1926_november_the_adventure_of_the_blanched_soldier (1).pdf

The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Published in The Strand Magazine in November 1926. Collected in the Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. 1|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier  THE ADVEN...

The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Published in The Strand Magazine in November 1926. Collected in the Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. 1|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier  THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLANCHED SOLDIER THE ideas of my friend Watson, though “Yes, sir,” he answered, with some surprise. limited, are exceedingly pertinacious. For a long “Imperial Yeomanry, I fancy.” time he has worried me to write an experience of “Exactly.” my own. Perhaps I have rather invited this “Middlesex Corps, no doubt.” persecution, since I have often had occasion to “That is so. Mr. Holmes, you are a wizard.” point out to him how superficial are his own I smiled at his bewildered expression. accounts and to accuse him of pandering to “When a gentleman of virile appearance popular taste instead of confining himself rigidly enters my room with such tan upon his face as an to facts and figures. English sun could never give, and with his “Try it yourself, Holmes!” he has retorted, handkerchief in his sleeve instead of in his and I am compelled to admit that, having taken pocket, it is not difficult to place him. You wear a my pen in my hand, I do begin to realize that the short beard, which shows that you were not a matter must be presented in such a way as may regular. You have the cut of a riding-man. As to interest the reader. The following case can hardly Middlesex, your card has already shown me that fail to do so, as it is among the strangest you are a stockbroker from Throgmorton Street. happenings in my collection, though it chanced What other regiment would you join?” that Watson had no note of it in his collection. “You see everything.” Speaking of my old friend and biographer, I would “I see no more than you, but I have trained take this opportunity to remark that if I burden myself to notice what I see. However, Mr. Dodd, myself with a companion in my various little it was not to discuss the science of observation inquiries it is not done out of sentiment or that you called upon me this morning. What has caprice, but it is that Watson has some been happening at Tuxbury Old Park?” remarkable characteristics of his own to which in “Mr. Holmes– –!” his modesty he has given small attention amid his “My dear sir, there is no mystery. Your exaggerated estimates of my own performances. letter came with that heading, and as you fixed A confederate who foresees your conclusions and this appointment in very pressing terms it was course of action is always dangerous, but one to clear that something sudden and important had whom each development comes as a perpetual occurred.” surprise, and to whom the future is always a closed book, is indeed an ideal helpmate. I find from my notebook that it was in January, 1903, just after the conclusion of the Boer War, that I had my visit from Mr. James M. Dodd, a big, fresh, sunburned, upstanding Briton. The good Watson had at that time deserted me for a wife, the only selfish action which I can recall in our association. I was alone. It is my habit to sit with my back to the window and to place my visitors in the opposite chair, where the light falls full upon them. Mr. James M. Dodd seemed somewhat at a loss how to “Yes, indeed. But the letter was written in begin the interview. I did not attempt to help the afternoon, and a good deal has happened him, for his silence gave me more time for since then. If Colonel Emsworth had not kicked observation. I have found it wise to impress me out– –” clients with a sense of power, and so I gave him “Kicked you out!” some of my conclusions. “From South Africa, sir, I perceive.” 2|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier  “Well, that was what it amounted to. He is a would get to the root of the matter. It happened, hard nail, is Colonel Emsworth. The greatest however, that my own affairs needed a lot of martinet in the Army in his day, and it was a day straightening out, after two years’ absence, and of rough language, too. I couldn’t have stuck the so it is only this week that I have been able to colonel if it had not been for Godfrey’s sake.” take up Godfrey’s case again. But since I have I lit my pipe and leaned back in my chair. taken it up I mean to drop everything in order to “Perhaps you will explain what you are see it through.” talking about.” Mr. James M. Dodd appeared to be the sort My client grinned mischievously. of person whom it would be better to have as a “I had got into the way of supposing that friend than as an enemy. His blue eyes were stern you knew everything without being told,” said he. and his square jaw had set hard as he spoke. “But I will give you the facts, and I hope to God “Well, what have you done?” I asked. that you will be able to tell me what they mean. “My first move was to get down to his home, I’ve been awake all night puzzling my brain, and Tuxbury Old Park, near Bedford, and to see for the more I think the more incredible does it myself how the ground lay. I wrote to the become. mother, therefore–I had had quite enough of the “When I joined up in January, 1901–just two curmudgeon of a father–and I made a clean years ago–young Godfrey Emsworth had joined frontal attack: Godfrey was my chum, I had a the same squadron. He was Colonel Emsworth’s great deal of interest which I might tell her of only son– Emsworth, the Crimean V. C.