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| Copper beech |
Adventure of the Copper Beeches, Arthur Conan Doyle's attempt at a Gothic novel continues. Holmes and Watson meet Violet Hunter at an inn by the train station and she explains what happened. The country house where she works is named Copper Beeches (not beaches) for the beech trees that grow there. Rucastle's wife is not mad, merely bland and colorless, other than her clear devotion to her husband and son. Her son is temperamental and cruel and delights in torturing small animals. There are two servants -- Toller, an uncouth drunkard, and his dour and silent wife. Alice, Mr. Rucastle's daughter by his first marriage, left for Philadelphia because she did not get along with her step-mother who was only slightly older than she was. (And maybe not with anyone else in the house, either).
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| Violet Hunter at the window |
The Rucastles have Miss Hunter wear Alice's electric blue dress, which fits her perfectly, and sit in front of the window, always with her back to it. They have her read from novels and suddenly break off in mid-sentence. Mr. Rucastle tells very funny stories, and Violet laughs until she is quite weary. But her back is always turned to the window, and she starts to wonder why. Her mirror is broken, so she hides a piece in her handkerchief and raises it to her eye to see a strange man staring at her. Mrs. Rucastle figures out what is happening and tells her husband that a strange man is staring at Miss Hunter. Mr. Rucastle tells her to gesture him to go away, which she does. Mrs. Rucastle then closes the curtain and the strange performance ends.
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| Violet Hunter finds her hair |
But other, equally strange things happen. The Rucastles keep a vicious dog, always underfed to keep him mean, who ranges the property at night and makes escape under cover of darkness impossible. Even Mr. Rucastle can't control the hound; only Toller has any influence. Searching through her room, she finds a locked drawer, and when she tries her key it turns out to contain her hair! She had saved her hair in her trunk, and it is still there, but the hair in the drawer perfectly matches it. But above all, there is a mysterious wing of the house, locked off and seemingly uninhabited. There are four sets of windows on the wing, three dirty and one shuttered. Mr. Rucastle and the Tollers sometimes go into the wing, but Miss Hunter is not allowed. One day Rucastle comes out clearly angry. When Miss Hunter comments on the wing, Mr. Rucastle tells her that he is a photographer and keeps his dark room there. She is not convinced.
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| Clearly a Gothic novel |
Last night Toller got drunk and left the key in the door. While the others were dealing with Toller's condition, Miss Hunter used the key to get into the mystery wing. There was an empty hall, with three doors. Two, matching the dirty windows, were open to empty rooms. The third, matching the shuttered window, was locked from the outside and barred, though it had light, presumably from a skylight. And then she heard footsteps in the room and saw a shadow move. At that point she panicked and ran -- straight into the arms of Mr. Rucastle, waiting outside. Seeing her fear, he tried to sooth her and asked her what frightened her. But he overdid his act, so she said it was just too lonely and eerie. When she would not admit to seeing anything else, Rucastle let the mask slip and told her if she ever set foot in that wing again he would throw her to the hound. (And what would he have done if she had admitted what she saw? Maybe it's best not to know).
Fortunately Toller was too drunk to unleash the hound that night, so after everyone went to bed, Violet was able to sneak out to a telegraph station half a mile away to send a wire. (Just how common were telegraph offices? And what hours did they keep?). She asked for some time off the next day, which Mr. Rucastle inexplicably granted. That seems most strange to me. Granted, he did not know about the telegram, but, after all, he threatened her life the night before. The next day he allows her to go into town where a train station is? Doesn't it occur to him that she might catch the next train the hell out of there?*
We don't know what Holmes is thinking, but he pieces together the mystery with just the clues Miss Hunter has given. The Rucastles are holding a captive in the forbidden wing, presumably Mr. Rucastle's daughter, Alice. Miss Hunter was hired for her resemblance to Alice. The plan was for the young man, presumably Alice's suitor, to see her laughing and think his Alice was happy without him. The gesture reinforced the impression. So maybe Mr. Rucastle would think Miss Hunter had served her purpose and be glad to see her go and be out of the way. The dog is kept to keep the young man away. The hair belonged to Alice and was presumably cut off as a result of illness.
Well, that would not be an obvious guess! It seems even less plausible than the crazy wife. But we can make some guesses as to what he might be thinking. It seems likely that Holmes guessed that Miss Hunter was hired for her looks. The mention of wearing Alice's dress must have raised at least the possibility that she was chosen, not for lecherous reasons, but because she resembled Alice, though it would not be clear why. The dress fitting her perfectly and the mysterious hair must have reinforced that impression. Making her laugh and wave the young man away, as well as the dog, must have suggested that her purpose was to discourage the young man's attentions. But where was Alice while all this was going on? After all, the young man might have been a gold digger, or a stalker. Maybe Alice fled precisely to escape him. The mystery wing would solve that question.
So, how to rescue Alice? By an extraordinary coincidence, Toller is still incapacitated with drink and Mr. and Mrs. Rucastle are going out that nigh. That leaves Mrs. Toller, so Holmes has Violet lure her down to the cellar and lock her in.** Holmes and Watson rush to the rescue, only to find the skylight open and Alice missing. There is a ladder against the wall that was not present. And then Mr. Rucastle shows up. When Holmes confronts him, Rucastle goes to unleash the hound. That turns out to be a mistake, as Toller has been too drunk to feed the dog for two days. It attacks Rucastle (serves him right!), so Watson shoots and kills it (too bad for the dog, who has been treated appallingly). Mr. Rucastle survives, but as an invalid. And Mrs. Toller, released, provides the details that Doyle could not drop as clues. More on that in my next post.
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*Maybe he thinks her lack of money or family, and the fear that he can ruin her prospects for finding a new job, will keep her from fleeing.
**What about the child? We never hear from him in the final scene. In the TV version, Holmes has Miss Hunter send him out to play with friends.
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