MRS. HUDSON IN THE RING
Third in the Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street Series
Movie/TV Treatment: MRS. HUDSON IN THE RING
Based on the Novel by Barry S Brown
Contact: James Clois Smith Jr., Sunstone Press / (505) 988-4418
Log Line: When Sailor Mackenzie dies in the ring, it will need to be determined if his opponent, Sherlock Holmes, is responsible, or if, as Mrs. Hudson believes, other forces are at work as she spearheads an investigation that will pit not only Baker Street, but also Inspector Lestrade against Scotland Yard, and will be complicated by a need to protect Lillie Langtry from certain injury.
Act I
Sherlock Holmes is bored. A case worthy of the name has not been brought to his attention for months. In an effort to lift his spirits and relieve the bleak mood he has created at 221B Baker Street, Mrs. Hudson and Dr. Watson have contrived to get him invited to dinner with a boxing match to follow at the National Sporting Club. The invitation, while created by Mrs. Hudson, is extended by Lord Lonsdale, a renowned sportsman and the Club's president. At dinner Holmes and Watson are introduced to Peggy Bettinson and John Fleming, the Co-Directors of the National Sporting Club, and to Arthur Trent, the squire of McLellan Manor who has provided housing and a training site for Sailor Mackenzie in preparation for his match that night.
Conversation over steaks and chops involves a recounting of the weekend all but Holmes and Watson shared at the estate of Arthur and Mrs. Trent prior to returning to London for the fight. Bettinson and Fleming emphasize not only their delight with their time in Yorkshire, but their particular appreciation for Mrs. Trent's hospitality under difficult circumstances. Mrs. Trent, as Arthur Trent recounts to Holmes and Watson, fell from her horse, spraining an ankle when her horse stepped in a hole the first morning she went riding with Lord Lonsdale. Bettinson and Fleming recall his wife's hostess duties were further complicated by Trent's absence the evening of the last night's dinner as he was called away to resolve a dispute between two of his tenants after the Oxley town chief constable and the vicar proved incapable of doing so. Trent then spent the night with the vicar as he had come away without his key and was reluctant to wake the house after finally completing the mediation.
Discussion shifts to a comparison of the fighters scheduled. The aging Mackenzie is described as a mauler whose style was best suited to the earlier period of bare knuckle fighting. The new Marquis of Queensberry Rules are seen by Lonsdale as possibly favoring his opponent, a youthful Rochester Cochrane, the son of the Lord's coachman, Parker Cochrane, who makes use of a more scientific boxing style. Mackenzie's abilities are seen as further reduced by a difficulty with alcohol such that a flask of Scotch whiskey is his constant companion. Lonsdale is unable to entice his guests into wagering on the contest as all repair to the arena to watch the contest between fighters.
Act II
As the crowd settles into their seats and John Fleming prepares to introduce the fighters to them, the two fighters settle into their differing pre-fight routines. Cochrane paws the air and dances in his corner while Mackenzie glares across the ring, pounding his fist into his palm and punching a fist to his stomach as he appears intent on intimidating his young opponent. The fight follows a predictable course with Mackenzie bent nearly double, awkwardly plodding across the ring trying to catch up to the coachman's son who stays at long range jabbing at the oncoming fighter. Cochrane's style seems to confuse Mackenzie as he at times stumbles his way after the younger man. Cochrane, however, stays at such long range he can gain no advantage. Finally, the coachman's son, responding either to the crowd's unease or his own, begins to probe Mackenzie's defense at closer range, shoots a left jab to the fighter's temple and draws back his right to follow when he is caught by a looping left hand from Mackenzie followed by a more solid right knocking Cochrane to the floor of the ring. Parker Cochrane, the fighter's father and manager, quickly throws in the towel to prevent his son from absorbing any more punishment.
Fleming holds high Mackenzie's glove in triumph as the vanquished Rochester Cochrane is helped from the arena. The winning fighter suddenly turns on the crowd, chastising them for sending a mere boy against him and asking whether there is one amongst them willing to accept his challenge to a fight. There is one. Amid the crowd's cheering for its new found hero, Holmes is led to the changing area by Lonsdale.
Back at 221B, Mrs. Hudson has chosen as her nighttime reading The Punishment and Prevention of Crime, written by Sir Edmund du Cane, the former Chairman of the Prison Commission, and the man most responsible for the reforms to the corrections system now in operation. Having organized a highly successful consulting detective agency she feels a responsibility to become more knowledgeable about the opportunities prison provides for the rehabilitation of the men and women she sends there. She reminisces about the founding of her agency, and its basis in both the nightly study of crime and its investigation with her now deceased husband, Tobias Hudson, her "uncommon common constable" and member of the Metropolitan Police Force, and in her own finely honed skills at observation and analysis. She recalls, too, how she recruited Holmes as the male face to the public essential to business in London of the Victorian Age. What she learns from her reading of Sir Edmund's reforms is not heartening. Each new prisoner is to undertake a nine month period of solitary confinement to consider his or her transgressions, and to work either ten hours a day on the treadmill or turning a crank a thousand times a day to atone for those transgressions. She closes the book lest she come to regret her decision to bring felons to justice and the less than tender mercies of Sir Edmund du Cane's correctional reforms.
Act III
Dressed in knee-length tights, long stockings and shoes with thin boxing gloves pulled over his fists and wads of cotton packed in his cheeks, Holmes enters the ring to face Sailor Mackenzie. As with his earlier opponent, Mackenzie glares his contempt, and presses a glove to his stomach, grimacing as if in pain, as he appears to be alerting Holmes to what he can expect. As the fight begins, Holmes adopts young Cochrane's strategy of keeping Mackenzie at a distance while hoping for a better outcome. He enjoys the same initial success of avoiding punishment even as he inflicts none of his own. Indeed, Mackenzie appears to have become fatigued over the course of his two bouts. He is even more ungainly, staggering and nearly falling, out of breath and sweating profusely. Moreover, his right hand drops lower and lower, enticing Holmes to move near enough for a combination of left to the Sailor's temple and right high on his forehead. Holmes pauses to await Mackenzie's descent to the canvas and instead catches a right to his cheek that first sends a wad of cotton to the ring's surface, and is followed by Holmes himself. He manages to get up and hold on to the end of the round. In his corner Watson and Lonsdale strongly advise him to stay away from Mackenzie's right hand, a strategy he has already determined to be sound. In the next round when the Sailor's right hand drops, Holmes again comes forward with a left to the heart, right to the stomach, but this time blocks his opponent's effort to counter rather than simply admiring his own handiwork. Holmes finishes with a right cross to the chin as Mackenzie is moving way and the fighter falls to the ring surface clutching his stomach in a near fetal position with a trickle of vomit coming from his mouth. While the arena erupts in a riot of celebration of Holmes' accomplishment, Watson and the Club's physician, Dr. Lang, come forward to examine the fallen man and pronounce him dead.
As the arena empties out, Holmes and Watson return to the changing room to allow Holmes to get into street clothes, and for Watson to treat him with the plasters and liniments available. As they near the room a small stocky figure in workman's hat and jacket is seen leaving the area. They are unable to identify the person or see anything more than his back.