–and he had our common experiences, I should be in the the fighting blood in him, so it is no wonder he neighbourhood, would there be any objection, et volunteered. There was not a finer lad in the cetera? In reply I had quite an amiable answer regiment. We formed a friendship–the sort of from her and an offer to put me up for the night. friendship which can only be made when one lives That was what took me down on Monday. the same life and shares the same joys and “Tuxbury Old Hall is inaccessible–five miles sorrows. He was my mate–and that means a good from anywhere. There was no trap at the station, deal in the Army. We took the rough and the so I had to walk, carrying my suitcase, and it was smooth together for a year of hard fighting. nearly dark before I arrived. It is a great Then he was hit with a bullet from an elephant wandering house, standing in a considerable park. gun in the action near Diamond Hill outside I should judge it was of all sorts of ages and Pretoria. I got one letter from the hospital at styles, starting on a half-timbered Elizabethan Cape Town and one from Southampton. Since then foundation and ending in a Victorian portico. not a word–not one word, Mr. Holmes, for six Inside it was all panelling and tapestry and half- months and more, and he my closest pal. effaced old pictures, a house of shadows and “Well, when the war was over, and we all got mystery. There was a butler, old Ralph, who back, I wrote to his father and asked where seemed about the same age as the house, and Godfrey was. No answer. I waited a bit and then I there was his wife, who might have been older. wrote again. This time I had a reply, short and She had been Godfrey’s nurse, and I had heard gruff. Godfrey had gone on a voyage round the him speak of her as second only to his mother in world, and it was not likely that he would be back his affections, so I was drawn to her in spite of for a year. That was all. her queer appearance. The mother I liked also–a “I wasn’t satisfied, Mr. Holmes. The whole gentle little white mouse of a woman. It was only thing seemed to me so damned unnatural. He was the colonel himself whom I barred. a good lad, and he would not drop a pal like that. “We had a bit of barney right away, and I It was not like him. Then, again, I happened to should have walked back to the station if I had know that he was heir to a lot of money, and also not felt that it might be playing his game for me that his father and he did not always hit it off to do so. I was shown straight into his study, and too well. The old man was sometimes a bully, and there I found him, a huge, bow-backed man with a young Godfrey had too much spirit to stand it. smoky skin and a straggling gray beard, seated No, I wasn’t satisfied, and I determined that I behind his littered desk. A red-veined nose 3|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier jutted out like a vulture’s beak, and two fierce however, to drop these inquiries. Every family has gray eyes glared at me from under tufted brows. its own inner knowledge and its own motives, I could understand now why Godfrey seldom which cannot always be made clear to outsiders, spoke of his father. however well-intentioned. My wife is anxious to “ ‘Well, sir,’ said he in a rasping voice, ‘I hear something of Godfrey’s past which you are in should be interested to know the real reasons for a position to tell her, but I would ask you to let this visit.’ the present and the future alone. Such inquiries “I answered that I had explained them in my serve no useful purpose, sir, and place us in a letter to his wife. delicate and difficult position.’ “ ‘Yes, yes, you said that you had known “So I came to a dead end, Mr. Holmes. Godfrey in Africa. We have, of course, only your There was no getting past it. I could only pretend word for that.’ to accept the situation and register a vow “ ‘I have his letters to me in my pocket.’ inwardly that I would never rest until my friend’s “ ‘Kindly let me see them.’ fate had been cleared up. It was a dull evening. “He glanced at the two which I handed him, We dined quietly, the three of us, in a gloomy, and then he tossed them back. faded old room. The lady questioned me eagerly “ ‘Well, what then?’ he asked. about her son, but the old man seemed morose “ ‘I was fond of your son Godfrey, sir. Many and depressed. I was so bored by the whole ties and memories united us. Is it not natural that proceeding that I made an excuse as soon as I I should wonder at his sudden silence and should decently could and retired to my bedroom. It was wish to know what has become of him?’ a large, bare room on the ground floor, as gloomy “ ‘I have some recollections, sir, that I had as the rest of the house, but after a year of already corresponded with you and had told you sleeping upon the veldt, Mr. Holmes, one is not what had become of him. He has gone upon a too particular about one’s quarters. I opened the voyage round the world. His health was in a poor curtains and looked out into the garden, way after his African experiences, and both his remarking that it was a fine night with a bright mother and I were of opinion that complete rest half-moon. Then I sat down by the roaring fire and change were needed. Kindly pass that with the lamp on a table beside me, and explanation on to any other friends who may be endeavoured to distract my mind with a novel. I interested in the matter.’ was interrupted, however, by Ralph, the old “ ‘Certainly,’ I answered. ‘But perhaps you butler, who came in with a fresh supply of coals. would have the goodness to let me have the name “ ‘I thought you might run short in the of the steamer and of the line by which he sailed, night-time, sir. It is bitter weather and these together with the date. I have no doubt that I rooms are cold.’ should be able to get a letter through to him.’ “He hesitated before leaving the room, and “My request seemed both to puzzle and to when I looked round he was standing facing me irritate my host. His great eyebrows came down with a wistful look upon his wrinkled face. over his eyes, and he tapped his fingers “ ‘Beg your pardon, sir, but I could not help impatiently on the table. He looked up at last with hearing what you said of young Master Godfrey at the expression of one who has seen his adversary dinner. You know, sir, that my wife nursed him, make a dangerous move at chess, and has decided and so I may say I am his foster-father. It’s how to meet it. natural we should take an interest. And you say “ ‘Many people, Mr. Dodd,’ said he, ‘would he carried himself well, sir?’ take offence at your infernal pertinacity and “ ‘There was no braver man in the regiment. would think that this insistence had reached the He pulled me out once from under the rifles of point of damned impertinence.’ the Boers, or maybe I should not be here.’ “ ‘You must put it down, sir, to my real love “The old butler rubbed his skinny hands. for your son.’ “ ‘Yes, sir, yes, that is Master Godfrey all “ ‘Exactly. I have already made every over. He was always courageous. There’s not a allowance upon that score. I must ask you, tree in the park, sir, that he has not climbed. 4|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier Nothing would stop him. He was a fine boy–and oh, disreputable transaction which touched the sir, he was a fine man.’ family honour. That stern old man had sent his “I sprang to my feet. son away and hidden him from the world lest some “ ‘Look here!’ I cried. ‘You say he was. You scandal should come to light. Godfrey was a speak as if he were dead. What is all this reckless fellow. He was easily influenced by those mystery? What has become of Godfrey around him. No doubt he had fallen into bad hands Emsworth?’ and been misled to his ruin. It was a piteous “I gripped the old man by the shoulder, but business, if it was indeed so, but even now it was he shrank away. my duty to hunt him out and see if I could aid him. I was anxiously pondering the matter when I looked up, and there was Godfrey Emsworth standing before me.” My client had paused as one in deep emotion. “Pray continue,” I said. “Your problem presents some very unusual features.” “He was outside the window, Mr. Holmes, with his face pressed against the glass. I have “ ‘I don’t know what you mean, sir. Ask the master about Master Godfrey. He knows. It is not for me to interfere.’ “He was leaving the room, but I held his arm. “ ‘Listen,’ I said. ‘You are going to answer one question before you leave if I have to hold you all night. Is Godfrey dead?’ “He could not face my eyes. He was like a man hypnotized. The answer was dragged from his lips. It was a terrible and unexpected one. told you that I looked out at the night. When I “ ‘I wish to God he was!’ he cried, and, did so I left the curtains partly open. His figure tearing himself free, he dashed from the room. was framed in this gap. The window came down to “You will think, Mr. Holmes, that I returned the ground and I could see the whole length of it, to my chair in no very happy state of mind. The but it was his face which held my gaze. He was old man’s words seemed to me to bear only one deadly pale–never have I seen a man so white. I interpretation. Clearly my poor friend had become reckon ghosts may look like that; but his eyes met involved in some criminal or, at the least, mine, and they were the eyes of a living man. He 5|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier sprang back when he saw that I was looking at explore the garden and see what I could find. him, and he vanished into the darkness. There was no difficulty in the way, for the old “There was something shocking about the people were busy in their own fashion and left me man, Mr. Holmes. It wasn’t merely that ghastly to my own devices. face glimmering as white as cheese in the “There were several small outhouses, but at darkness. It was more subtle than that– the end of the garden there was a detached something slinking, something furtive, something building of some size–large enough for a guilty– something very unlike the frank, manly lad gardener’s or a gamekeeper’s