"I stared at him in astonishment.
"'Yes, it was the devil himself. We have not had a peaceful hoursince--not one. The governor has never held up his head from thatevening, and now the life has been crushed out of him and his heartbroken, all through this accursed Hudson.'
"'What power had he, then?'
"'Ah, that is what I would give so much to know. The kindly, charitable,good old governor--how could he have fallen into the clutches of such aruffian! But I am so glad that you have come, Holmes. I trust very muchto your judgment and discretion, and I know that you will advise me forthe best.'
"We were dashing along the smooth white country road, with the longstretch of the Broads in front of us glimmering in the red light of thesetting sun. From a grove upon our left I could already see the highchimneys and the flag-staff which marked the squire's dwelling.
"'My father made the fellow gardener,' said my companion, 'and then, asthat did not satisfy him, he was promoted to be butler. The house seemedto be at his mercy, and he wandered about and did what he chose in it.The maids complained of his drunken habits and his vile language. Thedad raised their wages all round to recompense them for the annoyance.The fellow would take the boat and my father's best gun and treathimself to little shooting trips. And all this with such a sneering,leering, insolent face that I would have knocked him down twenty timesover if he had been a man of my own age. I tell you, Holmes, I havehad to keep a tight hold upon myself all this time; and now I am askingmyself whether, if I had let myself go a little more, I might not havebeen a wiser man.
"'Well, matters went from bad to worse with us, and this animal Hudsonbecame more and more intrusive, until at last, on making some insolentreply to my father in my presence one day, I took him by the shouldersand turned him out of the room. He slunk away with a livid face and twovenomous eyes which uttered more threats than his tongue could do. Idon't know what passed between the poor dad and him after that, but thedad came to me next day and asked me whether I would mind apologizing toHudson. I refused, as you can imagine, and asked my father how hecould allow such a wretch to take such liberties with himself and hishousehold.
"'"Ah, my boy," said he, "it is all very well to talk, but you don'tknow how I am placed. But you shall know, Victor. I'll see that youshall know, come what may. You wouldn't believe harm of your poor oldfather, would you, lad?" He was very much moved, and shut himself upin the study all day, where I could see through the window that he waswriting busily.
"'That evening there came what seemed to me to be a grand release,for Hudson told us that he was going to leave us. He walked into thedining-room as we sat after dinner, and announced his intention in thethick voice of a half-drunken man.
"'"I've had enough of Norfolk," said he. "I'll run down to Mr. Beddoesin Hampshire. He'll be as glad to see me as you were, I dare say."
"'"You're not going away in an unkind spirit, Hudson, I hope," said myfather, with a tameness which made my blood boil.
"'"I've not had my 'pology," said he sulkily, glancing in my direction.
"'"Victor, you will acknowledge that you have used this worthy fellowrather roughly," said the dad, turning to me.
"'"On the contrary, I think that we have both shown extraordinarypatience towards him," I answered.
"'"Oh, you do, do you?" he snarls. "Very good, mate. We'll see aboutthat!"
"'He slouched out of the room, and half an hour afterwards left thehouse, leaving my father in a state of pitiable nervousness. Night afternight I heard him pacing his room, and it was just as he was recoveringhis confidence that the blow did at last fall.'
"'And how?' I asked eagerly.
"'In a most extraordinary fashion. A letter arrived for my fatheryesterday evening, bearing the Fordingbridge post-mark. My father readit, clapped both his hands to his head, and began running round the roomin little circles like a man who has been driven out of his senses. WhenI at last drew him down on to the sofa, his mouth and eyelids were allpuckered on one side, and I saw that he had a stroke. Dr. Fordham cameover at once. We put him to bed; but the paralysis has spread, he hasshown no sign of returning consciousness, and I think that we shallhardly find him alive.'
"'You horrify me, Trevor!' I cried. 'What then could have been in thisletter to cause so dreadful a result?'
"'Nothing. There lies the inexplicable part of it. The message wasabsurd and trivial. Ah, my God, it is as I feared!'
"As he spoke we came round the curve of the avenue, and saw in thefading light that every blind in the house had been drawn down. Aswe dashed up to the door, my friend's face convulsed with grief, agentleman in black emerged from it.
"'When did it happen, doctor?' asked Trevor.
"'Almost immediately after you left.'
"'Did he recover consciousness?'
"'For an instant before the end.'
"'Any message for me.'
"'Only that the papers were in the back drawer of the Japanese cabinet.'
"My friend ascended with the doctor to the chamber of death, while Iremained in the study, turning the whole matter over and over in myhead, and feeling as sombre as ever I had done in my life. What was thepast of this Trevor, pugilist, traveler, and gold-digger, and how had heplaced himself in the power of this acid-faced seaman? Why, too, shouldhe faint at an allusion to the half-effaced initials upon his arm, anddie of fright when he had a letter from Fordingham? Then I rememberedthat Fordingham was in Hampshire, and that this Mr. Beddoes, whom theseaman had gone to visit and presumably to blackmail, had also beenmentioned as living in Hampshire. The letter, then, might either comefrom Hudson, the seaman, saying that he had betrayed the guilty secretwhich appeared to exist, or it might come from Beddoes, warning an oldconfederate that such a betrayal was imminent. So far it seemed clearenough. But then how could this letter be trivial and grotesque, asdescribed by the son? He must have misread it. If so, it must have beenone of those ingenious secret codes which mean one thing while they seemto mean another. I must see this letter. If there were a hidden meaningin it, I was confident that I could pluck it forth. For an hour I satpondering over it in the gloom, until at last a weeping maid brought ina lamp, and close at her heels came my friend Trevor, pale but composed,with these very papers which lie upon my knee held in his grasp. He satdown opposite to me, drew the lamp to the edge of the table, and handedme a short note scribbled, as you see, upon a single sheet of graypaper. 'The supply of game for London is going steadily up,' it ran.'Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all ordersfor fly-paper and for preservation of your hen-pheasant's life.'
"I dare say my face looked as bewildered as yours did just now whenfirst I read this message. Then I reread it very carefully. It wasevidently as I had thought, and some secret meaning must lie buriedin this strange combination of words. Or could it be that there wasa prearranged significance to such phrases as 'fly-paper' and'hen-pheasant'? Such a meaning would be arbitrary and could not bededuced in any way. And yet I was loath to believe that this was thecase, and the presence of the word Hudson seemed to show that thesubject of the message was as I had guessed, and that it was fromBeddoes rather than the sailor. I tried it backwards, but thecombination 'life pheasant's hen' was not encouraging. Then I triedalternate words, but neither 'the of for' nor 'supply game London'promised to throw any light upon it.
"And then in an instant the key of the riddle was in my hands, and I sawthat every third word, beginning with the first, would give a messagewhich might well drive old Trevor to despair.