The Peculiar Persecution of Mr. Druitt

13 October, 1881

Dear Holmes,

I hope that your investigation is progressing successfully, and I very much wish that I could have taken advantage of your kind invitation to join you. A trip to Edinburgh and a chance to revisit a number of my old haunts would have been just what the doctor ordered, but sadly I’m still having a bit of difficulty with the latest flare-up of my wound.

I’ve been making the most of my recovery, however, taking the opportunity to stay in and recuperate – but I had forgotten how beautiful and tempting London can be in October. (If you’ll recall, I didn’t arrive home last year on the Orontes until November, and then in the pouring rain.) After such a long time spent in the sere Afghan landscape, with its hot tan skies stretching overhead, as if one is walking underneath a Benares-crafted platter, every day lately has been a wonder. The heavens here are a blue that calms the soul – even if I only see a thin slice of them from our windows as I look out above the houses on the other side of Baker Street.

As per your instructions, I’ve made notes – some extensive, some less-so – of your visitors. Most are matters that would either hold no interest for you (or so I would judge, having consulted with you on several cases now over the last seven months), while others would seem to be of the sort where no urgency is required. These include a matter of an otherwise unimportant and previously ignored tree at the corner of a small cemetery that now seems to be “weeping”; a land surveyor who unexpectedly feels the need to take a mid-day nap (when he’d never been so inclined before) and who, upon awakening, finds that many of his survey notes have already been completed – for property which he has not yet examined; and a massive figure of a man with a completely hairless head – apparently from alopecia rather than by choice – who claims your prior acquaintance and wishes to give you further data regarding the “Tavistock Court ruction” – which he assures me can wait, as “that pot still has a ways to cook, Doctor.”

However, there was one visitor an hour or so ago whose tale sounded a bit more intriguing and urgent, and I felt the need to forward those details your way.

Just before lunch, Mrs. Hudson knocked and announced a young lade of about twenty. (It always amuses me to try and determine when or why our estimable landlady will choose to climb the stairs and announce a visitor. I believe that she was showing some sort of approval of your new client, because she announced – without asking if it was requested – that she would return soon with tea. As you have remarked before, most of your clientele is usually not honored or acknowledged in this way.)

Miss Emily Hayes is pretty in a careworn sort of way – dark hair worn long, and a sweet smile. She informed me that she currently lives nearby in one of the Portman Mansions along East Street, and that she had been advised to consult you by Old Ted Farways, whom you will recall from that business back in June with the thrice-rolled cobble stone. She had barely introduced herself and found a place in the basket chair before the fire when Mrs. Hudson brought in tea, as well as a tidy mound of toothsome comestibles. After we were situated all over again, I explained that you were away, but that I was able to take down the details of her story and forward them to you. She nodded and then related her narrative.

“I was born and raised here in London, where my mother still lives, and until recently I was employed as a governess,” she explained. “I lived with the Meltons – the naval captain, his wife, and two daughters, in Greenwich. It was a good arrangement, as my younger brother, Anthony, is a student at Mr. Valentine’s boarding school in Blackheath, in Eliot Place and within walking distance of the Melton house. He’s fourteen now, and has attended there for the past two years. We were very fortunate to get him in – Mr. Disraeli was a student there. Anthony is a legacy student, as our father attended there as well.

“While I lived in Greenwich, I was able to check on him regularly, but after the Meltons went out to India a month ago, my position came to an end, and I’ve since returned to stay with my mother. She has a small income from investments left by my father when he died. It gives her enough to maintain the house, and to pay for Anthony’s tuition – which is augmented by a small scholarship set up by some of Father’s former school chums.

“In spite of our six-year age difference, Anthony and I have always been close, and when I lived nearby, we contrived to visit regularly – meeting for walks or tea. Since my return to Mother’s house, I miss him terribly, and I believe that he feels the same. We’ve continued to exchange letters – always little notes of news about our days, or something we’ve seen. But yesterday Anthony sent something with a different tone.