residence. Could that I had known. It left a feeling of horror in my this be the place whence the sound of that mind. shutting door had come? I approached it in a “But when a man has been soldiering for a careless fashion as though I were strolling year or two with brother Boer as a playmate, he aimlessly round the grounds. As I did so, a small, keeps his nerve and acts quickly. Godfrey had brisk, bearded man in a black coat and bowler hardly vanished before I was at the window. hat–not at all the gardener type–came out of the There was an awkward catch, and I was some door. To my surprise, he locked it after him and little time before I could throw it up. Then I put the key in his pocket. Then he looked at me nipped through and ran down the garden path in with some surprise on his face. the direction that I thought he might have taken. “ ‘Are you a visitor here?’ he asked. “It was a long path and the light was not “I explained that I was and that I was a very good, but it seemed to me something was friend of Godfrey’s. moving ahead of me. I ran on and called his name, “ ‘What a pity that he should be away on his but it was no use. When I got to the end of the travels, for he would have so liked to see me,’ I path there were several others branching in continued. different directions to various outhouses. I stood “ ‘Quite so. Exactly,’ said he with a rather hesitating, and as I did so I heard distinctly the guilty air. ‘No doubt you will renew your visit at sound of a closing door. It was not behind me in some more propitious time.’ He passed on, but the house, but ahead of me, somewhere in the when I turned I observed that he was standing darkness. That was enough, Mr. Holmes, to assure watching me, half-concealed by the laurels at the me that what I had seen was not a vision. Godfrey far end of the garden. had run away from me, and he had shut a door “I had a good look at the little house as I behind him. Of that I was certain. passed it, but the windows were heavily curtained, “There was nothing more I could do, and I and, so far as one could see, it was empty. I might spent an uneasy night turning the matter over in spoil my own game and even be ordered off the my mind and trying to find some theory which premises if I were too audacious, for I was still would cover the facts. Next day I found the conscious that I was being watched. Therefore, I colonel rather more conciliatory, and as his wife strolled back to the house and waited for night remarked that there were some places of before I went on with my inquiry. When all was interest in the neighbourhood, it gave me an dark and quiet I slipped out of my window and opening to ask whether my presence for one more made my way as silently as possible to the night would incommode them. A somewhat mysterious lodge. grudging acquiescence from the old man gave me “I have said that it was heavily curtained, a clear day in which to make my observations. I but now I found that the windows were shuttered was already perfectly convinced that Godfrey was as well. Some light, however, was breaking in hiding somewhere near, but where and why through one of them, so I concentrated my remained to be solved. attention upon this. I was in luck, for the curtain “The house was so large and so rambling that had not been quite closed, and there was a crack a regiment might be hid away in it and no one the in the shutter, so that I could see the inside of wiser. If the secret lay there it was difficult for the room. It was a cheery place enough, a bright me to penetrate it. But the door which I had lamp and a blazing fire. Opposite to me was heard close was certainly not in the house. I must seated the little man whom I had seen in the 6|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier morning. He was smoking a pipe and reading a the bottom of the mystery, and I shall certainly paper.” not allow myself to be intimidated by anything “What paper?” I asked. which you may say or do.’ My client seemed annoyed at the “The old fellow looked diabolical, and I really interruption of his narrative. thought he was about to attack me. I have said “Can it matter?” he asked. that he was a gaunt, fierce old giant, and though “It is most essential.” I am no weakling I might have been hard put to it “I really took no notice.” to hold my own against him. However, after a long “Possibly you observed whether it was a glare of rage he turned upon his heel and walked broad-leafed paper or of that smaller type which out of the room. For my part, I took the one associates with weeklies.” appointed train in the morning, with the full “Now that you mention it, it was not large. It intention of coming straight to you and asking for might have been the Spectator. However, I had your advice and assistance at the appointment for little thought to spare upon such details, for a which I had already written.” second man was seated with his back to the Such was the problem which my visitor laid window, and I could swear that this second man before me. It presented, as the astute reader was Godfrey. I could not see his face, but I knew will have already perceived, few difficulties in its the familiar slope of his shoulders. He was leaning solution, for a very limited choice of alternatives upon his