Ridings House Analysis

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Pages: 5

The next week brought terror to Ridings House every day as soon as the sun went down. The downstairs shutters, made of two-inch thick oak boards, were blasted every night with shotgun shells, but they did not yield. The residents and guests heard the discharges and hoped they had not the force to penetrate the shutters. Staying indoors became tiresome after a couple of days but their safety was paramount and they reasoned being shut inside was a fair price to pay for their lives.
Jasper had taken the trap into Huddersfield to call on the Borough Police and inform them of their situation. A magistrate was summoned and the story relayed to him along with accounts of Holme’ findings. The magistrate issued an arrest warrant for Barnwell and Bottomley, and
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His mind was elsewhere. He was convinced that Barnwell would try and get his and Mrs Brockelby's documents and destroy them. Then if he could eliminate all the witnesses that had seen the papers, who knew too much about his background, and who he really was. The destruction of the documentary evidence would make it easier for them to defend themselves against the charges already levelled against them. With the exception of Moriarty, Barnwell was the greatest monster of incessant evil of which Holmes was aware. His ruminations were interrupted by Watson. “I say, Holmes. It seems a catastrophe that poor old Snettisham who can be considered to have sown the seeds of Barnwell’s conspiracy to murder and usurp Mrs Brockelby, is now the also target of the murderer. Something wrong with Barnwell’s mind, I shouldn’t wonder.”
“There is a lot wrong with Barnwell’s mind, Watson, if you ask me. Anyone that will seek to take perpetrate so many criminal acts as that rogue and his companion is infected with a degree of criminality that is destined to end in an official visit to Jack Ketch.”
“No less than the bounder deserves.” Muttered Watson, as though to