Read Sherlock Holmes in Something the Cat Dragged In for Free Online

can he not know that the address where he was only hours earlier has been raided by the police?” I poured myself a whisky and sat before the fire.
    â€œThe sailors, Watson. Lestrade put it about that they were deserters and that the police took the opportunity to assist the Navy while also searching for anything that would allow them to arrest Jeb Siddons for a violent robbery that recently took place. One young constable let it slip casually in his local bar that they did find a man in the shed at that address, that he was unconscious and in a bad way, and that he has since died, unidentified and without speaking.”
    I admired the scheme. “That is clever. Brand will be off his guard. But tell me, Holmes. I mentioned the Pentwood estate and Western seized upon me. He appeared utterly delighted that someone knew of the place. Earlier you said that Western was, in a way, cheated of his rights. How did that come about?”
    Holmes reflected a moment. “Western is the son of Sir James Western, who was younger grandson to the owner of the estate. Our Western’s grandfather died before his elder brother. It was custom in the family that a small estate on the edge of the main one devolved upon the cadet line. When Frederick Western’s great-grandfather died, however, he had just suffered major financial losses, as two merchant ships he owned vanished at sea. Unfortunately they carried so much of his portable wealth that Pentwood had to be sold. He was over ninety years old, and it had been hinted that he was becoming senile or he would not have risked so much. He suffered a stroke when news of the ships came in, lay gravely ill for many months, then died without, so far as was generally known, regaining consciousness.”
    â€œAnd his will?”
    â€œThere was no mention that the lesser estate should go to Frederick. Frederick’s own grandfather had lived there, but he too died before the great-grandfather, and his father was a wastrel and a gambler. For that reason it was supposed that the old man was waiting until Frederick should come of age, when the estate might safely be entrusted to him. Frederick was twenty-one when Lord Pentwood died and he instigated a suit claiming that a letter existed saying that the smaller estate should come to him. He said that he had met his great-grandfather’s lawyer and that the man had told him this was so.”
    â€œAnd the lawyer denied that?”
    â€œThe lawyer was killed the same day.”
    I blinked. “That seems unlikely, Holmes.”
    â€œSo others thought. It was openly said about town that Frederick might have killed the man so his claim could not be gainsaid.”
    I eyed my friend shrewdly. “And…”
    â€œWestern did not kill him. The man had been drinking, probably with his old client and friend, and on his return to town he walked out into the street without looking and was knocked down and killed by a brewery dray. One of the servants at Pentwood later admitted that His Lordship had come around, sent urgently for his lawyer, and that they had been closeted together for several hours. The lawsuit is still in existence, but may be wound up against Western quite soon.”
    I understood. “And without the letter, that claim was all hearsay, and nothing to further Western’s case.”
    â€œExactly. He went to the bad very promptly, however; it may have been a weakness already in the man’s character.”
    â€œOr it may merely have been a young man’s despair at the loss of his home, and grief, too, if he was fond of his great-grandfather,” I pointed out.
    Holmes made no rely to that but turned to a different subject. “I spent time with Lord Northgate’s friends. They are most distressed that their innocent hobby should have endangered the realm, but they could make no suggestions as to how the papers were stolen. They could, however, tell me where they had been kept.