elbow in an attitude of great melancholy, must get to the root of the matter. Still, his body turned towards the fire. I was elementary as it was, there were points of hesitating as to what I should do when there was interest and novelty about it which may excuse a sharp tap on my shoulder, and there was Colonel my placing it upon record. I now proceeded, using Emsworth beside me. my familiar method of logical analysis, to narrow “ ‘This way, sir!’ said he in a low voice. He down the possible solutions. walked in silence to the house, and I followed him “The servants,” I asked; “how many were in into my own bedroom. He had picked up a time- the house?” table in the hall. “To the best of my belief there were only “ ‘There is a train to London at 8:30,’ said the old butler and his wife. They seemed to live in he. ‘The trap will be at the door at eight.’ the simplest fashion.” “He was white with rage, and, indeed, I felt “There was no servant, then, in the myself in so difficult a position that I could only detached house?” stammer out a few incoherent apologies in which “None, unless the little man with the beard I tried to excuse myself by urging my anxiety for acted as such. He seemed, however, to be quite a my friend. superior person.” “ ‘The matter will not bear discussion,’ said “That seems very suggestive. Had you any he abruptly. ‘You have made a most damnable indication that food was conveyed from the one intrusion into the privacy of our family. You were house to the other?” here as a guest and you have become a spy. I have “Now that you mention it, I did see old Ralph nothing more to say, sir, save that I have no wish carrying a basket down the garden walk and going ever to see you again.’ in the direction of this house. The idea of food “At this I lost my temper, Mr. Holmes, and I did not occur to me at the moment.” spoke with some warmth. “Did you make any local inquiries?” “ ‘I have seen your son, and I am convinced “Yes, I did. I spoke to the station-master that for some reason of your own you are and also to the innkeeper in the village. I simply concealing him from the world. I have no idea asked if they knew anything of my old comrade, what your motives are in cutting him off in this Godfrey Emsworth. Both of them assured me fashion, but I am sure that he is no longer a free that he had gone for a voyage round the world. agent. I warn you, Colonel Emsworth, that until I He had come home and then had almost at once am assured as to the safety and well-being of my started off again. The story was evidently friend I shall never desist in my efforts to get to universally accepted.” 7|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier  “You said nothing of your suspicions?” “I was too startled and horrified for the “Nothing.” moment. Then I pursued him, as I have told you, “That was very wise. The matter should but without result.” certainly be inquired into. I will go back with you My case was practically complete, and there to Tuxbury Old Park.” was only one small incident needed to round it off. “To-day?” When, after a considerable drive, we arrived at It happened that at the moment I was the strange old rambling house which my client clearing up the case which my friend Watson has had described, it was Ralph, the elderly butler, described as that of the Abbey School, in which who opened the door. I had requisitioned the the Duke of Greyminster was so deeply involved. I carriage for the day and had asked my elderly had also a commission from the Sultan of Turkey friend to remain within it unless we should which called for immediate action, as political summon him. Ralph, a little wrinkled old fellow, consequences of the gravest kind might arise was in the conventional costume of black coat and from its neglect. Therefore it was not until the pepper-and-salt trousers, with only one curious beginning of the next week, as my diary records, variant. He wore brown leather gloves, which at that I was able to start forth on my mission to sight of us he instantly shuffled off, laying them Bedfordshire in company with Mr. James M. down on the hall-table as we passed in. I have, as Dodd. As we drove to Euston we picked up a grave my friend Watson may have remarked, an and taciturn gentleman of iron-gray aspect, with abnormally acute set of senses, and a faint but whom I had made the necessary arrangements. incisive scent was apparent. It seemed to centre “This is an old friend,” said I to Dodd. “It is on the hall-table. I turned, placed my hat there, possible that his presence may be entirely knocked it off, stooped to pick it up, and unnecessary, and, on the other hand, it may be contrived to bring my nose within a foot of the essential. It is not necessary at the present gloves. Yes, it was undoubtedly from them that stage to go further into the matter.” the curious tarry odour was oozing. I passed on The narratives of Watson have accustomed into the study with my case complete. Alas, that I the reader, no doubt, to the fact that I do not should have to show my hand so when I tell my waste words or disclose my thoughts while a case own story! It was by concealing such links in the is actually under consideration. Dodd seemed chain that Watson was enabled to produce his surprised, but nothing more