The Sleuth of St. James Street | Page 5

following night, Excellency, the thing happened. The Master had
passed the day in the open. He dined with a good appetite, like a man in
health. And there was a change in his demeanor. He had the aspect of
men who are determined to have a thing out at any hazard.
"After his dinner the Master went into the drawing-room and closed the
door behind him. He had not entered the room on this day. It had stood
locked and close-shuttered!"
The big Oriental paused and made a gesture outward with his fingers,
as of one dismissing an absurdity.
"No living human being could have been concealed in that room. There
is only the bare floor, the Master's table and the fireplace. The great
wood shutters were bolted in, as they had stood since the Master took
the room for a workshop and removed the furniture. The door was
always locked with that special thief-proof lock that the American
smiths had made for it. No one could have entered."
It was the report of the experts at the trial. They showed by the casing

of rust on the bolts that the shutters had not been moved; the walls,
ceiling and floor were undisturbed; the throat of the chimney was
coated evenly with old soot. Only the door was possible as an entry,
and this was always locked except when Rodman was himself in the
room. And at such times the big Oriental never left his post in the hall
before it. That seemed a condition of his mysterious overcare of
Rodman.
Everybody thought the trial court went to an excessive care. It
scrutinized in minute detail every avenue that could possibly lead to a
solution of the mystery. The whole country and every resident was
inquisitioned. The conclusion was inevitable. There was no human
creature on that forest crest of the Berkshires but Rodman and his
servant.
But one can see why the trial judge kept at the thing; he was seeking an
explanation consistent with the common experience of mankind. And
when he could not find it, he did the only thing he could do. He was
wrong, as we now know. But he had a hold in the dark on the truth -
not the whole truth by any means; he never had a glimmer of that. He
never had the faintest conception of the big, amazing truth. But as I
have said, he had his fingers on one essential fact.
The man was going on with a slow, precise articulation as though he
would thereby make a difficult matter clear.
"The night had fallen swiftly. It was incredibly silent. There was no
sound in the Master's room, and no light except the flicker of the logs
smoldering in the fireplace. The thin line of it appeared faintly along
the sill of the door."
He paused.
"The fireplace, Excellency, is at the end of the great room, directly
opposite this door into the hall, before which I always sat when the
Master was within. The fireplace is of black marble with an immense
black-marble hearth. And the gift which I had brought the Master
stands on one side of the fire, on this marble hearth, as though it were a

singe andiron."
The man turned back into the heart of his story.
"I knew by the vague sense of pressure that the devocations of the thing
were again on the way. And I began to suffer in the spirit for the
Master's safety. Interference, both by act and by the will, were denied
me. But there is an anxiety of spirit, Excellency, that the uncertainty of
an issue makes intolerable."
The man paused.
"The pressure continued - and the silence. It was nearly midnight. I
could not distinguish any act or motion of the Master, and in fear I
crept over to the door and looked in through the crevice along the
threshold.
"The Master sat by his table; he was straining forward, his hands
gripping the arms of his chair. His eyes and every tense instinct of the
man were concentrated on the fireplace. The red light of the embers
was in the room. I could see him clearly, and the table beyond him with
the calculations; but the fireplace seemed strangely out of perspective -
it extended above me.
"My gift to the Master, not more than four handbreaths in length,
including the base, stood now like an immense bronze on an extended
marble slab beside a gigantic fireplace. This effect of extension put the
top of the fireplace and the enlarged andiron, above its pedestal, out of
my line of vision. Everything else in the chamber, holding its normal
dimensions, was visible to me.
"The Master's face was a little lifted. He was looking at the elevated