‘ “The bell!” I said. “What bell is it?”
‘ “It’s the bell of the room you were working in.”
‘A cold hand seemed to close round my heart. Someone, then, was in that room where my precious treaty lay upon the table. I ran frantically up the stairs and along the passage. There was no one in the corridor, Mr Holmes. There was no one in the room. All was exactly as I left it, save only that the papers committed to my care had been taken from the desk on which they lay. The copy was there and the original was gone.’
Holmes sat up in his chair and rubbed his hands. I could see that the problem was entirely to his heart. ‘Pray, what did you do then?’ he murmured.
‘I recognized in an instant that the thief must have come up the stairs from the side door. Of course, I must have met him if he had come the other way.’
‘You were satisfied that he could not have been concealed in the room all the time, or in the corridor which you have just described as dimly lighted?’
‘It is absolutely impossible. A rat could not conceal himself either in the room or the corridor. There is no cover at all.’
‘Thank you. Pray proceed.’
‘The commissionaire, seeing by my pale face that something was to be feared, had followed me upstairs. Now we both rushed along the corridor and down the steep steps which led to Charles Street. The door at the bottom was closed but unlocked. We flung it open and rushed out. I can distinctly remember that as we did so there came three chimes from a neighbouring church. It was a quarter to ten.’
‘That is of enormous importance,’ said Holmes, making a note upon his shirt cuff.
‘The night was very dark, and a thin, warm rain was falling. There was no one in Charles Street, but a great traffic was going on, as usual, in Whitehall at the extremity. We rushed along the pavement, bareheaded as we were, and at the far corner we found a policeman standing.
‘ “A robbery has been committed,” I gasped. “A document of immense value has been stolen from the Foreign Office. Has anyone passed this way?”
‘ “I have been standing here for a quarter of an hour, sir,” said he; “only one person has passed during that time—a woman, tall and elderly, with a Paisley shawl.”
‘ “Ah, that is only my wife,” cried the commissionaire. “Has no one else passed?”
‘ “No one.”
‘ “Then it must be the other way that the thief took,” cried the fellow, tugging at my sleeve.
‘But I was not satisfied, and the attempts which he made to draw me away increased my suspicions.
‘ “Which way did the woman go?” I cried.
‘ “I don’t know, sir. I noticed her pass, but I had no special reason for watching her. She seemed to be in a hurry.”
‘ “How long ago was it?”
‘ “Oh, not very many minutes.”