In spite of professional boxing being illegal, the prominence of many of the members of the National Sporting Club dictates that investigation of a death at the Club be attended by a high ranking officer of Scotland Yard explaining Lestrade's arrival. Lonsdale, Lang, Trent, Mackenzie's manager and his second have gathered at ringside where Mackenzie's body still lies. When Holmes and Watson join them, Lestrade is initially put off by Holmes' battered appearance, but quickly settles into his policeman role. While Lonsdale and Lang argue for the fighter's death to be regarded as an unfortunate ring accident, Lestrade sees the necessity of an autopsy. He ignores Lang's fury and Lonsdale's threat to exert political influence and insists on collecting all the bottles at ringside from which Mackenzie had opportunity to drink. He is supported by Watson's conciliatory efforts to win agreement that an autopsy can do no harm. The discussion ends uncomfortably. Trent relieves one concern of Lestrade as he promises to have Mrs. Trent break the news of Mackenzie's death to Mrs. Mackenzie since she is still a guest at McLellan Manor in Yorkshire.
Holmes and Watson ride in silence with Lestrade to Baker Street, each man nursing his own thoughts. When he leaves them, Lestrade indicates his intention to report the findings of the autopsy to them; both Holmes and Watson suspect their days of inaction are about to end.
Act IV
The events of the past evening are recounted to Mrs. Hudson by Holmes and Watson at breakfast the next day. Holmes bears the clear marks of his struggle and Watson is at pains to chronicle Holmes' heroic achievements. As they report the aftermath of the boxing match, Mrs. Hudson recognizes that Watson shares Lestrade's suspicions that Mackenzie's death may involve more than a simple ring accident. She asks for a full account of the events of the evening which is completed shortly before Lestrade comes to pay a visit.
Lestrade is no less anxious to report his experiences at Scotland Yard than those at Baker Street are to receive them. He brings with him newspaper reports of the fight at the National Sporting Club hoping their sensationalistic accounts of Holmes' part in the events will induce him to accede to Lestrade's wishes. After first asking Mrs. Hudson to leave the room, he reveals that there will be no autopsy of Mackenzie's corpse, nominally because nothing untoward was found in the bottles taken from the scene of his death. Watson protests the need for an autopsy on the basis of the condition of the body, and Lestrade acknowledges his own frustration with the decision at the Yard. He notes the status of many members of the National Sporting Club and the intrusion of politics even into Scotland Yard. He makes clear his wish to have Holmes investigate Mackenzie's death, the extent of his treasonous suggestion apparent although never discussed. Lestrade indicates that no one could argue with Holmes' interest in exploring a death occurring to his boxing opponent. He reports that all the principals involved with Mackenzie will be in London at least one more day should there be a wish to interview any or all of them. More particularly, Trent is staying at Lonsdale's London house while Mackenzie's manager and second, as well as the Cochranes, father and son, are all staying in rooms at the National Sporting Club. Holmes and Watson agree to conduct the investigation without first discussing it with Mrs. Hudson, an unprecedented breach of their working arrangements.
Lestrade leaves a good deal less troubled than when he came and Mrs. Hudson surmises the true nature of his visit and the action taken by her colleagues. Watson asks how she could know all that and Mrs. Hudson explains her recognition of Lestrade's troubled appearance which would have come in association with the meeting he had at the Yard. It signaled that things had not gone his way relative to the investigation of Mackenzie's death; his extraordinary concern with confidentiality in asking Mrs. Hudson to leave indicated that he was contemplating an action that would put him at odds with the Yard in that regard; and his relief on leaving made clear that Holmes and Watson had acceded to his wishes to help in the investigation.
Mrs. Hudson expresses her concurrence with their decision and raises a new line of inquiry. She notes that the one bottle not taken by Lestrade for analysis was the flask of Scotch whiskey that Mackenzie reportedly always carried with him. She suggests the flask might still be in the changing room at the National Sporting Club and proposes to go to the Club in order to retrieve the pocket watch Holmes thinks he might have left behind in the excitement of last evening.
Act V
With considerable reluctance and only in response to her careful insertion of Lord Lonsdale's and Holmes' names, Mr. Overby, the porter at the National Sporting Club, admits Mrs. Hudson and searches for Holmes' watch in the doorkeeper's office. When he is unable to find the mythical timepiece, Mrs. Hudson suggests she be allowed to investigate whether the watch might still be in the changing room. Again responsive to the name of his employer and his employer's distinguished guest, Overby agrees with his now accustomed reluctance to accompany her to the changing room. Arriving there, Overby surprises Parker Cochrane who claims to have come looking for liniment for his son. Overby chastises him for being in a restricted area and decides to take him back to the area upstairs to which he is confined and to allow Mrs. Hudson to search the room until he returns.
With few hiding places available in the small room, Mrs. Hudson is able to locate the missing flask jammed into a pair of rolled up tights on a shelf of the room. She places her prize in her purse and after reporting her inability to find Holmes' watch and thanking Overby for his assistance, she returns to Baker Street. Watson opens the flask, accidentally spilling some of the contents of the overfull flask while confirming there is enough of the drink to permit an adequate test of the flask's contents. The Baker Street trio settles down finally, only to be awakened at three in the morning by the lodgings' doorbell.
Mrs. Hudson finds an anxious Lord Lonsdale on her doorstep, but it is not Lord Lonsdale who commands her attention. Lonsdale is accompanying Mrs. Lillie Langtry, at 38 still a striking woman. In nightclothes and dressing gowns, Holmes and Watson join them in Mrs. Hudson's parlor. As revealed by Lonsdale, Lillie has had an ugly scene with her current consort, Squire George Baird, and while Baird is at present sleeping off his drunk in a local jail, it is expected that when he is released the next morning he will come for Lillie. Baird's reputation for violence is well known. Earlier in their relationship he put Lillie in a Parisian hospital and destroyed the hotel room in which he found Lillie and the man with whom she had gone to Paris on a shopping expedition. Lonsdale explains that he thinks it would be unseemly to accommodate Lillie under his roof given their past relationship and the arrival of Lady Lonsdale. Holmes is a man of honor and courage he saw as best able to provide assistance to Lillie in the circumstances.
Mrs. Hudson senses an opportunity to join the investigation of Mackenzie's death to the need to protect Lillie and asks Watson to "lend some assistance with the crockery," a ruse designed to outline her plan to the Doctor that only Holmes recognizes. Conversation turns to the adequacy of 221B as a refuge for Lillie with Watson pointing out the difficulty of maintaining Lillie's location secret from Baird and the goons with whom he travels. He is edging toward suggesting Lillie might visit Arthur Trent and his wife at McLellan Manor in the remote area of Yorkshire where their home is located when Lillie, knowing Trent is staying with Lonsdale, happens on the same thought. It is agreed by all this could be a most agreeable solution to the problem of safeguarding Lillie given the Manor's remote location. Watson voices one further concern. In as much as Lillie's maid has run off fearful of Baird's violent retribution to any in his path, Watson suggests the need for someone to act as her lady's maid. Mrs. Hudson, with seeming reluctance accepts the role. Before taking his leave Lonsdale commends Mrs. Hudson on her scones, reporting them even better than the raisin scones he had at McLellan Manor which he had thought the best ever until now.
