The Dancing Men (8)

Hello guys,

Here is the eighth episode of our story, retold by Anne Collins.

Enjoy!

                                                

Episode 8: The Murderer is Caught

A man was coming up the path. He was tall and handsome, with a large, black beard. The front doorbell rang loudly.

‘Hide behind the door,’ said Holmes quietly. ‘This man is very dangerous and we must be careful.’

We waited in silence and the man stepped into the room. At once, Holmes put a gun against his head and Inspector Martin put handcuffs on his wrists.

‘The man looked at us. His black eyes looked angry.

‘I receive a note from Mrs Cubitt,’ he said. ‘Where is she?’

‘Mrs Cubitt is badly injured,’ replied Holmes. ‘Her life is in great danger.’

The man cried out he sat down on a chair and put his face in his hands.

‘I didn’t know she was injured,’ he said. ‘I shot her husband when he tried to kill me. But I would never injure Elsie. I love her more than anything in the world.’

Suddenly the man looked up.

‘Wait,’ he said. ‘If Elsie is badly injured, who wrote this?’

He opened his hands and threw a note onto the table.

‘I wrote it, to make you come here,’ said Holmes.

‘You wrote it? But how could you know the meaning of the dancing men?’

‘I worked out what the figures meant,’ replied Holmes. ‘But now, tell us your story.’

‘All right,’ said the man. ‘If Elsie dies, it doesn’t matter what happens to me.

‘My name is Abe Slaney and I’ve known Elsie since she was a child. Her father was head of a gang of crooks in Chicago and I was a member of the gang.

‘Elsie’s father thought of the secret writing of the dancing men. The members of the gang used it to send messages to one another.

‘Elsie and I were engaged to be married. But Elsie hated her father’s business and she didn’t want to be married to a criminal. So she ran away to England. She met and married this Englishman, Hilton Cubitt.

‘I wrote to Elsie, but she didn’t answer my letters. In the end, I came to England and stayed at Elrige’s Farm.

‘I knew Elsie understood the pictures of the dancing men. So I left messages where she would see them. In the messages, I asked her to come away with me. But her only answer was “Never”.

‘Then Elsie wrote me a letter. She said she would meet me at three o’clock in the morning, when her husband was asleep.

‘She brought money with her. She offered me the money and asked me to go away. I became angry and tried to pull her through the window.

‘Just then, her husband rushed in, carrying a gun at me and missed. At the same moment, I shot at him and he fell down dead.

‘I ran across the garden. As I ran, I heard the window shut behind me.

‘I have told you the truth, gentlemen. I didn’t know Elsie was hurt. She must have shot herself after I left.

While Abe Stanley was talking, a carriage arrived with two policemen in it. Inspector Martin turned to his prisoner.

‘It’s time for us to go, Slaney. Goodbye, Mr Holmes. I hope I’ll work with you again one day.’

As the carriage drove away, I saw the note which Abe Slaney had thrown on the table. This was what Holmes had written:

‘If you work it out, Watson,’ said Holmes, ‘you’ll find it means: “Come here at once”.

‘I knew Abe Slaney would come when he read the note. He would think Mrs Cubitt had written it.’

‘Well,’ I said, ‘criminals have used the dancing men to help them in their crimes. But now the dancing men have been used to catch a criminal.’

‘Yes,’ said Holmes. ‘The dancing men have finally done some good.’