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Page 84
"'We were returning from the Watt Street Mission about
a quarter to nine o'clock. On our way we had to pass
through Hudson Street, which is a very quiet
thoroughfare. There is only one lamp in it, upon the
left-hand side, and as we approached this lamp I saw a
man coming towards us with his back very bent, and
something like a box slung over one of his shoulders.
He appeared to be deformed, for he carried his head
low and walked with his knees bent. We were passing
him when he raised his face to look at us in the
circle of light thrown by the lamp, and as he did so
he stopped and screamed out in a dreadful voice, "My
God, it's Nancy!" Mrs. Barclay turned as white as
death, and would have fallen down had the
dreadful-looking creature not caught hold of her. I
was going to call for the police, but she, to my
surprise, spoke quite civilly to the fellow.
"'"I thought you had been dead this thirty years,
Henry," said she, in a shaking voice.
"'"So I have," said he, and it was awful to hear the
tones that he said it in. He had a very dark,
fearsome face, and a gleam in his eyes that comes back
to me in my dreams. His hair and whiskers were shot
with gray, and his face was all crinkled and puckered
like a withered apple.
"'"Just walk on a little way, dear," said Mrs.
Barclay; "I want to have a word with this man. There
is nothing to be afraid of." She tried to speak
boldly, but she was still deadly pale and could hardly
get her words out for the trembling of her lips.
"'I did as she asked me, and they talked together for
a few minutes. Then she came down the street with her
eyes blazing, and I saw the crippled wretch standing
by the lamp-post and shaking his clenched fists in the
air as if he were made with rage. She never said a
word until we were at the door here, when she took me
by the hand and begged me to tell no one what had
happened.
"'"It's an old acquaintance of mine who has come down
in the world," said she. When I promised her I would
say nothing she kissed me, and I have never seen her
since. I have told you now the whole truth, and if I
withheld it from the police it is because I did not
realize then the danger in which my dear friend stood.
I know that it can only be to her advantage that
everything should be known.'
"There was her statement, Watson, and to me, as you
can imagine, it was like a light on a dark night.
Everything which had been disconnected before began at
once to assume its true place, and I had a shadowy
presentiment of the whole sequence of events. My next
step obviously was to find the man who had produced
such a remarkable impression upon Mrs. Barclay. If he
were still in Aldershot it should not be a very
difficult matter. There are not such a very great
number of civilians, and a deformed man was sure to
have attracted attention. I spent a day in the
search, and by evening--this very evening, Watson--I
had run him down. The man's name is Henry Wood, and
he lives in lodgings in this same street in which the
ladies met him. He has only been five days in the
place. In the character of a registration-agent I had
a most interesting gossip with his landlady. The man
is by trade a conjurer and performer, going round the
canteens after nightfall, and giving a little
entertainment at each. He carries some creature about
with him in that box; about which the landlady seemed
to be in considerable trepidation, for she had never
seen an animal like it. He uses it in some of his
tricks according to her account. So much the woman
was able to tell me, and also that it was a wonder the
man lived, seeing how twisted he was, and that he
spoke in a strange tongue sometimes, and that for the
last two nights she had heard him groaning and weeping
in his bedroom. He was all right, as far as money
went, but in his deposit he had given her what looked
like a bad florin. She showed it to me, Watson, and
it was an Indian rupee.
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