“The school isn’t very big – it’s in an old house which faces north, looking upon the various open fields that lead down toward the Greenwich Observatory and then the river. It shares something of a small park to the rear with the neighboring houses. While the students are encouraged to visit the grounds of the Observatory and the Prime Meridian, or to gain their exercise on the nearby athletic fields, they’re discouraged from entering the park behind the house – it’s felt that the neighbors don’t want to have interactions with schoolboys, and the school itself would prefer to avoid attracting any attention, in spite of its fine reputation.

“Over the last two years, Anthony has told me quite a bit about his teachers – he has a comical but rather sweet way of writing that brings out their humorous aspects and foibles. But one teacher who started last year – a part-time law student named Druitt – has been rather different. He’s a grim fellow, often falling into brown studies while staring into the distance. He’s frequently the butt of jokes by some of the more cruel students, but he seems to be unaware of it. Unfortunately, Anthony has more to do with Mr. Druitt than might otherwise be expected, as part of his duties as a student involve his assignment as Druitt’s sometime-assistant – sorting papers, cleaning the blackboards, and so on. In his letters, Anthony has tried to present the man in a light manner, in the way that he’s done with his other teachers, but the fellow’s oppressive moods have made that rather impossible.

“Over the few weeks, Anthony has noticed that Mr. Druitt leaves the building at odd hours, often late in the evening. He acts in a very awkward and suspicious manner, as if he doesn’t want to be seen. It seems that only Thomas has noticed him so far.

“A few nights ago, Anthony decided to follow Mr. Druitt. If I’d known, I would have warned him not to – wherever the man is going is none of his business. But he wasn’t seen, and he had no trouble keeping up. After a short saunter down Eliot Place, Mr. Druitt abruptly turned between houses, and so through and into the park – with Anthony close behind. After just a few minutes, his teacher entered a small grove of dense trees, where he simply waited for ten or fifteen minutes, standing beside a large stone projecting from the ground, before departing.

“This has been repeated on subsequent nights, and on the night before Anthony wrote to me, he stayed when his teacher departed, going into the grove to see what was to be found. He described it as a place with a bad feeling to it, although that may be simply because he was there at dusk, where he wasn’t supposed to be. But he said that he felt a chill when he saw the stone – a long flat thing, like an altar. Rather freshly carved in the center, it’s edges bright against the rest of the weathered rock, was this…”

And at this point, Holmes, she showed me a sketch made by her brother of an eye centered within a triangle:

I’ll admit that it gave me something of a chill as well, for I remembered where I’d seen that before – in your scrapbooks. She had nothing more to tell, except that Anthony had passed on the information, asking her opinion, and that she was disturbed enough to remember your name and seek your help.

I told her that I’d pass it along to you and see if you had any advice or questions. That satisfied her, and she departed soon after. Then I confirmed what I’d read – this symbol had connections to many religions and cults, including some of the darker aspects of Freemasonry.

Without adding any of my interpretations or concerns, I’ll post this letter and await your response.

Very best,

Watson

***

16th of October, 1881

Dear Mr. Holmes,

Thank you for taking time to reply to my inquiries, and so quickly. Please let Dr. Watson know that I appreciate his help as well. He seems to be a very nice man, and I hope that his health improves. (Please don’t scold her for being indiscrete, but your landlady took several minutes after I left the doctor to sing his praises and tell me what a hero he’d been in Afghanistan. She clearly has great respect and motherly affection for him, and I hope someday to be able to introduce him to my fiancé, an Army major currently out of the country.)

The information that you related in your wire regarding the eye in the triangle was fascinating, and rather frightening. I’m not sure that I was able to adequately express to the doctor the dark aura that Anthony said seems to project from his teacher, Mr. Druitt – especially lately. Normally Anthony is a very chipper and positive-minded fellow – and he has been his whole life – but from the time Mr. Druitt came to work at the school an assistant master about a year ago, he seems to cast a pall over the building in general and lately my brother in particular. No one is quite certain as to how the man obtained the position, although there is a rumor that he’s somehow related to the headmaster and owner, Mr. Valentine.

