Sherlock Holmes In Montague Street Volume 2 by David Marcum Page A

may get at something after all. Don’t ask me to tell you anything now; I don’t know anything, as a matter of fact. I hope this is the end of the night’s entertainment, but I’m afraid the case is rather an unpleasant business. There is nothing for us to do now but to go to bed, I think. I suppose there’s a handy man kept about the place?”
    â€œYes, he’s gardener and carpenter and carpet-beater, and so on.”
    â€œGood! Where’s his sanctum? Where does he keep his shovels and carpet sticks?”
    â€œIn the shed by the coach house, I believe. I think it’s generally unlocked.”
    â€œVery good. We’ve earned a night’s rest, and now we’ll have it.”
    The next morning, after breakfast, Holmes took Mr. Crellan into the study.
    â€œCan you manage,” he said, “to send Miss Garth out for a walk this morning - with somebody?”
    â€œI can send her out for a ride with the groom - unless she thinks it wouldn’t be the thing to go riding so soon after her bereavement.”
    â€œNever mind, that will do. Send her at once, and see that she goes. Call it doctor’s orders; say she must go for her health’s sake - anything.”
    Mr. Crellan departed, used his influence, and in half an hour Miss Garth had gone.
    â€œI was up pretty early this morning,” Holmes remarked on Mr. Crellan’s return to the study, “and, among other things, I sent a telegram to London. Unless my eyes deceive me, a boy with a peaked cap - a telegraph boy, in fact - is coming up the drive this moment. Yes, he is. It is probably my answer.”
    In a few minutes a telegram was brought in. Holmes read it and then asked, “Your friend Mr. Mellis, I understand, was going straight to town yesterday morning?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œRead that, then.”
    Mr. Crellan took the telegram and read:
    â€œMellis did not sleep at chambers last night. Been out of town for some days past.”
    Mr. Crellan looked up.
    â€œWho sent it?” he asked.
    â€œLad back in London; sharp fellow. You see, Mellis didn’t go to town after all. As a matter of fact, I believe he was nearer this place than we thought. You said he had a disagreement with his uncle because of scientific practices which the old gentleman considered ‘dangerous and unprofessional,’ I think?”
    â€œYes, that was the case.”
    â€œAh, then the key to all the mystery of the will is in this room.”
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œThere.” Holmes pointed to the book-cases. “Read Bernheim’s Suggestive Therapeutics , and one or two books of Heidenhain’s and Björnström’s and you’ll see the thing more clearly than you can without them; but that would be rather a long sort of job, so - but why, who’s this? Somebody coming up the drive in a fly, isn’t it?”
    â€œYes,” Mr. Crellan replied, looking out of the window. Presently he added, “It’s Cranley Mellis.”
    â€œAh,” said Holmes, “he won’t trouble us for a little. I’ll bet you a penny cake he goes first by himself to the small staircase and tries that secret recess. If you get a little way along the passage you will be able to see him; but that will scarcely matter - I can see you don’t guess now what I am driving at.”
    â€œI don’t in the least.”
    â€œI told you the names of the books in which you could read the matter up; but that would be too long for the present purpose. The thing is fairly well summarized, I see, in that encyclopædia there in the corner. I have put a marker in volume seven. Do you mind opening it at that place and seeing for yourself?”
    Mr. Crellan, doubtful and bewildered, reached the volume. It opened readily, and in the place where it opened lay a blue foolscap envelope. The old gentleman took the envelope, drew from it a white paper, stared first at the paper, then at