Act V
The next morning before Lillie has stirred, Mrs. Hudson wakens Holmes and Watson to work out the day's plans in light of the responsibility they have assumed for Lillie. Watson is to spend the day interviewing those who can shed light on the events of the prior evening as well as describing what they know of Mackenzie, while Holmes is given opportunity to reprise his chemical expertise in analyzing the liquid in the flask found at the National Sporting Club.
A first concern however is getting Lillie Langtry to the St. Pancras Station to catch the train to Leeds and from Leeds to Oxley, to arrive finally at McLellan Manor. With Holmes' assistance, Lillie is disguised as an older woman in so far as a gray wig and charcoal lines can accomplish that goal. Lillie reminds them she is an actress who has, after all, played Lady Macbeth among other roles. There is, however, a problem. Holmes' celebrity status, combined with his participation in a fight resulting in the death of his opponent, has made him newsworthy and a group of reporters stand between the doorstep of 221B and a cab to the train station. In spite of his plans to stay out of the public eye because of his badly bruised face, Holmes volunteers to lead the scribblers away from their lodgings by taking them for a brisk walk while giving an interview. Not long after Lillie and Mrs. Hudson are on the train to Leeds to complete the first leg of their journey.
While both get caught up on their sleep for much of the train ride, they share lunch together at a Leeds hotel restaurant and describe their lives, their views of life and, in guarded fashion, their views of each other's life. They achieve an understanding they hope will ease relations between them over the course of their time together. Lillie shares with Mrs. Hudson the little she knows about the Trents. He is from Scotland originally, went to South Africa as a young man to seek his fortune, became a cotton farmer and stumbled, as he puts it, onto a fortune in diamonds. When he returned home, he married a widow with two small children and purchased a manor in a remote part of Yorkshire. He and Mrs. Trent are little seen in London, but their life at the edge of the moors seems to suit them and Arthur Trent is a popular figure whenever he does come to London.
At the Oxley station they are met by Cornelius Doyle, the McLellan Manor coachman, but it is a man with carrot-red hair waiting for a train back to Leeds and then, Mrs. Hudson is certain, to London that captures the newly ordained lady's maid's attention. She recognizes that he, like Mackenzie, is a fighter and wonders at the appearance of a second fighter in the small Yorkshire town and who he might be seeing when he reaches London. At the Manor, Mrs. Trent greets them leaning heavily on a cane, her leg elaborately wrapped as a consequence of the equestrian accident she had experienced days earlier. Mrs. Hudson is soon discharged in the care of Elizabeth, the parlor maid.
Act VI
As the train carrying Lillie and Mrs. Hudson crosses the spine of England, Holmes and Watson take a hansom to the Medical College of the University of London to meet "old Spooner," the head of the school's laboratory, and for Holmes to undertake analysis of the contents of the flask found at the Club. With Holmes established at a bench in the lab, Watson goes on to Carlton House Terrace and the London home of Lord Lonsdale.
Watson interviews Lonsdale and Arthur Trent who remains his guest. After first giving assurance of Lillie's safe departure, he describes his interest in investigating the death of Sailor Mackenzie on behalf of Holmes who is concerned about his role in the fatality and feeling too indisposed to question them himself. Both Lonsdale and Trent assure Watson that accidents such as this, while tragic, occur in boxing as Holmes himself must be aware. In response to his queries Watson learns that Sidney Capelhorn, Mackenzie's manager; the Cochranes, father and son; and Mackenzie and his wife each occupied neighboring cottages on the grounds of McLellan Manor the weekend preceding the fight. Simon, who acted as Mackenzie's second, and is also Arthur Trent's butler and valet, stayed in his own room at the Manor during the weekend. Mackenzie is described as aloof and disagreeable when sober, and demanding and quarrelsome when drunk, and as often drunk. Mrs. Mackenzie is seen as bearing the brunt of her husband's abuse, verbal and likely physical as well. Staff at the Manor kept their distance from Mackenzie as best they could with only Simon able to keep him in line. Watson learns that Simon was an orphan of 12 or 13 caught between rival tribes in that part of Africa where Trent was farming. Trent rescued him from likely death and retained him in service when he struck it rich.
Watson informs Lonsdale and Trent that he will be visiting the National Sporting Club to query the men still there regarding their recollections of events leading up to Mackenzie's death and asks that the Club's porter be alerted to his coming. With some apparent reluctance on Lonsdale's part and Trent's obvious surprise, promise is made to get in touch with Overby.
Holmes, having conducted some preliminary tests of the liquid in Mackenzie's flask and conferred with Spooner about the observation of findings and the additional tests to be conducted, makes his way to the business establishment of Augustus Stinchcombe, Printer, and the man to whom Michael Wiggins, former page to the consulting detective agency and former leader of the Baker Street Irregulars, is now apprenticed. Holmes convinces Stinchcombe of the urgency of his recruiting Wiggins to play an unspecified role in protecting the life of an unspecified lady and perhaps unspecified others. Wiggins is then assigned the task of monitoring activities at the home of George Baird with the especial responsibility of following him if he leaves, and reporting to Baker Street immediately should he head for the railway station.
Act VII
Fulfilling the task assigned her by Mrs. Trent, Elizabeth takes Mrs. Hudson to servants' hall and to the kitchen, both of which she learns are on the main floor in the wing devoted to staff in as much as the rocky ground makes impossible the creation of a lower level. She is introduced to Mrs. Groover, the cook, Rachel, the scullery maid, and Charles, a junior footman. It is apparent that Charles has a romantic interest in Rachel and that his interest is coyly, but clearly returned. It is apparent as well that Mrs. Groover is mistrustful of Charles' intentions. The cook takes to being hostess to Mrs. Hudson and provides tea and scones and conversation. All four are caught up in discussion of Mrs. Trent as an outstanding woman and Lillie Langtry as a fascinating one when they are joined by Mrs. Charters, the housekeeper, who arrives hand in hand with her daughter, Christine, a girl of about 15 whose vacant smile and out of place laughter mark her as a child in need of continuing protection. In her no-nonsense manner Mrs. Charters dismisses Charles and attempts, without success, to urge Mrs. Hudson from the kitchen.
When Mrs. Charters leaves, Mrs. Groover attempts to explain and apologize for the housekeeper's behavior inserting a background which had already been largely deduced by Mrs. Hudson. Mrs. Charters is described as having worked for Mrs. Trent during her first marriage before leaving to marry a soldier. He abandoned her and Christine, and Mrs. Trent provided Mrs. Charters with a home and position when she asked for assistance.
