lead us through the tangle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cheer up Watson for I am very sure that our material has not yet all come to hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: When it does, we may soon leave our difficulties behind us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Little did I think how soon the words of homes would be realized, or how strange and sinister
[SPEAKER_00]: I was shaving at my window in the morning when I heard the rattle of hooves and looking up saw a dog cart coming at a gallop down the road.
[SPEAKER_00]: It pulled up at our door and our friend, the vicar, sprang from it and rushed up our garden path.
[SPEAKER_00]: Homes was already dressed and we hastened down to meet him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our visitor was so excited that he could hardly articulate, but at last in gasps and bursts, his tragic story came out of him.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are devil-ridden Mr. Holmes, my poor parish is devil-ridden, he cried, Satan himself is loose in it, we are given over into his hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: He danced about in his agitation, a ludicrous object if it were not for his ashy face
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, he shot out his terrible news.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Mortimer Trigannis died during the night and with exactly the same symptoms as the rest of his family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Home sprang to his feet all energy in an instant.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you fit us both into your dog cut?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Watson, we will postpone our breakfast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Roundhey, we are entirely at your disposal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Harry, Harry before things get disarranged.
[SPEAKER_00]: The larger occupied two rooms at the Vicarage, which were in an angle by themselves, the one above the other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Below was a large sitting room, above his bedroom.
[SPEAKER_00]: They looked out upon a croquet lawn, which came up to the windows.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had arrived before the doctor or the police so that everything was absolutely undisturbed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me describe exactly the scene as we saw it upon that misty March morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has left an impression which can never be afaced from my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: the servant who had first entered had thrown up the window, or it would have been even more intolerable.
[SPEAKER_00]: This might partly be due to the fact that a lamp stood flaring and smoking on the centre table.
[SPEAKER_00]: Beside it's at the dead man, leaning back in his chair, his thin beard projecting, his spectacles pushed up onto his forehead, and his lean dark face turned towards the window and twisted into the same distortion of terror which had marked the features of his dead
[SPEAKER_00]: His limbs were convulsed, and his fingers contorted as though he had died in a very parixism of fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was fully clothed, though there were signs that his dressing had been done in a hurry.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had already learned that his bed had been slept in, and that the tragic end had come to him in the early morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: One realized the red hot energy which underlay homes his flagmatic exterior when one saw the sudden change which came over him from the moment that he entered the fatal apartment.
[SPEAKER_00]: In an instant, he was tense and alert.
[SPEAKER_00]: His eyes shining, his face set, his limbs quivering with eager activity.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was out on the lawn, in through the window, round the room, and up into the bedroom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Through all the world like a dashing fox-hound drawing a cover.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the bedroom he made a rapid cast around and ended by throwing open the window, which appeared to give him some fresh cause for excitement, for he leaned out of it with loud ejaculations of interest and delight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he rushed down the stair out through the open window through himself upon his face on the lawn, sprang up and into the room once more, all with the energy of the hunter, who is at the very heels of his quarry.
[SPEAKER_00]: The lamp which was an ordinary standard he examined with my nute care making certain measurements upon its bowl.
[SPEAKER_00]: He carefully scrutinised with his lens the talc shield which covered the top of the chimney and scraped off some ashes which adhered to its upper surface putting some of them into an envelope which he placed in his pocketbook.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, just as the doctor and the official police put in an appearance, he back into the vicar and we all three went out upon the lawn.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm glad to say that my investigation has not been entirely barren.
[SPEAKER_00]: He remarked.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot remain to discuss the matter with the police, but I should be exceedingly obliged Mr. Roundhey if you would give the inspector my compliments and direct his attention to the bedroom window and to the sitting room lap.
[SPEAKER_00]: Each is suggestive and together they are almost conclusive.
[SPEAKER_00]: If the police would desire further information, I shall be happy to see any of them at the cottage.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now what's an I think that perhaps we shall be better employed elsewhere.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: you
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: You
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.