The Adventure of the Creeping Man, Part 2

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now it's time to relax. [SPEAKER_00]: Let your body fall into a comfortable position in your bed and drift gently into a state of total relaxation with tonight's story. [SPEAKER_00]: The adventure of the creeping man [SPEAKER_00]: part 2. [SPEAKER_00]: Monday morning found us on our way to the famous university town, an easy effort on the part of homes who had no roots to pull up, but one which involved frantic planning and hurrying on my part, as my practice was by this time not inconcidurable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Homes made no illusion to the case until after we had deposited our suitcases at the ancient [SPEAKER_00]: I think Watson that we can catch the professor just before lunch, he lectures at 11 and should have an interval at home. [SPEAKER_00]: What possible excuse have we for calling? [SPEAKER_00]: Homes glanced at his notebook.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was a period of excitement upon August 26th, we will assume that he is a little [SPEAKER_00]: if we insist that we are there by appointment, I think he will hardly venture to contradict us. [SPEAKER_00]: Have you the affrontary necessary to put it through? [SPEAKER_00]: We can but try.

[SPEAKER_00]: Excellent Watson, compound of the busy B and Excelsior. [SPEAKER_00]: We can but try. [SPEAKER_00]: The motto of the firm, a friendly native will surely guide us. [SPEAKER_00]: Such a one on the back of a smart handsome swept as past a row of ancient colleges, and finally turning into a tree-lined drive pulled up at the door of a charming house, dirt round with lawns, and covered with purple with stereo.

[SPEAKER_00]: Professor Presbury was certainly surrounded with every sign, not only of comfort, but of luxury. [SPEAKER_00]: Even as we pulled up, a grizzled head appeared at the front window. [SPEAKER_00]: And we were aware of a pair of keen eyes from under shaggy brows, which surveyed us through large horn glasses.

[SPEAKER_00]: A moment later, we were actually in his sanctum, and the mysterious scientist whose vagaries had brought us from London, was standing before us. [SPEAKER_00]: There was certainly no sign of eccentricity either in his manner or appearance, for he was a portly large featured man, grave, tall and frock-coated, [SPEAKER_00]: His eyes were his most remarkable feature, keen, observant and clever to the verge of cunning.

[SPEAKER_00]: He looked at our cards. [SPEAKER_00]: Praise it down gentlemen, what can I do for you? [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Holmes smiled amyably. [SPEAKER_00]: It was the question which I was about to put to you, Professor. [SPEAKER_00]: Possibly there is some mistake. [SPEAKER_00]: I heard through a second person that Professor Presbury of Camford had need of my services.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh indeed. [SPEAKER_00]: It seemed to me that there was a malicious sparkle in the intense grey eyes. [SPEAKER_00]: You heard that, did you? [SPEAKER_00]: May I ask the name of your informant? [SPEAKER_00]: I am sorry, Professor, but the matter was rather confidential. [SPEAKER_00]: If I have made a mistake, there is no harm done.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can only express my regret. [SPEAKER_00]: Not at all, I should wish to go further into this matter, it interests me. [SPEAKER_00]: Have you any scrap of writing any letter or telegram to bear out your assertion? [SPEAKER_00]: No, I have not. [SPEAKER_00]: I presume that you do not go so far as to assert that I summoned you, [SPEAKER_00]: I would rather answer no questions," said Holmes.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I dare say not, said the professor with a sparety. [SPEAKER_00]: However, that particular one can be answered very easily without your aid. [SPEAKER_00]: He walked across the room to the bell. [SPEAKER_00]: Our London friend, Mr. Bennett, answered the call. [SPEAKER_00]: Come in, Mr. Bennet.

