Journey into Darkness

You conduct your business for the afternoon, eat a large supper, drive to Paddington, and start off. You and Watson arrive in time for the last train to Eyford, and you reach the dim-lit station after eleven o’clock.

You find your client waiting. Without a word he grasps your arm and hurries you into a carriage. He draws up the windows on either side, taps on the wood-work, and away you move as fast as the horse can go.

You drive for at least an hour. Colonel Rairy sits at your side in silence, looking at you with great intensity.

The country roads seem to be in poor condition, for you shake and jolt terribly. You try to look out the windows to see where you are, but they are made of frosted glass. You can make out nothing more than the occasional bright blur of a passing light.

The bumping of the road is soon exchanged for the crisp smoothness of gravel, and the carriage comes to a stand. Colonel Rairy springs out. You and Watson follow after him.

You step into a dark hall, and the door slams heavily behind you. You hear faintly the rattle of the wheels as the carriage drives away. A door opens at the other end of the passage, and a long, golden bar of light shoots out in your direction. It grows broader, and a woman appears with a lamp in her hand. She holds it above her head, pushing her face forward and peering at you.

She speaks a few words in a foreign language, in a tone as though asking a question. Colonel Rairy says something in her ear, and she returns into the room.

He walks toward you again with a lamp held in his hand. “Perhaps we had better proceed to business. I will take you to see the machine. This is where we compress metal into bricks. We wish you to examine the machine, let us know what is wrong with it, and how someone might have sabotaged it.”

At that very moment, your friend Watson leans over and whispers into your ear. “I sense a trap. Our lives may be in peril, Holmes.”

You cannot help but agree. Could this be the trap set by Moriarty? Should you arrest this man at once? If you do, you will either be saving yourself from danger or putting all of England in jeopardy. What will you choose to do?