As I mentioned to Doctor Watson, Anthony was assigned as Mr. Druitt’s assistant, and as such, he’s required to work for him for an hour or so every day, in the late evenings before dinner. Generally this work is of no consequence – straightening the classroom, cleaning blackboards, carrying out the wastepaper, and so on. In spite of Mr. Druitt being present, there is never any interaction between them, as the man spends his afternoons reading a book, sometimes making notes, or occasionally writing letters.

The reason that I mention this is that Anthony has shared additional information with me, beyond the affair of following his teacher to the rock in the copse of trees, and the frightening carving that he found there. Anthony believes that Mr. Druitt’s trips are related to a series of small slips of paper that are suddenly taking up a great deal of his time. As Anthony describes the situation, Mr. Druitt is receiving what appears to be coded messages, and his fascination with them is causing him to neglect his regular duties – such as whatever lesson preparations that he formerly did in the late afternoons.

Anthony first became aware of these papers when Mr. Druitt began examining them in earnest several weeks ago. The first time that Anthony was aware of them, his teacher entered the classroom in great haste, sat down at his desk, unfolded one of the pieces of paper, and began what only be described as decoding a message from it.

Since then, he has entered the empty classroom each day in the same way, in the late afternoon when classes have finished. He flings his books onto his desk and fishes in his pocket for one of the folded messages. Then he pulls out another worn and much re-folded sheet from within his case, finds a blank sheet of paper, and begins to slowly and laboriously decipher whatever is written on the slip onto the clean sheet by comparing it to the folded sheet. Then, when he’s finished and without doing anything else, he will repack his things and leave without a word.

It was having seen this that prompted Anthony to follow Mr. Druitt in the first place to the carved rock. Additionally, he began to watch more closely, and he informs me that he’s actually seen Mr. Druitt find these pieces of paper on several occasions. Twice, for instance, in the dining hall during lunch, Anthony saw Mr. Druitt lift his plate as soon as he sat down at the head table, where a folded slip could be seen hidden underneath. He hurriedly placed it in his pocket, and would have certainly dashed out to decode it then and there if his responsibilities hadn’t prevented it. He has a full class schedule every afternoon, so the first chance he likely has to study the message is in his free period when Anthony is also in the classroom. It seems to be a laborious process for him, so he needs the uninterrupted period to accomplish his task.

Two days ago, during the great storm that passed through London, Anthony was cleaning the classroom as usual while Mr. Druitt performed his typical ritual with the slip of paper, the folded sheet, and the clean sheet. But suddenly Mr. Druitt was summoned to help with a small emergency related to rainwater entering at the back of the building. He stood and shoved the blank sheet (with the partial translation of the code) into his pocket and rushed out without thinking, leaving his other materials behind. Anthony immediately grabbed another blank sheet of paper and proceeded to copy both what was written on the much-used sheet and also from the latest slip of paper.

There was but one line on the oft-referred-to sheet:

Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.

The message on the slip of paper simply consisted of a series of numbers:

26-12-2-6_26-12-23-8-19-25_14-23-11-16-19-17

3-8-19-12-11-19-22-16_12-8_2-10-2-11-12

23-16-3-23-22-11-12-26_2-12_23-8-3-4

8-3-12_14-8-22-23-12-16-16-19_26-11-9_1-5

Soon after Anthony was able to copy these and return to his chores, Mr. Druitt returned, sat down, and finished his painstaking work, looking back and forth between the message and the document upon which he was writing his decoded results. Suddenly with a cry, he arose, glanced at the mantel clock, jammed all of the papers into his pocket, and fled the room. Anthony followed along behind and saw him dash out the front door and into the storm.

