Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rat of Sumatra (12 page)

‘There were two pieces of evidence that gave me my answer. My translation of the Sanskrit message was the first that presented itself, although its meaning was not immediately obvious. See here, for I have made notes of the first section:

‘As you know Watson, during my three-year sabbatical I spent several months in northern India and, most notably, in Tibet with
the Dalai Lama. Inevitably I became acquainted with several Sanskrit phrases and a little further research now gave me my answer. The early Hindu settlers referred to Sumatra as ‘The Island of Gold’ and not without good reason. The intense fighting between the Dutch and the Sultanate has not been merely over its pepper and a port, even one as strategically positioned as Banda Aceh undoubtedly is! For some time now the Dutch have been aware of northern Sumatra’s rich gold deposits and they have not been slow in exploiting them either. Remember, if you will, Watson, that Collier’s letter frequently made mention of the presence of Dutch troops in the Toba region. I am certain that they were not merely rounding up refugees from—’

Lestrade jumped up out of chair as soon as he had heard this, in a state of great indignation.

‘Who in heaven’s name is Collier and what bearing does his letter have on the matter in hand? Withholding evidence is a serious offence, Mr Holmes, and I must ask you to hand this letter over at once!’ Lestrade demanded, holding out his scrawny hand to receive the letter.

‘All in good time, Lestrade, for it deals with another matter for which you are not yet prepared. Let me assure you, however, that any relevant information that it might contain has no bearing on the issue at hand. I can also state with certainty that if you were to act upon any anything connected with the letter’s contents and its author, its recipient’s life would surely be placed in serious jeopardy.’

‘I should like to be the judge of that,’ Lestrade answered peevishly; however when he observed the intensity in Holmes’s features as he glared down at him, he immediately changed his tune.

‘Of course, if it were to jeopardize our current investigation and put a man’s life at risk to boot, then I would gladly delay my examination until a later time.’

‘How very wise.’ Holmes smiled. He pressed his forefinger to
his lips as he turned away and appeared lost, for a moment or two, in deep reflection. Lestrade exchanged a puzzled glance with me, but sadly I was unable to enlighten him. However, Holmes soon broke from his reverie and continued with his remarkable analysis of the
Matilda Briggs
affair.

‘The second part of my translation from the Sanskrit inscription was, in all honesty, a little more oblique.

‘A little more oblique?!’ I exclaimed. ‘Well, Holmes, if you can make any sense of this at all, you will be deserving of the highest accolade that can be bestowed upon you.’

‘That is as maybe, but you will doubtless be glad to hear that the solution to this riddle did not tax my powers of reasoning to any great extent.’

As Holmes paused to light his pipe, I glanced surreptitiously towards him and immediately confirmed that his previous statement had not been an attempt at humour and that he was completely oblivious to his display of conceit.

‘Once I have explained to you the true meaning of the translation, you will see that the other elements, which you two have, so far, viewed as disconnected items of mere trivia, suddenly assume a far greater moment. A man of religion will soon inform you that “the martyr of the wheel” was none other than Saint Katherine and my visit to the harbour master revealed that the dock that bears her name is one of the few, on that stretch of the river, that has recently been expanded to accommodate cargo ships that are powered by steam.

‘Of course when one views a map of our great city and then notes the proximity of St Katherine Dock to Pepys Street, well then, a point that was certainly suggestive in itself becomes immediately conclusive!’

With an air of self-satisfaction Holmes dramatically removed his pipe from his mouth and viewed Lestrade and me with a triumphant smile.

‘Ah, I see that a tiny glimmer of light is now slowly illuminating the darker recesses of your reasoning.’

‘Perhaps, a little,’ I replied hesitantly.

‘Well then, allow me to turn up the gas just a touch further for you. Watson, I trust that you remember our old friend John Douglas, also known as “Birdy” Edwards?’
1

‘Well, of course I do! He was the Pinkerton Agency man who married and then settled upon our shores after the drama of
The Valley of Fear,
‘I readily confirmed.

‘You should also know that he has maintained an association with many of his former collaborators and he has kindly set them to work on my behalf. I am glad to report that the results of their endeavours have confirmed my entire diagnosis.

‘It would seem that Declan McCrory’s investments in expanding the East Indies branch of his father’s company have not, in fact, proved to be the resounding success that he would have liked us to believe. Quite the opposite, as it turns out, for his business acumen is as sadly lacking as are his subtlety and flair. His branch of the company has weakened his father’s holdings, to the extent that it was all he could do to prevent his father from closing his office down altogether!