Mrs. Groover and Rachel agree that Mrs. Trent is a generous and fine woman. Rachel points out how Mrs. Trent even took to being concerned about the kitchen staff's cat when rat poison was scheduled to be put down, the cat being old and no longer an effective mouser. Mrs. Groover gently chastises Rachel for her concern about the cat leading her even to anger Mr. Simon when she went into his pantry to get the cat's bed. She is upset as well about Rachel's not having cleaned the kitchen properly the night after the last dinner for the weekend guests, leaving ashes in her oven and crumbs along the floor the morning she had to prepare breakfast for Mr. Trent and all those leaving for London that day.
Elizabeth returns to show Mrs. Hudson to the room they will share interrupting further conversation. Mrs. Hudson admires a fine pencil drawing of a Scottish church out of character with the room's more mundane furnishings and wonders how she came by it. Elizabeth reveals Mrs. Trent set it in her room after Mrs. Mackenzie had seen it in the breakfast room and commented that it was the very church in which she was married, and learned that it had been Arthur Trent's boyhood church. Elizabeth admits to not liking Sailor Mackenzie, intimating that he was a womanizer among other disagreeable traits. She tells how the staff was afraid of Mackenzie such that Mrs. Charters brought the scones that were his regular breakfast to his cottage in the morning and she brought his dinner in the evening because neither of them felt the rest of the staff's fear of Mackenzie. A second picture of three large men, two of them wearing the uniform of the Oxley constabulary, and all of them surrounding their sister, Elizabeth, appears to explain the parlor maid's unconcern about Mackenzie.
Mrs. Hudson looks out on the three cottages, only one of which is now occupied, that one belonging to Mrs. Mackenzie. She explains how Mrs. Trent wanted to express her regrets to Mrs. Mackenzie, but the doctor wouldn't hear of her walking across the grounds and has restricted her movements to the ground floor of the house. Mrs. Hudson also takes note of a glass building out back, which Elizabeth describes as the heated building holding the plants Mr. Trent collected in Africa and other places. Only Mr. Trent and Mr. Simon have keys to the greenhouse although Mr. Simon lost his key the day before the trip to London. The key was found by Mr. Henderson, the gardener for everything but the plants in the greenhouse, and Elizabeth thinks he will be looking forward to returning it since he resents that exclusion. Elizabeth also reveals that the greenhouse contains one poisonous plant Mr. Trent brought back from Africa and that he is so proud of his collection that he takes all his guests through the greenhouse, showing how to extract poison from the one plant, and he has Mr. Simon do the same for all new staff.
Act VIII
Watson arrives at the National Sporting Club to a greeting from Overby that is little warmer than the one he gave Mrs. Hudson. He is given Lonsdale's office and proceeds to interview three of those housed in the Club's guest rooms.
Parker Cochrane, Lonsdale's coachman and his son's manager is first. Cochrane reveals that he knew Mackenzie years earlier when Mackenzie was a young fighter and he was an older one. The two were supposed to fight each other, but the deal fell through. He tells how Mackenzie developed a bit of a reputation by virtue of knocking down Charlie Mitchell, the British champion in a fight between them. After that, Mackenzie took to drinking and letting up on his training. Cochrane hints that he and Capelhorn have reason for resentment against Mackenzie and affirms Trent's earlier report of abusive behavior toward his wife. Cochrane tells of the day he spent at the Manor. He describes going on a tour of the grounds with Simon and Capelhorn although he knew the Manor well, having been a stable boy with the Trents before graduating to the coachman position under Lord Lonsdale. They went through the greenhouse, but Cochrane describes the stables as his only interest. He was particularly taken with Mrs. Trent's bay which he thought had a pretty little gallop. Cochrane goes on to tell that that same evening, after a fine dinner in servants' hall, Simon was called away and Mackenzie proceeded to get drunk and abusive before passing out and being carried to his cottage to sleep. Mrs. Mackenzie, not for the first time, is given a bed in the servants' quarters. She went back to get her things from the cottage after Mackenzie was asleep in the sure knowledge that, once asleep, Mackenzie would not waken regardless of how much noise was made. Cochrane reports further that he was restless and went for a walk outside his own cottage where he saw two people walking. He couldn't say who they were, but assumes one was Simon who had said he would check later that Mackenzie was alright. The following day all took the train to London, Capelhorn and Simon with Mackenzie in one compartment, and Cochrane and his son in another. Cochrane states he went to their compartment when they asked him to sit with Mackenzie while they got something to eat. They promised between the prior evening, and the frequent nips from his flask until they were able to get it away from him, that he wouldn't be any trouble and they were right.
Capelhorn comes next and he adds the story of his own conflict with Mackenzie as well as elaborating on Cochrane's report. Capelhorn reveals that he had given the fight to Mackenzie at his request because Mackenzie has long been able to blackmail him, knowing of his past prison record and the threat it posed to his being able to manage in a sport struggling to gain respectability. He reveals, as well, that the fight with the senior Cochrane that never came off left Cochrane without funds to get treatment for his sick wife who later died. Moreover, because Mackenzie had to back out of the fight and didn't want to be seen as a coward, he put out the word that Cochrane had arranged for him to throw the fight. The resulting publicity virtually put an end to Cochrane's fighting career. Capelhorn goes on to confirm Cochrane's report of the preceding evening and the morning of the trip to London. He speaks of the difficulty of working with Mackenzie, his even complaining about getting sugar glazed scones instead of raisin filled the morning of their leaving for London. He adds his recollection that Simon said he would leave the door to Mackenzie's cottage unlocked, presumably to allow him to enter it later to check on Mackenzie's condition.
Simon is the last to be interviewed. He repeats the story Watson had heard from Trent about his rescue in the midst of tribal warfare. At Watson's request he gives his name in his native Xhosa tongue as Sipliwo Jadezwal; Watson agrees to continue to call him Simon. The combination butler/ valet elaborates on the debt he owes Mr. Trent and his responsibility to protect him from all enemies. He elaborates, as well, on Mackenzie's harassment of women at the Manor and his role in putting a stop to it. He adds little to reports of the events at the Manor in the evening and morning preceding the trip to London, but does give a name to the poisonous plant in the greenhouse. He reports it be Adenia digitata, also called the passionflower.
Act IX
Having now assumed the role of lady's maid, Mrs. Hudson assists Lillie to dress and ready herself for dinner with Mrs. Trent and her two children, Byron and Esther, who had returned from London a short time earlier. Mrs. Hudson is very anxious to see the inside of the greenhouse and asks if Lillie might not request permission for her to do so. Mrs. Hudson also promises to extend Lillie's sympathies to Mrs. Mackenzie should the opportunity present itself. With some difficulty Lillie recalls who Mrs. Mackenzie is and thanks her for her concern.
When Mrs. Hudson returns to the kitchen she finds it, as she expected, in somewhat frenzied condition. Mrs. Charters is shouldering work normally done by Mr. Simon who is not yet back from London. Mrs. Hudson is introduced to James, the first footman, who is being lectured regarding the duties he must assume in Mr. Simon's absence. Mrs. Hudson volunteers to relieve some of the pressure by taking Mrs. Mackenzie her dinner tray, indicating it would allow her to extend Mrs. Langtry's condolences. Mrs. Charters gratefully accepts her offer.
