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

Northgate has a safe hidden under the floor between the joists in the room where his soldiers are laid out on a great table. I say a safe, but it is more a steel box, in that it has only an ordinary lock on it. But they swear that no one else knew of it, and that it contained only the campaign papers, which would be of no use or value to anyone else.”
    â€œThey were wrong about that, weren’t they?” I said a little sourly. Someone had been careless. A man must have hobbies, yes, but they should not be of the kind that could bring such calamity upon England as these looked like to do.
    â€œQuite so, Watson. You strike to the heart of the matter. The main questions there are, who knew of the papers, who knew what and where they were and that they could indeed be worth money, and who took them?”
    I sipped my whisky and considered that. “It would almost have to be a servant who took them. Any time his friends were there in that room Northgate would have been with them. Even if he stepped out briefly, of those remaining, is one likely to tear up the floor, open a safe, and steal the contents before the others?” I answered that myself. “No. But servants are often alone in a room, and being a servant does not make a man unobservant.”
    â€œOr a woman, Watson. It requires no strength to raise a short length of floorboard or turn a key, and papers are not so heavy.”
    I groaned. “In short, we are looking for Lord Northgate, his papers, Persimmon Brand, an agent behind him , and a disloyal, dishonest servant who may have been suborned by either.”
    â€œYes,” Holmes said, and there was a short silence while I wondered where we went from here. Fortunately Holmes was at less of a loss. “So, Watson, tomorrow you will meet again with Western. Once we have Brand’s address he may be taken and when questioned, he should put us on the trail of the agent.”
    â€œAt least it won’t be Vereker,” I commented. That enterprising Petersburg agent had met the hangman more than a year ago for his part in an attempt to steal a device from the Admiralty. I must say it occurred to me that if the government and nobility took better care of their devices and papers, the country would be the better for it. On the other hand, Holmes would have less work, and I daresay our own agents were as busy in other places as theirs were here.
    â€œNo, but there is no shortage of agents,” Holmes said. “With the papers appearing to threaten a certain power, it is most likely that any agent will be theirs, yet we cannot rule out some freelance scoundrel planning to sell them once they were obtained.”
    â€œAnd as we know that Brand is involved, anything he can tell us could be of real use,” I summed up.
    â€œIt will be a loose end, and where there is one, a tangle may be unraveled thereby,” was Holmes’s reply, and with that hope we retired for the night.
    * * * *
    I met Western for breakfast at a pleasant café in his area, and over eggs, gammon, toast, and a very good pot of tea, he produced a slip of paper and handed it to me.
    â€œThat’s where Brand is now, but if you want him you’d better hurry. I hear that he isn’t happy about the people he’s been working with. He’s likely to go to ground, and it’ll be a lot harder to dig him out in his own territory.”
    I tucked the address in my pocket. “How soon would you think him likely to leave, Mr. Western?”
    â€œAfter dark is my guess. Night’s a good time for rats; they like to scurry about when they’re harder to see.”
    I met his gaze and spoke simply. “You may have done your country a great service, Mr. Western. You are a good man and a true patriot.”
    To my surprise, this hardened man blushed deeply and fixed his gaze on the table. “I’m not a good man, Doctor. I was cheated by my country when I was younger and I went to