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59 



"You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you will go to the 
prison to see James. Oh, if you do, Mr. Holmes, do tell him that I know him to be 
innocent." 

"I will, Miss Turner." 

"I must go home now, for dad is very ill, and he misses me so if I leave him. 
Good-bye, and God help you in your undertaking." She hurried from the room as 
impulsively as she had entered, and we heard the wheels of her carriage rattle off 
down the street. 

"I am ashamed of you, Holmes," said Lestrade with dignity after a few minutes' 
silence. "Why should you raise up hopes which you are bound to disappoint? I am 
not over-tender of heart, but I call it cruel." 

"I think that I see my way to clearing James McCarthy," said Holmes. "Have 
you an order to see him in prison?" 

"Yes, but only for you and me." 

"Then I shall reconsider my resolution about going out. We have still time to 
take a train to Hereford and see him to-night?" 
"Ample." 

"Then let us do so. Watson, I fear that you will find it very slow, but I shall 
only be away a couple of hours." 

I walked down to the station with them, and then wandered through the streets 
of the little town, finally returning to the hotel, where I lay upon the sofa and tried 
to interest myself in a yellow-backed novel. The puny plot of the story was so thin, 
however, when compared to the deep mystery through which we were groping, 
and I found my attention wander so continually from the action to the fact, that 
I at last flung it across the room and gave myself up entirely to a consideration of 
the events of the day. Supposing that this unhappy young man's story were abso- 
lutely true, then what hellish thing, what absolutely unforeseen and extraordinary 
calamity could have occurred between the time when he parted from his father, 
and the moment when, drawn back by his screams, he rushed into the glade? It 
was something terrible and deadly. What could it be? Might not the nature of the 
injuries reveal something to my medical instincts? I rang the bell and called for the 
weekly county paper, which contained a verbatim account of the inquest. In the 
surgeon's deposition it was stated that the posterior third of the left parietal bone 
and the left half of the occipital bone had been shattered by a heavy blow from 
a blunt weapon. I marked the spot upon my own head. Clearly such a blow must 
have been struck from behind. That was to some extent in favour of the accused, 
as when seen quarrelling he was face to face with his father. Still, it did not go 
for very much, for the older man might have turned his back before the blow fell. 
Still, it might be worth while to call Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the 
peculiar dying reference to a rat. What could that mean? It could not be delirium. 
A man dying from a sudden blow does not commonly become delirious. No, it 
was more likely to be an attempt to explain how he met his fate. But what could 
it indicate? I cudgelled my brains to find some possible explanation. And then the 
incident of the grey cloth seen by young McCarthy. If that were true the murderer 



ADVENTURE IV. THE BOSCOMBE VALLEY MYSTERY