Mrs. Hudson is admitted to the Mackenzie cottage by a less than grieving and quite suspicious Mrs. Mackenzie. Mrs. Hudson recognizes the evidence of neglect and of abuse by Mackenzie toward his wife in her lack of knowledge as to where and when they would be going next, her well-worn and ill-fitting clothes, and the remains of a bruise on her cheek, evident in spite of efforts at covering it over. Mrs. Hudson shares her own widowed situation although she knows her marriage to have been far different from Mrs. Mackenzie's, and extends Lillie Langtry's sympathies. Mrs. Mackenzie reveals aspects of hers and her husband's life. She tells of his early years under the tutelage of a Glasgow fight promoter, Mr. Garfoyle. She learns from the fighter's widow that he had no intention of leaving McLellan Manor any time soon. He had told her of a talk with Mr. Trent as a result of which he was given to understand he could stay as long as he chose. Mrs. Mackenzie tells Mrs. Hudson that Mackenzie's only relation was a brother who has a stationery shop in Glasgow, but that he and the brother never got along. She and her sister-in-law did correspond and she gives Mrs. Hudson the shop address.
That same evening in London, Wiggins, waiting outside Baird's house, sees a man with carrot-red hair enter the house and come out with a sly smile and a decided bounce in his step which, in Wiggins' experience suggests he'd gotten payment for something. Wiggins resolves to be back in front of Baird's house early the next morning.
Act X
Having won approval to do so, Mrs. Hudson goes with Mr. Henderson to the greenhouse after returning from seeing Mrs. Mackenzie. She walks the rows of plants until she comes to the Adenia digitata which is marked POISON. On a table beside it there is a watering can, a rack for three pipettes one of which is missing, and a three-toothed rake. The two of them return for the meal Mrs. Groover has prepared. Dinner conversation turns first to an effort to induce stories of Lillie Langtry's exploits from Mrs. Hudson. She gently refuses to engage in such gossip indicating its inappropriateness to her position as lady's maid. When Doyle, the coachman, makes admiring reference of Lillie Langtry having lifted herself from modest circumstances to a significant place in the world, Mrs. Charters points out that Mrs. Trent started as the daughter of a baker, and lost her first husband leaving her with two small children before she met Mr. Trent. And Mr. Trent made his fortune in Africa starting with nothing and still bears the marks of living in that heathen place.
As the conversation turns to lighter topics, Mrs. Hudson excuses herself to go tend to Mrs. Langtry. Lillie guesses the nature of the conversation about her, complains mildly about the provincial nature of the conversation at her own table, but recognizes the kindness of Mrs. Trent in accommodating her during her self-imposed exile. Both Lillie Langtry and Mrs. Hudson seek a good night's sleep after an exhausting day.
Early that same day, Wiggins, at his post in front of Baird's house, discovers something that will disturb their sleep for the next several days. He transmits what he learns about Baird's travel plans to Holmes who sends word to Lillie Langtry that Baird and two of the boxers in his stable of fighters are on their way to Oxley, and that Holmes and Watson will be right behind them. Lillie Langtry is deeply troubled by the news. She indicates she will, in time, be willing to resume her life with Baird, but not until she is assured he is under control and, in that regard, does not view his arrival with two fighters as a good sign. Mrs. Hudson recognizes that Holmes has also included a coded message for her about the results of the chemical analysis conducted on the flask's liquid. While it is not yet known what substance has been added to the Scotch whiskey, it is clear that something has been added.
When Baird and his two fighters disembark somewhat the worse for a long ride and a steady supply of alcohol, they are met by three large men, two of them policemen, one a mason, and all of them Elizabeth's brothers. They are directed to the Inn of the Moors as an alternative to the Oxley Jail and cautioned not to plan to leave town. Trent and Simon disembark from the same train together with the body of Sailor Mackenzie which will be transported to the Manor pending arrangements for a suitable burial.
Act XI
Holmes and Watson arrive at McLellan Manor as does Lord Lonsdale, all come to protect Lillie. James gives Holmes a telegram sent to him at the Manor. Holmes requests time to get together with Mrs. Hudson to allay her understandable concerns about having her quiet routine interrupted by the sudden excitement for which she would be wholly unprepared. Amidst praise for Holmes' concern, he, Watson and Mrs. Hudson repair to the library where Mrs. Hudson describes a plan for identifying Mackenzie's killer that will take the two of them to Glasgow together with Baird and his two fighters. Holmes, citing the telegram from Spooner that James had given him, confirms that Mackenzie was poisoned based on the further analyses of the liquid in his flask.
Early the following morning Holmes goes into the town of Oxley. He stops first at the shop of Aldous Bauer, Chemist, having learned that it serves as the postal and telegraph service for the community. He has the nonplussed postmistress send a telegram to Lestrade asking for information about crimes committed 35 years earlier. Holmes goes next to the Inn of the Moors where he has the clerk summon George Baird to the writing room for a meeting. The pugnacious Scotsman arrives with the two fighters who have accompanied him on the trip: Charlie Mitchell, the onetime British heavyweight of the world, and Jem Hall, a younger fighter who aspires to a title. Holmes instructs Baird that Lillie does not want to see him just yet and warns him against trying to use force to get her away from the Manor. He indicates further he can and will intercede with Lillie on Baird's behalf only if he participates with him in activities to be conducted in Glasgow. Immediately, he must allow Mr. Garfoyle to arrange a boxing match between Charlie Mitchell and a Glasgow fighter. Baird and his retinue are to leave for Glasgow the next day; in Glasgow, Baird should plan to accommodate Watson and himself in his home. Feeling he has no alternative, an infuriated Baird agrees to Holmes' conditions.
The afternoon is spent by most of those at the Manor attending the funeral and burial of Sailor Mackenzie. Only Esther, the Trents' daughter, Mrs. Hudson, Holmes, Watson and two of the staff stay back. Holmes receives an answer to his telegram from Lestrade and the group learns there was a murder committed in Glasgow 35 years earlier involving the boxing community and that it remains unsolved. Lestrade informs them that a gambler, Josiah Krebs, was stabbed to death by a boxer, Calvin Jamison. The boxer insisted he was innocent although three eyewitnesses claimed to have seen the murder. Of the three only one, Alfred Campbell, is still available. He is now working in a foundry, having quit the fight game immediately after the murder. Jamison managed to escape and, according to a lady friend at the time, was headed for Africa.
The three detectives feel certain Jamison and Trent are the same man, and that Mackenzie made the connection through the picture of the Glasgow church Mrs. Mackenzie would surely have described to him. He was then blackmailing Trent into letting him stay on at McLellan Manor as long as he liked. Mrs. Hudson is not convinced that Jamison was Krebs' murderer. She wonders why a fighter would choose to stab an unarmed opponent in an argument, and why no one of the three eye witnesses sought to intervene. Before leaving for Glasgow the following day. Holmes sends a second telegram to Lestrade asking him to join them in Glasgow and to bring Wiggins with him. Mrs. Hudson informs Holmes he will have use for the playacting he so enjoys and suggests he inform himself about conducting a seance.
