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“T
THE CHINA MAÏL, SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 1954.
A NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY STARTS TODAY
most #1
011
HIS 19
curious affair," 1 said, dropping
'Times The the floor. "Indeed, I am sur- prised that the family have not already consulted you."
My friend Sherlock Holmes turned away from the window and threw him- self into his armchair.
"I take it that you refer to the murder at Foulkes Rath," he said languidly. "If so, this might Interest you, Watson. It arrived be fore breakfast."
Ho had drawn buff coloured form from the
THE ADVENTURE OF
FOULKES
shortly before len, he took a
'There came a knock on Que Yard,
RATH
who dispatched
forward and was bending over
his uncle when his eyes foll upon an object that turned tilm sick and faint. Beside the body of the
horribly Squire and dappled with the blood of its victim lay an executioner'a axul recognised it vaguely as forming a part of a trophy of AITOS that hung above the plece and, withous
He
glass of port with his nephew door and Mrs Hudsun ushered Inspector Lestrado deur me, and managed the estate. He is, thinking, what he was doing, he
in the hall. The two men up- peared to have been quarrelling, for the butler has stated that, on ontering with the port, he remarked that the
Squire was brusque flushed and manner."
"And the nephew, Longton, I Think you said his name wus?" Hotmes interrupled.
in our visitor.
under
accom- muld-
an ing to his uncle, he remained chimney
Mr Holmes, I fear that you have of course, the heir
an had stooped und picked up the A painful twinge of rheumatics Entailment which covers the thing when Morstead,
an Inspector Lestrade to take
land panied by the terrified charge 1 should explains, per- house and a part of the haps," went on our visitor, "that and, on more than one occasion, servants, burst into the room, he has expressed deep resent- Such is the explanation of my Partner
meat at his uncle's sales of cer- shappy client."
the unfor
Mr Vincent n was a small elderly man with a long pale mournful face framed in a pair of side-
I am whiskers. Fur moment, he Vincent,
A
Peabody and Vincent, stood hesitating while he peered the legal practitioners of it us shortsightedly through his Prest Row, to whom the Ad- pince-net which were attached
dietoms have entrusted their in- terests for the pan hurchred by a black ribbon to the lapel
years and more." "According to the butler, he of his rather dingy frockcoat. did not see Longton's face as "This is too bad, Mr Hoimest”.de the young man walked to the cried shrilly. "I assinued that The telegram which window and stood there looking to me.
telegram my
would СУБИГО night whilst the the bore
of out into tho postmark
butter was in the room. On re- privacy, sir, absolute privacy, My Forest Row, Sussex, ran LS
however, the
butler cheat's affairs...." Liritg follows:-
caught the sounds of their voices In n furious altercation. Shortly
pocket of his dressing-gown and now passed it across
"This is my colleague, Doctor interposed Sherlock
"HAVING REGARD TO after
heheehold Watson." midnight. ADDLETON AFFAIRS, was roused by a loud cry, ap- Holmes, waving our visitor to PROPOSE TO CALL ON perently from the hall, and, un
ruslang
dowa In thei
night- YOU AT 10.15 PRECISE-
clothes, they were horrifled to 1.Y. VINCENT."
diver Squire Addleton lying penyelew in a pool of blood with
head split open.
Holmes
Learing forward, picked up the paper and, tapping the place sharply with his finger, handed JU without a word to the lawyer.
"The ncroni 1s accurate though," ajel the little
running nadly, after
tain farms and holdings which jech 1 fear, to bad blood between them. it was most unfortunate that his wife was absent last night, of all nights."
"His wife?"
"Deur mel" sald Holmos.
For a long moment, the law- yer ay sa inéllence, our eyes fixed upon my friend. Hi bead had fallen back against the chair top, his eyes were a thin quick "Yon, there is a Mrslongton, closed and unly a charming, gracious young spiral of smoke rising from his woman. She was staying with cray pipe hinted at the activity friends for the night Eat of the mind behind thut Im- Grinstead and is due back this
A acquiline musk. morning," Mr Vincent paused. Passive down the culum, "though "Poor Hittle Mary," he ended moment later, he had sprung w onits to state that the front quietly. "What a homecoming! us feet.
