Sherlock Holmes in Russia

Sherlock Holmes shook his head. ‘They’ll have to work at getting to the money.’ He placed everyone in position. He and Watson hid behind the strongbox. The others were told to wait outside. ‘If you hear me whistle,’ he whispered, ‘rush inside and if you don’t see me, go for the strongbox.’ By way of explanation he added, ‘It is likely, and more than likely, that the thieves have sawed an aperture into the storeroom from below the strong box, and nobody would see it from any angle.’

‘Indeed,’ said the director, looking at the proceedings with great interest, and awe at Holmes’s part.

Holmes looked around, ‘Well, sirs, take your places and not a sound. The slightest noise, a cough, a movement of the hand or leg, and all is lost.’

Everyone did as they were told. Holmes asked the director to unlock the strongbox. The director then left. Holmes and Watson were left alone in the strongroom.

IX

Left alone with Watson, Holmes opened the strongbox. It was filled with gold and bank notes. They dropped down behind it and switched off the lights.

Everything was still. Placing their revolvers beside them, they lay down silently on the floor. Time dragged on leaden feet. There wasn’t a sound from down below to give away the presence of the thieves. Nearly an hour passed.

But then, at last, somewhere in the distance, from under the floorboards, a slight rustle came through. At first it didn’t come through very clearly, but after a while, more and more. At last a light creak came through, as if someone had stepped on the precarious step of a ladder. This sound came not so much from under the trunk laden with money, but as if from a corner of the storeroom. Then the sounds ceased for a few moments.

Sherlock Holmes bent right up to Watson’s ear and whispered very softly, ‘There is a passageway through the wall, and then it goes between the floor and the ceiling.’ He was silent again, and pressed his ear to the metal flooring to pick up the slightest sound.

Someone moved softly under the floor, and from under the trunk laden with money, a tool scraped. Then, another. Under the trunk, two people were working purposefully.

Sherlock Holmes crawled towards the trunk and placed his palm over the bank notes to feel any movement beneath them.

Below them, two people were filing away uninterruptedly. Approximately another hour went by. It was very likely that the files were constantly oiled. That’s why the sounds were so weak. And that’s why the watchman outside could hear nothing.

But now all was still again. It was still for a couple of minutes, but then there was a rustle under the floor, as if mice were scurrying about. And then, all of a sudden, Sherlock Holmes felt the money under his palm shake and begin to go down. He realised at once what was happening.

He touched Watson gently on the shoulder, took his hand and shoved it into the trunk. ‘The moment I pull you by the sleeve, jump right into the trunk,’ whispered Holmes.

He rose quietly to his feet, bent over the trunk, using his palm to monitor its descent together with the money. The very moment that the upper layer of money was down to the level of the surrounding floor, Holmes tugged at Watson’s sleeve and with one quick movement switched on the light. Both leaped into the trunk.

A sharp whistle sounded the alarm.

That very moment, the bottom of the trunk, which the thieves were lowering with their hands, collapsed under the weight of Holmes and Watson. The thieves were caught by surprise from the weight of the two bodies. Unable to hold the metal floor on which the trunk had stood, they let go and fell in different directions.

All this took two or three seconds. Now events followed one upon another with the speed of lightning.

The drop was not far. It was a mere three feet or so between the floor of the upper storey and the ceiling below. It was only the suddenness which stunned thieves and detectives, and then only slightly. A moment, and both sides had recovered so that a life-and-death struggle began in that narrow space.

X

As soon as Sherlock Holmes and Watson felt they had fallen on something solid, they drew their revolvers and threw themselves on Compton and Alferakki. Those two, in their turn, thought there were only two in pursuit. So they, too, threw themselves at their adversaries. Several shots rang out.

But at this moment help arrived from above. Three policemen and the full complement of guards were already clambering through the aperture, rattling their arms.

The thieves realized the game was up as far as they were concerned. They fired a couple of shots at random, to stop their adversaries for half a minute, and threw themselves through the passageway in the wall, hoping to make their escape through the shop below.

Watson, wounded in the arm, fell with a groan.

Alferakki was already at the entrance, but Sherlock Holmes brought him down with a flying tackle, while a couple of soldiers piled on top of him.