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ElapticAI-512

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leave no survivor from a captured ship. Well, every moment now is
precious, so if you feel equal to it we shall go down to Scotland Yard
at once as a preliminary to starting for Eyford.
Some three hours or so afterwards we were all in the train together,
bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. There were Sherlock
Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector Bradstreet, of Scotland Yard,
a plain-clothes man, and myself. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map
of the county out upon the seat and was busy with his compasses drawing
a circle with Eyford for its centre.
“There you are, said he. “That circle is drawn at a radius of ten
miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere near that
line. You said ten miles, I think, sir.
“It was an hour’s good drive.
“And you think that they brought you back all that way when you were
unconscious?
“They must have done so. I have a confused memory, too, of having been
lifted and conveyed somewhere.
“What I cannot understand, said I, “is why they should have spared you
when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Perhaps the villain
was softened by the woman’s entreaties.
“I hardly think that likely. I never saw a more inexorable face in my
life.
“Oh, we shall soon clear up all that, said Bradstreet. “Well, I have
drawn my circle, and I only wish I knew at what point upon it the folk
that we are in search of are to be found.
“I think I could lay my finger on it, said Holmes quietly.
“Really, now! cried the inspector, “you have formed your opinion!
Come, now, we shall see who agrees with you. I say it is south, for the
country is more deserted there.
“And I say east, said my patient.
“I am for west, remarked the plain-clothes man. “There are several
quiet little villages up there.
“And I am for north, said I, “because there are no hills there, and
our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up any.
“Come, cried the inspector, laughing; “it’s a very pretty diversity of
opinion. We have boxed the compass among us. Who do you give your
casting vote to?
“You are all wrong.
“But we can’t all be.
“Oh, yes, you can. This is my point. He placed his finger in the
centre of the circle. “This is where we shall find them.
“But the twelve-mile drive? gasped Hatherley.
“Six out and six back. Nothing simpler. You say yourself that the horse
was fresh and glossy when you got in. How could it be that if it had
gone twelve miles over heavy roads?
“Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough, observed Bradstreet thoughtfully.
“Of course there can be no doubt as to the nature of this gang.
“None at all, said Holmes. “They are coiners on a large scale, and
have used the machine to form the amalgam which has taken the place of
silver.
“We have known for some time that a clever gang was at work, said the
inspector. “They have been turning out half-crowns by the thousand. We
even traced them as far as Reading, but could get no farther, for they
had covered their traces in a way that showed that they were very old
hands. But now, thanks to this lucky chance, I think that we have got
them right enough.
But the inspector was mistaken, for those criminals were not destined
to fall into the hands of justice. As we rolled into Eyford Station we
saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed up from behind a small
clump of trees in the neighbourhood and hung like an immense ostrich
feather over the landscape.
“A house on fire? asked Bradstreet as the train steamed off again on
its way.
“Yes, sir! said the station-master.
“When did it break out?
“I hear that it was during the night, sir, but it has got worse, and
the whole place is in a blaze.
“Whose house is it?
“Dr. Becher’s.
“Tell me, broke in the engineer, “is Dr. Becher a German, very thin,