The Squire dead and her hus band charged with murder,"
his eye
By ADRIAN CONAN DOYLE
I had drawn
Mr Vincent bobbed his head toward me and, deposting his hat and stick on the floor, sank into the cushions.
up The Tiny Picking again, I ran my eye quickly down the column. "Th/****
"Standing beside the body of the chair whica 18 310 mention of any the dying man was Mr Percy Forward, "3 assure you that has
presence may be invaluable." clad Longton,
In a dressing- bly
Vincent,** I
gown and grasping in his hand Mald.
it bliss-stained axe, Holmes. which had been tonu down from "A fact of no importance oply
of BIMA
above the whatever." replied Holmes fireplace. Longton was so dazer!
Lint
could with impatiently. its - sume, from the phraseology Jured man's head and staunching scarcely ngrist in lifting the in-
of the telegram, that he is 11 h +f blax1. However, a lawyer of the old school even Morstead bent over him, employed by the Addleton the Sepulte raising himself on his
gasped out in a dread family. As I observe, Wat Pho
ful whisper 'It--was Long-tʊn! we have a few son, that
NAAN lang-- and sunk back minutes in hul, pray 10 deaf the buller's orms. fresh my memory by run- ning over the salient points. from the
account lu this
morning's paper, while omitting all irrelevant ab- servations from their corres-
ondent."
folmes, having led his clay pipe with shag for the Persian Alipper, leant back in his chur
the celling and contemplated through a cloud of pungent blue smoke.
at "An
"The local police were sum-
moned and, on the evidence of the quarrel between the two men, the discovery of the nephew standing over the body and, Anally
the accusing words of
demar Was unlocked despite the
that the Squire tok! fact Morstrad the butler
that he would lock it himself."
Addicton
"Pray believe that I meant you squeaked. But this is a terrible ne offence, Doctor Watson," he
morning, a terrible morning I say, for those who cherish gas- Jet clear to me." with for the Addletons of Foulkes
"Well, str7" Rath."
Fast
Ashdown air "A breath of will certainly do you no harm, One final question," said Watson," he said briskly. "Mr Holmes. "What explanation does your client offer to account Vincent, my friend und
very much at your disposal." for the events of last night?"
one,
at
I are
Green
Holmes raised his eyebrows.
"His story is a simple -Unlocked, you say! Hm. Well, the probable explanation is that Mr Holmes. He states that
It was mid-afternoon when we the Squire
forgot the dinner the Squire Informed him alighted from the train al matter in his quarrel with his of his intention to sell Chudford wayside station of Forest Row. Mr Vinceut hud telegraphed However, there are Farm, and when he remonstra-
our reservations at the one or two points which are nutted on the needlessness of the
that
Man, a old wealdstono inn aule and the damage would do to the estate, his uncle which appeared to be the only turned ori num foundly and building of any consequence in Later, his the Ute hamlet. The air was high
words ensued. I take it that the murdered uncle called for
permeated with his horse and
the scent of "Quite 90," satel Holmes.
man was in his nightclothes?"
rode from the house without a ine woodlands clothing the low trust, however, that your early
Upon his
rounded
Sussex hills that hem- No, he was fully dressed, word of explanation. morning walk to the station dal M. Longion was in his Right- return, the Squire ordered a med us in on every side, and as something to restore your nerves, I find that exercise is in itself a sedalive,"
Our visitor started in his seal.
Realty, sir," he cried, I full to see how you"
has
"Tut, tut," Holmes interrupted
Who rey impatiently. "A man the dying man himself, Merox driven to the station does not Longton has been arrested for
a splash of fresh e-munter of Squre Addleton, appear with
left gaiter and a see that there is a note in the clay on his late news column that the ac- similar smear across the ferrule
his of
stick. You walked who hts never of muh cused
comtry lane ceased to protest his innocence through a rough has been removed to Lewes, and us the weather is dry, 1 that your path These would appear to be the should judge
Look ira
ferd
JI water- principal foets, Holmes"
CrUSSIDK."
For a while my friend smoked In allence.
"What explanatkn did Longton offer for the quarrel?" he asked at length.
clothes.
the s
Coated that green amil- |
bottle of port and, quarrel threatened to grow from ing
bad to worse, Mr Percy
bade that the trot seemed to me
of Foulkes
his uncle goodnight and retired Rath took on a grimmer, darker
to
0
his room. However, his shade through the very serenity surroundings mind was too agitated for sleep of the pastoral
his amid which it had been enacted. twice, according "'1 understand that after and
in bed dinner the Squire left the house statement, he sat up
the impression that he for an hour or so. Was it his under
sound custom to take nocturnal rides?" had caught the distant
of his untie's volco from the Mr Vicchi ceased to stroko great hall his whiskers and shot a keen "Now that glance at Holmes. you mention it, such was not his custom," he shrilled. "But be returned safely and I cannot
"Why, then, did he not go to "Quile so," Interposed Holmes, investigate?" interposed Hobods "Would you say that the Squire sharply. was a wealthy man? Pray be precise in your reply."