‘The thought of the humiliation of returning to his father, to be branded as a failure and with his cap in hand, was more than his massive self-esteem could bear to contemplate. There had to be another way of making reparations to his company’s depleted funds. Should he try to increase his tea imports? Tea is a volatile cargo at the best of times, besides which that solution would require still further investments, which he could now ill afford.

‘Then his thoughts returned to the old days, back in the United States and more particularly towards a former associate of his,
with whom he had maintained a regular correspondence. This man, whom Douglas’s associates have identified as one Carl ‘The Fox’ Mandel, was a one-time drinking and gambling companion of McCrory’s, who had very strong family connections with the gangs of New York’s Lower East Side. It was partly the fear of his association with such a person being made known to his father, that prompted McCrory’s request that he be allowed to set up the office in London in the first place.

‘Mandel, in the meanwhile, became embroiled in a series of gangland killings and eventually, with the police in constant pursuit of him, he fled the United States of America to seek his fortune in the Far East. In the end he settled upon Aceh in Sumatra, where he began to provide various services of a somewhat dubious nature to a band of Dutch mercenaries and soldiers of fortune that he had naturally fallen in with. I presume that by this time you can perceive the direction in which my conclusions were now moving?’ Holmes asked this question somewhat hopefully, for his discourse appeared to have taken a lot out of him and he seemed to welcome the chance to drink from his cold coffee and pause for a moment or two from his efforts.

For my part, I was glad for the chance to air my own conclusions upon the matter, whilst the poor inspector appeared to have been as bemused as he had been previously.

‘My goodness, Holmes, the manner in which you have grappled with this case is, beyond a doubt, amongst your finest achievements. Each element that you have brought together, from your analysis of the tides to your reasons for dispatching those wires, rings out with the clarity of pure logical reasoning. I hope that my own understanding of your conclusions is worthy of that which I have just heard.’ I cleared my throat nervously and lit a pipe of my own.

‘Needless to say there are still a few aspects of the case that I am not quite clear about, but it might serve us all well if I were to
make a précis of the results of the vast amount of research that you have undertaken,’ I continued.

‘A few aspects, you say?!’ Lestrade wailed. ‘I have never heard such balderdash in all my life!’

As an orchestral conductor might do, Holmes gestured Lestrade to silence with a finger to his lips, while a wave of his other hand encouraged me to proceed. At once we both complied with his directions.

‘I have often observed from my case notes,’ I began, ‘how the analysis of a simple object, such as Doctor Mortimer’s cane at the outset of the adventure of
The Hound of the Baskervilles,
has led us to extraordinary experiences. It is equally true that an apparently outlandish premise has often resulted in a comparatively mundane conclusion, such as the supposedly remarkable disappearance of Mr James Phillimore. I would say that the case of the
Matilda Briggs
certainly falls within the latter category.’

I had expected an interjection from Holmes at this point; however, when I glanced towards him I could see that his eyes were squeezed tightly shut as if he was in deep concentration. Therefore I continued without any further delay.

‘I realize now why you are so unwilling to disclose your ideas before you are in full possession of the facts. My wild theorizing previously must have made me appear awfully foolish in your eyes. Plagues and pirates indeed! Nonetheless, please interrupt me if there is any aspect that I have failed to grasp.’

‘Do not chastise yourself unduly, old fellow. At that time I was as much in the dark as were you,’ Holmes replied with a smile.

‘In brief then, the ill-judged investments of Declan McCrory plunged his father’s company into dire straits. So dire, in fact, that he was forced to renew an old acquaintance from his time in New York, a ruffian whom we can now identify as one Carlo Maddalena.

‘Amidst the violence and confusion that is tearing Banda Aceh
apart, it was not hard for Mandel, for that is surely his correct name, to ply his nefarious trade. He and McCrory came to an agreement whereby Mandel would procure a quantity of illegal Dutch gold, while McCrory in turn would provide the means for transporting this haul from Sumatra.’

‘This really is most excellent, Watson,’ Holmes interrupted encouragingly. I continued, buoyed by the knowledge that I was on the right track.

‘Obviously Captain Handley disguised this deviation from his intended route by conveniently losing his log. The gold was stowed in the hold, camouflaged by a cargo of black pepper and, with “Carlo”, the new cabin boy safely on board, the
Matilda Briggs
set sail for Port Said.

