Read Online The Misadventure of Shelrock Holmes by Anthology - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Anthology
Tags: Detective and Mystery Stories, Holmes, Sir, Sherlock (Fictitious character) -- Fiction, 1859-1930, Arthur Conan, Doyle
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had been walking for eight or nine minutes when the road narrowed, boxed in between two slopes; and, as he reached this pass, he saw someone enter it at the opposite end.
It was a man of perhaps middle age, powerfully built and cleanshaven, whose dress accentuated his foreign appearance. He carried a heavy walking-stick in his hand and a traveling bag slung round his neck.
The two men crossed each other. The foreigner asked, in a hardly perceptible English accent:
"Excuse me, sir ... can you tell me the way to the castle?"
"Straight on and turn to the left when you come to the foot of the wall. They are waiting for you impatiently."
"Ah!"
"Yes, my friend Devanne was announcing your visit to us last night."
"He made a great mistake if he said too much."
"And I am happy to be the first to pay you my compliments. Holmlock Shears has no greater admirer than myself."
There was the slightest shade of irony in his voice, which he regretted forthwith, for Holmlock Shears took a view of him from head to foot with an eye at once so all-embracing and so piercing that Arsene Lupin felt himself seized, caught, and registered by that glance more exactly and more essentially than he had ever been by any photographic apparatus.
"The snapshot's taken," he thought. "It will never be worth my while to disguise myself when this joker is about. Only ... did he recognize me or not?"
They exchanged bows. But a noise of hoofs rang out, the clinking sound of horses trotting along the road. It was the gendarmes. The two men had to fall back against the slope, in the tall grass, to save themselves from being knocked over. The gendarmes passed, and as they were riding in single file, at quite a distance each from the other, this took some time. Lupin thought:
"It all depends upon whether he recognized me. If so, does he intend to take his advantage? . . ."
When the last horseman had passed, Holmlock Shears drew himself up and, without saying a word, brushed the dust from his clothes. The strap of his bag had caught in a branch of thorns. Arsene Lupin hastened to release him. They looked at each other for another second. And if anyone could have surprised them at that moment he would have beheld a stimulating sight in the first meeting of these two men, both so out of the common, so powerfully armed, both really superior characters, and inevitably destined by their special aptitudes to come into collision, like two equal forces which the order of things drives one against the other in space. Then the Englishman said: "I am much obliged to you." "At your service," replied Lupin. They went their respective ways — Lupin to the station, Holmlock
Shears to the castle.
The examining magistrate and the public prosecutor had left, after a long but fruitless investigation, and the others were awaiting Holmlock Shears with an amount of curiosity fully justified by his reputation. They were a little disappointed by his very ordinary appearance, which was so different from the pictures which they had
formed of him. There was nothing of the novel hero about him, nothing of the enigmatic and diabolical personality which the idea of Holmlock Shears evokes in us. However, Devanne exclaimed, with exuberant delight:
"So you have come at last! This is indeed a joy! I have so long been hoping ... I am almost glad of what has happened, since it gives me the pleasure of seeing you. But, by the way, how did you come?"
"By train."
"What a pity! I sent my motor to the landing stage to meet you
"An official arrival, I suppose," growled the Englishman, "with a brass band marching ahead! An excellent way of helping me in my
business." .
This uninviting tone disconcerted Devanne, who, making an t
fort to jest, retorted: "The business, fortunately, is easier than I wrote to you."
"Why so?"
"Because the burglary took place last night."
"If you had not announced my visit beforehand, the burglary would probably have not taken place last night." "When would
It was a man of perhaps middle age, powerfully built and cleanshaven, whose dress accentuated his foreign appearance. He carried a heavy walking-stick in his hand and a traveling bag slung round his neck.
The two men crossed each other. The foreigner asked, in a hardly perceptible English accent:
"Excuse me, sir ... can you tell me the way to the castle?"
"Straight on and turn to the left when you come to the foot of the wall. They are waiting for you impatiently."
"Ah!"
"Yes, my friend Devanne was announcing your visit to us last night."
"He made a great mistake if he said too much."
"And I am happy to be the first to pay you my compliments. Holmlock Shears has no greater admirer than myself."
There was the slightest shade of irony in his voice, which he regretted forthwith, for Holmlock Shears took a view of him from head to foot with an eye at once so all-embracing and so piercing that Arsene Lupin felt himself seized, caught, and registered by that glance more exactly and more essentially than he had ever been by any photographic apparatus.
"The snapshot's taken," he thought. "It will never be worth my while to disguise myself when this joker is about. Only ... did he recognize me or not?"
They exchanged bows. But a noise of hoofs rang out, the clinking sound of horses trotting along the road. It was the gendarmes. The two men had to fall back against the slope, in the tall grass, to save themselves from being knocked over. The gendarmes passed, and as they were riding in single file, at quite a distance each from the other, this took some time. Lupin thought:
"It all depends upon whether he recognized me. If so, does he intend to take his advantage? . . ."
When the last horseman had passed, Holmlock Shears drew himself up and, without saying a word, brushed the dust from his clothes. The strap of his bag had caught in a branch of thorns. Arsene Lupin hastened to release him. They looked at each other for another second. And if anyone could have surprised them at that moment he would have beheld a stimulating sight in the first meeting of these two men, both so out of the common, so powerfully armed, both really superior characters, and inevitably destined by their special aptitudes to come into collision, like two equal forces which the order of things drives one against the other in space. Then the Englishman said: "I am much obliged to you." "At your service," replied Lupin. They went their respective ways — Lupin to the station, Holmlock
Shears to the castle.
The examining magistrate and the public prosecutor had left, after a long but fruitless investigation, and the others were awaiting Holmlock Shears with an amount of curiosity fully justified by his reputation. They were a little disappointed by his very ordinary appearance, which was so different from the pictures which they had
formed of him. There was nothing of the novel hero about him, nothing of the enigmatic and diabolical personality which the idea of Holmlock Shears evokes in us. However, Devanne exclaimed, with exuberant delight:
"So you have come at last! This is indeed a joy! I have so long been hoping ... I am almost glad of what has happened, since it gives me the pleasure of seeing you. But, by the way, how did you come?"
"By train."
"What a pity! I sent my motor to the landing stage to meet you
"An official arrival, I suppose," growled the Englishman, "with a brass band marching ahead! An excellent way of helping me in my
business." .
This uninviting tone disconcerted Devanne, who, making an t
fort to jest, retorted: "The business, fortunately, is easier than I wrote to you."
"Why so?"
"Because the burglary took place last night."
"If you had not announced my visit beforehand, the burglary would probably have not taken place last night." "When would
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