Act X11
The two camps keep their distance from each other during the testy train ride to Glasgow and carriage ride to Baird Castle. At dinner at the Castle (the only meal of the day all agree to take together) the frosty relations are maintained, only ameliorated by the heavy indulgence in food and wine by Baird and his boxers. Holmes manages to insert his demand that Alfred (Alfie) Campbell be retained as a second in Mitchell's upcoming fight. He further informs them that, as of the next day, he will appear as Makepeace Godwin, the spiritual advisor to Charlie Mitchell.
The next day he shows himself first to the fighters and later to Baird as Makepeace Godwin. Both fighters are delighted with the transformation while Baird gives grudging recognition of his new persona. With Holmes in disguise, all but Watson visit the Pugilism Society of Glasgow where they meet with John Garfoyle, Jr. to negotiate arrangements for the fight. The exchange between Garfoyle and Baird becomes heated at times with Baird feeling himself cheated and Garfoyle puzzled by the insistence on having Alfie Campbell as Mitchell's second. When negotiations are finally concluded, all but Garfoyle go to meet with Campbell at the foundry where he works and which is owned by Baird. Campbell is as puzzled as Garfoyle by their attention, but attracted by the wages and the opportunity to associate with well-known fighters in a sport he follows closely, he agrees to act as Mitchell's second.
Later that day Holmes and Watson compare notes from their activities during the day. Holmes reprises the experience with Garfoyle and Campbell while Watson recounts his review of the newspaper accounts of Krebs' death and the search for Jamison. It is reported that Jamison claimed he was instructed to pretend to get knocked out by his opponent, but the other fighter had such a weak jaw he fell from a light punch and was unable to get back up. Jamison escaped while being transported to the local surgery and was never caught.
Watson goes on to describe his visit to Sailor Mackenzie's brother, Forrest Mackenzie, and his wife at their stationery shop. He describes Forrest as not surprised or concerned about his brother's death, and as willing to sign the paper Watson put in front of him.
Act XIII
Two days before the scheduled boxing match Lestrade and Wiggins arrive and, in accord with the agreement forged earlier, they too are provided lodging. Dinner the first night all are together proceeds in a convivial fashion. Both Mitchell and Hall have somewhat moderated their drinking as Mitchell's fight nears, and the two men chide each other good naturedly about each one's performance at the day's sparring session. All are amused, as well, by Wiggins' stories of some of the customers at the print shop. The conversation comes largely to a halt when Lestrade reveals he is with Scotland Yard.
Late the following morning Holmes gathers everyone in Baird's drawing room to discuss the plans for the evening when Alfie Campbell will be invited to dinner. All but Wiggins and Jem Hall will participate in a session to be led by Makepeace Godwin designed to drive away whatever evil spirits might sap Charlie Mitchell of his fighting strength. While Mitchell and Hall are enthused about the parts they will play, Baird is considerably less invested in the evening performance.
Dinner that night involves Alfie Campbell together with all those staying at Baird Castle with the exception of Wiggins. After dinner, as they move from the small to the large dining room in which Makepeace Godwin will summon the spirits to guarantee Mitchell retains his strength, Jem Hall complains of stomach trouble and excuses himself from their session. In fact, Wiggins will insert himself in the dumbwaiter normally used to transport food and wine to that room while Hall will operate the dumbwaiter's pulley. All the rest join hands down the two sides of the table with Godwin at its head. Godwin calls forth the spirit, and amid the rattling of a spoon around a pot and occasional shrieks, the ghost of the dumbwaiter reveals himself to be the spirit of Josiah Krebs who cannot find peace until his murderer is found out. He reveals further that the one man who can give him that peace is Alfie Campbell. Campbell is by turns terrified, tearful, and apologetic. With continuing prodding from the spirit and encouragement from those around the table, he breaks down finally and amid intermittent weeping he tells the events of Krebs' death. As reported by Campbell, Jamison was indeed supposed to pretend to have been knocked out by his opponent after first making certain that the bout looked legitimate. Garfoyle and his cronies had accepted a large sum of money bet on Jamison to win by those not in on the ruse. Chief among those punters was Krebs. When the other fighter walked into a punch from Jamison that laid him low, Garfoyle found himself having to pay to Krebs more than he had on hand. He had Krebs meet him in Jamison's room while Jamison was on his way to the surgery. He provoked Krebs into a fight and stabbed him in front of Campbell and Jamison's manager, since deceased, both of whom he had swear that Jamison murdered Krebs on pain of their getting the same treatment as Krebs if they did not. Then, he had a nurse at the surgery, who was the wife of one of the men in his employ, remove the records of Jamison's visit, and he paid for the silence of the driver who took him to the surgery, thereby depriving Jamison of an alibi. Campbell begs forgiveness from the spirit which is somewhat grudgingly provided.
With the murder of Josiah Krebs now solved, a tearful Alfie Campbell is sent home in a four-wheeler, and with the exception of Makepeace Godwin those around the table provide Lestrade statements of what they had heard.
Act XIV
Lestrade and Wiggins leave early the next morning after Lestrade has a conversation with Holmes. Alfie Campbell returns to the Castle for Mitchell's last brief workout before the fight that night. He still appears to carry the weight of the world on his thin shoulders and everyone does what they can to lighten his load with only modest success. Meanwhile, Baird returns to the Pugilism Society of Glasgow to renegotiate the arrangements made with John Garfoyle, Jr. about the distribution of profits. He returns in a greatly elevated mood.
The fight that night proceeds along lines that had been predicted by Campbell. The young fighter chosen to oppose Mitchell concentrates on punches to the head with little to show for it, and leaves himself open to a continuing array of body punches that ultimately wear the young man down and lead to a knockout in the seventh round. Victory leads to celebration and celebration leads to the pub associated with the arena which leads, in turn, to a pattern of behavior Holmes and Watson had witnessed earlier in the week. While not participating in the more raucous aspects of the festivities, Alfie Campbell finds himself the object of the crowd's adulation as well.
When all have returned to the Castle and Baird and the two fighters are asleep in drunken disarray, Holmes tells Watson the nature of his pre-dawn conversation with Lestrade. The Inspector had revealed that before coming to Glasgow he was advised that the Home Office had ruled Mackenzie's death to be accidental and the Yard was to act in accord with that ruling, which is to say it was not to act at all. Both men agree that they, nonetheless, have a responsibility to complete the investigation letting the chips fall where they might and stood in unspoken agreement that the third member of the team would feel exactly as they did.
At McLellan Manor all are on edge on two counts. Word has reached them through Lord Lonsdale's contacts that a Scotland Yard detective was in Glasgow supposedly tying up a few loose ends in the Mackenzie death. No one feels confident that was his only purpose. And George Baird will be returning to Oxley with his two fighters, Lord only knows in what mood and with what intentions.