With a bit more forethought, Anthony retrieved his coat and hat and slipped out as well. Of course he didn’t know which way Mr. Druitt had gone, but he decided to see if the mysterious rock was again the man’s destination. He crept up to it and, peering through the surrounding brush, he could see the man standing there, soaking wet and waiting for… something. He would look this way and that, as if expecting someone to arrive at any moment from out of the downpour. And yet, no one ever did.

Anthony said it was quite dark, and the rainfall and the storm were terribly noisy, so he’s certain that he was never observed by Mr. Druitt. He wanted to wait and see who arrived, since an appointment was apparent, but he realized that he needed to return to the school to be ready for dinner, so he slipped away without any further enlightenment.

This affair, while not of great importance, is quite curious, as I’m sure you’ll agree. I’ve given Anthony the address in Edinburgh that you’ve provided to me, as he indicates that he will write to you directly now with whatever he learns, as he feels that the added step of going through his sister may delay matters if something becomes urgent.

Thank you for your help, and indulging us with your interest. I hope that this matter has a happy ending, although there is a feeling of ugliness about it that makes me uneasy.

With best regards,

Emily Hayes

***

27 October, 1881

Dear Mr. Holmes,

Thank you sir for the telegram that you sent this morning. It’s the first one that I’ve ever received, and it very much made me the most interesting person in school. The Headmaster, Mr. Valentine, summoned me to his office to receive it, and I could tell that he was very curious. He kept asking me questions about “A problem at home, Hayes?” or whether I needed to dictate a reply to him. I thanked him but didn’t give away anything about your help.

I have given thought to your questions and tried to answer them as well as I can. Mr. Druitt arrived her a bit over a year ago to serve as the assistant master. From what I’ve heard, he’s in his early twenties, and is reading for the law. He has this job by way of some family connection.

He always seems most unhappy, and I can’t think of a time when I’ve seen him laugh or even smile. I barely had any dealings with him last year, but this year, as part of our regular chores, I was assigned to Mr. Druitt’s classroom. I haven’t had any of his classes, although my friends say that he is very morose, and often loses his train of thought in the middle of a lesson – sometimes in the middle of a sentence. He is an object of a great deal of ridicule by some of the boys, although I feel that they’re being rather unkind, as they don’t know what his circumstances are, or what thoughts are in his mind that cause him to lose track of things.

To further answer your question, there are three of the older boys in particular who seem to delight in making japes at his expense. I’m sure you know the type – the fellows who are always lounging about and making snide comments under their breath. One, Rance Conway, is rather small and ratty, the son of a PM, and he never lets anyone forget it. The other two, Sid Drake and Ralph Morgan, are big bruisers from middle-class families who follow Conway around as an ever-present audience to laugh at his jokes, and also somewhat in the fashion of bodyguards, as until recently no one was safe from Conway’s bullying, and sometimes his victims were inclined to fight back. But after they began to taunt and tease Mr. Druitt, they seem to have left everyone else alone.

My father went to this school when he was my age, and I’m considered a legacy student – although that doesn’t really make any difference about anything, except that I was able to gain admission somewhat easier than might otherwise have been possible. The only person here to whom it might matter is old Hadley, the man-of-all-work – he takes care of the grounds, does general maintenance, and the like. He and I have struck up a friendship, and a few days ago I felt comfortable in asking him if he had any thoughts on Mr. Druitt’s persecution.

He agreed that Conway and his two troops have certainly had it in for Mr. Druitt of late, although he doesn’t know why. Perhaps it’s simply because Mr. Druitt doesn’t seem to be all there at times, which makes him something of an easy victim. Fortunately, Mr. Druitt doesn’t seem to realize a great deal of the time when Conway has made some subtle attack at his expense – but for the same reason, because he doesn’t realize he’s under attack, he makes no effort to defend himself.

