The Adventure of the Copper Beeches - 02 - Part II

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Dream Audio Books, your guide through this captivating story.
Relax and let yourself be carried away into a world
where every word resonates with the magic of imagination. Without
further ado, let's dive together into the Adventure of the
Copper Beaches by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Part two. That is the letter which I have just received,
mister Holmes, and my mind is made up that I
will accept it. I thought, however, that before taking the
final step, I should like to submit the whole matter
to your consideration. Well, miss Hunter, if your mind is
made up, that settles the question, said Holmes, smiling. But

(00:43):
you would not advise me to refuse. I confess that
it is not the situation which I should like to
see a sister of mine apply. For what is the
meaning of it all, mister Holmes, Ah, I have no data.
I cannot tell. Perhaps you have yourself formed some opinion. Well,

(01:03):
there seems to me to be only one possible solution.
Mister Rucastle seemed to be a very kind, good natured man.
Is it not possible that his wife is a lunatic
that he desires to keep the matter quiet for fear
she should be taken to an asylum, and that he
humors her fancies in every way in order to prevent

(01:24):
an outbreak. That is a possible solution. In fact, as
matters stand, it is the most probable one. But in
any case, it does not seem to be a nice
household for a young lady. But the money, mister Holmes,
the money, well, yes, of course, the pay is good,

(01:44):
too good. That is what makes me uneasy. Why should
they give you one hundred and twenty pounds a year
when they could have their pick for forty pounds. There
must be some strong reason behind. I thought that if
I I told you the circumstances, you would understand afterwards.
If I wanted your help, I should feel so much

(02:06):
stronger if I felt that you were at the back
of me. Oh, you may carry that feeling away with you.
I assure you that your little problem promises to be
the most interesting which has come my way for some months.
There is something distinctly novel about some of the features.
If you should find yourself in doubt or in danger, danger,

(02:28):
what danger do you foresee? Holmes shook his head gravely.
It would cease to be a danger if we could
define it, said he but at any time, day or night,
a telegram would bring me down to your help. That
is enough. She rose briskly from her chair, with the
anxiety all swept from her face. I shall go down

(02:50):
to Hampshire quite easily in my mind. Now I shall
write to mister Rucastle at once, sacrifice my poor hair tonight,
and start for Winchester tomorrow. With a few grateful words
to Holmes. She bade us both good night, and bustled
off upon her way. At least, said I, as we
heard her quick firm steps descending the stairs. She seems

(03:13):
to be a young lady who was very well, able
to take care of herself, and she would need to
be said Holmes gravely. I am much mistaken if we
do not hear from her before many days or past.
It was not very long before my friend's prediction was fulfilled.

(03:34):
A fortnight went by, during which I frequently found my
thoughts turning in her direction and wondering what strange side
alley of human experience this lonely woman had strayed into
the unusual salary. The curious conditions, the like duties all
pointed to something abnormal, though, whether a fad or a plot,

(03:56):
or whether the man were a philanthropist or a villain.
It was quite beyond my powers to determine. As to Holmes,
I observed that he sat frequently for half an hour
on end, with knitted brows and an abstracted air, but
he swept the matter away with a wave of his hand.
When I mentioned it, data, data, data, he cried impatiently.

(04:21):
I can't make bricks without clay, And yet he would
always wind up by muttering that no sister of his
should ever have accepted such a situation. The telegram, which
we eventually received, came late one night, just as I
was thinking of turning in and Holmes was settling down
to one of those all night chemical researches which he

(04:44):
frequently indulged in, when I would leave him stooping over
a retort and a test tube at night and find
him in the same position when I came down to
breakfast in the morning. He opened the yellow envelope and, then,
glancing at the message, threw it across to me. Just
look up the trains in Bradshaw, said he, and turned

(05:04):
back to his chemical studies. The summons was a brief
and urgent one. Please be at the black Swan Hotel
at Winchester at midday tomorrow, it said, do come. I
am at my wits end, Hunter, Will you come with me?
Asked Holmes, glancing up. I should wish to just look

(05:26):
it up. Then there is a train at half past nine,
said I, glancing over my Bradshaw. It is due at
Winchester at eleven thirty. That will do very nicely. Then
perhaps I had better postpone my analysis of the acetones,
as we may need to be at our best in
the morning. By eleven o'clock the next day we were

(05:50):
well upon our way to the old English capital. Holmes
had been buried in the morning papers all the way down,
but after we had passed the Hampshire border he threw
them down and began to admire the scenery. It was
an ideal spring day, a light blue sky flecked with
little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east.

