Page 90 of Miss Moriarty, I Presume?
“We tried to find out. He said that he could not divulge his reasons. But, as a gesture of good faith, he gave us keys to several ciphers, so we could read some of the documents we’d obtained earlier.
“At the time only Stephen and I were in Britain. Later, when we met our parents, we asked about das Phantomschloss. They’d heard conflicting reports, some of which claim that it’s in the Bavarian Alps, others point to the outskirts of Vienna, and still others insist that das Phantomschloss doesn’t exist and was made up by Moriarty to keep his minions in line.”
She looked around at them. “Did Stephen somehow find a picture of Das Phantomschloss?”
Miss Charlotte handed the Stanhope to her.
Mrs. Watson held her breath.
Miss Marbleton raised the Stanhope to her eye—and lowered it a few seconds later, her face thoughtful. “Not a single person in the photograph was looking at the camera, which makes me wonder whether the picture wasn’t taken in secret, with a detective camera of some sort.”
Miss Charlotte must have heard something in her words. “And?”
Miss Marbleton’s bearded jaw moved. “And the woman on the left might be someone Mr. Finch is looking for.”
Mrs. Watson had studied the image at length. She could see in her mind’s eye the pretty young woman on the left, with a voluptuous figure and a face that looked lively even in a photograph.
Miss Holmes must remember her features even better than Mrs. Watson did. Nevertheless, she took the Stanhope from Miss Marbleton and looked through it again. “Is she connected to das Phantomschloss?”
“He didn’t say. When we told him we barely knew of the place’s existence, he showed us a pencil sketch of this woman and said he was also willing to trade for news of her whereabouts, though it would be a lesser exchange.”
The woman obviously mattered to Mr. Finch. But in what sense? Because she might lead him to das Phantomschloss? Or because he cared for her in some way?
Or both?
Miss Charlotte handed the Stanhope to Lord Ingram and said to Miss Marbleton, “Do you know how we may convey a message to Mr. Finch?”
Miss Marbleton shook her head. “That tête-à-tête with him was arranged much like our meeting today. Mr. Finch put a notice in the papers with a cipher that my brother had given him and we managed to talk for a while in a train going north to Edinburgh.
“We asked him for a means to get word to him, should we discover something about das Phantomschloss. He only took another cipher from Stephen and said he would ask us for progress with a notice in the papers. But we were abroad at times and might have missed it.”
She smiled bitterly. “Certainly I haven’t been paying very close attention of late. I only saw your notice because my boots got wet and I was looking for some newspaper to stuff into them so that they’d dry faster.”
“You should pay more attention,” said Miss Charlotte, softly yet implacably. “Your brother hasn’t given up.”
Miss Marbleton chewed her lower lip. Her glued-on beard moved with the motion of her lips and teeth. Mrs. Watson wanted to giggle. But more than that, she wanted to hug this girl, who found herself all alone in the world, so that she would have a shoulder to cry on.
Miss Charlotte leaned forward half an inch. Mrs. Watson’s heartbeat accelerated: Miss Charlotte had thought of something.
“Miss Marbleton, would Mr. Finch’s notice to you have started with the word ‘Corinth’?”
Miss Marbleton sat up straighter, her hands on her wide-apart thighs. The masculine posture and her thick beard still made Mrs. Watson feel disoriented, especially contrasted with her feminine voice, which had risen further with surprise. “So he did post a notice to us?”
Miss Charlotte nodded. “I keep track of unusual small notices in the papers. I remember that one because I could not solve the rest of it. In Mr. Marbleton’s microphotography, he gave a cipher that began with ‘Mycenae.’ The similarity struck me so last night I took another look at ‘Corinth.’ Of course I still couldn’t solve it because it had a different key.”
Miss Marbleton immediately furnished the key. Miss Charlotte recited a string of letters. Everyone took out pencils and notebooks to help.
The deciphered text was simple.If you have anything for me, use the cipher that starts with Phthia.
“When did this notice appear?” asked Miss Marbleton.
“December thirtieth of last year.”
“Oh no,” cried Mrs. Watson.
It was a week or so after Mr. Marbleton had left to surrender himself to Moriarty. If that hadn’t been necessary—if he had been able to hand over the information to Mr. Finch himself…
“I wasn’t in the country at the time,” said Miss Marbleton, her shoulders hunched as if under a weight.
