第36期:一片火海(2)

The road topped a low hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in front of us, spouting fire at every chink and window,

while in the garden in front three fire-engines were vainly striving to keep the flames under. "That's it!" cried Hatherley, in intense excitement. "There is the graveldrive, and there are the rose-bushes where I lay.

That second window is the one that I jumped from." "Well, at least," said Holmes, "you have had your revenge upon them.

There can be no question that it was your oil-lamp which, when it was crushed in the press, set fire to the wooden walls, though no doubt they were too excited in the chase after you to observe it at the time.

Now keep your eyes open in this crowd for your friends of last night, though I very much fear that they are a good hundred miles off by now."

And Holmes's fears came to be realized, for from that day to this no word has ever been heard either of the beautiful woman, the sinister German, or the morose Englishman.

Early that morning a peasant had met a cart containing several people and some very bulky boxes driving rapidly in the direction of Reading, but there all traces of the fugitives disappeared,

and even Holmes's ingenuity failed ever to discover the least clue as to their whereabouts.