(06:13):
The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was
an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge
to a man's energy. All over the countryside, away to
the rolling hills around Aldershot, the little red and gray
roofs of the farmsteadings peeped out from amid the light
green of the new foliage. Are they not fresh and beautiful?

(06:37):
I cried, with all the enthusiasm of a man fresh
from the fogs of Baker Street. But Holmes shook his
head gravely. Do you know, Watson? Said he, that it
is one of the curses of a mind with a
turn like mine, that I must look at everything with
reference to my own special subject. You look at these

(06:59):
scale houses and you are impressed by their beauty. I
look at them, and the only thought which comes to
me is the feeling of their isolation and the impunity
with which crime may be committed there, Good Heavens, I cried,
who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads? They

(07:21):
always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson,
founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys
in London do not present a more dreadful record of
sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside. You horrify me,
but the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public

(07:45):
opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish.
There is no lane so vile that the scream of
a tortured child, or the thought of a drunkard's blow
does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbors. And
then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close
that a word of complaint can set it going, And

(08:07):
there is but a step between the crime and the dock.
But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields,
filled for the most part with poor, ignorant folk who
know little of the law. Think of the deeds of
hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on year
in year out in such places, and none the wiser.

(08:31):
Had this lady who appeals to us for help gone
to live in Winchester, I should never have had a
fear for her. It is the five miles of country
which makes the danger. Still, it is clear that she
is not personally threatened. No, if she can come to Winchester,
if to meet us, she can get away. Quite so,

(08:52):
she has her freedom. What can be the matter, then,
can you suggest no explanation? I have devised seven separate explanations,
each of which would cover the facts as far as
we know them. But which of these is correct can
only be determined by the fresh information, which we shall
no doubt find waiting for us. Well, there is the

(09:14):
tower of the cathedral, and we shall soon learn all
that miss Hunter has to tell. The Black Swan is
an inn of repute in the high Street, at no
distance from the station, and there we found the young
lady waiting for us. She had engaged a sitting room,
and our lunch awaited us upon the table. I am
so delighted that you have come, she said earnestly. It

(09:37):
is so very kind of you both. But indeed I
do not know what I should do. Your advice will
be altogether invaluable to me. Pray tell us what has
happened to you. I will do so, and I must
be quick, for I have promised mister Rucastle to be
back before three. I got his leave to come into
town this morning, though he little knew for what p

(10:01):
let us have everything in its due order. Holmes thrust
his long, thin legs out toward the fire and composed
himself to listen. In the first place, I may say
that I have met on the whole with no actual
ill treatment from mister and missus Roughcastle. It is only
fair to them to say that. But I cannot understand them,

(10:23):
and I am not easy in my mind about them.
What can you not understand their reasons for their conduct?
But you shall have it all, just as it occurred
when I came down. Mister Rowcastle met me here and
drove me in his dog cart to the copper beaches.
It is, as he said, beautifully situated, but it is

(10:46):
not beautiful in itself, for it is a large square
block of a house, whitewashed, but all stained and streaked
with damp and bad weather. There are grounds around it,
woods on three sides, and on the fourth a field
which slopes down to the Southampton high Road, which curves
past about eight hundred yards from the front door. This

(11:08):
ground in front belongs to the house, but the woods
all round are part of Lord Southerton's preserves. A clump
of copper beaches immediately in front of the hall door
has given its name to the place. I was driven
over by my employer, who was as amiable as ever,
and was introduced by him that evening to his wife

(11:30):
and the child. There is no truth, mister Holmes, in
the conjecture which seemed to us to be probable in
your rooms at Baker Street, missus Rouecastle is not mad.
I found her to be a silent, pale faced woman,
much younger than her husband, not more than thirty, I
should think, while he can hardly be less than forty five.