‘The subsequent events on board are harder for me to gauge. The ship obviously made its way to St Katherine Dock where the gold was unloaded and moved to Pepys Street. Once the crew was safely ashore, the ship was cut adrift, leaving its presence to be a mystery to all who found her. I presume that McCrory is now finding a buyer for his illicit gold, in the hope that his father will never discover how close his company had come to facing total financial ruin. As for the crew, well, I am certain that it would not be too difficult for McCrory to secure for them all a lucrative new berth and on a route that would keep them safely out of harm’s way.’

By now Holmes was expressing his pleasure by gleefully clapping his hands.

‘Well done indeed, old fellow. As for you, Inspector, I am certain that your next meeting with Mr Dodd should prove to be a somewhat less trying experience than any of the others must have been. After all, it is your diligence and investigative prowess that has saved his clients a considerable fortune in insurance and, of course, you have solved the most perplexing maritime mystery in all the annals of the sea!’

‘Well I never. My diligence, my prowess? Surely Mr Holmes you must let me mention your name.’ Lestrade was clearly taken aback by Holmes’s apparent generosity.

‘You must believe me, Lestrade, when I tell you that my reward will surely be that I never again have to clap eyes on the odious Mr Alistair Dodd! Now we must make tracks towards Pepys Street with all speed, for I am certain that your constables will be in urgent need of relief from the rage of Declan McCrory.

‘Mrs Hudson, cab!’

B
y the time that we had gathered our coats and belongings together, Mrs Hudson had managed to hail the necessary cab and we were on our way back to the offices of the Red Cannon shipping line.

The narrow thoroughfares which wound their tortuous way towards the Monument, were almost impassable due to the heavy traffic, and the atmosphere on board became tense with impatience and frustration. I glanced up at Holmes and realized, with some surprise that he had not been similarly affected. He was staring at Lestrade and me with an air of superior amusement.

‘Well, both of you appear to be very pleased with yourselves, I must say.’ Holmes smiled.

‘Mr Holmes, it is hardly surprising when you consider that thanks to your generosity, I am about to receive a most resounding slap on the back from my superiors. After all, they have been somewhat plagued by Mr Dodd and his associates and soundly rebuked for allowing you and me such a free hand in dealing with this case,’ Lestrade explained with pride.

‘While it is true that you will be congratulated for having unmasked and apprehended a gold-smuggler and a fraudster, I
am sure you will admit that Declan McCrory is hardly as noteworthy as Moriarty or Jack the Ripper,’ Holmes reminded him.

‘Although, on the other hand, Holmes, he might yet prove to be the man responsible for the death of Carl Mandel,’ I added on Lestrade’s behalf.

Holmes shook his head emphatically.

‘No, Watson, the perpetrator of that crime is a far more worthy and dangerous individual and we shall have to spread our nets a good deal further if we are to catch him,’ Holmes concluded with a flourish.

‘It might be as well if you acquaint the inspector with your précis of the letters of Sir Michael Collier throughout the remainder of our journey,’ Holmes suggested as he closed his eyes. I immediately took out my notebook.

By the time we had eventually turned the corner into Pepys Street, I had completed my task. As I returned my notebook to its pocket my mind went back to our first visit to this address. I immediately looked towards the very spot on which I had noticed the mysterious tall man in the cape. On this occasion, however, the street was empty.

To my surprise, not one of us displayed signs of wishing to vacate our cab with any urgency as we pulled up outside our destination. I was still lost among my reminiscent thoughts. Lestrade was just sitting there with the agony of confusion etched into his intricately furrowed brow. Meanwhile, Holmes’s eyes were still tightly shut as he remained in his state of deep concentration. It was almost as if the secrets of the
Matilda Briggs
and her erstwhile cabin boy were still locked somewhere within the pages of Sir Michael Collier’s remarkable of letters.

Therefore, it fell to a red-faced young constable, in a state of considerable agitation, to galvanize us into action. He raced to the kerb and began to rap frantically on the door to our cab.

‘Thank heavens you have come, Inspector!’ the constable
breathlessly exclaimed. ‘That awful American gentleman upstairs is kicking up a merry mayhem and he just won’t be quiet!’ The constable sidestepped smartly out of the way as Lestrade bullishly rushed to open the door.

‘Is he now? Well, we shall soon see about that!’ Lestrade snapped sharply as he barged his way towards the entrance to the building, nearly bumping into the unfortunate constable in his rush.

I was on the point of following after Lestrade when I felt a gentle restraining hand upon my arm.