In fact, George Baird is in high spirits, not yet artificially induced. He has Holmes' word that he will put it to Lillie that he apologizes for his actions and wishes to reconcile. As a peace offering to Lillie he has pressed into Holmes' hands an envelope he is to deliver to her before he arrives at the Manor the next day alone and sober. Having seen Mitchell's victory and bested Garfoyle, he is ready to be both generous and inebriated. As they travel back to London, he attempts the first with the promise of a substantial reward to Holmes. When Holmes refuses and suggests he give the reward to Campbell, Baird surprises everyone by indicating that both a bonus and pay rise have already been organized for Campbell. Having failed to be generous to Holmes, he succeeds admirably in his second objective. Soon, he and the two fighters are engaged in depleting the bottle of Scotch whiskey he has brought with him on the train.
Act XV
At McLellan Manor Mrs. Hudson has a problem. She needs to meet with Holmes and Watson privately to discuss her thinking about the murder of Sailor Mackenzie and to learn of their accomplishments in Glasgow regarding Josiah Krebs, and Baird's future dealings with Lillie. As a lady's maid to Lillie the opportunity for a private meeting would be unlikely even if it wasn't the case that the Trents, Lonsdale and Lillie will all be seeking audience with the two of them. She devises a devious strategy to achieve her goal.
In helping Lillie with her morning toilette she appears to catch her shoe in the carpet causing her to slip and spill all of the Japanese rice powder used by Lillie as her only make-up. Lillie is distraught and agrees to Mrs. Hudson going to the shop of Aldous Bauer, Chemist, although she feels it unlikely the Oxley chemist will be of help.
After first achieving surprising success in obtaining Lillie's powder, Mrs. Hudson proceeds to the train station to await the arrival of her colleagues. A providential rain starts slowly, but is soon pelting the streets of Oxley. While glad to be indoors, Mrs. Hudson must endure the misbehavior of two children their mother is unable to control. Mrs. Hudson recognizes that the woman's husband has left her and she is now on her way to live with her parents. Relieved to see the train arrive, Mrs. Hudson waits while Holmes and Watson bundle Baird and his two fighters into a waiting four-wheeler and direct them again to the Inn of the Moors. With the rain still falling heavily, Holmes, at Mrs. Hudson's whispered suggestion, suggests to Doyle that they remain in town another hour by which time they hope the storm will break. While the coachman goes in search of stables that adjoin a pub, the three detectives go to the restaurant associated with the Royal Oxley Hotel, Holmes and Watson to report their experiences in Glasgow, and Mrs. Hudson to direct their forthcoming experiences in Oxley. Mrs. Hudson is alternately convulsed in laughter on hearing of the seance, somber on hearing of Baird's temporary reformation, and despairing on hearing Lestrade's report to Holmes. At the end she reports to stunned silence her deductions as to the events leading up to the death of Sailor Mackenzie and her identification of his killer. The rain having let up significantly, they go to meet Doyle. On the return trip Holmes silently reviews the revelations he will be making the next day while Watson fumes over Lillie's likely reunion with Baird, and Mrs. Hudson recalls her reading of Sir Edmund du Cane and considers the complex task of administering justice.
Act XVI
Holmes and Watson are given time to freshen up before dinner where they know they will be assailed with questions by Trent and Lonsdale. Holmes seeks out Lillie to tell her of Baird's apology and promise, and to give her the envelope Baird had given him the day earlier as well as the double strand of pearls he put in Holmes' pocket before being taken to the Oxley inn. Lillie is pleased with the pearls and expresses stunned surprise at the contents of the envelope. Before committing to return with Baird however she wants to know from Holmes whether he thinks Baird is now in control of his emotions. Holmes believes he is for the present; he does not reveal to Lillie he has made clear to Baird his intention to make certain Lillie continues to be safe. Lillie agrees to see Baird the next day and confirms her plan to return with him to London. She does not reveal to Holmes the paper she has taken from the envelope is the title to a yacht, the White Lady.
At dinner, with some assistance from Lillie, Holmes deflects questions about his stay in Glasgow. He talks of Baird's home and his hospitality, of Charlie Mitchell and Jem Hall, the negotiations for Charlie Mitchell's fight, the preparations and the fight itself. He makes no mention of Lestrade, Wiggins, Makepeace Godwin or Alfie Campbell. Frustrated with the lack of information he is receiving from Holmes, Lonsdale indicates the group's awareness that Inspector Lestrade was in Glasgow the same time as Holmes and wonders whether the two were in contact. Holmes admits they were, but refuses to engage in further discussion, indicating that he would like to meet with everyone the next day at two in the afternoon to discuss what had been learned in Glasgow. With no further explanation, Holmes and Watson rise from the table, citing exhaustion from a long journey and to stunned silence excuse themselves from the dinner table.
The following morning Baird appears at McLellan Manor at the hour and in the condition promised. He meets privately with Lillie while Holmes and Simon stand at opposite sides of the door to the room in which they are meeting. With the additional incentive of a diamond studded emerald bracelet Lillie consents to return with Baird to her home on Cork Street in London. She leaves shortly thereafter. Mrs. Hudson, freed of further responsibility to provide service and convinced that neither she or Holmes or Watson will be welcome guests much longer, quickly packs her few belongings in preparation for a hasty departure.
At two o'clock Holmes and Watson meet with the people they have asked to be present to hear their findings from Glasgow and to learn their thinking about the death of Sailor Mackenzie. The four members of the Trent family occupy a couch and settee angled to each other. Behind them stand Simon and Mrs. Charters holding Christine's hand. Lonsdale has chosen a Morris chair beside the Trent children. Holmes stands facing them while Watson finds an easy chair out of sight where he proceeds to record the events of the meeting.
Holmes begins by answering Lonsdale's question from the day earlier. He asserts that the Inspector was in Glasgow tying up loose ends and that they did meet during the time both were there. Without speaking of the seance he relates how Lestrade's presence allowed for investigation of the death of Josiah Krebs and determination that Calvin Jamison was falsely accused of the crime. He tells his audience that Lestrade has informed the Yard and Scottish authorities of Jamison's innocence and that, should he ever appear in England, the former boxer need have any fear of pursuit by the authorities.
The news is greeted with the jubilation Holmes has anticipated, knowing full well that the positive view held of him and of Lestrade is to be short-lived.
Holmes begins the discussion of Mackenzie's death with the observation that he had to conclude his own blows were not sufficient to cause the fighter's death. Lonsdale disagrees, and Holmes points to the other aspects of Mackenzie's death he found disquieting. He notes that the staggering, fevered perspiring, grasping at his stomach and throw-up where he lay in a fetal position were all consistent with Mackenzie having been poisoned. He goes on to report that, while no autopsy was performed, he believes had one been conducted the contents of Mackenzie's stomach would have revealed he had ingested the same poison found in the flask recovered from the changing room of the National Sporting Club, the sap of the Adenia digitata plant growing in the Manor's greenhouse. Holmes adds that when he and Watson returned to the changing room they saw a small stocky figure leaving the area. They appeared to surprise that person before he had a chance to recover the poisoned flask.