was said, and the meretricious finales. three of us continued our journey together. In Colonel Emsworth was not in his room, but he the train I asked Dodd one more question which I came quickly enough on receipt of Ralph’s wished our companion to hear. message. We heard his quick, heavy step in the “You say that you saw your friend’s face passage. The door was flung open and he rushed in quite clearly at the window, so clearly that you with bristling beard and twisted features, as are sure of his identity?” terrible an old man as ever I have seen. He held “I have no doubt about it whatever. His nose our cards in his hand, and he tore them up and was pressed against the glass. The lamplight stamped on the fragments. shone full upon him.” “Have I not told you, you infernal busybody, “It could not have been someone resembling that you are warned off the premises? Never him?” dare to show your damned face here again. If you “No, no, it was he.” enter again without my leave I shall be within my “But you say he was changed?” rights if I use violence. I’ll shoot you, sir! By God, “Only in colour. His face was–how shall I I will! As to you, sir,” turning upon me, “I extend describe it?–it was of a fish-belly whiteness. It the same warning to you. I am familiar with your was bleached.” ignoble profession, but you must take your “Was it equally pale all over?” reputed talents to some other field. There is no “I think not. It was his brow which I saw so opening for them here.” clearly as it was pressed against the window.” “Did you call to him?” 8|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier  “I cannot leave here,” said my client firmly, “Yes, he is waiting inside.” He turned and led “until I hear from Godfrey’s own lips that he is us into a large, plainly furnished front room. A under no restraint.” man was standing with his back to the fire, and at Our involuntary host rang the bell. the sight of him my client sprang forward with “Ralph,” he said, “telephone down to the outstretched hand. county police and ask the inspector to send up “Why, Godfrey, old man, this is fine!” two constables. Tell him there are burglars in the But the other waved him back. house.” “Don’t touch me, Jimmie. Keep your distance. “One moment,” said I. “You must be aware, Yes, you may well stare! I don’t quite look the Mr. Dodd, that Colonel Emsworth is within his smart Lance-Corporal Emsworth, of B Squadron, rights and that we have no legal status within his do I?” house. On the other hand, he should recognize His appearance was certainly extraordinary. that your action is prompted entirely by One could see that he had indeed been a solicitude for his son. I venture to hope that if I handsome man with clear-cut features sunburned were allowed to have five minutes’ conversation by an African sun, but mottled in patches over with Colonel Emsworth I could certainly alter his this darker surface were curious whitish patches view of the matter.” which had bleached his skin. “I am not so easily altered,” said the old “That’s why I don’t court visitors,” said he. soldier. “Ralph, do what I have told you. What the “I don’t mind you, Jimmie, but I could have done devil are you waiting for? Ring up the police!” without your friend. I suppose there is some good “Nothing of the sort,” I said, putting my reason for it, but you have me at a disadvantage.” back to the door. “Any police interference would “I wanted to be sure that all was well with bring about the very catastrophe which you you, Godfrey. I saw you that night when you dread.” I took out my notebook and scribbled one looked into my window, and I could not let the word upon a loose sheet. “That,” said I as I matter rest till I had cleared things up.” handed it to Colonel Emsworth, “is what has “Old Ralph told me you were there, and I brought us here.” couldn’t help taking a peep at you. I hoped you He stared at the writing with a face from would not have seen me, and I had to run to my which every expression save amazement had burrow when I heard the window go up.” vanished. “But what in heaven’s name is the matter?” “How do you know?” he gasped, sitting down “Well, it’s not a long story to tell,” said he, heavily in his chair. lighting a cigarette. “You remember that morning “It is my business to know things. That is my fight at Buffelsspruit, outside Pretoria, on the trade.” Eastern railway line? You heard I was hit?” He sat in deep thought, his gaunt hand “Yes, I heard that, but I never got tugging at his straggling beard. Then he made a particulars.” gesture of resignation. “Three of us got separated from the others. “Well, if you wish to see Godfrey, you shall. It was very broken country, you may remember. It is no doing of mine, but you have forced my There was Simpson–the fellow we called Baldy hand. Ralph, tell Mr. Godfrey and Mr. Kent that in Simpson– and Anderson, and I. We were clearing five minutes we shall be with them.” brother Boer, but he lay low and got the three of At the end of that time we passed down the us. The other two were killed. I got an elephant garden path and found ourselves in front of the bullet through my shoulder. I stuck on to my mystery house at the end. A small bearded man horse, however, and he galloped several miles stood at the door with a