A Study in Terror by Ellery Queen Page B

found.”
    â€œThe note. Did you preserve it, your Lordship?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œA pity.”
    Lord Carfax appeared to be struggling with a natural reticence. Finally, he burst out, “Mr. Holmes, I cannot express to you my shock at finding Michael in his present condition, the victim of an attack so savage that it had turned him into what you have seen—a misshapen creature with but the merest fragment of his reason left.”
    â€œHow did you proceed, if I may ask?”
    Lord Carfax shrugged his shoulders. “The hostel seemed as good a place as any for him. So that part of the problem was solved.”
    Miss Sally Young had been sitting in amazed silence, her eyes never leaving his Lordship’s face. Lord Carfax took cognizance of this. With a sad smile, he said, “I trust you will forgive me, my dear, for not setting the case before you earlier. But it seemed unnecessary—indeed imprudent. I wished Michael to remain here; and, in truth, I was not eager to confess his identity to you and your uncle.”
    â€œI understand,” said the girl, quietly. “You were entitled to keep your secret my lord, if for no other reason than your support of the hostel has been so generous.”
    The nobleman seemed embarrassed. “I should have contributed to the maintenance of the hostel in any event, my dear. However, I do not deny that Michael’s refuge here enhanced my interest. So perhaps my motives have been as selfish as they have been eleemosynary.”
    Holmes had been studying Lord Carfax keenly as the story unfolded.
    â€œYou made no further efforts in your brother’s behalf?”
    â€œOne,” replied his Lordship. “I communicated with the Paris police, as well as with Scotland Yard, inquiring if their records bore any report of an attack such as my brother had suffered. Their records did not reveal one.”
    â€œSo you left it there?”
    â€œYes!” cried the harassed nobleman. “And why not?”
    â€œThe felons might have been brought to justice.”
    â€œBy what method? Michael had become a hopeless idiot. I doubt if he would have been able to recognise his assailants. Even could he have done so, his testimony in a criminal proceeding would have been valueless.”
    â€œI see,” said Holmes, gravely; but I perceived that he was far from satisfied. “And as to his wife, Angela Osbourne?”
    â€œI never found her.”
    â€œDid you not suspect that she wrote the anonymous note?”
    â€œI assumed that she did.”
    Holmes came to his feet. “I wish to thank your Lordship for being so candid under the difficult circumstances.”
    This brought a bleak smile. “I assure you, sir, that it has not been through choice. I have no doubt that you would have come by the information through other channels. Now, perhaps, you can let the matter rest.”
    â€œHardly, I fear.”
    Lord Carfax’s face became intense. “I tell you, upon my honour, sir, that Michael has had nothing to do with the horrible murders that have convulsed London!”
    â€œYou reassure me,” replied Holmes, “and I promise your Lordship that I will do my utmost to spare you further suffering.”
    Lord Carfax bowed, and said nothing more.
    With that, we took our leave. But as we went out of the hostel, I could see only Michael Osbourne, crouched in that filthy abattoir, enchanted by the blood.

Ellery’s Legman Reports
    Grant Ames III lay on Ellery’s sofa balancing the glass on his chest, exhausted. “I went forth an eager beaver. I return a wreck.”
    â€œFrom only two interviews?”
    â€œA party is one thing—you can escape behind a patio plant. But alone, trapped inside four walls …”
    Ellery, still in pyjamas, crouched over his typewriter and scratched the foundations of a magnificent beard. He typed four more words and stopped.
    â€œThe interviews bore no