Holmes notes that all had ready access to the poison during the weekend with Simon having lost his key and all having been given a demonstration in how to safely extract poison from the plant. Moreover, all had access to Mackenzie's flask with the fighter being very soundly asleep and alone in his unlocked cottage. Perhaps the only people without access to the plant and the flask were the members of the Trent family. Esther and Byron were still in London, Arthur Trent was mediating a dispute between tenants and spent the rest of the night in the vicar's home, and Mrs. Trent was incapacitated by the sprain suffered in her fall from a horse.
Holmes states that he has eliminated from consideration Capelhorn and Cochrane who had their own grievances against Mackenzie, but whose grievances were ancient to say nothing of the fact that they would have to extract the poison in the dead of night using a procedure they had seen demonstrated just one time. Mrs. Mackenzie too was eliminated, the woman having tolerated a lifetime of abuse and being unlikely to exact retribution now using an unfamiliar means.
Lonsdale asks if he should confess now or wait until later, but finds his offer does not create the good humor he intends.
Holmes reports a curiosity discovered about the flask found in the Club's changing room. He states that whereas all those traveling with Mackenzie on the train back to London reported he took several nips from his flask, the flask recovered by his housekeeper was so full to the brim some of it spilled when the cap was removed. Holmes charges that the flask found at the Club was not Mackenzie's, but was a flask purchased to be identical to Mackenzie's including having his initials engraved on it. It would have been filled with Scotch whiskey and the Adenia's poison added to it using the pipette his fastidious housekeeper had seen was missing from the table at the greenhouse. The figure seen fleeing from the Sporting Club was not a short stocky man but a young man, little more than a boy, in a bulky jacket who, having made the flask appear to be the means of death, hid it in the stack of clothing after removing Mackenzie's real and innocuous flask. Holmes identifies Byron as that young man leading Trent to express outrage at the charge and question why anyone would choose to substitute a poisoned flask for one that was clear.
Holmes acknowledges the legitimacy of the question without revealing it was one he had raised when all was being explained to him. He reports that the Adenia poison is slow acting. The murderer planned that the boxing match would stimulate its action allowing Mackenzie's death to appear to be a ring accident, but couldn't be sure it would work out and needed to have a false lead for the authorities if they suspected foul play. The actual means for killing Mackenzie, Holmes explains, did not involve a flask.
Holmes reports how his housekeeper's comment on the untidiness of the Trent kitchen as compared to her own spotless facilities helped point him in the direction of the means for poisoning Mackenzie. She had reported that the cook charged the scullery maid with leaving ashes in the oven and crumbs on the floor over night the morning before the men left for London and Mackenzie was killed. Add to that Capelhorn's report to Watson that Mackenzie complained about getting sugar frosted scones while Lonsdale had told him he had raisin filled scones the same morning. The frosting could be seen as masking the taste of the poison as well as whatever puncture marks were needed to insert it into the scones. The scones would have been prepared that night, the poison would have been stored in Simon's pantry which is why he became so upset when the scullery maid went to get the cat's bed from his room. He was, of course, concerned the poison could be discovered. The scones, once prepared, were stored in Mrs. Charters' pantry until she could deliver them to Mackenzie as she routinely did each morning.
An enraged Trent asks who then this mythical killer could be, and wonders if Holmes means to accuse Mrs. Groover or perhaps Rachel. He insists on the integrity of his staff. Holmes responds that his loyalty does him proud and is returned full measure by his staff. He explains that, likely through Simon's doing, he was spirited away the night that the crime was organized such that it would be impossible to see him as the murderer if anything other than accidental death was suspected. It was plain that Mackenzie was blackmailing him, having recognized that he was from Glasgow and knowing the story of the boxer who had run off to Africa after being assumed to be guilty of murder. Holmes goes on to report there was one person who stood to lose her home, her family and the life she had built to the monster who would certainly, little by little, make increasing demands on her family. It was Mrs. Trent, the daughter of a master baker, who prepared the scones adding the poison obtained by Simon. By virtue of Mrs. Trent being confined to the first floor in association with her supposed sprain after her riding accident, she spent the night separate from everyone in the Manor and couldn't be heard or seen. Holmes goes on to deny there was any accident. Supposedly, he says, her horse stepped in a hole throwing her, but Cochrane commented on the horse's pretty little gallop when he saw it a day later. It would hardly be likely that a horse stepping into a hole could escape tendon damage or dislocation. Holmes notes that a sprain is very difficult to diagnose, depending almost entirely on symptoms reported by the patient. In this case, Holmes states, the doctor would have to label the wife of the town's leading citizen a liar if he took issue with her story. As it is, Holmes alleges that the plot was constructed during an earlier visit from Lord Lonsdale, likely to look over Mackenzie, when he and Mrs. Trent would have gone riding and she revealed the difficulty her family faced.
When told the decision of accidental death will not be overturned, Watson reveals that the form he had signed by Mackenzie's brother was one requesting the body be exhumed and an autopsy conducted. With the request coming from a blood relative, the authorities would have a difficult time refusing to honor it.
All are now furious with Holmes and Watson. When Holmes asks Mrs. Trent if she will admit her guilt, the animosity builds to a point that they are asked to pack and leave the Manor immediately together with Mrs. Hudson. Lonsdale tells him the body will never be dug up and no further investigation conducted. Holmes responds that if that is the case members of the press may want to know why.
Act XVII
On their ride back to London, Holmes, Watson, and Mrs. Hudson find themselves in a discussion about the appropriate course of justice. Holmes and Watson are of the opinion that pursuit of the case against the Trents and their staff amounts nearly to persecution, that it will ruin the lives of people whose only crime was protecting themselves and each other from a tyrant who would have destroyed them all. Mrs. Hudson argues that justice demands an equality of treatment under the law, or as she says: a char is to be treated no differently than a grand lady. She worries, too, that their conception of justice could lead to people carrying guns to get rid of the people they think don't deserve to live and protect themselves from the people who think they don't deserve to live. Her fear is that England could be transformed into America.
She surprises her colleagues with her judgment that none of what they say will matter, that in a short time the Trents will have left McLellan Manor and likely England as well.
Shortly after they get back they confer with Lestrade who takes their findings back to the Yard. When he returns a week later he confirms the accuracy of Mrs. Hudson's prediction. The Trents have left Oxley without a hint of where they've gone, and have taken with them Simon and Mrs. Charters and her daughter, Christine. Lord Lonsdale is also gone; Lady Lonsdale claiming to know nothing more than that he's somewhere on the continent. Even the body of Mackenzie has disappeared and the people in Oxley, including the members of its constabulary, claim to know nothing of what has happened.
Lestrade goes on to tell Holmes he won't be hearing from the Yard for a while, but he adds it won't last, that sooner or later there'll be a problem that will lead him to be coming by Baker Street for advice and some of Mrs. Hudson's excellent scones. In response to his question, Mrs. Hudson replies that that's the way it's always been. With a teacup held high, Lestrade leads them in wishing on behalf of all of them that it is the way it will always be.