(11:53):
From their conversation, I have gathered that they have been
married about seven years, that he was a widower, and
that his only child by the first wife was the
daughter who had gone to Philadelphia. Mister Rucastle told me
in private that the reason why she had left them
was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother.

(12:13):
As the daughter could not have been less than twenty,
I can quite imagine that her position must have been
uncomfortable with her father's young wife. Missus Rucastle seemed to
me to be colorless in mind as well as in feature.
She impressed me neither favorably nor the reverse. She was
a nonentity. It was easy to see that she was

(12:36):
passionately devoted both to her husband and to her little son.
Her light gray eyes wandered continually from one to the other,
noting every little want and forestalling it if possible. He
was kind to her also in his bluff boisterous fashion,
and on the whole they seemed to be a happy couple,
and yet she had some secret sorrow. This woman. She

(13:01):
would often be lost in deep thought, with the saddest
look upon her face. More than once I have surprised
her in tears. I have thought sometimes that it was
the disposition of her child which weighed upon her mind.
For I have never met so utterly spoiled and so
ill natured a little creature. He is small for his age,

(13:23):
with a head which is quite disproportionately large. His whole
life appears to be spent in an alternation between savage
fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking. Giving pain
to any creature weaker than himself seems to be his
one idea of amusement, and he shows quite remarkable talent
in planning the capture of mice, little birds, and insects.

(13:46):
But I would rather not talk about the creature, mister Holmes,
and indeed he has little to do with my story.
I am glad of all details, remarked my friend, whether
they seem to you to be relevant or not, I
shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one
unpleasant thing about the house which struck me at once

(14:08):
was the appearance and conduct of the serpents, there are
only two. A man and his wife taller, for that
is his name. Is a rough, uncouth man, with grizzled
hair and whiskers, and a perpetual smell of drink. Twice
since I have been with him he has been quite drunk,
and yet mister Rucastle seemed to take no notice of it.

(14:30):
His wife is a very tall and strong woman, with
a sour face, as silent as Missus Rucastle, and much
less amiable. They are a most unpleasant couple. But fortunately
I spend most of my time in the nursery and
my own room, which are next to each other in
one corner of the building. For two days after my

(14:50):
arrival at the Copper Beaches, my life was very quiet.
On the third, Missus Rucastle came down just after breakfast
and whispered something to her husband. Oh yes, said he,
turning to me. We are very much obliged to you,
miss Hunter, for falling in with our whims so far
as to cut your hair. I assure you that it

(15:13):
is not detracted in the tiniest iota from your appearance.
We shall now see how the electric blue dress will
become you. You will find it laid out upon the
bed in your room, and if you would be so
good as to put it on, we should both be
extremely obliged. The dress which I found waiting for me
was a very peculiar shade of blue. It was of

(15:36):
excellent material, a sort of beige, but it bore unmistakable
signs of having been worn before. It could not have
been a better fit if I had been measured for it.
Both mister and Missus Rucastle expressed a delight at the
look of it, which seemed quite exaggerated in its vehemence.
They were waiting for me in the drawing room, which

(15:58):
is a very large room stretching along the entire front
of the house, with three long windows reaching down to
the floor. A chair had been placed close to the
central window, with its back turned towards it. In this
I was asked to sit, and then mister Rucastle, walking
up and down on the other side of the room,

(16:18):
began to tell me a series of the funniest stories
that I have ever listened to. You cannot imagine how
comical he was, and I laughed until I was quite weary.
Missus Rucastle, however, who had evidently no sense of humor,
never so much as smiled, but sat with her hands
in her lap and a sad, anxious look upon her face.

(16:41):
After an hour or so, mister Rucastle suddenly remarked that
it was time to commence the duties of the day,
and that I might change my dress and go to
little Edward in the nursery. Two days later, this same
performance was gone through under exactly similar circumstances. Again, I
changed my dress. Again I sat in the window, and

(17:01):
again I laughed very heartily at the funny stories of
which my employer had an immense repertoire, and which he
told inimitably. Then he handed me a yellow backed novel, and,
moving my chair a little sideways that my own shadow
might not fall upon the page, he begged me to
read aloud to him. I read for about ten minutes,

(17:22):
beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then suddenly,
in the middle of a sentence, he ordered me to
cease and to change my dress. You can easily imagine,
mister Holmes, how curious I became as to what the
meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly be. They were
always very careful. I observed to turn my face away