look of considerable before I fainted and rolled off the saddle. astonishment upon his face. “When I came to myself it was nightfall, and “This is very sudden, Colonel Emsworth,” I raised myself up, feeling very weak and ill. To said he. “This will disarrange all our plans.” my surprise there was a house close beside me, a “I can’t help it, Mr. Kent. Our hands have fairly large house with a broad stoep and many been forced. Can Mr. Godfrey see us?” windows. It was deadly cold. You remember the 9|Page The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier kind of numb cold which used to come at evening, have you tied up. But, man alive! you are in far a deadly, sickening sort of cold, very different greater danger here than ever you were on the from a crisp healthy frost. Well, I was chilled to battlefield. You are in the Leper Hospital, and you the bone, and my only hope seemed to lie in have slept in a leper’s bed.’ reaching that house. I staggered to my feet and “Need I tell you more, Jimmie? It seems dragged myself along, hardly conscious of what I that in view of the approaching battle all these did. I have a dim memory of slowly ascending the poor creatures had been evacuated the day steps, entering a wide-opened door, passing into a before. Then, as the British advanced, they had large room which contained several beds, and been brought back by this, their medical throwing myself down with a gasp of satisfaction superintendent, who assured me that, though he upon one of them. It was unmade, but that believed he was immune to the disease, he would troubled me not at all. I drew the clothes over my none the less never have dared to do what I had shivering body and in a moment I was in a deep done. He put me in a private room, treated me sleep. kindly, and within a week or so I was removed to “It was morning when I wakened, and it the general hospital at Pretoria. seemed to me that instead of coming out into a “So there you have my tragedy. I hoped world of sanity I had emerged into some against hope, but it was not until I had reached extraordinary nightmare. The African sun flooded home that the terrible signs which you see upon through the big, curtainless windows, and every my face told me that I had not escaped. What detail of the great, bare, whitewashed dormitory was I to do? I was in this lonely house. We had stood out hard and clear. In front of me was two servants whom we could utterly trust. There standing a small, dwarf-like man with a huge, was a house where I could live. Under pledge of bulbous head, who was jabbering excitedly in secrecy, Mr. Kent, who is a surgeon, was prepared Dutch, waving two horrible hands which looked to to stay with me. It seemed simple enough on me like brown sponges. Behind him stood a group those lines. The alternative was a dreadful one – of people who seemed to be intensely amused by segregation for life among strangers with never a the situation, but a chill came over me as I looked hope of release. But absolute secrecy was at them. Not one of them was a normal human necessary, or even in this quiet countryside there being. Every one was twisted or swollen or would have been an outcry, and I should have disfigured in some strange way. The laughter of been dragged to my horrible doom. Even you, these strange monstrosities was a dreadful thing Jimmie–even you had to be kept in the dark. Why to hear. my father has relented I cannot imagine.” “It seemed that none of them could speak English, but the situation wanted clearing up, for the creature with the big head was growing furiously angry, and, uttering wild-beast cries, he had laid his deformed hands upon me and was dragging me out of bed, regardless of the fresh flow of blood from my wound. The little monster was as strong as a bull, and I don’t know what he might have done to me had not an elderly man who was clearly in authority been attracted to the room by the hubbub. He said a few stern words in Dutch, and my persecutor shrank away. Then he turned upon me, gazing at me in the utmost amazement. “ ‘How in the world did you come here?’ he asked in amazement. ‘Wait a bit! I see that you Colonel Emsworth pointed to me. are tired out and that wounded shoulder of yours “This is the gentleman who forced my hand.” wants looking after. I am a doctor, and I’ll soon He unfolded the scrap of paper on which I had 10 | P a g e The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier written the word “Leprosy.” “It seemed to me will now apply this principle to the case in point. that if he knew so much as that it was safer that As it was first presented to me, there were he should know all.” three possible explanations of the seclusion or “And so it was,” said I. “Who knows but good incarceration of this gentleman in an outhouse of may come of it? I understand that only Mr. Kent his father’s mansion. There was the explanation has seen the patient. May I ask, sir, if you are an that he was in hiding for a crime, or that he was authority on such complaints, which are, I mad and that they wished to avoid an asylum, or understand, tropical or semi-tropical in their that he had some disease which caused his nature?” segregation. I could think of no other adequate “I have the ordinary knowledge of the solutions. These, then, had