‘We shall give the good inspector his brief moment in the sun,’ Holmes quietly suggested with a smile.

We did not need to be inside the office of the shipping magnate to experience the full wrath of the big man. His great booming voice echoed throughout the corridors and the stairwells of the entire building! As we approached the door to his room, the volume of McCrory’s voice was displaying no signs of abating.

‘What in heaven’s name is going on here, Inspector?! Am I to be held a prisoner within the confines of my own office? This is a scandal sir, an absolute scandal!’ By now McCrory had drawn himself up to his full height and he was towering over the inspector, who was visibly wilting beneath the heat of McCrory’s irate barrage.

‘I shall send for the American consul at once!’ McCrory continued. ‘You do not appear to realize exactly who you are dealing with, sir! You have not heard the last of this, I promise you!’

‘Oh, I think that we have heard more than enough … from you.’

Unnoticed and unannounced Holmes had glided calmly past the bemused form of Inspector Lestrade and now stood eyeball to eyeball with the blustering American. Holmes then stabbed him in the chest with the stem of his pipe and indicated that he wanted McCrory to take to his chair.

‘Well I never, how dare you sir!’ McCrory’s attempts at intimidating
Holmes were obviously futile and his faltering voice all but tailed away to a hoarse whisper.

The manner in which Holmes’s perception of the matter manifested itself in his face was so overpowering that the colour drained away from McCrory immediately. He sank down into his enormous chair, shrinking visibly as he did so.

On this occasion it was Holmes who sat commandingly on the corner of the desk, smiling malevolently down upon its owner as he lit a cigarette. Holmes offered one to his reluctant captive, whose fingers were noticeably shaking as he accepted it. Now still and totally silent, the fallen tycoon could barely lift his eyes to meet those of Sherlock Holmes.

‘Oh yes, Mr Declan McCrory, we know it all!’ Holmes confirmed with a solemn nod of his head.

In his turn, McCrory shook his head dejectedly; he could barely place his cigarette between his lips, so distraught was he.

‘I trust that you realize that as a result of your intensive meddling, I am now to face ruin and worse still, humiliation back home. However, I cannot for the life of me understand how you came to finding me out. I was so convinced that there had been nothing that I had left uncovered or left to chance.’

If McCrory was looking to Holmes for a sign of sympathy or understanding, he was to be sorely disappointed.

‘The object does not exist that can be concealed by one man, but that cannot be revealed by another,’ Holmes replied enigmatically. ‘Take the captain’s log, for example, which you had so meticulously destroyed or, perhaps, had thrown overboard. Its very absence was more damning and raised more suspicion than anything that it might have contained!’

‘Mr Holmes, you must understand from the outset that whatever else you might think of me, I am no killer. The deaths of Carl Mandel and the other members of the crew were neither a direct nor an indirect result of any of my other indiscretions—’

‘Other members of the crew? Indiscretions? What is going on here, MrHolmes? This is beginning to sound like a veritable blood bath!’ Lestrade shrieked in his frustration. His slap on the back was, after all, rapidly becoming a double-edged sword! I attempted to calm him down with a cigarette and a discreet assurance that Holmes would soon make the thing clear to him. In this I enjoyed only partial success, although it did allow Holmes to continue with his questioning of McCrory.

‘I am well aware of that, Mr McCrory, for I have discovered enough evidence on board the ship to suggest the presence of someone who was not a member of the crew. Did Captain Handley or any of his men suggest anything to you that might aid me in identifying this stowaway?’ Holmes asked unexpectedly.

‘See here, Mr Holmes, my game is surely up, so I will certainly not compound my crimes by concealing anything from you that might aid you in apprehending the man who killed the members of my crew. The truth is, however, that I can add very little to what you might already know. Everything happened so quickly, you understand.

‘For some inexplicable reason the presence of a stowaway was not discovered until they had begun to unload the gold at St Katherine Dock. By then, of course, it was impossible to conceal their true intentions from him and an attempt was made to apprehend him. He proved to be a most able and dangerous fighter and in the ensuing struggle he made good his escape. Captain Handley and his men delivered the gold to me as originally planned, and I have not seen them since.

‘I can warn you now that to ask of me which berth I have since allocated to them, will prove to be a waste of time. The crime is surely mine alone and the crew were simply following my orders. Now, Inspector, deal with me as you will. I can assure you that any punishment that I might receive from your courts will count
as nothing compared with what I would have received at home from my own people.’

