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1Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village.
2There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard, a plain-clothes man, and
3myself. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the seat and was busy with his compasses drawing a
4circle with Eyford for its centre. "There you are," said he. "That circle is drawn at a radius of ten miles from the
5village. The place we want must be somewhere near that line. You said ten miles, I think, sir." "It was an hour's good
6drive." "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you were unconscious?" "They must have done so. I
7have a confused memory, too, of having been lifted and conveyed somewhere." "What I cannot understand," said I, "is why
8they should have spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Perhaps the villain was softened by the
9woman's entreaties." "I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face in my life." "Oh, we shall soon
10clear up all that," said Bradstreet. "Well, I have drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon it the
11folk that we are in search of are to be found." "I think I could lay my finger on it," said Holmes quietly. "Really,
12now!" cried the inspector, "you have formed your opinion! Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is
13south, for the country is more deserted there." "And I say east," said my patient. "I am for west," remarked the
14plain-clothes man. "There are several quiet little villages up there." "And I am for north," said I, "because there are
15no hills there, and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up any." "Come," cried the inspector,
16laughing; "it's a very pretty diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do you give your casting
17vote to?" "You are all wrong." "But we can't all be." "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the
18centre of the circle. "This is where we shall find them." "But the twelve-mile drive?" gasped Hatherley. "Six out and
19six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the horse was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that if
20it had gone twelve miles over heavy roads?" "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet thoughtfully. "Of
21course there can be no doubt as to the nature of this gang." "None at all," said Holmes. "They are coiners on a large
22scale, and have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the place of silver." "We have known for some time
23that a clever gang was at work," said the inspector. "They have been turning out half-crowns by the thousand. We even
24traced them as far as Reading, but could get no farther, for they had covered their traces in a way that showed that
25they were very old hands. But now, thanks to this lucky chance, I think that we have got them right enough." But the
26inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not destined to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into
27Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed up from behind a small clump of trees in the
28neighbourhood and hung like an immense ostrich feather over the landscape. "A house on fire?" asked Bradstreet as the
29train steamed off again on its way. "Yes, sir!" said the station-master. "When did it break out?" "I hear that it was
30during the night, sir, but it has got worse, and the whole place is in a blaze." "Whose house is it?" "Dr. Becher's."
31"Tell me," broke in the engineer, "is Dr. Becher a German, very thin, with a long, sharp nose?" The station-master
32laughed heartily. "No, sir, Dr. Becher is an Englishman, and there isn't a man in the parish who has a better-lined
33waistcoat. But he has a gentleman staying with him, a patient, as I understand, who is a foreigner, and he looks as if a
34little good Berkshire beef would do him no harm." The station-master had not finished his speech before we were all
35hastening in the direction of the fire. The road topped a low hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed
36building in front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window, while in the garden in front three fire-engines were
37vainly striving to keep the flames under. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is the
38gravel-drive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay. That second window is the one that I jumped from." "Well, at
39least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon them. There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which,
40when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after
41you to observe it at the time. Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for your friends of last night, though I very much
42fear that they are a good hundred miles off by now." And Holmes' fears came to be realised, for from that day to this no
43word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the sinister German, or the morose Englishman. Early that
44morning a peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of
45Reading, but there all traces of the fugitives disappeared, and even Holmes' ingenuity failed ever to discover the least
46clue as to their whereabouts. The firemen had been much perturbed at the strange arrangements which they had found
47within, and still more so by discovering a newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. About
48sunset, however, their efforts were at last successful, and they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen
49in, and the whole place been reduced to such absolute ruin that, save some twisted cylinders and iron piping, not a
50trace remained of the machinery which had cost our unfortunate acquaintance so dearly. Large masses of nickel and of tin
51were discovered stored in an out-house, but no coins were to be found, which may have explained the presence of those
52bulky boxes which have been already referred to. How our hydraulic engineer had been conveyed from the garden to the
53spot where he recovered his senses might have remained forever a mystery were it not for the soft mould, which told us a
54very plain tale. He had evidently been carried down by two persons, one of whom had remarkably small feet and the other
55unusually large ones. On the whole, it was most probable that the silent Englishman, being less bold or less murderous
56than his companion, had assisted the woman to bear the unconscious man out of the way of danger. "Well," said our
57engineer ruefully as we took our seats to return once more to London, "it has been a pretty business for me! I have lost
58my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what have I gained?" "Experience," said Holmes, laughing. "Indirectly
59it may be of value, you know; you have only to put it into words to gain the reputation of being excellent company for
60the remainder of your existence."
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