[SPEAKER_00]: These two gentlemen have come from London under the impression that they have been summoned. [SPEAKER_00]: You handle all my correspondence. [SPEAKER_00]: Have you a note of anything going to a person named Holmes? [SPEAKER_00]: No, sir. [SPEAKER_00]: Bennet answered with a flush. [SPEAKER_00]: That is conclusive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Said the professor. [SPEAKER_00]: Glaring angrily at my companion. [SPEAKER_00]: He leaned forward with his two hands upon the table. [SPEAKER_00]: It seems to me that your position is a very questionable one. [SPEAKER_00]: Homes shrugged his shoulders. [SPEAKER_00]: I can only repeat that I am sorry that we have made a needless intrusion.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hardly enough, Mr. Homes, the old man cried in a high-screening voice with extraordinary malignancy upon his face, [SPEAKER_00]: He got between us and the door as he spoke, and he shook his two hands at us with furious passion. [SPEAKER_00]: You can hardly get out of it so easily as that.

[SPEAKER_00]: His face was convulsed and he grinned and jibbered at us in his senseless rage. [SPEAKER_00]: I am convinced that we should have had to fight our way out of the room if Mr Bennett had not intervened. [SPEAKER_00]: My dear Professor, he cried, consider your position, consider the scandal at the university.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Holmes is a well-known man. [SPEAKER_00]: You cannot possibly treat him with such discurtacy. [SPEAKER_00]: Salkily our host, if I may call him so, cleared the path to the door. [SPEAKER_00]: We were glad to find ourselves outside the house, and in the quiet of the tree-lined drive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes seemed greatly amused by the episode, [SPEAKER_00]: Our learned friend's nerves are somewhat out of order, said he. [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps our intrusion was a little crude and yet we have gained that personal contact which I desired. [SPEAKER_00]: But dear me Watson, he is surely at our heels, the villain still pursues us.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were the sounds of running feet behind, but it was, to my relief, not the formidable professor, but his assistant to appeared round the curve of the drive. [SPEAKER_00]: He came panting up to us. [SPEAKER_00]: I am so sorry Mr. Holmes, I wish to apologize. [SPEAKER_00]: My dear sir, there is no need, it is all in the way of professional experience.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have never seen him in a more dangerous mood, but he grows more sinister. [SPEAKER_00]: You can understand now why his daughter and I are alarmed. [SPEAKER_00]: And yet, his mind is perfectly clear. [SPEAKER_00]: two clear," said Holmes. [SPEAKER_00]: That was my miscalculation. [SPEAKER_00]: It is evident that his memory is much more reliable than I had thought.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, can we, before we go, see the window of Miss Presby's room? [SPEAKER_00]: Mr Bennet pushed his way through some shrubs and we had a view of the side of the house. [SPEAKER_00]: It is there the second on the left. [SPEAKER_00]: And dear me it seems hardly accessible, and yet you will observe that there is a creeper below, and a water pipe above which gives some foothold.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could not climb it myself, said Mr. Bennett. [SPEAKER_00]: Very likely it would certainly be a dangerous exploit for any normal man. [SPEAKER_00]: There was one other thing I wish to tell you, Mr. Holmes. [SPEAKER_00]: I have the address of the man in London to whom the professor writes.

[SPEAKER_00]: He seems to have written this morning, and I got it from his blotting paper. [SPEAKER_00]: It is an ignoble position for a trusted secretary, but what else can I do? [SPEAKER_00]: Holmes glanced at the paper and put it into his pocket. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it is an important link in the chain.

[SPEAKER_00]: We return to London this afternoon, Mr. Bennett. [SPEAKER_00]: I see no good purpose to be served by our remaining. [SPEAKER_00]: We cannot arrest the professor because he has done no crime. [SPEAKER_00]: Nor can we place him under constraint for he cannot be proved to be mad. [SPEAKER_00]: No action is as yet possible.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then what on earth are we to do? [SPEAKER_00]: A little patience, Mr. Bennett. [SPEAKER_00]: Things will soon develop. [SPEAKER_00]: Unless I am mistaken next Tuesday, may mark a crisis. [SPEAKER_00]: Certainly, we shall be in comfort on that day. [SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, the general position is undeniably unpleasant and if Ms. Presbury can prolong her visit.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is easy. [SPEAKER_00]: Then let her stay till we can assure her that all danger is passed. [SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, let him have his way and do not cross him, so long as he is in a good humour all as well. [SPEAKER_00]: There he is, said Bennet, in a startled whisper. [SPEAKER_00]: Looking between the branches we saw the tall, erect figure emerge from the whole door and look around him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He stood leaning forward, his hands swinging straight before him, his head turning from side to side. [SPEAKER_00]: The secretary with a last wave slipped off among the trees, and we saw him presently rejoin his employer, the two entering the house together in what seemed to be animated and even excited conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: I expect the old gentleman as being putting two and two together, said homes as we walked hotel woods. [SPEAKER_00]: He struck me as having a particularly clear and logical brain from the little I saw of him. [SPEAKER_00]: Explosive no doubt, but then from his point of view he has something to explode about if detectives are put on his track, and he suspects his own household of doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I rather fancy that friend Bennett is in for an uncomfortable time. [SPEAKER_00]: Home stopped at a post office and sent off a telegram on our way. [SPEAKER_00]: The answer reached us in the evening and he tossed it across to me. [SPEAKER_00]: Have visited the commercial road and seen Dorek.

