THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER By Arthur Conan Doyle CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE HEGIRA OF THE WESTS FROM EDINBURGH CHAPTER II OF THE STRANGE MANNER IN WHICH A TENANT CAME TO CLOOMBER CHAPTER III OF OUR FURTHER ACQUAINTANCE WITH MAJOR-GENERAL J. B. HEATHERSTONE CHAPTER IV OF A YOUNG MAN WITH A GREY HEAD CHAPTER V HOW FOUR OF US CAME TO BE UNDER THE SHADOW OF CLOOMBER CHAPTER VI HOW I CAME TO BE ENLISTED AS ONE OF THE GARRISON OF CLOOMBER CHAPTER VII OF CORPORAL RUFUS SMITH AND HIS COMING TO CLOOMBER CHAPTER VIII STATEMENT OF ISRAEL STAKES CHAPTER IX NARRATIVE OF JOHN EASTERLING, F.R.C.P. EDIN. CHAPTER X OF THE LETTER WHICH CAME FROM THE HALL CHAPTER XI OF THE CASTING AWAY OF THE BARQUE “BELINDA” CHAPTER XII OF THE THREE FOREIGN MEN UPON THE COAST CHAPTER XIII IN WHICH I SEE THAT WHICH HAS BEEN SEEN BY FEW CHAPTER XIV OF THE VISITOR WHO RAN DOWN THE ROAD IN THE NIGHT-TIME CHAPTER XV THE DAY-BOOK OF JOHN BERTHIER HEATHERSTONE CHAPTER XVI AT THE HOLE OF CREE CHAPTER I. THE HEGIRA OF THE WESTS FROM EDINBURGH I, John Fothergill West, student of law in the University of St. Andrews, have endeavoured in the ensuing pages to lay my statement before the public in a concise and business-like fashion. It is not my wish to achieve literary success, nor have I any desire by the graces of my style, or by the artistic ordering of my incidents, to throw a deeper shadow over the strange passages of which I shall have to speak. My highest ambition is that those who know something of the matter should, after reading my account, be able to conscientiously indorse it without finding a single paragraph in which I have either added to or detracted from the truth. Should I attain this result, I shall rest amply satisfied with the outcome of my first, and probably my last, venture in literature. It was my intention to write out the sequence of events in due order, depending on trustworthy hearsay when I was describing that which was beyond my own personal knowledge. I have now, however, through the kind cooperation of friends, hit upon a plan which promises to be less onerous to me and more satisfactory to the reader. This is nothing less than to make use of the various manuscripts which I have by me bearing upon the subject, and to add to them the first-hand evidence contributed by those who had the best opportunities of knowing Major-General J. B. Heatherstone. In pursuance of this design I shall lay before the public the testimony of Israel Stakes, formerly coachman at Cloomber Hall, and of John Easterling, F.R.C.P. Edin., now practising at Stranraer, in Wigtownshire. To these I shall add a verbatim account extracted from the journal of the late John Berthier Heatherstone, of the events which occurred in the Thul Valley in the autumn of '41 towards the end of the first Afghan War, with a description of the skirmish in the Terada defile, and of the death of the man Ghoolab Shah.