Though it was evident that the worthy lawyer shared ins feelings, Sherlock Holpes Wan completely absorbed in his own and took do part in our conversation save for a re- mark that the stationmaster was unhappily married and had recently changed the position of his shaving mirror.
on
wa
Hiting a fly at the inn,
out set
the three-mile The
Decurred tragedy
journey that idy between the I began, Foulkes Rath,"
house, "I put that very question to village and the manor ancient Sussex moner house
him. He replied that bla uncle and as our road wound its way near Forest Row on Ashdown
"Matthias Addleton ELS a had been drinking heavily, and up the wooded slopes of Pippin- Fort! The curious name of the
He was, of therefore he assumed that very wealthy man.
ford Hil, we caught occasional house is derived from the cir-
"Your reasoning is perfectly
son and was raving to himself in the glimpses of a sombre heather- vumstance that there is an old
that He correct, sir." replied Mr Vincent, course, the younger
0% emigrated to Australiu sumo hall.
ridge where the edge The butler Morstead con- covered burial ground—”
voluntarily informed the police with a most suspicious glance at forty years ago, that is to say, firmed that this had
occurred of the great Ashdown moors over the top of his 5 in 1854. He returned in the not infrequently in the past," loomed against the skyline. "Krep to the facts, Watson," that he and his uncle came to Holmes
the subject of pince-nez. "My horse
having arnassed a "Pray continue." Chudford
serventies,
Australian
"I ix
statel here
ernas,
not
<ven
is
hack
the large fortune in the 1 Farn, which Langton considered available at that hour in the
The goldfields and, bis elder brother
high words on
laiter's sale of The property was owned by the Colonel Matthias Addleton," continued rather stimy. "Squire a further and unnecessary Addleton, as he was known, was duction on the estate. the local Justice of the Ренес and the richest landowner in the
The household
district.
"Further?"
at "I appears that Squire Ad- services
ht
stables
"The clock over the re- village. I walked as you say, having died, he inherited the had just chimed midnight, and
caught the milk train to London family
01 property
Inst into to enlist, nay. Rath. Alas, I cannot
he was drifting t and here I am Mr Holmes, in
Blumber when in an instant he demand, your that he was liked in the for JTY unfortunate bourhood, for he was a man he was brought back to full con- yell sciousness by a dreadful Foulkes Rath consisted of the dleton had sold other holdings young client, Mr Percy Longton." morose disposition and as un- that rang through the great Squire, his nephew Percy Long over the last two years,” 1 re- Holmes lay back with closed popular with his neighbours as silent house. Springing out of
by our local tom, the butler Morstead, and plled, throwing the paper on
bed, he pulled on his dressing- ne'er-do-wells in his capacity four indoor servutits. In addi- the couch, it must say, Holines, eyes and his chin resting on his he was feared
na Justice of
gown and, scizing a candle, ran the Peace. A tion, there is an outside staff that I have seldom read a case fingertips. "I fear that there is
downstairs to the hall, only to that I can do in the consisting of the lodge-keeper, in which the culprit is mom nothing
hard, bitter, brooding man."
recoll before the terrible sight matter," he announced. "Doctor a groom and several gamekeepers clearly defined."
Watson has already put before
"Was Mr Percy Longton on that met his eyes, who
the occupy cottages on
"Ugly, Watson, Very ugly," me the principal fiets and they good terms with his uncle?"
"The hearth and boundaries of the estate,
fireplace my friend agreed. "Indeed, would appear to be quite damn-
The lawyer hesitated. "I am were spattered with blood, and the facts "Last night, Squire Addleton presuming
to be as ing. Who is in charge of the
afraid not," he said at length. sprawling in a great crimson and his nephew dined at their stated, cannot conceive why case?"
"Mr Percy, who was the son of pool, his arms raised above his usual hour of eight o'clock and this Mr Vincent should propose
But after dinner the Squire sent for to waste my time,
here, "I understand that the local the Squire's late sister, has lived head and his teeth grinning his beard, lay Squire Percy rushed his horse and was absent for unless I am much mistaken, is police, in view of the gravity of at Foulkes Rath since his child through about an hour,
the crime, appealed to Scotland hood and, on the property pass- Addleton. Mr On his return, our man upon the staircase."
(To Be Continued on Monday)
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