The reason I mention this is because Hadley has confirmed Conway’s connection to the coded messages, as he has seen some things as well. As I mentioned to my sister, I’ve observed Mr. Druitt find messages under his dinner plate on several occasions. I’ve also seen him reach into his pocket once or twice and find a message there, which he pulls out with great surprise. When I told Hadley this, he nodded and said he’d seen Conway leaving folded notes under Mr. Druitt’s plate in the dining hall a couple of time – which is surely confirmation as to where the messages are originating! (Until I spoke to him, however, he was unaware of the rest of it, and hadn’t felt the need to report what was happening to the headmaster.)

Hadley and I have become quite curious about this affair, and he was able to see if there was anything of interest in Mr. Druitt’s room. While I was with Mr. Druitt in the classroom, even as he decoded his latest message, Hadley slipped into his room. He said that there were a great deal of books and pamphlets regarding Freemasonry, along with a numerous sketches of things that seem to relate to the Masons – including at least a dozen versions of the eye in the triangle!

Most of all, Hadley said that one of the coded messages was pinned over Mr. Druitt’s desk, as if in a place of honor:

6-8-22_13-2-15-16_7-16-16-19_26-16-20-16-3-12-16-17_14-8-23

2_1-8-26-11-12-11-8-19_11-19_12-13-16_13-11-25-13

5-2-26-8-19_3-8-22-19-3-11-20_7-16_2-12_12-13-16

23-8-3-4_10-11-12-13_8-22-23_26-11-25-19_10-13-16-19

23-16-21-22-11-23-16-17_ 6-8-22-23_14-2-11-12-13_10-11-20-20

7-16_ 23-16-10-2-23-17-16-17_7-23-8-12-13-16-23

Hadley told me that, besides the coded message hanging on the wall above the desk, there was also a sketch of the eye and triangle!

In addition to that, I was able to copy Mr. Druitt’s latest message. Last night, he was called out of the classroom just a few minutes after he’d arrived and set out his latest slip of paper for decoding. (He ignores me, so it never crossed his mind that I was still there when he left.) I quickly stepped across, saw that the original sheet with Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs written on it – now looking much more ragged – was still in use. I copied what was on the small new sheet beside it:

7-16_2-12_12-13-16_23-8-3-4_2-12_26-22-19-26-16-12_8-19

2-20-20_13-2-20-20-8-10-26_16-15-16_10-16-2-23_19-8

3-20-8-12-13-16-26

Today Mr. Druitt seems much more distracted and upset looking than usual, and I wonder what was in this latest message to upset him. I feel as if things are becoming more serious, and whatever Conway and his lackeys are up to will only lead to disaster for the poor man.

Let me know if there is anything else that I can do, and thank you.

Sincerely,

Anthony B. Hayes

***

6 November, 1881

Dear Mr. Holmes,

I’m writing to thank you for your timely intervention in recent events that were occurring at my school, unfortunately completely unknown to me. I must confess to a great deal of embarrassment that such goings-on had progressed to this degree without my knowledge, and I can assure you that I will do far better in the future.

I also wish for you to know that the persecution of Mr. Druitt has ended, and the malefactors have been duly punished. While I could have notified you by telegram, in the same way that yours urgently requested my intervention, I feel that a longer response is justified, to explain the events as they occurred.

Your wire arrived on the afternoon of 31 October, as the school was preparing for a small All Hallows Eve celebration later that night. (A bit of fun is not a bad thing – in its proper place.) Frankly, I was puzzled by your message:

Prevent Druitt from disrobing at rock in park behind school at sunset Halloween. Further details can be provided by A. Hayes. Then question Conway et al. Further information to follow in person this afternoon.

Initially, I was inclined to throw the message away, but for mention of Mr. Druitt, which alerted me that there might be a problem worth investigating after all. He is a somewhat troubled young man, attempting to study to be a lawyer, but with a number of problems which don’t need to be specifically elaborated upon in this letter. He is an old friend of my family, and I felt an obligation to provide a position for him. He has worked here about a year, and for the most part has been adequate in his duties as one of the two assistant masters.

