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第3节

adventure05-第3节

小说: adventure05 字数: 每页4000字

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〃'〃Gone!  Gone where?〃



〃'〃He is gone。  No one has seen him。 He is not in his

room。  Oh; yes; he is gone; he is gone!〃  She fell

back against the wall with shriek after shriek of

laughter; while I; horrified at this sudden hysterical

attack; rushed to the bell to summon help。  The girl

was taken to her room; still screaming and sobbing;

while I made inquiries about Brunton。  There was no

doubt about it that he had disappeared。  His bed had

not been slept in; he had been seen by no one since he

had retired to his room the night before; and yet it

was difficult to see how he could have left the house;

as both windows and doors were found to be fastened in

the morning。  His clothes; his watch; and even his

money were in his room; but the black suit which he

usually wore was missing。  His slippers; too; were

gone; but his boots were left behind。  Where then

could butler Brunton have gone in the night; and what

could have become of him now?



〃'Of course we searched the house from cellar to

garret; but there was no trace of him。  It is; as I

have said; a labyrinth of an old house; especially the

original wing; which is now practically uninhabited;

but we ransacked every room and cellar without

discovering the least sign of the missing man。  It was

incredible to me that he could have gone away leaving

all his property behind him; and yet where could he

be?  I called in the local police; but without

success。  Rain had fallen on the night before and we

examined the lawn and the paths all round the house;

but in vain。  Matters were in this state; when a new

development quite drew our attention away from the

original mystery。



〃'For two days Rachel Howells had been so ill;

sometimes delirious; sometimes hysterical; that a

nurse had been employed to sit up with her at night。 

On the third night after Brunton's disappearance; the

nurse; finding her patient sleeping nicely; had

dropped into a nap in the arm…chair; when shoe woke in

the early morning to find the bed empty; the window

open; and no signs of the invalid。  I was instantly

aroused; and; with the two footmen; started off at

once in search of the missing girl。  It was not

difficult to tell the direction which she had taken;

for; starting from under her window; we could follow

her footmarks easily across the lawn to the edge of

the mere; where they vanished close to the gravel path

which leads out of the grounds。  The lake there is

eight feet deep; and you can imagine our feelings when

we saw that the trail of the poor demented girl came

to an end at the edge of it。



〃'Of course; we had the drags at once; and set to work

to recover the remains; but no trace of the body could

we find。  On the other hand; we brought to the surface

an object of a most unexpected kind。  It was a linen

bag which contained within it a mass of old rusted and

discolored metal and several dull…colored pieces of

pebble or glass。  This strange find was all that we

could get from the mere; and; although we made every

possible search and inquiry yesterday; we know nothing

of the fate either of Rachel Howells or of Richard

Brunton。  The county police are at their wits' end;

and I have come up to you as a last resource。'



〃You can imagine; Watson; with what eagerness I

listened to this extraordinary sequence of events; and

endeavored to piece them together; and to devise some

common thread upon which they might all hang。  The

butler was gone。  The maid was gone。  The maid had

loved the butler; but had afterwards had cause to hate

him。  She was of Welsh blood; fiery and passionate。 

She had been terribly excited immediately after his

disappearance。  She had flung into the lake a bag

containing some curious contents。  These were all

factors which had to be taken into consideration; and

yet none of them got quite to the heart of the matter。 

What was the starting…point of this chain of events? 

There lay the end of this tangled line。



〃'I must see that paper; Musgrave;' said I; 'which

this butler of your thought it worth his while to

consult; even at the risk of the loss of his place。'



〃'It is rather an absurd business; this ritual of

ours;' he answered。  'But it has at least the saving

grace of antiquity to excuse it。  I have a copy of the

questions and answers here if you care to run your eye

over them。'



〃He handed me the very paper which I have here;

Watson; and this is the strange catechism to which

each Musgrave had to submit when he came to man's

estate。  I will read you the questions and answers as

they stand。



〃'Whose was it?'



〃'His who is gone。'



〃'Who shall have it?'



〃'He who will come。'



〃'Where was the sun?'



〃'Over the oak。'



〃'Where was the shadow?'



〃'Under the elm。'



〃How was it stepped?'



〃'North by ten and by ten; east by five and by five;

south by two and by two; west by one and by one; and

so under。'



〃'What shall we give for it?'



〃'All that is ours。'



〃'Why should we give it?'



〃'For the sake of the trust。'



〃'The original has no date; but is in the spelling of

the middle of the seventeenth century;' remarked

Musgrave。  'I am afraid; however; that it can be of

little help to you in solving this mystery。'



〃'At least;' said I; 'it gives us another mystery; and

one which is even more interesting than the first。  It

may be that the solution of the one may prove to be

the solution of the other。  You will excuse me;

Musgrave; if I say that your butler appears to me to

have been a very clever man; and to have had a clearer

insight that ten generations of his masters。'



〃'I hardly follow you;' said Musgrave。  'The paper

seems to me to be of no practical importance。'



〃'But to me it seems immensely practical; and I fancy

that Brunton took the same view。  He had probably seen

it before that night on which you caught him。'



〃'It is very possible。  We took no pains to hide it。'



〃'He simply wished; I should imagine; to refresh his

memory upon that last occasion。  He had; as I

understand; some sort of map or chart which he was

comparing with the manuscript; and which he thrust

into his pocket when you appeared。'



〃'That is true。  But what could he have to do with

this old family custom of ours; and what does this

rigmarole mean?'



〃'I don't think that we should have much difficulty in

determining that;' said I; 'with your permission we

will take the first train down to Sussex; and go a

little more deeply into the matter upon the spot。'





〃The same afternoon saw us both at Hurlstone。 

Possibly you have seen pictures and read descriptions

of the famous old building; so I will confine my

account of it to saying that it is built in the shape

of an L; the long arm being the more modern portion;

and the shorter the ancient nucleus; from which the

other had developed。  Over the low; heavily…lintelled

door; in the centre of this old part; is chiseled the

date; 1607; but experts are agreed that the beams and

stone…work are really much older than this。  The

enormously thick walls and tiny windows of this part

had in the last century driven the family into

building the new wing; and the old one was used now as

a store…house and a cellar; when it was used at all。 

A splendid park with fine old timber surrounds the

house; and the lake; to which my client had referred;

lay close to the avenue; about tow hundred yards from

the building。



〃I was already firmly convinced; Watson; that there

were not three separate mysteries here; but one only;

and that if I could read the Musgrave Ritual aright I

should hold in my hand the clue which would lead me to

the truth concerning both the butler Brunton and the

maid Howells。  To that then I turned all my energies。 

Why should this servant be so anxious to master this

old formula?  Evidently because he saw something in it

which had escaped all those generations of country

squires; and from which he expected some personal

advantage。  What was it then; and how had it affected

his fate?



〃It was perfectly obvious to me; on reading the

ritual; that the measurements must refer to some spot

to which the rest of the document alluded; and that if

we could find that spot; we should be in a fair way

towards finding what the secret was which the old

Musgraves had thought it necessary to embalm in so

curious a fashion。  There were two guides given us to

start with; an oak and an elm。  As to the oak there

could be no question at all。  Right in front of the

house; upon the left…hand side of the drive; there

stood a patriarch among oaks; one of the most

magnificent trees that I have ever seen。



〃'That was there when you ritual was drawn up;' said

I; as we drove past it。



〃'It was there at the Norman Conquest in all

probability;' he answered。  'It has a girth of

tw

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