With that, Lestrade moved forward to take McCrory into custody.

Unexpectedly Holmes raised his hand to call a momentary halt to proceedings.

‘One moment, Inspector, and with your kind permission, of course,’ Holmes purred in his most charming manner. ‘I have provided you with enough evidence to try this man several times over, so I am certain that another minute or two, either way, should make little difference to you. There is just one last question that I should like to ask of Mr McCrory.’

‘Under the circumstances I am hardly likely to refuse you that,’ Lestrade agreed, although without entirely releasing his grip on McCrory’s arm.

‘There is one aspect of this business that still eludes my full understanding. I have discovered your reasons for undertaking this venture, the diversion to Sumatra, using pepper to camouflage the gold, and your choice of dock, given its location and the running of the tides. What I can not comprehend, however, are your reasons for maintaining a regular correspondence with a man like Mandel over so many years. Of course, his connections in Sumatra have subsequently proved to be invaluable to you, but you were not to realize that until only recently. Surely your bad days in New York were best left behind you, given your new set of circumstances?’

McCrory thought long and hard before making his reply.

‘Sure, those days were well left behind me and they would have remained so save for one thing. Gentlemen, I must advise you all that my reasons have no bearing on the matter in hand and I would swear you all to an oath of silence upon this matter alone.’

Following a gesture from Lestrade, the two constables withdrew
to the corridor outside and Lestrade and I nodded our agreement to maintaining our silence.

‘I will only agree for as long as it is understood that my case should be in no way jeopardized because I have not used this information as evidence,’ Lestrade added as a cautionary note.

‘Very well then; the truth of the matter is that I never had any intention of maintaining an acquaintance with Mandel from the very outset. As soon as the office in London was established I realized that my friendship with a man as dangerous as Carl Mandel could prove to be a hindrance to my success over here and I did everything that was within my powers to dissociate myself from him and his way of life. However he would not be put off.

‘Even once he had fled from the States he managed to maintain contact with me. Whether it were from the China Seas or even Sumatra itself, each month a new letter would surely be there on my office desk. I will not dwell for too long upon the subject matter of these letters, for reasons that will soon become obvious to you all.’ McCrory paused for as long as it took for him to request another cigarette, with which I duly supplied him.

‘To be blunt then, gentlemen, as a direct consequence of yet another one of my wild, hedonistic nights, in the company of Mandel and his associates, I seriously compromised a young chorus girl who went by the name of Marlene. It shames me to admit it, but I never even thought to enquire as to her surname. The issue from this violation of mine was a beautiful baby girl, whom I have never been allowed to see but whom I have been supporting from that day to this.

‘Mandel rebuked and ridiculed me for taking this stance, because he and his like would simply have abandoned both Marlene and her infant girl to their fate. However, because I was a ‘rich boy’ and not from the Lower East Side, I had a different set of values from the others and I was, therefore, fair game. However, Mandel’s plans for me did not end with a dose of mere
chiding. He decided that if I could afford to maintain my unfortunate offspring, I could equally well afford the price of Mandel’s silence.

‘The full horror of his new proposal was now obvious to me. The effects of my family discovering the results of my appalling behaviour would lead to my ultimate destruction and Mandel knew that, all too well! So I had no choice but to hand over a princely sum, into his vile and filthy hands every month for the rest of my life. The contents of Mandel’s letters were the same each time.

‘The following day a cheque would be on its way to Aceh, or wherever he happened to be at the time, and before long the company’s funds were becoming seriously depleted. The gold scheme was Mandel’s way of securing the fruits of his blackmail in one fell swoop and my way of throwing off his stranglehold on me once and for all. I trust that this statement of mine will serve adequately to answer your question, Mr Holmes?’

‘More than adequately, Mr McCrory. Thank you. However, if you are seeking either sympathy or admonishment, I can assure you that you will not find it in this room. Perhaps one day people like you will realize that this world and its inhabitants are much more than merely your playthings. You may have the prisoner removed now, Inspector Lestrade!’ Holmes dramatically pronounced.

The two constables returned to do Lestrade’s bidding and before long the three of us were in the cab once more on our return trip to Baker Street.

‘Now to the real matter at hand, by which I mean, of course, the slaying of Carl Mandel.’ Holmes rubbed his hands together with unseemly relish as he made this suggestion.

‘In the absence of any available witnesses it would seem to be
improbable that we can even identify this stowaway, much less apprehend him.’ Lestrade shook his head disconsolately.