to be sifted and educated medical man,” he observed with some balanced against each other. stiffness. “The criminal solution would not bear “I have no doubt, sir, that you are fully inspection. No unsolved crime had been reported competent, but I am sure that you will agree that from that district. I was sure of that. If it were in such a case a second opinion is valuable. You some crime not yet discovered, then clearly it have avoided this, I understand, for fear that would be to the interest of the family to get rid pressure should be put upon you to segregate the of the delinquent and send him abroad rather patient.” than keep him concealed at home. I could see no “That is so,” said Colonel Emsworth. explanation for such a line of conduct. “I foresaw this situation,” I explained, “and “Insanity was more plausible. The presence I have brought with me a friend whose discretion of the second person in the outhouse suggested a may absolutely be trusted. I was able once to do keeper. The fact that he locked the door when he him a professional service, and he is ready to came out strengthened the supposition and gave advise as a friend rather than as a specialist. His the idea of constraint. On the other hand, this name is Sir James Saunders.” constraint could not be severe or the young man The prospect of an interview with Lord could not have got loose and come down to have a Roberts would not have excited greater wonder look at his friend. You will remember, Mr. Dodd, and pleasure in a raw subaltern than was now that I felt round for points, asking you, for reflected upon the face of Mr. Kent. example, about the paper which Mr. Kent was “I shall indeed be proud,” he murmured. reading. Had it been the Lancet or the British “Then I will ask Sir James to step this way. Medical Journal it would have helped me. It is not He is at present in the carriage outside the door. illegal, however, to keep a lunatic upon private Meanwhile, Colonel Emsworth, we may perhaps premises so long as there is a qualified person in assemble in your study, where I could give the attendance and that the authorities have been necessary explanations.” duly notified. Why, then, all this desperate desire And here it is that I miss my Watson. By for secrecy? Once again I could not get the cunning questions and ejaculations of wonder he theory to fit the facts. could elevate my simple art, which is but “There remained the third possibility, into systematized common sense, into a prodigy. When which, rare and unlikely as it was, everything I tell my own story I have no such aid. And yet I seemed to fit. Leprosy is not uncommon in South will give my process of thought even as I gave it Africa. By some extraordinary chance this youth to my small audience, which included Godfrey’s might have contracted it. His people would be mother in the study of Colonel Emsworth. placed in a very dreadful position, since they “That process,” said I, “starts upon the would desire to save him from segregation. Great supposition that when you have eliminated all secrecy would be needed to prevent rumours which is impossible, then whatever remains, from getting about and subsequent interference however improbable, must be the truth. It may by the authorities. A devoted medical man, if well be that several explanations remain, in which sufficiently paid, would easily be found to take case one tries test after test until one or other charge of the sufferer. There would be no reason of them has a convincing amount of support. We why the latter should not be allowed freedom 11 | P a g e The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier after dark. Bleaching of the skin is a common “It is often my lot to bring ill-tidings and result of the disease. The case was a strong one– seldom good,” said he. “This occasion is the more so strong that I determined to act as if it were welcome. It is not leprosy.” actually proved. When on arriving here I noticed “What?” that Ralph, who carries out the meals, had gloves “A well-marked case of pseudo-leprosy or which are impregnated with disinfectants, my last ichthyosis, a scale-like affection of the skin, doubts were removed. A single word showed you, unsightly, obstinate, but possibly curable, and sir, that your secret was discovered, and if I certainly noninfective. Yes, Mr. Holmes, the wrote rather than said it, it was to prove to you coincidence is a remarkable one. But is it that my discretion was to be trusted.” coincidence? Are there not subtle forces at work I was finishing this little analysis of the of which we know little? Are we assured that the case when the door was opened and the austere apprehension from which this young man has no figure of the great dermatologist was ushered in. doubt suffered terribly since his exposure to its But for once his sphinx-like features had relaxed contagion may not produce a physical effect and there was a warm humanity in his eyes. He which simulates that which it fears? At any rate, strode up to Colonel Emsworth and shook him by I pledge my professional reputation– – But the the hand. lady has fainted! I think that Mr. Kent had better be with her until she recovers from this joyous shock.” 12 | P a g e The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier