The Problem of Thor Bridge, 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 problem of Thorbridge [SPEAKER_00]: Part 2. [SPEAKER_00]: Our visitor made a noisy exit, but homes smoked in imperturbable silence with dreamy eyes fixed upon the ceiling.

[SPEAKER_00]: Any views Watson? [SPEAKER_00]: He asked at last. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Holmes, I must confess that when I consider that this is a man who would certainly brush any obstacle from his path, and when I remember that his wife may have been an obstacle and an object of dislike as that man baits plainly told us, it seems to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, and to me also. [SPEAKER_00]: But what were his relations with the governess and how did you discover them? [SPEAKER_00]: Bluff what's and bluff. [SPEAKER_00]: When I considered the passionate unconventional and business like tone of his letter and contrasted it with his self-contained manner and appearance, it was pretty clear that there was some deeper motion which centered upon the accused woman rather than upon the victim.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got to understand the exact relations of those three people if we are to reach the truth. [SPEAKER_00]: You saw the frontal attack which I made upon him and how imperturbably he received it. [SPEAKER_00]: Then I'd bluffed him by giving him the impression that I was absolutely certain.

[SPEAKER_00]: When in reality I was only extremely suspicious. [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps he will come back. [SPEAKER_00]: He is sure to come back. [SPEAKER_00]: He must come back. [SPEAKER_00]: He can't leave it where it is. [SPEAKER_00]: Ha, isn't that a ring? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, there is his footstep. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, Mr Gibson, I was just saying to Dr Watson that you were somewhat overdue.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gold king had re-entered the room in a more chasened mood than he had left it. [SPEAKER_00]: his wounded pride still showed in his resentful eyes, but his common sense had shown him that he must yield if he would attain his end. [SPEAKER_00]: I've been thinking it over Mr. Holmes and I feel that I have been hasty in taking your remarks or miss.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are justified in getting down to the facts whatever they may be, and I think the more of you for it. [SPEAKER_00]: I can assure you however that the relations between Miss Dunbar and me don't really touch this case. [SPEAKER_00]: That is for me to decide, is it not? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I guess that is so.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're like a surgeon who wants every symptom before he can give his diagnosis. [SPEAKER_00]: Exactly, that expresses it. [SPEAKER_00]: And it is only a patient who has an object in deceiving his surgeon who would conceal the facts of his case. [SPEAKER_00]: That may be so, but you will admit Mr. Holmes that most men would shy off a bit when they are asked point blank what their relations with a woman may be.

[SPEAKER_00]: If there is really some serious feeling in the case. [SPEAKER_00]: I guess most men have a little private reserve of their own in some corner of their souls where they don't welcome intruders. [SPEAKER_00]: And you burst suddenly into it. [SPEAKER_00]: But the object excuses you since it was to try and save her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well the stakes are down on the reserve open and you can explore where you will. [SPEAKER_00]: What is it you want? [SPEAKER_00]: the truth. [SPEAKER_00]: The gold king paused for a moment as one who marshals his thoughts. [SPEAKER_00]: His grim deep-lined face had become even sadder and more grave.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can give it to you in a very few words, Mr. Holmes, said he at last. [SPEAKER_00]: There are some things that are painful as well [SPEAKER_00]: I met my wife when I was gold hunting in Brazil. [SPEAKER_00]: Maria Pinto was the daughter of a government official at Manos, and she was very beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was young and ardent in those days, but even now, as I look back with colder blood and a more critical eye, I can see that she was rare and wonderful in her beauty. [SPEAKER_00]: It was a deep, rich nature too, passionate, whole-hearted, tropical, ill-balanced, very different from the American women whom I had known.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, to make a long story short, I loved her and I married her. [SPEAKER_00]: It was only when the romance had passed and it lingered for years that I realized that we had nothing absolutely nothing in common. [SPEAKER_00]: My love faded. [SPEAKER_00]: If hers had faded also, it might have been easier.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know the wonderful way of women. [SPEAKER_00]: Do what I might nothing could turn her from me. [SPEAKER_00]: If I have been harsh to her, even brutal as some have said, it has been because I knew that if I could kill her love, or if it turned to hate, it would be easier for both of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: but nothing changed her. [SPEAKER_00]: She adored me in those English woods as she had adored me 20 years ago on the banks of the Amazon. [SPEAKER_00]: Do what I might, she was as devoted as ever. [SPEAKER_00]: Then came Ms. Grace Dunbar. [SPEAKER_00]: She answered our advertisement and became governess to our two children.

[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps you have seen her portrait in the papers. [SPEAKER_00]: The whole world has proclaimed that she also is a very beautiful woman. [SPEAKER_00]: Now I make no pretence to be more moral than my neighbours and I will admit to you that I could not live under the same roof with such a woman, and in daily contact with her without feeling a passion at regard for her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you blame me, Mr. Holmes? [SPEAKER_00]: I do not blame you for feeling it. [SPEAKER_00]: I should blame you if you expressed it since this young lady was [SPEAKER_00]: though for a moment the reproof had brought the old angry gleam into his eyes. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not pretending to be any better than I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: I guess all my life I've been a man that reached out his hand for what he wanted, and I never wanted anything more than the love and possession of that woman. [SPEAKER_00]: I told her so. [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you did, did you? [SPEAKER_00]: I said to her that if I could marry her I would but that it was out of my power, I said that money was no object and that all I could do to make her happy and comfortable would be done.

[SPEAKER_00]: Very generous, I am sure, said Holmes with a sneer. [SPEAKER_00]: See here, Mr Holmes, I came to you on a question of evidence not on a question of morals. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm not asking for your criticism. [SPEAKER_00]: It is only for the young ladies' sake that I touch your case at all," said Holmes, sternly.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that anything she has accused of is really worse than what you have yourself admitted, that you have tried to ruin a defenseless girl who was under your roof. [SPEAKER_00]: Some of you rich men have to be taught that all the world cannot be brifed into condoning your offenses.

[SPEAKER_00]: To my surprise, the gold king took the reproved with equanimity, [SPEAKER_00]: That's how I feel myself about it now. [SPEAKER_00]: I thank God that my plans did not work out as I intended. [SPEAKER_00]: She would have none of it and she wanted to leave the house instantly. [SPEAKER_00]: Why did she not?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well in the first place others were depended upon her and it was no light matter for her to let them all down by sacrificing her living. [SPEAKER_00]: When I had sworn, as I did, that she should never be molested again she consented to remain. [SPEAKER_00]: But there was another reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: She knew the influence she had over me, and that it was stronger than any other influence in the world. [SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to use it for good. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, she knew something of my affairs. [SPEAKER_00]: They are large, Mr. Holmes. [SPEAKER_00]: Large beyond the belief of an ordinary man.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can make or break, and it is usually break. [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't individuals only. [SPEAKER_00]: It was community's cities, even nations. [SPEAKER_00]: Business is a hard game and the week go to the wall. [SPEAKER_00]: I played the game for all it was worth. [SPEAKER_00]: I never squealed myself and I never cared if the other fellow squealed.

[SPEAKER_00]: But she saw it different. [SPEAKER_00]: I guess she was right. [SPEAKER_00]: She believed and said that a fortune for one man that was more than he needed should not be built on 10,000 ruined men who were left without the means of life. [SPEAKER_00]: That was how she saw it. [SPEAKER_00]: And I guess she could see past the dollars to something that was more lasting.

[SPEAKER_00]: She found that I listened to what she said and she believed she was serving the world by influencing my actions, so she stayed, and then this came along. [SPEAKER_00]: The gulking paused for a minute or more, his head sunk in his hands, lost in deep thought. [SPEAKER_00]: It's very black against her, I can't deny that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And women lead an inward life and may do things beyond the judgment of a man. [SPEAKER_00]: At first I was so rattled and taken aback that I was ready to think she had been led away in some extraordinary fashion that was clean against her usual nature. [SPEAKER_00]: I give it to you Mr. Holmes for what it is worth.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is no doubt that my wife was bitterly jealous. [SPEAKER_00]: There is a soul jealousy that can be as frantic as any body jealousy. [SPEAKER_00]: And though my wife had no cause, and I think she understood this, for the latter she was aware that this English girl exerted an influence upon my mind and my axe that she herself never had.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was an influence for good, but that did not mend the matter. [SPEAKER_00]: She was crazy with hatred, and the heat of the Amazon was always in her blood. [SPEAKER_00]: She might have planned to murder Miss Dunbar, or we will say to threaten her with a gun and so frighten her into leaving us, [SPEAKER_00]: Then there might have been a scuffle and the gun gone off and shot the woman who held it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That possibility had already occurred to me, said Holmes. [SPEAKER_00]: Indeed, it is the only obvious alternative to deliberate murder. [SPEAKER_00]: But she utterly denies it. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that is not final, is it? [SPEAKER_00]: One can understand that a woman placed in so awful a position might hurry home still in her bewilderment holding the revolver.

[SPEAKER_00]: She might even throw it down among her clothes, hardly knowing what she was doing, and when it was found she might try to lie her way out, by a total denial, since all explanation was impossible. [SPEAKER_00]: What is against such a supposition? [SPEAKER_00]: Miss Dunbar herself. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, perhaps.

[SPEAKER_00]: Homes looked at his watch. [SPEAKER_00]: I have no doubt we can get the necessary permits this morning and reach Winchester by the evening train. [SPEAKER_00]: When I have seen this young lady, it is very possible that I may be of more used to you in the matter, though I cannot promise that my conclusions will necessarily be such as you desire.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was some delay in the official pass and instead of reaching Winchester that day, we went down to Thorplace, the Hampshire estate of Mr. Neil Gibson. [SPEAKER_00]: He did not accompany us himself, but we had the address of Sergeant Coventry of the local police who had first examined into the affair.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was a tall, thin, cadaverous man, with a secretive and mysterious manner, which conveyed the idea that he knew or suspected a very great deal more than he dared say. [SPEAKER_00]: He had a trick to of suddenly sinking his voice to a whisper, as if he had come upon something of vital importance, though the information was usually commonplace enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Behind these tricks of manner, he soon showed himself to be a decent honest fellow who was not too proud to admit that he was out of his depth and would welcome any help. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyhow, I'd rather have you than Scotland Yard Mr. Holmes, said he, If the yard gets called into a case, then the local loses all credit for success and may be blamed for failure, now you play straight so I've heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: I need not appear in the matter at all," said Holmes to the evident relief of our melancholy acquaintance. [SPEAKER_00]: If I can clear it up, I don't ask to have my name mentioned. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's very handsome of you, I'm sure, and your friend, Dr. Watson, can be trusted I know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Mr. Holmes, as we walk down to the place there is one question I should like to ask you. [SPEAKER_00]: I'd breathe it to no soul, but you. [SPEAKER_00]: He looked round as though he hardly dare utter the words. [SPEAKER_00]: Don't you think there might be a case against Mr. Neil Gibson himself?

[SPEAKER_00]: I have been considering that. [SPEAKER_00]: You have not seen Ms Dunbar. [SPEAKER_00]: She is a wonderful fine woman in every way. [SPEAKER_00]: He may well have wished his wife out of the road. [SPEAKER_00]: And these Americans are ready with pistols than our focar. [SPEAKER_00]: It was his pistol, you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Was that clearly made out? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir, it was one of a pair that he had. [SPEAKER_00]: One of a pair. [SPEAKER_00]: Where is the other? [SPEAKER_00]: Well, the gentleman has a lot of firearms of one sort and another. [SPEAKER_00]: We never quite matched that particular pistol, but the box was made for two.

[SPEAKER_00]: If it was one of a pair you should surely be able to match it. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, we have them all laid out at the house if you would care to look them over. [SPEAKER_00]: Later, perhaps. [SPEAKER_00]: I think we will walk down together and have a look at the scene of the tragedy. [SPEAKER_00]: This conversation had taken place in the little front room of Sergeant Coventry's Humble Cottage, which served as the local police station.

[SPEAKER_00]: A walk of half a mile or so across a wind swept Heath, all gold and bronze with the fading ferns, brought us to a side gate opening into the grounds of the Thor Place estate. [SPEAKER_00]: A path led us through the phasant preserves, and then from a clearing we saw the wide spread half timbered house, half chudor and half Georgian upon the crest of the hill.

[SPEAKER_00]: Besides us there was a long, redie pool, constricted in the centre where the main carriage drive passed over a stone bridge, but swelling into small lakes on either side. [SPEAKER_00]: Our guide paused at the mouth of this bridge and he pointed to the ground, [SPEAKER_00]: That was where Mrs. Gibson's body lay, I marked it by that stone.

[SPEAKER_00]: I understand that you were there before it was moved. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they sent for me at once. [SPEAKER_00]: Who did? [SPEAKER_00]: Mr. Gibson himself. [SPEAKER_00]: The moment the alarm was given and he had rushed down with others from the house, he insisted that nothing should be moved until the police should arrive.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was sensible. [SPEAKER_00]: I gathered from the newspaper report that the shot was fired from close quarters. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes sir, very close. [SPEAKER_00]: Near the right temple. [SPEAKER_00]: How did the body lie? [SPEAKER_00]: On the back, sir. [SPEAKER_00]: No trace of a struggle, no marks, no weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: The short note from Miss Dunbar was clutched in her left hand. [SPEAKER_00]: Clutch, do you say? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir, we could hardly open the fingers. [SPEAKER_00]: That is of great importance. [SPEAKER_00]: It excludes the idea that anyone could have placed the note there after death in order to furnish a false clue.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dear me, the note as I remember was quite short. [SPEAKER_00]: I will be at Thor Bridget 9 o'clock, G Dunbar. [SPEAKER_00]: Was that not so? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes sir. [SPEAKER_00]: Did Miss Dunbar admit writing it? [SPEAKER_00]: Yes sir. [SPEAKER_00]: What was her explanation? [SPEAKER_00]: Her defense was reserved for the assises she would say nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is certainly a very interesting one. [SPEAKER_00]: The point of the letter is very obscure is it not [SPEAKER_00]: Well, sir, said the guide, it seemed if I may be so bold as to say so the only really clear point in the whole case. [SPEAKER_00]: Holmes shook his head. [SPEAKER_00]: Granting that the letter is genuine and was really written it was certainly received some time before, say one hour or two.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why then? [SPEAKER_00]: Was this lady still clasping it in her left hand? [SPEAKER_00]: Why should she carry it so carefully, she did not need to refer to it in the interview does it not seem remarkable? [SPEAKER_00]: Well sir, as you put it, perhaps it does. [SPEAKER_00]: I think I should like to sit quietly for a few minutes and think it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: He seated himself upon the stone ledge of the bridge, and I could see his quick gray eyes darting their questioning glances in every direction. [SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly he sprang up again and ran across to the opposite parapet, whipped his lens from his pocket and began to examine the stonework.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is curious, said he. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, sir, we saw the chip on the ledge. [SPEAKER_00]: I expect it's been done by some passerby. [SPEAKER_00]: The stonework was grey, but at this one point it showed white for a space not larger than a six-pence. [SPEAKER_00]: When examined closely, one could see that the surface was chipped as by a sharp blow.

[SPEAKER_00]: It took some violence to do that, said Holmes thoughtfully. [SPEAKER_00]: With his cane he struck the ledge several times without leaving a mark. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it was a hard knock. [SPEAKER_00]: In a curious place too, it was not from above but from below, for you see that it is on the lower edge of the parapet.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is at least 15 feet from the body. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes it is 15 feet from the body. [SPEAKER_00]: It may have nothing to do with the matter, but it is a point worth noting. [SPEAKER_00]: I do not think that we have anything more to learn here. [SPEAKER_00]: There were no footsteps, you say.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ground was iron hard, sir. [SPEAKER_00]: There were no traces at all. [SPEAKER_00]: Then we can go. [SPEAKER_00]: We will go up to the house first and look over these weapons of which you speak. [SPEAKER_00]: Then we shall get on to Winchester, for I should desire to see Ms Dunbar before we go farther.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mr Neil Gibson had not returned from town, but we saw in the house the neurotic Mr Bates who had called upon us in the morning. [SPEAKER_00]: He showed us with a sinister relish, the formidable array of firearms of various shapes and sizes, which his employer had accumulated in the course of an adventurous life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mr Gibson has his enemies as anyone would expect to knew him and his methods, said he. [SPEAKER_00]: He sleeps with a loaded revolver in the drawer beside his bed. [SPEAKER_00]: He is a man of violence, sir, and there are times when all of us are afraid of him. [SPEAKER_00]: I am sure that the poor lady who has passed was often terrified.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you ever witness physical violence towards her? [SPEAKER_00]: No, I cannot say that, but I have heard words which were nearly as bad, words of cold cutting contempt even before the servants. [SPEAKER_00]: Our millionaire does not seem to shine in private life. [SPEAKER_00]: Well Watson, we have come on a good many facts, some of them new ones, and yet I seem some way from my conclusion.

[SPEAKER_00]: In spite of the very evident dislike which Mr. Bates has to his employer, I gather from him that when the alarm came, he was undoubtedly in his library. [SPEAKER_00]: Dinner was over at 830, and all was normal up to then. [SPEAKER_00]: It is true that the alarm was somewhat late in the evening but the tragedy certainly occurred [SPEAKER_00]: There is no evidence at all that Mr Gibson had been out of doors since his return from town at five o'clock.

[SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, Mr Dunbar, as I understand it, admits that she had made an appointment to meet Mrs Gibson at the bridge. [SPEAKER_00]: Beyond this, she would say nothing, as her lawyer had advised her to reserve her defense. [SPEAKER_00]: We have several very vital questions to ask that young lady, and my mind will not be easy until we have seen her.

[SPEAKER_00]: I must confess that the case would seem to me to be very black against her if it were not for one thing. [SPEAKER_00]: And what is that, Holmes? [SPEAKER_00]: The finding of the pistol in her wardrobe. [SPEAKER_00]: Dear me, Holmes, I cried. [SPEAKER_00]: That seemed to me to be the most damning incident of all.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not so, Watson. [SPEAKER_00]: It had struck me even at my first perfunctory reading as very strange, and now that I am in closer touch with the case, it is my only firm ground for hope. [SPEAKER_00]: We must look for consistency, where there is a want of it, we must suspect deception. [SPEAKER_00]: I hardly follow you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well now Watson, suppose for a moment that we visualize you in the character of a woman who, in a cold, pre-meditated fashion, is about to get rid of a rival. [SPEAKER_00]: You have planted. [SPEAKER_00]: A note has been written. [SPEAKER_00]: The victim has come. [SPEAKER_00]: You have your weapon.

[SPEAKER_00]: The crime is done. [SPEAKER_00]: It has been work-man-like and complete. [SPEAKER_00]: Do you tell me that after carrying out so crafty a crime, you would now ruin your reputation as a criminal by forgetting to fling your weapon into those adjacent readbeds which would forever cover it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you must need's carry it carefully home and put it in your own wardrobe. [SPEAKER_00]: The very first place that would be searched. [SPEAKER_00]: Your best friends would hardly call you a schema Watson and yet I could not picture you doing anything so crude as that. [SPEAKER_00]: No, no, what's and I will not admit that it is possible, where a crime is coolly premeditated, then the means of covering it are coolly premeditated also.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope therefore that we are in the presence of a serious misconception. [SPEAKER_00]: But there is so much to explain. [SPEAKER_00]: Well we shall set about explaining it. [SPEAKER_00]: When once your point of view is changed, the very thing which was so damning becomes a clue to the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: For example, there is this revolver. [SPEAKER_00]: Miss Dunbar disclaims all knowledge of it. [SPEAKER_00]: On our new theory she is speaking truth when she says so. [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, it was placed in her wardrobe, who placed it there, someone who wished to incriminate her. [SPEAKER_00]: Was not that person the actual criminal?

[SPEAKER_00]: You see how we come at once upon a most fruitful line of inquiry. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you. [UNKNOWN]: you [UNKNOWN]: Thank you. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much. [UNKNOWN]: Thank you.

The Problem of Thor Bridge, Part 2

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