I have noticed of late that he was more distracted and morose than normal, but I myself have been quite a bit busier than usual, and failed to follow up on the matter as I should have. As you suggested, I called in young Hayes and showed him your wire. He was rather reluctant at first to share with me the details of the matter, before finally revealing that he’d observed how Druitt has received a number of apparently coded messages, and the effect they were having upon the man. Hayes also explained how he’d recruited Hadley in the matter, and how between the two of them, they had established that Conway, Drake, and Morgan – three students already known for their decidedly conniving character – were the persecutors. Unknown to young Hayes, who was initially very reluctant to involve our maintenance man, I think the world of Hadley, and if he had established the involvement and guilt of the three reprobates, then I knew that the cause was just and the information reliable.

Of course, however, I called in Hadley, who confirmed every bit of Hayes’ story. At that time, I was prepared to immediately summon Conway and his entourage, but Hayes then reminded me that you had promised more information to be forthcoming. I tabled the matter to await further word – which was not long in arriving

Not long after four o’clock, as the sun was setting, a visitor was announced. I confess that I expected you in person, but instead it was your brother, Mycroft Holmes, who was rather irate at being cajoled by your telephone call into making his way from an office – in Whitehall, I believe that he said? – to share information that was too complex for a telegram. (I confirmed to him that in any case the school did not have a telephone, whereupon your brother snapped that I should acquire one!)

However, despite his initial irritation, our conversation turned more congenial when he accepted a glass of Madeira, and he informed me how you had decoded the messages, and particularly what the latest message said: For Druitt to be accepted into some made-up Masonic society, he must disrobe and be at one of the rocks in the park behind the school at sunset. Clearly if the messages were being left by Conway in order to manipulate him, there was nothing good about the situation.

With that, I called in Conway, Drake, and Morgan. Your brother felt curious enough to stay, and I felt that his mysterious presence would provide a welcome addition of grim gravitas to the proceedings.

It went quickly. When I told Conway that I was aware of the messages – of course implying that I knew more than I did – and particularly about his plan to lure Druitt to the rock without any clothes, he broke down, trying to pass it off as simply a joke. He explained that he had been “bothered” by Druitt’s “differentness”, and it had brought out his spirit of good-natured teasing. (I expected this type of explanation from such a mean-spirited individual.) Having become aware of Druitt’s fascination with Freemasons from snippets dropped into his lectures – and I suspect forays into Druitt’s room, for how else would he know about the eye in the triangle? – Conway contrived a code for luring Druitt to disaster. Initially he sent an anonymous letter to his teacher, stating that he’d been especially noticed and subsequently selected for membership in an elite leadership cadre of the Masons. Along with this letter was the key to a code, with a promise of further coded messages carrying important instructions.

Then Conway began to send him messages. The first few were by mail, but when that became too much trouble, he started leaving them on Druitt’s desk in his room, or slipping them into his coat pocket, or even under his plate in the dining hall, where Conroy had his student job – thus allowing him to be there early and leave the note before he might otherwise be observed.

Initially, the notes were simply promises to offer poor Mr. Druitt prestige and friendship, making him a part of some brotherhood. Then they decided to manipulate him further for their own amusement, sending him outside to wait for hours at various locations, often in the cold or during rainy weather. They fixed up one of the rocks behind the school in a copse of trees with a crude and cabalistic carving of the eye, supposedly a feature of the society who was sending the messages, and then directed him there on any number of occasions to wait for someone to arrive – always in vain, but also always observed from a distance, to their great and misplaced merriment.

This went on for several weeks, and then they had the idea to escalate the embarrassment to a much greater degree. As part of some supposed initiation, they would send Druitt out on All Hallows Eve to wait on the rock, completely unclothed. At first this was just to let him stand there in the cold, but then Conway decided that he would find a way to get the entire population of the school to go there and catch poor Druitt in the act. Only your masterful decoding of the message a few hours before the event prevented this from occurring.

If Druitt hadn’t fallen for that plot, Conway planned to continue. He indicated that he had a new arrangement for Bonfire Night – last night – but I didn’t hear the specifics, as by that point I was quite disgusted.

As I mentioned, Conway had a student job in the dining hall. I intentionally used the past tense, as he and the others are no longer welcome at this school. I summoned their parents and explained the entire situation. The families of Drake and Morgan seemed mortified, but Conway’s parents seemed perversely proud of him, and I expect to read of that young man’s hanging in the newspapers someday – that, or instead of his election to Parliament.

Needless to say, I found a way to prevent Mr. Druitt from going out to the rock that night without embarrassing him or letting him know that his secret was known, and the notes have stopped. I didn’t share any of this with him. In his delicate state, I don’t feel that I can. I expect that the mysterious and unexplained withdrawal of an offer of comradeship within this fictional branch of the Masons will devastate him, but hopefully he will learn and grow from it.

Now you know the story, if you hadn’t heard from your brother already. Young Anthony Hayes has proven himself to be a young man of good character and willingness to act when necessary, and I’ve happily given him more responsibility and marked him for advancement, with a word in the right ears when the time is right.

In the meantime, I thank you again for your unexpected but very timely intervention.

I wish you well, and look forward to meeting you in person at some point in the future.

With very best regards,

George Valentine

Headmaster, Eliot Place School

***

4 December, 1888

My Dear Watson,

I hope that this finds you well on the road to recovery. I will never forgive myself for the injuries that you sustained last month following the terrible events in Miller’s Court.

The clean-up of the Ripper Cabal continues, although I can safely say that the tide has turned, and most of the various factions have been eliminated to one degree or another. There still remains a further confrontation with the Prime Minister regarding the complicity of those who followed his implied directions and first set this hellish plot into motion, but after our meeting several weeks ago, he understands that my position is firm.

It may interest you to know that one of those who was involved with the murders – Mr. Druitt – has vanished. As you’ll recall, he was a teacher at a boys’ school in Blackheath, and he was dismissed last Friday. I had met the headmaster, George Valentine, seven years ago, when I performed a service for the school, but when I questioned him yesterday, he refused to provide any details, except to say that just before Druitt disappeared, he was dismissed from his position at the school, after being there for nearly a decade. I suspect that some of Mycroft’s influence will need to be brought to bear in order to get at the full truth.

I’m aware that you’re using your holiday back in Southsea to recuperate, but I also know that you’re taking time to write up your notes about the Ripper matter, as well as some other past and unrelated investigations. (And your host, Dr. Doyle, must certainly be pestering you for details.) To assist in your efforts, I’m including a few letters that I received related to Druitt in Autumn 1881. Among them is one that you initially wrote to me on 13 October, instigating the matter following a visit from a Miss Emilie Hayes. I don’t believe that that I ever told you what else happened with the affair, but read these letters and you’ll understand the further association with Mr. Druitt. After you’ve had a look at them, continue with this letter for an explanation of the solution to the code, should you not be able to work it out for yourself…

***

…I trust that your curiosity is now thoroughly whetted. While the matter itself is fully explained in the letters, I’m certain that the code is not so easily deciphered. If you’ve looked it through and have satisfied yourself that you cannot arrive at a solution, I’ll explain.

From the little we know of Mr. Druitt – and considering that I knew even less of him in October 1881 – it’s unlikely that he could have worked out a code on his own. That’s why Conway, the villain of the piece, provided him with a key early on – to make sure that his manipulation could proceed successfully.

The sentence that was initially provided, and used so often by Druitt to decode the messages, was thus:

Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.