[SPEAKER_00]: Swav person, Bohemian, elderly, keeps large general store. [SPEAKER_00]: Mercer. [SPEAKER_00]: Mercer is since your time, said Holmes. [SPEAKER_00]: He is my general utility man who looks up routine business. [SPEAKER_00]: It was important to know something of the man with whom our professor was so secretly corresponding.

[SPEAKER_00]: His nationality connects up with the Prague visit. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank goodness that something connects with something, said I. [SPEAKER_00]: At present we seem to be faced by a long series of inexplicable incidents with no bearing upon each other. [SPEAKER_00]: For example, what possible connection can the be between an angry wolf hound and a visit to Bohemia, or either of them with a man crawling down a passage at night, as to your dates, that is the biggest mystification of all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Homes smiled and rubbed his hands. [SPEAKER_00]: We were, I may say, seated in the old sitting room of the ancient hotel, with a bottle of [SPEAKER_00]: Well now let us take the dates first, said he, his fingertips together and his manner as if he were addressing a class. [SPEAKER_00]: This excellent young man's diary shows that there was trouble upon July 2nd, and from then onwards it seems to have been at nine-day intervals with so far as I remember only one exception.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thus, the last outbreak upon Friday was on September 3, which also falls into the series, as did August 26 which preceded it. [SPEAKER_00]: The thing is beyond coincidence. [SPEAKER_00]: I was forced to agree. [SPEAKER_00]: Let us then form the provisional theory that every nine days the professor takes some strong drug which has a passing but highly poisonous effect.

[SPEAKER_00]: his naturally violent nature is intensified by it. [SPEAKER_00]: He learned to take this drug while he was in Prague and is now supplied with it by a bohemian intermediary in London, this all hangs together once. [SPEAKER_00]: But the dog, the face at the window, the creeping man in the passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, well, we have made a beginning. [SPEAKER_00]: I should not expect any fresh developments until next Tuesday. [SPEAKER_00]: In the meantime, we can only keep in touch with friend Bennett and enjoy the amenities of this charming town. [SPEAKER_00]: In the morning, Mr Bennett slipped round to bring us the latest report.

[SPEAKER_00]: As homes had imagined, [SPEAKER_00]: Without exactly accusing him of being responsible for our presence, the professor had been very rough and rude in his speech and evidently felt some strong grievance. [SPEAKER_00]: This morning he was quite himself again, however, and had delivered his usual brilliant lecture to a crowded class.

[SPEAKER_00]: A part from his queer fits, said Bennett. [SPEAKER_00]: He has actually more energy and vitality than I can ever remember, nor was his brain ever clearer, but it's not he. [SPEAKER_00]: It's never the man whom we have known. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think you have anything to fear now for a week at least.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holmes answered. [SPEAKER_00]: I am a busy man, and Dr Watson has his patience to attend to. [SPEAKER_00]: Let us agree that we meet here at this hour next Tuesday, and I shall be surprised if before we leave you again we are not able to explain even if we cannot perhaps put an end to your troubles.

[SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, keep us posted in what occurs. [UNKNOWN]: you [UNKNOWN]: Thank you. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you. [UNKNOWN]: You [UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.

The Adventure of the Creeping Man, Part 2

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