(17:46):
from the window so that I became consumed with a
desire to see what was going on behind my back.
At first it seemed to be impossible, but soon I
devised a means. My hand mirror had been brought oken.
So a happy thought seized me, and I concealed a
piece of the glass in my handkerchief. On the next occasion,

(18:07):
in the midst of my laughter, I put my handkerchief
up to my eyes and was able, with a little management,
to see all that there was behind me. I confess
that I was disappointed there was nothing, at least that
was my first impression. At the second glance, however, I
perceived that there was a man standing in the Southampton Road,

(18:31):
a small bearded man in a gray suit, who seemed
to be looking in my direction. The road is an
important highway and there are usually people there. This man, however,
was leaning against the railing which boarded our field, and
was looking earnestly up. I lowered my handkerchief and glanced
at missrus Rouecastle to find her eyes fixed upon me

(18:53):
with a most searching gaze. She said nothing, but I
am convinced that she had divined that I had a
mirror in my hand and had seen what was behind me.
She rose at once, jeff Row said she. There is
an impertinent fellow upon the road there who stares up
at Miss Hunter. No friend of yours, Miss Hunter, he asked, No,

(19:18):
I know no one in these parts. Dear me, how
very impertinent kindly turn round and motioned to him to
go away. Surely you would be better to take no notice. No, no,
we should have him loitering here. Always kindly turn round
and wave him away like that. I did as I

(19:41):
was told, and at the same instant missus Rucastle drew
down the blind. That was a week ago, and from
that time I have not sat again in the window,
nor have I worn the blue dress, nor seen the
man in the road. Pray continue, said Holmes. Your narrative
promises to be a most interesting one. You will find

(20:04):
it rather disconnected, I fear, and there may prove to
be little relation between the different incidents of which I speak.
On the very first day that I was at the
Copper Beaches, mister Rucastle took me to a small outhouse
which stands near the kitchen door. As we approached it,
I heard the sharp rattling of a chain and the

(20:25):
sound as of a large animal moving about. Look in here,
said mister Rucastle, showing me a slit between two planks.
Is he not a beauty? I looked through and was
conscious of two glowing eyes and of a vague figure
huddled up in the darkness. Don't be frightened, said my employer,

(20:46):
laughing at the start which I had given. It's only Carlo,
my mastiff, I call him mind, but really old Toller,
my groom, is the only man who can do anything
with him. We feed him once a day, and not
too much then, so that he is always as keen
as mustard. Tolerant lets him loose every night, and God

(21:07):
helped the trespasser whom he lays his fangs upon. For
goodness sake, don't you, ever, on any pretext set your
foot over the threshold at night, for it is as
much as your life is worth. The morning was no
idle one For two nights later, I happened to look
out of my bedroom window about two o'clock in the morning.

(21:28):
It was a beautiful moonlit night, and the lawn in
front of the house was silvered over and almost as
bright as day. I was standing wrapped in the peaceful
beauty of the scene when I was aware that something
was moving under the shadow of the Copper beaches. As
it emerged into the moonshine, I saw what it was.

(21:49):
It was a giant dog, as large as a calf,
tawny tinted, with hanging jowl, black muscle, and huge projecting bones.
Walked slowly across the lawn and vanished into the shadow
upon the other side. That dreadful sentinel sent a chill
to my heart, which I do not think that any

(22:10):
burglar could have done. And now I have a very
strange experience to tell you. I had, as you know,
cut off my hair in London, and I had placed
it in a great coil at the bottom of my trunk.
One evening, after the child was in bed, I began
to amuse myself by examining the furniture of my room
and by rearranging my own little things. There was an

(22:33):
old chest of drawers in the room, the two upper
ones empty and open, the lower one locked. I had
filled the first two with my linen, and as I
had still much to pack away, I was naturally annoyed
at not having the use of the third drawer. It
struck me that it might have been fastened by a
mere oversight. So I took out my bunch of keys

(22:54):
and tried to open it. The very first key fitted
to perfection, and I drew the drawer open. There was
only one thing in it, but I am sure that
you would never guess what it was. It was my
coil of hair. End of Part two.