I instantly recognized this as a pangram, or a holoalphatetic sentence, which contains every letter of the alphabet at least once. (These have been used in recent years to assist in the training of those learning the typewriter. You may have heard of another – The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog – which contains thirty-five letters)

The sentence provided to Druitt is shorter, with only thirty-two letters. Of these, three are repeated more than once – I appears three times, O also three times, with E and U two times each. When the two extra I’s and O’s are deleted, along with the extra E and U, were left with the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, in this order:

Pack my box with f – ve d – z – n l – qu – r j – gs

By placing a number by each of the letters as it appears in this revised format: 1 for P, 2 for A, and so on – one comes up with a fairly simple substitution code, with each of the twenty-six letters represented by a unique number, according to where it falls within this pangram, after the extra six letters are removed:

P-1 a-2 c-3 k-4 m-5 y-6 b-7 o-8 x-9 w-10 i-11 t-12 h-13 f-14 v-15 e-16 d-17 z-18 n-19 l-20 q-21 u-22 r-23 j-24 g-25 s-2

Rearranging the letters alphabetically, it was easy to see which number stood for which letter:

A-2 B-7 C-3 D-17 E-16 F-14 G-25 H-13 I-11 J-24 K-4 L-20 M-5 N-19 O-8 P-1 Q-21 R-23 S-26 T-12 U-22 V-15 W-10 X-9 Y-6 Z-18

Thus, it was quite easy to decipher the few messages that were copied by Anthony Hayes and sent on for my examination.

If you review the messages in the enclosed letters, you’ll see that the first one copied by young Hayes was:

Stay strong friend

Continue to await

recruits at rock

Oct Fourteen Six PM

That was the message that caused Druitt to glance at the clock and then rush out into the great storm, standing uncloaked at the rock while futilely waiting to meet someone from the supposed Masonic Brotherhood. That message had obviously been prepared with the sole purpose of driving the poor man into the rain.

Subsequently, Hayes sent me the message which was found in Druitt’s room:

You have been selected for

a position in the high

Mason Council. Be at the

rock with our sign when

required. Your faith will

be rewarded Brother.

Without doubt, that message, with its promise of reward and inclusion, seduced poor lonely Druitt, sadly wallowing in his fascination with Freemasonry. Doubtless he looked for the rock with the carving of the eye, matching that which was on the message, until he located it in the nearby park.

On Halloween, when this all came to a head, Hayes had found the latest and last message:

Be at the rock at sunset on

All Hallows Eve. Wear no

clothes

One can only imagine what was planned for the poor fellow – public embarrassment at best, or possibly dismissal or arrest.

Over the years, I’ve kept my eye on Conway, who instigated the plot – you’ll be pleased to know that he’s already serving fifteen hard years in Dartmoor – but I’ll admit that I looked away from Druitt. Perhaps that was a mistake.

I did feel pity for him after the letter from Valentine and sent the man a final anonymous coded message, encouraging him to seek out a legitimate Masonic organization – with the idea that he would find some purpose and fellowship. Sadly, we’ve seen how that turned out – he was used by them in a terrible way.

As we now know, he remained at that school as assistant master while trying to begin his feeble law practice at No. 9 King’s Bench Walk. What occurred in those seven years to Druitt – already disturbed to some degree – to lead to his manipulation by the various groups that are coming to be known as under the single sobriquet of Jack the Ripper? When he reappears, perhaps we can ask him.

I’m sure that your holiday and recovery will continue successfully. Give my regards to Dr. Doyle, and I have passed along your last message to Miss Morstan.

I will write with more information about the Ripper affair as it becomes available, and look forward to your healthy return to London.

Very best,

Holmes

***

NOTE

The following was scribbled at the bottom of Holmes’s letter of 4 December, 1888:

Montague John Druitt’s body was found floating in the Thames off Thornycroft’s torpedo works, Chiswick, by a waterman named Henry Winslade on 31 December, 1888. Stones in Druitt’s pockets had kept his body submerged for about a month. – JHW 2 January, 1889